CNC: Chapter 20 Part 2

The group was confused but the old captain didn’t intend to explain. He looked at the time and continued, “Dinner service time is from 4:30 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. Guests, please settle your luggage in your room and take a rest. After that, you can go to the restaurant for dinner.”

“The recreation rooms, gym, gallery, exhibition hall and other facilities are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.” The captain continued to announce the rules.

The woman with a big chest raised an eyebrow. “What are the arrangements from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m?”

The old captain smiled slightly. “Dear guests, the Dusk Cruise has a tradition since ancient times. Every night at 8 o’clock, all guests must gather in the banquet hall. Each person will tell a horror story every night.”

The experienced sleepwalkers knew this was an important rule in the instance and they all listened carefully.

“The horror stories will last from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. By midnight, all guests must return to the guest room to rest. In normal circumstances, it isn’t possible to leave the guest room without authorization after midnight.”

Ye Chang stood by Chi Nan’s side and spoke in a low murmur thoughtfully, “Under normal circumstances. In other words…”

“Special circumstances must be discussed separately,” Chi Nan replied.

Hei Cha looked at the two eager people and consciously stood aside. He smelled danger…

“I have a question.” The red-haired youth raised his hand. “You said the journey will end when the sun goes down. Then what is the night you just mentioned?”

The old captain looked at his watch and smiled politely. “The sun might not go down but our clock is always turning.”

In other words, this instance was likely to be stuck at dusk but time was still moving forward. No wonder why this was called the Dusk Cruise… Chi Nan glanced at the sunset on the horizon.

The old captain stood up straight, raised his voice and repeated it again. “I hope you remember that you must attend the story meeting at 8 o’clock every night in the banquet hall. Everyone must prepare a horror story. You can’t leave your room after midnight until 8 o’clock the next morning.”

“Dear guests, please remember this.” The captain bowed deeply and turned to leave the deck. The captain’s tone was polite and respectful but the scene was creepy.

The group discussed it a bit on the deck and decided to wait until it was night to see. They scattered to settle in their rooms first.

“Shall we go back to the guest room now?” Ye Chang turned to his new roommate.

“You go back first. I want to stay here for a while.” Chi Nan placed his hands on the ship railing and looked at the sea to the west, as if deliberately avoiding the other person’s eyes.

Ye Chang glanced at him and nodded. “Then I’ll go and clean up first.”

Hei Cha came over to leave together with Ye Chang. “Our rooms happen to be next to each other. If something happens at night, you can find me…”

Chi Nan lay alone against the railing and released the tears he had been holding back at the sight of the sunset. Since regaining his vision, his tears had become more frequent, like a smoker who had to go to the roof to smoke from time to time. Otherwise, his body wasn’t right.

Chi Nan cried comfortably and stared at the sea in a daze. He had been fixed on the wall as a painting for a long time and after being reborn, he lived in the darkness. This meant Chi Nan had an instinctive fascination with warm and flowing colors.

Moreover, he inexplicably felt a sense of deja vu from the scenery in front of him. It included the station of Dawn Base, the neon-lit but deserted streets of Zi City and the sunset that would never sink in front of him…

He tried to remember it but unfortunately, his memories were blurred from the hundreds of years of being in the painting. Still, it didn’t matter. He liked this bizarre Nightmare World.

By the time he had seen enough of the sunset, 10 minutes had passed before he returned to his cabin. Chi Nan opened the door and found Ye Chang carefully inspecting the room like a serious student.

“I’ve searched the entire room. I didn’t find any surveillance cameras. The beds are very soft and clean. It is well-equipped but there are some weird traces.”

Weird traces?

Chi Nan followed Ye Chang and took a look. The shocking scratches on the door panel immediately entered his field of vision. The deep, messy scratches were faintly stained with dark red blood stains, just like… the scratches left on the coffin lid when someone was buried alive.

How helpless and desperate would a person be to scratch until they bled in order to survive? Was the door made of coffin wood? The type that was used to bury someone alive?

“It isn’t just the door. It is here, here and over there.”

Ye Chang pointed to the ceiling, inside the wardrobe and even the wall behind the full-length mirror. There were bloody scratches all over. They were all places that normal people couldn’t easily reach. It was amazing.

“Brother Nan, how did these traces get up there?” Ye Chang asked like a newcomer.

Chi Nan was silent for a moment before looking at the bathroom. “Have you checked the bathroom?”

Ye Chang nodded seriously before asking humbly, “Is there anything wrong with the bathroom?”

“Oh, I wanted to ask if there was hot water in the bathroom. I want to take a shower.” Chi Nan answered naturally.

Ye Chang choked up before smiling. “…There is hot water and the bathtub is very clean.”

“Great.” Chi Nan really took out his clothes from his bag like it was a vacation. He had just stepped into the bathroom when he stopped and looked back at Ye Chang. “Would you like to wash first?”

The question wasn’t very sincere…

Ye Chang hurriedly shook his head. “No need. “I am used to washing before going to sleep.”

“Ah, then I will go and wash up.” He closed the bathroom door and there was soon the sound of flowing water.

At almost the same moment he closed the door, the bewildered expression on Ye Chang’s face disappeared. He went to the window and opened the curtains. He took off his thick glasses and held them in his hand, admiring the long sunset over the sea with a pleasant expression on his face. The crisscrossed barbed wire on the window was a bit unpleasant but it didn’t affect his mood in the least.

15 minutes later, Chi Nan came out of the bathroom full of steam. He had just taken a hot shower and his skin was stained with a thin layer of red. It made the two teardrop moles at the end of his eyes more vivid.

Ye Chang was sitting cross-legged on the bed, looking through his exercise books seriously. He seemed to feel Chi Nan’s confused gaze and looked up with a bitter smile. “I am preparing to take the university entrance examination.”

Chi Nan was stunned for a moment. He had ever experienced the torture of an exam and couldn’t sympathize. He just nodded and said, “Come on.”

The two men explored the room for a while. Apart from the bloody scratches and the dense barbed wire on the windows, not many anomalies were found. To be honest, the water here was hot enough and the smell of the shower gel was very good. Chi Nan quite enjoyed it.

Once it was almost 6 o’clock, there was a knock on the door. “Are you okay? Do you want to go to dinner together?”

Chi Nan glanced at Ye Chang and got his permission before agreeing to Hei Cha’s invitation.

The restaurant on the Dusk Cruise Ship was quite exclusive. It was buffet-style with a full range of dishes and drinks from various countries. The meal fee was included in the ticket so they could eat for free.

“Is it okay to eat the food on the ship?” Ye Chang was a newcomer and it was normal to have this concern.

Hei Cha answered him, “It should be okay. The dream makers aren’t so incompetent as to poison us.”

“Probably.” Ye Chang muttered in a low voice that only he could hear.

As they were talking, Chi Nan had already grabbed a tray to get food. Hei Cha clicked his tongue. “In the last instance, your roommate and I ate less. It isn’t as good as now.”

10 minutes later, Hei Cha and Ye Chang returned with a full load to find that Chi Nan was already sitting down and eating with gusto. Chi Nan always had a slow and enjoyable way of eating. Even ordinary food seemed to be covered with layers of filters when on his plate.

“There is Chi Nan and every instance is like a vacation.” Hei Cha sighed.

Chi Nan was seriously chewing on a piece of steak when his gaze inadvertently fell on a fresh milk puff on Ye Chang’s plate. His eyes narrowed and he secretly gulped. It was sweet. He wanted to eat but he couldn’t eat.

“Are you nervous?” Hei Cha asked the newcomer Ye Chang.

Ye Chang smiled. “In fact, I’m okay. It seems to be quite fun.”

Hei Cha looked at him with a complicated expression and thought, ‘You are indeed a child. You haven’t encountered any moments of terror yet. Don’t cry later one…’

Chi Nan moved his eyes away from Ye Chang’s plate and told Hei Cha about the scratches in their room. “Is there anything unusual in your room?”

Hei Cha’s expression changed after hearing this. He had originally been eating well but now he stopped. He suddenly felt that the delicious food in his mouth had lost its taste. It was like chewing wax and it was difficult to swallow. “So… there is a burnt smell in my room. It smelled like someone was cooking in my room and the odor couldn’t be dissipated due to bad ventilation. There were also some traces of ashes on the floor near the bedside table. I couldn’t tell what was burned. I wouldn’t have thought much about it if you hadn’t said this but it is like…”

Halfway through his ways, a layer of sweat appeared on Hei Cha’s body. He might be a horror streamer but he felt numb thinking about living in a room alone with ashes.

Chi Nan expressionlessly picked up a piece of barbecue and placed it in his mouth, chewing slowly, “A burned person?”

Hei Cha, “……” How could he say it directly?

Unexpectedly, Ye Chang was thoughtful for a while before saying with a serious face, “It might be that the person died in our room and was burned in the room next door.”

“This also fits.” Chi Nan commented.

The corners of Hei Cha’s lips twitched. “These two bigshots, can we discuss this after dinner?”

Ye Chang was embarrassed and apologized, but Chi Nan just obediently continued to eat.

For the rest of the time, in order to get closer to Ye Chang and to ease the sense of fear that occurred just now so his awakening value didn’t rise, Hei Cha worked hard to break the ice.

In addition to the rules of the Nightmare World, he gave a vivid account of his and Chi Nan’s experience in You Yu’s Dream. Ye Chang listened with interest and even forgot to eat. As Hei Cha was feeling satisfied with his storytelling, Ye Chang turned to ask Chi Nan. “So what type of person is the young master of that villa?”