Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 595: No one expected things to develop this way
In a corner of the prison.
Wen Jianyan stopped abruptly.
The air was treacherous and tense, a coldness spreading.
As far as the eye could see, everything seemed the same as before… but it also felt like everything had changed.
Not far away, the tin soldiers that were standing tall suddenly collapsed to the ground with a crash like puppets whose strings had been cut. And it wasn’t just one… almost all the tin soldiers turned into scrap metal at the same moment.
There was only one reason for this result:
Lucy was dead.
Wait… Not good!
Wen Jianyan shuddered.
A strong wind attacked suddenly from behind, the speed several times faster than before!
Even though Wen Jianyan’s reaction speed was fast enough, the cold blade still grazed his arm, easily cutting a bloody gash.
“Hiss!”
Wen Jianyan sucked in a cold breath. He covered the wound with one hand and retreated hurriedly, putting distance between himself and the person behind him.
Not far away, under the cold light of the prison, Chen Cheng stood with the sword, his face grim and murderous.
The tin soldiers’ death meant that the means to contain Gentleman’s actions had failed. The Gentleman could now focus all his attention on controlling Chen Cheng and using him to kill Wen Jianyan.
At the other end of the prison, a trace of killing intent flashed in Gentleman’s eyes.
—Die!
Warm blood seeped through his fingers. Wen Jianyan stared unblinkingly at Chen Cheng’s eyes, as if looking straight through his pupils at the manipulator behind him.
Suddenly, he gave a brief smile, pushed off with his back foot, his body stretching like a bowstring. Instead of dodging, he charged straight forward!
The young man’s gaze was sharp and impactful. Under that shocking pressure, the Gentleman couldn’t help but hesitate for half a second—facing such an unpredictable enemy with unfathomable means, anyone would hesitate—what did he want to do? What trump card did he have? Was everything he did also part of the other’s plan?
The hesitation in his mind was reflected in his actions.
The next second, blood splattered!
The pitch-black Tang sword embedded deeply into Wen Jianyan’s shoulder. The blade cut through flesh, revealing white bone. A large amount of warm blood gushed out, soaking most of his body in the blink of an eye.
Wen Jianyan turned his head, and a few drops of warm blood splattered on his pale profile. He grinned mischievously, as if saying—
Ha, tricked you, didn’t I?
He raised his hand, loosening his bloodstained fingertips. A green jade fell straight to the ground, shattering into pieces with a “snap”.
The moment the jade shattered, the blood drop hidden in the other half of the item also lost its effect, and the medium for Gentleman to use his talent was cut off.
Chen Cheng’s eyes moved, gradually regaining rationality.
Seeing Wen Jianyan covered in blood, he was shocked:
“What the hell happened to you?!”
The Tang sword in his hand was still dripping blood. Chen Cheng realized almost immediately what had just happened.
He helped Wen Jianyan press on the wound, shouting in exasperation:
“Didn’t I tell you to run?!”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
Buddy, with your physical fitness, can an ordinary person outrun you when you’re hunting them down?
Moreover, judging from the situation just now, even if he could really escape Chen Cheng’s pursuit, it would allow Oracle to succeed, leading to total defeat.
Only by using the opponent’s killing intent against them could there be a chance of survival.
His face was pale, his breathing disordered, but his voice remained calm:
“Find the others and get out of this hellhole quickly.”
“Holy crap, I finally found you guys!” Just then, a familiar voice came from not far away.
It was Lion Heart King.
With previous instructions, Lion Heart King had long been prepared for a jailbreak. After all the tin soldiers lost their ability to move, he immediately started to act, following the direction Wen Jianyan left.
That was why he found Wen Jianyan and regrouped with them so quickly.
Seeing Wen Jianyan’s tragic state covered in blood, Lion Heart King couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath.
“You are…”
Thinking of what happened before Wen Jianyan left, Lion Heart King obviously guessed the cause and effect. He hurriedly stepped forward:
“Wait, I have healing items here—”
“Useless.” Unexpectedly, Chen Cheng rejected his proposal flatly.
Frowning deeply, he helped Wen Jianyan bind the wound tightly with bandages, his movements skilled and expression solemn: “It cannot be healed by items.”
Chen Cheng’s talent was a materialized pitch-black Tang sword.
And that was no ordinary blade, but a divine weapon capable of cutting through everything.
The reason his sword could easily cut through spirit bodies was that it didn’t act on the physical body to begin with; this was true damage that reached the soul.
Similarly, while using his talent, he himself would also be cut.
That was why he understood the wounds caused by his talent so well.
Chen Cheng rolled up his sleeves to show Wen Jianyan. On his arms were dense, dark brown wounds. Some areas were bandaged, seemingly still oozing blood continuously. “Any external means are ineffective against it. You can only use points for treatment after the instance ends.”
Although the wounds on his own body would accumulate, they were at least controllable. But once a wound was this deep and couldn’t be treated…
Staring at the tragic state of Wen Jianyan’s shoulder, Chen Cheng’s brow couldn’t help but twitch:
“Damn, don’t die on me.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
You really have a way with words.
“You should worry more about yourself.”
As a target often targeted by the Nightmare, it wasn’t his first time receiving this kind of “untreatable” injury. Wen Jianyan took the bandage from Chen Cheng, clenched one end with his teeth, and skillfully finished binding it.
After doing all this, Wen Jianyan turned his head to look into the distance, but still didn’t see that familiar figure, and his brows couldn’t help but furrow.
Speaking of which, where is Blond?
Since all tin soldiers lost control, Lucy must be dead.
Logically speaking, after killing Lucy, Blond should be the one who could act fastest.
And due to the special nature of his talent, in a prison with such low visibility, it was much easier for him to find them than for them to find him. But since even Lion Heart King was in place, where did Blond go?
Wen Jianyan felt a vague unease in his heart.
Just as he began to suspect that something happened to Blond, a figure stumbled over from the distance.
It was Blond, who had acted separately from them.
Seeing the other party appear in front of him intact and unharmed, Wen Jianyan finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, everything went smoothly.
“The pass… to the next floor,” Blond spoke before he even stopped. Wen Jianyan then realized that the other party looked almost as wretched as himself right now—covered in undried blood stains, face pale as a dead person, lips trembling slightly unconsciously—his voice was unstable and intermittent, “I, I didn’t get it.”
He opened his palm, revealing a bloody agate stone lying in it.
That was the last of the three agate fragments.
“But, but I got this…”
“Enough. After all, we didn’t really win this game,” Wen Jianyan squeezed the other’s shoulder. “Anyway, let’s leave here first—”
Although somewhat regrettable, at least they got the last fragment of the agate stone. This result was acceptable to them.
“No,” Blond hurriedly grabbed Wen Jianyan’s hand back, “You didn’t understand what I meant… It’s not that there was no pass, it’s, it’s that Su Cheng took it.”
“Su Cheng?” Chen Cheng was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted, “That former vice president of your guild? The one who joined Oracle?”
“Yeah. He killed Lucy,” Blond’s fingers were cold and trembling slightly, “and snatched the pass.”
He didn’t wait for Wen Jianyan to speak, just pouring out everything he knew in a disjointed, almost illogical manner:
“Lucy, Lucy wasn’t an NPC. She was human, or used to be human—I could see—I don’t know why, but I could see—all NPCs in this instance might be. I was going to bring her, but Su Cheng killed her—I tried to stop him from leaving, but—”
At this point, Blond’s voice suddenly choked deep in his throat.
The last scene that just happened seemed to appear before his eyes again, playing like a revolving lantern.
Second floor of the prison.
Lucy’s mutilated limbs lay silently in a pool of blood, the smell of blood in the air thick enough to be nauseating.
“I really don’t want you to die,” the Tarot Master stood a few steps away, his eyes indifferent as if he didn’t know him, blood dripping from his fingers: “But I will take the pass no matter what. There is no room for negotiation on this matter.”
“So be smart and don’t block my way.”
“Hey, hey!”
Wen Jianyan’s voice brought Blond back. He held the other’s head, forcing him to look at himself, “Look at me! Calm down.”
Looking into Wen Jianyan’s gaze, Blond’s trembling finally subsided slightly. He took a deep breath and nodded: “Yeah, yeah…”
“I know you have a lot to say.” Wen Jianyan stared closely into his eyes, his voice and gaze alike, as steady as a rock calming the heart, “But now is not the time. We must leave now.”
Unlike the previous floor, Lucy’s existence was the sole reason maintaining the rules of this floor.
Once Lucy died, before the next dealer took over, everything on this floor would fall into extreme chaos.
If they didn’t leave, this place would become their burial ground.
Blond fought back tears and nodded vigorously again.
Seeing Blond calm down, Wen Jianyan let go and ordered: “Go.”
Inside the town.
The screen that was bright just now, constantly displaying changes in Toy Merchant rankings, went out without warning, replaced by pitch blackness.
At the same time, inside the factory not far away, the teddy bear that was standing straight just now suddenly lost its vitality, collapsing to the ground like a pile of rotten cotton.
Everyone noticing this change immediately realized what it meant:
Lucy was dead.
—Wen Jianyan’s risky plan succeeded!
“Go! To the elevator!” Chen Mo reacted first, immediately directing everyone to leave.
Before Wen Jianyan left, he had told them how to respond if this situation occurred:
Once Lucy died, leave this floor immediately!
Whatever they were doing at the time must be stopped immediately, making escape the current primary goal.
However, before they could move, they suddenly saw a layer of white fog drifting towards them along the town streets.
The fog appeared out of nowhere, appearing abruptly in everyone’s vision, gloomily obscuring their view.
As a Toy Merchant who had entered the prison, Corpse Rose sucked in a cold breath and screamed:
“This is the dense fog around the prison!”
It was precisely because of this dense fog that Toy Merchants in the town couldn’t find the prison without being led by tin soldiers, and Toy Merchants in the prison couldn’t return outside on their own. And now, the fog began to spread into the real town, meaning that with Lucy’s death, the factory owners lost their controller, the barrier between the prison and the town disappeared, and the moment of true disorder was about to arrive.
The edge of the fog was steep and clear, approaching like a wall. Factories on both sides of the road were swallowed one by one.
The moment they were swallowed by the fog, strange noises came from the factories that were dead silent just now. Rustling friction sounds rang incessantly from all directions, overlapping each other, mixing into a terrifying wave of sound that made one’s scalp numb.
Those toys continuously produced by the factories but kept in a dormant state due to the existence of the factory owners had “awakened”.
Almost at the same moment, several sharp screams came from the area covered by the fog.
“Run!!”
With Chen Mo’s command, everyone turned around and ran towards the elevator as if their lives depended on it. But even so, they still couldn’t outrun the wall of fog approaching from behind.
In the blink of an eye, the road behind and in front were all swallowed.
It was white all around. Whether the road or the factories on both sides, all disappeared. Visibility was almost zero; one could barely see an arm’s length away.
“This is bad…” Chang Feiyu scratched the back of his head, saying helplessly, “Damn it, if only Brother Yang Fan were here.”
Indeed, in an environment with such low visibility, Blond’s talent would be a great help to them. However, he had been imprisoned as a “Toy Merchant” earlier and was likely with Wen Jianyan now.
“I can control the general direction.”
Wen Ya glanced at the dense fog in front, her expression calm as always, “But I cannot predict the dangers hidden in the fog.”
She seemed to think of something and turned to look behind her:
“Ma Qi, can you do it?”
Ma Qi closed her eyes.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes and said solemnly: “I… I can try.”
So, the group began to grope forward in the fog. However, due to the low visibility, their speed of advancement was very limited.
“Stop! Go left—”
As a medium, Ma Qi half-closed her eyes, sensing the subtle fluctuations in the air. She issued brief instructions from time to time, guiding everyone to avoid dangers hidden in the fog.
Just like this, the group moved cautiously towards the elevator.
After an unknown amount of time passed, Corpse Rose seemed to discover something. She lowered her head and ground the dirt under her feet:
“Almost there.”
She looked up towards the end of the fog: “I’ve been here before. If I remember correctly, the elevator should be right ahead—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the remaining sound was choked deep in her throat.
She opened her mouth, but the only sound she could make was a strange “gurgling”.
In the center of her slender throat, a small bloody hole appeared silently, slowly oozing blood.
“Not good!” Wen Ya’s pupils constricted, being the first to sense something was wrong, “Danger!”
Almost the instant she spoke, countless strange blood-colored steel needles attacked like dense rain. Kong Wei pulled Ma Qi, who had no self-defense ability, shielding her under his body. His skin turned into hard greenish-grey in the blink of an eye. The blood needles landed on his skin, making clinking sounds.
This wave of attacks came abruptly and stopped quickly.
In an instant, silence returned to the dense fog.
If not for the corpse on the ground with eyes still open, one would almost suspect that everything that just happened was merely a hallucination.
“I, I didn’t foresee it,” Ma Qi was terrified, her face pale. She clutched Kong Wei’s arm tightly, speaking intermittently, her empty pupils looking around, “I, I completely didn’t—”
“No. It’s not your fault.”
Wen Ya touched a bit of blood on her body with her fingertip, narrowing her eyes slowly, looking in the direction where the blood needles appeared, “…This attack has nothing to do with supernatural forces.”
“—It was man-made.”
As Wen Ya’s voice fell, several figures broke through the dense fog, slowly walking out from the depths of the white unknown.
Familiar faces appeared before everyone’s eyes one after another.
It was Oracle.
The moment they saw who came, everyone’s heart sank.
The Gentleman walked at the front. His face was bloodless, almost merging with the fog beside him. His lips were blue-white, expression grim, the invisible oppression almost solidified into substance.
He spoke slowly:
“You—”
This time, he didn’t even use honorifics, seemingly no longer caring about superficial politeness and grace.
Chen Mo shouted in a low voice:
“Don’t listen, go!”
It should be known that this wasn’t his first time confronting the Gentleman. The last time was in the Xingwang Hotel. He clearly remembered how their whole team was controlled by the opponent’s talent without noticing, leading to Wen Jianyan being held hostage—although Chen Mo didn’t know the conditions for Gentleman to activate his talent, no matter what, this kind of thing couldn’t happen again.
The Gentleman’s gloomy voice came from far behind:
“Chase!”
In the fog, where one couldn’t see their fingers, both chasing and escaping were extremely difficult.
“Don’t, don’t go forward anymore! There’s danger ahead, lots of—”
Ma Qi shouted breathlessly, gasping for air.
Chen Mo turned his head to glance behind—Oracle was in hot pursuit, still following like a shadow, only a few steps away from them—he gritted his teeth and made a prompt decision:
“No, go forward!”
Admittedly, the revived dolls in the dense fog were very dangerous, but in comparison, Chen Mo would rather face those crises directly.
Being attacked by dolls would at most result in death, but being controlled by the opponent’s unfathomable talent would bring even more uncontrollable consequences.
In the dense fog, the shadows of dolls gradually appeared. Compared to inside the factory, their forms had enlarged to adult size. Faces that should have been full of childish fun were half-hidden in the depths of the fog, appearing even more terrifying and eerie.
As if smelling the scent of humans, the dolls that were just wandering randomly suddenly turned their heads in unison. Smiling, they began to walk slowly in this direction.
“Want to use those dolls to stop me? Keep dreaming.”
The Gentleman’s cold voice came from behind. Even though he didn’t see what was happening ahead, he seemed to have already guessed Chen Mo and the others’ intention.
And for the Oracle team with multiple prophets, guessing this was obviously very easy.
“Hand over the pass, otherwise, I will make you all die here regardless of the cost.” Through the fog, they couldn’t see Gentleman’s face, but his voice was terribly serious. Clearly, Gentleman wasn’t joking about this.
“…”
Several people looked at each other, seeing similar solemnity in each other’s eyes.
“Heehee! Heehee!” Suddenly, clear giggling sounds came from the fog directly opposite.
Everyone was startled and looked up subconsciously—only to see several life-sized dolls running towards them. Their snow-white faces wore huge smiles, pitch-black eyes rolling eerily.
“B-Bad!” A member of Corpse Rose’s team screamed, “It’s the dolls!”
Staring at the dolls not far away, his face turned pale, teeth chattering, as if seeing some terrifying existence, “Absolutely cannot confront these things!!!”
Among all factories, the doll factory had the highest cost. Naturally, the threats posed by the dolls it produced were also the greatest.
When other toys awakened, they could barely resist, but if it was the dolls that revived, blood would definitely be shed.
That was precisely why the dolls they obtained were stored separately from other toys, not mixed together.
As soon as this was said, the air suddenly became tense.
Suddenly, wolves in front and tigers behind, danger lurked everywhere.
Almost before the few could react, the “heehee” laughter got closer, and those eerie dolls were already approaching.
“—!” Several people sucked in a cold breath almost immediately, reflexively tensing their muscles, preparing to fight back—however, the imagined attack didn’t happen. On the contrary, those dolls brushed past them, rushing straight towards the dense fog behind them.
“…?” Wait, what’s going on?
Everyone was stunned, only able to stare blankly as the dolls disappeared from sight.
Just then, a voice came from ahead:
“Hey, over here.”
The voice was somewhat weak, but undoubtedly came from their most familiar friend.
“Guild President!!!” Ma Qi’s eyes lit up.
As the distance shortened, the obstruction caused by the dense fog gradually disappeared, and the pale young man appeared not far away.
His face was bloodless, barely able to stand by leaning on Blond’s shoulder. His condition looked even worse than Gentleman’s. Most of his body was stained red by blood flowing from his neck, looking extremely wretched—however, even covered in blood, one could still see he was wearing clothes similar to those dolls just now.
Almost the instant they saw Wen Jianyan, everything became self-evident.
The toys produced in the factory lost control because with Lucy’s death, the factory owners directly controlled by Lucy also lost control. But Wen Jianyan was never controlled by Lucy from the beginning. That was why he became the only factory owner who could act and retain power.
With Blond using his talent beside him, Wen Jianyan could easily locate their current position and arrive in time.
“I’m not in good condition; I can’t maintain control over them for long.” Wen Jianyan lifted his eyelids, “Follow me, be quick.”
Everyone reacted and hurriedly followed his steps.
The separated teams finally regrouped.
With Ma Qi’s medium ability and Blond’s eyesight, the combination performed extraordinarily well. The group moved through the dense fog as if walking on flat ground, precisely avoiding all possible danger zones. Even if they couldn’t avoid them, Wen Jianyan’s “identity” was there to back them up.
Just like this, they traveled through the dense fog and arrived at the end of the Monopoly board unimpeded.
After passing through a narrow corridor, Wen Jianyan and his group finally left this town that had turned into a ghostly domain.
Perhaps having also discovered the chaos on this floor, the waiter who guided them before had disappeared, and the counter was empty.
“Where to next?” Wen Ya’s breathing was unsteady, “Straight to the negative sixth floor?”
Wen Jianyan lifted his eyes wearily, his voice weak from excessive blood loss: “No, the pass fell into Oracle’s hands, but the agate stones are collected. We go back to the negative first floor—”
“What?”
Hearing this, several people present were stunned.
“Wait,” Chen Mo frowned deeply, “But the Gentleman just intercepted us, demanding we hand over the pass.”
“What?” Blond looked astonished, “But I saw Su Cheng take the pass with my own eyes—”
“It seems,” Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, bloodstains mottling his pale profile, “Su Cheng didn’t act with Oracle either.”
Everyone followed his gaze—on the elevator button, half a dried bloody fingerprint remained, obviously left before them.
“He went to the negative sixth floor alone.”
The air suddenly fell into a deathly silence. Staring at the dried fingerprint, everyone fell silent in unison.
…No one expected things to develop this way.
What exactly was on the negative sixth floor?
Why did Su Cheng choose to enter alone?
No one knew—perhaps Oracle knew, but they would never reveal anything to them—worse still, the only pass was taken by Su Cheng, so they might never know the answer to this question.
“Ding!”
In the silence, the elevator finally arrived at this floor, slowly opening in front of everyone.
“Let’s go, enter the elevator first—”
Chen Mo stopped his voice abruptly.
He stared tightly into the elevator, uncontrollable astonishment on his face.
Inside the open elevator doors, blood-red light spilled down, illuminating the female waitress in uniform standing straight at the edge of the elevator.
Her face was ashen, with no breath of the living.
However, she had the face of an old acquaintance.
Tong Yao.
They had cleared the Chengsheng Building instance together—even just a few hours ago, she went with Wen Jianyan to the negative third floor to snipe the dealer Hawk, and gave the item she could have taken herself to Wen Jianyan afterwards.
She said—You guys need this more than me for what comes next.
And now, on that face which was rosy and alive a few hours ago, only the coldness of the dead remained.
Tong Yao wore a formulaic smile, staring straight at the people in front of her.
“Hello guests, which floor would you like to go to?”
