Roy felt the entire bedroom start to vibrate violently, as if something was trying to break out.
At the same time, a large amount of seawater appeared underfoot, quickly engulfing Francesca's spirit body and completely startling her awake.
"Oh no! Antonia Graza is waking up!"
Roy was a bit surprised by this.
"Are you talking about Antonia Graza? Isn't that the name of the cruise ship? How could it 'wake up'?"
Francesca looked at Roy with a complex expression.
"Before you ask that, could you please untangle the hair around me first?"
Now that Francesca was Roy's person – oh no, Roy's ghost – he naturally didn't need to use Cursed Hair to restrict her movements anymore.
So, with a casual tug, Roy withdrew the Cursed Hair back into his inventory, allowing Francesca to stand up.
Francesca snapped her fingers, and the red dress she had taken off automatically returned to her body.
For spirit bodies, as long as they had the thought, they could freely control the clothes they wore. These clothes were actually just a manifestation of their memories from when they were alive and weren't physically real.
Francesca's earlier action of taking off her clothes was just to tempt Roy.
"Now, can you tell me about Antonia Graza?"
Francesca nodded, looking at the violently shaking room.
"Yes, but this isn't the place to talk. Let's get out of here first!"
With that, Francesca grabbed Roy's hand. Roy quickly grabbed Sadako and Kayako too, and the one person and three ghosts instantly vanished from the shaking bedroom.
The next second, Roy and the others appeared in another bedroom.
The structure of this bedroom was similar to the previous one, but it didn't have that decaying feeling, and there was no seawater on the floor.
Instead, it was similar to what Roy had seen when he first entered the cabins of the Antonia Graza – messy and old, but without much dust.
Roy sent Sadako and Kayako back to the Cursed Daggers. Given the current situation, he could only ask the two enthusiastic ghost girls to do the cleaning job another time.
"Okay, tell me, what exactly is going on with this ship?"
Roy's action of branding Francesca wasn't just driven by lust; more importantly, he wanted to capture a ghost to understand the true situation of the Antonia Graza.
That motive accounted for at least 8 points. As for the motive of lust, well, that was naturally 92 points!
Yep, Roy was just that pure.
Francesca gritted her teeth and began recounting the events that happened more than a decade ago.
"That night, the Antonia Graza was sailing in the Pacific. There were songs and dances inside the cruise ship; a jewelry exhibition party was being held. Guests were dancing gracefully, while I was performing on stage."
Roy looked into Francesca's beautiful eyes. Her eyes seemed to have traveled back in time to that night more than ten years ago.
Just like the scene Roy had seen when he entered another space in the ballroom earlier, it was originally just a regular upper-class social dinner.
But no one expected that a group of cruel jewel thieves had already infiltrated this luxury cruise ship.
These jewel thieves disguised themselves as chefs, setting up traps while waiting for the Antonia Graza to enter international waters. They only started their operation on the night of the banquet.
At the dinner, the jewel thieves poisoned the food, killing half the people on the ship. The other half were easily cut in half at the waist by a special steel wire mechanism, like harvesting leeks, right in the ballroom.
(This part is actually quite outrageous, as such a powerful steel wire mechanism doesn't exist unless it moves extremely fast, but it's considered a famous scene! PS: Too bloody pictures can't be shown.)
The passengers who luckily survived were driven towards the swimming pool and executed by the jewel thieves with firearms. Only one young girl in a white dress was not killed.
However, death might have been a better outcome for the girl in the white dress. Those jewel thieves dragged her into a room and subjected her to inhumane torture.
The girl in the white dress eventually committed suicide in an impure manner.
After listening to Francesca's narration, Roy sharply noticed the significant point.
"So, what about you? What role did you play in this incident?"
Roy noticed that Francesca hadn't mentioned her own situation. Furthermore, if a girl in a white dress who looked like that could be tortured by the jewel thieves, how could they let go of such a beautiful Latin woman who was practically the most stunning of the group?
Surely, not all the jewel thieves were pedophiles, right?
Francesca was silent for a long time before answering Roy's question.
"I was also one of the jewel thieves, and even the leader's woman. I was responsible for scouting information for their operation and providing cover. Not only that, but I was actually serving another person, who was the true mastermind behind everything. After I instigated the jewel thief leader to kill his team members, I killed the leader myself. But I didn't expect that man to kill me too after achieving his goal!
How about it? Are you very disappointed in me after knowing all this?"
Is this like Russian nesting dolls? Roy was a bit speechless.
But if you were to say disappointed, there wasn't much.
Instead, the mastermind behind it piqued Roy's interest. This guy was truly a sigma male; he could even bring himself to kill Francesca.
Actually, Roy had sensed before that Francesca wasn't someone to be trifled with and likely had quite a few lives on her hands.
He just didn't expect this person to play such a significant role in the Antonia Graza tragedy, no wonder the red glow of sin on her was so dazzling.
After all, everyone on the ship indirectly or directly died at Francesca's hands.
Of course, compared to Sadako and Kayako, Francesca was clearly still a bit less... sinful.
"I've met many people more evil than you, like those two Japanese ghost girls you just saw. They've definitely killed more people than you have. Now, under my 'training', aren't they good ghosts too?"
After killing a large number of bad people, the sins on Sadako and Kayako had been completely purified, reaching the standard of "becoming a Buddha" in Japanese culture.
In other words, if Roy were to let Sadako and Kayako go, the two ghost girls could immediately ascend to heaven, but Sadako and Kayako preferred to stay by Roy's side.
Hearing the word 'training', Francesca's face visibly blushed.
"You, you're fundamentally a more evil existence than that man! No wonder I was controlled by you!"
Roy gave Francesca an annoyed look. He was a great benefactor! The merit he had accumulated was enough for him to be a strong contender for the new God if he went to heaven. How dare she call him evil?
"Tell me who that man is, and what this 'Antonia Graza' thing you mentioned is."
Francesca exhaled, a look of hatred surfacing on her face.
"That man called himself Jack, but I know it's just a fake name, so I prefer to call him the Hookman."
"The Hookman?"
Francesca nodded, then showed Roy her palm, where there was a hook mark.
Roy held Francesca's hand and changed this mark into his own mark.
"Keep talking."
"The Hookman planned everything, wanting to swallow all the wealth on the Antonia Graza, but he didn't expect that among the jewels displayed on the cruise ship that night, there was a cursed diamond called 'Eye of the Dead'."
Eye of the Dead? That sounds like it's part of a set with the Eye of Death.
"Legend has it that everyone who owns this cursed diamond will meet a tragic accidental death! And that night, the owner of the Eye of the Dead was showing his collection to the guests at the banquet. As a result, this person was cut in half by the Hookman's mechanism. After the Eye of the Dead fell to the ground, it was stained with a lot of blood and absorbed a large number of vengeful spirits, forming a powerful aggregate of evil spirits.
This powerful aggregate of evil spirits took 'Antonia Graza' as its name and turned the cruise ship into a ghost ship, enslaving all the souls on board, attracting passing ships everywhere, and killing everyone who boarded the cruise ship."
So that's what happened. In that case, after her death, Francesca should have been enslaved by Antonia Graza, which is why there was such a large spatial disturbance when Roy branded her earlier.
Antonia Graza must have realized its top subordinate was being snatched away, so it came out to investigate.
"What happened to that Hookman later?"
"That guy also possessed some occult abilities. After realizing things were bad, he abandoned the treasures and ran away. Over the years, this guy has always wanted to return to the ship to take the treasures. He has instigated salvagers several times to go aboard as scapegoats, but he has failed every time!"
As Francesca finished speaking, Roy had a pretty good understanding of the situation, but he still had one question.
"Francesca, you should know where that Hookman hid the treasures, right?"
Since he was already here, why leave empty-handed?
Francesca looked at Roy expressionlessly, a faint smile playing at the corner of her lips.
"You want to find those treasures too, don't you? Of course, who could refuse this huge fortune? However, the jewels are together with the cursed diamond. If you go looking for the jewels, you'll have to confront Antonia Graza directly."
There's such a good thing? It would be convenient to just deal with this guy along the way.
"Tell me the location of the treasures!"
Francesca crossed her arms and shook her head.
"I can tell you, but you must help me kill the Hookman first."
Roy couldn't help but roll his eyes. If Francesca hadn't said anything, as her master, Roy would have helped her get revenge anyway.
But for this guy to use this as a condition and try to manipulate him, that made Roy a bit unhappy.
"You don't seem to understand your place yet!"
Roy grabbed Francesca's hand. The mark on her palm and the brand on her back immediately became scorching hot, causing her to cry out in pain.
"Ah! I know I was wrong! I'll take you to find Antonia Graza!"
Roy only let go of Francesca after she begged for mercy. At this point, Francesca's spirit body had dimmed considerably.
"You need to understand one thing: I am your master now! If I happen to encounter that Hookman one day, as your master, I will definitely help you deal with that guy! But right now, I just need you to obey my orders!"
Francesca's expression was a bit miserable, but she still nodded, indicating that she understood what Roy meant.
Just then, a man's scream suddenly came from outside the bedroom. It sounded like Joey's voice.
Could something have happened to Joey?
Joey was the only mechanic on Roy's side; he couldn't have something happen to him, or it would be troublesome.
"Get into this revolver now. I'll take you out!"
Francesca quickly entered the M625 revolver. Then, Roy rushed out of the bedroom and ran towards the direction of Joey's scream.
Soon, Roy saw Joey screaming and running frantically, followed closely by a girl in a long white dress.
Hmm, wasn't that the white-dressed girl who liked to be nosy earlier? Did she become evil after being beaten with an Ansai Waist Drum by him?
The white-dressed girl had initially had a stern face, but upon seeing Roy approach, she was so scared that her face turned pale, and she immediately vanished.
When Joey saw Roy, he shouted frantically as if he had seen a savior.
"Mr. Black, save me! There's a ghost chasing me!"
"Save you from what? Look, is there still a ghost chasing you?"
Hearing this, Joey looked back and indeed didn't see the white-dressed girl who had just scared him. He couldn't help but be stunned.
"How could this happen? I was having a great time in the casino, winning big, and suddenly a white-dressed girl appeared and told me to stop gambling. I ignored her, and the white-dressed girl's facial features suddenly started shifting! It scared me so much I ran out!"
So, this is what Joey saw in the alternate dimension? It seems this Joey is a gambler.
"It's okay, that ghost must have run away after seeing me. Joey, have you seen anyone else?"
Joey looked confused.
"No, weren't they with you?"
"The ghost ship must have separated the five of us. Let's go find Heather and the others now. Francesca, lead the way!"
"Francesca? Who's Francesca?"
As soon as Joey finished speaking, Francesca emerged from Roy's revolver.
A woman suddenly appearing startled Joey, but then he was attracted by the beautiful Francesca and became completely mesmerized.
"Madam, you are truly beautiful!"
Roy looked at Joey speechlessly and slapped him on the back of the head.
"What are you doing? This is a female ghost I subdued, not a person!"
The slap woke Joey up, and he instantly shivered in fright.
"W-what? A female ghost? Mr. Black, don't scare me!"
"Is there a point in scaring you? Let's go! Francesca, take us back to the ballroom first!"
The ballroom was where Roy and the others had separated. Heather and the others would likely be waiting for Roy in the ballroom.
Joey, who was trailing behind, started to hesitate.
"If a female ghost can look like this, maybe it's not so bad..."
Looking up, Joey found that Roy had already gone far, so scared, he sprinted to catch up.
"Mr. Black, wait for me!"