In an empty passenger cabin, Miss Dorothy stood there, listening to the Ghost of a "Cup" cultist summoned by Naifnis recount their group's objective. Listening to his words, Miss Dorothy learned the full story behind the tragic incident on the ship, which was originally supposed to be unknown to anyone.
Due to its nature, the city of Moncarlo has a highly developed "entertainment industry." Gambling and the sex trade are legal to a certain extent here. As yellow, gambling, and drugs are inseparable, residents and tourists here consume "cup" drugs in various settings to seek stimulation, leading to a huge demand for "cup" drugs throughout Moncarlo.
"Cup" drugs can be said to be the most accessible hidden product for ordinary people in this world. Traces of "cup" drugs can be found in the red-light districts and casinos of many large cities. This addictive drug, which brings immense pleasure to ordinary people, is called "red powder" by them. Many "Cup" societies rely on manufacturing "cup" drugs to accumulate wealth from ordinary people, using it to stockpile funds.
Of course, because it involves cults and is harmful to the human body, "cup" drugs are prohibited by law in most countries' governments. Moncarlo, however, is one of the few city-states where "cup" drugs are legal. Although "cup" drugs are legal in Moncarlo, foreign "cup" drugs must pay extremely high tariffs when entering Moncarlo. Moncarlo knows how wealthy various "cup" drug dealers are, so it extorts them without any hesitation. Every year, the Moncarlo government earns a large sum of money from the "cup" drug business.
High tariffs will inevitably stimulate the development of smuggling. Since a long time ago, the smuggling business of "cup" drugs into Moncarlo began to appear. However, because the rulers of Moncarlo started as pirates and were once the largest smuggling city in the world, what smuggling methods have they not seen? Other forces trying to smuggle in Moncarlo are simply showing off their incompetence. Therefore, smuggling "cup" drugs in Moncarlo has always been very difficult, and ordinary methods simply cannot smuggle "cup" drugs in.
To cope with this situation, some "Cup" societies began to develop various methods to try to break through Moncarlo's smuggling blockade, including the method of transforming a person into a human-shaped "cup" drug. The two cultists Miss Dorothy encountered on this ship were transporting this specially made human-shaped "cup" drug. Their flesh and blood were richly filled with suppressed "cup" drug components. Since Moncarlo considers the impact on tourists, it does not conduct overly detailed inspections of visiting people, focusing mainly on goods. Therefore, this strategy of human-shaped "cup" drugs has repeatedly succeeded.
The Food Intestine Society controls ordinary people with "cup" drugs and Spirit Sight, then transforms them into human-shaped "cup" drugs and smuggles them to Moncarlo. After slaughtering them there, they use a special Corpse Transformation Seal to dissolve their flesh and blood into blood water, which is then diluted and simply processed into "cup" drugs. A blood-animal "cup" drug, after being processed, can often be made into a large box of normal "cup" drugs. If sold entirely in Moncarlo, the profit is very high.
Because the Food Intestine Society also uses "cup" drugs to control these blood animals, they must constantly provide "cup" drugs to the controlled blood animals on time during the journey to lure them into obeying and following them. During their time traveling on the ship, these two members of the Food Intestine Society would regularly provide "cup" drugs to the blood animals. However, they never expected that among the more than ten blood animals they controlled, one had an especially large appetite. He was Nicodo, the deceased person who lived in room 417.
Nicodo was the one among the blood animals controlled by the Food Intestine Society who had the strongest craving for "cup" drugs. He had reached the point of mental derangement from consuming "cup" drugs. Not only was he extremely self-indulgent, demanding more "cup" drugs from the two Food Intestine Society members every day than anyone else, but at first, it was fine, as these two had quite a lot of "cup" drug reserves on them. However, who knew that after Nicodo boarded the ship, his appetite surged, and he needed to consume more than three times the amount of "cup" drugs than other blood animals every day to be satisfied. Under this craving, the "cup" drugs the two Food Intestine Society members carried with them suddenly became insufficient. If Nicodo's demands were fully met, the other blood animals would have no "cup" drugs to eat.
Facing this situation, the two Food Intestine Society members tried to coax and persuade Nicodo to control himself a little and not eat so much, telling him he could eat as much as he wanted when they reached Moncarlo. However, who knew that Nicodo did not accept this explanation. He absolutely wanted more "cup" drugs. Highly addicted to "cup" drugs, he was not even afraid of the threats from the two Food Intestine Society members in the end. Finally, he even dared to directly contradict the two, argue with them, and even tried to directly snatch the "cup" drugs.
Seeing Nicodo like this, the two Food Intestine Society members, being Extraordinary themselves, naturally would not tolerate it. After an argument, the younger of the two finally couldn't help but directly kill Nicodo in room 417. After that, the young man, in order not to cause a commotion on the ship and thus attract the attention of the local guards when entering Moncarlo, decided to dispose of Nicodo's body.
Since there were always people on the deck, there was a risk of being discovered if they directly threw the body into the sea. So, after stripping Nicodo, the young man put him in a large bucket taken from the cleaning storage room and used the Corpse Transformation Seal originally prepared for the blood animals to turn Nicodo into a bucket of bloody water, which he then poured down the toilet in the washroom and flushed away. After cleaning up the traces, he took Nicodo's remains and his luggage back with him, creating a missing person case.
In fact, the Food Intestine Society's handling was very careful, but they would never have imagined that the bloody water from Nicodo's body, after being discharged with the ship's sewage, would attract a large number of sea fish to gather. These fish ate the corpse blood water and were then caught by an idle fisherman. After being cooked into dishes and shared with other tourists, Miss Dorothy directly discovered the abnormality, and finally, Miss Dorothy was able to trace the entire incident back.
"Things are truly unpredictable..."
Standing in the cabin, Miss Dorothy, after listening to the words of the soul in the magic circle and understanding all the inside information, sighed and said. At this point, the "cup" drug mystery case on the cruise ship was concluded. The entire incident was just a smuggling case, not the sacrifice of the entire ship that Miss Dorothy had worried about, which made her feel much more at ease for a while.
'Moncarlo... a city that allows "cup" drug transactions but imposes heavy taxes... I can only say it lives up to its reputation as a former pirate city. Even drug dealers have to be extorted, ultimately forcing people to invent this method of transporting drugs...'
Miss Dorothy thought this in her heart. Then she began to ponder how to deal with the aftermath of this incident. Now that the two managers of the Food Intestine Society were gone, there were twelve human-shaped "cup" drugs left on the ship. They needed "cup" drugs every day, otherwise they would go mad. In Moncarlo, the Food Intestine Society's downstream buyer was waiting for their goods. Now Miss Dorothy needed to carefully consider how to deal with these twelve human-shaped "cup" drugs.
'These twelve addicts who were treated like pigs cannot be left unattended. I need to find a suitable way to arrange them. If I arrange them well... perhaps I can gain something else.'
Miss Dorothy thought this in her heart. After a while, she came up with a method to deal with the twelve human-shaped "cup" drugs.
After thinking of a solution, Miss Dorothy silently nodded, then decided to first clean up the scene and collect the spoils. With this thought, she turned her head and looked at Neff.
"It's almost done, Senior Nefelnis. Let's pack up the ritual now."
"Okay... Okay... Ugh..."
Standing by the magic circle, Naifnis responded to Miss Dorothy's words with a pale face. As she spoke, she seemed unable to bear it any longer, covering her mouth with a handkerchief and bending over to retch. She looked very uncomfortable.
"Uh... Senior Nefelnis, are you alright..." Seeing Neff's appearance, Miss Dorothy asked with concern, and Neff moved the handkerchief away and said.
"No, I'm fine... It's just that thinking about the fish I ate yesterday actually had... it just made me feel a little uncomfortable, it's nothing... Ugh..."
Covering Senior Nefelnis's mouth, Naifnis continued to retch. Yesterday afternoon, Naifnis had eaten three large plates of the fish that had consumed the Corpse Transformation Seal blood and the sewage from the lavatory. Now, knowing the truth about those delicious grilled fish and recalling how happily Naifnis had eaten so much yesterday, a wave of nausea surged within Naifnis.
"Excuse me... Miss Dorothy, I'll go to the lavatory first. You can take your time packing up..."
With that, Naifnis quickly ran to the cabin door, opened it, and swiftly ran out of the cabin. Listening to the sound of quick footsteps receding, Miss Dorothy couldn't help but sigh in her heart again.
'Fortunately, I didn't eat it back then...'
...
After this, Miss Dorothy cleaned up the magic array on the scene and then began to search the two Food Intestine Society members for items. The final result was finding nearly 200 pound worth of Iweig currency, several seals, and a significant number of "cup" drugs. Among these seals were several specially made Corpse Transformation Seals, several Water Breath Seals to enhance underwater abilities, a Finding Breath Seal to strengthen the sense of smell, and two Healing Seals that could alleviate injuries and reduce pain... Apart from these, there were no other new seals.
Next, Miss Dorothy controlled the two Food Intestine Society members as puppets, reviving them to stand up again. She left the "cup" drugs on them, allowing them to continue playing their original roles and face the twelve humanoid "cup" drugs.
Miss Dorothy used the Corpse Puppets made from the two Food Intestine Society members and the "cup" drugs to stabilize their blood livestock. Then, she controlled the young man's Corpse Puppet and, under the gaze of many crew members, put on another show with Corpse Puppet Ed. Under the noses of many crew members, she solved the case she had personally directed earlier, making the crew members believe that the person who killed the occupant of Room 417 had been successfully apprehended. Another entry was added to Detective Ed's detective resume.
Under careful design, the crew members on the ship, including the Captain, all marveled at the Detective's sharp observation and quick thinking. Miss Dorothy wove a deeply entangled motivational story for the deceased in Room 417 and the murderer she had led in apprehending, and made the crew members believe this story. She had them imprison her Corpse Puppet, preparing to hand it over to the Moncarlo authorities upon arrival in Moncarlo, and Miss Dorothy would also arrange for the murderer to accidentally die in a Moncarlo prison.
For a period after that, the entire cruise ship was peaceful until noon the next day, when the cruise ship finally reached its destination, Moncarlo.
When the passengers on the cruise ship could finally see land from the sea, they had already entered the territory of Moncarlo. Standing on the fore deck, Miss Dorothy could see countless small islands and reefs protruding from the sea approaching from the front. On these small island reefs, hundreds or thousands of square meters in size, countless low-rise bamboo and wood structures stood erect. On the structures stood individuals wearing uniforms similar to the marine uniforms of Main Continent countries. They held weapons, vigilantly watching the large ship sailing towards them from afar.
Moncarlo is a fragmented small archipelago located in the sea. Besides the main island at the very center, the islands surrounding the main island are countless micro-islands and reefs covered with fortifications.
Due to the complex sea conditions, when the cruise ship Miss Dorothy was on entered the archipelago, a small sea vessel also began to sail towards the cruise ship. Eventually, this small boat became the guide, leading the cruise ship's route forward. If one were to enter here rashly without guidance, there would be a high possibility of running aground on hidden reefs.
On the deck, Miss Dorothy enjoyed the scenery of the surrounding sea along the way. As the cruise ship continued to approach the center of the small archipelago, the reefs and small islands around the ship became noticeably larger. The originally dilapidated and low bamboo and wood houses disappeared, replaced by stone blockhouse buildings. Miss Dorothy could see cannons deployed on these blockhouses, their black muzzles pointing into the distance.
'Heh, such a strict naval defense. Is this truly the former city of pirates?'
Seeing the scene before her, Miss Dorothy thought to herself. She could feel that the destination, Moncarlo, was close at hand, and the time to disembark was approaching. Next, it would be time to formally deal with the twelve humanoid "cup" drugs.
...
While the cruise ship sailed between the fragmented islands, below the deck of the cruise ship, along a corridor, a middle-aged man carrying luggage, wearing a casual hat, and dressed in overalls was walking quickly forward.
This man's name is Dioro, one of the twelve humanoid "cup" drugs transported by the Food Intestine Society on this ship. He was originally an Iweig city worker. Because he often drank in bars, he was targeted by the Food Intestine Society and corrupted over time into a blood livestock almost completely under their control. Under the Food Intestine Society's persuasion, Dioro began to fervently worship a deity named "Abyssal Serpent of the Gut," which is actually one of the titles of the Abyssal Serpent.
The Food Intestine Society, under the guise of making a pilgrimage to the Abyssal Serpent of the Gut, gathered Dioro and a dozen others to go to Moncarlo together. During this process, the Food Intestine Society members would bestow "sacred medicine" upon all the pilgrims, including Dioro, every day, allowing them to experience the pleasure of spiritual communication with the deity. And this so-called sacred medicine was precisely the "cup" drug.
The pilgrimage destination was about to be reached, and the other pilgrims had already started preparing to disembark. Dioro, however, was walking quickly towards the rooms of the Food Intestine Society members, who were in their eyes the messengers of the deity. Dioro was going there to receive the "sacred medicine."
Because the day's portion of "sacred medicine" that Dioro had already received in the morning had been lost somewhere, Dioro, unable to find the medicine, couldn't help but become anxious. As his craving for the drug gradually intensified, he became restless and finally decided to seek out the two esteemed messengers of the deity, hoping to beg for new sacred medicine from them.
Thus, with a hint of worry, Dioro quickly walked down the corridor to the room where he believed the esteemed messengers resided. When he stood in the corridor and looked ahead, he could see that the cabin door belonging to the messengers' stateroom was ajar.
Seeing this scene, Dioro quickly walked forward. Just as he reached the entrance of the stateroom, preparing to knock on the door which was not closed, a voice came from inside the stateroom.
"The destination is almost here. How are the blood livestock doing?"
"Their condition is very good. Except for one loss due to an accident, the others are fine and can be released at any time."
Listening to the conversation coming from inside the stateroom, Dioro, who was about to knock on the door, felt a surge of confusion in his heart. He couldn't help but wonder who was talking to the esteemed messengers inside, and why they were discussing the slaughter of livestock. The esteemed messengers hadn't brought any livestock for the pilgrimage, had they?
Dioro thought to himself with such doubts, and the next words that came from inside the stateroom, while answering his doubts, also made him freeze in place.
"Lost one... that's a bit regrettable. After all, while these human livestock and regular livestock are essentially the same, they are more or less a bit more advanced. A single loss can significantly reduce our output."
"Yes... they are humans after all, and harder to raise than pigs..."
The words from inside the stateroom drifted out through the crack in the door. Hearing these words, Dioro felt a chill run down his spine, and cold sweat broke out on his back despite the hot weather.