Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 626: Watch your step
Blood-red lights flickered, and the piercing alarm wailed incessantly.
Everything blurred together into a dizzying ribbon of colors, crashing down on them like a tide.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s pupils dilated as he instinctively took a step forward.
He opened his mouth.
Fruit of Lies.
Reversing reality, making illusions come true.
Like a dangling spider silk, a floating straw.
But his arm was held back.
Wu Zhu raised his head. “He’s right.”
What’s done is done.
From the moment Su Cheng chose to actively merge with the instance, everything became irreversible.
It could even be said that if the hinge of the cruise ship’s rules hadn’t jammed, leaving the Captain’s position vacant, he wouldn’t even be able to maintain his sanity as he was now.
Pulling him out of the rules now would be tantamount to sending him to his death.
Just as he said himself—it was meaningless.
His voice felt like a stone stuck deep in his throat.
Under everyone’s gaze, the elevator doors slowly closed, swallowing the last ray of light.
The Prophet’s figure melted into the darkness between the cracks, like a shadow chiseled under the sun.
“…”
The elevator began to move.
A dull humming sound echoed in the confined space.
Wen Jianyan stood motionless, as if nailed to the spot by some invisible force.
The entire elevator was extremely quiet; only the sound of varying breaths could be heard.
“Hey, you…”
Finally, Chen Cheng couldn’t stand the atmosphere and spoke up first.
Wen Jianyan turned his head as if waking from a dream. His gaze, almost blank, landed on Chen Cheng. It seemed to take him two seconds to finally recognize the speaker.
“…Are you okay?” The remaining words blurted out.
“Of course.”
In the blink of an eye, the young man’s expression had returned to normal.
His voice was calm and restrained, revealing no abnormality at all.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I know very well that we can’t control fate, nor can we save everyone—if I couldn’t even accept this, I wouldn’t have survived until now.”
Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze, his eyes landing on the closed elevator doors.
“We can only accept the past and look forward.”
His voice was as rational as ever, showing no trace of being disturbed by emotions.
“Don’t forget, we are still in the instance. At least for us right now, getting to the deck before the countdown ends is the most important thing.”
“…”
Wu Zhu lowered his eyes, silently gazing at the young man before him, his golden eyes flickering, his thoughts unknown.
Having received an answer, Chen Cheng felt relieved. He patted Wen Jianyan on the shoulder as a silent comfort.
Watching Su Cheng stay behind in the instance with their own eyes, all guild members were equally shocked, pained, sorrowful, and powerless.
But they also knew that in the Nightmare, nothing was more luxurious than emotions.
Only by learning to forget, leaving everything behind—even the sacrifice of companions—could one struggle to survive here.
This was the first lesson for all anchors.
For Wen Jianyan, he had mastered this skill without even needing to actively learn it.
It took only a few seconds for him to completely adjust himself, pouring all his energy, brainpower, and attention into the matters to worry about next.
He had always been like this.
Like a skilled survivor.
The elevator ascended slowly.
The system broadcast never stopped.
“Instance ■■——occurred——imminent ■■■■——…”
“Please… anchors proceed to ■■■■ deck as soon as possible——leave.”
“Countdown ■■ minutes——”
But as time passed, the alarm became increasingly difficult to distinguish. Clearly, time was running out.
Everyone’s eyes were glued to the flickering elevator screen, nervously watching the numbers change slowly.
[-5]…
[-4]…
Every minute and second was stretched out; time had never been so tormenting.
[-3]—
Ding. The elevator stopped at the Negative 3rd Floor.
“!” Everyone was stunned, looks of astonishment appearing on their faces.
How could this be?!
Why stop at the Negative 3rd Floor… this isn’t our destination!!
Under everyone’s astonished gaze, the elevator doors slowly opened. What appeared outside the elevator was actually a smiling waiter.
It raised its hand, pressing its finger firmly on the button outside the elevator.
It wasn’t a human that stopped the elevator!
With the collapse of the instance’s order, the rules binding the NPCs also disappeared. They began to act driven by malice.
As the elevator stopped, cold, pale faces turned in unison, pairs of greedy, hollow eyes looking toward the elevator—there were NPCs in uniforms, as well as floating corpses from the deep sea, soaking wet and emitting the stench of decay.
Smelling the scent of the living, they immediately moved, gathering toward this side.
Trapped in the elevator, the group was like sardines in a can, unable to go up or down, with nowhere to run.
Wu Zhu raised his eyes.
Without warning, countless “tenants” surged out of the darkness. appearing as if out of thin air. Their movements were stiff but swift, their target clear, trapping the NPCs firmly and preventing them from approaching the elevator.
The waiter standing at the door moved its eyes, its gaze falling on Wu Zhu inside the elevator. Although still smiling, its eyes revealed a venomous look.
Wary of Wu Zhu, it didn’t dare to actually enter the elevator, but it was reluctant to put its hand down.
Its finger remained glued to the button, forcing the elevator to stay put.
Wu Zhu frowned, but before he could act, Chen Cheng had already dashed forward.
A pitch-black blade flashed, slicing like a sharp knife through tofu. In the blink of an eye, the waiter outside the elevator was decapitated, its head rolling on the ground.
The elevator doors slowly closed. With a teeth-aching sound of metal grinding against metal, the small metal box began to operate again, traveling up the shaft.
“See,” Chen Cheng shouldered his blade, raising an eyebrow smugly. “Simple.”
“Don’t celebrate too early. Get ready, the next two floors probably won’t be different,” Wen Jianyan spoke slowly. “And the closer we get to the deck, the more corpses enter the cabins—we must end the battles quickly.”
Sure enough, the elevator hadn’t ascended for long before the humming sound of mechanical operation was interrupted again.
Ding.
The elevator stopped at the Negative 2nd Floor.
Everyone was ready.
As Wen Jianyan expected, the number of corpses outside the elevator was several times that of the previous floor.
However, they already had experience dealing with this.
As more “tenants” emerged, blocking the corpses a few steps away, Chen Cheng raised his blade again.
Thud.
Heads rolled.
But this time, it wasn’t as smooth as before. Even without heads, the headless corpses still stood firm, their fingers firmly pressing the ‘close door’ button.
“Shit!”
Chen Cheng cursed in anger.
“Shameless things!”
However, just then, the elevator operator, whose back was to them, slowly raised its hand and pressed the “close door” button.
Once, twice.
The elevator vibrated slightly, seemingly undergoing some invisible wrestling. Then, with two clicks, the elevator doors slowly closed in front of everyone.
The elevator began to ascend again.
“…”
The group looked at each other in astonishment.
…What’s going on?
Ding. The elevator stopped at the Negative 1st Floor.
This time, before they could even act, the elevator operator had already raised its hand.
Once, twice, three times.
The elevator doors vibrated unwillingly, closing slowly amidst the shrill wail of metal.
In the dead silence, the elevator slowly ascended.
Although the crisis was temporarily averted, everyone remained extremely vigilant.
Remember… the real threat of the elevator comes at the moment of leaving.
If the passengers step out of the elevator without the operator giving the blessing, they will immediately fall into the abyss—this is also the best time for the operator to ask for tips.
Finally, the 1st Floor arrived.
Perhaps it was their illusion, but this time, the elevator moved faster than any previous time.
The rusty metal doors slowly opened before them.
The salty sea breeze mixed with the scent of rotting corpses rushed into their noses.
The elevator operator stood stiffly in place without looking back, emitting a stiff, weird voice: “…Heh heh… Tips.”
As expected.
Everyone’s hearts sank.
But at this critical juncture, there was really no need to haggle here. Because of this, they were prepared to be extorted heavily.
“How much tip do you want?”
Wen Jianyan asked.
“…” For some reason, the elevator operator fell into silence.
Time ticked by. In this situation, nothing was more crucial than time.
An Xin urged anxiously: “Hey, what exactly—”
But before he could finish, he was interrupted by the elevator operator.
“Please, watch, your step.”
The elevator operator spoke slower than any time before.
The pauses between each word were longer, each character difficult, as if forced, rolling out from the depths of its throat with great difficulty.
It actually… gave the blessing that allowed them to leave the elevator safely without asking for any reward? How could this be?
“…” Everyone was stunned.
They exchanged glances with their teammates, seeing bewilderment in each other’s eyes.
…Wait, what does this mean?
But Wen Jianyan quickly recovered, “Go.”
Regardless of why the elevator operator changed its mind, time was tight now, not the time for hesitation.
The group quickly left the elevator one after another.
An Xin was the last.
Drip.
Drip.
The faint sound of water droplets came from behind.
Thinking of something, An Xin couldn’t help but pause slightly, instinctively turning to look in the direction of the sound.
It raised its hand, maintaining the action of pressing the “close door” button, but its fingertips had turned dark blue and twisted under some invisible force, becoming very strange.
Pitch-black viscous liquid flowed down the elevator operator’s face, dripping onto the feet one by one, like blood… or tears.
Its face maintained a rigid smile, eyes staring unblinkingly at them.
On that face which had almost lost its features, a trace of spirit exceptionally familiar to An Xin vaguely appeared.
Yes, the rules lost their binding force.
With the collapse of the instance, the rules originally confining these NPCs also began to loosen, allowing them to break out of the original framework and do things they couldn’t do before.
The remnants of the soul assimilated into this shell seemed to awaken as well…
In the wrestling with the rules, seizing a bit of weak consciousness.
In that instant, all memories rushed through his mind.
He remembered all the Dark Fire members sacrificed in this instance, the friends who merged with the instance—
An Xin froze in place. He opened his mouth stiffly, instinctively wanting to call out that familiar name.
“Tong…”
Wearing an unfamiliar and chaotic face, “she” gazed at her former teammate from deep within the shell.
She smiled, mouth opening, seeming to want to say something, but what blurted out were only the stumbling, fixed lines:
“Wa-watch—your step.”
