Kaleidoscope of Death

After the year was over, it was almost time to enter the door with Gu Longming.

Ruan Nan Candle selected the note for the sixth door, and on the note was a familiar name - Minotaur. In ancient Greek mythology, a bull-headed monster that guarded the labyrinth.

In the mythology, it was a cross between a human and a white bull, and its temperament was so violent that it was imprisoned in a huge labyrinth on the island of Crete and ate seven pairs of children every year. In short, you can't get much information about the door from this myth alone. Only when you go in and encounter something, you can connect the hints in the clue.

Lin Qiushi also showed this clue to Gu Longming in advance, and Gu Longming expressed his complete gratitude to Lin Qiushi after receiving it. And Lin Qiushi also simply gave Gu Longming a precautionary shot, saying that they couldn't be responsible for Gu Longming's life this time when they entered the house, so that Gu Longming would have some idea.

As soon as Gu Longming agreed, he said he was ready to get out.

It was the tenth day of the Chinese New Year, and the New Year was coming to an end, so everyone had finished their vacation and started to get busy again.

Lin Qiushi had prepared everything and was waiting for the door.

It was a sunny afternoon and there was no one in the villa, except Lin Qiushi who was sitting in the living room eating Lu Yanxue's freshly fried pumpkin seeds. The fried pumpkin seeds were so fragrant that Lin Qiushi could pass the afternoon with just a handful of them.

Ruan Nanzhu had already changed his clothes and was upstairs, Lin Qiushi saw that it was almost time, so he carried his bulging backpack and went up to look for him.

Because of the door from before, Lin Qiushi had purposely stuffed a lot of food in his bag. Some of the everyday items outside the door could be brought inside, but not the more foul weapons, such as guns and other hot weapons.

Of course there may be some special restrictions once inside the door, such as the door to the asylum, where the NPCs have set a rule that they can't eat food brought in from outside. In fact, most of the time, this kind of restriction was quite rare, so Lin Qiushi could only be prepared, anyway, the fact that the tenth door had to be opened if he wanted to eat had left a big shadow on him.

When Lin Qiushi entered Ruan Nanzhu's bedroom and sat on the bed with him for a while, he felt a change in the atmosphere around him, but in the blink of an eye, the Ruan Nanzhu who was sitting beside him disappeared. Lin Qiushi got up and pushed open the door in front of him, and saw twelve black iron doors appear in the original corridor, they were so familiar.

He reached the sixth door and reached out to pull open the iron door, and in the next moment, Lin Qiushi was instantly sucked in by a powerful suction force, and the image around him changed dramatically, and when he opened his eyes again, he felt a slight shaking beneath his feet.

Lin Qiushi fixed his eyes and found that he was actually on top of a huge old ship. It was dusk, and the black clouds in the sky were frighteningly low, as if they were going to press down on the horizon next moment. Deep black seawater rolled in front of his eyes, and the wind blew out violent waves.

Lin Qiushi could smell the salty smell of the seawater, the old boat under his feet couldn't stop swaying because of the excessive wind and waves, he lowered his head and saw the wooden floor with some seaweed-like creatures climbing on it, making it look very uncomfortable.

Lin Qiushi took a few steps forward and saw that the cabin was emitting a dim light, he walked down the corridor and inside the cabin and heard sad howls coming from inside the cabin.

"Oooooo, why am I here, what the hell did you guys do to me!!!" It had been a long time since he had heard a newcomer cry like this, and Lin Qiushi was still slightly surprised, he immediately saw the person crying, a young girl, wiping her tears with her hands raised, "You perverts, you must have kidnapped me, I'm going to call the police to arrest all of you!!!"

Most of the people around her were silent listening to the sound of her crying, anyway, the newcomer's reaction was just a few, most of them were crying, a few attempted to run away, and some of the mentally fragile ones simply broke down emotionally as soon as they entered.

Lin Qiushi stood still, he noticed that there were a few people around the little girl who didn't look too good, these people's faces were all terrified, obviously unprepared for this matter of entering, they should be newcomers just like the girl. But they didn't howl as much as this aunt, and were quite calm.

Lin Qiushi's eyes searched through the crowd and soon found his target - a woman sitting in the corner and smiling at him.

The woman was wearing a long skirt, the same outfit that Ruan Nanzhu had worn before entering the house.

Lin Qiushi had a plan in his heart and slowly walked up to the woman, extending his hand: "Yu Lin Lin."

"Zhu Meng." The woman shook his hand and smiled, "The marriage within the door is a thread, cherish this fate."

Lin Qiushi lost his smile, "Yes, cherish this fate."

This drama queen of his family really didn't have a stage to manufacture a stage even if he wanted to be on it.

As they were talking, a young man ventured in at the door, the man's face was unfamiliar, but the clothes on his body told Lin Qiushi his identity, he was the same Gu Longming that Lin Qiushi and Lin Qiushi had agreed on the internet.

Gu Longming was covered in water, and after coming in, he cursed in a low voice, "Fuck, actually throwing me into the lifeboat - why don't you just throw me into the sea, jealous of my beauty -"

Although his voice was low, Lin Qiushi's hearing was outstanding, so he easily heard his cursing clearly, and for a moment, he felt like laughing a bit.

Of course, he didn't laugh, he just coughed, covered his mouth with his hand and swallowed his laughter. Gu Longming's eyes turned around in the crowd and soon landed on Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu, he smilingly walked over and greeted the two of them, pretending to act as if he had a chance encounter.

In fact, this trick of pretending to have a chance encounter was only somewhat useful in the early stages of the door, but in the late stages of the door, everyone was a fox who had become a sperm, and those who didn't bring a partner were instead aliens.

As for whether they would be recognized by others that they were actually in cahoots, Lin Qiushi was worried before, but now he was somewhat indifferent.

The cabin of the old ship wasn't big, and the light wasn't bright, and the only illumination was a few small kerosene lamps overhead, which flickered from time to time as the old ship rocked.

It was darker outside, and the crowd gradually grew in numbers, finally staying at the number fourteen.

As people took stock of their surroundings and talked to their found mates, the crowd almost quickly split into teams, but the few newcomers were isolated and had to form a team of their own.

While the crowd was noisily discussing something, a middle-aged man walked through the door, the man was dressed somewhat like a medieval pirate and was carrying a shaky kerosene lamp.

"Welcome to the Black Reef." The man opened his mouth, his voice sounded very hoarse, as if he had been drinking or smoking for a long time and had irreversibly damaged his voice, "I hope you all have a good time here." After he said this, he laughed nervously, a sharp laugh that was literally like scratching a blackboard with your fingernails.

"In ten days, the Black Reef will reach the harbor." The man said, "The journey will be over by then, so enjoy the time you have."

As soon as the man finished speaking, someone rushed out of the cabin, and Lin Qiushi had thought the man was scared, but a short while later, he heard violent vomiting from outside - it looked like some unlucky person was seasick.

"Where the hell is this place?" The little girl who was crying before was also frightened by the man in front of her and she said, "Are we filming a show? I'm really scared, I want to quit can I, I don't want to play, please..."

The man simply ignored her and just looked at the crowd with indifferent eyes.

The little girl wanted to go forward and pull him, but stopped when she ran to him, then her face was white and she took a few steps back, as if she had seen something extremely scary.

Lin Qiushi's eyes weren't as good as Ruan Nan Candle's as the light was dim and he didn't see anything, but Ruan Nan Candle explained the situation in a low voice and said, "That man's body was covered with a black insect."

Gu Longming shuddered and said, "Is he alive or dead."

"I don't know." Ruan Nan Candle said, "It doesn't look very good anyway."

Normally, only the NPCs who gave them crucial information were quite normal, and if they weren't normal, then there were hardly any normal people left.

Lin Qiushi didn't expect their door to actually be an old ship this time, and it currently looked like the time limit was ten days.

"Come on, I'll take you to your sleeping quarters." The man said, "It's getting dark...and it's going to rain soon." He said a couple of words and then laughed nervously, making the crowd even more uneasy.

The man took them to the ship's stateroom and began assigning rooms.

Most of the rooms here were doubles and only a few triples, originally Lin Qiushi was assigned a double room, but Gu Longming shamelessly went to the man to change the room number and managed to get a triple room.

"How dare you even go bargaining for this?" The Lin Qiu Shiren cast admiring glances at Gu Longming.

Gu Longming: "Isn't this fear of death..." he didn't want to live alone, although being a light bulb wasn't too generous, being a light bulb was better than being a dead person.

Ruan Nan Candle's expression was like a smile and said, "Also right."

They had wanted to check the condition of the entire ship, but since it was late, it was really unsafe to move outside. So they thought to rest first and wait until tomorrow morning to make plans.

So the three of them took the keys back to their room and went to bed after a simple wash.

While Ruan Nanzhu went to change his clothes, Gu Longming poked Lin Qiushi and whispered, "Brother, you're too unkind, you have such a beautiful girlfriend and you didn't tell me?"

Lin Qiushi said vaguely, "...Well."

"That's stunning." Gu Longming said, "Ugh, if I had a girlfriend like that I'd want to get bored with her every day too."

He said he showed an envious expression towards Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi looked at his face, but in his heart he started to wonder what he would be like if he knew that Ruan Nan Candle was a big hanging cute girl. Of course now he definitely couldn't tell Gu Longming, after all, Gu Longming wasn't a member of Obsidian yet, and the fact that Ruan Nan Candle wore women's clothes was the biggest secret in Obsidian....

Over there Ruan Nan Candle, however, changed her clothes and walked in, "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing." Lin Qiushi said briefly, "He complimented you on your good looks."

Ruan Nan Candle sniffed with a rather profound oh.

Gu Longming: ".......Why does he feel a little cold at the back?

The beds on the ship all gave off a damp smell, making it very uncomfortable to lie on, and now the wind and waves were getting stronger, even the sleeping place was shaking. Lin Qiushi remembered the brother who was so seasick at night that he was still throwing up again and again when they left there, and thought that this person was probably basically useless.

The sky outside was completely dark, leaving behind only the whistling wind and the sound of the waves crashing against each other. This thunder was like a sudden explosion above their heads, a loud rumble, and all three of them instantly woke up from their sleep.

Then there was the crackling sound of rain drops falling, the rain rattling, accompanied and whistling with the wind, as if it would destroy everything.

The place where they lay shook even more, and Lin Qiushi sat up from the bed.

He looked out through the window into the night, but saw two lights on the deck of the ship. The ship seemed to be illuminated only by kerosene lamps, so how in the world did the kerosene lamps stay bright in the stormy cool... Lin Qiushi was wondering, but suddenly he felt that there seemed to be something wrong with those two lamps, and Ruan Nan Candle, who was sitting behind him, softly opened his mouth: "Don't look."

Lin Qiushi: "Eh?"

"That's not a lamp," Nguyen Nam Candle said, "That's an eye."

A pair of yellow, non-human eyes, the owner of which peeked into the night with an evil meaning, as if they were a beast looking for prey.

Lin Qiushi instantly withdrew his gaze, he said, "What is that thing?"

"I don't know, it's not very clear." Ruan Nan Candle, "There are outlines of humans, but they don't look like humans."

In the meantime, Lin Qiushi slightly knitted his brows, however, when he looked out the window again, he found that those eyes had disappeared.

The sound of thunder rang out one after another, and the salty smell that belonged to the seawater grew stronger and stronger.

Ruan Nan Candle climbed into Lin Qiushi's bed, and the two of them embraced each other and soon fell asleep again. However the only single dog, Gu Longming, was not so lucky, as he lay next to Lin Qiushi, his eyes incomparably sad, thinking that he might have to eat dog food for the next few days.

The heavy rain continued until the early hours of the morning before it gradually stopped, yet although the rain stopped, the weather still hadn't cleared up. The black rain still shrouded the ship, and Lin Qiushi didn't even think it was dawn when the alarm clock went off, he looked at the time and saw that it was already eight in the morning, but it was still dark outside.

"Good morning." Ruan Nan Candle greeted Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi said, "Good morning, it's so dark today."

Ruan Nam Candle said, "It should continue to rain." He and Lin Qiushi walked to the deck and saw black seawater rolling around the hull of the ship.

Looking up, they couldn't see any land, only a sea of water, and the only reality was the old ship beneath their feet.

This isolated environment could easily have a negative effect on one's spirit, and even Lin Qiushi felt a bit uncomfortable with the image in front of him.

"Let's go, let's go have breakfast." Gu Longming called to the two of them.

"His nerves are quite thick, though." Ruan Nan Candle heard Gu Longming's shout and said thoughtfully.

"Yes." Lin Qiushi said, "He's psychologically good."

Inside the door, you could be less intelligent, but you had to be brave enough. In front of certain terrifying scenarios, fear would make you throw away most of your thinking ability, and no matter how smart you were without a strong heart, you might not be as good as the nervy Cheng Qianli in the door.

The three of them went to the eating place and saw that the restaurant could almost be described as deadly.

Lin Qiushi didn't know why at first, and when he looked at the menu, he couldn't help but feel a bit depressed.

The boat served all fish, and some not-so-fresh fish at that, and Gu Longming poked his chopsticks at a fish head with dead fish eyes staring back at him and said, "This thing is edible?" It made me sick just looking at it.

"It looks like it tastes awful." Lin Qiushi said, "Do you want to taste it first?"

Gu Longming used his chopsticks to pick up a bit of the flesh from the fish's gills and tasted it, his expression twisted, "Damn it, this door isn't being deducted from the food expenses, is it? How come it tastes so bad, it's like it's been left out for three or four days, you taste it?"

Lin Qiushi: "No can't."

Gu Longming: "........"

Most of the breakfast in the restaurant was not fresh fish, other than that there were only some noodles and beans that didn't seem to have any taste at all, the environment here was already bad enough, and the food in front of them was simply adding insult to injury.

However, Lin Qiushi and the others were not guilty at all, and when they saw that they couldn't eat their breakfast, they quietly went back to their room and took out the prepared food from their own backpacks.

Gu Longming's eyes straightened as he watched them pull out a bottle of Old Godmother from their bags and said, "You guys actually even brought Old Godmother with you, are you here for a spring trip ah?"

"Want one?" Lin Qiushi doused the Old Godmother on top of the noodles the restaurant brought out.

"Yes, yes, yes, more." Gu Longming bashfully.

They finally settled their breakfast and were ready to start exploring the ship.

The ship had three levels in total, and was constructed somewhat like those inside the medieval era of the Great Voyage, only very old and filled with traces of age everywhere.

The ship didn't see any other crew members other than that NPC, it should be that there was only one NPC on the entire ship. Waiting on the ship for the return voyage was a task left for them by the NPC, but Lin Qiushi had every reason to believe that if they didn't find the door within ten days, the trip would go round and round - going through ten days again.

When Lin Qiushi reached the second level, he heard a thumping sound, and he wasn't sure if Ruan Nan Candle and the others had heard it, so he asked, "Did you guys hear it?"

"What?" Gu Longming didn't seem to hear it.

Ruan Nan Candle said, "It seems like I heard it, but it's not very clear."

"It's coming from the corner, isn't it... "Lin Qiushi followed the sound as he walked forward, "Let's go take a look."

However, before he even got close to there, Lin Qiushi smelled a strong smell of fish, it was very disgusting and made people feel a bit nauseous at the smell, it was fortunate that Cheng Yicher wasn't here, otherwise he would have had to faint on the spot.

It was the same room that emitted the sound and smell, because it was close enough that Gu Longming and Ruan Nanzhu also heard the thumping sound.

The three of them slowed down their pace and saw the scene inside the house through the window.

It was a kitchen with some knives hanging inside, and the most striking was the densely packed dead fish that was hooked up and hung up next to it.

In the middle of the house stood a man in an apron, now hacking away at something with his back to them, and Gu Long Ming observed for a moment, almost spitting out, "Don't tell me he's making breakfast for us-"

Ruan Nan Candle was calm: "It's possible."

Gu Long Ming: "Vomit!!!" He actually tasted a bite of that fish this morning.

Lin Qiushi patted Gu Longming's shoulder sympathetically.

But this person in the kitchen was the second living NPC they had seen on the ship.

The three of them stood in front of the kitchen for a while and saw that other than chopping fish, this person had no other actions, so they planned to go to other places first.

They soon found a rather special room, it was unlocked, with curtains drawn over the windows, it was quiet inside, but they could still smell a strong smell of fish. At first Lin Qiushi thought it was the smell they had gotten from the kitchen side, but after carefully smelling it, they found that it was coming from inside the room.

"Want to go in and take a look?" Gu Longming leaned on the window to look inside, but he didn't see anything.

Ruan Nan Candle thought, "Let's try it." Then he pulled out his hairpin and started to unlock the door.

Gu Longming's eyes straightened at his skillful movements, and he looked at Lin Qiushi: "Is this... is this your basic skill?"

Lin Qiushi laughed and joked, "Yeah, if you want to join us first learn how to open the lock."

As he said this, he heard a click, and Ruan Nan Candle actually opened the lock, only very strangely, he pushed the door after opening it, but found that although the lock had fallen off, there was still another lock hanging inside, and the chain on top of the lock pulled the door open, making it impossible for them to push it open completely at most a crack.

"Wait." Lin Qiushi suddenly spoke out, stopping Ruan Nanzhu from trying to push the door further as he said, "Stop first, there's movement inside the door."

Ruan Nan Candle's movement paused, but the moment he stopped, a hand covered with scales and sharp nails, as well as a pair of yellow eyes, peeked out from the crack of the door, unkindly peeking towards the outside.