Darkstone Code-Chapter 874 - 872: Growing Tension

After the intense pain ended... maybe it hadn’t ended, it just became numb and unfeelable.

The Mariluo man bound to the chair with wires was breathing laboriously, only the slight rise and fall of his chest indicated he was still alive; apart from that, he nearly resembled a dead man.

From the ankle to the knee, all the flesh was scrubbed away by wire brushes, and the Doctor performed an amputation on the spot without sawing off the bone. Two stumps remained on his legs, but they were no longer legs, just bones.

He drooped his head, from the initial fear to now calmly accepting it all, experiencing a very intriguing psychological journey.

He didn’t dare to reveal who the people behind him were, because when the time came, it wouldn’t just be him dying, but also his brothers and sisters, his family.

Everyone with blood ties to him would be wiped out; this is also a characteristic of Mariluo.

This country with two ethnic groups often engages in large-scale ethnic cleansing against each other’s bloodlines.

This practice also extends into daily activities.

Rather than letting everyone related to him face death, he’d rather face it alone.

At first, he found it hard to endure the pain and fear, almost ready to speak up.

But once pain becomes numb, instead, it stimulates the inner confidence and courage.

No matter how much it hurts, what extent could it reach? Isn’t it just like this?

The only thing he regrets is going to the casino and watching them give away fifty thousand dollars in chips, wanting to play a few rounds.

All over the world, there are proverbs with wisdom, which imply that the poorer the place, the more people are willing to gamble.

This is also the case in Mariluo, where casinos can be found everywhere in the slums, and everyone likes to play a few rounds when they’re idle.

Lose and it’s like a wasted day; win and you can go several days without work.

Once this habit develops, people become controlled by it—if one truly had willpower, they wouldn’t be addicted to gambling from the start.

Initially, there were wins and losses, until he encountered Lynch’s final hand.

All invited guests were wealthy, capable of parting with thousands without issue, as assumed by the cruise staff.

It wasn’t until they discovered the check was fake that they realized there might be a problem with their work.

He casually wrote a check trying to deceive, unaware that the six major banks had offices on this cruise ship, exposing his bank account mismatch with any city’s account rules, a non-existent account, and thus, the problem erupted.

From initial polite inquiries to outright violence, and now at this moment, has only been about ten hours.

He exerted all his strength to shake his head, "Kill me..."

The voice so weak it couldn’t be heard made the faces of those in the boiler room darker. The same weary robust man didn’t know where he got a spoon.

He walked to the foul-mouthed gentleman, yanking his hair backward, forcing him to look up.

At the same time, he pressed the smallest angle of the spoon into the man’s eye corner, "Wanting to die isn’t an easy thing."

"Tell me, where did you get your invitation, what’s your purpose on board?"

The foul-mouthed gentleman shuddered, possibly trying to laugh, and blood spurted from the corners of his mouth.

The robust man forcefully dug the spoon downward, extracting an eyeball.

To prevent immediate death, he didn’t yank the eye out directly, instead first allowing the Doctor to sever the nerve and muscle tissue behind, before extracting it.

It was like a little ball, caught in his hand.

"You like laughing?" he asked, prying open the foul-mouthed man’s mouth, shoving the eyeball inside, "Laugh again for me!"

He stared at the man, suddenly said, "You are a Mariluo."

He suddenly stopped the Doctor from tending to the foul-mouthed gentleman’s wounds, "Don’t bother with him, cut his head off and preserve it, send it back immediately, let them find out whose man he is!"

Sudden enlightenment came because this bastard genuinely refused to speak until death, if there were someone with such firm Faith, that would be impossible.

Not speaking wasn’t necessarily due to Faith, just fear remained!

He feared all those related to him would die, so he could endure the pain and fear, saying nothing.

Isn’t that precisely what often happens over at Mariluo?

Some persist, while others beg for mercy, every day many people die!

The Doctor shrugged, decisively picked up the scalpel meant for saving lives, and slashed the foul-mouthed gentleman’s artery, blood spurted onto his face instantly!

At noon, Lynch and Penny were dining at the top-level restaurant, after a long rest, the girl’s strength and spirit recovered, and she chattered things Lynch couldn’t comprehend.

Lynch, noticed some unusual changes around.

"Are you even listening to me?"

Lynch glanced at her. The girl initially wanted to say something, but that casual, ordinary look stopped her words in her throat, as if...

Sometimes, a small, inadvertent action from Lynch could exert significant pressure on others, especially when he displayed a serious expression.

Influenced by Lynch, Penny also began to look around, but her observational skills weren’t sharp enough to detect anything unusual.

"What’s wrong, has something happened?" she asked, somewhat nervously. Lynch’s expression had startled her.

Lynch shook his head, "Nothing, just think the waitstaff seem a bit too many today."

Normally, if no one had any needs, the waitstaff would almost never be seen around the guests.

They might be hidden in some corner, observing all the guests, and would appear voluntarily when someone needed them, offering enthusiastic service.

But today was different, even if they had no trays, no bottles, no other tasks, they frequently moved around wherever the guests appeared.

This doesn’t fit the image of high-end luxury service. In truly upscale settings, how could there be countless ’lower class’ people bustling about?

Though saying so might be somewhat offensive, that’s the reality.

Those gentlemen would rather handle things themselves than frequently brush past those waitstaff.

Something must have happened.

Lynch was quite certain, combining this with the female manager’s apology this morning, he realized this wasn’t just as simple as someone sneaking onto the ship; something much more terrifying was happening.

For instance, more people have snuck aboard, and what their purpose might be.

Lynch was a timid person; he was unafraid of death only on the basis of assured demise.

If he didn’t have to die, he cherished his life greatly.

The string of changes made him realize immediately that the situation wasn’t favorable, making him lose his appetite. He stood up directly.

With such a simple action, suddenly seven or eight waitstaff looked towards Lynch, smiling and then lowering their heads.

Penny also sensed the tense atmosphere. She stood up immediately, following Lynch to the telegraph room.

Lynch needed to "shake things up."

The atmosphere on the ship grew heavy and serious, just as Lynch and others felt, more than one person had infiltrated this cruise ship.

Their identities varied: some were waitstaff, some were guests, some were crew...

Hijacking a luxury cruise ship—relying on a few speedboats, a dozen people, a few guns—was absolutely impossible. Without anyone to assist them, they couldn’t even board the ship!

There was no good way to climb the smooth hull while the ship was cruising; movies wouldn’t dare depict such a scene. At the very least, they’d need a grappling hook or something.

So it was inevitable that more people must have infiltrated the ship in advance.

After that foul-mouthed gentleman was exposed, he alarmed these people. Fortunately, that fool hadn’t confessed until now, giving these people a great sense of urgency.

"We can’t wait any longer, the crew is already starting batch identity verifications, we are very likely to be exposed..."

The empty, vacant lower cabin became a great place for these people to meet up; thousands of rooms, no one knows which room has people, which doesn’t, or when there might be people, or when there won’t be any.

A girl with lake-blue eyes also had a serious expression, "The situation is the same on my end, they are re-examining our data; I’m worried there’ll be problems over there."

Every Moment, as one of Mariluo’s largest warlords’ profit organizations in the Federation, had many employees who were Mariluo natives.

These people were under the warlord’s rule, well-connected.

If one person made a mistake, the family would be killed; this prevented anyone from daring to touch any high-pressure lines.

Many say Every Moment’s service is enthusiastic and on point, even if you point at their nose and humiliate them, they’d apologize with a smile and beg for your forgiveness.

It’s not because they’re genuinely so lowly, but they’re afraid of complaints, afraid the company would lose important clients because of them personally, sending their entire family on a death road.

The identities of those who sneaked in are genuine; some aren’t.

Those with real identities weren’t worried about verification issues, but those with problematic identities could be found out in three to five days.

By then, whether they could find their family or friends, they certainly couldn’t escape themselves.

"The operation must advance; otherwise, there would be no hope."

"But we’re too close to the Federation here; in a maximum of three hours, we can dock; without leaving the Federation coast, we have no means!"

At this time, a crew member said, "I’m on duty the night after tomorrow; I’ll think of a way to steer the ship off course. They won’t let the ship stop; one night’s time is enough for us to completely leave the Federation coastline."

"It’s worth a try..."

"I agree..."

"I agree too; today I’m on duty in the telegraph room, I’ll send them a telegram..."