The thick darkness, like smoke drawn from a range hood, billowed away.
As the first light of dawn pierced the central hall, those who had miraculously survived the long and terrifying darkness gazed at each other in silence.
"Yu Long..." Fang Fei stared blankly at the empty seat beside her, then tears streamed down her face.
"Xue Ge is gone." Ke Xun went out, picked up the bamboo slip Xue Ge had left on the deck, and showed it to everyone.
For a moment, everyone forgot about their own survival and mourning the dead, crowding around to look at the bamboo slip. There
was only one character written on it, the handwriting very messy, and it seemed to be missing a few strokes to complete it. It took everyone a long time to decipher that it was the character "chicken."
"...What does it mean?" Wei Dong looked at Mu Yiran and Shao Ling in confusion.
The two strategists were also puzzled, each lost in thought.
"We agreed beforehand that she should leave the most crucial clue," Zhu Haowen said. "So, this 'chicken' must be the most crucial one."
"So, after lighting the rhinoceros horn last night, what Xuege saw was a chicken?" Wei Dong looked absurd. "That's too far-fetched. Would a chicken appear on the vast ocean? Where does a chicken come from? From the sea?"
"Or perhaps it's something that starts with the character for 'chicken'," Qin Ci pondered. "She didn't even have time to write the complete character for 'chicken.' Maybe the real thing is a phrase, like cockscomb or a feather duster, which are completely different from a chicken."
"No, if that were the case, I would have just written 'flower' or 'duster'," Zhu Haowen said, tracing characters on his leg with his finger. "That way, I can write the key point within the limited time."
"That depends on the situation," Qin Ci said. "In tense or critical situations, people's first reaction is to act according to their usual habits, and there is no time to analyze how to write in a way that gets straight to the point in the shortest amount of time."
Zhu Haowen pondered for a while and nodded: "You're right. So it seems that what Xuege saw last night was most likely something that started with the word 'chicken'."
"So there's a chicken in the sea? Cockscomb flowers and feather dusters are impossible," Wei Dong said. "Then it could be a fish that starts with the word 'chicken'? I know absolutely nothing about that. Does anyone here know anything about fish?"
As they were talking, Fang Fei, who had been standing there in a daze, suddenly stood up and started to walk out.
Ke Xun stood up and stopped her. He sensed something was off about the girl's expression. "Where are you going?"
"To the sea," Fang Fei said, tears still clinging to her face, but her expression had calmed. An unusual calm held a resolute air. "To find Yu Long's body."
Ke Xun didn't stop her further, only reminding her, "Tie a rope around your waist."
Although he knew she would ultimately find nothing, it was good for her to vent.
"What were your hallucinations last night?" Wei Dong asked, watching Fang Fei's retreating figure
with a sigh. "I don't want to talk about it," Ke Xun said, a hint of anger in his eyes.
Wei Dong knew him better than anyone and knew that last night's hallucinations must have made him very unhappy.
He lowered his voice to a whisper and said, "Thanks to Boss Mu's suggestion of warning objects, otherwise I would have really fallen for it last night—at first, I had a lot of illusions trying to lure me away from where I was, but I got through them all. Then, I felt like a long time had passed, and the illusions gradually disappeared. After a while, I heard Ke'er say, 'It's almost dawn, everything's alright now.' Then I heard footsteps moving in the darkness, and Haowen'er said, 'I'm going to the toilet.
' Actually, I was also holding in my pee. At first, I wanted to go out and take care of it, but then I thought it wasn't completely light yet, so I decided to wait a bit longer." Then I heard everyone start talking, and Yu Long and Fang Fei started arguing without exchanging a single word. Yu Long, probably enraged, started hitting his girlfriend…
"The couple had been bickering for a while, so I didn't suspect anything. Besides, everything was so realistic. Fang Fei was hit so hard she fell right at my feet, and I instinctively helped her up. Then 'Ke'er' got angry. I know Ke'er despises people who hit women, and then 'he' started fighting with Yu Long.
"Yu Long was hitting and cursing at the same time. The curses were so awful that I couldn't stand it—the whole thing was so realistic, so incredibly provocative. I couldn't help but want to stand up and join in."
"Luckily, I had a pen in my hand—if I really wanted to make a move, I'd have to drop it first, right? Just as I was about to throw it away in my heat of the moment, I suddenly remembered something that happened back in school.
"A gang of thugs from the neighborhood came to our school to cause trouble. Their target was a mutual friend of mine and Ke'er's. Ke'er was about to run to help, and I was about to go with them too, but Ke'er stopped me. Ke'er told me: 'They're all gangsters; they don't hold back when they fight. Don't come. This hand is for holding paintbrushes; you'll need it to earn money to support your family in the future.
' "Thinking about this, I couldn't put the pen down. I gripped it, gradually calming down, and then realized that this was probably all just an illusion—it wasn't even dawn yet. Even if it wasn't an illusion, even if it was reality, I decided to wait until I saw daylight before relaxing.
"As it turns out, that illusion was damn cunning. Luckily I had the pen, otherwise I would have been dead last night, and I'd be holding in so much anger and needing to pee!" "
Wei Dong stood up and looked at Ke Xun: "I should be fine going to the bathroom now, right?"
"Take me with you, Dong-ge!" Luo Yi's muffled voice came from the corner.
Wei Dong went over to help him untie the ropes binding him.
Shao Ling looked up at Mu Yiran: "The illusions are getting more and more deceptive. First, they use an illusion to confuse us, making us think that this is the main event. After this illusion passes, when we let our guard down, they use an even more deceptive one."
"Were you awakened from your unconsciousness by an illusion?" Mu Yiran asked him calmly.
Shao Ling lowered his eyes and hummed in agreement.
Obviously, his method of fainting had not worked.
"I think the illusions every night are not created and layered according to the five senses." "Mu Yiran uttered another casual remark.
Shao Ling looked up and stared at him; this man had once again refuted his previous deduction.
"Last night's hallucinations didn't specifically target the senses of smell and taste, let alone sight," Mu Yiran said, unfazed by Shao Ling's scrutinizing gaze. "What's noteworthy is that, after we all experienced hallucinations we found repulsive the previous night, last night it seemed we all experienced hallucinations that would cause us to lose control of our emotions—more precisely, hallucinations that would enrage us. Of course, this needs to be confirmed after asking everyone."
"Mine was like this," Ke Xun, who sat down beside him, said. "The hallucination fabricated a scene that made me most unable to control my anger."
"Mine was the same," Zhu Haowen added.
"Me too," Qin Ci nodded.
"So, what's your conclusion?" Shao Ling looked at Mu Yiran. "The first night was trust, the second night was disgust and aversion, and the third night was anger?" "
No," Mu Yiran said clearly, slowly and calmly, "the third night was anger, the second night was evil, and the first night was love."
Shao Ling paused, about to retort, but Mu Yiran didn't give him the chance, continuing, "Love, hate, anger—if we look at it this way, the force behind it isn't creating illusions based on our five senses, but rather on human emotions—humans have seven emotions and six desires. The so-called seven emotions are: joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire. If I'm not mistaken, for the next four nights, illusions will be created using these four emotions.
Humans are emotional beings; any normal, healthy human being will have emotions. And with emotions come mental weaknesses, and with mental weaknesses come the possibility of being influenced by illusions, and having one's thoughts and actions swayed by emotions."
"The illusion uses each of the seven human emotions to find our most vulnerable point. Those who are still alive are not necessarily mentally strong; they may simply be those whose vulnerability hasn't been exploited yet.
Perhaps we should carefully reflect on our own mental weaknesses, what makes us overwhelmed with joy or devastated by sorrow... Only by acknowledging and confronting our weaknesses can we withstand their attacks." After
he finished speaking, everyone fell silent, each lowering their eyes to explore the deepest, most vulnerable parts of their hearts.
Mu Yiran's gaze, however, fell on the bamboo slip with the character "chicken" written on it, and he fell into deep thought again.
"So, do you think that those who ignite the rhinoceros horn are doomed?" "Shao Ling asked him.
"I can't be sure," Mu Yiran looked at the place where Xuege had been last night, "To put it coldly, someone like Xuege, whose lifespan is already short, any emotion might cause her some disturbance, but it's unlikely that something could make her unbearable and cause her to lose control. Of course, nothing is absolute. Perhaps her... 'disappearance' was due to emotional disturbance, perhaps she encountered some force majeure, or perhaps she had completely given up on the belief in survival and went with the flow to end her life here."
"Then what about tonight?" Shao Ling looked at him, and also at the others gathered around, "Who will light the rhinoceros horn?"
"I will."
The voice that answered was calm, not like someone facing life and death. It came from Fang Fei, who stepped in from outside the door.
"Girl, the dead are gone. There's no need to take your own life lightly because of this." "Qin Ci, a doctor with a parent's heart, looked with pity at the young girl whose eyes were red but who never showed any weakness.
"Don't misunderstand," Fang Fei said calmly, "It's not because of Yu Long. I just can't stand passively waiting to die anymore. This isn't my personality. I'm not afraid of death, otherwise I wouldn't have chosen the high-risk, unknown profession of diving. I just can't stand this feeling of being played with. Death is part of nature, and my life's pursuit is to challenge death and nature."
This brave and unyielding girl commanded the respect of the men present. Luo Jin couldn't help but suggest, "Isn't there a knife in the kitchen? Why don't you take one tonight, and try slashing that chicken when you see it?"
"If that's the case, Fang Fei might not be able to stay in the same room as us," Shao Ling said, still rational and calm. "Otherwise, she might stab one of us under the influence of the illusion. Even if we're not in the same room, because the illusion allows us to break through spatial limitations, those at the bow of the ship might accidentally injure those at the stern."