Chapter 15: Lewd Cruise (14)
Ji Ning followed Xing Ye into the bar on the cruise ship's first deck, passed through a door beside the bar counter, and entered a corridor lined with several first-deck rooms.
Xing Ye led her straight to the innermost room. Pushing open the door, Ji Ning saw it was furnished with a bed and table, resembling a hotel guest room.
Then she quickly noticed several hard plastic fixed garment hooks on the wall behind the door. The hook furthest inside had broken off, leaving a very sharp fracture.
Ji Ning's eyes lit up. She immediately moved closer to inspect the broken hook.
After a careful examination, she finally spotted a tiny trace of dark red blood in a torn corner just below the break.
Ji Ning turned back to look at Xing Ye, her breathing slightly quickened. "This is the first murder scene, isn't it."
"Right. There are also sanding marks on the wall," Xing Ye nodded. "Now we need to find out who was in this room with Young Master Hui at the time."
"Yang Yi!" Ji Ning did not hesitate. She grabbed Xing Ye's arm and recounted all her evidence and deductions in detail.
After hearing her out, Xing Ye shared her opinion: "There is no more plausible scenario than a woman coming to this room with Young Master Hui."
"Yes! I suspect Yang Yi was not an escort at all, but was threatened and coerced by Young Master Hui into boarding this cruise. At night, while his girlfriend was asleep—or maybe he drugged her with sleeping pills or something to knock her out—Young Master Hui brought Yang Yi here and tried to force her into sex! Yang Yi resisted and struggled; during the scuffle, Young Master Hui crashed into this hook, leading to his accidental death."
Xing Ye picked up from her words: "There may be a hidden connection between the left-handed bodyguard Wu Hao and Yang Yi. That's why Wu Hao cleaned up after her, and even went so far as to mutilate the corpse to protect Yang Yi from being discovered, staging it as a revenge killing, using the blade wound to expose himself and take the fall for Yang Yi."
Deduced to this point, the entire sequence of the murder had been largely reconstructed.
Ji Ning's heartbeat accelerated. She asked hesitantly, "Then… should we… submit our answer now?"
She glanced at the countdown. Less than two hours remained for the first-tier reward.
Xing Ye considered for a moment, then shook his head. "It's not secure enough yet. We still can't confirm whether the connection between Wu Hao and Yang Yi is strong enough to sustain a 'taking the blame' scenario."
"Then what do we do? I can't find any other leads on Yang Yi." Ji Ning knew Xing Ye was right. Everything was still just speculation, and speculation alone was not enough to risk answering. If they got it wrong, both of them would be Eliminated…
Xing Ye took Ji Ning's hand and held it in his palm. "I'll get close to Yang Yi and force Wu Hao to reveal himself. If Wu Hao reacts strongly, I'll submit the answer directly. Watch me—as soon as I disappear normally, you submit yours as well."
Ji Ning immediately asked him, "If you get hurt in the game, or die, what happens to the person?"
Xing Ye looked into her eyes and said softly, "What's thrown into the game is our physical body—not data."
Ji Ning understood his meaning. If someone died in the game, they died for good. She panicked at once. "No! Those NPCs aren't normal people—what if something unexpected happens?"
"It'll be fine, don't worry." Xing Ye was unhurried. "I checked; these bodyguards have no guns. I'll have time to react."
Ji Ning was still worried, but under Xing Ye's repeated assurances, she could only agree to his plan of using himself as bait to test the connection between the bodyguard Wu Hao and Yang Yi.
At the same time, Jiang Shiyu, who had searched for Xing Ye for ages without finding him, could only give up unwillingly.
There wasn't much time left to answer. She didn't want to waste any more of it.
Jiang Shiyu took a bottle of medication labeled entirely in English from her handbag and examined it, recalling her process of deciphering the clues.
This medicine bottle was something she had gone to great lengths to find in He Zhifang's room. She had identified it as a powerful nerve-paralyzing drug.
He Zhifang, who owed Young Master Hui a large sum of money, must have tricked Young Master Hui into ingesting this drug, then killed him while he was unconscious, even using his left hand to hold the knife and staging it as a revenge killing in an attempt to frame someone else.
With the creditor dead and no signed IOU, no one could make He Zhifang repay the money.
Jiang Shiyu was absolutely certain: He Zhifang was the answer. She had told no one of her discovery—not even her partner, Ye Jiaming. In this game, she intended to be the sole victor.
A flash of ruthlessness crossed Jiang Shiyu's eyes. She opened the system light screen with a thought and, without any hesitation, entered He Zhifang's name into the answer box.
After waiting three seconds, the expected 【Answer Correct】 did not appear. Instead, the light screen before her abruptly shifted from teal to gray, with the blood-red words 【Answer Incorrect】 flashing relentlessly.
Her body felt as though it were being torn apart strip by strip. Agonizing pain, intense enough to drown out all sensation, swept over her. Jiang Shiyu's pupils instantly flooded with blood, her eyes bulging until they threatened to split. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. In the end, amid utter torment, she vanished completely.
【Player No. 2—Answer Incorrect. Elimination enforced.】
Another system-panel notification appeared.
But Ji Ning had no time to look at it. Her attention was fully focused, not daring to pause for even a moment as she stared at Xing Ye in the distance.
Lunchtime had arrived. Most people on the cruise had collected their meals and gathered in the bar to eat.
Xing Ye approached Yang Yi, who was sitting alone. He moved like a predator that had locked onto its prey, radiating an air of danger.
Because he had only approached, the bodyguard Wu Hao, who was also eating, saw this scene but made no particular reaction.
Yet when Xing Ye forcibly seized Yang Yi's wrist and led her away, taking her directly toward the second deck, Wu Hao immediately followed.
Ji Ning also quietly trailed behind them.
The actions of Xing Ye and Ji Ning caught the attention of several other players. Having no leads of their own, the others could only fixate on Xing Ye—the person most likely to answer correctly—and follow behind him, hoping to pick up the answer.
Seeing Xing Ye lay hands on a frail-looking female NPC, they were utterly baffled, but they followed anyway.
Just as he had told her beforehand, Xing Ye dragged Yang Yi into a room. Ji Ning used a corner as cover and hid beside the window to peer inside.
To provoke Wu Hao into action, Xing Ye was thoroughly rough with Yang Yi. Ignoring her struggles, he pulled her and threw her onto the bed, like a man overcome by bestial lust, about to force himself on a woman.
Wu Hao took the bait. He burst in and launched a furious assault on Xing Ye.
Both men were tall, brawny, and clearly skilled fighters. Once locked in combat, they were evenly matched and unrelenting.
Wu Hao also seized the chance to shift his position, placing Yang Yi behind him under his protection.
Xing Ye countered the attacks while glancing toward the window. His eyes met Ji Ning's.
Ji Ning saw a trace of a smile in his gaze, no longer so cold—like there was a hint of reluctance hidden within.
Then, Xing Ye vanished like a man evaporating from the mortal world. He became semi-transparent, until he disappeared completely.
The NPCs, Wu Hao and Yang Yi, showed not the slightest surprise. Their expressions and movements returned to normal as they left the room one after another.
Because Xing Ye had explained it to her beforehand, Ji Ning knew this meant he had answered correctly. Reassured, she opened the system panel and entered Yang Yi's name into the answer box.
【Answer Correct】
The teal notification appeared. Then, Ji Ning underwent the same transformation as Xing Ye, leaving this game instance.
The sensation was profoundly wondrous—like a fantastical dream from which one slowly awakens, real yet suffused with a strange, surreal haziness.
The players watching from a distance saw Ji Ning answer correctly and disappear. They looked at one another in confusion. They knew Xing Ye had just gone into a room with two NPCs—a bodyguard and an escort.
So which of those two NPCs was the answer?
Livestream comments:
"Brilliant deduction, brilliant teamwork."
"Hope these two end up in the same instance again someday."
"Player No. 6—a newcomer with both luck and skill."
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