VAP - Chapter 174
Chapter 174: The Ruler in the Endless Deep Darkness (7)
Yue Du and Gao Yin returned to their room and sat on the sofa, their tense nerves finally able to relax completely.
“The captain is definitely a cultist of the Evil God,” Gao Yin said. “Judging by his demeanor, he’s at least a high-ranking member, or perhaps even the leader. I can’t tell if there’s a problem with the first mate, though.”
Yue Du said, “The first mate probably isn’t one. Otherwise, he would have shown an unusual interest in Einser. She’s the one who managed to paint the eye of the deity they worship, after all.”
At the mention of Einser, Gao Yin’s expression soured.
“That painter is too strange. She actually managed to paint the eye of the Deep Darkness Ruler. How could a human possibly paint something like that?”
Gao Yin had encountered a similar situation in a previous instance. It was a crude statue of an Evil God, carved from volcanic rock by the kin of the Undying Fire Red Copper Bird.
But even when facing that statue, she hadn’t come as close to losing control as she had today. If Yue Du hadn’t been there, she would have.
And all she had faced was an eye—one painted with pigments.
“A human couldn’t possibly have painted that,” she repeated, her tone firmer.
“No exceptions?”
“Well, not entirely. Unless the painter’s Spirituality is far beyond that of an ordinary person. But even then, she should have gone mad the instant the painting was complete. Does she look mad to you?”
Yue Du fell silent for a moment as the chilling scene of her first encounter with Einser in the elevator replayed in her mind.
“She might not be human, but she’s probably not a cultist of the Evil God. Captain Green didn’t know her before, and I saw him chanting a spell at her and Aiona before they entered the elevator.”
Gao Yin murmured, “The spell to discern whether a soul is flawless.”
“Yes. The captain was likely very satisfied with the feedback he received.”
The two exchanged a look.
Einser might not be human, but Aiona certainly is. She meets the criteria for the cultists’ sacrificial preparations and has already been targeted.
This would also explain why Einser doesn’t mind Aiona running around everywhere—because she isn’t the little girl’s real sister at all.
Perhaps she’s some higher-level being who might even know everything happening on the cruise ship, merely watching events unfold with detached indifference. The success of the cultists’ sacrifice is irrelevant to her, as is Aiona’s life or death.
Gao Yin said gravely, “Characters like that sometimes appear in instances. It’s very dangerous to encounter such high-level beings. If they become displeased, the players could be completely wiped out.”
Yue Du said, “Is that so?”
It sounded perfectly reasonable, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
In Yue Du’s mental space, Ah Jiu pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed silently.
Day four on the cruise ship, 8 a.m.
The female tour leader said with a smile, “It’s wonderful that everyone has gathered on time again today.”
Her clothes were not as tidy as they had been the past two days. Her chest was splattered with blood that had long since dried into a dark crimson overnight, a glaring testament to who had killed the young couple.
On her way down, Yue Du had made a point of checking the young couple’s room. The door was locked, with no trace of blood before it. When she asked a crew member on that floor, she was told, “This cabin has never been occupied.”
It was hard to imagine how the bodies and the room had been cleaned so thoroughly. Could it be that this tour leader had also played the part of a silent janitor in the dead of night?
“I regret to inform everyone that two members of our group concluded their journey yesterday afternoon. Our staff was responsible for seeing them off.”
The female tour leader continued, her eyes swiveling mechanically from one player to the next. “Our travel agency has always provided very thoughtful service. For tour members who have lost the heart to play, we also offer an early return service. You are all welcome to experience it.”
It was a blatant threat.
For a moment, no one spoke. The tour leader retreated to her spot by the vase, folded her hands over her stomach, and once again became a human-sized display stand.
“This thing’s doing it on purpose, damn it,” Xiao Wang spat viciously.
Bi Yan hissed, “Can’t you wait until we’re farther away to say that?”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I haven’t violated the instance’s rules. Let her come back to life and bite me if she can.”
“Alright, let’s go,” Kong Wenbin said. He glanced at Gao Yin, then at Yue Du, and stated impassively, “We plan to search for clues this morning and check out the children’s entertainment area this afternoon. What about you?”
At three in the afternoon, an educational activity for youths was scheduled in the children’s entertainment area. No one believed this arrangement was unrelated to the cultists.
Yue Du said, “Our plans are similar.”
Kong Wenbin gave her a surprised look, then glanced at Gao Yin. Seeing no reaction from her, he smiled. “Let’s work together. If I’m not mistaken, things will start getting dangerous today. Having male companions will make things more convenient.”
Yue Du understood the “danger” he was referring to. The sacrificial ritual would be held when the cruise ship passed over the Selenfor Abyss. According to the ship’s route map, they were scheduled to arrive in the early hours of the day after tomorrow.
However, the ritual was scheduled for dusk, which meant the ship’s speed would undoubtedly be increased under the cultists’ control to ensure it reached the abyss by tomorrow evening.
This brief intervening period of two days and one night—perhaps even shorter—was the cultists’ time to kill.
Kong Wenbin’s proposal wasn’t unreasonable. If the cultists were targeting the players, moving together would indeed be safer. But since the cultists were completely unaware of the players’ existence and were fixated on killing those with flawless souls, acting together would risk them being spread too thin, giving the cultists an opportunity to strike.
Most importantly, the young couple was dead.
This meant the hidden fanatic had to be one of Kong Wenbin’s group of four. At first glance, the chubby newcomer seemed the most suspicious, but that wasn’t necessarily true.
Yue Du already had a suspect in mind.
“Sorry, it’s better if we act separately,” Yue Du said. “You must have your own targets to follow. We won’t get involved for the time being.”
Kong Wenbin sounded rather regretful. “Alright. Contact us if you run into any problems. It would be great if we could help.”
Yue Du was noncommittal.
The morning’s search yielded nothing. At two-thirty in the afternoon, the two arrived at the children’s entertainment area and finally found out what the advertised “large-scale educational activity for youths” was.
The children’s entertainment area comprised a winding corridor and all the rooms connected to it. The corridor had now been transformed into a fairytale house, with staff in character costumes peeking out from the entrance.
Gao Yin was skeptical. “Is this event really for youths? Kids who are even slightly older wouldn’t be interested in fairytale princesses and animal mascots.”
“Clearly, it’s not just about fairytales,” Yue Du said, watching the people lining up outside. While most were parents with children, there were also quite a few groups of teenage girls, their eyes shining as they whispered and laughed in eager anticipation.
Following their gazes, Yue Du saw a huge poster.
The poster featured a half-body shot of a young, handsome man. He wore an exquisite black formal suit with a scarlet cape, extending a hand toward the viewer. A speech bubble next to his face, printed in a girly font, read: “Come, be my princess.”
A quick search revealed he was a popular celebrity who just “happened” to be vacationing on the cruise ship.
Yue Du: “…”
Great. In all sorts of legends, the purest and most flawless are either children or young maidens. The cultists were trying to catch them all in one fell swoop.
They also spotted Kong Wenbin and his group in the middle of the line, chatting with a boy who was unaccompanied by an adult. Their familiar manner suggested they had spoken before.
Gao Yin frowned. “Should we go in too?”
“Let’s check the event schedule first.”
The activity required participants to enter in pairs, each consisting of one youth and one child. However, teams couldn’t be formed voluntarily; they had to be assigned by staff via a lottery.
Before entering, a staff member would tie the pair’s wrists together with a ribbon, fastened in a dead knot. If the ribbon broke at any point, the game would be considered a failure.
Participants had to follow their respective clues to enter different rooms and collect stamps from the staff stationed inside. Only after collecting all seven stamps could they claim their desired prize.
Yue Du overheard an anxious parent ask, “Can’t I go in with them? I’m really not comfortable letting my child go in alone.”
A staff member patiently explained, “Please rest assured, there will be chaperones present the entire time. We will absolutely not let any child be left alone, and you can call them whenever you like.”
When some parents still expressed reservations, a staff member said jokingly, “The cruise ship is out on the open sea. The children are much safer in the fairytale house than running around on deck. If anything really happens, you can come find me. This is my staff badge.”
After watching the parents being persuaded, Yue Du remarked thoughtfully, “The cultists probably won’t make their move today.”
“Why?”
“If they planned to start killing today, they would have arranged for the parents to go inside too, so they could restrain them all at once. Otherwise, the parents waiting outside, unable to see their children, would surely panic, which would only make their plan harder to execute.”
Yue Du paused for a few seconds, then murmured as if to herself, “By the same token, to avoid causing a panic, the cultists will kill those seven people as quickly as possible, or they’ll restrain them all first before slaughtering them en masse.”
Because from the moment the first flawless soul is sacrificed, the Moroses will rise from the sea, and these poisonous kin of the Evil God will also cause panic on the ship…
Yue Du didn’t say the last part out loud.
Gao Yin was bewildered. “If that’s the case, how are we supposed to stop them? The captain is their leader; their combat strength is definitely greater than that of a few players. The difficulty of this instance is just too…”
Yue Du asked, “How did you think it would play out before?”
“I thought the game would keep giving us hints, or that there would at least be some flaws in the ritual preparations for the players to exploit and interrupt it. The game can’t possibly expect us to fight that many cultists.”
It was true. After the hint “cultists favor black clothes and dislike bright light,” the instance had offered no further clues, as if it intentionally wanted to watch them stumble around in the dark.
But there was another possibility.
“Perhaps there aren’t as many cultists as we think.”
“But the captain is the leader. Even if there aren’t many cultists, he can command plenty of crew members.”
“The crew won’t help them kill anyone. At most, they’ll follow his orders to set up convenient scenarios for them, like this fairytale house, or the theater…”
So far, the only confirmed cultists are the captain, the lead actress from the theater, and the short man who chanted the spell at the little girl in the entertainment area. The suspected ones include a theater staff member, the first mate, and the smiling celebrity on the poster.
Yue Du had spoken with another senior officer, the chief engineer. The man had absolutely no interest in mythology or art; he was obsessed with machinery, and his greatest joy was simply being on the ship. Gao Yin could also sense that he was clean.
Likewise, the vast majority of the staff on this cruise ship were just ordinary crew members.
“But if there are so few of them, how could they possibly target an entire ship? A handful of people sacrificing thousands… it’s insane,” Gao Yin said in disbelief. After a moment’s thought, she shook her head. “Then again, cultists are all insane. It’s not so strange they’d do something like this. I thought the captain seemed more rational, but I never expected him to be this mad.”
“If that’s true, the difficulty of this instance is much lower,” she concluded.
Yue Du said, “Let’s hope so. We’ll go to the theater again later.”
Hoping to find more clues inside, Gao Yin decided to go in and experience the fairytale house. Fortunately, the staff at the entrance didn’t check IDs; it seemed anyone who didn’t look like they belonged to the “auntie and uncle” generation was allowed to participate.
Her randomly assigned partner was an ordinary little boy with the air of a miniature adult.
At six-thirty, Gao Yin came out, her face pale.
The little boy partnered with her said to Yue Du, “Your friend doesn’t seem to feel well. You two should go back and rest.”
Seeing the boy’s unconcealed disappointment, Yue Du asked, “You didn’t collect all the stamps?”
“No, I made a mistake partway through. We weren’t going to get them all anyway, so we came out early. She looked really sick,” the little boy said, feigning indifference. “It’s fine. I’ll come back tomorrow. I’ll definitely get what I want then.”
The little boy was led away by his parents, waving goodbye to Gao Yin as he left.
Gao Yin sat on a bench, burying her face between her knees for a long time before she whispered, “Several of the rooms felt very wrong. My spiritual sense was practically blaring alarms.”
“Which ones?”
Gao Yin recited five room numbers and muttered worriedly, “Each room had someone in a mascot costume inside. I don’t know if my spiritual sense was triggered by the person or the room itself.”
Yue Du added five more circles to her list of suspected cultists.
It wasn’t until after seven that the participants, young and old, began to trickle out of the corridor. Some faces were alight with excitement, others etched with regret.
A staff member at the entrance smiled and announced into a megaphone, “Today’s event has now concluded! To all the big and little friends who didn’t win a prize, don’t be discouraged! We’ll be back tomorrow with an even more interesting event.”
“Oh, and for our friends who didn’t collect all the stamps today, please come over for a lottery drawing! Winners will get free entry to tomorrow’s event with double the prizes! There are only five spots!”
A crowd immediately swarmed over, nearly engulfing the staff member.
This was to lure their targets back for tomorrow…
Yue Du, who had been about to head to the theater, stopped to wait for the lottery results.
The list was announced quickly. After reading out a string of names, the staff member said loudly, “Will the passengers whose names were called please come over here to collect your proof of entry…”
Sure enough, among the children who ran toward her, cheering, were the little girl who had encountered the short cultist and the boy who had been chatting so happily with Kong Wenbin.
Kong Wenbin wouldn’t have struck up a conversation with a random child for no reason, of course. It was quite a coincidence that the “random” list happened to include two children who might possess flawless souls.
Random, my foot. Yue Du watched the girls and children joyfully collecting their certificates, silently memorizing their faces.
“There are only five spots here,” she said.
That left two. One was probably Aiona, but who was the last one?
The crowd in front of the fairytale house gradually dispersed. As Yue Du listened to Gao Yin recount her experience inside, they arrived on the theater’s floor.
The moment they reached the theater entrance, before they even stepped inside, they exchanged a look of mutual understanding.
A new promotional poster was on display.
The image was the same—the black-tailed mermaid and the faintly visible skeletal remains beside her were unchanged—but the tagline had been altered.
“A new adaptation, bringing you the original ending of this classic story and revealing the truth beneath the tender facade,” Yue Du read aloud.
Was it the long-poem version of the ending, where the piranhas danced and sang around the man’s corpse?
A glance at the showtime revealed it was at five o’clock tomorrow afternoon.
Yue Du could already picture the scene tomorrow evening: the musical would be nearing its finale, the cultist playing the black-tailed mermaid about to tear out the man’s heart, when suddenly the image on the large screen would shift, displaying a massive summoning circle for the entire audience to see.
The audience would assume it was a special effect for the show, unaware that it was the backdrop for a death ritual. If things were allowed to reach that point, it would be far too late.
“It seems the cultists have already finalized tomorrow’s plan. First, they’ll lure the girls and children with flawless souls into the fairytale house. In a closed environment without any adults, dealing with them will be child’s play,” Yue Du mused. “Until the event ends, the parents will just assume their children are still inside playing games.”
The fairytale house event ends a little after seven, while the sacrificial ritual begins at around seven.
If the cultists’ plan succeeded, these parents would never know that their children had already become the ritual’s first offerings—long before the ship was overrun by the poisonous tentacles of the Moroses, and before the sacrifice killed everyone else.
Both of them were silent for a while.
After a long pause, Yue Du said quietly, “At least we know the cultists are definitely short-staffed. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen such a complicated plan. The captain himself might even be posing as an employee in the fairytale house.”
Gao Yin asked, “Should we go talk it over with Kong Wenbin’s group? Even if they’re short-handed, the two of us can’t handle this alone.”
Yue Du said, “Not today. We’ll talk tomorrow morning.”
“Got it. We can’t give the fanatic hiding among the players a chance to pass on information,” Gao Yin nodded.
Yue Du smiled lightly and didn’t reply.
In truth, if that fanatic had actually passed information to the captain’s group, their sacrificial plan couldn’t possibly have been designed this way.
The captain was extremely short-staffed; he wouldn’t let a potential worker sit idle unless he only wanted them to act as a spy, or he was completely unaware of the fanatic’s existence.
Besides, the instance hints never said that a fanatic of the Deep Darkness Ruler would obey these particular cultists, did they?
That night, the two returned to their cabin before midnight. Just as they were getting ready for bed, they heard a rhythmic knocking at the door.
Three knocks, a pause, then three more knocks.
Yue Du started, a sense of dread washing over her. What kind of classic horror movie cliche was this?
Unsure if she was reassuring herself or her teammate, Gao Yin said, “It’s fine. My spiritual intuition isn’t picking up anything unusual. It should be a normal person.” She didn’t notice that her own voice was trembling.
The knocking persisted. Ah Jiu said, both helpless and amused, “It’s Aiona.”
Yue Du: “…”
What was the little girl doing, knocking on their door in the middle of the night?
She didn’t let on that she already knew who was outside. Wearing an expression that said, “I’m scared too, but I have to see what’s going on,” she crossed the living area to open the door.
Aiona stood at the door in a black silk nightgown, hugging a soft pillow. She tilted her small face upward, looking both adorable and pitiful.
“Is something wrong?” Yue Du bent down and asked with a smile.
Aiona whispered, “Einser went out alone. I’m scared to sleep by myself.”
Yue Du glanced at her watch—it was eleven-thirty at night. She recalled how just yesterday she had urged Einser to look after her sister, and her own theory about the painter not being human…
“Come in first,” Yue Du sighed.
Once inside, Gao Yin stood by the door, studying Aiona with a deep frown. Perhaps because her spiritual sense gave no feedback, she eventually relaxed and shot Yue Du a questioning look.
“Einser left her alone again and went off somewhere,” Yue Du explained as she picked up her phone and dialed Einser’s number.
The call was answered before it could even ring.
“It’s me,” Einser said on the other end. The faint sound of waves came through the receiver.
“Where are you?”
“On the deck of one of the floors. I suddenly felt like painting, and the view outside is quite nice.”
“It’s eleven-thirty at night, and you have a sister alone in her room. Don’t you think—”
Einser cut her off with an amused tone. “Aiona is with you, isn’t she?”
“Yes. Do you want to talk to her?”
“No, I don’t. Since she’s with you, I’ll have to trouble you to look after her. I’m not good with children.”
Yue Du said, “Wait a minute.”
Did she look like she was good at it? On second thought, remembering Yue Hao… alright, she was actually quite good at it.
“Then I’ll leave it to you, little cutie.”
The call was disconnected.
Yue Du, holding her phone: “…”
She turned her head and saw the surprise in Gao Yin’s eyes. When Yue Du snapped out of it, she too found it strange.
They had already concluded that Einser probably wasn’t human, yet she had called her without a second thought, without even planning what to say. It had felt completely natural.
Fortunately, there was nothing amiss with Einser’s reply—she had simply settled the matter of Aiona’s care in a few short sentences.
Yue Du looked down and met the little girl’s pure black eyes. Aiona immediately grabbed the hem of her clothes, her eyes misting over like those of a homeless kitten.
Yue Du sighed again.
“You can sleep with me for now.”
“Okay!”
The mist in Aiona’s eyes vanished instantly. She pounced onto Yue Du’s bed, did a little roll, and claimed the blanket for herself. Then, turning the tables, she said, “Come on, Sister, we need to get to bed early.”
Yue Du remained expressionless, suspecting what she had just seen was a hallucination.
Moreover, she had reason to doubt the accuracy of the captain’s spell.
Was this something a little girl with a pure and flawless soul would do?
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