National destiny: Starting with a coffin, building an aircraft carrier is broadcast live globally.

Noah bit his cheek and stared unkindly at the two little dwarfs behind the mirror.

The sudden appearance of the twins at the crucial moment was no different from the lights being switched off during the climax of his magic show.

What's even more infuriating is...

The prey he had his eye on even nodded politely in greeting.

See, we don't need you.

The business deal fell through.

Why did they have to show up now to sabotage us?

He watched with a sullen expression as Renyi walked toward Delphina and Mikaje. Well, they were still far from the truth anyway, and they were bound to run into obstacles eventually.

Thinking of this, Noah crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, raising his eyebrows to prepare for the show.

What are you doing here?

He bent down as far as he could, trying to look the two children straight in the eye.

"Mr. Zhang, we're playing hide-and-seek."

Delphine held Mikaje's hand and stared intently at Noah.

"Is Uncle Poor Guy lying to us again?"

again?

Noah turned around and gave an innocent, fake smile.

His earlier guess was indeed correct. This guy hadn't been idle while trapped on the ship; he probably had already harassed every single creature on board who could strike up a conversation.

"Were you ever deceived by him?" Ren Yi withdrew his gaze and asked gently.

Delphine and Mikaje shook their heads in unison:

"He's so poor, how could he possibly have what we want?"

"...Don't take a child's words seriously!" Noah added.

"So what do you want?"

He completely ignored the background noise and continued asking about the twins.

Seeing that Delphina and Mikaje exchanged a glance without answering, Ren Yi didn't press the matter and immediately and naturally changed the subject:

"By the way, why do we call him a pauper?"

"My brother said that he was the only one on the ship who didn't buy a ticket."

What younger brother?

Are there other children on this ship besides them?

And it sounds like he's a key figure.

Renyi turned to look at Noah again, who was stroking his chin, looking completely bewildered. Meeting Renyi's questioning gaze, Noah spread his hands and mouthed silently:

I do not know either.

"Can I meet my 'little brother'?"

He randomly took a small bag from the system's inventory and shook it; it made a clear, clinking sound like glass beads clattering together.

"We can play together."

"No." Delphine's eyes were glued to the bag of glass beads, but she still shook her head regretfully.

Why?

"Because my brother isn't on the ship," Mikaje replied.

Noah chuckled beside him.

"Maybe it's just something they imagined... Kids all have a few imaginary friends."

Unmoved, he shoved the bag of glass beads into Delphine's hand.

Delphine clutched the cloth bag, somewhat at a loss.

She looked at Mikaje.

Mikaje suddenly stepped forward, leaned close to Renyi's ear, and whispered something in his ear:

"My younger brother is in the sea."

After saying that, he grabbed Delphine's hand, turned around, and ran. The two small figures quickly disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

The gallery was quiet for a short while.

Noah's amused expression softened slightly, and he touched his not-so-smooth chin, his brows furrowing slightly.

"My younger brother...is he in the sea?"

This was a new piece of information that surprised him.

How interesting...?

It's like a projectionist who's shown the same movie a hundred times suddenly seeing a new film reel!

Just as he was enthusiastically about discussing the direction of the new plot with the only living creature beside him, the creature suddenly asked:

"You've had dealings with more than just Wonka on this ship, haven't you?"

Noah felt a little uncomfortable being stared at.

He coughed lightly, putting on a nonchalant expression, trying to brush the matter aside.

"Why are you suddenly asking this? What, are you already checking up on me? We're all in this together, and I admit I'm a restless salesman, but I definitely didn't do anything behind your back..."

"...Stop." Renyi quickly interrupted the spellcasting.

"I'm not questioning your business empire!"

He was simply following Noah's logic and thought of another possibility—

"Since you're able to scout out targets all over this ship and lure them into contracts..."

"What about Naya?"

Noah's eyes widened slightly, and the nonchalant expression on his face slowly faded. If that were really the case...

He stopped leaning against the wall, stood up straight, and subconsciously reached into his pocket for his cigar box.

"Do you even understand what multi-line contracts mean?"

"I would like to hear the details."

"Contracts...are about cause and effect and a closed loop."

Noah opened the box, put a pre-cut cigar in his mouth, and explained with a frown:

"Simply put, suppose there are three people on this ship. A wants to live, B wants A to die, and C wants to take everyone off the ship... What do you think would happen if all three of their wishes were granted?"

Ren Yi didn't respond, but just waited quietly for him to continue.

"paradox!"

"Conflicts in the underlying rules are like planting bombs in every possible location. Maintaining the status quo is fine, otherwise..."

He mouthed "Boom!"

"When the rules collapse, all affected spaces become extremely unstable. Sometimes it's an endless reset of chaos, sometimes all the spaces involved become part of this chaotic spacetime, and sometimes... it's annihilation."

At this point, he couldn't help but curse under his breath.

This is why he always thought Wonka was an idiot and couldn't understand the ship's operating logic.

He didn't believe that such a power would do something so foolish as to frantically weave a web that harms others without benefiting itself!

Renyi looked at the somewhat exasperated 'salesman' in front of him.

This guy seems to have some principles when it comes to 'business reputation,' so I've decided to be nicer to him:

But Nyarlathotep didn't care.

"As long as it doesn't blow up itself, the consequences will be borne by the people in the cage."

He gestured between himself and Noah.

"Like us."

Noah's expression turned even uglier.

He was unaware of Nyarlathotep's existence before, and excitedly signed contracts all over the ship. In retrospect, what's the difference between this behavior and blindly sweeping mines and randomly stepping on fuses?!

"It seems that Nyarlathotep's trap is much deeper than you imagined."

Summarize arbitrarily and mercilessly.

"Keep playing, or you might crash and burn."

"You might unfortunately become a high-ranking cog in this ship too."

The cigar twirled between Noah's fingers before finally being tucked into his breast pocket.

Then, somewhat annoyed, he complained:

"...How was I supposed to know that guy would attract something like that...?"

Whether you know it or not, trouble has already begun.

He took a step and continued walking towards the stairs.

"We're currently defusing a very complex time bomb. Your contract, and the contract with Naya—we need to figure out every single fuse..."