Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 587: The right direction
After confirming that Oracle no longer posed any obstacle to them, the Butcher no longer concealed their ambition.
On the leaderboard, the number of toy factories they owned increased at a visible speed. As the Butcher’s actions became increasingly unrestrained, the factory numbers of other teams rapidly declined, their living space further compressed—and Oracle’s guess was spot on: Wen Jianyan’s behind-the-scenes manipulation was indispensable in all this.
Under the pressure brought by the Butcher’s crazy expansion and malicious annexation, the influence of the three words “Pinocchio” was further amplified.
From anyone’s perspective, all plans were progressing exceptionally smoothly.
At the edge of the town, Wen Jianyan smiled as he collected yet another contract from a desperate person.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[This is really weird. It’s clearly his own codename, but how is the host managing to use it like ‘the fox exploiting the tiger’s might’??]
[Thanks, I finally figured out what was so strange!]
Before they arrived, there weren’t many teams left in the gap between Oracle and the Butcher’s competition, and under Wen Jianyan’s deliberate escalation and covert manipulation, except for one last team they hadn’t contacted yet, all other teams had been lured under Wen Jianyan’s control.
Behind him, Chen Mo glanced at the leaderboard.
The Butcher’s factory count was just three short of tying with Oracle. The remaining teams only had a few scattered factories left, but since they hadn’t gone bankrupt yet, their names on the leaderboard hadn’t turned grey.
But according to the rules of this floor, due to the terrifying threat of toy revival, everyone had to roll the dice and move forward before the cooldown ended, continuously paying to factories owned by others.
In other words, for the current top two winners, the other teams could no longer pose much of a threat. Their elimination was just a matter of time.
Everything was progressing so smoothly, yet for some reason, Chen Mo had an ominous premonition in his heart.
His gaze involuntarily fell on the second-ranked “Tarot Master.”
Would Oracle really just sit by and watch all this happen?
“President, how much longer do we have to wait?” Ma Qi couldn’t help but ask.
Wen Jianyan: “It’s not time yet…”
Before Ma Qi could continue asking, from the end of the distant road, the sound of powerful, marching footsteps suddenly came.
Everyone was startled and instinctively looked toward the direction of the sound.
A team of tin soldiers was marching in goose-step, strutting arrogantly from the distance. They wore bright red uniforms, the silver tips of their guns gleaming. Though they were toy figures beloved by children, when enlarged to adult size, those supposedly cute faces appeared particularly eerie.
At the sight of those tin soldiers, Ma Qi, being a medium, turned pale.
She was the person with the strongest and most acute spiritual sense. Her reaction was so intense that even without saying anything, the subtext was very clear—these things were not to be trifled with.
The lead tin soldier’s eyeballs rolled, its gaze falling on the people before it.
“Just now, an unnamed toy merchant used their legitimate rights as a merchant to report you for disrupting market rules,” the tin soldier said in a flat, narrative voice. “As guards, we will arrest you and put you in prison.”
Hearing this, everyone was shocked.
They knew very well who would do such a thing.
Sure enough… Oracle had no intention of sitting idly by.
The tin soldier extended its hand, gripping Blond’s shoulder, its tone unchanged:
“Please come with me.”
Everyone looked at Wen Jianyan, standing not far away. He was leaning against the wall, looking up at the tin soldiers in the distance, his expression calm, seemingly with no intention of speaking.
Blond’s face turned ashen. He turned his head, seeming to habitually want to seek help from his teammates, but just as his head turned halfway, he forcibly turned it back.
He nodded, his voice trembling slightly:
“O-okay.”
He took a deep breath, stepped forward, and followed the tin soldiers.
Accompanied by the tapping sounds, a team of tin soldiers escorted Blond away into the distance, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Watching the other’s retreating figure, Chang Feiyu frowned: “Should we follow?”
“We can’t follow,” Lion Heart King said. “We tried before, but basically after following for three to five steps, we’d lose them. No items could help.”
In prison, you couldn’t roll dice for half an hour. After half an hour, you could roll once per minute. As long as you rolled a total of 15 points or more, you could leave prison.
But the problem was…
This was done by Oracle.
As if thinking of something, Wen Ya frowned and suddenly spoke:
“Since there are cards that force imprisonment, are there also cards that manipulate the dice roll numbers of those imprisoned?”
Lion Heart King was startled: “There are, but if a character is imprisoned, to affect their dice rolls would require cards that are very…”
Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted: “So, there are?”
Lion Heart King choked: “…Uh, yes.”
Hearing this, everyone’s hearts sank.
It seemed Blond wouldn’t be able to return in the short term.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
“Blond is the toy merchant bound to the dice. He’s been arrested, so there’s no one to roll the dice. If the safe time passes and they still don’t leave the square, those dolls will come back to life…”
“Damn, Oracle is such a bunch of bastards.”
“Although the prophet’s talent isn’t so overpowered that they can predict the next move anytime, anywhere… the oppressive feeling brought by an entire team composed of multiple prophets is still terrifying. They can see too many things, obtain too many resources. Once they consider you a thorn in their side, you’d better be prepared for your death probability to skyrocket.”
“Right. What’s even more terrifying is that this instance is SS-level…”
Blond was taken away by the tin soldiers, leaving only Wen Jianyan and others in front of the ownerless factory. The smiling dolls remained motionless outside the square, their bodies tilted and lying on the ground, watching the people inside the square with hair-raising gazes.
They had no factories in their hands, which meant there were less than ten minutes until the toys revived.
“Alright.” Wen Jianyan’s voice came from behind.
Everyone was startled and turned to look. They saw him straighten up and walk directly into the light.
Wen Jianyan winked at Ma Qi, who was still in a daze: “Now it’s time.”
…Wait.
Everyone was stunned, seemingly only now reacting.
“You guessed all along that Oracle would do this?” Wen Ya asked.
“More or less.” Wen Jianyan shrugged.
Oracle was obviously being held back by some crisis of unknown origin, but even so, they couldn’t ignore the dramatic changes on the leaderboard, and they would certainly think that Wen Jianyan was causing trouble behind the scenes—but they were too busy to handle everything, so the best method was to use the rules of this floor to restrict their actions.
And “prison” was obviously the perfect choice for such a time.
“You deliberately let Blond go to prison?” Thinking of Blond’s reaction just now, Wen Ya was first startled, then quickly realized, “…So, you suspect the dealer’s true body is in the prison?”
Wen Jianyan: “Somewhat.”
Based on his experience on the previous floor, the dealer hiding behind the screen was often concealed in the hidden area of this floor. According to the information Wen Jianyan had learned… Lion Heart King’s description of the prison fit the characteristics very well.
“Alright, now that Blond has gone deep into enemy territory, we should also take action.” Wen Jianyan said.
After saying this, Wen Jianyan turned and walked toward the other toy merchants not far away, asking straightforwardly:
“How much cooldown time do you have left?”
Although they didn’t know the purpose of Wen Jianyan’s question, the others still answered him.
Lion Heart King: “Twenty-eight minutes.”
His factory was sold, so although he no longer had fixed assets, he had quite a bit of cash. He had already rolled the dice and moved forward once before the cooldown ended, so he had the most time remaining.
Corpse Rose: “Twelve minutes.”
Ice Plains, who had just signed a contract with Wen Jianyan, gritted his teeth and struggled to spit out three words: “…Nine minutes.”
Not far behind him, several carelessly piled dolls were watching like tigers eyeing prey, emitting extremely ominous signals.
“Good.” Wen Jianyan nodded and said, “When only five minutes are left, you can roll the dice.”
Corpse Rose: “But…”
The young man smiled slightly, “Don’t worry, whatever’s missing, I’ll make up the difference.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Damn.]
[Good heavens… that self-auction before really fattened you up.]
[Big spender, this is what you call a big spender!!]
[But why is my heart bleeding? Although the host is rich, this is too expensive… I hope he’s not planning to keep doing this; otherwise, no one could afford this expense!]
“What about you?” Lion Heart King suddenly realized something and looked at Wen Jianyan.
Since rolling the dice once before, Wen Jianyan hadn’t moved forward once.
Wen Jianyan lowered his head and glanced at the time: “Eight minutes.”
Hearing this, several people gasped. They hadn’t expected that among everyone, Wen Jianyan had the least time remaining. Worse yet, their team’s “toy merchant” had been taken to prison at this critical moment, which meant—
“Don’t worry.” Looking at the surprised faces, Wen Jianyan smiled. “There are other ways.”
There are ways?
What ways could there be?!
Everyone looked at each other, their expressions bewildered.
“Let’s go.”
Wen Jianyan beckoned to everyone, then turned around and walked quickly outside the square.
Although they didn’t know what he intended to do, everyone still quickly followed. As Wen Jianyan walked, he said:
“The terror level of those dolls isn’t actually that high, but the key is that they can’t be eliminated, right?”
Lion Heart King was startled: “Right…”
“But I think they’re not impossible to eliminate…” Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes and smiled thoughtfully, “rather, you’ve been looking in the wrong direction.”
The wrong direction?
Hearing this, several “toy merchants” frowned tightly.
They had entered this floor much earlier than Wen Jianyan. It could be said that they had tried every method to kill the dolls, even using very precious items. But whether burning them to ashes or grinding them to powder, they would all come back to life in the end, until they were forced with no choice but to roll the dice the next time. They had exhausted all means—how could they have looked in the wrong direction?
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan, walking in front, stopped without warning.
Looking at the very familiar building not far away, Chen Mo and others were first startled, then seemed to realize something, slowly widening their eyes.
“True, toys cannot be eliminated. But… toys are also produced from toy factories, aren’t they?”
For other hosts, the rules of this floor were gradually revealed. Not only did information come at intervals, but they were also pushed forward by one crisis after another, naturally making it easy to be confused as an insider. But Wen Jianyan had obtained the full picture from Lion Heart King from the beginning, so he could immediately capture the hints hidden behind the rules.
“And toy factories can change ownership.”
Wen Jianyan turned around, smiling and winking.
More critically, other hosts had bought dolls from too many factories after entering this floor, but Wen Jianyan was different.
He had only bought once.
Under the tin soldiers’ escort, Blond advanced toward the depths of the town. The further forward he walked, the quieter it became, until only the tin soldiers’ monotonous tapping sounds remained in his ears.
His face pale, he instinctively turned his head to look behind.
They had clearly only walked a few steps, but behind him it was already shrouded in fog. Wen Jianyan and his group, who had been staying on the square, could no longer be seen. However, in his slightly reddened vision, he seemed to always vaguely catch glimpses of some shadows wandering in the mist, appearing and disappearing. But now Blond could no longer deceive himself and treat them as some kind of hallucination. He shuddered and quickly withdrew his gaze.
After walking for about five minutes, a two-story gray-black building appeared before him. A crooked sign hung on the door with two large characters—”Prison.”
“Click.”
The tin soldiers stopped, stamped their feet, and stood at attention. Blond was startled by their movement.
The prison door creaked open, slowly opening before Blond. A cold wind blew from within, raising goosebumps on his body.
“Please enter.” The tin soldier said in a voice without inflection.
Under the tin soldiers’ escort, Blond took a deep breath, braced himself, and shuffled step by step into the pitch-black door.
Before all this happened, Wen Jianyan had found him in advance and informed him of the plan in detail, very meticulously.
After passing through a deep, narrow corridor with almost no light, Blond was locked in a single-person prison cell, and the tin soldier who had escorted him in turned around and stood with its back to the prison door.
The iron door closed tightly. No light, no sound. The environment was almost suffocating.
Unlike real-world prisons, on the wall here hung a small screen.
Blond raised his hand and touched the prison wall. The wall beneath his palm was hard and damp, very rough, with crooked crevices in between.
After the iron door closed, with a “bzz” sound, the screen lit up, and Lucy’s face appeared on it.
“Mmm, anyway, for various reasons, you’ve been arrested and imprisoned now,” Lucy explained very perfunctorily on the screen. “You can roll the dice after half an hour. During this time, just stay put obediently. If you try to escape, the guards will kill you.”
But Blond didn’t focus his attention on what Lucy was saying. On the contrary, his gaze passed over Lucy’s body and fell on the wall behind her—the damp, blackened color, the rough irregular protrusions, the crooked crevices.
Her voice was like wind past his ears, not a single word entering his ears. Blond only felt a tremor run down his spine, the hairs on his arms standing on end.
That’s right.
There was absolutely no mistake.
Lucy was in the prison.
He had come to the right place.
