WTNL Chapter 610

Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 610: Three chips

The heavy firearm was placed in the exact center of the gambling table, like a scorch mark burning itself into the retina.

It was like a silent prophecy, a cold omen.

Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze.

He stepped forward and took a seat on the only chair.

Mesvis looked at ease, a smile on his face. The gun placed in front of him seemed to have no effect on his emotions.

“Russian Roulette. I trust you are not unfamiliar with this?”

Wen Jianyan gave him a steady look, and after a few seconds, calmly uttered a “Mhm.”

“However,”

Mesvis pressed his fingertips together to form a steeple, his eerie eyes with their excessive pupils looking over from above.

“The roulette rules here are somewhat different from the outside.”

He extended a hand, slowly sweeping his palm across the tabletop. As his hand moved away, blood-red chips appeared one by one on the previously empty surface.

When Mesvis withdrew his hand, a total of six chips were neatly arranged on the table.

He made a gesture, and No. 3, standing by the table, bowed, picked up three of the chips, and placed them on Wen Jianyan’s right hand side.

The harsh light illuminated those three chips clearly. Almost without needing close inspection, one could realize their strangeness.

Unlike other chips, their surface was smooth, without any text, only a dense, suffocating blood color.

“This is?” Wen Jianyan looked up at Mesvis sitting opposite him.

“As you can see, these are your stakes in this game. Each one represents a life,” Mesvis said with a smile lingering at the corner of his mouth. “If it were just the original rules, it would be somewhat less fun—after all, people die too quickly, don’t they?”

In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:

[Ahhh! Thank goodness it’s not a one-bullet win or lose!]

[Really, otherwise I couldn’t imagine how the anchor would survive.]

[Since there are three lives, there shouldn’t be zero chance of winning… right?]

[…Right.]

Mesvis picked up the gun on the table, his fingers pulling back the hammer. With a crisp click, the cylinder popped out.

“Standard issue revolver, six-round cylinder.”

He reached into his jacket pocket, took out a bullet as shiny as new, and slowly pressed it into the cylinder, making a crisp metallic clinking sound.

“—And, one bullet.”

Click-clack-clack. The cylinder spun rapidly, then snapped shut with a clack.

Blond’s face paled slightly.

Given the current activation level of his talent, logically speaking, he shouldn’t have missed the spinning speed of a standard revolver cylinder. However, despite his concentrated gaze, he couldn’t catch a single trace.

Meaning… he probably couldn’t help Wen Jianyan cheat visually this time.

After loading the bullet, Mesvis placed the gun back in the center of the gambling table, smiled, and made a very gentlemanly “please” gesture.

Wen Jianyan picked up the pistol.

The revolver was cold and heavy, weighing down in his palm, pulled downward by gravity. Its shiny surface reflected the light, carrying a chilling coldness.

He didn’t do anything immediately but turned to look at Ma Qi behind him:

“Any problem with the gun?”

Ma Qi’s complexion was very poor. As a medium with a sensitive constitution, her reaction was even more intense in such a high-pressure environment. She stood at the position furthest from the gambling table, almost daring not to approach.

Noticing Wen Jianyan’s gaze, she managed to pull herself together and stepped forward.

A few seconds later, Ma Qi opened her eyes and shook her head:

“The gun… no problem.”

After saying this, she looked hesitantly at Mesvis sitting opposite. He still looked the same, with a faint smile on his face, seemingly unconcerned that Wen Jianyan had asked his teammate to check the gun.

Ma Qi lowered her voice and whispered:

“But, those chips… give me a very bad feeling.”

She could feel a dense, compressed supernatural energy coming from that direction. Even though she had only stepped forward two steps, shortening the distance by just that little bit, she was still crushed to the point of being unable to breathe, her knees even going weak.

Wen Jianyan wasn’t surprised by this.

“If the inspection is fine,” Mesvis smiled, “our game can begin.”

—”Please.” He extended his hand.

Wen Jianyan looked up, staring fixedly at Mesvis.

The other sat smiling across the gambling table, seemingly not minding letting Wen Jianyan go first. His expression was as composed as ever; this life-gambling game seemed to have no effect on him.

“…”

Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze. He calmly pulled back the safety catch, raised his hand, and pressed the cold muzzle against his temple.

Just this action caused a faint gasp from behind him.

In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:

[Ahhh!]

[I dare not look!]

[Ahhh help help, someone cover my eyes!]

“…”

The young man lowered his eyes, his finger steady on the trigger, not wavering in the slightest.

His eyelashes fluttered slightly, and his index finger pulled down.

His ears seemed quiet for a moment.

The whole world fell into stagnation.

A scorching air current impacted him, and after a long interval, a massive gunshot tore through his eardrums.

“Bang!!!”

Buzz—

Everything went blank.

After an unknown amount of time, Wen Jianyan finally blinked slowly.

He found his vision blurry. Everything in his field of view was tilted, and a roaring electric sound filled his ears.

It took Wen Jianyan a while to realize his body was leaning, and someone beside him was supporting him to prevent him from falling off the chair. Through the piercing tinnitus that almost occupied his entire world, he vaguely heard intense arguing from a distance.

Amidst the chaos, Wen Jianyan barely recognized Chen Cheng’s voice.

“…You guys… cheated. How is it possible?!”

Following that was chaos. Everything mixed into a headache-splitting noise, like a heavy hammer smashing his temples one by one.

“…You guys… be quiet.”

Wen Jianyan frowned deeply, unable to bear it anymore.

His voice was hoarse beyond recognition, almost indistinguishable from his original voice, which startled Wen Jianyan himself.

“—Awake!”

“The President is awake!”

Discovering Wen Jianyan’s recovery, everyone crowded around.

Wen Jianyan frowned even tighter.

Wen Ya: “Everyone step back first!”

As the crowd dispersed, Wen Jianyan could finally breathe smoothly again. He looked up and glanced to his side—at Chen Mo supporting him. The other was using too much force, pinching him painfully.

“How do you feel?”

Chen Mo frowned, looking down at him.

Wen Jianyan cleared his throat and said in a hoarse voice:

“…Terrible.”

Even though some time had passed, he still seemed to feel the residual pain of the bullet burning through flesh, cracking the skull, and churning the brain.

Wen Jianyan looked into the distance.

Due to his “death,” the entire scene seemed to have descended into chaos. Both sides confronted each other at extremely close range, murderous intent boiling, the smell of gunpowder thick in the air. It seemed an irreversible brawl would erupt in the next second.

However, amidst the chaos, Mesvis still sat opposite in the same posture, watching them with those eerie eyes with scarce whites, wearing a smile of ease, as if everything was under control.

“You okay?”

Chen Cheng, holding his knife, turned to look him over, the murderous aura between his brows not yet faded.

“Mhm.” Wen Jianyan responded.

He waved his hand, refusing Chen Mo’s support, and sat up straight in the chair again.

Then, Wen Jianyan reached into his pocket, took something out, raised his hand, and tossed it casually onto the gambling table.

It was a scapegoat doll.

—The doll was intact, evidently not having borne the price of his “death.”

And in the corner of the gambling table, the originally three blood-colored chips had become two at some point.

Clearly, Mesvis hadn’t lied to him. These blood-colored chips indeed represented Wen Jianyan’s three lives in this gamble.

Looking at that scapegoat doll, Mesvis’s lips slowly spread wide.

He smiled, revealing sharp, white teeth.

Wen Jianyan sat unsteadily in the chair, one elbow pressing on the table edge, supporting his forehead. The harsh light fell on his pale, sweat-dampened face, making him look even more bloodless.

He looked sideways at the other party, his eyes light, a smile curling his lips.

“Sorry, I have trust issues… You shouldn’t mind, right?”

Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure what they might gamble on next, but based on his past experience, whatever the content of the gamble, it wouldn’t be favorable to him.

Precisely because of this, it was better to be prepared.

If not for the scapegoat doll, he wouldn’t have so easily pressed that gun to his temple—although Wen Jianyan knew their gamble had certain invisible rules that even Mesvis had to follow, and killing him like this wouldn’t change the fact that the cruise ship was sinking, he still wasn’t willing to gamble on such a possibility—especially in such an unfair game.

The better a liar one is, the more suspicious they are.

Just as he said himself…

Trust issues.

“Of course I don’t mind,” Mesvis said with a smile, nodding understandingly. “I can understand.”

“However,” he leaned forward slightly, staring tightly at Wen Jianyan with those strangely shaped eyes, “I believe you should be able to feel the changes in your body, right?”

“Cold limbs, dizziness,” Mesvis stated Wen Jianyan’s current condition. “Like life force flowing out of the body… right?”

Wen Jianyan didn’t speak.

But he knew Mesvis was right.

This feeling of life force being devoured couldn’t be mistaken; he had felt it more than once in previous instances.

“Once the three chips are used up,” Mesvis smiled, “you will die.”

“This is a rule-based death. Even if you have more of these little gadgets…” As he spoke, he picked up the scapegoat doll on the table, toyed with it casually, and then tossed it aside uninterestedly, not intending to manually sever the connection between it and Wen Jianyan. “As long as you lose three chips, you will still die.”

Mesvis leaned back, staring closely at Wen Jianyan, a meaningful smile slowly appearing on his face, chilling to behold:

—”Of course, you only have two left now.”

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