Gu Xiang Kai awkwardly puffed out his muscular chest. “Well… when Brother Long and I were on that Ice Mountain Drama adventure, we spent some time there. After prolonged exposure to those ice corpses, I thought I recognized a few familiar faces.”
“But I wasn’t entirely sure at the time because the situation was chaotic. Now that you’ve mentioned it, though, thinking back, those familiar faces were clearly ship workers.”
“It’s just that I’d only seen them once or twice, so it was hard to recall quickly.”
Gu Xiang Kai shrugged. “If we had stayed in the glacier maze longer, we might have seen other people, but they would have been close to death too.”
Nan Yue patted his shoulder. “Well done!”
According to Gu Xiang Kai, this meant that what they were currently experiencing were events that had already happened.
The worst-case scenario was that the entire ship had met with disaster, and everyone had perished at sea.
It was highly possible… they had hit an iceberg.
“But Devil’s Bay should be in the tropics or subtropics. How could there be icebergs?”
Wen Xiang Yuan couldn’t figure it out, but Zhu Xi Ning found it easy to understand.
“Because Devil’s Bay itself isn’t normal. It must have problems, which is why so many people want to explore and conquer it, and why no one has ever returned alive.”
“The strange fish we caught, Decapitation Valley, the seabed graveyard… these might all be real.”
“Nan Yue mentioned before why there were legends about these places when no one had ever seen them. Now it makes sense.”
“Someone did see them. The passengers on this ship saw them, but they died. That’s why only they knew these legends.”
Zhu Xi Ning’s voice was also a little low. Although the ship’s passengers weren’t from their world, their interactions over the past few days had provided many clues.
Some individual passengers even had a good relationship with them.
Now, suddenly knowing that they had actually died long ago, merely trapped in Devil’s Bay, continuing to live in false memories, didn’t evoke fear so much as a sense of sadness.
“The captain’s banquet challenge might be this.”
Zhu Xi Ning hesitated. “Should we tell the others?”
Even though they knew the people on the ship might have died long ago, those people themselves were unaware. If they told scavengers with unstable psychological values, it might backfire.
But not telling them…
The key was what exactly the captain’s banquet was testing.
Nan Yue was silent for a moment. “You can tell Bi Danyuan and Jiang Siyan. For others, use your own judgment.”
The more missions she did, the more people she encountered. She knew very well that sometimes good intentions could make one a target. When psychological values were unstable, people weren’t rational and might even turn to suspect or resent those who offered help.
More importantly, Nan Yue worried that if a scavenger was on the verge of collapse, they might harm others.
Ultimately, they couldn’t help everyone. In missions, everyone relied on their own abilities.
Nan Yue wouldn’t hesitate to save another person, but only if that person already had the potential to survive.
That night, when they returned to their rooms to sleep, Tan Xiaonan was washing up. Nan Yue noticed that although the girl was also very clean, she was quite careful with her water usage.
Perhaps the amount of water she used was similar to Nan Yue’s own.
“You seem reluctant to touch water.”
Hearing Nan Yue’s words, Tan Xiaonan looked a little embarrassed. “Ah… the first day’s adventure left quite an impression on me…”
“If it’s a little dirty, it’s dirty. I’ll wash up properly once we’re out.”
Nan Yue couldn’t help but marvel that Tan Xiaonan was truly a born lucky person.
“Oh, by the way, a reminder.”
Tan Xiaonan immediately came out of the bathroom. She had immense faith in her luck buff and, by extension, in Nan Yue. These past few days, she had essentially followed Nan Yue’s lead in everything.
Nan Yue briefly explained the situation on the ship to her. Tan Xiaonan gasped, covering her mouth, and took a long moment to process it.
“So, your idea is that at the captain’s banquet, they might attack us?”
Nan Yue shook her head, stating frankly, “I don’t know. After all, I’m not a god.”
“But I don’t think it will be such a simple, crude adventure. Even though the mission world is polluted and twisted, it was once a real world.”
“They must also adhere to the laws of the world and how things unfold.”
The seven explorations in this mission had always been passable as long as scavengers remained calm, rational, and perceptive.
It was unlikely that a situation suddenly requiring violence to break through would appear now. Moreover, even if it were a mission requiring violence, there would have been hints beforehand, as most scavengers lacked tools and abilities, making pure violence very unfair.
Tan Xiaonan thought this made sense. Nan Yue offered a few words of comfort.
“Just stay calm, you’re so lucky, you’ll be fine.”
Tan Xiaonan forced a smile, thinking that at the captain’s banquet, she absolutely had to stick close to Nan Yue and do whatever she did.
Perhaps because the mission was nearing its end, Nan Yue rested very well that night. She slept in the next day and, upon waking, went to look at the photos outside everyone’s rooms.
Sure enough, Wen Xiang Yuan’s photo had the most ink marks, almost spreading to her face.
Just then, the person from the room behind her came out. Nan Yue turned and saw Xie Rui, the man who previously had the most ink marks. A faint trace of malice flashed in his eyes. Nan Yue could imagine that while many scavengers still didn’t know what the ink marks signified, no one wanted them on themselves. Now that someone else was ahead of them, even if they couldn’t escape it either, there was still a secret sense of joy.
This was human nature.
Xie Rui had been very careful, but Nan Yue was sensitive to malice and still detected it. She walked past Xie Rui indifferently, and he instinctively took two steps back.
Nan Yue found Wen Xiang Yuan in the restaurant. She was currently completely normal, her state recovered today, as if yesterday’s sentimentality had been an illusion.
The restaurant was already bustling, but ever since Nan Yue realized that these crew members and tourists might have died in this sea area long ago, she couldn’t help but feel a mental disturbance.
Although the ship was very eerie, the people were still very friendly.
Joseph, John, Penny…
They all had distinct personalities and goals.
Some were resilient, some stubborn, some filled with romantic adventurous spirit.
Those one after another bizarre and fantastical adventures were very likely what the people on this ship truly encountered.
It was just a pity they hadn’t survived.
Penny saw Nan Yue from afar and waved, greeting her. Nan Yue felt a mix of emotions. She didn’t know how to face her. If it were herself, living a false life unknowingly, how much pain would she be in?
“What’s wrong, Nan? You don’t look so good.”
Nan Yue shook her head, covering up her momentary lapse. “The voyage has been too long. I feel a bit uncomfortable.”
Rate on N.U.
