Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 574: Horse and wolf
Racecourse, Second Floor.
The two stood facing each other in the darkness, neither speaking first.
Su Cheng seemed to have transformed back into a silent ghost in the shadows. Blond stood not far away under the light, his overused eyes filled with blood-red crimson, staring stubbornly at the other person, as if trying to pierce through their skin and dig out the truth hidden beneath their silence.
Neither he nor Maggie was a primary combatant, and their talents were nearing exhaustion. Relying on just the two of them, it was almost impossible to turn the tide. Su Cheng was their greatest hope right now.
Blond was gambling.
Putting all his chips on the line, betting that his observation was correct.
The passage of time seemed especially slow. The silence in the air was suffocating. The longer it dragged on, the more anxious Blond became. He knew that without his observation, Maggie couldn’t provide information support for Ji Guan. If he had bet wrong, then…
As if to confirm his worst fears, his ears caught a sliver of a familiar scream.
Blond’s heart seized, and he instinctively turned his head to look.
On the screen, Ji Guan had collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach with fingerless, bare palms, his expression twisted in pain. His abdomen was already dyed red with blood. Outsiders couldn’t tell if it was a new wound or an old one, but Blond could.
His overly good eyesight had almost become a curse at this moment.
He could clearly see the texture of the internal organs exposed at some point between the other person’s fingers.
“No…”
Blond trembled, taking an uncontrollable step forward, as if the person being slaughtered on stage wasn’t just Ji Guan, but himself as well.
At this moment, a familiar voice sounded from behind.
“…I can’t take action.”
Blond turned his head sharply towards Su Cheng.
Su Cheng remained hidden in the darkness. Even though he knew darkness didn’t affect Blond’s vision, he still wasn’t prepared to step into the light. He just continued in a very calm voice:
“But I can tell you what to do.”
Blood extended forward rapidly like a swimming red snake. Everyone ran along the trough, the hanging corpses on both sides flashing past, blurring into shadows.
After an unknown amount of time, the path came to an end, and the blood-filled trough disappeared beneath a blank wall.
“Let me.”
Kong Wei said in a muffled voice.
The next second, he accelerated abruptly, slamming sideways into the wall. Once, twice, three times… Soon, the shape of a door appeared on the wall.
Another hit. With a bang, the door was smashed open.
Kong Wei stopped, sweating profusely, the hard rock texture on his skin refusing to fade for a long time.
Without time to worry about Kong Wei’s condition, the group rushed through the door.
The already strong scent of blood pressed down on everyone like a wall. The tangible smell of rust rushed straight into their nasal cavities, making it impossible to breathe.
What appeared before their eyes was a huge room filled from top to bottom with countless strange pipes—thick and thin, long and short—intertwined and twisted together. At the very end of the pipes was a platform.
Wen Jianyan took a step forward and looked onto the platform.
The platform was empty, except for a small, round mold placed right in the center.
Drip, drip.
Viscous, crimson liquid dripped from the end of the pipe, falling straight into the mold, forming a semi-solid round shape.
Beside him came the sound of Chang Feiyu sucking in a cold breath: “This is…”
“Chips.”
Chen Mo said slowly.
“Every penny in the casino is stained with blood.” Unexpectedly, this phrase was literal in this instance.
In the Lucky Cruise, a blood-red chip was equivalent to one million points. As long as a chip hit the table, turning the table red, the core dealer would immediately take the stage.
And what they were witnessing now was clearly the manufacturing process of these bloody chips.
Those gamblers who couldn’t pay their debts used their own blood—blood that flowed after suffering torture—to cast chip after chip.
Gamblers used these chips to gamble until they became one of them. This was absurd to the point of irony.
The chips in their pockets seemed to be quietly releasing the smell of rust, heavy, invisibly seeping blood outwards.
“The dealer isn’t here.”
Chen Mo frowned.
Their current exploration depth had exceeded expectations, but Chen Mo found it hard to be happy. After all, their purpose for this trip was to find the female dealer named Aisley.
But the problem was, this place was eerie and quiet. Apart from the door they entered, there were no other exits, and not even a shadow of the dealer.
There were two possibilities: either they were in the wrong place, or there were more hidden passages here.
But regardless of which possibility it was, finding new clues would take a lot of time.
The problem was, did they really have that much time?
For every second they wasted here, Ji Guan had to stay in the racecourse for another second. Although Chen Mo didn’t say it, he was unbearably anxious inside—they had all seen the miserable state of the “horses” on the racecourse with their own eyes. For every extra second spent up there, the probability of death multiplied tenfold.
“Spread out, hurry up.”
Chen Mo gritted his teeth and said.
“Use whatever items you have directly; don’t save them.”
Wen Jianyan circled the platform twice, seeming to notice something. He squatted down, yanked hard on a spot below, then looked up and waved to Kong Wei: “You do it.”
Kong Wei walked over obediently.
“Can this be opened?” Wen Jianyan stood up and pointed below.
“Mm.”
Kong Wei extended his steel-hardened palm. The next second, a harsh creak sounded, like metal being forcibly bent. Immediately after, half a twisted sheet of metal was thrown to the ground.
Wen Jianyan bent down, reached in, and soon straightened up.
“I knew it.”
He smiled, raising his hand, a blood-red chip pinched between his fingertips.
“Since it’s a chip manufacturing factory, how could there be no finished products?”
“Look for iron boxes like this; they should all be filled with chips,” Wen Jianyan spoke extremely fast while stuffing the chip into his pocket. “Once found, let Kong Wei pry them open. Don’t leave a single one; pack them all up for me.”
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[…]
[…………]
[Letting Wen Jianyan into a chip factory is simply like letting a rat into a rice jar.]
[Isn’t this purely robbing a bank, damn it!!!]
Chen Mo was stunned, seemingly realizing something, and raised his voice:
“Did you all hear that? Hurry up and find them!”
The group immediately dispersed. With a goal, they suddenly became efficient and smooth.
“Here.”
“I have some here too!”
Accompanied by sharp, piercing metal sounds, iron box after iron box was violently ripped open. The blood-red chips inside were swept clean like autumn leaves in the wind. Just as Wen Jianyan instructed, they really cleared every box until not a single chip remained, leaving the bottoms cleaner than a plate licked by a starving man.
One, two, three…
One after another, unstoppable.
“You really are audacious.” A cold female voice came from not far away.
At some point, an open door appeared on a wall in the corner. Behind the door stood a woman with a gloomy expression. Pinned to her chest was a badge with blood-red characters:
[No.9]
This was the first time they saw that face in reality, not behind a screen.
And that face, usually filled with a highly excited smile, was now twisted and gloomy, staring at them with eyes full of malice, as if she wanted to skin and debone them with her gaze.
Looking at the revealed dealer, a hint of a smile flitted across the corner of Wen Jianyan’s lips.
Yes, it was too difficult to find the dealer’s location in a short time. Although Kong Wei’s talent was strong, it wasn’t without limits; it was impossible to smash every corner of every wall one by one.
So why not make her show herself?
The existence of the racecourse was to supply raw materials for the chip factory. Although Dealer [No.9] managed the racecourse, it didn’t mean she owned the factory—she was subordinate to Mesvis. Once a large number of chips were lost, [No.9] certainly couldn’t bear the consequences.
Although the cameras all over the ceiling left them nowhere to hide and under surveillance, similarly…
This also meant the other party couldn’t turn a blind eye to their recklessness.
“Now!!”
He suddenly shouted sternly.
With Wen Jianyan’s command, the group seemed to share a telepathic connection, rushing towards the dealer in unison!
“Heh,” a familiar business smile slowly appeared on the dealer’s face, and her speech returned to using honorifics, but something hidden deep in her tone sent chills down one’s spine. “It seems you still don’t know whose territory this is. In that case, let me teach you.”
The next second, all the blood flowing on the ground seemed to come alive. Like hungry snakes or ropes capable of strangling people, they rushed straight towards the group!
Suddenly, the situation became grim.
Kong Wei’s talent was nearly exhausted. Relying only on Chen Mo and Chang Feiyu to deal with an SS-rank instance mini-BOSS became very strenuous. Worse still, once they were injured, the blood flowing from their bodies would turn around to attack them. They had to balance fighting and protecting their teammates, thus gradually falling to a disadvantage.
As time passed, the battle became increasingly difficult.
Looking at the scarred group before her, Aisley’s smile widened. She swept her greedy gaze over their bodies, muttering to herself:
“Very good… very good…”
“The figure is beautiful, with good proportions, but endurance looks average, and not very good at dealing with wounds. Even if the brain is good, they won’t run far. Once on the racecourse, they’re finished.”
She sized up the people before her with a gaze that made one’s skin crawl, as if weighing goods and judging the value of merchandise.
“This one is not bad, doesn’t make much noise, tolerates pain well, and has strong endurance.”
“This one is also very good; strong thighs, powerful muscles… won’t be slow, eyes have luster, will be a good horse, will definitely get a good ranking, maybe even win the championship—”
Without warning, her voice suddenly got stuck.
The greedy smile froze on her face like a mask.
“…”
Dealer [No.9] slowly lowered her head, her gaze falling inch by inch, finally looking at her own waist.
A blood mark slanted across her chest and abdomen, spreading out. Then, the upper and lower halves seemed suddenly unable to align, dislocating bit by bit.
She lost her balance and tilted sideways.
Behind the fallen dealer stood a familiar figure.
Chen Cheng was bathed in blood, breathing rapidly, holding a pitch-black Tang sword in one hand. His eyes held the lingering ferocity after slaughter, the blade not yet fully retracted.
“…Fucking hell, so much bullshit, annoying as fuck.”
Inside a second-floor VIP box, Gentleman sat by the window. With a smile on his face, he watched the fervent, crazed gamblers below and the increasingly bloody racecourse as time passed.
Pinocchio would definitely try to enter the next level—even if he might not know the reason yet—but that guy always had an overly annoying sense of smell and could always find the right path. He had already experienced this in the [Xingwang Hotel] instance.
So, to prevent any variables later, it was best to block the other party on this floor. As the vice president of the Oracle, he had enough resources to divine exactly when the other party would decide to join the gambling game, which was why he appeared here.
The Gentleman’s gaze fell on Racehorse No. 7, who was gradually falling behind on the track below, and the smile on his lips deepened uncontrollably.
Of course, there were many ways to stop the other party.
He adopted this one purely out of personal grudge.
The Gentleman still remembers to this day what kind of compromises the other party could make for his teammates to survive at the end of the Xingwang Hotel.
So, seeing his teammate twisted into an inhuman shape, suffering all tortures, every piece of flesh on his body cut off, dying in such an undignified way, what would Pinocchio think?
Thinking of this, the Gentleman couldn’t help but shudder, his desires satisfied in the cruel imagination.
He unhurriedly picked up the form on the table, examining the content, looking for more methods to use.
This one? No, death would be too quick.
This one… hmm, a bit too painless.
Just as Gentleman was thinking about how to continue interfering with the race, suddenly, there was a knock on his box door.
The Gentleman let the door be knocked, unhurriedly picked up his binoculars, and looked down.
Blond’s seat was empty, but Maggie was still there.
He curled his lips, put down the binoculars, and said, “Come in.”
The box door was pushed open. Standing outside was Blond with bloodshot eyes.
“May I ask what business you have?” The Gentleman smiled, asking knowingly.
“Wh-whatever you are doing, stop it now.”
When saying this, Blond was still trembling all over, unknown if from anger or cowardice.
“Where does this come from?” The Gentleman slowly leaned back, narrowing his eyes, wearing a hypocritical smile on his face. “I am just an ordinary spectator, betting according to the rules, wanting the horse I bet on to win, that’s all.”
Blond stood in place, expressions changing rapidly on his face. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, “What do you want to let Ji Guan go?”
“So his name is Ji Guan,” The Gentleman said nonchalantly. “Pity, I’ve never been good at remembering useless names.”
Blond raged: “You…”
“But you.” The Gentleman looked straight at him and smiled. “I remember you.”
“Yang Fan, talent is visual enhancement. Once drifted between different small guilds many times, later transferred to the Mercenary Guild organization as a precious asset. Starting from the [Fantasy Amusement Park] instance, you officially joined Pinocchio’s team, is that right?”
“…Yes.” Blond moved his mouth, speaking slowly.
“For you, I do have a proposal.” The Gentleman smiled and said.
Blond: “What proposal?”
“You want me not to touch that person… Ji Guan, right?” The Gentleman said unhurriedly. “Fine. Not only can I not touch him, I can even spend resources to protect him.”
Saying this, he produced a piece of paper from somewhere and slowly pushed it over.
“Sign it, and it’s a deal.”
Blond stared at him vigilantly: “What does it say?”
“I want your eyes.” Gentleman didn’t hide it, or rather, didn’t feel the need to hide it: “If you sign it, your eyes will become a non-human object owned by me, that is, an item that can be used repeatedly.”
This was a very good deal. After all, for Blond, who only had visual enhancement, he was merely sacrificing a pair of eyeballs. For some anchors with deeper talent binding, turning into an item might require the whole person.
Blond fell silent.
“Of course, you can think about it carefully.” The Gentleman smiled. He looked down below, implying, “I just hope Zhao Guan can wait as long as you.”
He didn’t care about Ji Guan’s life, nor did he intend to remember his name.
Although torturing him brought considerable pleasure, this pleasure was worthless compared to possessing such a useful talent.
Finally, Blond seemed to have made up his mind: “I’ll sign.”
He walked in slowly, bent down, picked up the pen on the table with trembling fingers, and drew a crooked mark on it. But in the next second, Blond suddenly threw down the pen and lunged fiercely towards Gentleman!
“?!” The Gentleman was startled by him. Caught off guard, he was tightly hugged around the waist by the other party and shoved against the window.
“…Die, die die die die!” Blond went from trembling mutters at first to screaming at the top of his lungs, finally shrieking in a voice almost unrecognizable as his own.
The commotion here wasn’t small; Gentleman clearly felt many gazes landing on him.
He looked down at the person before him, who overestimated his own abilities, trying to win with such a simple method, and couldn’t help but sneer, half mocking and half disgusted:
“Stupid.”
He closed his fingers. Invisible fine threads seemed to hang down from the air, instantly binding the other’s hands and feet, forcibly pulling him off his body.
The Gentleman looked down, scrutinizing the other’s blood-filled eyes, enjoying the terrified look in them, and smiled slowly:
“You really refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit.”
“Since you won’t cooperate, it seems I can only take them myself.”
Saying this, he gripped Blond’s jaw with one hand, while the other approached his eyes. Fingertips touched his eyelids, caressing the moist, trembling eyeballs underneath, and then continued to apply pressure.
“Ahhhhhhh—”
Blond struggled with all his might, letting out miserable screams, streams of bloody tears flowing down from the corners of his eyes.
Bang! The box door was suddenly slammed open.
Maggie was pale as a sheet, trembling violently. Behind her followed an attendant.
“Excuse me, sir.” The attendant said politely. “Violence against other guests is not allowed within the racecourse. Your violent conduct has seriously violated the rules here. I’m afraid we have to ask you to leave.”
“…”
The Gentleman froze, seemingly realizing something. He slowly lowered his head to look at Blond, who was controlled by him, and smiled: “I didn’t expect you to have such scheming. It seems I underestimated you.”
Before becoming an instance, the Lucky Cruise always had very strict rules preventing internal fighting. After becoming an instance, such rules ceased to exist—however, in a very few areas, such rules were retained.
The auction was one of them.
The racecourse was the same.
“Not many people know this. The Gentleman doesn’t know, and even if he did, he wouldn’t care, because the box is sealed. Unless witnessed by an attendant, it doesn’t count as a violation.”
“As far as I know, he has coveted your talent for a long time. If he doesn’t say it after entering, you can mention it proactively.”
“Whatever it takes, force him to act against you. The Gentleman has high self-esteem, is extremely vengeful, and values face very much. You can try to provoke him in this regard.”
“He looks down on you; this is your advantage. If it were your guild leader here, he would never let his guard down. But if it’s you, things are much easier. Let your teammate leave a phantom on the seat, make sure he thinks you are acting alone.”
—”If all goes well, you can force him to be ejected from the racecourse.”
The Gentleman smiled at the trembling Maggie, whose eyes were full of hatred, then looked down at Blond in front of him, and slowly retracted his fingers.
The invisible threads binding his body disappeared. Blond clutched his still bleeding, but at least preserved eyes, and collapsed weakly to the ground, gasping for air.
“Sir, please leave,” the attendant said politely.
“Naturally.” Gentleman adjusted his collar with bloodstained fingers and backhandedly picked up the form on the table. But just as he moved, he was stopped unhesitatingly by the attendant: “Excuse me, this is against regulations.”
The Gentleman backhandedly tossed out a chip.
“Excuse me, sir…”
The second one.
It was red.
“Sir…”
The third one.
Still red.
A greedy look flashed in the attendant’s eyes: “For the sake of being a VIP box guest, you can stay for one more minute.”
“!” Maggie’s pupils shrank. She couldn’t help but scream: “No—”
What?
One minute?!
One minute was enough for Ji Guan to lose his life!!!
The Gentleman’s gaze lingered on her pale, terrified face for a long time, slowly pulling a pleasant smile. He lowered his head and unhurriedly ticked four items on the list.
[Lose Left Arm]
[Lose Right Arm]
[Lose Left Leg]
[Lose Right Leg]
While Chen Mo and the others distracted the dealer, Chen Cheng, who arrived in time, seized the opportunity to slice Dealer [No.9] in half with one stroke.
With the dealer’s fall, the blood lost its vitality and turned back into a lifeless, viscous liquid.
Without even time to catch their breath, the group immediately ran towards the door that had just opened not far away. After passing through a narrow and deep corridor, what appeared before their eyes was a small room. The room was filled with countless screens of varying sizes, each showing a surveillance feed. At the very top was the live broadcast of the racecourse.
Clearly, this was the place where Dealer [No.9] conducted live broadcasts and monitoring.
Wen Jianyan looked at the screen, his heart pounding wildly.
—It seemed the race was four-fifths done.
Racehorse No. 7, where was Racehorse No. 7?
Just as he was searching, Chen Cheng limped in. The Tang sword had disappeared. He was clutching Dealer [No.9]’s messy hair, actually dragging her upper body in forcefully, leaving a long trail of blood behind him.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan’s gaze moved, landing on one of the screens.
He saw Ji Guan.
Although covered in blood, he was still alive!!
However, before Wen Jianyan could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw the other suddenly tilt and fall sideways—he lost his left arm.
Wait.
Wen Jianyan’s pupils constricted, his eyes staring fixedly at the screen, afraid to miss a single detail.
Immediately after was the right arm.
Wait…
Then the left leg.
Wait!
Finally, the right leg.
In just a few seconds, Ji Guan lost all four limbs under his gaze, leaving only a torso. He lay there wretchedly in a pool of his own blood. Without arms to clutch his stomach, surging blood began to gush from deep within his body.
There was no sound. No sound could be heard in the studio.
Buzz. There seemed to be a strong ringing in his ears; all other sounds receded.
Wen Jianyan stared calmly at the image on the screen, suddenly feeling a strong sense of unreality—he felt he must have seen wrong…
The person on the screen should be laughing heartily when happy, speaking bluntly when indignant… not that bloody, fleshy torso that could hardly be called human.
Wen Jianyan could still recall the sweet scent of pastries, seeing the other’s bright, expectant eyes. Everything was so vivid it felt like it happened yesterday.
“…Speak! How do we get him out alive!”
A stern, almost icy voice came from a distance.
Wen Jianyan paused, turning his head to look in the direction of the voice.
Chen Mo gripped Dealer [No.9]’s head, smashing her ruthlessly onto the table, letting the blood flow freely, his voice fierce.
“Cough cough… cough… hehe…”
Dealer [No.9] coughed on her own blood, giggling, “Useless… once the horse race starts, it cannot end… unless a champion is crowned… cough cough… hehehe!”
Racecourse.
His stomach felt empty; maybe something had fallen out. Ji Guan wanted to reach out to cover it, but as soon as he moved, he remembered his arms were gone.
He lay on the track, feeling the blood gushing from his torso.
The pain had disappeared, leaving only endless cold.
Ji Guan recalled the remaining path before he lost his vision, feeling surprisingly calm inside.
Is there enough time?
Should be about right.
He struggled to raise his head and slowly exhaled.
Yeah, about right.
Blond’s eyes were splitting with rage, staring fixedly at Racehorse No. 7 on the racecourse, who had lost signs of life. A layer of blood mist covered his eyeballs. That always happy and carefree face was twisted, veins bulging on his neck, as if a silent scream was issuing from his throat.
Maggie seemed to have lost her strength. She slowly squatted down, hugging her knees, and began to sob quietly.
The Gentleman smiled with satisfaction. He tossed the form aside, turned around, and prepared to leave with the attendant. But before he could take a step, he heard sharp gasps from behind him.
The sounds rose and fell, almost impossible to ignore.
“…”
What’s going on?
The Gentleman froze, instinctively turning his head to look back.
On the field, Racehorse No. 7 had fallen in a pool of blood, seemingly having lost vital signs. But at this moment, his body moved slightly, rolling onto its side. The skin on his neck began to bulge, as if something was struggling deep within the flesh.
The blood on his body disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye…
Or rather, was being sucked?
The blood covering Ji Guan’s upper body disappeared, revealing large patches of tattoos. The tattoos were originally faint, only looming, but after sucking blood, they now became exceptionally clear and sharp. Even from a distance, one could clearly see it was actually a green-faced, fanged ghost face!!
The area of the tattoo expanded larger and larger, eventually covering Ji Guan’s entire body.
Blue-black legs, blue-black feet, blue-black arms grew out from the depths of the severed torso. Dark eyes rolled, their chilling, malicious gaze sending shivers down the spines of all onlookers. In just a few seconds, Ji Guan on stage had disappeared, replaced by a yin-cold, incredibly terrifying malicious ghost!
It leaped forward, charging ahead with terrifying momentum. The other living “horses” scattered in panic, afraid of being torn apart.
Only then did the audience below suddenly wake up as if from a dream: “We’re done for, Number Seven is going to overtake!! Quick, hurry, set up roadblocks for him!!!”
Useless.
All roadblocks were like waste paper to it, vanishing with a gentle poke.
One after another, all the horses in front were overtaken and left far behind. In that monster’s mind, only one thought seemed to remain.
Champion.
Champion.
Champion.
Last five meters, three meters… one meter.
Just like that, Number Seven crossed the finish line with crushing force. The announcement that should have sounded didn’t appear. The entire venue was dead silent. No one could have imagined there would be such a tenacious and terrifying desire to win, that someone could cross the finish line in such a form.
“No, no way, impossible, Number Seven didn’t win.”
Someone muttered in a low voice.
Time was up.
The pitch-black limbs began to fade, the tattoos slowly retracted into the flesh, and the bloody human appeared again.
“Haha… hahaha!”
Ji Guan lay on the ground, laughing in his own blood, laughing until he was out of breath.
He tilted his head back, “looking” upwards with eyes like bloody holes, raised his semi-transparent right arm that hadn’t yet disappeared, and fiercely flipped the bird towards the sky.
—The only way to win is to tamper with the horse.
Why do you think I dared to volunteer, proactively acting as the core part of this plan?
Relying on sheer bravery?
Bullshit!
A “horse” to be slaughtered? No, I am a wolf mixed into the herd.
He bared his bloody teeth and laughed loudly, ignoring his loss of all four limbs and impending death, putting on an arrogant posture.
Look, I won.
Not just won.
…I’m still alive.
I am still fucking alive!
VIP Box, Second Floor.
The Gentleman stared blankly at this scene, hardly daring to believe his eyes.
“…His name is Ji Guan.”
In the quiet box, Blond’s voice suddenly rang out.
The Gentleman subconsciously looked down.
The other sat on the floor, covering his bloody eyes with one hand, his breath weak:
“Did you remember it?”
__
Author’s Note:
The foreshadowing for the tattoo was in Chapter 521.
