(3/4)
Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 549: Speculation
Watching Wen Jianyan and his group approach, a smile spread across Hawk’s chubby face.
A step away from him stood the completely crimson gachapon machine.
“Welcome to activate the special gachapon machine,” Hawk introduced with a beaming smile. “The prizes here are of high value and irreplaceable. One special game coin allows for one draw.”
He pointed to the side of the machine:
“This here is the prize catalog.”
Wen Jianyan stepped forward and looked in the direction Hawk pointed.
On the glass surface of the gachapon machine, a dark red sticker was affixed, with several lines of crooked small text written on it.
[Special Gachapon Machine]
[Super Welfare Giveaway!]
[Prize Catalog]
Common Grade: B-rank Item – A-rank Item (Partial Special Items: Negative Fourth Floor Group Pass, etc.)
Advanced Grade: S-rank Item – S+ rank Item (Partial Special Items: Negative Seventh Floor Auction Invitation, One-Day Livestream Reduction Coupon, etc.)
Special Grade: Legendary Hidden Item (Partial Special Items: Negative Eighteenth Floor Room Key, etc.)
Like Wen Jianyan, everyone else clearly saw the text on this sticker. They exchanged glances, involuntarily revealing expressions of astonishment.
The price of one special game coin was one million, twenty times that of a regular game coin. The price could be described as exorbitant.
Moreover, this was just the price for one draw. Whether anything would come out after the draw was still hard to say.
Although they respected Wen Jianyan’s choice, seeing him throw away a fortune without blinking, not even knowing what the special gachapon machine was, still made them feel an indescribable phantom pain in their wallets.
But the moment they saw the published prize catalog, they almost immediately realized exactly why this gachapon machine was so expensive.
The grand prizes in other gachapon machines could only be considered Common Grade prizes here—even the pass to the Negative Fourth Floor was included in the list!
More importantly, the higher the grade, the more terrifying the value of the prizes.
And the content of the Special Grand Prize made everyone gasp.
…That was a Legendary Hidden Item!
Generally speaking, there would only be one Legendary Hidden Item within an instance. This item was not only closely related to the instance’s main storyline but could also be bound to the anchor and brought into multiple instances for repeated use.
Exactly how difficult this thing was to obtain, only anchors who had experienced instances knew clearly.
And the Negative Eighteenth Floor Room Key was even more outrageous.
According to Wen Jianyan’s previous deduction, this ship would leak water layer by layer downward, and be invaded by the supernatural form outside layer by layer. The underground space of this ship had a total of eighteen floors. If they obtained the Negative Eighteenth Floor Room Key right at the start of the instance, it would be tantamount to directly giving them a direct ticket through an SS-rank instance!
Who wouldn’t be moved by this!
Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered for a long time on the word “etc.” in the catalog.
He noticed that this gachapon machine was different from the previous ones. Not only did it not specify the probability of each category of prizes, it didn’t even list all the categories.
“…”
Wen Jianyan rubbed the game coin in his hand. The cold, heavy red metal weighed in his palm. Even though he had been holding it for a long time, there wasn’t the slightest sign of it being warmed up.
Aside, Hawk said beamingly: “The operation is the same as before. Just insert the game coin and pull down the lever.”
Wen Jianyan touched the game coin, hesitated for a few seconds, and turned to look behind him:
“Hey, come here.”
“…?”
Kong Wei turned his head to look around and took two seconds to realize the other party was calling him. “Me?”
“Yes.” Wen Jianyan stuffed a game coin into his hand and pushed Kong Wei forward. “Good luck.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Ahhh, I’m dying of laughter!]
[Anchor, you have quite the self-awareness about your own luck!]
[Kong Wei, the savior of the unlucky!]
Under Wen Jianyan’s nervous gaze, Kong Wei obediently walked up.
With a “ding,” a red game coin fell into the machine.
The next second, the capsules in the machine began to tumble and spin. Wen Jianyan stared intently at the capsules flying up and down inside the glass window. After a few long seconds, with a “clang,” a capsule fell out.
Kong Wei bent down and took out a palm-sized capsule.
Like the machine that held it, this capsule was completely crimson. That excessively piercing, rich blood-red color appeared almost ominous under the light.
Kong Wei walked back with the capsule.
Wen Jianyan looked at Maggie: “Can you sense anything?”
Maggie hovered her hands over the capsule and closed her eyes for a long time. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes and shook her head blankly: “…Sorry, I can’t feel anything.”
Wen Jianyan pursed his lips.
Looking at this, fear only by opening the capsule could they truly determine what was inside.
Aside, Hawk silently watched this scene, an elusive smile on his face.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, raised his hand to take the capsule from Kong Wei, held both sides, and twisted gently.
With a soft “click”, this blood-red capsule split into two halves in his palm with ease.
Something cool fell into Wen Jianyan’s palm. He looked closely and almost shuddered, nearly throwing the thing in his palm away—
It was a tooth.
A tooth belonging to a human.
The root was long and complete, the end looking as if it were stained with a bit of not-yet-dried blood. An indescribable cold sensation seeped out from it.
Before he could reflexively scream, a familiar system voice suddenly rang in his ear.
[Ding! Congratulations, ancho,r on obtaining S-rank item, Gluttonous Tooth]
[Usage Count 1/1]
This thing is actually an item…
Wen Jianyan held the tooth and let out a long breath.
He said feebly: “It’s fine, it’s an item.”
Hearing him say this, the tense bodies of the others around him gradually relaxed, no longer on guard.
Wen Jianyan turned to look at the others: “Who else wants to go up and try their luck?”
Chang Feiyu thought for a moment: “I’ll do it.”
Just now, apart from Kong Wei drawing the grand prize, only he and Ji Guan had decent luck.
Wen Jianyan nodded and tossed a coin to him.
Chang Feiyu walked forward, inserted the game coin into the machine, and soon, the opening below opened, and a blood-red capsule rolled out.
The second capsule was opened.
Unlike Wen Jianyan’s fuss earlier, this time, Chang Feiyu’s movements paused slightly. He looked down at the capsule in his palm, a confused expression on his face.
“What’s wrong? What’s inside?” Wen Ya asked.
“…Only a note.” Chang Feiyu paused, picking up a piece of paper from the split capsule shell with his fingertips. The paper was red, with a number crookedly written on it in black pen.
“Aside from this, there’s nothing else,” Chang Feiyu added.
This was strange.
Just as everyone was puzzled, under the gaze of the crowd, the text on the paper changed without warning.
—
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[!!!]
[Holy crap!! It’s a countdown!!!]
[Wait a sec… I don’t quite get it, what is this a countdown for?]
[Ghost.]
Wen Jianyan whispered.
“It’s a countdown for a ghost to appear.”
His speech was very fast. In the process of him speaking, the number on the note had already turned to ****.
Even though Wen Jianyan hoped against it, his guess still came true.
Obviously, this special gachapon machine could not only twist out unusual rewards, but similarly, it could also produce unusual dangers… The reason Oracle was in such a sorry state was likely related to this.
“Thirty seconds,” Hawk stood by the gachapon machine and said with a smile. “Looks like it’s Common Grade.”
Ji Guan jerked his head to look at him: “What? What grades are there?”
Hawk’s chubby face still wore that beaming smile: “Didn’t you already see it just now?”
Hearing this, everyone’s hearts sank sharply.
It seemed that the “ghosts” that could be drawn from the gachapon machine, like the items that could be drawn, had three grades: Common, Advanced, and Special.
And the ghost they just drew seemed to be exactly Common Grade.
Chen Mo reacted almost instantly, saying: “Throw the capsule as far as you can, quick!”
Chang Feiyu did so immediately.
Wen Ya followed closely and began setting up items around the opened capsule, her movements meticulous and swift—danger detection, aura suppression, form revealing… these items would activate immediately upon sensing danger, providing them with the opportunity to investigate and time to think of countermeasures.
The air seemed to solidify, pressing down on people until they couldn’t breathe.
Everyone looked solemn and tense, sweat seeping from their temples.
Before the countdown time turned to 0, Wen Ya had already retreated back into the team.
Everyone’s eyes and nerves were tense. They stood back-to-back, ready to face the monster released from the capsule.
On the red paper, the countdown reached zero.
The moment the number turned to zero, the paper originally lying in the capsule disappeared.
Everyone watching the situation there felt their hearts sink.
They knew, it had started.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed tightly on the direction of the capsule—especially the items Wen Ya had just set up near the capsule—breathing became heavy, nerves taut, waiting for whatever might happen.
But…
Nothing happened.
The opened capsule still lay quietly in place, empty inside. The surrounding items showed no sign of being triggered. It seemed everything was no different from just now.
“…”
The group exchanged glances.
What’s going on?
Zzz… Zzzzz… Suddenly, Wen Jianyan heard the sound of lights flickering. He couldn’t help but be startled and subconsciously looked up.
The overhead lights were weakening at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if being swallowed by some invisible thing. Unstoppable darkness began to spread within the room. The four corners of the entire hall had been completely engulfed at some point, invisible to the eye.
Without warning, Wen Jianyan shuddered.
As if suddenly sensing something, he jerked his head to look toward a corner of the room.
In an instant, as if doused with ice-cold water from head to toe, Wen Jianyan felt a hair-raising sensation climb up his back.
He could genuinely see that in the darkness, stood a motionless humanoid silhouette.
“Over there!”
Wen Jianyan suppressed the tremor in his voice and hinted in a low voice.
But strangely, the others turned to look at him, revealing puzzled expressions.
Click, clack, click.
Footsteps echoed, and that figure slowly walked out of the darkness.
Under the dim light, its entire body seemed to be covered in a layer of asphalt-like pitch-black substance. Its features were chaotic. Just standing there made the observer feel a chill.
Drip, drop.
Pitch-black viscous liquid fell onto the floor, burning small holes one by one.
“Right there!” Wen Jianyan pointed in that direction. “About six meters away from us!”
“Guild President, what are you saying?”
Wen Ya looked in the direction Wen Jianyan pointed. After scrutinizing carefully, she turned back, her expression somewhat blank: “…There’s nothing there.”
Wen Jianyan was stunned.
He suddenly thought that previously at the elevator entrance, he actually hadn’t seen the specific form of the monster either. He had only barely noticed the darkness nearby and the footprints on the ground.
But now, he could clearly see the existence of the horror source, even the rotten water dripping from its body.
That meant…
Feeling something, he lowered his head and looked at the back of his hand.
The dice points from the Negative Second Floor had disappeared, replaced by a coin-sized greenish-black corpse spot. It lay on his skin like an ugly bug, neither painful nor itchy, neither concave nor convex. If Wen Jianyan hadn’t specifically looked down to check, he might not have noticed such a mark appearing on his hand at all.
Lightning flashed through Wen Jianyan’s mind.
Almost in that instant, he figured out the connection.
“Only the owner of the capsule can see it.”
Wen Jianyan’s voice grew stronger,
“It doesn’t matter if the person who twisted the capsule was Kong Wei or Chang Feiyu. You used my points, so I am the target of the monster’s attack!”
While Wen Jianyan was thinking, the faceless monster had already walked over—
“It doesn’t matter,” Chen Mo maintained his calm. “You tell me where they are, and we’ll—”
Wen Jianyan: “No, it’s useless.”
He stared tightly at the position of the black shadow.
It just passed near the items Wen Ya placed, but none were activated.
Which meant… the monster would only attack the owner of the capsule. Conversely, it should be that only the owner of the capsule could attack it.
Drip. Drop.
The monster covered in pitch-black asphalt approached, quickening its pace in a hair-raising manner, heading straight for Wen Jianyan without deviation!
“!” Wen Jianyan was startled and subconsciously retreated backward.
“Then at least it won’t be unsolvable.”
Chang Feiyu narrowed his eyes and continued the thought.
Otherwise, Gentleman wouldn’t have said “whatever was here just now, it can no longer pose a threat”—this meant that the monsters twisted out of the capsules definitely had a way to be dealt with.
“And we have a medium on our side, she can always help somewhat.”
Yes, it wouldn’t be unsolvable.
These monsters had their own countermeasures, it was just…
Thinking of the sorry state of the Oracle group earlier, everyone felt a bit uncertain—even if they disliked the Oracle bunch, their strength was obvious to all, and they had multiple prophets escorting them. Even so, they still paid a considerable price, showing how terrifying the difficulty was.
Suddenly, as if thinking of something, Wen Jianyan subconsciously turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the red gachapon machine not far away.
“…”
He suddenly froze.
Ji Guan’s voice came to his ear: “Guild President, is there anything we need to do—”
“Take it.” Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze and stuffed all the remaining three red game coins into Ji Guan’s hand. “Go draw!”
“What?” Ji Guan was confused.
Wen Jianyan spoke very fast: “Call me if you don’t have enough coins!”
Wen Ya seemed to realize something. She shouted urgently: “Wait, what about you?”
Wen Jianyan: “Don’t worry about me, won’t die!”
After speaking, he turned around and began to sprint at full speed.
Watching Wen Jianyan’s retreating figure, Ji Guan reacted and immediately rushed to the red gachapon machine in a few strides, stuffing a game coin in.
Rumble rumble.
A capsule rolled down. Without needing Ji Guan to look down, Wen Ya had already snatched up the capsule with quick eyes and hands, twisting it open without hesitation.
The capsule opened, and it was another blood-red note.
Blond sharply spotted the blood-colored note, his heart tightening involuntarily, almost screaming out:
“Fifteen seconds?!”
As if seeing through his thoughts, the smile on Hawk’s face deepened as he spat out two curse-like words:
“…Advanced Grade.”
“?!” Everyone present suffocated.
According to the pattern Wen Jianyan summarized earlier, as long as the monster was twisted out using his game coins, the aggro would automatically lock onto Wen Jianyan—apart from Wen Jianyan, it could not be seen, sensed, or attacked by anyone.
One had to realize that Wen Jianyan was already being followed by a monster, and now… a second, more terrifying monster was about to appear, and everyone present was helpless against it.
“Don’t space out, continue!” Wen Ya said sternly.
Ji Guan inserted the second game coin.
Rumble rumble.
A blood-red capsule rolled out from the opening below and was quickly caught and opened by Wen Ya.
This time…
Appearing in her hand was a familiar black paper.
It was the Group Pass!!
Wen Ya stood up abruptly and shouted at the top of her lungs: “Got it!”
From far away came Wen Jianyan’s voice: “Gather at the elevator!!!”
“Heard that! Let’s go!!” Chen Mo signaled the others to follow. The group sprinted toward the outside of the casino without looking back. No one saw that by the red gachapon machine behind them, the smile on Hawk’s chubby face was disappearing at a rapid speed.
They didn’t have any aggro concentrated on them, so naturally, no one blocked their way. In just a few minutes, the group had passed through the maze-like gachapon machines and rushed into the elevator without stopping for half a step.
The waiter in the elevator: “Distinguished guest, you—”
Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Wen Ya: “To the Negative Fourth Floor.”
However, before the rusty bars closed, Kong Wei suddenly extended an arm, blocking the elevator door.
Chen Mo: “Sorry, we still have to wait for one person.”
The group stood inside the elevator, holding their breath, staring nervously and intently at the distant casino hall. A grand, heavy silence pressed down on everyone’s heads, almost spilling out of the elevator.
They waited for a long minute, or perhaps a short few centuries.
Finally, before their patience ran out, a familiar figure was stumbling toward them, screaming as he ran: “Make way!!”
The few people blocking the elevator door reflexively made way.
The next second, Wen Jianyan crashed in like a bullet. He was too fast, almost unable to brake, knocking Blond and Maggie directly behind him off their feet.
Behind him, some invisible danger seemed to follow like a shadow. The carpet began to curl under the corrosion of charred black liquid, and a bizarre aura approached.
Kong Wei jerked his hand back. With the help of Chen Mo and Chang Feiyu, the three worked together to slam the iron gate shut.
“BANG!”
Something seemed to hit the gate. The iron metal door bent inward.
Drip, drop.
Charred black liquid emitting a bizarre rot spread in from outside the elevator.
Accompanied by a dull “thud,” the elevator slowly began to operate.
Finally, the floor of the Negative Third Floor disappeared.
In the smoothly running narrow space, only rapid panting and the thumping of their own hearts could be heard.
Wen Jianyan lay on the floor, limbs sprawled, panting heavily.
A few seconds later, his face turned pale. He propped himself up halfway, bent over trembling:
“Urgh!”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Hahahahaha!!!]
[I won the bet!!! He really dry heaved! Hahahaha!]
[…Damn it, I lost. Seriously, how many instances has the anchor been through, how can he still dry heave because of a chase! Can’t stand it!]
Dry heaving over, Wen Jianyan leaned against the wall, looking weak.
He raised his right hand, which had been swallowed by the pitch-black substance—the cold feeling was gradually fading, normal skin color emerging, and the corpse spot underneath began to fade. Everything was recovering bit by bit.
As expected…
This corpse spot also counted as a “mark”, exactly the same as the dice points on the Negative Second Floor.
Since the dice points would disappear after entering the next floor, then the corpse spot marking the owner of the game coin should be the same.
That was why Wen Jianyan chose this method, which could be said to be completely different from Oracle’s:
He didn’t deal with it at all.
Instead of researching how to destroy the monsters, he set the goal directly on the pass to the next floor—its level was Common, and the difficulty of drawing it wasn’t high—even if the number of monsters increased during the drawing process, it didn’t matter. As long as the pass was obtained and the elevator could be started in time, all threats would be cleared.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…This is cheating!]
[Slacking off and using tricks, opportunistic!!]
The elevator was still sinking.
Supported by Chen Mo, Wen Jianyan slowly stood up.
Concerned inquiries came from those around him, but Wen Jianyan just shook his head, indicating he was fine.
Seeing Wen Jianyan unharmed, the atmosphere in the elevator immediately relaxed.
“Guild President is really amazing!” Maggie looked at Wen Jianyan with sparkling eyes, expressing admiration without reservation.
“Of course!” Ji Guan raised his arm around Wen Jianyan’s shoulder, bragging complacently. “You don’t know, that time he went into an instance with me was even more badass. He played everyone for fools…”
Wen Ya glared at Ji Guan.
Ji Guan shrank his shoulders and made a motion of zipping his lips.
“It’s naturally good that there was no danger this time,” Wen Ya looked at Wen Jianyan, frowning. “But your action this time was still too risky. What if we couldn’t draw the group pass quickly?”
Blond looked certain: “We definitely would have.”
Wen Ya: “How do you know?”
“Just knew?” Blond scratched his head, his eyes full of blind trust in Wen Jianyan: “Otherwise, what?”
Wen Ya was momentarily speechless.
“We got through like this before,” Ji Guan rubbed over carelessly, winking. “Didn’t we live just fine? Isn’t that right, Vice President?”
Chen Mo expressionlessly knocked Ji Guan’s arm off his shoulder: “Don’t touch me.”
The group chatted. Although the words were barbed, the atmosphere was inexplicably relaxed.
Unlike the others, Wen Jianyan didn’t feel the slightest sense of relaxation in his heart.
He leaned against the elevator wall, arms crossed, lowering his eyes in deep thought.
Wen Jianyan knew clearly that in the eyes of the others in the team, his operation just now was smooth flowing, escaping danger with ease—just like every time before.
But only Wen Jianyan knew how dangerous the situation just now truly was.
When he started being chased by the Common Grade gachapon monster, he had already realized something was wrong. All items below A-rank were ineffective. Only A-rank, or even S-rank, could have some slight effect.
And after the Advanced Grade gachapon monster appeared, Wen Jianyan immediately felt powerless.
S-rank items also failed.
Realizing this, a storm surged in Wen Jianyan’s heart. He knew this meant that the rating of this gachapon monster within the Nightmare system should have reached SS.
It was also during this time that his right hand was corroded.
Although Wen Jianyan successfully escaped this time, he understood—he had played a clever trick and took a shortcut. He hadn’t formally found a way to deal with the gachapon monsters but just used the rules to run away.
It could be said that the difficulty of the Negative Second Floor was still within his acceptable range, but the Negative Third Floor was different… On this floor, this instance began to lift its veil to him, revealing a corner of the true danger.
As for the Negative Fourth Floor…
Wen Jianyan had a premonition that the difficulty of this floor would only get higher, not lower.
Thinking of this, an ominous chill climbed up his spine.
Suddenly, at this moment, a familiar system announcement rang in his ears.
[Public Mission: Please proceed to the First Floor of the Lucky Cruise Ship within three hours to participate in the Captain’s Gala Dinner]
[Reward Points: 5000]
[Failure Penalty: Livestream permission closed for 12 hours]
“…”
Hearing this voice unexpectedly, everyone present was startled.
Although they knew the reality show mechanism didn’t disappear with the opening of the instance, the private missions of the reality show were no longer mandatory, and the public mission hadn’t refreshed for a whole day. They had almost forgotten about its existence.
The suddenly updated public mission was like a blow to the head, stunning them.
Wen Jianyan paused, turned to look at the elevator waiter, and asked: “Can we change floors now?”
The time limit for the public mission was three hours.
Judging from the difficulty of this so-called Welfare Floor on the Negative Third Floor, he didn’t think they could return from the Negative Fourth Floor within three hours.
In that case, it was better not to set foot there for now.
“Of course,” the waiter said.
Wen Jianyan breathed a shallow sigh of relief: “Good, then go to the First Floor.”
The elevator changed direction midway and began to rise slowly.
Unknown how much time passed, the elevator finally arrived at the destination. With a “ding,” the rusty metal door slowly opened in front of them.
The First Floor of the casino appeared before them.
Wen Jianyan led the group out of the elevator and walked slowly toward the interior of the casino.
They weren’t the first to arrive, but close enough.
Looking around the entire venue, there were only three or five other anchors wandering besides them.
The overall layout here looked almost no different from before they left. The huge screen still hung at the very top, completely obscuring the Second Floor where Mesvis was.
The circular machine used to draw room keys was still in its original place.
The main door was tightly closed, shutting out the cold, pitch-black seawater and the terrifying pale corpses.
Unknown starting when, all the gambling tables and tools on the First Floor had been removed, replaced by small round tables covered with snow-white tablecloths. Napkins were folded into elegant swan shapes, and goblets and silver cutlery sparkled under the bright lights. Everything looked so tidy, clean, and full of sentiment.
Wen Jianyan walked slowly between the dining tables, his brows slightly furrowed.
Of course, he knew what the Captain’s Gala Dinner was.
This was a ceremonial dinner that would only appear on cruise ships. Generally speaking, it would happen on the last day of the entire itinerary.
But in this instance, time seemed to be inverted. Clearly, this was only their first day entering the instance, yet the Captain’s Gala Dinner was being held…
“!”
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan thought of something unknown. He froze and slammed on the brakes.
Wait a minute.
Captain’s Gala Dinner.
Then… would the captain appear?
Wen Jianyan clearly remembered that this mysterious captain was the direct superior of the four management levels and the actual controller of the entire ship. And according to the information provided by Figaro—whether true or false—he obviously believed that the Captain of the Lucky Cruise Ship…
Was exactly the Guild President of Oracle.
And also the nominal Number One of Nightmare.
