The Seventh Floor (First Update)

"Who knows what kind of scenario the labyrinth mystic realm on the seventh floor will have. Mr. Fool... no, when it comes down to luck, I should pray for the God of Knowledge's blessing. Hopefully, it'll still be something I'm familiar with..." As Abner waited for Mr. Gaston to read his reward, he prayed silently.

Don't be fooled by how he had seemed to hold all the cards in the previous two stages, immediately finding the key to clearing them. That had only been cheating. Objectively speaking, the scenarios on the first two floors had actually been very difficult!

The ninth stage was manageable. If one patiently searched the room, one would eventually find all the passwords. But the heating device had also been a hidden danger. One careless mistake, and the heat could cause dehydration and leave one unable to move.

As for the eighth floor, setting aside how complicated the case itself had been, finding the culprit before Conan had been extraordinarily difficult. If Abner hadn't known the plot, he wouldn't have dared claim that his current logical reasoning and observational abilities surpassed Conan's.

No wonder Mr. Gaston had rarely managed to clear the eighth floor in the past.

"All right, let's continue." Just as Abner's thoughts began to wander, Mr. Gaston had already risen to his feet again.

The three of them wasted no more time and resolutely stepped onto the passage leading to the seventh floor.

As the scene shifted, Abner found himself in a dim wooden room. Yet the "floor" beneath his feet swayed violently. He was very familiar with that sensation; he had often felt similarly unsteady on the deck of the Glory of All Cities a few days ago.

"So, this is a scenario aboard a seagoing ship?"

Before he could think further, a vicious gust came at him from behind. Having the Keeper of Knowledge's Combat Master skills, Abner did not panic. He shifted his body slightly and dodged the attack, then naturally extended his leg to trip the sneak attacker. The man immediately toppled to the floor after losing his balance.

Seizing the opportunity, Abner closed in, pinned the back of the man's neck with his knee, and snatched away the longsword in his hand.

After doing all that, he looked around and saw that Xio had already twisted the arms of a sailor-looking man behind his back. Mr. Gaston was even more decisive, pulling out his revolver and shooting dead the thug charging at him.

Although faint sounds of fighting could still be heard outside the cabin, the room itself had fallen quiet. Abner cautiously activated the Pure White Eye's Scene Replay and, after confirming there was no immediate danger, pressed the longsword against the attacker's body and demanded, "Where is this place? Why did you attack me?"

Yet the man lying face-down on the floor did not answer. Instead, inhuman "heh, heh" sounds came from his throat, and his bloodshot eyes had turned scarlet.

Abner frowned at the sight, then looked toward Xio's captive, only to find that man in the same state as the one he was restraining.

"Have they gone mad? Or suffered some kind of mental shock?" Unable to get any answers, Xio knocked her captive unconscious and guessed.

"Could everyone on the ship have gone mad? Then what are our conditions for clearing this stage?" Abner was equally full of questions.

At that moment, old Mr. Gaston pointed at a slip of paper on the cabin table and said, "The condition for clearing the stage should be there."

After following Xio's example and knocking his captive unconscious, Abner walked to the table, picked up the note, and glanced at it:

"Investigate the true cause of the mutiny aboard the ship."

"Most of the time, the clearing conditions appear directly before us as text, but sometimes they are presented in other forms. Like this note, for instance. Or the time I encountered Conan, when the condition appeared on a banner hanging from an airship..." Mr. Gaston walked over as he spoke, put two more bullets into the captives Abner and Xio had knocked out, and only then continued, "I can tell you're still not used to killing. But whether in the Dream Labyrinth or in the real mystical world, you must cast aside that naivety as soon as possible. Heh, in my opinion, since you can't truly die in Dreamscape Scenarios, it wouldn't hurt to practice getting used to it. Besides, these attackers are most likely scum, and they aren't truly 'human' anyway."

Abner and Xio exchanged a glance. They knew Mr. Gaston's words made sense and that he sincerely meant well for them. They humbly accepted his advice and decided not to hold back in future fights. Of course, that did not conflict with their own principles; they would not indiscriminately kill people who had committed no evil.

As their resolve gradually strengthened, the three left the cabin one after another, covering each other as they made their way to a secluded side deck.

It was nighttime. Thick clouds filled the sky and blocked out the Crimson. The deck was pitch-black, with very poor visibility.

Seeing no enemies appear, Abner habitually began looking for loopholes in the clearing condition and asked, "Is there no time limit on this condition? What if we wait until the ship docks and let the Nighthawks or Mandated Punishers investigate the truth?"

"Impossible. Even if it isn't explicitly written, the vast majority of scenarios have time limits! Take the Conan scenario on the eighth floor, for example. You had to identify the murderer before he deduced it, or the attempt would be judged a failure. This should be similar." Mr. Gaston shook his head. That hidden rule had trapped him more than once.

As they spoke, an unwilling roar from a man suddenly came from around the corner ahead, followed by a woman's intermittent sobs. Then came a man's heavy panting, accompanied by the sound of clothes tearing...

Having spent so long around taverns in East Borough, Xio quickly realized what was happening. She exchanged a glance with Abner, and both drew their revolvers before rushing toward the corner. Mr. Gaston followed behind, guarding against an attack from the other direction.

What greeted them was a scene that filled Xio with rage. A man had been nailed to the outer wall of the cabin with a longsword, while two fairly well-dressed men wore twisted expressions as they tore at the dress of a woman on the ground.

This time, Xio did not hesitate. She was unwilling even to waste bullets on these two pieces of scum. With a single stride, she closed in on the two thugs and, before they could react, used the Three-Edged Stinger hidden in her sleeve to pierce their throats.

The woman, whose clothes had been mostly torn away, stared blankly in bewilderment at first. Then she abruptly threw herself toward the man nailed to the wall and cried loudly, "Darling! Please! Please wake up... Don't leave me behind."

Watching this scene, Xio felt terrible. A mist had long since clouded her eyes. She retreated to Abner's side and deliberately changed the subject. "The suppression of Beyonder Abilities on the seventh floor isn't as strong as before. I can use most of an Arbiter's abilities. But I still can't use the Ring of Prediction Mr. Stanton gave me."

Abner merely nodded slightly without replying. It made no difference to him. Even if the Reader's combat strength had been restored, so what? That was assuming a Reader had combat strength to begin with! Besides, he had always been able to use Beyonder Abilities whenever the Pure White Eye was activated.

After crying for a while, the woman picked up a dagger dropped by one of the thugs. She aimed it at her abdomen, her face full of struggle. She seemed to want to commit Suicide and follow her lover in death, but she was afraid of pain and did not dare act.

However, Xio gave her no chance to choose. She immediately knocked the dagger from her hand and comforted her, "You need to live on bravely! He risked his life to protect you, so you cannot let his sacrifice be in vain. You must live!"

Although she knew the woman was not a real "person" and could roughly guess that this scenario had been reset an unknown number of times, she still could not bear to watch her die in despair and grief.

After hearing Xio's words, the woman looked at the man nailed to the wall in silence for a long while. Only then did she grit her teeth and say, "Miss, you're right! I have to live! I have to avenge my darling! I have to send all the beasts on this ship to the firing squad!"

Seeing her emotions gradually stabilize, Abner finally stepped forward and asked, "What exactly happened aboard this ship? Why are there so many thugs running rampant?"

"You really don't know?" the woman asked in great surprise.

The characters in this Dream Labyrinth have such high intelligence. They can even question us. This is far better than the Conan scenario. Abner thought this, but outwardly answered vaguely, "We were sleeping in the upper cabins. When we woke up, we found that everyone had gone mad..."

The woman nodded. It was unclear whether she believed him, but she still answered his earlier question. "It started five days after the Clover left Caesar Pier, when we encountered that terrifying pirate—Nast..."

"'King of the Five Seas' Nast?!" Xio and Abner both cried out. The latter also found the name Clover familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere before.

"Yes. 'King of the Five Seas' Nast claimed to be a descendant of the Solomon Empire and upheld the Virtue of never killing captives. That was why we were merely robbed of our money instead of losing our lives. His men even left us enough food..." At this point, the woman looked at the two of them in even greater confusion. No matter how deeply they had slept, how could they not know about a pirate attack? Nast's men had searched every cabin.

Abner knew he looked highly suspicious, but what concerned him was that this scenario had actually been derived from reality. It might even be an event that had truly happened.

"Everyone lost a relatively small amount of property... At first, I thought the Misfortune had passed. But during the voyage that followed, the passengers and crew of the Clover suddenly erupted into a fierce mutiny. From arguments, to brawls, to drawing revolvers and raising straight swords, they slaughtered one another... They quickly went completely mad. Not only did they kill on sight, they also freely violated women and abused the weak... Some true perverts even scattered limbs, hearts, and intestines all over the ground!" As she described this, the woman bit her lip tightly, seemingly using anger to drive away her weakness and fear.

But Abner was no longer focused on those details. He already understood what had happened, so he only asked an inexplicable final question. "Do you know what date it is today?"

"Huh?" The woman was so caught off guard by the question that she nearly failed to process it. After a long while, she replied, "It should be July 1st."

Hearing that answer, Abner looked at the night sky hidden behind the clouds, let out a breath, and murmured to himself:

"Perhaps... this is something happening right now!"

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(End of Chapter)