Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 594: Congratulations, you have completed the mission
The corridor was terrifyingly quiet. A figure slowly emerged from its hiding place, looking around nervously like a frightened bird.
As far as the eye could see, there was no second person.
After confirming there was no danger nearby, Blond stumbled forward and snatched up the phone that had fallen on the ground not far away.
Suppressing the trembling of his fingers, he swiped several times before turning on the screen. The phone screen lit up as expected—after all, it was a creation of the Nightmare, always trustworthy in quality.
As soon as the phone turned on, he saw the messages from Wen Jianyan.
Two messages in total. The first one was sent about ten minutes ago, where Wen Jianyan informed him that he had entered the prison and asked for his current location—when this message arrived, Blond was running for his life and didn’t see it.
And the second one was sent a minute ago.
The content was very brief, just one line.
“Do what you want to do.”
In an instant, Blond was struck as if by lightning, involuntarily stunned.
He didn’t know how Wen Jianyan knew about his predicament, nor how he guessed his next move… but looking at those words, everything seemed understood without needing to be said.
Like a hand reaching out to someone in despair, a smile soothing fragility and cowardice.
Short, powerful, gentle.
Along with the text message, two items were also delivered.
One was a cloak, the other a gun.
One for self-protection, the other for fighting for his life.
Blond sniffled hard, raising his hand to vigorously wipe his face, which was smeared with tears and dust. He put the phone back in his pocket and looked up towards the distance.
In his gradually reddening eyes, the path ahead was clearly reflected.
He silently recited in his heart.
Do what I must do.
In the empty and cold corridor, Blond walked forward quickly, his blood-filled vision slowly scanning the walls, urgently and eagerly searching for the stairs leading to the second floor.
After groping forward like this for a long time, suddenly, Blond stopped abruptly.
He stared at the prison wall beside him, confirming the faint color changes on it again and again, comparing it with the wall behind Lucy in his memory.
Finally, he exhaled shakily.
That’s right, it’s here.
Although he found the location of the stairway to the second floor, the problem was, how to go up?
If Kong Wei were here, he could easily destroy the wall with his talent. Or any other member of the team; they would surely have items in their backpacks to deal with similar problems and solve the difficulty in front of them. But all he had was eyesight different from that of ordinary people. Just as the Gentleman said earlier, such a talent could play an unexpected role in the hands of capable people, but in the hands of a mediocrity like him, it was no different from a pearl collecting dust.
“…”
Suddenly, Blond paused.
He ran his palm over the uneven wall beside him.
Under the dim light, all the unknown details, every rough pit and hollow on the wall, every dent left by collision, and the footprints left on the thin dust, all appeared vividly before his eyes.
Yes, he could see clearly.
Blond stared intently at the wall in front of him, moving his fingers, touching, searching.
This was the first time he acted without guidance, without anyone to rely on, solely on his own will.
Without knowing when, the uncontrollable trembling gradually disappeared and calmed down.
Suddenly, a subtle, almost imperceptible, strange sound rang out.
Click.
Blond subconsciously took a step back, only to see the wall in front of him dissipating bit by bit, revealing a staircase leading to the second floor.
—Found it.
He took a deep breath and walked up the stairs.
The higher he went, the colder the air became. Even though there was nothing in the darkness, it inexplicably made his hair stand on end.
Soon, the stairs came to an end.
Perhaps because all the tin soldiers acting as guards had been lured away, Blond arrived at the second floor of the prison without any obstruction.
The walls here presented a familiar rusty red color, identical to what was seen on the screen.
Blond’s heartbeat thumped loudly.
He knew what he had to do.
The prepared item appeared in his palm. The pitch-black, heavy metal block pressed against his palm, the safety catch already released. There were only two steps left for him to do:
Aim, and pull the trigger.
“—How did you get here?!” A shrill child’s voice sounded from not far away.
The little girl who only existed on the screen suddenly jumped off the chair, staring at Blond as if facing a formidable enemy. Behind her, an entire wall was covered with large and small screens, showing scenes from every corner of the town. Obviously, she monitored the movements of the Toy Merchants in the town and manipulated the game progress through these screens.
Lucy stared at Blond, who was close at hand, her expression clearly becoming nervous and anxious. She backed away slowly, showing none of the ease and malice previously seen on the screen.
She screamed: “Get out immediately!!!”
“No.”
Blond tried to steady his voice. His pale fingertip pulled the trigger, the slightly trembling muzzle pointing straight at Lucy, not far away.
His voice still trembled slightly, but the calm and determination in it were unparalleled:
“…Sorry.”
The Gentleman’s forehead seeped cold sweat.
Behind him, the clanking steps of the tin soldiers followed like a shadow, inescapable like gangrene attached to the bone.
The Gentleman looked down at the item in his hand.
It was a human nose. The cut edge was neat. Due to overuse, all moisture had been drained, but under the dry, shriveled skin, the original beautiful shape could still be seen.
Clearly, its last usage value had been exhausted.
The Gentleman frowned in disgust, discarding it like a worn-out shoe into the dust at his feet.
Damn it.
It had to be said, Gentleman was not in good condition right now.
Previously, to steal ownership of Pinocchio, he briefly acted as an elevator operator under Figaro’s guidance. This matter consumed him greatly. Not long after that ended, the tin soldier attack began, giving him almost no chance to breathe and recover.
An anchor like Chen Cheng, even in his prime, would require full effort to control. But now, not only was the distance too far, but his own condition was far from good. The difficulty of maintaining the talent skyrocketed, and the link wasn’t stable enough. Chen Cheng’s own consciousness acted up from time to time, causing his control to be interrupted occasionally.
Several times, the Gentleman felt he was just one step away from snapping that brat’s neck, but the other party always managed to use various means to escape thrillingly in the nick of time.
Under these circumstances, having to deal with those lingering tin soldiers whose numbers were gradually increasing made every step difficult. He couldn’t spare any energy to complete what they were supposed to do.
The Gentleman frowned tightly, his slightly pale face utterly gloomy.
That guy, Pinocchio, was truly extremely troublesome.
Even though there were only two people on that side, and one of them was controlled to hunt him down in return.
Under such a disadvantage, that guy actually found a countermeasure and dragged him down forcibly!
Now, the conspiracy originally hidden in the dark was brought to the table, becoming a blatant overt plot.
The Gentleman knew Wen Jianyan was using an item to lure the tin soldiers to him. However, if he wanted to maintain control over Chen Cheng, he couldn’t destroy the jade containing the other’s fresh blood.
The same went for Wen Jianyan’s side. That was why he would rather risk being killed by Chen Cheng and use all means to create trouble for him while jumping around energetically.
Just like this, both sides fell into a stalemate where neither could break free or act.
Watching himself being stalled, the feeling of making no progress was truly frustrating.
He must find a way to get out of this situation.
Seeming to remember something, the Gentleman turned his head to look behind him. However, his searching gaze found nothing, and he couldn’t help but be stunned.
“…Wait, where’s the Tarot Master?”
The people around him were equally startled.
They hurriedly looked around but couldn’t find that familiar figure.
Strange to say, Su Cheng, who was following closely behind them just now, had disappeared without a trace. Whether he got separated during the attack just now or due to some other reason…
But in short, the Tarot Master was gone.
“Wait a minute, could that guy still have lingering affection and went to find Pinocchio?”
One of the Oracle members was suddenly startled, his expression becoming solemn instantly.
“Maybe he just got separated?” Another person shook his head. “They were confronting each other like that, how could it be—”
“…”
The Gentleman’s face turned green, then white.
He gritted his teeth and didn’t say a word, as if… he wasn’t sure either.
Before Blond pulled the trigger, Lucy suddenly screamed:
“No, no, don’t kill me, please, don’t kill me!!”
She looked at the muzzle pointed at her, those beautiful blue eyes filled with tears. Big drops of tears trickled down her cheeks. She cried so sadly, as if she had suddenly turned into a real little girl.
An ordinary little girl facing life-threatening danger.
Lucy’s legs went weak, and she fell to her knees with a plop: “Please, I, I don’t want to die!!!”
“…”
Blond subconsciously paused his action.
“Mesvis lied, lied to me!! They all lied to me!!” Lucy cried out of breath, “He clearly said as long as I stay here, no one would find me, I wouldn’t die… They all said this place was safe!”
So strange.
Blond stood dumbly on the spot, holding the gun, the dark muzzle pointed straight at Lucy, but the finger on the trigger began to hesitate.
If any other dealer appeared in front of him, Blond wouldn’t be so hesitant.
Even if his practical combat experience was far inferior to others in the team, having struggled in the Nightmare for so many years, he also knew truths like “never trust easily” and “never sympathize”. Whether for the safety of teammates or to achieve their next goal, just killing an NPC, Blond would never hesitate under any circumstances.
But the problem was…
Lucy in front of him was really weird… Blond felt his eyeballs rolling uncontrollably, seeming to search for something spontaneously.
“What do you want? I’ll give you whatever you want!” Lucy cried, “Do you want to win, win Monopoly? Or want to go directly to the next floor? I can help you do it, I’ll give you the pass… Please, I really don’t want to die!”
—No, not just what she said.
Thump, thump, thump.
His burning eyelids were jumping; the vision below was dyed a bright red.
Accompanied by a tearing pain deep in his eyes, Blond’s eyeballs mutated abruptly. A sharp, narrow slit replaced the pupil. In that instant, his gaze penetrated the air, penetrated Lucy’s thin chest, ribs fragile as a bird’s, small and red heart, seeing straight into the deepest part.
“You…” The muzzle lowered slightly. Blond heard himself speak, the voice coming from his throat dry, hesitant, very unfamiliar, “Were you once… human?”
Impossible.
Impossible, right?
He remembered that Wen Jianyan once unintentionally mentioned that the NPCs in the Lucky Cruise were strange—since the instance was newly born, it shouldn’t have any realistic background, and the NPCs within shouldn’t have any identity retention. But strangely, every dealer here had their own name, their personalities were so distinct, having fears, desires, even selfishness, shortcomings…
“…” Lucy was stunned, as if she hadn’t recovered, repeating rigidly, “Human?”
Kneeling on the ground, her tear-stained face suddenly seemed to go into a trance for a moment, as if recalling a very distant, forgotten memory.
“What is—”
“Yes, human.” Blond’s voice trembled as he tried hard to explain, “Breathing, heart beating, having family… Do you have family?”
“…F-Family?”
Lucy’s voice became smaller.
Unknowingly, she had stopped crying, just staring blankly at Blond not far away. The hand hidden behind her skirt stopped moving. The expression belonging to a dealer, alienated by the instance, seemed to disappear completely in an instant, leaving only a very bewildered, young empty shell.
“I… don’t know.”
Her expression was blank, but she was still trying hard to remember, “…Seems, seems… I don’t know.”
Finally, after a long silence, Lucy hesitated and slowly opened her mouth:
“I, sometimes I think of a woman.”
“Wearing a very long, long dress, smelling very nice.”
Blond’s heartbeat went out of control. He took a deep breath and said: “You said you have the pass to the next floor? Give it to me.”
Lucy silently crawled up from the ground. She fumbled in her skirt, her fingers hesitating for a moment, seeming to want to touch something, but what she finally took out was a crumpled pass—whether it was Wen Jianyan’s guess or the intelligence the Gentleman obtained, both were correct. Unlike the previous floor, it wasn’t just the winner of the racecourse who could get the pass. The key to the next floor was on Lucy. As long as she was willing to give the pass, one could leave this floor and continue downwards without winning the Monopoly game.
“I won’t kill you.” Blond took a deep breath. He took a step forward, the muzzle still raised vigilantly, “But you have to come with me.”
Out of kindness? Maybe a little, but definitely not all.
The most crucial point lay in the fact that Blond saw a possibility of uncovering the truth from her… Regardless of whether she was human or an NPC, Wen Jianyan would definitely want to meet her in person.
He didn’t have the ability to see the whole picture from a glimpse, but Wen Jianyan did.
If it were him, he would definitely be able to obtain more clues, more answers from her.
Lucy wiped the tears from her face and nodded.
However, before Blond could breathe a sigh of relief, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind—gentle, cold—”Make way.”
“—” Blond’s pupils constricted involuntarily. He subconsciously turned his head but felt a cold wind brush past his cheek, easily cutting the skin. Warm blood flowed down from the wound, but he felt no pain at all.
Blond reflexively looked in Lucy’s direction.
The little girl in the dress was already lying in a pool of blood. Her head was tilted, big blue eyes staring blankly at him, seeming not to have realized what had just happened.
Su Cheng stepped past Blond and walked into the studio.
He bent down, held the dagger item stuck in her throat with one hand, and pulled hard in the opposite direction.
Crack, accompanied by the sharp sound of bone friction, Lucy’s throat was completely severed, her head cut off directly like that.
“…”
Blond only felt his stomach churning. His vision was blood red, and he couldn’t help screaming sternly: “What are you doing?!”
“Killing the NPC,” Su Cheng said.
His voice was as peaceful and refined as ever, clearly no different from memory, yet Blond had never felt the other party was so unfamiliar.
“You were deceived.”
Su Cheng stood up, covered in blood. He shook a toy block he just took from Lucy, which had a bright red button labeled with a glaring [help]. “When she showed weakness and knelt to you just now, she actually secretly grabbed this from the table. As long as she pressed it, all the tin soldiers in the entire prison would receive the message simultaneously and rush here to chop you into pieces.”
He raised his hand and threw the thing towards Blond.
“I saved your life; no need to thank me.”
Blond caught the bloody toy block, the expression on his face still dazed.
Su Cheng squatted down to continue the task he hadn’t finished just now—killing Lucy completely.
In this instance, all NPCs were very hard to kill. Even Lucy, who had absolutely no self-defense capability and could only hide in the prison letting tin soldiers protect her, was still not completely dead after her head was cut off.
Her head lay in the pool of blood, pale lips trembling open and closed.
As if repeating monotonous words.
Blond looked down at the toy block in his arms, lips moving, “…But she didn’t.”
Su Cheng: “What?”
“But she didn’t!” Blond slowly raised his head, crimson eyes staring tightly at the other party. He gritted his teeth as if about to vomit blood, “When she was searching for the pass on her body, I had already relaxed my vigilance. She could have totally pressed the button at that time, couldn’t she? But she didn’t—she was an alienated human, not just an NPC!! Just like all anchors in the Nightmare—”
“…”
Su Cheng stood up, looking at him.
In the pool of blood, Lucy’s lips opened and closed, repeating simple and primal words.
Seeming to say…
Mom.
After saying it, her eyes closed.
She died.
Su Cheng stood with his back to her, an expression Blond had never seen on his face: “So what?”
In his hand, he held the bloodstained pass.
“I need this pass.”
He gazed at Blond, all emotions in his eyes seeming to have escaped into a very deep, deep hole, black enough to instill fear.
“And your captain needs the thing on her—if she doesn’t die, you guys can’t get your hands on it.”
“Since you can’t kill her, then your captain can’t kill her either,” Su Cheng said calmly. “I did the dirty work for you; you should thank me.”
He stepped forward and patted Blond’s shoulder with his bloodstained hand:
“Congratulations, mission accomplished.”
Su Cheng is driving me crazy