Chapter 120 The Thirteenth Door
After the New Year, it was almost time for Gu Longming and I to move in.
Ruan Nanzhu picked out the note from the sixth door. On it was a familiar name: the Minotaur. In ancient Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man that guarded the labyrinth.
In mythology, it's a hybrid of a human and a white bull, possessing an extremely brutal disposition. Imprisoned in a vast labyrinth on the island of Crete, it devoured seven pairs of young boys and girls each year. It was later slain by Theseus, the illegitimate son of the King of Athens. In short, this myth alone doesn't reveal much about doors. Only by entering and encountering something can one connect the dots.
Lin Qiushi had also shown this clue to Gu Longming in advance, and upon receiving it, Gu Longming expressed his immense gratitude. Lin Qiushi also gave Gu Longming a heads-up, stating that they couldn't be held responsible for Gu Longming's life this time, giving him some perspective.
Gu Longming agreed to all of them and said that he was prepared for not being able to get out.
It was the tenth day of the Lunar New Year when we went in. The New Year was coming to an end. Everyone had finished their relaxing vacation and started to get busy again.
Lin Qiushi prepared everything and began to wait for the entrance.
The tenth day of the lunar year arrived quickly. It was a sunny afternoon, and the villa was deserted. Only Lin Qiushi sat in the living room, eating Lu Yanxue's freshly roasted pumpkin seeds. Lu Yanxue's cooking was as good as ever. The roasted pumpkin seeds were fragrant and flavorful, and Lin Qiushi could easily spend the entire afternoon with just a handful.
Ruan Nanzhu had already changed his clothes and was upstairs. Seeing that it was almost time, Lin Qiushi went upstairs to find him with his bulging backpack on his back.
Because of the previous door, Lin Qiushi had deliberately stuffed a lot of food into his bag. Daily necessities from outside the door could be brought inside, but weapons that were more unlawful, such as firearms, could not be brought in.
Of course, there might be some special restrictions after entering a door. For example, at the door to the mental hospital, the NPC set a rule that they couldn't eat food brought in from outside. In reality, most of the time, such restrictions were rare, and Lin Qiushi could only be prepared. After all, the fact that he had to open a box to eat food at the tenth door left a deep impression on him.
Lin Qiushi entered Ruan Nanzhu's bedroom and sat on the bed with him for a while before he felt the atmosphere around him shift. In the blink of an eye, Ruan Nanzhu, who had been sitting beside him, disappeared. Lin Qiushi stood up and opened the door in front of him. He saw twelve black iron doors in the hallway that had once been there. They looked so familiar.
He walked to the sixth door, stretched out his hand and opened the iron gate. The next moment, Lin Qiushi was instantly sucked in by a powerful suction force. The scene around him also changed dramatically. When he opened his eyes again, he felt a slight shaking under his feet.
Lin Qiushi took a closer look and discovered he was actually on a massive old ship. It was dusk, and the dark clouds in the sky were frighteningly low, as if they were about to crush the horizon. The dark sea roiled before his eyes, whipped into violent waves by the wind.
Lin Qiushi smelled the salty smell of sea water. The old boat under his feet was shaking due to the strong wind and waves. He lowered his head and saw the wooden floor. Some seaweed creatures were clinging to it, which made people feel very uncomfortable.
Lin Qiushi took a few steps forward and saw a dim light in the cabin. He walked along the corridor into the cabin and heard sad howling coming from inside.
"Wuwuwuwu, why am I here? What on earth have you done to me?!" It had been ages since he'd heard a newcomer cry like that. Lin Qiushi was a little surprised. He spotted the person crying: a young girl, wiping her tears. "You perverts! You must have kidnapped me! I'm calling the police to have you all arrested!"
Most people around listened to her crying in silence. Anyway, there were only a few reactions from the newcomers. Most of them cried, a few tried to escape, and some who were mentally fragile simply broke down emotionally as soon as they came in.
Lin Qiushi stood still. He noticed that the little girl was surrounded by several people with unhappy expressions. Their faces were filled with panic, clearly unprepared for this entrance. Like the girl, they were probably newcomers. However, they weren't crying like the little girl, and their emotions were relatively calm.
Lin Qiushi searched the crowd and soon found his target—a woman sitting in the corner, smiling at him.
The woman was wearing a long dress, which was exactly what Ruan Nanzhu was wearing before she entered the room.
Lin Qiushi had a plan in mind. He slowly walked up to the woman and extended his hand: "Yu Linlin."
"Zhu Meng." The woman held his hand and said with a smile, "We are destined to be together, so cherish this relationship."
Lin Qiushi laughed: "Yes, cherish this relationship."
This acting genius of his would go on stage even if there is no stage maker.
As the two were talking, a young man came in at the door without hesitation. Although the man's face was unfamiliar, his clothes told Lin Qiushi his identity. He was Gu Longming, whom Lin Qiushi had agreed to meet online.
Gu Longming was soaked in water. He cursed in a low voice after entering: "Fuck, you actually threw me into the lifeboat - why didn't you just throw me into the sea? Are you jealous of my beauty -"
Although his voice was very low, Lin Qiushi had excellent hearing, so he could easily hear the content of his cursing. For a moment, he felt a little amused.
Of course, he didn't laugh out loud. He simply coughed dryly, covered his mouth with his hand, and swallowed the laughter. Gu Longming's eyes swept through the crowd, quickly landing on Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu. He walked over with a smile and greeted the two, pretending to have met by chance.
In fact, this trick of pretending to meet by chance is only useful in the early stages of the gate. In the later stages of the gate, everyone has become a fox spirit, and people who do not bring a partner are actually weird.
As for whether other people would recognize that they were actually in the same group, Lin Qiushi was worried before, but now he doesn't care anymore.
The cabin of the old ship was not big and the light was not bright. The only lighting equipment was a few small kerosene lamps above the head, which flickered from time to time as the old ship swayed.
It was getting darker outside, and the number of people in the crowd gradually increased, finally settling on the number fourteen.
Everyone looked around and talked to the teammates they found. The crowd was divided into several teams almost immediately, but the newcomers were isolated and had to form a team on their own.
Just as the crowd was discussing something noisily, a middle-aged man walked in from outside. The man was dressed a bit like a medieval pirate, holding a wobbly kerosene lamp in his hand.
"Welcome to the Black Reef." The man spoke, his voice sounding very hoarse, as if long-term drinking or smoking had caused irreversible damage to his throat. "I hope everyone can have fun here." After he said this, he smiled nervously, and the sharp laughter was like scratching a blackboard with fingernails, which made people's scalps numb.
"In ten days, the Black Reef will reach the harbor," the man said. "The journey will then be over. Please enjoy this wonderful time."
As soon as the man finished speaking, someone rushed out of the cabin. Lin Qiushi originally thought that the person was afraid, but after a while, he heard the sound of violent vomiting coming from outside - it seemed that an unlucky guy was seasick.
"Where the hell is this place?" The crying little girl was also frightened by the man in front of her. She said, "Are we filming a show? I'm really scared. Can I quit? I don't want to play anymore, please..."
The man ignored her and just looked at the crowd with cold eyes.
The little girl wanted to go forward and hold him, but she stopped when she ran to his side. Then she took a few steps back with a pale face, as if she had seen something extremely terrifying.
Lin Qiushi's eyesight wasn't as good as Ruan Nanzhu's, as he couldn't see anything due to the dim lighting. Ruan Nanzhu explained the situation in a low voice, saying, "The man was covered in black bugs."
Gu Longming shuddered and said, "Is he alive or dead?"
"I don't know." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Anyway, it doesn't look very good."
Generally speaking, only the NPCs who provide them with key information are relatively normal. If they are not normal, there will be almost no normal people.
Lin Qiushi didn't expect that their door this time would be an old ship, and it seemed that the deadline was ten days.
"Come on, I'll take you to where we'll sleep." The man said, "It's getting dark... and it's going to rain soon." After he said a few words, he started laughing nervously, which made everyone even more uneasy.
The man took them to the cabin on the ship and began to assign rooms.
Most of the rooms here are double rooms, with only a few triple rooms. Originally, Lin Qiushi was assigned a double room, but Gu Longming shamelessly went to the man to change the room number and managed to get a triple room.
"You dare to bargain?" Lin Qiushi looked at Gu Longming with admiration.
Gu Longming: "Isn't this because you're afraid of death..." He doesn't want to live alone. Although being a light bulb is not very kind, it is much better than being a dead person.
Ruan Nanzhu said with a half-smile on his face, "That's right."
They had wanted to check the entire ship, but since it was already dark, it was unsafe to move outside. So they decided to rest first and make plans tomorrow morning.
So the three of them took the key and went back to the room, washed up quickly and went to bed.
While Ruan Nanzhu was changing, Gu Longming poked Lin Qiushi and whispered, "Brother, you're so mean. You didn't even tell me you had such a beautiful girlfriend?"
Lin Qiushi said vaguely, "...Hmm."
"It's amazing." Gu Longming said, "Oh, if I had a girlfriend like this, I would also want to be with her every day."
As he spoke, he showed an envious expression towards Lin Qiushi.
As Lin Qiushi watched him, he began to wonder what would happen if he knew Ruan Nanzhu was a slutty, cute girl. Of course, he couldn't tell Gu Longming right now; after all, Gu Longming wasn't even a member of Obsidian yet, and Ruan Nanzhu's cross-dressing was Obsidian's biggest secret...
Ruan Nanzhu, on the other side, had changed his clothes and walked in and asked, "What are you two talking about?"
"It's okay." Lin Qiushi said briefly, "He praised you for being pretty."
Ruan Nanzhu said "oh" with deep meaning when he heard this.
Gu Longming: "..." Why did he feel a little cold on his back?
The beds on the boat reeked of damp, making them extremely uncomfortable to lie on. The wind and waves grew stronger, even the sleeping area began to shake. Lin Qiushi thought of the brother who had been terribly seasick that night and had been vomiting non-stop as they left. He felt that this person might be basically useless.
Outside, the sky had completely darkened, leaving only the whistling wind and the crashing of waves. Lin Qiushi closed his eyes, gradually drifting off to sleep. However, before he fell asleep, he was awakened by a loud thunderclap. The thunder was like a sudden explosion overhead, rumbling loudly, instantly waking all three of them from their slumber.
Then came the sound of raindrops falling, the sound of rain pouring down, accompanied by the howling wind, as if to destroy everything.
The place where they were lying shook even more, and Lin Qiushi sat up from the bed.
He peered out the window into the darkness and saw two lights on the ship's deck. The only lighting on board seemed to be kerosene lamps. How on earth did these lamps manage to stay bright in the torrential rain? Lin Qiushi was wondering when he suddenly sensed something was amiss with the two lights. Ruan Nanzhu, who was sitting behind him, whispered, "Don't look."
Lin Qiushi: "Hmm?"
"That's not a lamp," Ruan Nanzhu said. "That's a pair of eyes."
A pair of yellow eyes that do not belong to humans. The owner of these eyes peers into the darkness with an evil look, as if he is a beast searching for prey.
Lin Qiushi instantly withdrew his gaze and asked, "What is that thing?"
"I don't know, I can't see it clearly." Ruan Nanzhu said, "There are human outlines, but it doesn't look like a human."
Lin Qiushi frowned slightly, but when he looked out the window again, he found that the eyes had disappeared.
Thunder rumbled one after another, and the salty smell of sea water became stronger and stronger.
Ruan Nanzhu climbed onto Lin Qiushi's bed, and the two of them embraced each other, soon falling asleep again. However, the only single person, Gu Longming, wasn't so lucky. He lay beside Lin Qiushi, his eyes filled with resentment, thinking that he might have to eat too much dog food for the next few days.
The downpour continued until the early morning hours before gradually letting up. However, even though the rain had stopped, the sky still didn't clear up. A dark, gloomy drizzle still hung over the boat. When the alarm rang, Lin Qiushi thought it wasn't even daybreak yet. He checked the time and found it was already eight in the morning, but still dark outside.
"Good morning." Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi greeted each other.
Lin Qiushi said, "Good morning. It's so dark today."
Ruan Nanzhu said, "It should continue to rain." He and Lin Qiushi walked onto the deck and saw black sea water rolling around the hull.
Looking up, they could not see any land, only a vast expanse of sea. The only reality was the old ship under their feet.
This kind of isolated environment can easily have a negative impact on people's spirit. Even Lin Qiushi felt that the scene before him made him feel a little uncomfortable.
"Let's go and have breakfast." Gu Longming called to the two of them.
"He's quite thick-skinned." Ruan Nanzhu said thoughtfully after hearing Gu Longming's call.
"Yes," Lin Qiushi said, "He has a good mental state."
Inside the door, you don't have to be that smart, but you must be brave enough. In the face of certain terrifying scenes, fear will make people lose most of their thinking ability. Even the smartest people without a strong heart may be worse than the thick-skinned Cheng Qianli inside the door.
The three of them went to the restaurant and saw that it was almost dead.
Lin Qiushi didn't know why at first, but after he looked at the menu, he couldn't help but feel a little depressed.
All that was provided on the boat were fish, and some of them were not very fresh. Gu Longming poked a fish head with dead eyes with his chopsticks and said, "Can this be eaten?" He felt sick just by looking at it.
"It looks unpalatable," Lin Qiushi said. "Would you like to try it first?"
Gu Longming picked up a bit of fish gill meat with chopsticks, tasted it, and his expression twisted. "Fuck, didn't this doorman get his food deducted? Why is it so bad? It looks like it's been sitting there for three or four days. Try it?"
Lin Qiushi said, "No, no."
Gu Longming: “…”
The breakfast in the restaurant mostly consisted of stale fish, and other than that there were only some noodles and beans that looked tasteless. The environment here was already bad enough, and the food in front of them was simply making things worse.
However, Lin Qiushi and the others were not at all worried. Seeing that they could not eat breakfast, they quietly returned to the room and took out the prepared food from their backpacks.
Gu Longming watched them pull out a bottle of Lao Gan Ma from their bag, his eyes widening as he said, "You even brought Lao Gan Ma with you. Are you here for a spring outing?"
"Do you want some?" Lin Qiushi poured Lao Gan Ma on the noodles he brought from the restaurant.
"Yes, yes, yes, more." Gu Longming said with a shy face.
They finally finished their breakfast and were ready to start exploring the ship.
This ship has three floors and its structure is somewhat similar to those ships in the Age of Exploration in the Middle Ages, but it is very old and full of traces of time.
Aside from that NPC, there were no other crew members on the ship. This meant there was likely only one NPC on the entire ship. Waiting on the ship to return was a mission assigned to them by the NPC, but Lin Qiushi had every reason to believe that if they didn't find the door within ten days, the journey would repeat itself—another ten days.
When Lin Qiushi reached the second floor, he heard a series of "dong dong dong" sounds. He wasn't sure if Ruan Nanzhu and the others had heard it, so he asked, "Did you hear it?"
"What?" Gu Longming seemed not to hear.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "I seemed to hear it, but it wasn't very clear."
"It must be coming from the corner..." Lin Qiushi walked forward towards the sound and said, "Let's go and take a look."
However, before he got close to the place, Lin Qiushi smelled a strong fishy smell. The smell was extremely disgusting and made people feel nauseous. Fortunately, Cheng Yixie was not there, otherwise he would probably have been suffocated and fainted on the spot.
The sound and smell came from the same room. Because they were close enough, Gu Longming and Ruan Nanzhu also heard the thudding sound.
The three of them slowed down and looked through the window at the scene in the house.
This is a kitchen with some knives hanging inside. The most eye-catching thing is the densely packed dead fish hanging nearby.
In the middle of the room stood a man in an apron, chopping something with his head down, his back to them. Gu Longming observed for a moment and almost vomited as he said, "Don't tell me he's making breakfast for us—"
Ruan Nanzhu was very calm: "It's possible."
Gu Longming: "Ugh!!" He actually tasted the fish in the morning.
Lin Qiushi patted Gu Longming's shoulder sympathetically.
However, the man in the kitchen was the second living NPC they saw on the ship.
The three of them stood at the kitchen door and watched for a while. Seeing that the man did not do anything other than chopping fish, they decided to go somewhere else to have a look.
Soon, they discovered a rather unusual room. It was locked, the curtains drawn, and it was quiet inside, but a strong fishy odor could still be smelled. At first, Lin Qiushi thought it was something they had picked up from the kitchen, but after a closer look, he realized it was coming from inside the room.
"Do you want to go in and take a look?" Gu Longming leaned over the window and looked inside, but saw nothing.
Ruan Nanzhu thought for a moment and said, "Let's give it a try." He took out a hairpin and began to unlock the door.
Gu Longming's eyes widened at his skillful movements. He then looked at Lin Qiushi: "Is this... this your basic skill?"
Lin Qiushi smiled and joked, "Yes, if you want to join us, you must first learn how to pick locks."
As soon as he said this, there was a click and Ruan Nanzhu really opened the lock. But the strange thing was that after opening the lock, he pushed the door, but found that although the door lock had fallen off, there was still another lock hanging inside. The chain on the lock was pulling the door open, so they could only push the door open a crack at most, and could not push it open completely.
"Wait." Lin Qiushi suddenly spoke up, stopping Ruan Nanzhu from pushing the door any further. He said, "Stop, there's movement inside."
Ruan Nanzhu paused, but at the moment he stopped, a hand covered with scales and sharp nails stretched out from the crack in the door, and a pair of yellow eyes peeked out through the crack in the door with ill intentions.
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