Chapter 164: Trade-offs
After quietly observing for a moment, Zhang Qian still decided to awaken the mannequin that was approaching loss of control.
Letting it go like this would probably completely destroy the mannequin’s consciousness, but compared to a fierce ghost that couldn’t be controlled, a intelligent being that could communicate was still a bit more useful.
Moreover, the mannequin definitely still had information it hadn’t revealed, so letting it die like this would truly be a waste.
“Do you still have consciousness?”
He asked softly.
The mannequin didn’t reply, but that pair of eerie eyes immediately turned toward the sound.
The gaze was still as icy cold as ever, and compared to before, no difference could be seen.
“Dong!”
After the crisp sound, the mannequin’s head bounced left and right, blinking its eyes as if it had just woken up.
“Huh? What’s the situation?”
“Nothing.”
Zhang Qian looked at the dent on the mannequin’s head, coughed twice, and silently adjusted the wooden stick in his left hand downward.
Seeing no abnormality in the mannequin, he continued to ask, “You should have some memories, right? In your impression, how many rooms did you pass through closest to the time you left?”
The mannequin wiped its forehead with its soft arms, always feeling like something was off.
Supernatural corrosion caused it to lose consciousness for a moment?
Unable to figure it out, it stopped overthinking, scratched its head, and replied: “It seems like three doorways.”
“Only three doorways?” Zhang Qian said in surprise.
The mannequin’s strength wasn’t weak when controlling the fierce ghost, so it shouldn’t have been limited to just three doorways.
“Is your luck that bad? The first doorway usually picks those that can be opened directly, which generally aren’t dangerous, equivalent to you actually only opening one unknown room?”
“Every time picking rooms with high danger levels, you’re quite talented.”
The mannequin retorted: “Those rooms that could be opened naturally only appeared recently; before that, every room needed to be forced open.”
“Of course, I won’t refute you saying my luck is bad; I myself suspect if I offended the captain of the ghost ship, causing it to target me deliberately.”
Captain?
It wasn’t convenient to ask directly before, but now that the mannequin brought it up itself, he could follow its words and ask.
So Zhang Qian put on an interested expression and asked curiously: “Captain refers to the captain of the ghost ship? This place actually has a captain’s existence?”
“A ship naturally needs someone in control.” The mannequin pondered for a moment, seemingly recalling information related to the captain.
“The structure of the ghost ship is similar to a normal cruise ship, and sailing also requires manual control.”
“Normally, the captain would be at the helm in the control room, but in the current situation, it’s hard to say if the captain is even alive.”
Zhang Qian nodded slightly; control room, not much different from his initial guess.
However, the mannequin’s words raised new doubts.
“What do you mean by the current situation? Is the ghost ship about to lose control?”
“Not clear…”
The mannequin was about to continue when the expression on its face began to waver slowly again.
But under Zhang Qian’s physical therapy, it just blinked and recovered to normal.
“The ghost ship wasn’t like this at the very beginning…”
The mannequin’s mouth kept opening and closing, recalling distant memories intermittently with Zhang Qian’s help.
“…At the start, its name should have been Paradise; at some point, it became the ghost ship…”
“The previous rooms didn’t have so many fierce ghosts; there should have been more people like you…”
After saying this, the mannequin no longer replied, no matter how Zhang Qian asked.
“Really broken?”
Muttering to himself, Zhang Qian familiarly picked up the wooden stick, wondering if it could still be salvaged.
“I’m watching.” The mannequin suddenly said.
Its slender arms then lifted, touching the bumps all over its head, “No wonder it felt off; this is how you treated me?”
“Anyway, you’re a fierce ghost body, so you won’t get hurt.” Zhang Qian put away the stick, feeling no embarrassment at all.
He had learned about enough; what the ghost ship was like before was just curiosity for him, but the most important thing right now was surviving to have the qualification for curiosity.
During the idle chat, time was slowly advancing.
Although communicating with the mannequin, Zhang Qian’s attention was mostly on the map and the surrounding environment.
Every step here required bearing huge psychological pressure, but Zhang Qian, having recovered some strength, wasn’t too worried.
But as the distance deepened, he still couldn’t help furrowing his brows.
Taking that pure black room as coordinates, the initial hundred-plus rooms had all been refreshed.
Yet the danger level of the rooms appearing later showed no sign of decreasing; instead, it had risen quite a bit.
Most rooms were marked deep gray on the map, at least danger level and above.
“This aisle shouldn’t have any order, right? Does going forward or backward affect the room danger levels?” Zhang Qian asked.
With the veteran mannequin right beside him, he naturally wouldn’t waste time guessing slowly by himself.
The mannequin leaned forward to look and said nonchalantly: “No influence; actually, this is the normal situation, with most rooms not being safe.”
“Earlier, seeing so many grayish-white rooms at a glance, I felt it was a bit strange; now it’s much more normal.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Zhang Qian said irritably, “If I knew that was a special situation, I would’ve chosen a path around there.”
After all, he hadn’t been in this aisle for long, and plus not having attempted to open locked doorways yet, his understanding of the surroundings was really limited.
Earlier, seeing so many light-colored rooms, he thought he could gather the light-colored rooms into one path.
“What’s the rush.”
The mannequin shook its head indifferently, “With this map, no need to settle; finding the safest path is the hard truth. Don’t think that with two of us, we’d stand a chance against those terrifying fierce ghosts.”
In the mannequin’s view, after waiting decades, with escape imminent, it was worth spending hours or even days for stability; no need to rush.
Zhang Qian frowned but didn’t refute; the mannequin wasn’t in a hurry, but his own time wasn’t much.
After some more time passed.
Their advancing steps suddenly stopped.
Without waiting for the mannequin to ask, Zhang Qian said directly: “Right here.”
“Here? Isn’t it a bit forced?” The mannequin hesitated, “We can completely find a better choice; no need to force it.”
Zhang Qian shook his head: “No best, only better. The more you hesitate, the more you’ll regret not choosing the previous path.”
“The situation here already meets my expectations; with good planning, it’ll be better than those previous rooms.”
