(2/4)
Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 548: “They look so pitiful.”
“…”
Across the entire casino antechamber, the two parties faced each other from a distance. The air seemed to freeze at this moment.
A few seconds later, Wen Jianyan slowly turned sideways: “By all means, please.”
Although the faces of the few people behind him remained cold as they stared vigilantly at the Oracle members not far away, they still followed Wen Jianyan’s movement and cleared the path to the elevator.
“Many thanks.”
A perfect, polite smile appeared on Gentleman’s face.
Saying this, he led his group of members toward them.
At the moment the two sides brushed past each other, Wen Jianyan could clearly feel the muscles of Ji Guan standing beside him tense up.
However, the anticipated conflict did not occur.
The Oracle group smoothly walked into the elevator and turned around under the shroud of blood-red light.
Wen Jianyan glanced at the Oracle members behind Gentleman.
Su Cheng was not among them.
Where did he go?
Just as this thought emerged, it was suppressed by the sound of the metal grille.
“In that case, see you on the next floor.” Through the rusty bars, a smile appeared on Gentleman’s correct and handsome face as he touched the brim of his hat.
“I wish you success.”
It was unclear if it was an illusion, but his last sentence seemed to carry a certain ominous foreboding, almost like a curse.
The elevator began to start. Accompanied by the piercing sound of hinges, Gentleman and his guild members sank downward.
The humming of the starting elevator gradually faded away.
Ji Guan’s tense muscles relaxed bit by bit. He still stared in the direction where Gentleman and the others had disappeared and whispered, “A bunch of shameless…”
“But, Oracle actually didn’t make a move?” Wen Ya frowned, seemingly a bit puzzled. “I thought they wanted to kill you long ago, Captain.”
Although she hadn’t personally witnessed the conflicts Wen Jianyan had with the Oracle group in the [Xingwang Hotel] and [Yuying Comprehensive University] instances, Wen Ya had long heard of them—as a former core member of Eternal Day, she understood the conflicts between guilds deeper than others.
Wen Jianyan shook his head, still wearing a thoughtful expression:
“Gentleman? He wouldn’t do that.”
He had briefly crossed hands with Gentleman in the [Xingwang Hotel] instance.
That guy, Gentleman, had a style somewhat similar to his when dealing with conflict… as long as there was a choice, he would be more willing to avoid direct, intense, and frontal conflict. This didn’t mean he was soft-hearted; on the contrary, he might be more ruthless and underhanded than anyone. He did this partly out of caution and partly—Wen Jianyan guessed—because of his abhorrence of “indecency.”
Only in a situation where friend and foe were clearly revealed, like in [Xingwang Hotel], would Gentleman be willing to bare his fangs.
Once he left the instance and entered his role as a “civilized person,” even if he was furious at Wen Jianyan’s provocation, Gentleman would still maintain his politeness and decency.
“Besides, their condition isn’t very good.” Chang Feiyu pinched the tip of his nose, revealing a trace of contemplation. “When we brushed past them, I smelled blood on them.”
As a former mercenary, his perception in this regard had always been keen.
Even if Gentleman acted effortlessly, it was an indisputable fact that he and his team had suffered damage on this floor.
Perhaps, compared to Wen Jianyan, he was the one who wanted to avoid starting a war at this moment even more.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, listening to the conversation of the others intermittently, but in his heart, he was pondering other matters.
He was thinking…
Why was Oracle still on the ship?
If his previous guess was correct, all of Oracle’s actions were facilitating the formation of this instance. The Nightmare wanted him dead, and so did Oracle. Then, this instance should have appeared for this goal.
In that case, the people from Oracle should have disembarked before the cruise ship instance formed.
Moreover, where did Su Cheng go? As a new member of Oracle—and a highly watched, pivotal new member at that—Wen Jianyan didn’t think he would be easily sacrificed right at the start of the instance.
He should have been acting together with Gentleman and the others, shouldn’t he?
Wen Jianyan was a bit absent-minded.
The formation of this instance was already beyond common sense, and Oracle’s appearance made things even more confusing.
“…Hey, hey!” A voice calling him grew louder in his ear.
Wen Jianyan looked up and met Chen Mo’s somewhat dissatisfied gaze.
“Hmm? What?”
Chen Mo sighed, feeling very helpless about this: “I said, this floor isn’t simple. I suggest everyone act with caution next—what do you think? Guild President?”
He emphasized the last two words, seeming to want to use this to remind Wen Jianyan of his identity.
Wen Jianyan had completely pulled himself out of his thoughts just now.
“Yes, mn, you’re right.”
Judging solely from the hall they entered after leaving the elevator, this floor seemed no different from the Negative First and Negative Second floors. However, whether it was the danger they sensed right before leaving the elevator or the battle-damaged state of Gentleman and his group, this floor appeared unusual.
Although the casino on the Negative Second Floor had already shown extraordinary anomalies, the Negative Third Floor…
Would probably only be worse, not better.
“Let’s go, let’s go in and have a look first,” Wen Jianyan said.
The group finally left the front of the elevator and began walking into the casino.
In front of the blood-red counter, the pale-faced waiter revealed a formulaic smile to everyone:
“Do you need to exchange chips?”
Between the surface casino and the underground casino, although the chips were all green, gold, and red, the exchange rate with points was different, so the chips from the surface casino were not valid in the underground casino.
Although everyone except Wen Jianyan had not gone to the gambling table since the instance formed, during the time Wen Jianyan went to the Negative Seventh Floor, they had witnessed the process of other anchors exchanging chips at the counter, so they were very clear on this point.
Wen Jianyan: “No.”
“…”
Chen Mo and the others couldn’t help but look sideways.
They hadn’t witnessed Wen Jianyan exchanging chips at the casino front desk, yet he seemed to possess a massive amount of gambling funds exclusive to the underground casino, enough to play against the dealer numbered No. 8 on the Negative Second Floor.
They had a premonition… this might be related to Wen Jianyan’s solo action before the instance started.
However, after the instance started, Wen Jianyan didn’t explain much about it.
The group exchanged glances but didn’t voice their doubts.
However, before Wen Jianyan could continue walking forward, he was called out again:
“Apologies, if you wish to spend on this floor, the chips on hand still need to undergo an additional exchange.”
Wen Jianyan stopped and turned to look.
“Additional exchange?” Wen Jianyan repeated slowly.
“Yes.” The waiter looked back at him, the smile on his pale face remaining unchanged. “Five thousand points to purchase one game coin.”
…
Game coin?
Wen Jianyan raised his hand and tossed a red chip over.
The waiter deftly collected the chip, opened the blood-red cabinet behind him, took out several glittering silver game coins from inside, and placed them on the counter:
“A total of twenty coins, you may count them.”
Wen Jianyan picked up the twenty game coins, recalling the word “purchase” the other party had just used, his gaze shifting slightly:
“If I don’t use them all? Can I return them?”
Waiter: “Apologies, that is not possible.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
Heh, as expected.
However, he had long known the black-hearted nature of the instance, so he wasn’t too surprised by this.
Wen Jianyan nodded and turned to look at the few people behind him:
“Let’s go.”
Crossing the counter, the internal layout of the entire floor finally appeared before them.
“…”
The group involuntarily stopped, exchanging very uneasy glances.
The Negative Third Floor and the other two floors… were indeed different.
Completely different.
The previous two floors were more like very standard private casinos cum clubs—private, luxurious, with gambling tables everywhere. But on this floor, surprisingly, there were no partitions, and not even a single gambling table!
Inside the vast space, rows of strange-looking machines were placed.
“Distinguished guests, good afternoon.”
An abrupt voice came from behind.
Everyone present was startled and jerked their heads toward the direction of the voice.
“Hello, I am the resident dealer responsible for the operation of this floor.” A chubby dealer with a face like Maitreya Buddha walked over from not far away with a chuckle. On his chest, a familiar name tag was pinned.
[No. 10]
Obviously, this was one of the ten core dealers under Mesvis, ranked tenth among the ten.
“My name is Hawk.”
The other party said with a beaming smile.
…Actually has a specific name?
Wen Jianyan blinked, hiding the surprise in his eyes.
In that case, wouldn’t the remaining ones also have their own names, instead of just a code name?
Hawk stepped forward and made a “please look” gesture: “As you can see, this floor is not a place for gambling. I prefer to call this place…” He paused subtly for a few seconds, smiling, “The Welfare Floor.”
Wen Jianyan and the others followed behind him, approaching those strange-looking machines.
Getting closer, they discovered that those machines were actually…
Gachapon machines?
The group turned their heads, exchanging subtle glances with each other.
Wen Jianyan stepped forward and scrutinized the text posted on the gachapon machine nearest to them.
[Prize Pool Public Notice]
1. Empty – 50%
2. Five Hundred Chips – 30%
3. 10,000 Chips – 10%
4. 50,000 Chips – 9%
6. One Million Chips – 1%
[Total of one hundred gachapon capsules in this machine]
[The prize pool will be reset after the Grand Prize is drawn]
Behind him came Hawk’s voice: “…Different gachapon machines have different prices. If needed, just insert the game coin into the side slot, then pull down the lever, and you can draw a prize.”
Wen Jianyan turned to look.
Hawk said beamingly, “Alright, the basic rules are like this. Isn’t it very simple?”
He bowed to everyone:
“By the way, one last point. Once you leave this floor, you will not be able to return at will—I wish you a pleasant time.”
After speaking, Hawk turned around and left.
Maggie, who had fallen to the back of the team, suddenly exclaimed, “Wow, the grand prize in this gachapon machine is actually a hidden item! And it’s A-rank!”
Walking on the other side, Ji Guan suddenly gasped in surprise:
“Holy crap, the grand prize of this gachapon machine can shorten Talent cooldown time!”
“Woah.”
Chang Feiyu walked among the dazzling array of gachapon machines, looking around and sighing:
“No wonder it’s called the Welfare Floor.”
Chen Mo turned to look at Wen Jianyan: “What do you think?”
Wen Jianyan pursed his lips and didn’t answer immediately.
Maggie rushed over, staring at him with sparkling eyes: “Guild President, Guild President, can we play?”
Wen Jianyan glanced at her and tapped on the text on the gachapon machine in front of him:
“See that?”
Maggie tilted her head to look, her eyes lighting up: “Wow! One million!”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He sighed: “A gachapon machine has a total of one hundred capsules. One draw costs fifty thousand. That is to say, emptying a gachapon machine requires five million, but all the prizes inside added together don’t even reach this number.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[That’s true, but betting fifty thousand for one million, that’s a twenty-fold return rate! And you don’t necessarily have to empty the prize pool to draw the grand prize.]
[…Mn, but the anchor himself might possibly have this probability.]
[Hahahahahaha the person above is being a bit mean.]
“However, the answer is yes.”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and said slowly: “After all… no matter what, we need to get the pass to enter the next floor.”
If the rules of this floor were consistent with the previous one, then only chips twisted from the gachapon machines could be exchanged for a pass to the next floor at the counter.
That meant, whether willing or not, they were forced to participate in this game.
Maggie: “Yay!!!”
“However, don’t forget what those Oracle people looked like just now.” Wen Ya narrowed her eyes and warned, “There must be unknown risks hidden in this floor.”
Maggie wilted: “…Oh.”
After setting a participation limit for the team members, Wen Jianyan emphasized: “Don’t get dazzled by the benefits in the gachapon machines. Our primary goal is to investigate intelligence.”
Several people nodded: “Of course.”
After purchasing game coins individually, the group dispersed to gachapon machines in different areas.
Soon, the clinking sound of coins being inserted rang out.
Wen Jianyan moved slowly among the gachapon machines, the twenty game coins clinking in his pocket. As he walked forward, he observed the text on them.
The grand prizes in these gachapon machines were all different.
Some were chips, some were items (the specific names and effects of these items were not labeled, the only thing known was their rating), and there were some special gachapon with specific effects that were hard to classify… Wen Jianyan saw the gachapon that shortened Talent cooldown mentioned by Ji Guan earlier, gachapon that enhanced intelligence, and even—
Wen Jianyan was stunned and slammed on the brakes.
On a strange-looking gachapon machine, the name of the final grand prize was posted.
[Luck Potion]
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[?]
[?!]
[Wait? This name… is the grand prize of this gachapon the kind of effect I’m imagining?]
[Good lord, professional match!]
Wen Jianyan stood in place struggling for a long time, then hesitantly walked forward, took a game coin from his pocket, and threw it into the side slot.
Clink clink.
The game coin disappeared.
The opening at the bottom of the machine opened, and a palm-sized capsule rolled out. Wen Jianyan picked up the capsule and opened it to look.
There was nothing inside, only a crumpled note.
He unfolded the note, and there was only a line of small words on it.
“Thank you for your patronage.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[Looks truly pitiful.]
[Indeed, looks truly pitiful.]
On the other side, Maggie suddenly cheered: “Yay! Got it!”
Wen Ya leaned over to look at the capsule she had just twisted open in her hand. Inside lay a golden chip quietly—converted, it was one hundred thousand points.
“How many times did you draw?”
Wen Ya asked.
Maggie: “Five times!”
Wen Ya fell silent for a second: “You know five times means two hundred and fifty thousand points, right?”
The excitement on Maggie’s face gradually faded, and she slumped her shoulders listlessly: “…K-knew.”
Sob sob sob.
“Hey…” Aside, Blond pointed at one of the gachapon machines and suddenly spoke up, “The number of capsules in this machine is only 81.”
Chen Mo walked over and looked in the direction of Blond’s finger.
Through that narrow transparent glass, he could see the round capsules piled inside. Chen Mo didn’t have the ability of visual enhancement and couldn’t judge exactly how many capsules were in the machine as accurately as Blond, but he could indeed discover… the number of capsules in this machine seemed indeed fewer than in other machines.
Chen Mo paused, a glint flashing in his eyes:
“…The gachapon machine didn’t reset.”
It seemed the prize pool of the gachapon machines was shared and wouldn’t reset with different visitors.
“It seems that arriving at the Negative Third Floor so early is actually a disadvantage for us.”
Chang Feiyu crossed his arms and shook his head.
According to the rule of the shared prize pool, the later one arrived on this floor, the greater the probability of drawing good things. If one came too early, they would instead be restricted.
Chen Mo pondered for a few seconds and said:
“Regardless, we’d best prioritize drawing from the gachapon machines that have already been used. This way, the probability of drawing a prize will increase quite a bit.”
Blond did a lap around the entire floor and quickly selected four machines that had been used.
Ji Guan raised an eyebrow: “Only four?”
Wen Ya: “That’s plenty.”
She crossed her arms, her voice calm: “Don’t forget which guild the team before us came from.”
Ji Guan: “…Mn, true.”
Oracle wasn’t just the number one guild in Nightmare points; it was also a guild with many prophets. For there to be four machines that they had used but where the grand prize hadn’t been drawn was indeed quite a lot.
The group exchanged glances and began inserting the game coins in their hands.
Kong Wei walked toward one of them and inserted a game coin. Accompanied by the clinking sound of the coin falling in, a capsule rolled out from below.
He picked up the capsule and opened it.
“…Hey.”
His voice was muffled.
Not far away, Maggie stared at the operating gachapon machine, biting her nails nervously. Wen Ya and Chen Mo appeared much calmer; they surrounded a gachapon machine, analyzing the probability of drawing the grand prize. Chang Feiyu randomly chose a machine that looked pleasing to his eye and stuffed game coins in one by one.
“Hey!” Kong Wei’s voice rose a bit.
Maggie opened her capsule and let out a sob, looking like she was about to faint. Chen Mo, hearing Kong Wei’s voice, walked over: “What’s wrong?”
Kong Wei silently handed the capsule in his hand to him.
Chen Mo looked down.
It was a doll with its stomach stuffed full of straw. Its face and body were equally twisted, looking strange, and ominous red light flickered in its small button eyes.
“It’s an A-rank item,” Kong Wei said in a muffled voice.
His voice wasn’t loud, but to everyone’s ears, it was like thunder. They stopped what they were doing one after another and looked over.
Maggie held the empty capsule miserably and turned to look at Kong Wei:
“How many times did you draw?”
Kong Wei: “Once.”
Maggie: “…”
She screamed: “I’ll kill you!”
While the whole scene was in chaos, Wen Jianyan walked up from behind: “What happened?”
Chen Mo broke free from the chaos, walked up to Wen Jianyan, and informed him of Blond’s discovery just now and their subsequent actions.
Wen Jianyan paused: “Kong Wei drew the grand prize?”
It was unclear if it was an illusion, but his expression looked a bit gloomy.
“Yeah, Maggie is furious.” Chen Mo shrugged. “Her luck isn’t too good; she’s already spent the game coins up to the limit you set—but Kong Wei’s luck is amazing. He drew the grand prize in just one go, incredible.”
Wen Jianyan’s expression seemed even darker. He said dryly:
“Is that so, that’s great.”
Chen Mo looked at him: “How about your side?”
Wen Jianyan: “…Don’t mention it.”
His voice was a bit gnashing.
During the time just now, he had been trying to draw that Luck Potion.
But in just a few minutes, Wen Jianyan had collected a full set of “Thank you for your patronage,” “Next time will be better,” “Don’t be discouraged, you can definitely do it,” “Won’t you try one more time?”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[What to do? Can’t bear to watch anymore.]
[Enough Wen Jianyan, Daddy’s heart aches for you.]
[…Recognize yourself, okay baby? Don’t tell me you’re really going for the hard pity?]
Wen Jianyan’s movements paused as if he suddenly realized something. He bent down and looked at the note below the gachapon machine—the position of this note was very tricky, and the words on it were ridiculously small. He narrowed his eyes and finally managed to make out the text.
[Luck Potion – 0.01%]
[Total of one thousand capsules in this machine]
After seeing these lines of words, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but black out for a second—he was indeed prepared to hit the hard pity. Five million to buy a so-called “Luck Potion,” if used in the right place, wouldn’t be a loss—but if the guarantee required fifty million, that was completely different!!!
Especially since he had just used over thirty million on the previous floor. Although he exchanged it for a more valuable group pass, the financial loss still existed.
The places where money would be needed in this instance would only increase later. Spending fifty million to drain a prize pool was far too extravagant for him.
So, even though he felt very pained about the game coins he had already invested in the gachapon machine, Wen Jianyan still resolutely cut his losses.
Not far away, Wen Ya finally peeled Maggie off Kong Wei.
Although Kong Wei’s clothes were messy, his face remained solid and silent, appearing very bewildered by his encounter just now.
At this time, Chang Feiyu also saw Wen Jianyan.
He waved cheerfully: “Guild President!”
Wen Jianyan glanced at everyone’s results.
Up to now, only Kong Wei had drawn a grand prize. The others added together had drawn chips worth three hundred thousand points—of course, the amount they invested was larger than this number.
Compared to the others, Chang Feiyu and Ji Guan’s luck was slightly better. One drew a B-rank item, and the other drew a special capsule that could shorten Talent cooldown by one hour.
Except for Maggie, whose game coin consumption had reached the limit set by Wen Jianyan, the others still had some leeway.
Wen Jianyan pondered for a long while and made a decision:
“Then let’s leave it at this for now.”
Ji Guan was startled: “But that Hawk just said…”
“He said,” Wen Jianyan took over the conversation, “this floor cannot be returned to at will after leaving—not that it cannot be returned to. There is a big difference here.”
His gaze lingered on Blond for a moment: “Since the gachapon prize pool here only resets after the grand prize is drawn, then investing a large amount of funds here now is unwise. Better to wait for next time.”
“Also, one more thing.” Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and swept slowly over the crowd that had gradually quieted down. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed—we haven’t encountered any danger up to now.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
Blond was a bit confused.
“It is, and it isn’t.” Wen Ya looked at him and said.
Not encountering danger was naturally good, but the problem was that the Oracle group who had just left this floor had obviously encountered unusual risks… and they had toured almost the entire floor, gone to the places they should go, played the gachapon they should play, yet nothing happened. But this also meant they had skipped over some very important things.
“In fact, I already have an idea.”
After dropping this sentence, Wen Jianyan turned and walked quickly toward the outside of the casino.
The others exchanged glances and followed.
Behind the counter, the pale-faced waiter smiled:
“Is there anything you need help with?”
Wen Jianyan: “I want to purchase game coins.”
“Alright,” the waiter looked at him with a smile. “How many do you wish to purchase?”
Wen Jianyan took out a blood-red chip from his pocket, placed it on the counter, and smiled:
“One.”
Watching his action, everyone behind him couldn’t help but hold their breath slightly.
“…”
The waiter watched him from behind the counter, smiling wordlessly. The air became viscous with the passing of time.
Wen Jianyan looked back into the waiter’s eyes, not retreating in the slightest.
Finally, the waiter spoke with a smile: “My deepest apologies…”
Everyone’s hearts lifted.
Only to hear the other party continue: “—The minimum purchase quantity for special game coins is five at a time.”
As expected.
Wen Jianyan’s heart dropped; it was hard to explain whether he felt relief or tension at this moment.
The reason he realized this was because he thought of Hawk’s existence—no matter what the content of his self-introduction was, he was always No. 10, a core dealer directly under Mesvis.
Core dealers and blood-colored gambling games went hand in hand.
Even if Hawk introduced this place as the Welfare Floor, it was still the Welfare Floor within the underground casino. So, even if there were no gambling tables on this floor, the rules of the blood-colored gambling game still existed.
“Fine, then exchange for five.” Wen Jianyan took out another four blood-red chips from his pocket and placed them on the counter.
“Alright, please wait a moment.”
After rummaging in the cabinet behind him for a while, the waiter turned around and smilingly lined up five red game coins on the counter.
“Please count them.”
Wen Jianyan picked up the five game coins.
The red game coins were cold and heavy, weighing down his palm, inexplicably revealing a strange, gloomy chill.
“Thanks.” He smiled.
Under the waiter’s gaze, Wen Jianyan turned around and led his team members back the way they came.
Walking into the casino, among the countless strange-looking machines, they saw at a glance a brand-new gachapon machine that was very different from the others.
It was red all over.
Through the glass, one could see that even the capsules inside were blood-red.
The chubby dealer with a kind smile on his face stood beside the gachapon machine, seeming to be waiting for them.
The group looked at each other, seeing the solemn look in each other’s eyes.
…They were certain this machine had never appeared before.
Wen Jianyan stood in place. Cold sweat had seeped out of his palm holding the game coins without him noticing. He took a deep breath, turned his head, and said to the people beside him:
“Be careful.”
He recalled the shadow hiding in the darkness before the elevator entrance and the wet footprints gradually approaching on the ground.
Wen Jianyan whispered:
“What we twist out this time, I reckon, won’t just be welfare.”
