Chapter 153: The Person in the Painting

Open fire! Free fire! Smash these ghostly things into pieces!

Captain Maiersi's shocked, hoarse roar burst through the team comms, exploding in every member's ear.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Flames instantly tore apart the dim banquet hall!

Bullets forged from special alloy, imbued with modern industry's utmost killing intent, formed an impenetrable metal storm that ruthlessly slammed into the oncoming corpse horde.

The swollen corpses at the front were hit, flesh flying, their rotted limbs flopping backward like torn sacks.

However, before the team could catch a breath,

The corpses knocked to the ground twitched a few times, then, in a posture defying physics, shakily rose again!

From their bullet holes flowed not blood, but a foul pus mixed with seawater.

They ignored their mutilated bodies, continuing forward with stiff steps, neither hurried nor slow.

Fuck! These things can't be killed!

Fatty let out a terrified curse, slapped in a fresh magazine, and kept spraying wildly.

But it was all in vain.

Conventional physical attacks were utterly ineffective against these already-dead things!

Ah——!

A piercing scream came from the flank of the defense line.

A young team member, overcome by panic, made a fatal mistake while changing magazines.

It was just this pause of a few tenths of a second.

A male corpse in a tailcoat lunged forward, pinning him down.

Immediately, more corpses swarmed forward like sharks scenting blood.

Save me! Save me!

The young member's cries for help were instantly drowned out.

In the horrified gaze of all, his body was easily torn open, blood and entrails spraying out, staining the seawater-soaked luxurious carpet.

The corpse horde frenziedly tore and gnawed at his flesh, emitting a teeth-grinding chewing sound.

In just a few seconds, a living person became a mutilated corpse.

Watching their comrade being devoured alive, even these battle-hardened elite soldiers saw their mental defenses near collapse.

Give up breaching! Retreat to the ship's interior! Quick!

Maiersi made a snap decision and issued the retreat order.

He knew that staying here would only let these unkillable monsters wear them down to death!

The remaining members hesitated no longer, turning and sprinting toward the passage on the other side of the banquet hall.

They rushed into a narrow corridor; the corpse horde behind did not catch up.

Huff...... huff......

The team members leaned against the cold wall, gasping violently; the relief of survival was quickly replaced by deeper fear.

Just then, a team member, as if discovering something, pointed at the wall, voice trembling.

"Captain, what is that?"

Everyone followed his gaze and saw a cruise ship's internal map pinned to the corridor wall with pushpins.

Beside the map was stuck an obviously later-added, yellowed booklet.

On its cover, in bloody red scrawl, were written a few large characters.

【Ocean Tranquil Ship Rules Handbook】

Maiersi snatched the booklet open, flipping through it quickly under the light of his tactical flashlight.

"1. After 10 p. m., you must return to your cabin and lock the door within ten minutes; no matter what knocking or cries for help you hear, you must absolutely not respond or open the door."

"2. The restaurant is open only at 7 a. m., 12 p. m., and 6 p. m.; at any other time, if you see the restaurant lights on or hear clattering utensils, you are strictly forbidden to approach, especially not to respond to the 'waiter's' meal invitation inside."

"3. There may be at most three portrait paintings on any corridor; if you count four, turn and run away from that corridor immediately, without looking back."

"4. The pool is open from 9:00 to 17:00; if you notice the water turning dark red or see floating black hair, immediately keep away and do not approach any water source that day (including cabin faucets)."

"5. If a mirror shows water-mist writing, you may only read the first three characters; after reading, wipe it off immediately with a towel—do not try to read the full sentence."

One bizarre rule after another made all team members feel their scalps tingle.

What the hell kind of place is this?

When Maiersi flipped to the last page, his pupils constricted sharply.

"6. Do not attempt to leave the Ocean Tranquil Ship by any means."

Don't leave?

What a joke!

Tasked with recovering evidence, and driven by humanity's most primal survival instinct, they could not possibly obey this rule.

Maiersi stuffed the booklet into his pocket, turned his gaze to the map, and quickly found a special passage marked with a red circle.

"Diving Passage"

"We're going here! This is the only way!" he said, pointing at the map, his tone leaving no room for doubt.

The group immediately proceeded deeper into the ship according to the map's indications.

Along the way, they encountered even more bizarre events.

The portraits in the corridor depicting smiling ladies welcoming guests actually had tears of blood slowly trickling from their eyes' corners.

When passing the washroom, the faces reflected in the mirror were the exact opposite of their actual expressions at that moment.

In the air, faint childlike sobs would occasionally echo, as if an invisible child were constantly lingering beside them.

Every step was accompanied by immense mental torment.

Soon they arrived at a new corridor.

On both sides of this corridor hung several portrait paintings.

"One, two, three..."

The hummingbird unconsciously counted, and when he reached the fourth painting, his voice cut off.

Four!

Everyone stopped in their tracks, instantly recalling the third clause of the rulebook.

"Turn around and run away from this corridor immediately, don't look back."

But this corridor is the necessary passage to the Diving Passage!

They raised their guns, nervously guarding the surroundings, cold sweat sliding down their foreheads.

One second.

Two seconds.

Ten seconds passed.

Nothing happened.

"What the hell, trying to scare us?" a team member exhaled, cursing under his breath.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, the fatty beside him stared fixedly at his rear like seeing a ghost, eyes bulging, mouth wide open, yet unable to make a sound.

That team member turned his head in confusion.

He saw that another teammate who had been behind him was gone.

No.

It wasn't that he had disappeared.

He saw the fourth portrait on the wall.

In the painting, the man originally wearing court robes with a blurred face had now turned into the likeness of their missing teammate!

The "teammate" in the painting wore a weird smile, his skin showing the characteristic bluish-white swelling of drowning, exactly like the corpses floating in the banquet hall earlier!

"Ah!"

A scream shattered the corridor's silence.

"Run!"

Maiersi roared, and nobody dared hesitate any longer, turning and sprinting back the way they came.

At the moment they turned around, they horrifyingly discovered.

At the intersection they had come from, within that dim shadow.

A tall figure in ancient court robes stood there unknown when, completely blocking their retreat.

It was exactly the weird man from the fourth painting!

"Grenade!"

The fatty bellowed, pulled the pin, and hurled a high-explosive grenade at it.

Boom!

The violent explosion kicked up smoke and fire, shaking the entire corridor.

However, when the smoke cleared.

That figure still stood silently in place, unharmed.

Physical attacks were completely ineffective!

The team members were utterly desperate.

The lights in the corridor began to flicker wildly.

On and off.

With each flicker of the lights going out and coming on, that weird figure kept approaching in a teleport-like manner.

"No! Don't come over!"

A team member had a mental breakdown and frantically pulled the trigger.

At the instant the lights flickered off and on again, that figure appeared before him.

"Ah——!"

That team member, along with his anguished scream, was dragged into the endless darkness, vanishing without a trace.

"Run, don't look back!"

Maiersi finally realized the importance of the warning in the rulebook.

He led the remaining teammates in a frantic dash toward a side passage.

After rushing into another corridor, they looked back and saw the figure from the painting had not pursued them.

Its range of activity seemed limited to the corridor with the four paintings.

The team lost three members in a short time.

Everyone's morale sank to rock bottom, despair spreading like a plague among the survivors.