Origin Paradise!

"No, the shooting had such a terrible impact that the hotel laid off staff."

The cruise ship carrying the victims docked, its waves crashing against the seawall. An anchor the size of a house was dropped into the sea with a deafening roar, and the cruise ship came to an immediate stop. The victims on the shore looked at each other in disbelief; this was not the usual docking procedure for a cruise ship.

"Supernatural phenomenon".

A middle-aged man with a seafaring background shared his opinion.

Amidst the clamor, a large door suddenly opened on the starboard side of the ship, revealing gray folding stone slabs. Twenty security personnel in suits and sunglasses filed out, each carrying an amphibious assault rifle.

Immediately afterwards, a charming woman emerged from the cabin. Her long black dress, with cutouts at the waist and back, trailed on the ground. Her skin was snow-white, and her figure was voluptuous, exuding a mature charm. She clapped her hands lightly, and her shiny black gloves attracted the attention of everyone present.

"Distinguished guests, I am one of the people in charge of the Death Ship operation. You can call me Ms. A. The ship will only be docked for half an hour, so please board the ship in an orderly manner as soon as possible. The invitations you hold are your tickets and passes. If you are unable to participate due to special circumstances, you can return the invitations and receive $30,000. However, boarding the ship is considered voluntary."

Several female emcees, each carrying a money box, stood in a row, each with their own unique charm and outstanding appearance.

The middle-aged sailor was the first to rush into the cabin, firmly believing that the death ship possessed magical powers.

The shore became restless as more people boarded the boat, while a dozen or so chose to take their money and leave reluctantly with the $30,000. The organizers did not stop them.

In less than half an hour, after passing through security, most of the invitees entered the cabin. In front of them was an open space about the size of a basketball court, with a dark passageway on each side.

At the edge of the open space, on the wall, are thirty-six transparent elevators, each marked with a number.

Ms. A walked onto the platform and introduced the ship in an elegant tone: "Welcome to the Death Ship. You are in cabin A, and the rule here is that there are no rules."

"But the pattern does exist. As the person in charge of Area A, I'd like to kindly remind you that monsters will appear at night. They won't enter the normal rooms, but the number of rooms is limited. There are thirty-six elevators around here, which are only open during the day. You can use the elevators to go and participate in the game."

"If you succeed in the game, you can stay on the previous level. If you fail but are lucky enough to survive, you will have to go directly to the next level of the ship, [Hell]."

A burly man interrupted, "Let's put the monsters aside for now. How are we going to get off the ship? I only took two days off from work. If something happens, the organizers have to take responsibility. Thirty thousand US dollars is nothing compared to this. It's not too much to ask for some compensation."

"Yeah, the game content wasn't mentioned beforehand."

"What are we going to eat and drink during this time? We can't play games with you guys on an empty stomach!"

The scene immediately became chaotic. Ms. A seemed used to it. She turned and walked to a wall. The previously tightly sealed wall opened to both sides, revealing a white passageway with a strong sense of technology. Security personnel and the master of ceremonies followed closely behind. A moment later, the door closed again.

"Give us an explanation!"

"You bitch, what's wrong with your temper!"

"Everyone be careful, something's wrong."

Gong Chen shouted loudly, but no one paid any attention to him.

Jiang He looked towards the empty space in the basketball court, where a notice board was hanging.

Standard Time—5:35

Number of people in Area A—525

Suddenly, the number of people displayed changed to 521.

Many of the invitees noticed this, and everyone's eyes searched around. Then, a woman let out a piercing scream.

"what!!"

From each of the four dark tunnels, a giant mosquito, as tall as a person, flew out. Each limb was like a cold, sharp javelin. As their size increased, their faces became so ferocious and terrifying that they made one's scalp tingle. In particular, their eyes appeared strange and indifferent.

The giant mosquito pounced on the invitee, its proboscis piercing the abdominal cavity. After a series of whooshing sounds, like a water pump, the prey's blood and internal organs were completely sucked out.

"Buzz!"

The giant mosquitoes feed extremely quickly, and in the blink of an eye, they begin to flap their wings again.

The woman's screams stopped abruptly.

"Holy crap, it's mutated!"

"Run! Everyone run together!"

"Hurry to the room!"

As the crowd scattered and fled, Jiang He hid among the dispersing crowd at a moderate speed. When he passed the eastern entrance, he casually crushed a cinnabar pill. The faint red mist was dispersed by the figures and was inconspicuous.

The four giant mosquitoes are incredibly fast, but they pause for a few seconds while feeding, giving the invitee time to escape. As long as you are faster than the others, you can temporarily save your life.

The passageway was deep and dark, with only rows of red lanterns faintly guiding the way; there were rooms on both sides.

The fastest invitee opened the first room, and a group of people hid inside, closing the door tightly behind them.

Jiang He kept running forward without stopping.

“If there is no limit to the number of people staying in a room, then the ‘limited number of rooms’ notice is undoubtedly unnecessary. The fact that the person who identified himself as Ms. A was interrupted is a real loss for the invitees.”

Many of the invitees shared similar thoughts, and Gong Chen shouted with all his might:

"Don't all gather together. Mosquitoes won't enter a normal room, but too many gatherings are definitely not normal. Spread out!"

Only one giant mosquito entered the passage to the east, but this obviously unusual monster caused great panic. It stopped in front of the first room and then raised its mandibles to pierce a large hole in the door.

"Ahhh!"

"Please, don't kill me!"

The five people who were stuck at the door were skewered like candied hawthorns. The screams lasted only a few seconds before the giant mosquito crashed into the room, shattering the door. The space inside was relatively narrow, and the invitees had nowhere to hide. The giant mosquito stopped flapping its wings and advanced like a tiger or leopard.

Roars and desperate howls rose and fell.

Upon hearing the sound, Jiang He stopped in his tracks. Not far in front of him was the wall at the end of the passage. He reached out and left a cinnabar pill, then opened the door to the room beside him and went inside. There was only a bed inside.

"After the door was damaged, the room was no longer within the normal range and should be considered damaged. There are a total of one hundred rooms in this passage, but more than one hundred people have been diverted here. As a result, the most dangerous thing is not the giant mosquito, but the other invitees."

At the same time, shouts came from outside the door.

"Let me in! What right do you have to have a room all to yourself!"

"I have elderly parents to care for and young children to raise, please have mercy on me!"

Jiang He took out the cinnabar mirror. In the image, dozens of people arrived at the end of the passage and gathered in front of the last room, some pleading and some cursing.

The burly man leading the way was chiseling at the door.

"You bunch of lunatics! If there are too many of you, we'll all die!"

A roar came from the last room.

The crowd, still unable to find their room, became enraged and began wildly banging on and banging on the surrounding doors.

Jiang He was also affected, but her physique and strength, which were as high as 8 points, easily held back the door.

"If the giant mosquito does not have any special extraordinary abilities, its life level is estimated to be above that of ordinary wild beasts, but below that of alien species such as mountain spirits and wood creatures. However, life level does not completely represent combat strength."

Meanwhile, the giant mosquito had killed all the invitees in the first room. Its abdomen bulging, it flapped its wings and flew to the end of the corridor.

Seeing this, the crowd went berserk, and led by the burly man, they frantically stormed into the last room.

"Click."

With a loud crack, the door lurched precariously, and once the lock was broken, the invitee inside began to hurl insults.

"What's the point of you doing this? Look at the first room, it's full of blind people!"

The burly man sneered, "I can't stand you watching the show from behind the door. The room is cramped. If you want to live, fight back with us. Even if it's a tiger, it can't beat so many people."

"That's right, let's all press it together."

"Quickly find a suitable weapon."

Driven to the extreme by fear, the crowd was ironically filled with courage.

The giant mosquito reached the end of the passage, but contrary to expectations, it was surrounded by a dense swarm of mosquito larvae, resembling a black fog.

Black mist swept through the room, and the invitees' skin was covered in countless fist-sized bumps from the stings, causing them excruciating pain.

The resistance was easily crushed. The invitees, unable to bear the excruciating pain, tried to break free, but the giant mosquitoes killed them one by one, sucking their blood and internal organs, and then used their flesh and blood as a breeding ground to lay their eggs. Every few minutes, a new "black mist" would be born.

Jiang He, who had been observing the whole thing, looked slightly surprised. There were four giant mosquitoes in one area, and the total number of giant mosquitoes and their larvae on the entire cruise ship was likely an extreme number.

"If this worst-case scenario really happens, I can only barely survive."

Chapter 38 The Guilty

Two hours passed, and dawn broke.

The corridor was eerily quiet. According to Ms. A, the monster would disappear during the day, but so far, no one has gone out to verify its authenticity.

Inside the room, Jiang He lay on the bed to rest. As his attributes increased, his energy also gradually improved. With the help of hypnosis, he achieved deep sleep, and two hours was enough to keep him in peak condition.

The room was small, containing only a bed, a simple wooden table and chairs, and a lift platform.

At exactly eight o'clock in the morning, the lifting platform made a noise, the metal plate retracted automatically, and a meal appeared inside.

Jiang He got up and changed into her original gray-white jacket. What came into view were three large slices of rye bread, covered with sticky mashed potatoes, and a bottle of liquor with the label torn off, which seemed to have replaced the freshwater niche.

"The organizers must be Russians."

Jiang He didn't touch the food. He had eaten almost half a granary in the previous derivative mission, and he wasn't hungry at all. The large loaf of bread with mashed potatoes was even less appetizing.

A Glock 17 was placed on the table, its six fully loaded magazines ensuring ample firepower. All invitees had undergone security checks upon boarding, and this pistol was an advantage in some ways, and perhaps a nuisance, but it was far better than unleashing extraordinary power and causing unknown consequences, resulting in being swarmed by mosquitoes.

Because he wasn't very skilled, it took Jiang He half an hour to maintain the gun. He then hid the pistol on his waist and left the room.

The corridor was filled with a strong stench. In the room at the far right, corpses lay scattered all over the floor. The death rate of the Death Cruise was well-deserved. At this rate, out of the five hundred people in the district, only a handful would remain soon.

Jiang He arrived at the basketball court, where the thirty-six transparent elevators were already open.

Standard Time—8:52

Number of people in Zone A: 368

"Three out of ten people died overnight?"

Jiang He randomly picked an elevator. There were no buttons inside. The moment he stepped in, the surroundings became pitch black, and he sensed that the elevator was moving upwards.

"Um?"

Suddenly, the elevator began to move horizontally, and a line of text appeared on the screen that should have been displaying the floor, emitting a bright red light.

"Matching you to a game, please wait patiently."

After an unknown amount of time, the second line of text appeared.

"Matchmaking for all cabin areas is complete. Game name: The Sinner."

……

Inside a closed meeting room, six cracks appeared in the walls as six invitees emerged from the elevator.

There was only a round conference table and six chairs in front of them. Against the wall, a masked man, whose mask was printed with the word "Z1," seemed to have been waiting for a long time.

"You're all newbies, so take your seats quickly. Playing a game in the morning will help you wake up. You'll get used to dying a few times. I'm the host of this game, under Mr. Z. I like to smoke a little. It would be nice if this mask had a hole in it. The designer is really outdated."

Among the six people, a cool-looking woman in her early twenties sat down first. She wore a simple white shirt and knee-length skirt, with a black blazer over it, looking like an office clerk who had just entered the workforce.

Upon seeing this, everyone pulled out chairs and sat down, with a revolver placed in front of each person.

The burly man examined the magazine up close; it contained only one bright yellow bullet.

"The OTS-38 silenced revolver, made in Tsarist Russia, is even quieter when fired than when it is silenced. With a full load of five rounds, it has a kinetic energy of 340 joules and is fully capable of causing damage."

"Don't make too much noise early in the morning, my colleagues generally have bad tempers."

Host Z1, seemingly unconcerned about the burly man's overbearing behavior, continued:

"In my personal opinion, a qualified game must have two things: rules and theme. Everyone here is guilty, but has managed to escape the law of the world, so this game is a judgment that has been delayed."

"Game time: Two hours in total."

"Pass condition ①: The person with the heaviest sins dies, and the rest pass."

"Completion condition ②: The person with the heaviest sins commits murder and he/she completes the game, and the surviving invitee completes the game."

Rule 1: The host is prohibited from lying.

"Rule 2: Death must occur in the level-up game, otherwise the host will die."

Rule 3: The host is only allowed to counterattack.

"Game rules: Sin reading - Invited participants read out their own sins. If the content is true, the sin increases; if the content is false, the sin decreases. After the reading, the right to use firearms is granted."

……

The rules have been declared over.

Host Z1 clapped his hands and said, "The invitations you wear will visually demonstrate the weight of your sins. The computer system of the Death Cruise will automatically verify the truthfulness of your words. You have five minutes to discuss this matter."