Kaleidoscope of Death

Once the insect swarm dispersed, Lin Qiushi’s group left the dining room. The moment they stepped outside, however, they found that the flying insects had appeared in the hallway, batting their wings to form a faint black line in midair that led off to some unknown room.

This was likely what the string signified. Lin Qiushi had thought it would be more complicated than this, but somehow, Ruan Nanzhu’s messing around had yielded them the correct answer. He glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and asked, “do we follow and see where it goes?”

“Sure.” Ruan Nanzhu looked at the time and confirmed it was still early. “Let’s go.”

Then they headed off in the direction the insects were guiding them in, toward where all the rooms were.

Every five minutes, the positions of the rooms changed, and when that happened, the direction the insects pointed to also changed. Hovering in mid-air, they were all connected together in a single-file line. The three of them kept following the path of insects, but very quickly, they discovered something off—at one point, the insects broke off into two swarms. One pointed left, and one pointed right, in different directions.

“Why’s this happening?” Gu Longming was utterly confounded when he saw the split insects. He grabbed a bug off-hand and trapped it in his palm. When he released it, it swiftly returned to its original position. “Why have these mosquitoes split up? Unless…”

He understood something. With a pained expression he peered at Lin Qiushi.

“Unless there are two monsters?”

That seemed to be the only answer, but Lin Qiushi didn’t think the matter would be so simple. He asked, “we’ll split up and see?”

Ruan Nanzhu thought for a bit.

“Okay, Gu Longming goes left with you, and I go right.”

Lin Qiushi nodded, not arguing. He only reminded Ruan Nanzhu that if Ruan Nanzhu did find something strange, he shouldn’t force anything; the objective this time was to gather information.

Hearing Lin Qiushi’s earnest suggestion, Ruan Nanzhu couldn’t help but smile.

“I knew it, our Linlin’s all grown up. He worries about me now, how heartwarming.”

Lin Qiushi: “…I’m very serious.”

“Yes, I know you’re serious.” He came over and gave the corner of Lin Qiushi’s mouth a casual peck. “I’ll be careful. See you later.”

Lin Qiushi waved a hand at him.

“See you later.”

As they were conversing, the space around them changed again, and the directions they were heading altered once more. This time, the insects seemed to be guiding them toward the lowest-level deck.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming wasted no more time, jogging the rest of the way ahead, hoping to find the room the insects were guiding them to before everything changed again.

The two were quick, finding the room indicated by the insects in half the time. At this room, those bugs flew through the air and attached themselves in a dense layer all over the door. As soon as he was near, Lin Qiushi got a whiff of a strong, rotted fish stench.

It was truly too pungent—about as bad as how the room from last time smelled. It was too easy to anticipate that inside this room, they would find that giant fishman monster shut away.

At the room, Lin Qiushi didn’t rush and try to enter. Instead he put his ear to the door and listened for any sounds inside. The room was quiet enough to seem like it held nothing alive, but Lin Qiushi still heard something odd: a faint breathing sound coming from the door…The breaths came from somewhere close to him, as if there was only the single door between him and whatever was inside.

Gu Longming, on the other hand, was looking through the window. He seemed to have spotted something in the inky black, face going slightly pale as he took a couple of steps back. He gestured toward the inside of the room at Lin Qiushi, nodding emphatically to say that there was something inside.

So Lin Qiushi got up and looked through the window too.

Through a crack in the curtains, he saw a pair of yellow eyes hidden in the dark. They were fish eyes, with perfectly circular pupils and the whites of the eyes giving off a bright golden glow. They were currently staring out the door with a none-too-friendly expression.

Those eyes slowly moved, like the thing had sensed there were people standing outside. Lin Qiushi saw it slowly open its mouth, filled densely with white teeth and a tongue softly glowing blue.

Hang on…yellow eyes? Lin Qiushi’s breathing froze. He felt that he’d caught onto something, swiftly pulling out his cell phone, turning on the flashlight, and tossing the beam of light in through the curtains.

As the light entered the room, Lin Qiushi could finally see the thing clearly. It was a creature difficult to describe—at least, Lin Qiushi had never seen its like.

It had a gigantic head of a fish and a fragile human body. Because the head was so big and heavy, the creature couldn’t even stand straight; both the head and the thin, mismatched body could only sprawl on the floor. Most eye-catching was the long, sharp horn at the top of its head—it looked both piercing and deadly…and the first thing Lin Qiushi thought of was the long sword that killed the Minotaur from the myth.

The fishman’s attention was caught by the light Lin Qiushi brought and a strange roar came out of its mouth. Gu Longming saw its strange appearance and couldn’t help but rub at his arms, forcing a grin.

“The heck is that thing?”

“What we saw in the first room seems to be this fish-person,” Lin Qiushi said. “Remember the yellow eyes from that room?”

Gu Longming nodded that he remembered.

At the mention of the yellow eyes, he finally realized. The eyes of the human-eating fish-monster were not yellow, but a discomforting shock of white. This kind of detail, however, easily blurred in shocking situations, and it was only due to Lin Qiushi’s reminder that he could now faintly remember.

“So there are two monsters?” Gu Longming swallowed. “And so the purpose of this monster, could it be…”

His gaze fell on the needle-sharp horn at the top of that monster’s head, and said the words Lin Qiushi was thinking.

“The long sword?”

Lin Qiushi: “We can suppose so.”

At least so far, they had yet to find another appropriate, weapon-like item on the ship. The truth was, the moment he’d gotten a clear look at this fishman’s apperance, Lin Qiushi had had the similar thought. Gu Longming had clearly drawn the same conclusions that he did.

The sound of the two talking seemed to have stimulated the monster inside. It began to crawl about a little violently, twisting about in a grotesque and scary manner.

Seeing its agitation, Lin Qiushi got a bad feeling. So he grabbed Gu Longming and backed up a few steps.

The moment they backed up, a long sharp spike appeared through the solid wood wall in front of them. The thing in the room had used the horn on its head to stab straight through the wall—two, three times, leaving a number of holes behind. Had they not backed away just now—and had gotten unfortunately stabbed—it was easy to see how painful it would’ve been.

But after Lin Qiushi confirmed the identity of the thing inside the room, time was up for another switch. The room before them disappeared, replaced with just another normal bedroom. The path of the insects changed as well, and the location of that fish swapped to the upper deck.

Gu Longming was disgusted by even the thought of this fish. He’d actually enjoyed eating fish before this door, but after marinading in fish stench for the past few days, he’d become reflexively nauseated at the thought of that taste. The unfortunate likelihood was that even after leaving this door, it would be a while still before he stopped being grossed out by fish.

Lin Qiushi: “Come on, let’s go see where Zhu Meng is.”

Gu Longming nodded.

The two left the bottom-level deck and headed up. They found Ruan Nanzhu standing on the top deck with his head poked out over the black seawater.

He turned around at the sound of their foot steps.

“What did you find?”

Lin Qiushi said, “I think we found the long sword.”

Ruan Nanzhu’s eyes gleamed: “You found it?”

Lin Qiushi nodded and gave him a quick rundown of the thing the saw. He emphasized the long horn they’d seen on that fishman monster’s head and how it’d looked both sturdy and sharp, like it would make for a great offensive weapon.

As for Ruan Nanzhu, he said that in the room he found, he saw the giant fishman who’d eaten a person the night before.

“But how are we supposed to kill that fishman?” Gu Longming asked, squatting on the planks and dejectedly eating the candy that Lin Qiushi gave him. “I don’t think that thing’s any easier to deal with than the fish monster we saw before.”

What they were most concerned about was not the width, but the depth of the wounding; once a wound got deep, it had a hard time healing, particularly on a ship that lacked medical supplies like this. It was obvious that once stabbed by that horn, even if you didn’t die the day of, complications like tetanus, etc. would kill you in the next few days.

Ruan Nanzhu listened to Gu Longming’s worries and comforted him—by saying don’t worry, if it really does come to that, we’ll finish you off nice and clean.

Gu Longming: “…how about no. Thank you.”

Lin Qiushi thought this was something of a paradox. They had to first kill the yellow-eyed fishman before they could kill the monster symbolized by the Minotaur, but that was where the problem lied—how were they supposed to kill the yellow-eyed fishman? Did they really have to just take their dinner knives and go head-to-head with that thing?

As the three were discussing what to do, they heard a sudden ruckus from the dining room, interspersed with shocked shouts and agonized screaming.

At this sound they knew instantly that something else had happened. Lin Qiushi traded a glance with Ruan Nanzhu and turned for the dining room. Before he even went inside, he could smell the thick scent of blood—Lin Qiushi looked down and found a pool of it on the floor planks. A wounded man was lying on the ground inside, covering a wound in his abdomen with his hands. The wound seemed very deep, lumping up and spilling forth bright red blood.

Gu Longming took a few steps forward.

“What happened? How did he get hurt?” He took off his jacket and, using it as bandaging, began treating the victim’s wounds in well-trained motions. He was trying to stop the man’s bleeding.

Seeing his actions however, Lin Qiushi formulated a guess about Gu Longming’s job outside the doors.

“He discovered outside that the insects seemed to be leading in a certain direction, so we followed it.” The person speaking was the man’s companion—he’d been a bystander and witness to the entire process of how his friend got hurt. He continued shakily: “But when we got there, this long spike came out of the room and stabbed him right in the body.”

Gu Longming frowned.

“It doesn’t look good, the kidney looks like it’s been perforated.” There weren’t any useful medical supplies at hand either, and considering the blood flow, this person was likely…

A girl nearby said: “I brought a hemostatic spray, can you use that?”

“Give it here,” Gu Longming said. “I can only try—treat a dead horse like a live one, right?”[1]

He did his best to tourniquet the person’s body to reduce the output of blood. Then, after using up a good half of the hemostatic spray, he managed to stop the ever-flowing bleeding.

“What was the thing that stabbed your friend?” Seeing the person stabilize, someone turned their attention onto the person who was still alive.

“It looked like a fish,” the survivor answered. “I’m not sure…I only caught a glimpse before this happened.”

“We’ll go have a look too.” The crowd was clearly interested in this fish, and so dispersed from the dining room.

Moments later, there were only a handful of people left inside.

“How does it look? Will my friend survive?” that person asked Gu Longming plaintively.

Gu Longming sighed, saying, “if he gets out early he might be saved, but…” This wasn’t a place they could come to and go from at will.

So everybody quieted down. Gu Longming looked at the blood on his hands and said, “I’m gonna go wash my hands real quick.” He got up and went to the bathroom.

The victim’s breathing grew weaker and weaker, and even though Gu Longming did all he could, a few hours later, the man still died.

The entire dining room was filled with the thick stench of blood. It was also, coincidentally, time for supper; the Dead Fish Dinner Sets just happened to be placed on the tables, and the stench of the fish plus the smell of blood meant everyone had even less appetite. Nobody even wanted to go through the motions before taking off from the dining room.

Ruan Nanzhu, however, stayed where he was. Lin Qiushi didn’t rush him either, because he knew that if Ruan Nanzhu was staying, then Ruan Nanzhu must have his reasons.

Due to the death of the person that afternoon, Gu Longming was a bit down. He poked at the noodles on the plate in front of him without much energy or appetite.

After most people left the dining room, Ruan Nanzhu pulled a few plastic bags out of his clothes.

“What are you planning to do?” Lin Qiushi startled.

Ruan Nanzhu: “I don’t think the door would have us go head-to-head with that thing. There’s too much of a difference in power.”

Lin Qiushi: “So you want…” He watched as Ruan Nanzhu took all the dead fish from the dining table and stuffed his own pockets until they were bulging. “You want to feed the fish to that thing?”

“It was the aperitif that got the Minotaur drunk in the myth,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “We pretty much know what the aperitif refers to now.”

The eaten fish was fermented inside the belly, to be tasted once the stomach was split open; it was truly a kind of appetizer liquor.

So Ruan Nanzhu wanted to use the dead fish to lure the Minotaur to the yellow-eyed fish monster. They didn’t know if it would work, but they had to give it a try.

This method, after all, was a lot more reliable than bringing a dining knife to a fish fight.

Ruan Nanzhu packed up all the dead fish and took them to go, following the path of the insects to once again find the room where the yellow-eyed fish monster resided.

There were already many more holes in the room; it had clearly used the sharp weapon on its head to make them.

Ruan Nanzhu gestured for Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming to stand further away as he tossed, with a single throw, the fish in his hand through a gap in the window.

The dead fish splattered all over the ground. That yellow-eyed fish monster pounced on them in excitement. It picked them up with its hands and began an aggressive gnawing; it ate quickly, and finished in short time the entire bag of fish that Ruan Nanzhu tossed in. It was a good thing they were prepared, quickly throwing in the other few bags of fish as well.

As it ate, Ruan Nanzhu stood watching from the side. Lin Qiushi was a big worried about him getting hurt though, since the blood from the last victim was still dripping in display on the window.

The yellow-eyed fishman finished all the fish, not leaving behind any heads, even. When it was full, it looked on, contented, before going to sleep on the ground just like that.

“Let’s go,” Ruan Nanzhu said to Lin Qiushi.

It was already a bit dark outside, and even though he really wanted to see what would happen here tonight, staying out was not a smart move.

So the three went and found another room they could rest in, and got in bed waiting for evening to arrive.

The last beam of light disappeared with the sun descending beneath the horizon. It was a moonless evening, with only the howling sea winds and the storm clouds like a piece of fabric hung up in the sky.

Lin Qiushi couldn’t really sleep, staring idly out the window.

Ruan Nanzhu had first been in a different bed, but mid-sleep he’d somehow scooted over beside Lin Qiushi. So the two were now squeezed together.

They didn’t speak, nor did they even look at each other. The way they simply knew each other was as if they’d already experienced hundreds and thousands of the exact scenario before them now.

They were both waiting—waiting on the answer to their experiment.

Around three in the morning, their waiting finally yielded results.

Lin Qiushi’s ears caught something like the roar of a wild beast—and then the sounds of a violent battle. They were quite far from those sounds, and couldn’t really make out what was happening, but the battle lasted for a very long time. It wasn’t until the sun was almost up again that it gradually faded away.

“Who do you think won?” Ruan Nanzhu asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Lin Qiushi said. “There’s no difference either way.”

Though things were mostly going as planned, something still happened that exceeded their expectations—not long after the sound of fighting stopped, there came the sound of human crying and screaming on the ship. When he heard this, Lin Qiushi jumped, crawling out of bed and going to the window. He wanted to see exactly what was happening outside, but the evening was too dark and he couldn’t make out anything at all.

Luckily, Ruan Nanzhu’s vision came into use at a key moment. He saw the fishman drag a struggling human onto the upper deck.

“How could this be?!” When Lin Qiushi heard Ruan Nanzhu’s description, he couldn’t believe it. “Nobody ate any fish inside the dining room today—”

Ruan Nanzhu’s brow puckered. “You…remember the guy that Jian Qianyuan injured yesterday?”

Lin Qiushi: “…” He nodded.

Ruan Nanzhu: “I don’t think he came to the dining room at all today.”

Lin Qiushi’s attention had been on the two monsters all day, and he hadn’t noticed: “But isn’t it a good thing that he didn’t come to the dining room?”

Not coming to the dining room meant that he didn’t eat the fish, so why would the monster target him?

Ruan Nanzhu only grimaced.

“It’s not only the dining room that has fish.”

Lin Qiushi: “…” He immediately remembered that filthy kitchen.

“There’s plenty of fish to be had in the kitchen,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “There’s got to be a sacrifice.”

Lin Qiushi sighed. He’d thought that there wouldn’t need to be a sacrifice tonight, but now that he thought about it, he’d been naive. It wasn’t kind inside the doors at all. The longer they stayed here, the worse the casualties would be.

That person’s screams gradually faded, leaving behind only the silence of a long evening.

Before morning came, Lin Qiushi managed to get some sleep. But he didn’t know whether it was due to a nightmare or if he didn’t actually manage to sleep—he kept feeling that for the rest of the evening, that thing had kept circling the room they were in. He’d even smelled that nauseating stench of fish.

On day three, none of the three were in good spirits. They hadn’t slept well for the past few nights, disturbed as they’d been with a number of things.

Conducting several days of christening meant the group was already numb to another body appearing on deck. They got rid of the body in well-trained motions and scrubbed the deck clean, returning to the day like nothing had happened at all.

Lin Qiushi’s attention was not on the deck. He went off to the dining room early, hoping to find trace of the bugs. But disappointingly, the insects that had formed the string yesterday had disappeared.

“There’s no rush.” Ruan Nanzhu glanced at his watch. “It’s still early.”

“Mh,” Lin Qiushi said in understanding.

Without the string, they couldn’t find the two monsters, so they could only keep waiting.

At around eleven or so, the scenario that Lin Qiushi had been waiting on finally appeared—the NPC that became the insects yesterday showed up once more in the dining room. He wore the same clothes, had the same expression, and looked just like an NPC who kept resetting in a game.

They didn’t need Ruan Nanzhu this time for someone to approach this NPC and pat him hard on the shoulder.

So the same thing that happened yesterday happened again. The insects swarmed then dispersed, disappearing from inside the dining room, and at the same time, two lines of insects formed outside, leading off in unknown directions.

Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu, and Gu Longming began following a string to find the place they were looking for. A few minutes later, they came upon the exterior of a room. Compared to yesterday, it looked very different, because it was readily apparent from the outside that last night, this room had been the site of a vicious battle. The wooden window slats were completely crushed, and the lock that hung on the door had also been torn violently off.

It seemed like the two monsters did have a fierce battle between them. Judging by the final incident from the night before, however, it seemed that the giant fishman had gotten the advantage.