Chapter 1 The Situation

Feng Bujue walked down the stairs into the main hall, constantly observing the surroundings and the people.

Although the broadcast had used the word "banquet" earlier, the organizers of the event clearly had no intention of asking everyone to sit around a table and eat Chinese food.

Of course, food and drinks were provided in the main hall. Various liquors, champagne fountains, and plenty of ready-to-eat snacks and fresh seafood… were all available for the guests to help themselves.

Or rather… they could only help themselves.

Because there were only men in suits and sunglasses responsible for maintaining order, and no waiters.

Considering that many guests had chosen masks that they "couldn't eat without taking off," the demand for catering was actually quite limited, so this arrangement didn't seem inappropriate.

A moment later, Jue-ge, who had been quickly roaming around the main hall, suppressed the urge to take off his mask and freeload… and found a corner against the wall to stand and continue to observe the situation.

"An expected development…" Looking at the various guests in front of him, Feng Bujue thought to himself, "Even though everyone is wearing masks and doesn't know each other, many people have already formed 'small groups.'"

His eyes moved quickly, scanning over those groups of three or five people one by one.

"Even if their faces are covered, people who are good at socializing are still good at socializing."

"Figure, conversation, temperament; and the taste for wine, clothing, and even masks… these are all obvious capital that can quickly reflect self-worth."

Thinking of this, he looked at some other people.

"And those who aren't good at those things can only temporarily act as vassals, or fight on their own like me."

Then, he snorted softly.

"Hmph… However, in the long run, there is no difference between the two."

"Those who are talking and laughing happily right now, they all understand in their hearts that the 'relationships' established in this situation are nothing more than acting on the occasion and using each other."

"Once it comes to their own interests, anyone can easily betray the other party…"

Feng Bujue looked up at the second floor of the main hall; there… was a door guarded by many black suits, and no one could approach it.

"In the end… in the eyes of that 'organizer' who is promoting this good show, everyone standing in this main hall at this moment is just a plaything for him to enjoy…"

"Gorgeous clothing, excellent social skills…"

"Showing off knowledge, making seductive gestures…"

"No matter what they do, they can't hide one basic fact—the people who came here have all run out of options."

"If they weren't desperate, they wouldn't have come to this ship."

"If they weren't desperate, they wouldn't bet their lives."

"Moreover, these people… are different from the lower-class people who have never touched the upper-class resources of society; they are all 'successful people,' 'social elites,' 'winners in life'… their abilities, courage, vision, and so on are different from the former."

"However, they have all brought their lives to the brink of destruction because of some mistake."

"They… are more afraid of poverty and loss of power than ordinary people."

"For mortals, being a mortal is life, but for gods, being a mortal… is the most terrible punishment."

"In the hearts of this group of people, the 'fear' of a poor life even surpasses the fear of death—at least, that's what they think before they truly face death."

"So, they go all in…"

"So, they came here…"

"In order to escape the abyss in front of them, they rushed to a single-plank bridge with enthusiasm, but they self-deceptively ignored… that only a very small number of people can cross the bridge; and the rest will all fall from the bridge and fall into another abyss that is even more bottomless…"

Thinking of this, Feng Bujue actually laughed.

"Heh… Watching these people struggling in desperation, tearing each other apart… gradually stripping off the layers of disguise on their bodies, revealing the dirty essence under the glamorous appearance, or rather… the nature, must be a very pleasant thing."

His laughter had an element of self-deprecation, and some unspeakable emotions…

Perhaps Jue-ge himself has realized… that the reason why he can think of these things is precisely because his dark side is also craving this "show."

…………

Evening, 7:10 PM.

Perhaps it was to put on airs, or perhaps it was to give the guests time to communicate in advance, or perhaps… it was simply out of spontaneity.

In short, the protagonist of tonight finally arrived late and made his debut.

It was a yellow-skinned man wearing a tuxedo, about 1.8 meters tall, with medium-length black hair.

Like the guests, this "organizer" also wore a mask.

So, people couldn't see his face; the only information that could be confirmed from him was his hair color, skin color, height, and body type.

When this man came to the railing on the second floor and stood still, the crowd in the main hall naturally quieted down.

【Presence】

This was the word that flashed through people's minds at this moment.

He didn't speak, nor did he do anything that would attract other people's attention. He simply "appeared" and stood there, giving people a strong and undeniable sense of presence.

Before long, the entire venue was silent, and hundreds of burning gazes all stayed on that person.

People were waiting… waiting for him to say something.

And this reaction made the organizer quite satisfied.

"As in the past, these ants disguised as elites, ordinary people, and vulgar people… quickly noticed my uniqueness."

He dismissed a sentence in his heart, and was about to speak, but unexpectedly…

Slurp slurp slurp slurp—

Suddenly, a very obvious slurping sound rang out.

Because the main hall was very quiet at this time, the sound seemed unusually harsh.

So… the attention that people had originally focused on the organizer was instantly attracted to the slurping sound.

But seeing, the source of the sound… a man wearing a crow mask, was holding a drink, and inserting the straw of the drink into the "eye" part of the mask, slurping and slurping…

Faced with the crowd's onlookers, this guy didn't mean to stop this odd behavior at all.

He just finished the drink slowly and nonchalantly, then put down the cup, and unhurriedly closed the "glasses" on the mask (the two eyes of the crow mask are two circular glass designs like small portholes; on the mask that Jue-ge bought, these two glasses can be opened separately).

"I say~ Big brother." After finishing the drink, Feng Bujue took the opportunity to turn around and take two steps, and greeted a man in a suit and sunglasses who was closest to him.

The man in the suit was also stunned for a moment, and after two seconds, he stuttered back, "Wh… what's the matter?"

"Don't you have bendable straws here? These straight ones are so inconvenient." Feng Bujue complained to the other party in a tone like he was at a convenience store counter, saying something that seemed irrelevant to everyone.

But… from the actual situation, his suggestion was indeed reasonable.

Because the mouth of Feng Bujue's mask couldn't be opened, he could only bend the straw at a nearly sixty-degree angle and lift the drink to about the same height as his face when he was drinking just now, so that the straw could extend into the mask through the hole in the eye, and then put it into his mouth…

In this case, the straight straw is forcibly bent, which will make it very difficult to suck things, and then it will make that very unpleasant and very obvious slurping sound.

Of course… normally speaking, when the mouth of the mask can't be opened, people just give up drinking water and eating. And if the mouth of the mask can be opened, then the straight straw doesn't have any effect.

"This… this…" The man in the suit was a little stunned when asked, as a small person, he couldn't help but feel nervous under the focus of so many people.

"Heh… heh heh heh…" Fortunately, two seconds later, the organizer standing on the second floor laughed.

His laughter pulled people's attention back again.

"Oh? Younger than expected." Feng Bujue immediately thought to himself after hearing the other party's voice, "Judging from his gait when he was walking, the exposed skin, and the posture when he was standing, he should be no more than forty years old. But now listening to this laughter… he is likely to be under thirty."

"Hey! You there." Before the laughter subsided, the organizer shouted at the man in the suit in a slightly arrogant voice.

"Ah… ah! Yes! Sir!" The man in the suit hesitated for half a second, then immediately stood up straight and responded loudly.

"You go to the logistics department immediately and confirm with the gentleman next to you whether there are any straws he wants on the ship." The next second, the organizer calmly ordered, "If not, you can take a helicopter back to the city to buy some for him."

"Uh… yes!" The man in the suit showed a "saved" expression when he responded, and then he gave Jue-ge a smug look before leaving…

The things that happened in this short minute were the first round of "confrontation" between Jue-ge and the organizer…

Feng Bujue accurately grasped the timing when the organizer was about to speak, and disrupted the other party's rhythm with a series of nonsensical behaviors.

And the organizer solved the other party's demands in a very simple and direct way that ordinary people might not be able to think of.

As a result, Jue-ge's situation at this time seemed a bit awkward… but after all, he had a thick skin, and today he also had a mask bonus, so he didn't care much about the onlookers from the masses.

In any case, this first "exchange of blows"… was clearly won by the organizer.

"Ahem…" After a slightly awkward silence, the organizer cleared his throat and spoke again, "Ladies and gentlemen…"

His words made those who were still despising Jue-ge take back their eyes.

"Welcome to the Argo." When the organizer said this, there was no eagerness at all, and the tone revealed a faint chill, "I am the organizer of this banquet, you can just call me 'Organizer.'"

He paused for two seconds, looked at the reaction of the crowd below, and then said again, "You are all smart people, I will save the hypocritical and roundabout words…"

He was not the kind of person who would say those words in the first place… because "hypocrisy" and "circumlocution" are rhetorical means used when people have requests from others. And this organizer, almost has no chance to say such words.

"I'll just talk about the parts that you are interested in…"

When the organizer said this, eight men in suits silently appeared on his sides, four on the left and right, standing side by side.

Each of the men in suits was holding an object covered with a white cloth. Looking at the outline… the white cloth should be covering some kind of rectangular object, with a side length of about thirty centimeters.

"Heh…" After waiting for a few seconds, the organizer sneered, "Allow me to introduce to you the prizes for tonight's 'game'."

Before he finished speaking, the men in suits each uncovered the white cloth on the objects they were holding.

Under the white cloth… without exception, they were all small glass cabinets.

The bottoms of those cabinets were made of metal, the base was covered with a rectangular glass cover, and what was stored inside the cabinet was…

"I'll start from my left hand side… and introduce them to you one by one." The organizer only glanced at the left and right respectively, confirmed the position and order of those things, and then stopped turning his head, but maintained the posture of looking down at the crowd below, and slowly narrated…

"First, 'Tears of Red,' one of the most famous natural red diamonds in the world, stolen from the home of a collector in 2040, and has been missing ever since. The market value at the time of the last valuation… was about 6 million US dollars."

"Second, 'Firefly,' nothing special, just a very perfect cat's eye stone, worth about 5 million US dollars."

"Third, 'Fragrance,' a funerary object excavated from the royal jewelry of a European country, legend has it that it will bring bad luck to the women who wear it, causing them to die within a few years, and each of the dead will die in a place with a strange fragrance. 'Fragrance' last appeared on the auction market and was sold for 12 million US dollars."

"Fourth, 'Lover,' produced in Myanmar, one of the largest diamonds in existence, originally discovered in the nineteenth century, its rough stone was cut into two pieces because it was too large, and it was born by the hands of two skilled Italian craftsmen."

"Fifth, 'Beloved,' this is the sister stone of the one just now, the individual market value of these two diamonds is about 5 million US dollars."

"Sixth, 'Dashmir Pink Diamond,' originally belonged to a well-known female star in the twentieth century. In 1968, she was murdered in the living room of her home, and the only thing stolen from her mansion that day was this diamond. She bought this diamond for 180,000 US dollars the year before she was killed. I think you all know about inflation. You should be able to quickly calculate how much 180,000 US dollars was worth at that time."

"Seventh, 'Crown,' a series of competition prizes held by an American game company in 1982, made of pure gold, studded with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and aquamarines. Due to the collapse of the American game industry in 1983, the competition game related to the prize was only released in a limited edition, and the final was not able to be held. 'Crown' went missing in the same year. This item was valued at 25,000 US dollars in the year, and the same, plus inflation, plus its background story, the current market value is at least not less than 4 million US dollars."

"Finally…" When talking about this last thing, the organizer paused, and looked at the cabinet, and then said, "Heart of the Ocean."

Regarding this gem, he only said these four words.

Regarding this gem, he only needed to say these four words…

No one here doesn't know the story of Heart of the Ocean, and no one will value this gem.

"Well… as long as I get 'that' it will be fine…" When the crowd in the main hall looked up at those priceless gems in a daze, Feng Bujue was unmoved. What he was concerned about… was only his "goal" for this trip.

"Okay, I think you all have a concept of the value of this prize." After pausing for a few seconds, the organizer continued, "Without a doubt, any one of these jewels is enough for you to get rid of your current predicament."

"As long as you win the 'game', you can choose one to take away."

"But… if you fail in the 'game'…"