Chapter 31

Only now did Su Han notice, the cruise ship's third floor was on fire. Flames licked hungrily outward, explosions booming now and then, a chaos of heat and noise.
And she was hardly the only unlucky one. Her room, 201, was just below the ignition point, but the fourth floor was close too, the blaze would reach it in minutes. And over twenty guild members from Moonfall lived up there!
On deck, the players had bunched together, eagerly spectating with zero intent to help put out the fire, utterly heartless.
Cai Sheng let out a low whistle. “Man, third instance is off the charts! Mortals like us can’t even begin to guess what comes next.”
Zhong Rui looked thoughtful. “That explosion out of nowhere? Feels like someone used a bomb. Far as I know, there’s no immunity mechanic here. Maybe some player decided to go scorched earth with their nemesis, quite the exit move.”
“The Moonfall guild is cursed, huh.” the stall girl muttered. “Fourth floor rooms, terrible escape routes.”
Someone nearby snorted, “Or maybe every last one of them’s some big shot, no need to run at all.” Still, you could practically hear the schadenfreude in their voice.
With Moonfall always lording it over everyone, nobody ever felt fully at ease. Sure, the guild hadn’t done anything truly villainous, yet, but most players would be glad to see a major threat get erased.
Su Han could only sigh at this bunch, once they know they're about to be eliminated, they go wild and don't care who else goes down. But really, what could she do? When your character’s dead, you’re out. No point struggling, just accept your fate.
The fire raged for a full five minutes.
Suddenly Su Han’s eyes widened as something occurred to her. “Wait, shouldn’t we try to put it out? What if the flames burn through the hull? Are we supposed to float the rest of the week clinging to driftwood?”
That finally shook the players from their daze. But… “How do we put it out?” There was no way anyone was wasting precious drinking water, it was already running low.
Then, someone piped up, “Hey, the buffet’s got those big water barrels! They’re poisoned, nobody’s drinking that stuff anyway. Why not dump them on the fire?”
Cheers and nods all around. A couple of the more impatient ones immediately ran off to grab supplies from the buffet.
The stall girl brushed past Zhong Rui with a smile, then followed along to help.
Su Han: “……”
So they’re fighting fire with toxic water now? Did nobody think that burning it would just create poisonous fumes? Was everyone here braindead?
She opened her mouth to protest, only to have Zhong Rui grab her wrist.
Su Han turned, but Zhong Rui just shook his head at her, gently. She bit back her words.
They ducked into a corner for a quiet chat. Zhong Rui was breezy, “Good thing you spoke up. Otherwise, everyone would’ve just stood around watching the spectacle, right until the ship burned to ashes.”
Su Han wasn’t so easily convinced. She pressed, “Why’re you letting them use poison water to put out the flames?”
Without a word, Zhong Rui slipped her a surgical mask.
Surgical mask: Single-use protective item. Blocks 80% of harmful gases for one hour after use.
Su Han was honestly impressed. “Why do you have everything? Are you some kind of walking Doraemon?”
Zhong Rui replied with a straight face, “Hey, we bought out the whole pharmacy together, didn’t we?”
Su Han thought: Please, it’s your fault the place ended up empty.
Zhong Rui gazed into the distance, hiding his real thoughts, sure, he’d stockpiled tons of surgical masks, but this particular one wasn’t his.
When they’d passed by earlier, the stall girl had slipped him two surgical masks, obviously to return a favor.
After a pause, Zhong Rui handed his teammate a tube of burn ointment. “Here, can cure ‘Burned’.”
Su Han accepted it, no hesitation, and used it right away.
Soon someone hauled over the first barrel of poisoned water and started dousing the flames.
Su Han let out a sigh. “Too late to stop them now.”
“You couldn’t, even if you tried.” Zhong Rui’s tone was serious. “Burning toxic water might make toxic smoke, it’s just a theory. How many people would actually believe you? And if they say no to using that water, you'd better have another fix handy. Fail to save the day, ship goes down, guess who gets blamed?”
Su Han had already considered this. Calmly, she said, “Which is why I zipped it. No way am I volunteering as scapegoat-of-the-day.”
“Wasn’t our idea anyway. Speaking up was a courtesy, keeping quiet is survival. At the end of the day, nothing’s as important as covering your own ass.” As he spoke, Zhong Rui found a wooden bucket, tied a rope to it, and got to hauling seawater.
Cai Sheng and Su Han grabbed more buckets, helped carry seawater, and rushed back to help fight the fire.
The blaze started to die down, but the smoke, slick, black, and thick, just kept rising.
Something prickled at Su Han’s instincts. She shot Cai Sheng a look; both of them immediately backed up to the deck and quickly pulled on their masks.
Moments later, the screaming started.
“What the hell, why am I poisoned again?!”
“My mouth’s burning, my stomach hurts like hell… I’m gonna pass out.”
“Holy shit! Which idiot said to use the toxic water? Now all that poison’s vaporized! Black smoke’s toxic!”
But too late, player after player dropped to the deck, out cold.
“This is so messed up,” Cai Sheng croaked, clutching his mask, actually trembling.
“Hide. Now!” Zhong Rui snapped, his voice clipped and urgent, as he strode off to find a spare cabin on the first floor.
Cai Sheng scrambled after him.
Su Han brought up the rear. The three of them, masks and all, were way too conspicuous on deck. Time to disappear.
They ducked into room 107 and slammed the door behind them.
Zhong Rui cracked the window, just a sliver, and peered out carefully to keep watch.
Suddenly, Su Han’s brow furrowed. She said in warning, “Look at the ocean.”
The other two followed her gaze and saw the thick black mist touching the water’s surface. After a few moments, the lower layer of fog slowly disappeared, but the sea darkened to an even deeper shade.
Zhong Rui sucked in a sharp breath. “Did the poison gas seep into the sea?”
“Looks that way.” Su Han’s face turned grim. “For the next while, no fishing. Don’t touch the seawater, either.”
Cai Sheng spoke up, careful, “But the upper fog is still there…”
Su Han let out a helpless sigh. “Who can say when the poison mist will clear out for good? There’s just no way to know.”
Thinking it over, Cai Sheng added, “A bunch of people collapsed on the third and fourth floors, already unconscious. Does that mean they’ll just passively breathe in the poison?”
“That’s why you can’t just do whatever people say without thinking.” Zhong Rui shook his head, his frustration clear. “It’s like some of them treat their own lives as a joke.”
Then he shut the window, making it official. “We’re holing up in here for the next few days. Nobody’s going out until that poison fog is gone.”
The other two nodded immediately, in perfect agreement.
At the same time, in Room 122, a long-haired girl with jet-black hair was lying weakly on the bed.
She sighed with real longing and a hint of regret. “If only Lin Xinghai were here right now…”
Beside her, a blond young man offered gentle reassurance. “Just try to rest. Don’t overthink it. You already took the antidote pill, you’ll be fine soon.”
But the girl was stubborn. “If Xinghai was still here, he’d have noticed something was off with that black mist way ahead of time!”
The blond boy’s smile slipped. Lin Xinghai, Lin Xinghai, he’s dead and gone, and you’re still hung up on him? Can’t you look at the living for a change? I’m the one at your bedside now!
She didn’t pick up on his resentment at all. Puffing out her cheeks, she muttered, “Why would Xinghai ever drink that bottled water? He told me he wouldn’t wait in line, he hated those bottled ones.”
The boy had his back to her as he smiled, a smile with something twisted about it. After all, he was the one who’d handed over the water. That dumb idiot never suspected a thing; he just drank it right down. So brainless, he practically asked to die.
The girl still felt like something was off. Suddenly, she blurted out, “Honestly? I think someone must’ve killed Xinghai on purpose.”
The blond boy took a bottle of water from his personal inventory, just as he’d once handed a bottle to Lin Xinghai. Sweet as ever, he said, “Here, have some water.”
No suspicion at all, the girl gulped it down in a couple loud swallows.
A moment later, the slight improvement in her stomach pain evaporated as it flared up again, ten times worse. Her eyes went wide in terror. Before the blond boy could say a word, she vanished into thin air in a flash of white light.
Only then did the boy let his jealousy and hatred seep into his words. “Miss him that much, do you? Fine, why not go keep him company!”
He barely got to gloat for two minutes before suddenly realizing, this was all just a game… When this instance ended, once they were out of the game pod, he’d still have to face everyone in real life.
The blond boy panicked inside. Shit! I lost control and got way too into the act, forgot this wasn’t real. He’d personally poisoned both of them. How the hell could he clear himself of suspicion after that?
After thinking for ages, he grabbed the last bottle of water and downed it in one go, muttering to himself, “I was just careless. Trusted the wrong person. I traded for that water, I had no idea it was tainted. Yeah, that’s what I’ll say when I’m back outside.”
It sounded pretty dumb, but it was still way better than ‘I deliberately poisoned my friends.’
He didn’t have long to wait. In moments his mouth started to burn and pain wracked his stomach, his mind going foggy and numb. He didn’t even fight it, just lay there and waited for death to collect him.
That’s when the door swung open.
The boy looked up. His eyes went frantic for a heartbeat when he saw who entered. “Xing, Xinghai?”
The newcomer wore a soaked triangle scarf over most of his face, but after all these years the boy recognized him instantly. He strained to steady his expression and forced a smile. “Xinghai, you’re, you’re alive? That’s great!”
Xinghai didn’t bother to answer. He pulled a knife from his pocket, and wordlessly drew it across the blond boy’s carotid. Then he drove the knife straight into his heart.
Pain ripped through him. Still, he clutched Xinghai’s hand and kept up the act till the end. “Xinghai… why? I thought we were friends…”
Xinghai yanked the knife out and plunged it into his heart again, clean and efficient.
A second later, the blond boy blinked out in a flash of white light.
Only then did Xinghai speak, voice cold as ice. “Meeting you was just about the worst luck of my life. Let’s never talk again.”
Without a glance back, he slipped out of the room.
The next morning, right at nine, the system’s mechanical voice rang out: “Day 4.”
“Explosion detected on cruise C23. Critical equipment damaged. Vessel unable to resume normal navigation, now drifting freely at sea.”
“C23 surrounded by toxic fog. Survivors: 41. Players: 40. NPCs: 1.”