Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 618: Disembarkation
“How is it?” Seeing Wen Jianyan put his phone away, Wen Ya asked from the side.
Wen Jianyan looked up and said, “It’s done.”
Just as planned, Dan Zhu agreed to cooperate.
This was exactly what Wen Jianyan had expected.
However, now that the moment had arrived, perhaps because he had learned too much unsettling information in the process, he didn’t feel much joy.
“…” Wen Jianyan turned his head and took one last, deep look at the tightly closed cabin door.
On the rusted nameplate, the blurred, engraved text was submerged in darkness, silent as an ominous signal.
He took a deep breath and withdrew his gaze. “Let’s go. We should head back.”
The meeting place agreed upon with Dan Zhu was the Casino on the Negative 3rd Floor.
Just as they stepped out of the elevator, a scent of decaying flowers rushed toward them, mingled with an unmistakable stench of blood. Like the owner of the scent, the aroma was intense and aggressive, like a heavy punch to the face, making the intruders feel dizzy.
Gambling tables were overturned, the carpet was soaked in seawater, and several corpses lay on the floor. Some had hollow faces, likely killed after being attacked by tenants; others had broken limbs, clearly killed by the floating corpses invading from the negative floors.
But apart from these, there were also several corpses covered in dense, fuzzy, tiny branches. Blood-red flowers, the size of a baby’s palm, bloomed on the rotting bodies, emitting the eerie floral scent they were currently smelling.
This floor had obviously been “processed,” and was thus quite safe.
Aside from the corpses on the ground, as far as the eye could see, Wen Jianyan couldn’t find a single floating corpse or tenant.
In stark contrast to this chaotic mess, a table sat squarely in the center of the hall.
A well-dressed man sat upright on a chair at the table.
A woman in a red dress sat languidly beside the table, half of her slender, lotus-root-white arm resting on his shoulder. Her body leaned against him as if boneless, and her smoky eyes were lowered. The sight was enough to make anyone’s knees weak.
Both of them were very good-looking.
What a beautiful picture.
—If one ignored the bitter expression on the face of the man being leaned on, who was as stiff as a board.
The moment he saw Wen Jianyan appear, Figaro’s eyes lit up:
“You’re finally here—!”
In that instant, Wen Jianyan suspected he saw tears of joy glinting in the corner of the other’s eyes.
“…”
Wen Jianyan: “En.”
Dan Zhu looked up at Wen Jianyan, her smile deep:
“I didn’t expect… you’d actually come just like that, darling.”
She leaned against Figaro, lightly tracing his cheek with fingers painted in blood-red nail polish. With each stroke, Figaro’s expression grew more miserable.
He wasn’t enjoying this in the slightest.
“What, aren’t you afraid I’ll go back on my word?” Dan Zhu asked with a smile.
Wen Jianyan had been able to hide for so long, clearly having figured out one of the necessary conditions for Dan Zhu’s Talent activation: distance.
And his appearance so close to her meant that if Dan Zhu activated her Talent right now, she was fully capable of killing them instantly.
“Of course I’m afraid,” Wen Jianyan said calmly. “But you probably haven’t figured out how I escaped your pursuit yet, have you? Under these circumstances, killing us would be the rash move.”
Precisely because Dan Zhu didn’t know how they had escaped her grasp, it meant that Wen Jianyan and his group held trump cards beyond her control—breaking the contract in such a situation was not something a smart person would do.
“More importantly…”
The young man’s eyes suddenly curved.
A smile softened his face.
“I don’t think you’re the kind of person who goes back on her word.”
Dan Zhu lay on Figaro’s shoulder and giggled—Wen Jianyan ignored the plea for help in Figaro’s eyes, his expression remaining as calm as ever—after a few seconds, Dan Zhu stopped laughing.
“Look at you, always so sweet-talking. Truly likable.”
Dan Zhu looked at Wen Jianyan, finally showing some mercy by releasing Figaro, whom she had been handling like a baby chick, and slowly straightened up.
“Your judgment is correct. I indeed am not planning to kill you anymore…”
Dan Zhu smiled, adding two words airily, “For now.”
Wen Jianyan: “Then, I want to ask you—”
“No, no,” Dan Zhu looked at him with a smile. In that instant, her eyes were like those of a dead person, pitch-black and hollow, but soon, a smoky smile resurfaced in her eyes, masking the momentary terror. “Asking questions is such a killjoy.”
“You won’t get answers to any questions from me—it was like this before, and it will be like this hereafter.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
The audience finally stopped discussing the anchor’s private life and refocused their attention on what was happening in the stream.
[Huh?]
[No answers? Then what’s the point of cooperating?]
[Yeah, I recall that what the anchor has always wanted is just answers.]
Wen Jianyan looked at her without speaking. He was smart enough not to ask questions at this time, merely waiting quietly for her to provide more details.
Dan Zhu smiled faintly, seemingly satisfied with his reaction.
“I am willing to take a step back and cooperate with you, but the specific terms of cooperation need some… modification.”
Dan Zhu withdrew her gaze, her voice airy, revealing a rare, icy indifference.
“Give me the coins you possess. In exchange, I will take you to the Negative 6th Floor—as for what you can discover there, it’s entirely up to you. However, as for what you will encounter on the Negative 6th Floor, you will bear the consequences alone.”
“You want the truth?”
She raised her hand and nonchalantly pinched Wen Jianyan’s cheek. Her fingernails, painted in crimson polish, slid across his skin, bringing a creepy, chilling sensation.
Wen Jianyan: “En.”
“Very good,” Dan Zhu chuckled lightly, taking a small step back to create some distance. Her eyes held deep meaning, her tone gentle like a prophecy, “—In that case, go find it yourself.”
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, falling into thought.
A few seconds later, he looked up at her:
“Besides that, there is one more point I want to confirm.”
Dan Zhu: “Hmm?”
“You said earlier that you could ensure our safe departure from the ship. Does that promise still hold?”
Dan Zhu looked at him sideways with a smile, but her eyes held no warmth.
She crossed her arms and tapped her cheek with her fingertips:
“Unfortunately, what I can provide you with are immediate tickets off the ship, not my constant protection. Once you accept this term, you can leave this instance right now, but it must be now—once you reach the Negative 6th Floor you want to go to, it becomes void.”
“I don’t need it,” Wen Jianyan said, “—but my teammates do.”
“…!” Behind him, everyone was startled, looking at Wen Jianyan in disbelief.
Wen Jianyan didn’t look at them:
“You don’t need to worry about my safety. I am fully aware of the potential dangers of entering the Negative 6th Floor. However, my team members—they don’t need to pay the price for my ambition.”
Dan Zhu didn’t answer immediately. She just raised her eyes, smiling as she scanned the faces of the people behind Wen Jianyan.
“Fine.”
“But I suggest you talk to your teammates again… I see they seem to have some different opinions.”
She shrugged and turned to leave.
“Come find me after you’ve reached a conclusion.”
Watching Dan Zhu’s figure walk away, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, slowly turned around, and looked at his teammates behind him.
Wen Ya was expressionless, looking at him coldly.
Chen Mo was the same.
Clearly, their captain’s old habit had flared up again.
Looking into those pairs of eyes filled with various emotions, Wen Jianyan lowered his gaze. He took a deep breath, seemingly making a difficult decision in his heart.
A few seconds later, he looked up and said slowly and earnestly:
—”Decide for yourselves.”
Go to the uncertain Negative 6th Floor, or leave this sinking ship now?
Live or die.
Go or stay.
This time, I give the choice back to you…
My fellow travelers.
Ji Guan had lost his eyes and limbs; he had to leave. Blond’s Talent consumption had also reached its limit; he too had to get off the ship.
Chang Feiyu smiled with difficulty: “You know, I really like your team, but…”
Wen Jianyan: “It’s okay, I understand.”
Liking a team and being willing to risk death with them were two different things.
Chang Feiyu let out a long sigh of relief and stepped aside.
Ma Qi bit her nails anxiously. After a long time, she finally said with difficulty, “Although I haven’t joined you for long, but…”
She sniffed, her eyes starting to moisten, as if she had made up her mind:
“I don’t think I can leave now.”
“I-I have never met so many, so many…” As she spoke, Ma Qi crinkled her nose and burst into tears, “So many people like my friends here! You, you can’t kick me out now, I can’t let you go, go die—”
Wen Ya hugged her, pressing her head, which was hiccuping with sobs, into the crook of her neck. She waved her hand at Wen Jianyan, her eyes condemnatory, signaling him to go ruin the next person.
Wen Jianyan, inexplicably glared at, had no choice but to look at the next person.
Stared at by his gaze, Kong Wei’s face turned beet red. He was already clumsy with words, and now he was even more speechless.
After a long time, he muffled out two words: “I’ll stay.”
Wen Jianyan didn’t ask for the reason, just nodded.
Chen Cheng: “What are you looking at me for? First, I’m not part of your team. Second, I’m not under your command. More importantly, you aren’t naive enough to think Dan Zhu would give me a ticket, right?”
He shrugged, showing a disgusted expression:
“It’s good enough if she doesn’t kill me, and you think she’d send me out of the instance? —Please, wake up. Cooperating with you isn’t worth that much.”
Wen Jianyan was glared at inexplicably for the second time:
“…”
Couldn’t you just say you wanted to come along?
He sighed and finally turned to look at An Xin.
“I won’t get off the ship either.”
An Xin looked at him, his expression very calm.
“First, because my captain is on him.”
He raised a hand and pointed at Chen Cheng.
Chen Cheng rolled his eyes impolitely in the back: “You think I want this?”
An Xin ignored him and looked at Wen Jianyan, continuing, “Second… and more importantly… I lost too much in this instance.”
The Lucky Cruise Ship had exhausted the Dark Fire squad completely.
Those who died… the hollowed-out corpses… the assimilated friends…
This ship had taken too much from him, things even heavier than life itself.
“I’ve worked with you before, I know your ability,” An Xin said. “Getting a Platinum rating every time… right?”
He stared at Wen Jianyan, his gaze no longer flippant, but excessively cold and serious.
“This time, rather than saying I’m helping you, it’s more like I need to borrow your ability—” He enunciated each word heavily and clearly, a fierce fire of hatred burning deep in his eyes, “I want this damned ship to sink forever, never to set sail again.”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and nodded solemnly: “Okay.”
And so, a total of three people decided to disembark.
Dan Zhu looked up at the people in front of her. She didn’t ask for the reasons behind their decisions, simply producing three tickets from somewhere and handing them over languidly—compared to the luxurious tickets needed to board, the tickets required to disembark were old, yellowed, and very dirty. The writing on them was blurry, looking as if they were from a long time ago.
“Just write your name in the blank space on the bottom right corner with blood.”
—Similar usage to the graduation certificate from Yuying Comprehensive University.
Chang Feiyu finished writing first, and his figure quickly disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Since Ji Guan had lost his limbs, Wen Jianyan helped write his ticket. After it was written, his figure also began to turn transparent—watching him leave, everyone let out a long sigh of relief for him.
“Hiss!”
Blond suddenly sucked in a cold breath and took a step back.
“What’s wrong?” Wen Jianyan turned to look.
“I… don’t know.”
Blond looked back at him with a blank expression.
“After I wrote my name, the ticket just… spontaneously combusted.”
The moment he wrote the last stroke, the crimson blood that hadn’t yet dried immediately caught fire. In the blink of an eye, the ticket was burned to pieces and turned to ash.
“So, he’s the one who killed Mesvis?” Dan Zhu propped her chin up, squinting over with an ambiguous smile on her lips.
Wen Jianyan: “…Yes.”
“Then don’t bother thinking about it,” Dan Zhu chuckled lightly. “He can’t get off the ship.”
In that instant, Wen Jianyan felt as if his throat had been seized.
He turned to look at Dan Zhu: “…What do you mean?”
“Killing one of the administrators is equivalent to signing a contract of assimilation with this ship,” Dan Zhu said with a slight smile, not minding revealing the reason to Wen Jianyan. “If you really want what’s best for him, give him the token sooner. At least then he can become one of the administrators later.”
She admired her fingernails with a smile:
“Otherwise, he’ll turn into something worse—a waiter? A security guard? Or perhaps part of the deck.”
Wen Jianyan stared at her. After a long time, he said, “You also killed an administrator, didn’t you?”
Dan Zhu paused, turning to look at him, her gaze somewhat unkind: “What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and said:
“—I just feel that he needs to go to the Negative 6th Floor with me even more now.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Yeah, that’s true!]
[The anchor really knows how to grasp the main point. Remember, Dan Zhu doesn’t have a token, and she definitely isn’t planning to become part of the ship like she just said. This proves that the Negative 6th Floor definitely holds the so-called solution to this situation…]
[Ahhh, great deduction! I feel slightly more relieved now!]
“Alright, the people who needed to be sent off are sent off,” Dan Zhu rose languidly. “Let’s get down to business.”
She suddenly raised her voice: “If you take another step, it’s hard to say what will happen next.”
Behind her, Figaro had moved to the edge of the hall at some point, looking like he wanted to sneak away while no one was paying attention to him. As soon as Dan Zhu’s voice fell, his foot, mid-step backward, froze in place.
Under everyone’s gaze, Figaro laughed a few times dryly:
“I mainly didn’t want to interfere with your plans…”
“It won’t interfere.” Dan Zhu smiled nonchalantly and beckoned. “Come here.”
“…”
And so, under the public gaze, Figaro shuffled back with a miserable face.
Wen Jianyan suddenly thought of something: “I wonder if you’d mind waiting a moment longer?”
Dan Zhu was a bit impatient: “How long?”
“About…”
The fingers hanging at Wen Jianyan’s side were tugged.
A cold, slender finger hooked onto his and shook it gently.
The words about to leave his mouth turned around.
Wen Jianyan remained composed: “Never mind, no need to wait. Let’s go.”
