Chapter 189: Out Of Control
One by one, figures with numb expressions sat rigidly in their seats, their ashen eyes unfocused, just blankly staring at that stage.
Their appearance was not much different from ordinary people, except they seemed to lack vitality; otherwise, they completely looked like normal humans.
Among them, ages and genders varied, with old men in their seventies or eighties, as well as women in their twenties or thirties, and each figure had a completely different appearance.
It was as if hundreds of people with different identities had been gathered together, then some method was applied to turn them into these eerie puppets.
Perhaps they were the true passengers on the ghost ship, and those rooms in the aisle originally belonged not to the fierce ghost, but to these audience members.
“There won’t be outsiders in the ghost ship besides me. Judging by these people’s attire, they should all be from the Republic of China Era too, so they must have existed before the ghost ship was sealed by the old house owner.”
Seeing these figures’ line of sight shift away, Zhang Qian examined them without any reservations.
“They were probably just ordinary people at first, but some supernatural force corroded them into this neither human nor ghost appearance.”
According to the mannequin, the ghost ship at its establishment did not seem to exist as a supernatural land for imprisoning fierce ghosts.
Paradise… it sounded more like a place to enjoy life, which had nothing to do with fierce ghosts.
“The root of the problem probably lies with the captain. The ghost ship is very likely the fierce ghost he commands, but the current situation is somewhat similar to fierce ghost revival…”
As long as he could find the captain, many problems would likely be resolved.
But before that, he had to find a way to leave here first.
The dancer’s strangely toned singing still lingered in his ears.
Waves of eerie singing mixed in with the music, the voice mournful as if crying or cursing something.
The content of this singing was completely incomprehensible; although he could roughly guess it was Chinese, the tone was not like modern standard Mandarin, more like some unknown dialect.
Warily watching the dancer whose face could not be seen clearly, Zhang Qian paused for a moment but could not figure out what this singing really represented, and finally had to give up helplessly.
The crucial point for leaving probably did not lie in this singing…
Zhang Qian frowned, pondering the next move.
The dizzying musical sound continued, but probably because he had escaped a memory attack once, aside from feeling a bit noisy, there was no other discomfort.
And while the dancer’s song sounded eerie, it had no direct influence on Zhang Qian.
Or rather, the singing’s target was not him to begin with?
“The appearance of these figures is definitely not a coincidence; although the timing was a bit abrupt, it roughly matched when the dancer started singing.”
“Maybe the music played by that piano is an attack on the living, capable of causing memory loss. And the singing’s purpose is to summon these long-dead puppets, gathering them back in the hall?”
The fierce ghost summoning these spirits was certainly not for enjoying the music, but the reason behind it was unclear.
Zhang Qian cautiously observed the surroundings, his thoughts racing.
Should he attempt to interrupt the dancer’s singing?
He was a bit undecided.
The current situation was just a bit eerie, with no crisis present, but if he accidentally triggered some rule, he would probably face attacks from those ghostly things.
Even if these audience members were not true fierce ghosts, their numbers alone were enough to surround and trap Zhang Qian to death.
“Let’s see how things develop first,” Zhang Qian thought to himself.
“I might not be able to beat so many figures, and there’s no need to fight them anyway. After all, my purpose is just to withdraw from the music hall, not to root out the supernatural inside the music hall.”
There was so much supernatural on the ghost ship; this bit more wouldn’t make a difference.
As long as he could deal with that boss, the captain, everything would be fine. If he couldn’t solve the captain, killing too many of these minions wouldn’t mean much anyway.
And Zhang Qian understood this, so from earlier he had been quietly searching for an exit, but in the end found nothing.
“The ghost ship has undergone an anomaly, but the layout inside shouldn’t have changed much.”
Zhang Qian felt a bit lost and began reviewing if he had overlooked anything.
“The pattern for leaving via the aisle was clearly set during the Paradise period, prepared for those passengers who needed it.”
“But normal passengers clearly couldn’t just listen to singing and sleep; they had to go to other places too, right?”
Deck, banquet hall, hall, lounge…
These places common on ordinary cruise ships should exist on the ghost ship too, along with corresponding ways to reach them.
“People on the ghost ship before must have needed to leave the music hall at times. Since no exit can be found under normal conditions, destroying the piano as the medium should cause some changes.”
Unfortunately, things did not develop in the direction Zhang Qian expected.
The building in the music hall showed no changes, nor did anything like a door suddenly appear out of thin air.
Everything was exactly the same as when he first entered the hall; the only difference was that the music hall now had some more fierce ghosts.
“Could it be that the aisle doesn’t just connect to one place, and satisfying the pattern each time leads to different areas?”
Did he really have to go through the aisle again?
Zhang Qian glanced at the mannequin lying motionless on the side, uncertain if it was alive or dead.
Too bad this guy was still lying on the ground pretending to be dead; otherwise, he could ask if it recalled more memories.
As he was thinking this, the mannequin surprisingly twitched as if sensing something.
Under the flickering lights, the mannequin jerked its limbs in very uncoordinated movements, like a corpse coming back to life.
Its bald head lifted up, with a clearly visible black scar on it.
Beneath the black scar, that one black and one white eye stared coldly and intently at Zhang Qian.
At first glance, it seemed no different from the mannequin’s usual gaze, but Zhang Qian had a strange feeling.
It seemed the mannequin had lost its self; now controlling its body were merely those nearly out-of-control fierce ghosts.
Looking like this, it was somewhat similar to its previous near-resurgence due to memories, except this time the resurgence was deeper.
“Ka ka—”
A few crisp sounds of bones clashing came from the mannequin’s limbs; the next moment, it stood straight up from the ground.
Zhang Qian first glanced around and saw that those audience members and the dancer had not noticed the situation here, then walked toward the mannequin.
As the distance closed, the mannequin made no other actions, but that white eye was slowly being corroded by black.
