A soldier in a navy uniform came in, holding a gas lamp in one hand and a flashlight in the other, casting a warm glow over the dark captain's cabin.
He moved the gas lamp, his gaze sweeping across the captain's cabin. Finding nothing unusual, he retreated.
The warm light and footsteps faded away. Zhang Yuanqing canceled his Night Tour and looked at the desk drawer again. The desk had two drawers, one with a copper lock, the other without.
After a moment's thought, Zhang Yuanqing opened the unlocked drawer. Inside were telegram exchanges between the Haiyan and the Irish United Nations Naval Headquarters.
To his dismay, the telegrams were encoded. Zhang Yuanqing couldn't decipher them.
Although The Way of the Extraordinary has an automatic translation function, which converts languages and texts into your native tongue, encoding is part of the dungeon decryption and not included in the automatic translation.
Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a long time, then used Star Escape, dissolving into starlight.
A few minutes later, the dark captain's cabin lit up again with starlight. He returned with a codebook in his hand.
He had found it in the telegraph room.
In this era, telegrams were transmitted using codes, which were divided into "general codes" and "special codes." The former used the well-known Morse code, while the latter was mostly used in wartime, characterized by temporality and originality. Without a codebook, it was difficult to crack.
Although the Haiyan was on a secret mission, it wasn't wartime. No one would deliberately intercept telegrams. Therefore, Zhang Yuanqing guessed that the codes on the telegrams were likely standard Morse code. If the codes were "special codes," the decryption difficulty would skyrocket.
He sat at the desk in the dark captain's cabin, flipping through the manual and deciphering the telegrams. Half an hour later, Zhang Yuanqing finished the decryption and understood the telegrams.
August 14th, "Haiyan is all well, over!"
August 16th, "Haiyan was attacked by mermaids, two crew members sacrificed, over!"
August 18th, "Haiyan is all well, over!"
August 25th, "Successfully salvaged extraterrestrial object, Cardinal sealed it, Haiyan preparing to return, over!"
August 26th, "Haiyan is on its way back, all well, over!"
The telegrams were sent every two days with brief content. The Naval Headquarters' replies were also brief, generally "Received," "Understood," "God bless," and other words of comfort.
Only on the 25th, the day the contamination source was successfully salvaged, did the Haiyan send an extra telegram.
The last telegram was on August 30th, the fourth day after the extraterrestrial object was salvaged... Zhang Yuanqing frowned, "Are subsequent telegrams hidden, or did James stop sending telegrams to headquarters after the 30th?"
The telegrams were sent so diligently before the mission was completed. Why did he stop sending telegrams after the mission was completed?
The Way of the Extraordinary introduction stated that the Haiyan mysteriously disappeared on its return voyage. James unilaterally ceased contact with Naval Headquarters.
Mysterious disappearance, a hint of what’s to come.
But why did James do this? Zhang Yuanqing couldn't understand. Also, the more he looked at these telegrams, the stranger they seemed. He felt something was off.
After a moment's thought, he realized what was wrong.
The Haiyan set sail on August 12th and successfully salvaged the extraterrestrial object on August 26th. The whole process took 14 days. However, during the day, when Zhang Yuanqing asked Captain James when they would arrive at the port, James replied: 15 days.
Today is September 4th. According to 14 days each way, there are five days left until they reach port. So the main quest is to survive five days.
The details match up.
Back to the main point, Captain James terminated the telegram contact and lied about the return time. This person must have a problem.
Zhang Yuanqing tidied up the telegrams, put them back in the drawer, and looked at the other drawer with the copper lock.
Without a doubt, there must be something more important here.
Now that he had clarified the background of the dungeon and knew about Captain James's problem, the next step was very clear: to find out the reason for Captain James's strange change.
And this information was likely hidden in the desk drawer. Zhang Yuanqing stared at the copper lock, but hesitated. It was easy to break the lock, a simple yank would do it, but he worried that such an action would trigger a bad chain reaction.
It was now certain that the Haunted Cruise Ship was an exploration-type S-class dungeon. Information needed to be explored by the Way of the Extraordinary members themselves. This kind of fancy dungeon often meant that danger lurked in the exploration process.
A wrong exploration, and a crisis would descend instantly.
Zhang Yuanqing opened his inventory and glanced at the Violet-Gold Suit. It was covered in a layer of darkness, indicating it was unusable.
Let's be cautious..., he muttered to himself, choosing to obey the will of his heart.
An S-class dungeon at the peak of Level 6. Without using the Sovereign item, even he, a dual-class Level 6, could be in mortal danger.
Moreover, this was a dungeon by Deadly Poison Master of the First Zone. Zhang Yuanqing's items and skills didn't restrain the power of aberration.
There was a saying among the Way of the Extraordinary members: "When you get cocky, you're not far from death."
"Breaking the copper lock, James will definitely find out tomorrow that someone sneaked into the captain's cabin at night, which may stimulate him and bring the crisis forward. I haven't figured out what happened after the extraterrestrial object was salvaged. I should focus on investigating secretly, rather than doing things that expose traces."
Anyway, the main quest is to survive five days, and there is plenty of time. While his thoughts were racing, Zhang Yuanqing snapped his fingers and used Star Escape to return to his bedroom in the hold. There was a small round window in the bedroom, outside of which was the dark sea faintly rippling with waves. Recalling that the extraterrestrial object sealed in the hold had the power of aberrant creatures, Zhang Yuanqing felt that there was a terrible crisis and gaze hidden beneath the dark sea outside the window.
Captain James is not right, but what is his purpose? I still have to investigate...
"There are two forces on the ship, the navy and the Vatican's Way of the Extraordinary team. Are the Vatican people and James in the same gang? If not, as long as the two sides are not partners, my room for maneuver is great. One of them can be pulled into a teammate."
Zhang Yuanqing thought for a while, then used Night Tour again, quietly leaving the bedroom, passing through the narrow dormitory corridor, and arriving at the stairs at the end.
He went down the stairs to the second level below deck.
He was going to investigate below the deck to define the Vatican team.
During the day, it was blocked by the Vatican's knights. At that time, he hadn't figured out the background of the dungeon, so he didn't choose to go head-to-head.
Now, according to the known information, Zhang Yuanqing could roughly infer what was under the deck.
The extraterrestrial object salvaged from the deep sea was sealed by the Vatican's cardinal in the hold. Zhang Yuanqing decided to secretly observe the Vatican's Way of the Extraordinary members, and by the way, see what the strange thing was.
He strode down the stairs. Night Tour covered up his footsteps. Soon he arrived at the entrance of the hold. Two knights in silver armor, holding cross longswords, were still stationed there.
Zhang Yuanqing passed between the two knights. The meticulous knights turned a blind eye to the intruder.
The hold was not a dormitory, but a place to store goods. Dim gas lamps hung on the walls, illuminating the items in the hold. There were piles of food, fishing tools, broken lifeboats waiting to be repaired, and spare parts for the ship. It was like a messy storage room.
As soon as he stepped into the hold, Zhang Yuanqing felt an inexplicable palpitation, as if he was being watched by something. This aura, this feeling, evil power... Zhang Yuanqing frowned. Was it the aura emanating from the extraterrestrial object?
Taking advantage of the mountains of sundries, he carefully explored forward. After walking for a dozen seconds, he suddenly heard a "thump, thump" sound like a heartbeat coming from afar.
At the same time, a flickering candlelight came from behind a small mountain of flour bags ten meters away.
The heartbeat sound came from behind the candlelight. What thing has such an exaggerated heartbeat...
Zhang Yuanqing cautiously moved forward, approaching the flour mountain.
Just then, he heard a "woo" sound of wind whistling, followed by a sharp scream from the left.
Without thinking, Zhang Yuanqing pounced forward, narrowly avoiding the wind blade that slashed from the left.
"Who's there?" a clear female voice shouted.
Did a wind mage find me? Zhang Yuanqing turned and ran, while turning his head to the right. Ten meters away stood a young woman in a white nun's habit.
Golden patterns were embroidered on her chest, collar, and cuffs.
She had beautiful blonde hair, green eyes, an oval face, a high nose, exquisite and beautiful.
The wind mage in the white nun's habit continuously waved her hands, creating a series of wind blades, chasing the fleeing enemy.
Although she couldn't see the intruder, she could perceive the enemy's position and speed through the feedback of the air currents. Every strike of the wind blade was accurate.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing decisively avoided the second wave of wind blades, hid behind a damaged and cracked lifeboat, and unhesitatingly used Star Escape, leaving the hold.
He immediately used Star Escape. Brilliant starlight lit up, then dissipated.
The wind mage in the white nun's habit frowned, looking around, carefully sensing, and found that the intruder had disappeared into thin air.
"Isabella, what happened?" an old voice came from behind the flour mountain.
"There's an intruder!" The nun named Isabella replied, her voice as melodious as a lark.
"But suddenly disappeared," she frowned.
"A Wraith?" the old voice said.
"But I didn't sense the aura of a Wraith, but if it was a Wraith, you wouldn't be able to sense it."
To be able to hide from the knights and enter here silently, it can only be a Wraith.
"Not a Wraith, a human, can be invisible, knows some kind of teleportation technique, teleported away when the starlight lit up," Isabella explained.
"Starlight? Invisibility?" The cardinal, with his vast experience, thought for a long time, "I've never heard of this kind of skill... Tell Captain James about this and let him solve it."