Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 608: Our fates are intertwined, we share life and death
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, suppressing his temper as he said:
“You should leave.”
“Mhm.”
Wu Zhu lowered his eyes to look at him.
“Aren’t you going to kiss me?”
His tone was incredibly natural, as if he found nothing wrong with his proposal at all.
It was exactly the same as when he made that outrageous statement earlier.
In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:
[…]
[I want to say something, but I feel like whatever I say would be superfluous.]
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s head was buzzing.
He closed his eyes, took two deep breaths, and then stiffly squeezed out a word through his teeth: “Scram.”
Wu Zhu, however, seemed to have realized something. He glanced up at the others in the distance: “Oh, is the occasion inappropriate?”
After all, the other party had just said that.
Wen Jianyan: “That’s not what I meant…”
Wu Zhu: “Next time I’ll ask when no one is around.”
In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:
[…]
[Fine (smile).]
[Fine (smile).]
[I’ve really seen enough of you gay guys’ tricks!!!]
After Wu Zhu left, Wen Jianyan remembered that he seemed to have forgotten to turn off the livestream again.
Thinking back on the entire conversation with Wu Zhu just now, he remained silent:
“…”
Some people look no different from usual, but in reality, they’ve been dead inside for a while.
It feels increasingly difficult to prove my innocence.
Wen Jianyan closed his eyes.
…F*ck.
Wait.
This word was easy to say.
But experiencing it was agonizing.
Since the ship set sail, the Lucky Cruise Ship had been sailing smoothly, but one could still feel they were on a moving giant ship—until now.
The ship swayed slightly, as if shaken by waves, but the forward momentum of breaking through the waves was hardly felt anymore.
Blond withdrew his gaze from the porthole and said:
“The ship is hardly moving forward.”
Wen Jianyan opened his eyes: “Very good.”
Just as he had guessed.
Although the Lucky Cruise Ship had mutated into an instance, the rules of operation hadn’t changed. They remained exactly the same as in his memory—the casino’s revenue.
This revenue included the amount lost by gamblers and the casino’s cut when they won.
Because of this, after Wen Jianyan controlled almost all the gamblers, the cruise ship lost its “fuel” and naturally couldn’t continue moving forward.
Since the cruise ship was no longer moving forward, even without any props, the tilt of the hull became visible to the naked eye. There was a dead silence inside the cabin, which seemed to contain some ominous message.
Clack, clack, clack.
Steady footsteps came from ahead.
Everyone turned their heads sharply to look in the direction of the sound.
A middle-aged man in a suit with mediocre features appeared not far away—even though everyone present had maintained a high level of vigilance from the beginning, no one noticed when he had appeared.
He wore a smile, and the nameplate on his chest bore a glaring number.
[No. 3]
Wen Jianyan remembered him. This croupier had appeared during his gamble with Mesvis.
“Greetings,” No. 3 bowed with a smile. “Mr. Mesvis wishes to see you.”
Wen Jianyan looked calm, seemingly having anticipated this: “Sure.”
He stood up and adjusted his cuffs:
“Lead the way.”
Thus, the group followed No. 3 through the dead-silent casino.
The surrounding light gradually dimmed, and the stairs leading to the second floor appeared in the distance.
Walking up the stairs and passing through the darkness, they entered the second floor of the casino.
The luxurious salon appeared before Wen Jianyan.
This wasn’t Wen Jianyan’s first time here. Everything around him was unchanged from his memory—the platinum spiral ceiling, the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the silent bar, and the thick, unsettling air.
Even just standing here doing nothing made one feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
No. 3: “Please follow me.”
As he spoke, he didn’t stop walking, leading the group behind him forward.
They walked through the salon devoid of any people, continuing until they reached the deepest part of the second floor before stopping.
No. 3: “Sir, they have arrived.”
After speaking, he respectfully stepped back and moved aside.
Without No. 3 blocking his view, Wen Jianyan looked up and saw a very familiar figure sitting on a platinum sofa not far away.
A deathly pale face devoid of blood, strange eyes with very little white and almost entirely pupils, and a dangerous, creepy smile.
It was undoubtedly the casino manager, Mesvis.
“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”
Mesvis stared closely at Wen Jianyan, a vague, secretive smile on his face.
“Although I said the same thing last time, I have to say it again—
You are truly amazing.”
Wen Jianyan greeted him respectfully as always: “You flatter me.”
One stood, and one sat, just like before the instance began.
It seemed nothing had changed.
“If it were anyone else hindering the normal operation of the casino, I wouldn’t have let them stand before me so easily and so intact. But… if it’s you,” Mesvis clasped his hands on his lap, scrutinizing Wen Jianyan leisurely, “I am willing to give you a little more tolerance.”
“So, please tell me, what do you want this time?”
Wen Jianyan looked directly at him without dodging, answering bluntly and concisely without beating around the bush:
“The pass to Floor B6.”
“The pass to Floor B6?” Mesvis lifted his eyelids, looking lazy. “If that’s what you want, you shouldn’t have come to me. Once the maintenance on Floor B5 is finished, you can challenge it again. If you succeed, the pass will naturally be yours.”
Wen Jianyan: “I can’t wait that long.”
He chuckled softly, his voice gentle: “And I assume you can’t wait that long either, right?”
“…”
The smile on Mesvis’s face gradually disappeared.
“Since I’m already standing here, there’s no need for us to pretend we know nothing about the current situation, is there?” Wen Jianyan slowly took a step forward, lowering his eyes to look down at Mesvis sitting on the sofa. “The Lucky Cruise Ship is about to sink—if it stays motionless on the sea, I’m afraid it will sink even faster.”
Mesvis gazed at him, emotions unreadable in his strange eyes with very little white.
“Are you threatening me?”
Unexpectedly, Wen Jianyan admitted it very easily:
“That’s right.”
In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:
[Holy sh*t, I understand what the anchor wants to do. Damn, what a vicious move.]
Due to the collapse of Floor B7, the cabins had started taking on water. The sinking of the Lucky Cruise Ship was only a matter of time.
Unlike other instances, the Lucky Cruise Ship was a newly born instance existing between physical and non-physical states, and the ocean below was a more terrifying, unknown existence. Once the cruise ship sank, everything it carried would be swallowed up…
No one would survive.
According to normal logic, to survive in this instance, one should speed up the ship so it reached its destination before sinking.
However, Wen Jianyan did the opposite.
He chose a more dangerous and extreme path.
—Cut off the “fuel” supply, bind the Lucky Cruise Ship together with all the anchors and non-anchors aboard, and use this as leverage and a bargaining chip to force the cruise manager to make a deal with him.
Mesvis smiled again. However, this time, his smile was extremely cold and creepy.
“Then I regret to inform you that you are threatening the wrong person.
Don’t forget, unlike you, we haven’t been living humans for a long time. You humans will die in the sea, but we won’t—the only reason I’m willing to talk to you as an equal right now is because you once surprised me. But it’s a pity…”
He pressed his fingertips together to form a pyramid shape, his face instantly losing all expression:
“You disappointed me this time.”
As Mesvis’s voice fell, the waiters standing in the darkness not far away began to move. Their pale faces were expressionless, their eyes glinting coldly in the dark as they slowly approached, bringing an invisible pressure.
Everyone’s shoulders tensed.
They stared closely at the waiters approaching from all directions, fingers twitching at their sides, seemingly ready for battle.
“Coming again so soon?” Chen Cheng clicked his tongue. “There’s really not a moment of peace following you.”
An Xin shrugged dashingly: “I don’t really care.”
Chen Cheng: “Sycophant—”
Before he could finish, he was ruthlessly interrupted by Wen Ya:
“Save the playfulness for another time—especially you, Chen Cheng.”
She stared tightly at the waiters closing in from all directions, slowly narrowing her eyes:
“This is not a joke.”
However, unlike the team members behind him who were ready for battle, Wen Jianyan, standing at the very fron,t looked very calm, his body language relaxed as always.
“So that’s how it is. I understand.”
“So, you ‘non-humans’…”
Wen Jianyan paused subtly on the last word, then looked up, glancing at the other party with a faint smile, “won’t become existences like those corpses sunk in the sea—that’s good.”
He nodded: “It seems we’ll know the answer in a few hours.”
“…”
Unknowingly, countless waiters arriving from who knows where had stepped out of the darkness. The safe space was squeezed inch by inch until it became a small circle. Outside the circle were countless terrifying eyes watching hungrily.
They were waiting, waiting for their master’s command.
However, this command was delayed.
“Before we both suffer losses and perish together, why not listen to my proposal first?”
Wen Jianyan looked into Mesvis’s eyes and spoke at the right moment.
“—Gamble with me again.”
Mesvis slowly raised his eyebrows, repeating what Wen Jianyan had just said:
“…Gamble again?”
Wen Jianyan: “Correct.”
He took a step forward, staring closely at Mesvis not far away. “If I win, you give me the pass to Floor B6.”
“If I lose, I voluntarily give up the contracts signed with all the anchors.”
As if hearing something very interesting, the corners of Mesvis’s mouth gradually widened:
“Even after the previous experience, you still want to gamble again?”
“Why not?”
Wen Jianyan chuckled softly without batting an eyelid. “And if I remember correctly, I won last time—didn’t I?”
Regardless of whether he indirectly caused the Lucky Cruise Ship to turn into an instance, at least on the surface, in the last gamble, Wen Jianyan won.
He won fair and square, without suspense.
The smile disappeared from Mesvis’s face. He scrutinized Wen Jianyan expressionlessly for a long time, seemingly pondering something.
After a long while, he laughed slowly, breaking the dead silence:
“It’s possible, but…
Your stake is not enough.”
Wen Jianyan: “How so?”
Mesvis smiled, his eyes full of cold calculation: “Whether you win or lose, for me, everything will at most return to the status quo, won’t it?”
If Wen Jianyan lost, he would naturally destroy the contracts.
And if Wen Jianyan won and obtained the pass to Floor B6—he would still have to destroy the contracts to let the cruise ship run again.
For Mesvis, neither of these two outcomes was attractive enough.
Wen Jianyan: “Then, what do you want?”
Mesvis leaned forward slightly, his eyes locking tightly onto Wen Jianyan’s figure, as if wanting to skin him alive and suck his marrow with his gaze: “As far as I know, you should be the passenger with the highest net worth on the entire cruise ship right now, correct?”
As his voice fell, a terrifying string of numbers appeared on the screen behind him.
In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:
[Holy crap, how much money is this?]
[Let me count… ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, daddy, grandpa…]
[Oh my god, when did the anchor earn so many points?!!]
[He auctioned himself for twenty billion. Although the transaction failed and deductions were made for the auction house and Figaro’s share, the remaining number is still terrifying. Plus, he robbed the mint, made a fortune multiple times in the negative casino floors with Qi Qian and Chen Cheng, and his livestream viewer count and reward amount have never dropped out of the top three in this instance. If you ask me, if the anchor wasn’t such a spendthrift, the remaining points in his hand could at least be doubled.]
[LMAO, if this bill were really pulled out, Chen Mo would probably tear the anchor apart alive.]
Mesvis: “Eight billion two hundred forty-five million points. Truly terrifying—if I remember correctly, when the cruise ship just started sailing, you only had 1.5 billion on you, right?”
Wen Jianyan didn’t speak, just looked at him.
Mesvis smiled: “If all the guests in the casino were like you, we wouldn’t be able to do business.”
In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:
[I have a bad feeling…]
Mesvis slowly leaned back, resting relaxed on the sofa: “If you bet all your assets, then we have a deal.”
In the “Integrity First” livestream room chat:
[…The premonition came true.]
[Ahhh all the money? This dead thing is really sinister!!!]
[It’s over, it’s over, I’m already starting to feel the pain.]
“…”
Wen Jianyan stopped talking.
The hall was dead silent; one could almost hear their own heartbeat.
After a long time, Wen Jianyan finally spoke.
He said slowly: “Okay.”
Just one word, but it was like a heavy hammer smashing into everyone’s hearts, bringing a shock of panic.
As soon as these words came out, even Chen Cheng, who was usually out of shape, stood up straight, his expression becoming slightly grave. He lowered his voice:
“Hey, are you serious?”
In this instance, the meaning of points was self-evident.
Since the beginning of the instance, they had never encountered danger at night, all because they had enough money to buy safe rooms.
Betting their entire net worth on a single game like this meant…
Once lost, no one in their entire team would survive.
“Mhm,” Unexpectedly, it wasn’t Wen Jianyan who responded, but Wen Ya. “He is serious.”
She looked steadily at Chen Cheng, her eyes clear, black and white, calm as a deep pool:
“And we have no objections.”
This was the privilege they had fought for with all their might and disregard for everything since entering this instance—
The privilege of dying together.
No longer a burden, no longer fledglings.
Whether as friends, comrades, or pawns…
Their fates were connected, sharing life and death.
No matter how crazy the plan or how dangerous the path ahead, they would walk off the cliff blindfolded like the most loyal soldiers.
“The captain’s choice,” Wen Ya’s demeanor remained as calm as ever, her voice steady and elegant, “is our mission.”
Chen Cheng’s pupils contracted slightly, seeming surprised to receive such an answer.
Although the others didn’t speak directly like Wen Ya, in their eyes, Chen Cheng saw the same thing—a peaceful, silent, yet purely powerful force.
He gave them a deep look and said no more.
Wen Jianyan took another step forward.
The distance was instantly shortened. Unknowingly, he had walked right in front of the platinum sofa.
Mesvis sat in place, still wearing an impassive smile, and slowly looked up at him.
The young man lowered his eyes, looking down at the casino owner before him.
In just a breath, the aura between the two seemed to have undergone a subtle change.
“Eight billion two hundred forty-five million points. Even for you, for this casino, it is definitely not a small number.”
“I’m paying such a high stake not to fight with your minions.”
Wen Jianyan’s voice was soft and slow, enunciating each word.
“Last time I wanted to gamble with you, you refused.”
He slowly leaned down, gazing into the other’s eyes:
“But this time, I won’t accept any answer other than ‘yes’.”
estou com medo