WTNL Chapter 549

Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 549: Speculation

Watching Wen Jianyan and his party step forward, the round, chubby face of Hawk curled into a smile.

Standing a step away beside him was the blood-red gashapon machine.

“Welcome to the activation of the Special Gashapon Machine,” Hawk introduced with a beaming smile. “The prizes here are exorbitant and irreplaceable. One special game coin allows for one draw.”

He gestured toward the side of the machine:

“Here is the prize directory.”

Wen Jianyan walked up and looked in the direction Hawk was pointing.

Pasted onto the glass surface of the gashapon machine was a dark-red sticker with a few lines of crooked, handwritten text.

[Special Gashapon Machine]

[Super Bonus Event!]

[Prize Directory]

Ordinary Grade: B-Grade Items – A-Grade Items (Some special items: Negative 4th Floor Group Pass, etc.)

Advanced Grade: S-Grade Items – S+-Grade Items (Some special items: Negative 7th Floor Auction Invitation, One-Day Broadcast Exemption Coupon, etc.)

Special Grade: Legendary Hidden Items (Some special items: Negative 18th Floor Room Key, etc.)

Just like Wen Jianyan, the rest of the group clearly read the text on the sticker. Exchanging glances, every single one of them couldn’t help showing a look of utter astonishment.

A single special game coin cost one million points—twenty times the price of a regular game coin. Calling it expensive was an understatement.

Moreover, that was only the price for a single attempt, with no guarantee that anything good would actually drop.

Although they respected Wen Jianyan’s decisions, watching him spend a fortune without so much as a second thought before even knowing what the special gashapon machine actually did still made them feel an indescribable, heart-wrenching pain for his wallet.

Yet the instant they saw the public prize directory, they realized almost immediately why the machine was priced so astronomical.

Grand prizes from other gashapon machines could only qualify as Ordinary Grade prizes here—even the pass to Negative 4th Floor was included in that tier!

More importantly, the higher the tier, the terrifyingly greater the prize’s value became.

And the content of the Special Grade grand prize made everyone draw in a cold breath of air.

…That was a Legendary Hidden Item!

Generally speaking, an instance contained only one Legendary Hidden Item. Not only was it closely bound to the main plot line of the instance, but it could also be bound to an anchor and carried over across multiple instances for repeated use.

Only anchors who had personally survived instances knew just how ridiculously difficult it was to obtain one.

And the key to a room on the Negative 18th Floor was even more absurd.

Based on Wen Jianyan’s prior deductions, this ship leaked and was invaded by supernatural forces floor by floor as it sank. The underground structure had eighteen levels in total. Obtaining the key to a Negative 18th Floor room right at the start of the instance was practically tantamount to handing them a direct express ticket through an SS-Grade instance!

Who wouldn’t be tempted by that!

Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on the word “etc.” in the directory for a long time.

He noticed that this gashapon machine differed from the previous ones: not only did it omit the probability rates for each prize category, but it hadn’t even listed all the items under each class.

“…”

Wen Jianyan rolled the game coin between his fingers. The cold, heavy red metal weighed down his palm. Despite having held it for quite some time, it showed no sign of warming up at all.

To the side, Hawk said with a genial smile, “The operation is the same as before. Simply insert the game coin inside and pull down the lever.”

Wen Jianyan felt the game coin, hesitated for a few seconds, then turned his head to look behind him:

“Hey, get over here.”

“…?”

Kong Wei turned his head and looked around, taking two seconds to realize he was the one being called: “Me?”

“Yes.” Wen Jianyan shoved a game coin into his hand and gave Kong Wei a push forward. “Good luck.”

In the “Integrity First” Live Room Barrage:

[Ahhh, I’m dying of laughter!]

[Anchor, you really have great self-awareness about your own luck, don’t you!]

[Kong Wei, the savior of the unblessed!]

Under Wen Jianyan’s tense watch, Kong Wei obediently walked up.

With a crisp clink, the red game coin dropped into the machine.

In the next second, the capsules inside the machine began to tumble and spin with a whirring sound. Wen Jianyan stared fixedly at the capsules flipping up and down inside the glass display window. After several agonizingly long seconds, a single capsule dropped out with a thud.

Kong Wei bent down and pulled out the palm-sized gashapon capsule.

Just like the machine housing it, the capsule was solid red—that excessively bright, dense blood-red color appeared almost ominous under the lights.

Kong Wei walked back holding the capsule.

Wen Jianyan looked toward Machi: “Can you sense anything?”

Ma Qi hovered both hands over the capsule, keeping her eyes closed for a long time. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and shook her head in confusion: “…I’m sorry, I can’t feel anything at all.”

Wen Jianyan pursed his lips.

Looking at the situation, it seemed they would only truly know what was inside by opening it.

Beside them, Hawk silently observed the scene, bearing an unreadable smile on his face.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, reached out to take the capsule from Kong Wei, gripped both sides, and gave it a gentle twist.

With a soft click, the blood-red capsule cracked cleanly into two halves right in his palm.

Something cold dropped onto Wen Jianyan’s palm. Looking closely, he nearly shivered and tossed the object away—

It was a tooth.

A human tooth.

Its root was long and intact, the tip looking as if it were still smeared with a trace of un-dried blood. An indescribable, piercing chill oozed from it.

Before he could reflexively scream out, a familiar system notification suddenly rang in his ears.

[Ding! Congratulations to Anchor for obtaining S-Grade Item: Tooth of Gluttony]

[Uses Remaining: 1/1]

This thing turned out to be an item…

Holding the tooth, Wen Jianyan let out a long, heavy sigh.

He said weakly, “It’s fine, it’s an item.”

Hearing him say that, the tense bodies of those around him gradually relaxed, dropping their guard.

Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at the others: “Who else wants to go up and test their luck?”

Chang Feiyu thought for a moment: “I’ll do it then.”

Aside from Kong Wei drawing the jackpot earlier, the only ones with decent luck had been him and Ji Guan.

Wen Jianyan nodded and tossed a coin over to him.

Chang Feiyu stepped forward and inserted the game coin into the machine. Shortly after, the lower opening parted, and a blood-red capsule rolled out.

The second capsule was opened.

Unlike Wen Jianyan’s overreaction earlier, Chang Feiyu’s movements froze slightly this time. He stared down at the opened capsule in his palm, a puzzled look spreading across his face.

“What’s wrong? What’s inside?” Wen Ya asked.

“…Just a slip of paper.” Chang Feiyu paused, using his fingertips to pick out a piece of red paper from the split capsule shells. Written on it in crooked black ink was a single number.

[30]

“There’s nothing else besides this,” Chang Feiyu added.

That was odd.

Just as everyone was feeling perplexed, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the text on the paper unexpectedly changed without warning.

— [29]

In the “Integrity First” Live Room Barrage:

[!!!]

[Holy crap!! That’s a countdown!!]

[Hold on… I don’t quite get it, what is this a countdown for?]

“A ghost,” Wen Jianyan said softly.

“It’s a countdown for a ghost’s arrival.”

He spoke rapidly. As he talked, the number on the paper strip had already shifted to [23].

No matter how much Wen Jianyan wished otherwise, his suspicion had come true.

Evidently, this special gashapon machine could not only yield extraordinary rewards, but similarly, it could also release extraordinary dangers… The reason Oracle had been reduced to such a pathetic state earlier was almost certainly tied to this.

“Thirty seconds, huh?” Standing beside the machine, Hawk said with a smile. “Looks like it’s an Ordinary Grade one.”

Ji Guan turned his head sharply toward him: “What? What other grades are there?”

Hawk’s chubby face maintained its cheerful grin: “Didn’t you see it just now?”

Upon hearing this, everyone’s hearts sank heavily.

By the looks of it, the “ghosts” pulled from the machine were categorized into three tiers just like the items: Ordinary, Advanced, and Special.

And the ghost they had just drawn appeared to be an Ordinary Grade one.

Chen Mo reacted almost instantly, saying, “Throw that capsule as far away as possible, quick!”

Chang Feiyu immediately complied.

Wen Ya followed suit, rapidly setting up items around the opened capsule with meticulous precision—items to detect danger, suppress presence, reveal hidden forms… As long as these items sensed danger approaching, they would instantly activate, buying them time to investigate and formulate a countermeasure.

The air felt as though it had solidified into a physical weight, pressing down so hard it was suffocating.

Everyone’s expressions were grim and tense, sweat trickling down their temples.

Before the countdown reached 0, Wen Ya had already retreated back into the team formation.

Everyone’s eyes and nerves grew taut. Standing back-to-back, they prepared themselves to face whatever monster was about to be released from the capsule.

On the red paper, the countdown reached zero.

The moment the number hit zero, the piece of paper originally resting inside the capsule vanished.

Watching the situation, everyone’s hearts sank.

They knew it had begun.

Every pair of eyes locked onto the direction of the capsule—especially onto the items Wen Ya had just deployed around it—breath heavy, nerves strung tight, anticipating whatever might happen.

However…

Nothing happened.

The opened capsule continued to rest quietly in its original spot, completely empty. The items around it showed no signs of being triggered either. Everything seemed no different from moments before.

“…”

The group exchanged glances.

What was going on?

“Fzz… fzzz…” Suddenly, Wen Jianyan heard the sound of flickering lights. Stunned, he instinctively raised his head.

The overhead lights were dimming at a visible speed, as if being consumed by an invisible entity. Unstoppable darkness began to creep across the room, swallowing the four corners of the hall entirely until nothing could be seen.

Without any warning, Wen Jianyan shuddered.

As if sensing something, he snapped his head around toward one corner of the room.

In an instant, as if ice-cold water had been poured over him from head to toe, a hair-raising chill crept up his spine.

He could clearly see a motionless human silhouette standing amidst the darkness.

“Over there!”

Suppressing the tremor in his voice, Wen Jianyan alerted them softly.

Curiously, however, the others looked over at him with bewildered expressions.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Footsteps echoed as the figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

Under the dim lighting, its entire body looked as though it were enveloped in a pitch-black, pitch-like substance. Its facial features were a chaotic blur. Merely standing there was enough to send a sickening dread through anyone watching.

Splat. Splat.

Viscous, pitch-black liquid dripped onto the floor, burning small holes into the ground.

“Right there!” Wen Jianyan pointed in that direction. “Roughly six meters away from us!”

“Leader, what are you talking about?”

Wen Ya looked toward the direction of Wen Jianyan’s finger. After examining it carefully, she turned back with a completely lost look on her face: “…There’s nothing there.”

Wen Jianyan froze.

It suddenly occurred to him that earlier at the elevator entrance, he hadn’t been able to see the monster’s exact form either; he had only barely noticed the surrounding darkness and the footprints on the floor.

Yet now, he could clearly see the source of horror standing right there—he could even see the corrosive water dripping off its body.

Which meant…

Sensing something, he lowered his head to look at the back of his hand.

The dice value from Negative 2nd Floor had vanished, replaced by a dark, bluish-black cadaver spot the size of a coin. It clung to his skin like an ugly bug, similarly painless, non-itchy, neither raised nor depressed. Had he not deliberately looked down to check, he might not have noticed this mark appearing on his hand at all.

A flash of insight sparked in Wen Jianyan’s mind.

Almost in that exact instant, he pieced the underlying logic together.

“Only the owner of the capsule can see it.”

Wen Jianyan’s voice grew firmer.

“It doesn’t matter whether the person drawing the capsule was Kong Wei or Chang Feiyu. You guys were using my points, so I am the target of the monster’s attack!”

While Wen Jianyan was piecing things together, the featureless monster had already begun striding over—

“It’s fine,” Chen Mo maintained his composure, saying, “Just tell me where it is, and we’ll—”

Wen Jianyan: “No, it’s useless.”

He stared intently at the black figure’s position.

It had just passed right through the vicinity of the items set down by Wen Ya, yet not a single one had activated.

Meaning… the monster would only attack the capsule’s owner. By the same token, only the capsule’s owner could attack it.

Splat. Splat.

The monster, drenched in pitch-black tar, closed in. Accelerating its pace in a hair-raising manner, it walked straight toward Wen Jianyan without deviating an inch!

“!” Startled, Wen Jianyan instinctively stepped backward.

“Then it can’t be an unwinnable situation either,” Chang Feiyu chimed in, narrowing his eyes.

Otherwise, Gentleman wouldn’t have said earlier, “Whatever was here just now poses no threat anymore.” That implied there was definitely a way to deal with monsters pulled from the gashapon capsules.

“Besides, we have a medium on our side. We can always help out somehow.”

Indeed, it wasn’t an absolute dead end.

These monsters had a countermeasure. It was just…

Thinking back to how battered Oracle and his group had looked earlier, everyone felt a bit uneasy. Even if they couldn’t stand the Oracle group, their strength was obvious to all. Moreover, multiple prophets had been guiding them. Even so, they had paid a steep price, showing just how terrifying the difficulty was.

Suddenly, as if realizing something, Wen Jianyan instinctively turned his head, his gaze sweeping across the red gashapon machine not far away.

“…”

He stiffened momentarily.

Ji Guan’s voice sounded in his ear: “Leader, is there anything you need us to do—”

“Take these.” Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze and shoved all three remaining red game coins into Ji Guan’s hands. “Go draw!”

“What?” Ji Guan was stunned.

Wen Jianyan spoke rapidly: “Shout if you run out of coins!”

As if realizing what he was planning, Wen Ya shouted anxiously, “Wait a second, what about you?!”

Wen Jianyan: “Don’t worry about me, I won’t die!”

With that, he turned on his heel and began sprinting at top speed.

Watching Wen Jianyan’s retreating back, Ji Guan snapped to his senses. Taking three steps in two, he rushed over to the red gashapon machine and jammed a game coin inside.

Whirrrr.

A capsule rolled down. Before Ji Guan could even bend down, Wen Ya snatched it up with swift hands and twisted it open without hesitation.

The capsule opened—another blood-red paper strip.

Blond’s sharp eyes caught sight of the bloody slip, and his heart clenched, nearly crying out in alarm:

“Fifteen seconds?!”

As if seeing right through his thoughts, Hawk’s smile deepened, uttering two words that sounded like a curse:

“…Advanced Grade.”

“?!” Everyone present caught their breath.

According to the rules Wen Jianyan had deduced, as long as a monster was drawn using game coins belonging to him, its hatred would automatically lock onto Wen Jianyan—aside from Wen Jianyan, no one else could see, sense, or attack it.

One monster was already chasing after Wen Jianyan, and now… a second, far more terrifying monster was about to spawn. Yet everyone else present was utterly powerless to help.

“Don’t zone out, keep going!” Wen Ya barked sharply.

Ji Guan inserted the second game coin.

Whirrrr.

The blood-red capsule rolled out from the lower opening, immediately grabbed and snapped open by Wen Ya.

This time…

What appeared in her hands was a familiar black paper pass.

It was the Group Pass!!

Wen Ya stood up abruptly and raised her voice to shout: “We got it!”

From far away came Wen Jianyan’s shouting voice: “Gather by the elevator!!”

“You heard him! Move!!” Chen Mo signaled the others to keep up. The group sprinted toward the casino exit without turning back. No one noticed that behind them, beside the red gashapon machine, the grin on Hawk’s chubby face was rapidly disappearing.

Bearing no aggro whatsoever, no obstacles stood in their way. In just a few short minutes, the group cut through the maze-like rows of gashapon machines and rushed into the elevator without stopping.

The attendant inside the elevator: “Honored guests, you—”

Before he could finish, Wen Ya cut him off: “Negative 4th Floor.”

However, before the rusty iron gate could pull shut, Kong Wei slammed his arm forward, blocking the elevator doorway.

Chen Mo: “Pardon us, we still have to wait for one more person.”

The group stood inside the elevator, holding their breath, staring intensely at the distant casino hall. A heavy, deathly silence hung over them, nearly overflowing from the elevator cabin.

They waited for an agonizingly long minute, or perhaps a few short centuries.

Finally, just before their patience ran out, a familiar figure came stumbling and running toward them, screaming as he ran: “Get out of the way!!”

The people blocking the elevator door reflexively parted.

In the next second, Wen Jianyan slammed inside like a bullet. Moving too fast to brake, he knocked Blond and Ma Qi completely off their feet.

Behind him, an invisible danger seemed to follow like a shadow. The carpet began curling under the corrosion of black liquid, a eerie aura closing in.

Kong Wei pulled his hand back sharply. With the assistance of Chen Mo and Chang Feiyu, the three worked together to slam the iron gate shut.

Clang!

Something seemed to impact the gate, bending the metal iron door inward.

Drip, drip.

A black, foul-smelling liquid seeped into the elevator from the outside.

Accompanied by a heavy thudding sound, the elevator slowly began to operate.

Finally, Negative 3rd Floor disappeared from view.

Within the small, smoothly moving space, only rapid panting and heavy heartbeats could be heard echoing.

Wen Jianyan lay sprawling flat on the floor, breathing heavily.

A few seconds later, his face turned pale. Supporting himself up halfway, he bent over and shuddered:

“Gag!”

In the “Integrity First” Live Room Barrage:

[HA HA HA HA HA!!!]

[I won the bet!!! He really dry-heaved! Bwahaha!]

[…Dammit, I lost. Seriously, the anchor has been through how many instances already? How can he still dry-heave over a simple chase sequence! Unbelievable!]

Done dry-heaving, Wen Jianyan leaned against the wall, looking completely exhausted.

He raised his right hand, which had been swallowed by the pitch-black substance—the icy feeling was gradually fading, normal skin tone resurfacing as the underlying cadaver spot faded away. Everything was slowly restoring itself.

As expected…

This cadaver spot counted as a “mark,” identical to the dice value on the Negative 2nd Floor.

Since the dice value disappeared upon reaching the next floor, the mark identifying the owner of the game coin naturally vanished as well.

That was why Wen Jianyan chose a strategy completely different from Oracle’s:

He didn’t try to deal with it at all.

Instead of figuring out how to eliminate the monsters, he set his target directly on obtaining the pass to the next floor—its tier was Ordinary, so the draw difficulty wasn’t high. Even if the number of monsters multiplied during the drawing process, it didn’t matter. As long as they obtained the pass and activated the elevator in time, all threats would be wiped clean.

In the “Integrity First” Live Room Barrage:

[…This is cheating!]

[Slipping through the cracks, taking shortcuts!!]

The elevator continued its descent.

Supported by Chen Mo, Wen Jianyan slowly pulled himself up to his feet.

Concerned inquiries came from those around him, but Wen Jianyan merely shook his head, signaling he was alright.

Seeing Wen Jianyan completely unharmed, the atmosphere inside the elevator lightened up noticeably.

“The Leader is really amazing!” Ma Qi looked at Wen Jianyan with sparkling eyes, offering unreserved praise.

“Of course!” Ji Guan wrapped an arm around Wen Jianyan’s shoulders, bragging triumphantly, “You don’t know, back when he and I cleared an instance together, he was even more badass, tricking everyone into circles…”

Wen Ya glared at Ji Guan.

Ji Guan shrank his shoulders, making a gesture of zipping his mouth shut.

“It’s great that no danger occurred this time,” Wen Ya turned to Wen Jianyan, frowning. “But your action was still a bit too risky. What if we couldn’t draw the Group Pass quickly?”

Blond said with certainty: “We definitely would.”

Wen Ya: “How do you know?”

“Just knowing?” Blond scratched his head, his eyes filled with blind trust in Wen Jianyan. “Otherwise?”

Wen Ya was temporarily speechless.

“We came through all the previous obstacles like this,” Ji Guan slouched over casually, winking and grinning. “Didn’t we still survive just fine? Isn’t that right, Vice Leader?”

Chen Mo expressionlessly knocked Ji Guan’s arm off his shoulder: “Keep your hands to yourself.”

The group chatted back and forth. Though their words were laced with jabby banter, the atmosphere felt strangely relaxed.

Unlike the others, Wen Jianyan felt no sense of relief in his heart.

Leaning against the elevator wall with arms crossed, he lowered his eyes and fell into deep thought.

Wen Jianyan was clear that in the eyes of the rest of the team, his maneuver just now seemed smooth and seamless, easily evading danger—just like every single time before.

Only Wen Jianyan himself knew how dangerous the situation had truly been.

When he was first pursued by the Ordinary Grade gashapon monster, he had already noticed something wrong: all items below A-Grade failed to work, with only A-Grade or even S-Grade items exerting a slight effect.

And when the Advanced Grade gashapon monster appeared, Wen Jianyan instantly felt overwhelmed.

S-Grade items failed as well.

Realizing this, a wave of shock rippled through his heart. He knew this meant the monster’s rating within the Nightmare System must have reached SS.

It was precisely during that period that his right hand suffered corrosion.

Although he successfully escaped this time, he understood that he had used clever tricks and taken a shortcut. He hadn’t officially found a way to counter the gashapon monsters, merely using the rules to run away.

One could say the difficulty of Negative 2nd Floor was still within his acceptable range, whereas the Negative 3rd Floor was different… On this floor, the instance had begun unveiling its true face to him, exposing a corner of its genuine horror.

As for the negative 4th Floor…

Wen Jianyan had a premonition that the difficulty of that floor would only increase, not decrease.

At this thought, an ominous chill crept up his spine.

Suddenly, right at that moment, a familiar system announcement chime rang in his ears.

[Public Quest: Anchors are requested to proceed to Floor 1 of the Lucky Cruise within 3 hours to attend the Captain’s Dinner.]

[Reward: 5,000 Points]

[Failure Penalty: 12-hour suspension of livestreaming privileges]

“…”

Caught completely off guard by this sound, everyone present was startled.

Although they knew the Reality Show mechanism hadn’t disappeared with the instance opening, private quests were no longer forcibly executed, and public quests hadn’t refreshed all day. They had almost forgotten such a thing existed.

The abruptly updated public quest hit them like a bolt from the blue, leaving them stunned.

Wen Jianyan froze, turned to the elevator attendant, and asked: “Can we change floors right now?”

The public quest had a three-hour time limit.

Judging by the difficulty of Negative 3rd Floor—a so-called “bonus floor”—he didn’t think they could return from Negative 4th Floor within three hours.

In that case, it was better not to set foot down there yet.

“Of course,” the attendant replied.

Wen Jianyan breathed a soft sigh of relief: “Alright, take us to Floor 1 then.”

The elevator changed direction mid-transit and began ascending slowly.

After an unknown amount of time, the elevator finally reached its destination. With a dinging chime, the rusty metal gate parted slowly before them.

Casino Floor 1 appeared before their eyes.

Wen Jianyan led the group out of the elevator, walking slowly toward the interior of the casino.

They were not the first to arrive, but they weren’t far behind.

Looking across the entire floor, only three to five anchors were wandering about besides them.

The overall layout here appeared almost unchanged from when they left. The massive screen still hung overhead, completely blocking off Floor 2 where Methuselah resided.

The circular machine used to draw room keys remained in its original position.

The main doors were tightly shut, sealing out the icy, pitch-black seawater and the horrifyingly pale corpses outside.

At some point, all the gambling tables and equipment on Floor 1 had been cleared away. In their place stood small round tables covered in pristine white tablecloths. Napkins were folded into elegant swan shapes, while wine glasses and silverware gleamed under the dazzling chandeliers. Everything appeared neat, clean, and exquisite.

Wen Jianyan paced slowly between the dining tables, his brows furrowing slightly.

He certainly knew what a Captain’s Dinner was.

It was a ceremonial banquet that only occurred on cruise ships, typically taking place on the final day of an itinerary.

Yet in this instance, time seemed inverted. This was clearly only their first day entering the instance, yet the Captain’s Dinner was already being held…

“!”

Suddenly, as if recalling something, Wen Jianyan froze in place, stopping dead in his tracks.

Wait a second.

Captain’s Dinner.

In that case… would the Captain make an appearance?

Wen Jianyan remembered clearly that this mysterious Captain was the direct superior of the four management members, as well as the actual controller of the entire ship. And according to the intel provided by Figaro—whether true or false—he evidently believed that the Captain of the Lucky Cruise…

Was none other than the Guild Leader of Oracle.

Which also meant, the nominal Number One anchor in Nightmare.

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