The next day, the sky still brightened beneath the thick fog.
The atmosphere in the hall was unusually dull.
Most of the guests had changed their glamorous and elegant clothing into somber black outfits. Those without black chose plain colors instead.
Upon hearing the news of the Countess jumping into the sea to her death, the already quiet hall fell into even deeper silence.
However, the expressions on their faces were not those of sorrow over the death of a friend, but of panic and fear.
The death of a friend?
These guests could hardly be called friends of the Count and Countess. After reading the Countess’s diary, Ji Nansheng knew she wasn’t close to any of them. There was another reason for their invitation.
Since they were not friends, how could there be grief?
As for panic and fear…
Both the host and hostess were dead, leaving only the guests stranded in the middle of the vast ocean, with no help in sight.
What’s more… this was still the Siren’s territory.
After a brief moment of fear, the guests began to lose control.
Someone shouted, “Where’s the captain? He should take us out of here!” The crowd was like a balloon that had suddenly been pricked, finding an outlet for their panic. Shouting and shoving, they stormed out of the hall, like a frenzied wave of zombies, rushing toward the cockpit.
The cockpit was empty.
Only the wheel was still spinning by itself in the silent air.
Their last hope extinguished, and the guests were plunged into even deeper terror and despair.
“Why is there no one in the cockpit?”
“Where’s the captain? Where is he?”
“I want to go home! Let me go home!”
“Oh God, please, help me. Save your devoted follower.”
“Why is the wheel moving on its own?”
“The Siren! It must be the Siren!”
The guests on the deck had completely abandoned the elegance they showed in the hall. Faced with danger, their graceful façades were stripped away, leaving only their most primal, naked instincts.
Suddenly, someone grabbed the neck of the person next to them, shouting with red-eyes, “Siren! I’ll kill you, Siren!”
The person being strangled also had red-eyes, his eyes rolling back as he grabbed the other party’s neck in return. “Siren! I’ll kill you!”
Fog rolled in from all directions. Ji Nansheng cautiously observed his surroundings and noticed that the fog had thickened without them realizing.
What had once been a visibility of four or five meters was now reduced to just one or two meters.
The guests, as if driven mad, randomly attacked those around them, creating utter chaos.
Some guests walked to the railing and after shouting “I want to go home!”, leaped into the sea.
Fearing they might be affected by the fog, Ji Nansheng and the others hid in the cockpit.
Seeing this, the remaining players also followed Ji Nansheng and hid inside. The cockpit was surrounded by glass, allowing them to vaguely see what was happening outside.
All the guests had bloodshot eyes and were becoming more and more frenzied.
Gradually, the guests fell one by one, and fewer and fewer remained alive.
Finally, the last guest leaped off the railing in utter despair, bringing the primitive battle to an end.
Ji Nansheng scanned the room, and including himself, there were only fourteen people left inside.
Perhaps the terrifying scene from earlier had overwhelmed the players. Two of them forcibly logged out on the spot, leaving just twelve.
Ji Nansheng checked the game’s time; there were only 8 hours left until the game ended.
Footsteps sounded outside, and Ji Nansheng looked out the window. In the thick white fog, a slender, dark figure gradually appeared, moving from blurry to clear, from far to near.
Perhaps it was the environment, but Ji Nansheng felt that the person was exuding an oppressive aura, as if they were enveloped in murderous intent.
He subconsciously took two steps back.
But the person clearly didn’t care about Ji Nansheng’s fear. He glanced at the corpses scattered on the ground and then at the people inside the cockpit. With an indifferent expression, he walked past the corpses and entered the cockpit.
“Good morning. Have you found a way to leave this place?” The man stood straight as a blade, his gaze sharper than the blade itself.
The group gulped nervously. Ji Nansheng clenched the hand hidden in his sleeve, trying hard to keep his voice steady and calm. “No.”
Dijia:”If you still haven’t found it, then we’ll be waiting here to die.”
Ji Nansheng: “…”
“But I found a clue yesterday.” Dijia tossed something toward Ji Nansheng. Ji Nansheng instinctively reached out to catch it. The object landed in his hand, cold and smooth.
He glanced down quickly—it was a blue crystal ball.
It seemed to be alive inside, with water ripples. Looking closer, there was a tiny ship inside. Ji Nansheng was not unfamiliar with its style and design. It was a miniature version of the Dream Star.
Ji Nansheng only glanced at it before looking away.
Dijia: “This crystal ball can guide you in the right direction. Place it in the groove in the middle of the ship’s wheel, and it will take you out of the Siren’s territory.”
Ji Nansheng: “You want me to put it on the ship’s wheel?”
Dijia: “The crystal ball is in your hand now, so of course, you should be the one to put it there.”
Ji Nansheng’s Adam’s apple moved up and down silently.
He glanced at Dijia, then at his three companions, and finally walked to the ship’s wheel, holding the crystal ball.
Just as he was about to place the crystal ball on the wheel, Ji Nansheng suddenly pulled his hand back and turned to Dijia. “Where did you find this crystal ball?”
Dijia: “In a guest’s room.”
Ji Nansheng: “Which guest?”
Dijia shrugged slightly, “Probably the woman who jumped into the sea two days ago, I didn’t really check.”
Ji Nansheng pressed further, “Then how are you sure this crystal ball can guide us?”
Dijia: “I searched all night. Of course, I know it can.”
“Really?” Ji Nansheng tightened his grip on the crystal ball, slowly backing away from the wheel. Suddenly, he raised his hand and forcefully slammed it down. The crystal ball shattered with a loud “bang,” breaking into countless pieces.
At that moment, he seemed to hear a faint sound brushing past his ear.
Dijia’s eyes showed surprise. “You broke it?”
The muscular man stepped forward. “Of course. Because we know that if we use that crystal ball, we’ll never be able to leave the Siren’s territory.”
Curiosity flickered in the man’s eyes. “Why?”
The girl: “Do you think that just because the Countess is dead, you can do whatever you want, Jacob?”
Dijia pointed to himself in surprise, “I’m Jacob?”
The muscular man: “Stop pretending. You are Jacob. You’re the one who told the Countess the truth, and the one seeking revenge has always been you. The person the Countess met half a year ago was you. I think you’ve changed your appearance, maybe had plastic surgery. You disguised yourself as the Siren and told her things only Jacob and the Countess would know. She immediately believed you, thinking you were the all-powerful Siren. Then came the events where she sought revenge for Jacob.”
“You manipulated and controlled the Countess, using her for your own purposes. There never was a Siren. It was you, a human, playing tricks all along. But if we must say it, you are the Siren. Using the legend of the Siren, you pretended to be the Siren and got revenge.”
Dijia raised an eyebrow, “An interesting story. But you’re wrong. From the beginning, I’ve told you more than once, there is a Siren in this copy. The Countess is that Siren. She was before, she is now, and she always will be.”
“This crystal ball was your only chance to leave the Siren’s territory, but now it’s shattered by your own hands. Unfortunately, you can no longer leave this place.”
Ji Nansheng suddenly pulled a box out of the player’s backpack and placed it on the ground.
It was a box adorned with rosewood, diamonds, and pure gold. When opened, it revealed its contents.
A handkerchief wrapped in furry curved wires, a flashlight, a few pieces of letter paper, and some other items.
Dijia looked at the box: “What is this?”
Ji Nansheng: “You didn’t expect it, did you? You searched the Countess’s room before us, thinking that you would be safe if you took away all the evidence that might incriminate you in advance? But what you didn’t expect was that there was a hidden compartment under the Countess’s bed, where she hid all her secrets. These items are what exposed your plot.”
Dijia found a spot to sit down and looked at the box leisurely, showing no sign of guilt. Instead, his eyes flashed with interest: “Explain to me how these things prove that I am Jacob, the one pretending to be the Siren?”
Seeing that Dijia still wouldn’t admit it, the other players were even more confused. Ji Nansheng simply decided to demonstrate.
He first took out the furry wire from the box. It appeared soft on the outside, but the iron wire inside made it strong and rigid.
The wire was bent at several angles, as if the internal wire was not smooth.
Ji Nansheng folded the wire along the bends, and in no time, the furry wire had wrapped tightly, forming a closed shape.
At first glance, it looked like a curled-up quail, but it was hard to tell exactly what it was.
Then, Ji Nansheng took out the flashlight from the box and shone the light on the furry wire.
The next moment, the players burst into an uproar.
Amidst the thick fog outside the window, a phantom-like silhouette appeared.
Through a clever use of angles and lighting, the furry wire formed the blurred image of a woman.
And the outline looked familiar—it was none other than the “female ghost” who had killed the man in the hall that day.
“It’s hard to see clearly during the day, but it’s much clearer at night.” Ji Nansheng turned off the flashlight and put away the wire. “This is the truth behind the female ghost murder that we saw that night.”
Dijia: “…”
One of the players was confused: “If it was just a ghostly shadow, who killed the man? And why?”
The muscular man glanced at him as if he were an idiot: “You still don’t get it? Of course, it was this guy, working with the Countess, who killed the man to make everyone believe in the existence of the Sirens. The person who died on the deck the first day— that was their doing too. But that was covered up by the Count, so they came up with a second plan.”
