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That thing...

He knocked on each door in the middle of the night, pushed them open, did nothing, laughed a few times, and then left.

Are you crazy?

After confirming that the thing wouldn't come back, Renyi led the way into the corridor of the staff dormitory.

Fortunately, there weren't any close-up scenes.

The room door that had just been pushed open had a nameplate that read "Scallop E3," one of the seven empty rooms. They walked towards the room where Ivan and Nathan were, "Sea Urchin F4," and stopped in front of the door.

Just as Ren Yi was about to raise his hand to knock on the door, he suddenly remembered something—

That lunatic was knocking like that too.

The people inside might be stressed, and it wouldn't be good if Ivan got so excited that he chopped the door down.

"Can I borrow your pen?"

Erran Chong Aistin spread his hands.

Esther was taken aback, then quickly handed over the pen he used to jot down his thoughts about seafood.

Randomly found a rough piece of toilet paper that had been haphazardly packed together in Jinmao Town in the system's inventory, wrote a few words on it, folded the note in half, and stuffed it through the gap under the door.

in the door.

Nathan, who had slipped out of the closet after the knocking, was listening intently against the door.

A small note slipped through the crack in the door, startling both of them.

Ivan asked with his eyes: What should we do?

Nathan gestured for him to calm down, then slowly bent down, picked up the note, and unfolded it in the dim light.

—Your son, Qiu Qianren.

"..."

Nathan's expression was incredibly complex, which made Ivan even more nervous.

The four people waiting outside were getting anxious when the door creaked open, revealing Nathan's twisted expression of speechlessness mixed with amusement:

Welcome back, my friends.

"It's a shame you missed the nighttime surprise service."

......

Although they are not out of danger yet.

However, being in a relatively normal environment, coupled with having companions around, gave them a great sense of security, and Estin and Luigi both breathed a sigh of relief.

There were six people standing in the room, making it feel a bit crowded.

"Nighttime surprise service?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You mean the one who knocked on the door just now?"

"Shortly before you returned,"

Nathan closed the door, re-hung the chain lock, and then leaned against the door, vividly describing the sounds he had heard earlier.

"...It sounds like a big thing that goes from room to room, knocking and pushing doors. If the person inside has locked the door, it stops for a while and then moves on to the next one. If it's unlocked..."

"It just stood at the door, laughed a few times, and then left."

A large, heavy-footed creature, yet it emitted the clear, childlike laughter.

This combination...

It inexplicably reminds one of a certain pink toad.

"And you?" he asked. "Did you find anything down there?"

So Luigi, Klaus, and Esting shared their findings in the storeroom and boiler room with each other.

The entire ship exudes a sense of absurdity.

Everyone was assigned an identity and made to do work that seemed important but was actually meaningless.

"Shall we go back to our rooms now?"

Klaus was still a little worried that the big guy from before might come back.

"No need." Renyi shook his head.

"The property has already been checked; there's no point in separating now."

He recalled the "sea urchin" sign hanging on the door, and a mocking smile appeared on his face:

"What if it really does turn into the corresponding seafood, just as the nameplate suggests..."

"It would be better to gather together. If we all turn into sea urchins, at least we can huddle together and have some fun."

Everyone: "..."

......

Before dawn, the sound of doors opening and footsteps echoed in the corridor, indicating that the NPCs were starting their day's work.

Last night, they each found a corner to sit down and rest.

Apart from Ivan accidentally waking himself up by snoring, nothing else happened that night.

That strange "room check" never came again.

Luigi accompanied Estin to the storage room to feed the fish, as a form of humanitarian support for the seafood farmer, while the remaining four followed the NPC back to the lobby on the first floor.

The hall was empty, but as soon as Klaus stepped inside, his brows furrowed deeply.

"No, boss."

His eyes scanned the furnishings of the hall like searchlights.

"Table number five, last night before we left, its right leg was aligned with the fourth grout line of the floor tiles... now it's the third."

"And the candlestick on table number eight has a candle that's 0.5 millimeters shorter!"

"besides......"

Although these are very subtle differences, they likely indicate that a secret "banquet" was held here last night that could not be discovered, and that everything was restored to its original state afterward.

However, now is not the time to discuss this.

He turned his gaze away, shook his head at everyone, and gestured for them to take their places.

Nathan shrugged and went back behind the bar, while Ivan and Klaus stood on either side of the door again, one as a cracked can, the other continuing as a Roman column.

Time passed by, second by second.

It wasn't until 10 o'clock, when the long table was already full of buffet dishes, that the first figure finally appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

Immediately afterwards, guests began to appear in twos and threes.

"That was terrifying... I heard strange noises coming from next door last night..."

"Oh! Have you heard...?"

"Whose room is that? I'm so curious!"

Renyi continued to carry his prop tray, weaving through the crowd and collecting the fragments of conversation.

Just then, the music in the hall suddenly stopped.

All conversation abruptly ceased, and like birds suddenly startled by a sound, they all turned to look at the stairwell.

A plump, silver-haired man with a somewhat kind look slowly walked down the stairs with a woman.

His attire was not very formal, one could say it was quite casual, with a pair of gold-rimmed monocles perched on his nose.

This is Mr. Wonka.

The woman beside him wore a dark green velvet dress, her skin was as pale as a thick fog, and her long black hair was tied up behind her head.

Her expression was icy, and she looked much younger than Mr. Wonka, possessing a morbid beauty, but this morbidity did not diminish her aggression in the slightest.

A young girl wearing an apron held her hand.

Ren Yi and the others simultaneously showed a change in expression—

That's Aurora!

When Mr. Wonka and Mrs. Molly appeared, all the light in the hall seemed to be focused on them.

Mr. Wonka reached the middle of the stairs:

"My dear friends, I'm sorry to announce some unfortunate news on such a beautiful morning, which may spoil your enjoyment."

The smile on his face faded slightly, replaced by a hint of sadness.

"Our friend, Mr. Heck Phineas, we have found him... in his room, asleep forever."

"He's dead."

Heck... that haughty goatee is dead?

The hand holding the tray stopped steadily in mid-air, and an ominous premonition rose in his heart.

Sure enough, Mr. Wonka continued sadly:

"It's absolutely horrible. That poor guy was murdered, and the killer... might be one of us."