Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 615: Alive
Almost instantly, the temperature of the entire floor dropped to the freezing point.
Dan Zhu gazed at Wen Jianyan with her smoky eyes, a faint smile still on her face.
She didn’t look much different from usual, and there was no killing intent in her eyes. She didn’t even take a step forward; just standing in the distance was enough to make everyone break out in cold sweat.
The air was filled with the scent of rotting flowers, which seemed to be expanding over time, stuffing people’s nasal cavities and throats like cotton, suffocating them.
Everyone’s nerves were taut to the extreme.
Dan Zhu’s threat level was so high that they couldn’t treat her lightly.
This wasn’t just because of her rank as number three in the Nightmare, but also because they had witnessed with their own eyes how she killed Eaton Ethan—simple, swift, effortless.
After confronting other management members, they gradually realized the terrifying power behind that act.
Carl Bell’s death was built on the weakening by Figaro, Qi Qian, and others—the Dark Fire squad paid a price close to annihilation, and Qi Qian himself fell into a temporary slumber due to the side effects of his talent.
Although Mesvis was sniped independently by Wen Jianyan’s team, his strength was highly correlated with the instance mechanics. If Wen Jianyan hadn’t won two of his chips, using the rules to slash his strength by two-thirds, the outcome would have been uncertain.
Even so, they were worn down to the point of exhaustion, and Wen Jianyan nearly lost his life.
Even if Eaton Ethan was the weakest of the three, as a member of the management, he couldn’t have been that weak.
And how long did it take Dan Zhu to kill him?
One minute? Or thirty seconds?
Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, his pale face illuminated by the strong light. He pressed on the tense shoulder of Chen Cheng beside him, seemingly signaling him to stay calm.
Meeting Dan Zhu’s gaze, he slowly took a step forward.
“I assume this is what you want?”
Wen Jianyan opened his palm. Two pitch-black, ancient coins lay quietly in his palm.
“Correct.” Dan Zhu narrowed her eyes, red lips curving up, revealing a compelling smile. “Be a good boy and give them to me—I guarantee all of you will disembark safely, unscathed.”
“Sure,” Wen Jianyan answered readily. The upward curve of Dan Zhu’s lips increased slightly, but before she could speak, she heard Wen Jianyan continue—
“But that’s not enough.”
“Oh?” Dan Zhu raised an eyebrow, showing an interested expression.
“If I’m not mistaken, your sole purpose for staying on this ship is to obtain these three tokens, right?”
Wen Jianyan remembered Dan Zhu’s indifferent reaction and the cruel words she casually uttered when she heard the cruise ship might mutate before it turned into an instance—she was clearly happy to see the cruise ship become an instance.
“The Dark Fire squad went to kill Carl Bell on your orders.”
“And the black chip on me was your setup for Mesvis’s death.”
Wen Jianyan gazed at Dan Zhu and said slowly.
“Behind the deaths of these three management members, your shadow is present in each one.”
“However, I’m curious about one thing. How did you know I would eventually confront Mesvis?” Wen Jianyan asked.
“Darling, you should look at your own record,” Dan Zhu smiled faintly. Her face was pure white and elegant, seemingly glowing in the dark, but gave the illusion of danger like a scorpion. “Since becoming a anchor in the Nightmare Livestream, eight instances, eight Platinums… that’s an achievement even I can’t match.”
“You seem… able to see through all false obstacles, eliminate all interfering options, and find the core of all contradictions… truly a terrifying ability.”
Dan Zhu gazed at Wen Jianyan, as if dismantling him with her eyes.
“Do you think Mesvis would accept everyone’s gambling invitation? No, no… Killing him is the most difficult precisely because the price of facing him is also the highest. To make Mesvis personally participate in gambling, one must pass at least three floors of the casino and kill the three croupiers holding his tokens.”
Wen Jianyan’s heart tightened slightly.
He recalled the answer the other party gave when he first proposed to gamble with Mesvis—”This is against the rules.”
So that was it.
The smile on Dan Zhu’s face deepened.
“So, who else on this ship besides you could reach this step?”
“Those crazy fanatics from Oracle?” She snorted coldly, unconcealed disdain on her beautiful face. “I don’t think so.”
“Of course,” Dan Zhu shrugged. “It wouldn’t matter if you didn’t reach this step in the end…”
She twirled her hair with slender fingers and giggled:
“After all, that chip is useless to me, and I happen to really like you.”
Wen Jianyan: “That’s truly my honor.”
“Anyway, I have absolutely no interest in these three management tokens,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and looked up at her. “But, I need to know why you want them.”
His purpose for collecting the three tokens was very simple.
Otherwise, he couldn’t enter Floor B6.
From the information he knew now… the Lucky Cruise was very complicated.
It wasn’t just mutated from a part of the Nightmare Anchor Hall; all the NPCs were once human, yet no veteran anchor had ever seen them in an instance.
Su Cheng, the prophet, didn’t hesitate to leave his guild and betray Oracle just to obtain the pass to Floor B6.
Even…
Even Wu Zhu’s heart was on this ship.
Although he had found fragments of Wu Zhu in multiple past instances, the significance of the heart was clearly different from any other part.
It was too crucial, too core, to the point that Wen Jianyan couldn’t think of any reason for it to be kept on this ship.
Wen Jianyan knew clearly—definitely not a hunch—that the status of the Lucky Cruise in the Nightmare was irreplaceable and closely related to the freedom he desired.
“Oh my… there are so many things you could wish for from me,” Dan Zhu raised her eyebrows, showing a surprised expression. “Yet you want to know the truth more?”
“Yes,” Wen Jianyan said.
“That’s a pity.” The smile on Dan Zhu’s face disappeared.
She stared expressionlessly at Wen Jianyan. In that instant, the misty smoke deep in those long, narrow eyes seemed to dissipate completely, leaving only a dark, emotionless, terrifying void. That was a look only dead people possessed.
“I’ll give you one last chance, darling—cooperate, or die?”
She took a slow step forward.
“Unfortunately, I don’t want to choose either.”
Wen Jianyan smiled slightly.
His voice, which was weak just now, suddenly became sharp: “Now!”
“Bang!!!”
Behind them, all the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor of the casino exploded instantly, splashing into countless sharp fragments—when Wen Jianyan stepped forward, he conveniently blocked Dan Zhu’s view and signaled his other teammates to prepare an escape route—Dan Zhu blocked the only passage to the ground, but she hadn’t set up obstacles on the floor-to-ceiling windows wrapping around the entire second floor.
The moment the windows exploded, Wen Ya threw an item into the interior of the second floor. Smoke exploded. At the same time, Chen Cheng scooped up Wen Jianyan by the waist, Chen Mo grabbed Blond’s arm, and Kong Wei wrapped his arm around Ma Qi’s shoulder—the group was extremely coordinated and swift. They didn’t plan to confront Dan Zhu head-on but concentrated all their abilities to do only one thing:
Retreat!
No one knew how Wen Jianyan did it, but the timing of his command was clearly calculated with extreme precision.
As they landed and stood up, starting to sprint towards the elevator, the glass on the first floor of the casino emitted a piercing “crack.” In the next second, the already riddled and precarious main door shattered into pieces. Countless pale corpses soaked in seawater surged in.
A blood-red figure walked slowly out of the smoke.
“…”
Standing on the second floor of the casino, now devoid of glass shielding, Dan Zhu looked down expressionlessly.
Below had turned into a sea of corpses; there was no trace of Wen Jianyan and the others anymore.
In the air, the extremely rich floral scent mixed with the damp, fishy smell of seawater, fermenting into a corrupt and dangerous aura.
“In the end, you became a hindrance.”
Unnoticed since when, a lazy, charming smile appeared on Dan Zhu’s lips again.
She idly played with the black curly hair draped over her shoulder, her voice like a sigh:
“Pity, I actually really liked him.”
Wen Jianyan and his group rushed into the elevator.
One second before the entire first floor of the casino was about to be swallowed by the corpses surging in from the deck, the elevator doors slowly closed.
The small metal box began to move slowly downward.
Inside the entire elevator, only the heavy panting of the group could be heard.
“Damn it…!” Chang Feiyu gasped, still in shock. “Now we not only have to face a sinking ship and a doomed instance but also face the pursuit of the third-ranked in Nightmare?”
Truly, misfortunes never come singly…
This wasn’t just bad luck; it was bad luck piled on bad luck!
Even though he had been in the Nightmare for so many years, he had never encountered such an extreme situation—!
“What now?” Wen Ya turned to look at Wen Jianyan. “What’s our next step?”
They were somewhat stuck between a rock and a hard place now.
The death of the three managers meant the collapse of the entire instance was imminent. However, they only had two of the three tokens; the other one was with Dan Zhu. So they couldn’t enter Floor B6 to resolve the instance’s core.
Wen Jianyan leaned against the elevator wall. In the negotiation just now, he had exhausted his meager stamina. His face, already pale to the extreme, now looked as ugly as a dead person.
He caught his breath, raised his eyes, and said: “Survive.”
“…” Everyone was stunned.
“Don’t forget what the completion rule for this instance is,” Wen Jianyan said.
The Lucky Cruise was a non-open-ended timed instance.
As long as one survived until the end of the voyage, the instance was cleared.
“The eight billion points I lost gambling have all become fuel for the cruise ship’s progress… It is now moving at full speed. If the fuel is sufficient, it can take us to the end of the route.”
“Dan Zhu needs these three tokens more than we do,” Wen Jianyan braced himself against the wall, struggling to stand up. To save energy, he spoke very slowly. “And she must do it before the instance ends.”
Due to the uniqueness of the Lucky Cruise, Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure if it would reset after the instance ended.
But whether it reset or not, all of Dan Zhu’s previous layouts would lose meaning.
She would also lose the best opportunity to achieve her goal.
And as long as they held on until clearance, they could return alive to the anchor hall—intact and unharmed.
“So,” Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, his gaze extremely calm, “we have only one mission next: Survive.”
Since the remaining coin was in Dan Zhu’s hands, as long as Dan Zhu didn’t cooperate, Wen Jianyan couldn’t enter Floor B6, nor could he access the information he wanted.
As long as Dan Zhu realized she couldn’t find what she wanted on their corpses, she would be forced to reconsider the possibility of negotiation.
That was easy to say, but…
Was it really as easy as it sounded?
The elevator continued downwards.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened.
“Floor B16 has arrived. Please watch your step,” the elevator operator said.
“Go,” Wen Jianyan said. “Get Ji Guan.”
Due to physical limitations, Ji Guan had been unable to participate in their actions since the racecourse and was forced to wait in a safe place.
And now, with the managers dead and the ship unbalanced, there were no safe zones on the ship anymore. He was also worried Dan Zhu would find him and use his safety to hold them hostage.
The group left the elevator and arrived at Floor B16.
The change in the ground beneath their feet could no longer be ignored; it had tilted at least thirty degrees. Some cabin doors were wide open, and debris rolled from high to low with a clatter. The entire corridor was littered with debris.
“Careful, this floor isn’t safe,” Ma Qi suddenly spoke.
A weird chill that made one’s hair stand on end floated in the air, and a strong smell of blood could be faintly smelled.
Wen Jianyan stopped abruptly.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a corpse lying horizontally on the ground inside a wide-open cabin door to his left. The ground was covered with sticky blood, and a “Tenant” in a black robe stood straight beside the corpse—seemingly sensing his gaze, the “Tenant” slowly turned its head.
The black mask originally covering its face had disappeared at some point, replaced by human features.
However, the pale skin, hollow eyes, and eerie smile were clearly characteristics belonging to a malicious ghost.
“…!” Wen Jianyan sharply withdrew his gaze.
Just as he guessed.
There was a delicate balance between “Tenants” and the management. After all the managers died, the control over the “Tenants” also disappeared.
Previously, they couldn’t attack humans directly and needed to buy “puzzle pieces” from Carl Bell’s auction. Now, the restraints were gone, and all humans on the ship became their prey.
Wen Jianyan lowered his voice, speaking urgently, “Quick, move.”
The group started running.
On the way, they saw more corpses.
Those corpses lay lifelessly on the ground, faces empty, leaving only a pitch-black hole—identical to the remains they found backstage at the auction earlier.
Heavy, dragging footsteps came from the darkness.
Seeming to smell the scent of living humans on them, they began to move again.
The group ran for their lives, reaching Ji Guan’s room in one breath—the good news was that the cabin door was still tightly closed and hadn’t been attacked—they breathed a sigh of relief.
They opened the door and rushed in.
Kong Wei scooped up the immobile Ji Guan and carried him on his shoulder.
“What exactly is going on outside?” Ji Guan lost his vision and couldn’t move, so he was essentially oblivious to the situation outside. But even so, through the suspicious aura seeping through the cabin door and the tilt of the hull, he could still feel something had changed. “Did something happen—”
“Talk later when we’re safe,” Wen Jianyan said urgently.
The group rushed out of the cabin, back into the corridor, and ran towards the elevator without stopping.
Just then, a corpse lying in front of them suddenly twitched.
Wen Jianyan reflexively looked up.
He saw the corpse’s belly bulging, as if something was squirming, struggling underneath, trying to break out.
This scene was too familiar. Wen Jianyan’s pupils constricted slightly.
He remembered something.
After Eaton Ethan died, his corpse seemed to have undergone a similar situation…
“—It’s Dan Zhu!”
The moment his voice fell, the corpse’s belly burst open. An eerie shadow slowly stood up from within, and the familiar scent of rotting flowers filled the entire corridor like a bomb.
The strange shadow stood out of thin air. Although faceless, it emitted a familiar giggle.
“So you escaped here, little mice.”
Wen Jianyan and his group stared closely at it, retreating slowly.
This was obviously some form of manifestation of Dan Zhu’s talent.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan felt his clothes being tugged hard by Ma Qi.
He turned back and saw Ma Qi pointing behind them with a pale face.
One, two, three…
All the corpses began to undergo similar changes. Eerie bulges started to pulsate from their abdomens, seemingly incubating something.
Ahead, “Dan Zhu’s” shadow gracefully stepped out of the corpse, slowly approaching them—retreating was meaningless; there were more corpses over there.
“You didn’t think that just by leaving my line of sight, I wouldn’t be able to find you, did you?” “Dan Zhu’s” shadow giggled.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
The corpses behind them burst open one after another.
“You can’t escape,” “Dan Zhu’s” shadow tilted its head slightly. “However, because your escape made me very angry, I’ll teach you a little lesson…”
“First… let’s start with you.”
“Dan Zhu’s” shadow raised its hand, pointing a finger straight at one person in the team.
Chen Cheng.
“My dear, dear traitor.”
Chen Cheng’s pupils shrank.
In the next second, Chen Cheng instinctively counterattacked.
But, how could an intangible thing be captured by a blade? In the blink of an eye, painful hisses came from his throat. Eerie stripes pulsated on his skin, as if something was taking root and sprouting.
“Chen Cheng!” Wen Ya beside him was startled and instinctively took a step forward.
But concern from others was useless to him.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh——”
Chen Cheng let out a scream of agony. His face turned pale instantly, seemingly enduring indescribable pain.
“I gave you a chance,” the shadow of the woman with an aura as cold as a corpse walked forward gracefully, giggling. “So, now I will kill everyone around you one by one—and I promise, this process will be very slow, very slow, very painful.”
Without warning, Dan Zhu’s image distorted slightly for a moment.
“Eh?”
She made a confused sound.
In the next second, as if torn by some invisible force, the image standing there just now was shredded, scattering into smoke.
Everyone was startled and reflexively looked up.
They saw a Tenant standing in front of the corpse that had just hatched Dan Zhu’s image. Under its foot, the corpse’s head was crushed. Amber-colored, fragrant, viscous liquid flowed along the ground.
Everyone was stunned.
“…Ha, ha…”
Chen Cheng gasped, his complexion slightly better.
At the same time, more “Tenant” figures emerged from the darkness. However, unlike those existences that had seized human bodies, they still wore pitch-black masks on their faces.
The “Tenant” who had just crushed the corpse’s head stepped forward.
Seeing it approach, everyone’s bodies tensed reflexively.
Wen Jianyan stood still, seeming to breathe a long sigh of relief.
Once the long-tense state relaxed, his figure swayed, and the familiar weakness hit again.
The “Tenant” took a big step forward, steadily supporting him.
He took off the mask with his other hand, revealing a pale, handsome face.
“…”
Wu Zhu looked down at him, his brows slowly furrowing:
“You are very weak.”
“I know.”
Wen Jianyan used his strength to steady himself. He lifted his eyelids wearily, glanced at him sideways, and said.
“—You were much slower than I imagined.”
“Mhm.”
Wu Zhu responded.
“Encountered some obstacles in between.”
He rubbed the inside of Wen Jianyan’s wrist, quietly taking on most of the weight of Wen Jianyan’s body.
“But I handled it.”
Whether it was physical weakness causing Wen Jianyan to lose some judgment, or he was too concerned about the answer to the question, he didn’t pay much attention to the closing distance between them.
Getting the answer, Wen Jianyan slowly exhaled.
Before gambling with Mesvis, he had already anticipated that once all management died, the order on the ship would collapse completely.
Precisely because of this, Wen Jianyan let Wu Zhu, who could have been more useful, leave before the gamble with Mesvis started.
Because he had a more important mission.
Admittedly, Wu Zhu was heavily restricted in this instance that didn’t belong to him.
But… he could assimilate, devour, and seize the identities of “Tenants” in the instance.
In areas unreachable by ordinary anchors, he could swallow other supernatural existences, using the instance to gradually strengthen himself.
Wen Jianyan knew clearly that they would sooner or later confront higher-dimensional existences, so he had to prepare for this in advance.
Dan Zhu was a terrifying threat, yes.
But for Wen Jianyan, an even more terrifying enemy still lurked in the dark.
—That was the Nightmare itself, manipulating everything.
Wen Jianyan: “So, how is your overall progress now?”
Wu Zhu stood close to him, answering whatever Wen Jianyan asked, like some tame large animal, showing no sign of the brutal act of crushing a corpse’s head just now.
“Considering it went smoothly.”
“How many Tenants have you controlled?”
Wu Zhu lowered his head, the tip of his nose inadvertently brushing against the tips of the young man’s hair.
He seemed to assess for a moment before answering:
“Forty percent.”
Brief questions and answers, just a few words.
Even though there was no untoward content in the conversation, it inexplicably seemed…
A bit too familiar?
