Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 586: The despair of someone who has nothing
Wen Jianyan’s expression remained unchanged: “I’m sorry, but still no. I prefer to build my own factory rather than inherit someone else’s.”
On the screen, Lucy’s face seemed to flash with disappointment.
She pouted and muttered “boring,” and the next second, the screen was turned off directly.
As the screen closed, the stuffed bear also lost its ability to move, standing motionless in place with its neck tilted, looking like a lifeless sculpture.
With the crisis resolved, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed slightly.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, revealing a thoughtful expression.
He now understood why most teams had lost their qualifications and their names had turned grey, yet they still hadn’t disappeared from the leaderboard—because the factories under their names still had significance.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked a question completely unrelated to the Monopoly game: “During your time playing the game, has Lucy appeared in person?—I mean truly appeared, not just through a screen.”
Lion Heart King was stunned, clearly not expecting Wen Jianyan to ask such a question, but he still answered honestly:
“No.”
Whether announcing rules or hosting auctions, everything was done through live broadcast cameras, and she herself had never truly appeared before them.
“Hmm.” Wen Jianyan nodded, showing a thoughtful expression, wondering what he was thinking.
Wen Jianyan’s silence lasted somewhat too long, making Lion Heart King feel uneasy.
Unable to restrain himself, he took the initiative to break the silence:
“Uh, anyway, those are roughly the rules. Is there anything else you’d like to know?”
“Not for now.”
Wen Jianyan turned to look at Lion Heart King and suddenly showed a very deceptive bright smile.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…? Why did I just shudder?]
[Holy crap, I’ve seen that expression full of schemes before. I’ll bet 500 points that this kid is definitely plotting something bad!]
Lion Heart King obviously hadn’t evolved the same perception as the audience. Seeing Wen Jianyan look at him, he looked back, showing a confused expression:
“What’s wrong?”
Wen Jianyan: “Didn’t you just ask me what I’m planning to do next?”
“Yes.”
For some reason, Lion Heart King’s heart skipped a beat, inexplicably having an ominous premonition.
“You said you haven’t decided yet…”
“I’ve decided now.” Wen Jianyan smiled and beckoned with his finger, “Come here and I’ll tell you.”
Lion Heart King looked at him warily but couldn’t suppress his curiosity. He slowly moved over, then was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder by Wen Jianyan.
He stumbled from the pressure, and just as he steadied himself, he heard the other party say in a buddy-buddy tone:
“I’m planning to sell factories.”
Sell factories?
Lion Heart King instinctively raised his head, glanced at the number 0 following the “All-Seeing Eye” name on the screen, and said: “But don’t you not have any—”
Halfway through his words, he seemed to realize something. His pupils suddenly contracted, and he turned to look at Wen Jianyan with an incredulous expression: “Wait, the one you want to sell is…”
“Yes, yes.” Wen Jianyan smiled and nodded, “Yours.”
Lion Heart King: “…”
Everyone: “…”
Huh? No way?
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[How should I put it, not surprising.]
[So remember, friends, making deals with Wen Jianyan is like seeking skin from a tiger!!]
Lion Heart King suddenly came to his senses. He stepped back two steps, looking at Wen Jianyan with disbelief: “Wait, did you not hear me explain the Monopoly rules just now? Or do you think what I said was false—”
“No, no, no,” Wen Jianyan shook his head, “What you said was true, and I believe you.”
“You don’t want to sell because after the factories decrease, your dice rolling cooldown will also decrease, and you already have too many dolls on you. Once the cooldown ends, you’ll be at risk of being attacked, right?” Wen Jianyan said matter-of-factly.
The other’s expression was so casual that Lion Heart King didn’t know what attitude to take in response for a moment.
He looked at Wen Jianyan as if seeing a ghost, as if saying:
You know this very clearly, don’t you?
“So, if you don’t sell any factories, what happens next?”
Wen Jianyan stepped forward, his voice still light and airy.
“If the next square is someone else’s factory, will you buy the dolls inside?”
Lion Heart King answered without thinking: “Of course.”
After being attacked by a factory, you could only leave the square by rolling two ten-sided dice with the same number, which was too difficult and posed too great a threat.
“What if the next one is too?” Wen Jianyan asked with a smile. “After all, according to the current total on the leaderboard, owned squares far outnumber unowned ones, don’t they?”
Lion Heart King bit his teeth and didn’t answer, but everyone knew what choice he would make.
“Like this, you’ll carry more and more dolls, have less and less money…” Wen Jianyan once again placed his hand on Lion Heart King’s tense shoulder, his expression kind. “If at this time other toy merchants want to steal your factory, like ‘Tarot Master’ or ‘Butcher’ types, could you win?”
Lion Heart King’s shoulders were as stiff as stone.
“You’re already in chronic death. Although you’re still breathing now, you’re actually already dead. All the factories you have now are false, those cooldown times are just delaying the final moment. As long as this game exists, as long as you’re still bound to this game board, your fate is sealed. Next, you’ll only be exploited to the bone by players with absolute force and absolute assets, divided up completely, and finally die miserably…”
Wen Jianyan tilted his head.
“Are you willing to accept that?”
Lion Heart King: “…”
His shoulders remained stiff, but obviously for completely different reasons than before.
“Don’t worry, I won’t take your assets for myself. What I’m going to do is much more interesting than such small-scale stuff.” The other winked mischievously.
The warmth of the other’s palm came through his shoulder.
“…”
Lion Heart King turned his head slightly, looking toward the other party.
The young man’s smiling eyes were close at hand, and under the overly strong light, they had a kind of dizzying persuasiveness.
“I will only end this farce.”
Just like that, as if possessed, Lion Heart King nodded for the second time.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[Am I the only one who noticed that Lion Heart King once again didn’t ask what Wen Jianyan actually wanted to do with his factory, and was just confusedly led into his rhythm?]
[…Yeah.]
[How should I put it? Bro, you should open a talk therapy office. I think it could make big money.]
[But I must say, the host didn’t say a single false word just now. Monopoly has already passed the early stage of capital accumulation and entered the bloody stage of annexation and monopoly. Now the other side has no chance of survival except cooperating with the host. Otherwise, it’s all dead ends. Anyway, the situation is right here—if you don’t cooperate, you’re finished. Rather than having the factory taken by other teams, it’s better to give it to Wen Jianyan to cause trouble. This shows that Lion Heart King still has some ability to play this far, and isn’t blinded by temporary safety.]
Wen Jianyan showed a smile. He patted the other’s relaxed shoulder and said:
“That’s right.”
Just then, Wen Ya asked the question in everyone’s mind:
“Since you don’t plan to take his factory, who are you planning to sell the factory to?”
This time, Wen Jianyan answered very decisively: “The Butcher.”
“Could it be…” Lion Heart King was startled, looked up at the leaderboard on the screen above, and suddenly understood the stakes. “You want them to challenge the Tarot Master?”
“Yes.” Wen Jianyan smiled slightly, “And also no.”
This rather mysterious statement inevitably made people confused, but Wen Jianyan seemed not to see the confused expressions of others. He just smiled at Lion Heart King:
“Alright, get ready, let’s begin.”
Shortly after the first auction ended, the second auction immediately began.
When all teams saw this news, they all showed the same surprised expression—after all, those who had stayed on this floor long enough knew that in this game, the number of factories you owned determined how long you could survive. The game had progressed to this point, yet someone was actually auctioning off their own factories?
And the person auctioning wasn’t even the newcomer greenhorn, but an old player. This was somewhat too bizarre.
No matter how many questions people had, the auction still began as scheduled.
Naturally, the “town” on the negative fifth floor was only surprising at first sight, but once you went deeper, you’d quickly discover that it was far inferior to a real town in terms of area and layout. The so-called auction venue was just a crude clearing, and those factories built at great expense were just low, inaccessible little houses—in a sense, this place was just a larger, more three-dimensional game board.
Because of this, within just a few minutes, everyone had arrived at the central square.
This time, the “Tarot Master” still didn’t appear.
The auction hosted by Lucy had a childish casualness and simplicity. In just a few minutes, the results of this auction were settled, and due to the Tarot Master’s absence, the winner was undoubtedly “Butcher” again.
Watching this scene unfold, all the other toy merchants who failed in the bidding had gloomy expressions.
In this game, the total resources were limited. The strength of one party meant that the living space of others would be continuously compressed.
But…
Due to financial constraints, no matter how unwilling they were, they could only watch as the Butcher triumphantly took this precious vacant land.
Watching the other’s self-satisfied departing figure, Lion Heart King stood in place, seeming to hesitate about something.
Seeing the other about to leave the square, he still gritted his teeth and, with determination, chased after him.
“What?”
Before Lion Heart King could get close, he saw the other acutely stop and turn to look over.
The man was tall and large, with wild eyes. He looked Lion Heart King up and down, then spoke unhurriedly: “What? Is there something?”
Lion Heart King bit the bullet and said, “I’m planning to quit, planning to sell all my toy factories. Are you interested?”
“Quit?” As if hearing a funny joke, the Butcher grinned, showing sharp teeth. “Are you joking? Or do you really want to be eaten by the bought dolls that much?”
Once bought, these dolls would follow the buyer like a shadow, for a long time, in large numbers, with no possibility of being destroyed. The holder of the dolls only needed to lose focus for an instant to be doomed forever.
Although speaking sarcastic words, the Butcher’s eyes looking at Lion Heart King still carried some scrutiny—after all, he didn’t know if the other had really found a way to deal with those dolls.
Under the pressure of the other’s gaze, Lion Heart King’s heart was also pounding, but in the square, combat was prohibited. No matter what, as long as the transaction happened here, his personal safety was guaranteed.
Besides, having come this far, he had no way back.
Lion Heart King went all in. He didn’t flinch or avoid, looking back at the Butcher, repeating what Wen Jianyan had taught him to say, his tone stiff:
“Will you buy or not?”
“If not, don’t waste each other’s time. After all, there are so many toy merchants, I can always find someone who wants to buy.”
With that, Lion Heart King made a gesture to leave.
After taking just two steps, sure enough, the Butcher’s voice came from behind: “—Wait.”
After the auction ended, Wen Jianyan’s group stood outside the square waiting.
Not long after Blond returned to the team, Lion Heart King also came back.
His steps were quick, as if someone was chasing him from behind. He soon walked in front of Wen Jianyan.
“How did it go?” Wen Jianyan asked.
Lion Heart King took a deep breath and nodded: “It’s done.”
Selling all the factories in his hands to the Butcher wasn’t difficult to do—after all, in such a game, who would refuse benefits delivered to their door?
Sure enough, after a brief few seconds of delay, the leaderboard on the screen updated.
The number of factories under the Butcher changed from 28 to 34, while the number of factories in Lion Heart King’s hands changed from the initial 7 to 0, tying for last place with Wen Jianyan.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…Well, how should I put it, good brothers sitting together in last place.]
Lion Heart King took a deep breath and turned to look at Wen Jianyan: “What now?”
Although they had rolled the dice before the auction to reset the cooldown time once, even so, their team only had one hour of safe time left.
Watching time pass minute by minute, it would be false to say they weren’t nervous.
“Wait.” Wen Jianyan’s answer was concise.
Wait? Wait for what?
Everyone was stunned.
“If you were the second-ranked team, what would you do in this situation?” Wen Jianyan asked back.
“Challenge first place…” Wen Ya was startled, then suddenly negated her own guess. “No, that’s not right.”
She seemed to realize something, raised her head to look directly at Wen Jianyan, and slowly said: “I would annex other weaker teams, strengthen myself, and when my power grows to a certain extent, then go head-to-head with first place.”
Wen Jianyan smiled slightly: “Exactly right.”
“If I’m not mistaken, the Oracle team is now one hundred percent in a temporarily trapped state.”
Whether it was not taking action as soon as Wen Jianyan entered this floor, or missing two consecutive auctions, it all confirmed Wen Jianyan’s guess—Oracle was now too busy to attend to other matters.
“So, if the Butcher wants to take advantage and overtake them, they must use this time to rapidly expand and create an advantage.”
So, the Butcher was very anxious now.
That’s why they would pay any price, offering the highest bid at two consecutive auctions.
“Next, the Butcher will definitely target the weakest team, and soon,” Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and said, “because they know that if they drag it out too long and let Oracle recover, the next one to be unlucky will be them.”
“…” Lion Heart King was startled.
In that case… if he hadn’t just sold his factory to the Butcher, he would obviously be the next target.
While they were talking, the numbers on the leaderboard changed again.
The number of factories under the Butcher increased by one, while the number of factories under Corpse Rose decreased by one.
“Looks like this one is being targeted.”
Wen Jianyan smiled.
He turned to look at Kong Wei and Blond beside him and asked: “Ready?”
Both nodded.
Kong Wei reached out to grab Blond’s shoulder, bent his body halfway, then suddenly exerted force. His entire body leaped up with very agile posture. Blond’s weight seemed inconsequential to him. He climbed lightly and quickly onto the roof of a nearby house, placing the other person in a high position.
“…”
Blond slowly exhaled, closing his eyes.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes. His left eyeball, which had gradually returned to normal color, was once again bloodshot. Between the gradually reddening whites, the pupil remained pitch black and crystal clear, seeming able to directly penetrate the space before his eyes with vision alone.
The remaining people below held their breath watching him, quietly waiting.
Blond suddenly bent down sharply, pressed one hand on his burning eyelid, pointed in one direction with the other hand, and said hoarsely: “There, over there—”
Kong Wei picked up Blond by the waist and jumped down from the eaves.
After getting the specific location, Wen Jianyan gave the order:
“Let’s go.”
On the other side.
Watching the number of factories under her name decrease, the woman with the rose-colored birthmark on her face bit her teeth tightly, her expression gloomy.
She suddenly turned her head, looking at a teammate nearby: “Where’s the item card? Hurry!”
“Captain… Captain… we don’t have any more item cards…” someone said timidly.
“What did you say?!”
The woman with the rose-colored birthmark suddenly turned her head, staring at the speaker with cold eyes. The other was frightened by her gaze and trembled, instinctively taking a step back.
The atmosphere was unprecedentedly tense, and the remaining team members were silent.
Corpse Rose stood in place, her expression changing.
She knew that getting angry at her teammates wasn’t very useful, but this feeling of being tied up and waiting for death was really too disgusting. After Lion Heart King’s factory count was cleared to zero, she became the next target of the Butcher. Her already small number of factories rapidly shrank at a visible speed, and they were frozen in place by the Butcher’s item card effect, unable to advance or build new factories, only able to watch helplessly as factories that originally belonged to them were taken away one by one.
In the blink of an eye, the number dropped by another one.
The Butcher’s advancement speed was too fast.
The conditions for seizing factories could be said to be very harsh. You could only forcibly change factory ownership by killing the original factory director without entering the factory. In an SS-level instance, the difficulty of facing such an existence head-on was terrifying, but the gap in strength between the two sides wasn’t impossible to overcome.
The Butcher could do this for only one reason—they were using item cards drawn on this floor in large quantities, without restraint and at any cost.
And they were powerless to do anything about it.
Soon, another factory disappeared.
This progress was almost suffocating, like personally watching the noose around one’s neck slowly tighten while being completely unable to do anything or change the current situation.
Another one.
One after another, the number of factories gradually decreased.
They couldn’t wait any longer.
The woman bit her teeth hard. The face covered by the rose-colored birthmark twisted slightly in desperation and pain, like a trapped beast in a cage, seemingly ready to fight to the death with the culprit who put her in this situation.
And just then, the sound of footsteps broke the silence.
“Who?!” Corpse Rose suddenly turned her head, her terrible gaze shooting straight into the distance.
“Hello.”
The young man in the shadows didn’t stop walking, striding directly into the light, his expression calm, his posture leisurely, seeming to have no awareness of walking alone into an unknown opponent’s encirclement.
“Who are you?” The woman with the birthmark stared at him tightly, deeply tense, full of vigilance.
The other smiled, saying casually:
“Pinocchio, nice to meet you.”
What…?
In an instant, everyone’s expressions changed, instinctively looking at each other, seeing the same astonishment and surprise in each other’s eyes—this codename was as heavy as a mountain, thunderous, they all knew it.
The same question surged in everyone’s hearts.
What is he doing here??
More importantly… what does he want with them?
Not far behind, Lion Heart King watched everything happening in the distance, his expression strange and complex.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
“Haha, it’s like seeing the next version of yourself, right?”
“Feeling empathy for the victims, this is great!”
However, Lion Heart King’s psychological activity was far more complex than the audience guessed.
Because they were at a distance, he couldn’t hear the conversation ahead very clearly, but because he had been following Wen Jianyan closely, he knew very well that they had been here for some time.
But Wen Jianyan hadn’t taken action.
He just quietly stayed in the distance where the other party couldn’t detect, using his teammate’s talent to monitor people in the distance, watching with surgical precision and coldness until the opportunity arrived—that is, the moment when the other truly lost hope.
Only at this time did he finally walk out of the darkness, with a savior-like smile, extending a helping hand to those in the abyss.
What made him feel even more chilled was the conversation between the other party and his teammates before taking action.
“Aren’t we just fattening up our opponents by doing this?” One of them asked in confusion. “I still don’t understand what use this has for breaking the deadlock?”
“How could it not?” He smiled and answered. “‘Monopoly’ was never just a game from the beginning, and what we’re facing now is not just a board game made of dice and cards.”
“Our opponents are real, and our emotions are also real.”
“Do you know… what people who possess large amounts of assets and attempt to control everything through monopoly fear most?”
The young man lazily leaned against the wall, half his face illuminated by light, half hidden in darkness. His eyes were so calm, and his voice even carried a hint of laughter:
“The desperation of those who have nothing.”
At the same time.
On the Oracle side.
They had obviously just experienced a difficult, hard battle, only finding a brief respite in the interval before the next attack. The air floated with a heavy smell of blood, and the ground was strewn with countless strange, broken limbs that didn’t seem to belong to humans.
“Damn it, the gap between ‘Butcher’ and us is down to only the last three factories.”
One person stared at the leaderboard above, saying through gritted teeth.
The Butcher’s side obviously realized they were temporarily unable to attend to other matters and began crazy expansion—worse yet, there was probing.
Just three minutes ago, they lost one factory.
And the Butcher’s side increased.
Obviously, the other was testing their current control.
This was simply a case of when it rains, it pours. Now they hadn’t finished dealing with the crisis yet, and behind them, the Butcher was ambitious, eyeing them covetously, even starting to reach into their territory, openly and covertly provoking them.
It was really like, when there’s no tiger in the mountain, the monkey becomes king.
“What’s going on?” Carrie frowned deeply, the blood on her face not yet dried, making her expression look even uglier. “The Butcher wasn’t this strong before. What exactly happened—”
The Gentleman spoke with a cold expression: “—Pinocchio.”
That was the only possibility.
Admittedly, the Butcher’s strength wasn’t too bad, but for Oracle, it was still far from enough, and they had almost not taken them seriously. However, this team suddenly seemed enlightened, seizing toy factories large and small one after another with unstoppable momentum, and the number of factories they occupied advanced by leaps and bounds—but if Pinocchio was pushing the waves behind this, then everything made sense.
Although he didn’t know what the other had done, based on the current situation, there was definitely his handiwork in this.
The Gentleman regretted it somewhat.
If he had known this would happen, he shouldn’t have allowed the other to act freely before. Even without any factories under him, that guy alone was enough to cause bloody chaos. He was simply an invincible troublemaker. As long as the other stayed on this floor, they probably wouldn’t have peace going forward.
The Gentleman turned to look at Su Cheng and sighed: “You were right. I didn’t adopt your opinion before, that was my mistake.”
Su Cheng raised his head and glanced at the Gentleman, not speaking.
The Gentleman asked with a very sincere attitude: “In that case, I’ll leave this matter entirely to you to handle—so what do you think we should do next?”
Su Cheng opened his palm, and tarot cards appeared in his palm again, the card faces quietly floating above his palm.
“He has no factories; safe time is only half an hour.”
The Tarot Master lowered his eyes again, saying calmly.
“Send them to prison.”
He drew out a chaotic card, quietly examining it in his hand.
“Then control the ‘All-Seeing Eye’s’ dice roll numbers, indefinitely extending the imprisonment time.”
Without the All-Seeing Eye, Wen Jianyan and his team couldn’t continue to advance, and after the safe time ran out, they would be attacked by toys—and the items in their hands were enough to make the other fall into a death loop of infinite attacks.
A very perfect idea.
And very vicious.
Author’s Note:
Let me explain why this update took so long this time…
My original plan was to write out the Monopoly game in detail, seriously playing through it bit by bit from the beginning. The rules and pitfalls were prepared to be stepped on one by one by the protagonist, gradually uncovering the secrets within, presented in several layers. Those familiar with my previous instance style also know that I really like and am good at writing this type of content. So this time I stayed up several all-nighters to complete the detailed outline, specific rules, and reversal points. The whole process was very happy, but during the writing process I realized the problem:
The “Monopoly” game rules I designed were too large and complex, causing it to become completely independent, and its essential connection to the instance itself wasn’t strong.
Not to mention introducing a large number of new characters, eighty percent of which weren’t that important. Forget the whole book, it couldn’t even touch the core of this instance, and this part of the plot would occupy possibly 100,000 to 200,000 words.
After all, “Monopoly” is just one floor of the cruise ship, there’s still more plot afterward. The proportion shouldn’t be that large. An overly complex subplot would instead dilute what really needs to be crafted.
Although painful, it’s probably a trade-off I must make.
So, after two days and nights of struggle, I painfully deleted nearly 10,000 words of content (including thousands of words from the previous chapter), shelved the previous detailed outline, and started rewriting.
In the new version, I had the protagonist quickly obtain early intelligence, deleted some rules, cut related plot developments, adjusted the order of multiple plot points, and changed parts of the plot. The focus of this part of the plot was originally “exploring the rules,” but after adjustment, “player competition” became the new focus. This way, this instance will read much more compact, entering the subsequent plot, and the overall feel of the instance will be better (at least I hope so).
So this time it took a long time, and I apologize to everyone.
If I write this type of novel in the future, perhaps I can let this content see the light of day again. At that time I’ll write it as a complete instance, rather than as one floor of an instance.
A very insightful author’s note. I’m enjoying the change. Thank you for translating!