Evolution game, nothing more than that!

The captain's expression finally changed slightly at this time, and he asked:

"What does it mean?"

"It means someone is playing tricks!"

The doctor said firmly:

"There's a magician on this ship besides me. He used some unknown spell to create the illusion of a ghost and confuse the sailors!"

"……you sure?"

"I am sure!"

The captain was almost convinced by this time that the doctor had not done it.

But the next problem is even more serious - there is an unidentified magician on his ship?

"Can you find him?"

he asked.

"...It's a bit difficult. Illusions like this make almost no sound when cast, and they leave no trace. It's not easy to find them among so many people."

The doctor looked embarrassed and euphemistically said that there was nothing he could do.

The captain also understood what he meant, snorted coldly, and said:

"If it's difficult, do your best! Go check on those crew members locked up in the brig and see if there are any clues. And, keep a close eye on your 'little pet'! Remember, at least before we reach our destination, the number of people on this ship can't be reduced by too much!"

After scolding the doctor, the captain turned around and left in anger.

The doctor stayed where he was, and after the captain walked away, his expression gradually turned grim:

"Damn old guy, just because he's one step ahead of me... he treats me like his slave. One day, one day..."

……

"So, it can be confirmed that the Captain and the Doctor are indeed the 'wolves' among the NPCs. The Doctor is a magician who controls a 'pet' that can eat human souls. The Captain's abilities are unknown, but he is clearly stronger than the Doctor, forcing the latter to submit to him."

After dawn, Assassin found an opportunity to tell Yi Shen the information he had obtained last night.

"As expected. What remains is the true identity of the 'pet' and the captain's abilities, but we can discuss that later. You just mentioned that the doctor said at the end that 'the captain was one step ahead of him'. What do you think this 'one step ahead' is?"

Yi Shen asked.

"...How did they gain power? Because they arrived at different times, the power they gained also varies?"

Assassin guessed this based on the conversation between the two.

"It's possible. And, I suspect, this is probably some kind of sacrifice!"

Yi Shen said.

"Sacrifice...yes, it could indeed be a sacrifice!"

Assassin was confused at first, but soon realized:

"Thinking carefully, the various clues are actually quite clear. This includes the mission instructions, the two previous failures, the entirely newly recruited crew, and even the captain's requirement that not too many crew members be reduced before arrival. They all indicate one thing—most of the crew on this ship are likely the sacrifices chosen by the captain and the doctor. And by offering these sacrifices, the captain and the doctor can gain power from an unknown source!"

"And I think this 'unknown source' is most likely in the Arctic, on our route!"

Yi Shen made such a judgment.

"It is very likely!"

Assassin thought about it and nodded in agreement.

Unexpectedly, just a simple test revealed the most important truth of this mission.

——If you think about it carefully, there is nothing strange about it.

The players who participated in this mission were not ordinary people. Each of them possessed unique skills. For example, Yi Shen and Assassin even mastered such investigative skills as long-range perspective and presence erasure. Naturally, it would not be like in some suspense novels where they had to spend a long time scheming with all parties before getting to the truth of the matter.

They only need to use their abilities appropriately to skip many of the intermediate steps and get the answer directly!

To some extent, this is another way of "using force to defeat cleverness."

Of course, the information we know at present is only a rough outline, and many details have not yet been clarified, such as what the doctor's "little pet" is, what the captain's abilities are, whether there are other accomplices, and what the unknown source is.

But these are actually minor details.

The most important thing is to know that the essence of this trip is sacrifice.

Only with this in mind can we be prepared. Otherwise, if we arrive at the North Pole without knowing anything and the other side really launches an attack, we may not even be able to react in time.

Chapter 47: Comprehensive Brainwashing, Arrival at the North Pole

After finding out the enemy's purpose, Yi Shen and Assassin remained silent for a while and stopped making any small moves.

But the situation that they have messed up cannot be calmed down just like that.

The first were the players. After realizing that the crew's morale might collapse due to a series of mishaps, which would eventually prevent the ship from reaching the North Pole, they began to actively contact the NPC crew members and find ways to soothe their emotions.

Especially the priest. As a clergyman, he had a special advantage in calming people's hearts. He didn't even know how he persuaded the captain to allow him to hold several small masses on the ship, which successfully boosted the morale that had fallen to the bottom.

Just a few days later, the sailors who were locked up in the confinement room recovered after being treated by doctors and were released one by one.

When asked about the cause of their illness, the doctor said it was due to excessive mental stress and the recent death of a person, which led to collective hysteria, and it was not caused by ghosts.

Although most of the crew members still had some doubts, they basically believed the doctor's words when they saw that the sailors seemed to have really returned to normal except that their eyes were a little dim and their spirits became a little dull.

It seems that what happened to John was just a coincidence. Now that everyone has returned to normal, there shouldn't be any problems anymore... right?

However, Yi Shen, who had been monitoring the doctor with the Five Visions, knew that what the doctor was doing was not a treatment at all. He was clearly using mental power to violently interfere with the consciousness of these sailors, making them appear to have returned to normal!

In fact, almost all gamers have discovered this.

They suddenly became more wary of the doctor.

The ability of mental interference is one of the most insidious and terrifying abilities. No one wants to have their mind tampered with by others without knowing it and become like a puppet.

Of course, Yi Shen, who has a cellular force field, is not too worried about this. The will of all the cells in his body that are connected to his spirit will take the initiative to attack and help him get rid of the influence when he is caught in external mental interference. This makes him almost immune to most attacks of hypnosis and hallucination abilities.

As for the Assassin who cooperated with him... he was even less worried. That guy's "invisible presence" ability was simply a weapon to avoid war. As long as she didn't want to, no one would notice her, let alone take the initiative to attack her.

However, no one expected that the doctor's actions would be far more dramatic than they imagined!

On the second day after the crew members "recovered", the doctor requested a comprehensive physical and mental examination of all crew members under the pretext of "preventing similar incidents from happening again."

The captain readily agreed to this.

So, you can see that one crew member after another walks into the doctor's room, and comes out after dozens of minutes. Their eyes become a little cloudy and their thinking reactions become a little slow.

If there are only one or two, it is not very obvious.

But when more and more people like this appeared, the atmosphere on the entire ship became depressing.

Those crew members who were still conscious felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't tell what it was.

The strange atmosphere made people feel more and more depressed, and the morale, which had been improving, began to decline rapidly again.

But the problem is that the morale of those crew members who are still sober has dropped, while for those who have been "inspected", it doesn't matter whether they have morale or not.

It can even be said that the more people who are "inspected", the more depressing and weird the atmosphere on the ship becomes, and the less the ship cares about morale.

However, this is definitely not good news for gamers!

They all realized that this doctor was trying to brainwash everyone on the ship?

This made them feel like they were facing a formidable enemy. They tried every possible way to get their inspections put at the end of the queue, and even prepared to flip the table and start a fight if they disagreed.

As Yi Shen and Assassin, who knew the inside story well, understood that the doctor did this probably with the intention of finding another "magician" among the crowd.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the doctor's examination speed is not fast, and the number of people who can be examined in a day is also very limited. By the time it is the players' turn, the ship will most likely have reached the North Pole. By then, there will be fewer constraints, and there will be no problem in starting the fight directly.

……

The fact was just as Yi Shen had thought. With each day of sailing, more and more crew members were "inspected" and their thinking was affected and interfered with.

But at the same time, the temperature inside and outside the ship was getting colder and colder, and the daylight hours were getting longer and longer. Finally, on the seventh day after sailing, when only a few people, including the players, had not yet been "inspected", white ice appeared on the sea around the ship.

Later, the ice became thicker and thicker, even forming a huge glacier several meters thick. Ships could only carefully pass through the cracks in it. The wooden hull of the ship broke through the thin ice and made a "cracking" sound, which made people shudder, fearing that the hull would be damaged by the ice.

Suddenly, a shout came from the lookout:

"There's an iceberg ahead!"

"Lower the sails, slow down, and drop the anchor!"

The captain immediately gave the order, the helmsman immediately activated the brake valve to cut off the power of the steam engine, and the sailors on the deck also hurriedly began emergency operations, some lowering the sails and some dropping the anchor.

When the ship finally stopped in front of the iceberg, all the players' game panels automatically popped up, revealing a text:

[We have arrived at the North Pole on the "Fortune", completing the first phase of the mission. The second phase of the mission has officially begun.]

Seeing this tip, Yi Shen couldn't help but secretly praise his own foresight.

If he had followed Assassin's advice and attacked the doctor or even the captain directly, causing the ship to fail to reach the North Pole, the mission would have failed.

However, the evolution game does not directly point out such key information, but requires players to understand it on their own. Once they fail to realize it and make the wrong choice, the consequences will definitely be worrying.

To a certain extent, the first stage of this task is both a constraint on the players and a screening process. Players who are too stupid and act too brainlessly will most likely be eliminated directly at this step.

"However, looking at it from another perspective, these past few days can actually be said to be an opportunity for those players who are smart enough and have enough means to explore the truth and prepare themselves, so that we won't face enemies who are confused about the situation as soon as we enter..."

Yi Shen's thoughts flashed, and he thought of the various intelligence he and the Assassins had collected.

From this perspective, the evolution game is quite humane, giving players ample time to prepare for the battle.

"How about it? Do you want to do it?"

Assassin appeared beside Yi Shen at some point and asked impatiently.

"That's it!"

Yi Shen nodded.

Chapter 48: Sudden attack, failure at the last moment

"Notify the engineer and have him retrieve some explosives from the cargo hold. Then arrange for a few people to blow up the iceberg!"

The captain gave this order and then turned around to return to his room.

But at this moment——

boom!

With a loud bang, a figure rushed up from the deck, smashing the railings and part of the floor of the bridge like a cannonball, and rushed towards the captain with the force of thunder.

Amidst the flying wood chips, time seemed to stand still at this moment.

The helmsman's horror, the first mate's surprise, and the other sailors' bewilderment were all frozen in that moment. Only the figure wrapped in thunder was moving "slowly" in this "stagnant" world.

No, that's not right!

It's not just him!

The captain who was targeted also "slowly" moved his eyes at this moment and saw the figure coming to attack.

A hint of red light flashed in his eyes, and in this seemingly still space and time, ripples began to appear around him.

The next moment, time seemed to resume its flow, a loud thunderclap resounded in the bridge, and lightning swept across the place where the captain had originally stood.

However, the captain, who should have been hit by the lightning, disappeared at this moment!

Almost at the same time, one side of the hull exploded, and the doctor shot out from it, as if being lifted by some invisible object, flying rapidly into the depths of the glacier, leaving behind traces of blood, staining the snow-white ice like plum blossoms.

The series of unexpected events shocked everyone. On the bridge, the first mate took several seconds to recover from the sudden change. He looked at Yi Shen and asked in a stern voice:

"What did you do to the Captain?!"

As he spoke, he pulled out a flintlock from his waist and pointed it at the other man's head.

Facing the black muzzle of the gun, Yi Shen showed no fear.

He looked at the first mate who seemed to be unaware of the situation, and was about to explain something, but at this moment, the first mate suddenly howled, the gun in his hand fell, and his whole body twitched as if he was having a seizure.

Seeing this, Yi Shen did not approach rashly, but immediately took a few steps back.

Because not only the first mate, but also the helmsman and other crew members beside him had the same situation, even the sailors on the deck below were the same!

And after twitching for a few seconds, everyone fell silent in an instant, lowering their heads as if they were asleep.

However, they immediately raised their heads again, revealing a pair of eyes emitting scarlet light.