Dream Number (IV)
As they were talking, there was a knock on the door.
Lu Fanye asked loudly: "Who?"
After lingering outside the door for a while, he slowly spoke: "Dear guest, I am Neil, the captain of the Dream, and I have an important matter to ask you."
The voice was hoarse and rough, and everyone couldn't help but shudder.
No wonder they were making such a fuss, the sound was still echoing in the video just now.
Bearded man?
Thinking of the unknown objects surging around him in the blurry camera shot, Li Xia let out a disgusted "Huh".
Xu Wei pretended to be impatient: "It's so late, what's the matter?"
"I'm sorry to disturb your rest, Madam Xu. I heard from the crew that you went out for a while at night. Did you meet a strange girl in shabby clothes? This person is very likely the stowaway we are chasing. She is very dangerous. If you have any news about her, please let me know."
Xu Wei paused for a moment, and did not agree with his topic. Instead, he asked, "Is it extremely dangerous?"
Neil was lying to her. There was a dangerous person wandering around on the ship. A normal person would pay more attention to his life and property if he encountered such a thing. If she really followed his words and said that she had not encountered him, she would have something to hide.
"Yes, ma'am," Neil said, "since she stowed away on the ship, she has been claiming to be a companion looking for the orphanage. She took advantage of the tourists' sympathy to get close to them, robbed them of their belongings, and even killed a family of three in a cabin."
Hearing this, Xu Wei turned his gaze to Karina.
The accused shook his head in confusion.
She looked innocent, but her innocent expression could not hide the bright red that spread from her trouser legs to her shoes.
"I seem to have seen it," Xu Wei lowered his eyes and said in a deep voice, "It was a little girl about fifteen or sixteen years old? She was wearing tattered clothes and her body was stained with blood."
"Yes, that's right!" Neil's voice became excited. "Did you see where she went?"
"She seemed to... go to the bottom of the ship? I was a little scared when I found her. You know, there shouldn't be such people on this ship. I was planning to call the management later to inform them. The VIPs' tickets are not wasted. If there is a problem with security, I think I will not choose the Dream and the series of industrial projects behind it next time."
"Okay, okay, we have stepped up security measures overnight. Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Xu."
The sound from the other side of the door faded away quickly, as if it was about to rush to the bottom of the ship to search, but there was silence inside the door for a moment, and no one spoke.
After a while, Xu Wei walked to the door, twisted the handle and pulled it open.
The tall bearded man hunched over the door frame, his green eyes flashing crimson, his face cold.
His eyes were facing the cat's eye in the center of the door. If Xu Wei had chosen to look through the cat's eye, he would have looked into his scarlet pupils.
Xu Wei was not affected by this expected scene at all. He leaned against the door with his hands behind his back, looking indifferent: "Why are you still here, Captain Neil?"
The bearded man who was exposed did not show any shame. Instead, he looked around the room with an unfriendly look and said, "Mrs. Xu, your room is very lively."
Xu Wei shrugged and let him look at her: "Of course, I like to make friends when I'm out. Do you want to come in and sit down?"
The bearded man strode around the house without hesitation, checking it carefully inside and out, even the bedroom.
To no avail.
His face was very sour, but he still apologized to them with a humble look and said that he would provide a special dining car service tomorrow.
After Neil left, Li Xia clicked on the props in his hand, and the plush rabbit doll burped and spit out Karina.
Even if the bearded man used a bird's-eye view, he couldn't have imagined that props could hide people.
Xu Wei glanced at Karina and said, "Okay, tell me about your murder."
*
After staying up all night, everyone had dark circles under their eyes and yawned constantly. Karina was already weak, and after being questioned repeatedly, her face turned pale, as if she had lost half her life.
Neil kept his promise and sent a dining car service. The breakfast was very rich. Considering the large number of people in the room, there were even three layers of Chinese and Western food piled up.
Li Xia frowned and looked at the food on the dining car for a long time, then pulled a tablecloth to cover it and said, "How about we go fishing and grill the fish we catch?"
Corey held his hungry stomach and said, "Can't eat?"
Li Xia did not answer him directly, but asked: "Did you hear any noise last night?"
"What do you mean?"
Li Xia: "I went to the bathroom last night and heard vague voices above my head. I originally thought it was coming from the ventilation duct, but when I listened carefully, it seemed to be coming from all directions. When I came out to open the door, the handle felt very soft, like the texture of flesh."
Corey was shocked: "How did you get up? And get into the wheelchair by yourself?"
Li Xia said indifferently: "I have props."
"Then you let me push you all day!"
Shaya stopped talking and said seriously, "I also heard hoarse mumbling last night. It should only happen when there is severe pollution, but I was awake at the time. Not only did the metal become soft, but the walls, the ground, and all the furniture became soft and... warm. I turned on a night light and saw that you were sleeping on a pile of blood-red flesh."
Her words successfully calmed down the noisy morning.
Xu Wei glanced at Karina who was looking down like a quail. She had changed into Sali's spare clothes and finally looked less dirty and the bloody smell was gone, but she was still pale and did not look like a normal, healthy person.
Last night she tried her best to explain that she had never killed anyone since she came on board, but she did break into someone else's room to avoid being hunted down. However, when asked about the details, she couldn't remember anything at all, let alone how she got the USB flash drive. She only said that she had hit her head somewhere.
It's like having a problem written all over his face.
Xu Wei is inclined to believe that she has killed someone. Apart from the inexplicable blood on her body and the explanation full of loopholes, the biggest doubt about Karina is the video she provided. If she had never met Howard, why did she get the video recorded by the missing companion? This video has gone through many twists and turns, but it has accurately fallen into the hands of the players. Howard's last sentence "all tourists" is simply showing off his successful conspiracy.
Perhaps some kind of curse has already befallen the moment the video is opened. Karina is just the appetizer sent by Howard. The gradually weird environment will make players fall into the abyss like a frog in boiling water without knowing it.
But if we don't watch the video, the already pitiful known information will be even more scarce, which is simply a false proposition that cannot be chosen.
In the end, everyone did not go fishing. They ate a few bites of dry food in their backpacks and began a carpet search of the cruise ship - looking for the basement in the video, tracking Neil, and figuring out the necessary escape routes.
Nothing was found.
It was the middle of the night. Except for the necessary dimming lights in the corridors, almost all the lights on the cruise ship were turned off, and only the bars in the commercial area were still flashing dazzling neon lights.
Xu Wei was leaning against the wall, holding a long thin stick in his hand, with a small tail following him.
Near the front side of the ship was the male waiter who had been following Howard and bullying him during the day. During the dispute, he pushed Li Xia, and the latter took the opportunity to put on a positioning prop. He had planned to threaten and control him in the cabin tonight, but he didn't expect that this guy would come out and wander around in the middle of the night.
Corey was annoyed: "Where do all these nocturnal creatures come from?"
Since they located the waiter, they followed him for a long distance. Along the way, in addition to avoiding night patrols, they also had to be wary of the Howard family members who appeared from time to time. They all wore uniforms similar to the waiters, with only some differences in the collars. They walked silently, with distracted eyes, and wandered around aimlessly like ghosts.
Xu Wei: “It moved.”
The male waiter who had been staring at the sea in a daze for a long time at the side of the ship seemed to have received some kind of instruction. He turned around and walked downstairs at a very fast speed.
Xu Wei saw the flash of red light in his eyes and the pale face, and his body moved before his brain, and he rushed to the dim stairwell.
"Hey - didn't we agree that I would take the lead?" Corey said hurriedly from behind.
As soon as he entered the room, Xu Wei realized that he had been impulsive and started to perform gymnastics, but he was still a step too late. The figure lurking in the darkness suddenly pounced on him.
Xu Wei used the crutch in her hand to push the opponent away quickly, fiercely and accurately, and the people who came afterwards pushed her to the ground. The opponent was so strong that even the momentary tightening of the restraint almost made her unable to breathe. She covered her neck and coughed several times against the wall.
Lu Fanye turned on the flashlight, illuminating the figure lying on the ground with flailing limbs. He could tell from his clothes that it was the male servant from before. His face was like a dough that had been soaked, with black eyeballs and a cracked mouth. His limbs were no longer human, twisting and wriggling, and dozens of tentacles covered with sour mucus emerged from all parts of his body, waving and entwining, trying to tie something up.
"Sea monster?" Fu Fenglou's knife flashed, and the tentacles fell to the ground. The male servant immediately struggled, hissing in pain, and the broken tentacles were still twisted and dripping with light blue juice.
The air seemed to be filled with a hot, wet, and salty smell, which became stronger as one went deeper into the corridor. The light blue liquid evaporated rapidly, as if some invisible chain connected the current floor to the level below it. A dull thumping sound vibrated under the feet. The touch of the ground changed in an instant, becoming soft, sticky, and wet, with uneven wrinkles.
The world in front of his eyes was suddenly covered with a layer of deep blue film, and everything in sight was dark blue. Xu Wei raised his hand uncomfortably to rub his eyes, but found that even his hands had turned into tentacles without him knowing when.
She suddenly looked at her teammates. Li Xia, Ke Rui, Fu Fenglou and Lu Fanye all turned into blurry figures with flying tentacles all over their bodies. The four of them stared at her with their dark eyes, as if their minds were controlled like the servants.
Then, she saw the figure at Corey's location begin to wave its tentacles, which slowly gathered, twisted, and tightened as if it was relearning to control its hands and feet. After a moment, it made a heart shape above its head.
Xu Wei: “…”
Li Xia rolled her eyes, breaking the loving expression he had worked so hard to carve out, and turned to walk deeper into the corridor.
Xu Wei: "What should we do with this on the ground?"
He looked back, summoned the tool, and pierced the waiter's head with a raised hand.
"Let's go."
As we walked down the stairs, the surroundings became increasingly strange. The walls were no longer sharp and angular, and moved like mud. The ground wrinkled and gradually turned flesh-pink, soft to the touch and faintly attracted the soles of shoes. As the ground vibrated more and more, the entire corridor seemed to come alive. Every step we took was like stepping on a huge organism. The moisture became heavier and heavier, and it had become a pungent salty smell mixed with a disgusting stench of decay.
When we got to the bottom, it was already dark and no one could be seen. Even the flashlight could only cast a faint, diffuse halo of light.
Corey walked in front and reached the bottom first. He fumbled with the obstacles in front of him for a while and said, "There is a door that cannot be pushed open."
Just as Xu Wei was about to speak, he was patted hard on the shoulder.
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