Chapter 22 Let's set sail, ███! A maze of illusions...
Xue Chao suddenly said, "They've gone out to sea again. Do they need to come back this time?" He deliberately didn't mention the name of the ship.
“No need, this is the last ‘sacrifice’.” The woman fully acknowledged him and continued, “Orlaug is getting old, and the ship is somewhat ‘weak’ after surviving its near-death experience at the bottom of the sea. Anyway, we are about to set sail, and the people of the New World will remember its contribution.”
Zhu Wen was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized that the Destiny was the Orlauger!
The tickets and all the ship information did not show that the Destiny had such an English name. It was intentional that these people deliberately gave it two names to confuse people and guard against outsiders.
A sacrifice, a sacrifice of the blood of that ship full of people, for whom? To the monsters of the sea?
His first thought was that this instance had red and white lackeys who had stolen the "cult's" health packs and summoned their own evil god. They were extremely wicked. If they provoked any god, a fight would break out.
He suddenly wanted to help out; wouldn't that be great?
But then I thought, the one who's supposed to be sacrificed in the dungeon is probably the hidden boss. If we bring in that lunatic who's number one on the hate list, that's two bosses... Regardless of how many seconds the dungeon boss can last, even if gods fight, ordinary people will suffer in a second and could easily be wiped out together.
So he sighed and could only indulge in the fantasy in his heart.
Then a sharp cry was heard, and a woman carrying a heavy old wedding dress ran barefoot down the spiral staircase. Her neatly styled hair came loose, and her exquisite makeup was ruined by the tears, turning her into a grotesque face. She kept calling out, "My child, my child," before stumbling and falling.
The spiral staircase was right next to the bar. Xue Chao stood up and quickly caught the woman who had fallen. He glanced around and saw that the people around him were used to such things. They gave him a pitying look and then ignored the little incident and continued their own revelry.
Xue Chao raised an eyebrow, gently patted the woman's back, glanced at the diamond ring on her ring finger, and reassured her, "Madam, what happened?"
"My child is missing! John, have you seen John? He's so tall, blond, blue-eyed, wearing a brown suit, and carrying a teddy bear..."
Xue Chao shook his head, Zhu Wen shrugged indifferently, but the woman in the purple dress sighed coldly: "You should have kept an eye on him. My condolences."
That's quite serious. Xue Chao: "Kids always like to run around everywhere, my 'young master' is no exception, he might go off to play somewhere."
Zhu Wen rolled her eyes at him.
"Then you'd better keep a close eye on your young master." The woman in the purple dress swirled her wine glass meaningfully. The little ice ball had melted, and her earring had fallen into the wine, clattering against the glass. "You know how often things go missing from the port, right? They steal gold and silver, jewelry, dresses and suits, cigarettes, alcohol, keys, and of course, they can steal people... especially children."
The woman in the wedding dress sobbed silently, as if acknowledging her words.
So many things were lost? The head of the security team only had three items. The people above him were his superiors. Could they all be in their superiors' offices? These VIPs aren't blind.
As for stealing people... were the guards who disappeared on the beach in Zuogang considered to have been "stolen"?
Xue Chao helped her up, and as if to ease the tension, he joked, "Sounds like smuggling..."
The woman in the wedding dress and the woman in the purple dress both looked at him, and Xue Chao paused.
Then Xue Chao and Zhu Wen received a mission update:
Side Quest 1 has been updated.
Side Quest 1-2 "The Unending Smugglers": Greed, greed, all greed is for...
[Mission Details: Goods have been constantly disappearing from Right Harbor. Clearly, the guard captain can't move them all with just one rat. So who is the real smuggler? Find the smuggler and the smuggled goods.]
But before they could figure out who the smugglers were, the noisy venue suddenly fell silent, as if someone had pressed the pause button.
The woman in the wedding dress had somehow escaped his embrace and was now standing beside the woman in the purple dress. They blended into the crowd behind them, all wearing identical butterfly half-masks, their eyes fixed intently on them.
Xue Chao and Zhu Wen stood and sat respectively, not daring to move, locked in a stalemate with the crowd surrounding them.
Although the side quest was updated, Zhu Wen still cursed the new plastic bag without even knowing the facts, his short sentence provoking everyone's anger.
The boy got up, intending to cut the mat, hand the pot over to Xue Chao, and run away, when he saw Xue Chao also move. He turned around lightly, his back to everyone, and stared straight ahead at the empty space, looking quite serious.
Zhu Wen paused slightly, then immediately followed Xue Chao's lead and looked over. There was a window behind the spiral staircase, positioned just above the left harbor's berths. With the sound of a whistle, two massive cruise ships docked one after the other.
All five cruise ships have arrived.
They were looking at the boat, not them.
The woman in the purple dress suddenly clapped, and the woman in the wedding dress, who had just been crying about losing her child, also clapped, tears still hanging from the corners of her mouth, mixed with lipstick and flowing down, like blood diluted from eating her child. Then came cheers from the audience, though it was unclear what they were celebrating.
Xue Chao and Zhu Wen then turned around, and the crowd surrounded a bald leader. The leader raised his champagne glass and said excitedly, "The five ships have docked. Fellow 'Sailing Teams,' enjoy your last moments in Giant Port!"
Taking advantage of the crowd's inattention, Xue Chao tried to slip away, but Zhu Wen certainly wouldn't let him run off on his own. While holding Xue Chao's trench coat belt tightly, he whispered, "Five ships. There have always been three empty ships in the right port, and two more have come from the left port. I see. Guess which one is their ship, which is the one we're going to board... Where are the guards?"
The gatekeepers were gone, and looking around, the other patrolling guards were also gone. The magnificent terminal building suddenly became empty, and the classical oil paintings and sculptures seemed to come alive at any moment in the silence.
"Why worry about all that? Let's just run. We'll find out which ship it is by scouting—why are you still following me?"
We can either look for clues in the terminal or take the air transport route to board a ship and check the situation. Things have changed here, and there might be danger.
Finally, when it was time to board the ship, Xue Chao ran to the third floor, pushed open the carved golden door of the aerial tunnel, and suddenly stopped.
Zhu Wen bumped into his back, wincing and covering her nose in pain. She angrily pushed Xue Chao aside and saw the whole scene behind the door—in the brightly lit venue, everyone was raising champagne glasses and celebrating from all directions around the leader on the stage, but their necks were all turned toward the door in unison, some even turning 360 degrees, wearing butterfly half-masks, staring straight at them.
“…This time it’s up to us.” Zhu Wen muttered, and Xue Chao immediately slammed the door shut, turned around and ran. He crashed into the nearest office door with the statue of the Virgin Mary, but did not see his superior. It was still the meeting room on the second floor. This time, the person on the outermost edge had turned around and walked gracefully and slowly toward the door.
Xue Chao slammed the door again and immediately ran towards the entrance of the lobby on the first floor.
"Aren't you going to look at the other doors?"
"It's like being trapped in a maze. If I open another door, someone will be standing right in front of me, practically touching my nose... Tsk." Xue Chao stopped at the main entrance on the first floor, listening to the rustling of clothes and the clattering of high heels and leather shoes outside. His teeth ached. As soon as he turned around, the same sounds came from behind every door from the first to the third floor, as if there was an identical, lively banquet behind each door.
"Hahaha, I'm off first! Good luck, uncle, see you on the cruise ship!" Zhu Wen had already stopped at a narrow window on the second floor. He laughed a few times when a child's inflatable hammer suddenly appeared and shattered the glass. The fishing line carried him out, and debris and rain seeped in. The curtains were pulled shut by the sudden gust of wind and stuck to the window frame.
—All the doors lead to the second-floor meeting room. Zhu Wen immediately thought of other types of "doors". He carefully ruled out the semi-arched windows that were the same style as the meeting room and instead targeted the narrow ventilation windows that were only available outside the meeting room. Sure enough, it had not been completely assimilated into the meeting room. He used the props in the shop to break the blockade, shrank his petite body, and left easily.
That's just how he is. He found Xue Chao interesting, so he took the initiative to cooperate, and they actually had a pretty good understanding. But now he abandoned Xue Chao and ran away on his own, without any guilt. Instead, he was extremely pleased with himself, like a naughty child who had played a prank on an adult.
Only when the children's laughter faded into the distance did Xue Chao withdraw his "surprised" gaze, feeling somewhat bored.
He interlaced two fingers and gently opened a narrow window beside him. In an instant, the harbor in the dark clouds and drizzle became a "painting" pasted on the transparent glass. Folding it inward, the smell of wine and perfume wafted in—outside the window was still the venue.
No, that's not quite accurate. He became "the person standing outside the window." He looked into the meeting room through the window, and people who were originally far from the door were now moving towards it. The VIPs closest to the door were already excitedly leaning against it, eavesdropping on the sounds outside, just waiting for the moment the door opened so they could give the people outside a "surprise."
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The footsteps behind all the doors had stopped; all that could be heard was the same dance music coming from behind all the doors and windows, noisy and synchronized, like a net trapping him.
Instead, it made the whole building seem quiet, as if no one was there.
Xue Chao quietly withdrew, preparing to return to the third floor. As he passed the window through which Zhu Wen had escaped, he suddenly heard a light, faint knocking sound coming from behind the curtains.
...But Zhu Wen smashed all the glass. What kind of window was he knocking on?
Since he couldn't get out anyway, Xue Chao decided to give up and pulled back a corner of the curtain. In the familiar meeting room, those people were still lying at the door, waiting for him.
Just as he was about to widen the window, he felt the scent of lily perfume hitting the back of his hand, making every hair on his body stand on end—there was a person standing in the window!
"gentlemen."
The woman's voice still carried the lingering sound of sobbing. Xue Chao paused in his hand as he was about to lift the curtain, but then, for some unknown reason, he boldly pushed it open.
The woman in the wedding dress stood like a ghost by the window, her hand resting on the windowsill, very close to him. Her face was expressionless, her smudged makeup frozen in a "crying face." The crowd surrounding the door behind her seemed like lifeless wax figures, unaware of this secret meeting in the corner: "I want to ask you for a favor."
"Find your child?" Xue Chao asked in a low voice.
"Yes, we need to see the person alive or dead."
[NPC's favorability level reaches the required level, triggering a side quest]
Side Quest 2 is now available.
Side Quest 2-1 "Undine's Request": My child, my flesh and blood nurtured with love, where are you?
[Mission Details: John is a mischievous boy who sneaked out to play while his mother was putting on makeup, clutching his teddy bear. But Giant Harbor is no longer safe. Find your heartbroken mother's child.]
Xue Chao immediately bargained: "I can only find him if I go out, Madam."
Undine shook her head, her voice hidden beneath the music: "No, the clue is in the building. Go find Chen. He was the only one who came back alive from the Orlogger during that expedition a year ago. He brought back the prophecy—he's been imprisoned by the opposition. You're an investigator hired by the opposition, right? Use your identity to find him."
Side Quest 2 has been updated.
Side Quest 2-2 "The One Who Brings Back the Prophecy": A hero, and a sinner.
[Mission Details: A year ago, the Orlaug departed port amidst great anticipation, but returned with only a half-dead investigator and a prophecy he brought back. He might have a clue; find him.]
The anomaly occurred, and the guards disappeared as well. They probably guessed what was going on and evacuated in advance. Just as Xue Chao was about to ask where the opposition was hiding, the curtains suddenly fell, and footsteps and the sound of fabric rubbing against each other came from inside the window. They were moving closer to the window—they had been discovered!
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