The clothing hanging on the deck rails were the clothes worn by the brawny man who had disappeared from the cabin.

“What’s going on! Why are his clothes here? Did he jump into the sea to escape after seeing the drowned ghosts climb onto the ship?” Tang Mianmian couldn’t help guessing.

“Do people take off their clothes when escaping into the sea? It’s suicides when people take off their clothes!” Xiao Tangqiu retorted.

Tang Mianmian continued to speculate, “Maybe he saw that the drowned ghosts were about to get on the ship and jumped into the sea to commit suicide?”

“He chose to commit suicide by jumping into the sea, instead of jumping directly into the nest of drowned ghosts? And in terms of his character, he is definitely not a suicidal person.”

Xiao Tangqiu calmly analyzed it. Although he didn’t know this guy beforehand, judging from the bed-robbing incident between him and the coward, this guy has an arrogant and self-assured personality. He definitely didn’t seem like someone who would commit suicide. He might believe it if it was someone like the coward who would commit suicide to escape everything.

Tang Mianmian thought for a long time without direction and simply gave up, “Forget it, this is not important. This isn’t a murder mystery instance anyways! The most important thing now is how to escape this ship!”

More and more drowned ghosts climbed onto the ship, and the small broken ship began to sink little by little. If they couldn’t find a solution before the ship sank into the sea, they would follow the ship to the bottom of the sea.

“How to escape?” Fei You asked with a wry smile, “Only if you can find an island… or another boat.” However, in the vast sea, where was there such a coincidence of encountering another ship or an island when they were about to sink?

Zhang Zuo was covered with cold sweat, “I have been paying attention since I got on the boat. We have never encountered any islands or other ships here.”

Xiao Tangqiu frowned. What did this mean? Were there no other sea vessels besides their ship on this sea?

“Right! The map! The map in the captain’s room!” He suddenly thought of something and called out, “Will the map in the captain’s room mark where there is land nearby? Let’s go back and look for it!”

Xue Junli glanced at him, “The map is in my hand.”

Xue Junli unfolded the old yellowed map. Due to the age, the writing on it was illegible, but it was still recognizable.

“Ghost Sea… Siren Bay… Treasure Island…” Xiao Tangqiu tried to identify the things on the map, “Ghost Sea? Maybe we are here now? After crossing the Ghost Sea, it’s Siren Bay. After Siren Bay is Treasure Island. So Treasure Island is probably the destination of this pirate ship.”

Xue Junli suddenly said, “You can read the characters on this map?”

Xiao Tangqiu was taken aback again, “You mean…”

“This is likely an unknown text, and the era and background of this instance may not necessarily be the Age of Exploration that we know of.” Xue Junli looked at Xiao Tangqiu with a probing gaze, “Actually, I also flipped through the logbook earlier, it is also incomprehensible.”

Xiao Tangqiu was stunned. Although he realized that the text on the logbook and the map was not Chinese, he thought it was the system’s built-in translator when he saw that he could understand it. They had previous experience of being able to understand the NPCs despite the language difference, after all. But now Xue Junli said he couldn’t understand these words…

He subconsciously looked at Tang Mianmian, who shook his head, “I can’t understand it either.”

Xiao Tangqiu was completely lost. What’s going on? Could it be that after he died once, he dropped all his equipment but gained an awesome new skill?

Tang Mianmian asked Xue Junli curiously, “Under what circumstances can we read the text we don’t understand in an instance?”

Xue Junli lightly said, “When the plot needs it or if something happens to be an important plot item we are looking for, we can understand the text. If we don’t understand it, it’s not the plot clue we’re looking for. Or it’s a related plot we have yet to trigger. All important plot items are just ordinary items before the plot is triggered.”

Xiao Tangqiu more or less understood Xue Junli’s meaning. Although they appeared on the pirate ship from the get-go, it did not mean that they already triggered the relevant plot. The instance had only just begun. Maybe they still needed to do something else to trigger the plot, such as finding Treasure Island… Before that, everything on the pirate ship was just ordinary things, not story items, just like the quest items he needed to look for when playing games. A grass he often passed by, before receiving the quest, was just ordinary grass. Only the quest gave it value.

Xue Junli and Tang Mianmian couldn’t read the text in the logbook and the map because they had not officially triggered the plot on the pirate ship.

Tang Mianmian continued to ask, “Then under what circumstances can I understand the text on the plot items before triggering the plot?”

Xue Junli said lightly, “I don’t know the exact circumstances, but I know there is a type of person who can understand the text on story items before the story is triggered.”

Tang Mianmian immediately asked, “Who?”

Xue Junli paused before speaking, “…NPCs.”

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly shivered and he instinctively denied, “You think I am an NPC? No way!”

Tang Mianmian also couldn’t believe it and exclaimed, “There must be a mistake! How can my Qiuqiu be an NPC! How can there be an NPC like him?”

Xue Junli glanced at Xiao Tangqiu lightly, “I didn’t say that he was an NPC, it’s just that it’s a possibility…Although we have never encountered an NPC that pretends to be a dead teammate and can cross over instances, it does not mean that it is not possible.”

Xiao Tangqiu was taken aback for a moment. NPCs that can pretend to be players were quite common, but NPCs that could cross through instances were very rare! Only high leveled demons could do it!

And the demons in the last instance were only Lily Marlene and the Abyssal Demon…

His heart jumped, did Xue Junli think he was transformed from Lily Marlene or the Abyss Demon?

At this moment, Shen Yuan who was silent suddenly spoke, “He is not.”

Xue Junli frowned slightly, “But…”

Shen Yuan interrupted Xue Junli’s words and said coldly, “He is not.”

Everyone went silent. After a moment, Duan Hongzhen rubbed his ears and said, “Since the captain said he is not, he’s definitely not! Besides… why the hell would they pretend to be this kid?”

Shen Yuan said coldly, “Regardless, first think of a way to get out of here.”

He glanced at Xiao Tangqiu, “After you leave this instance, you can explain… about your “resurrection”.”

Xiao Tangqiu felt relieved and understood that this issue was temporarily over. No wonder everyone was full of vigilance when he appeared. It turned out that they were suspicious of him… But it’s understandable, after all, the last instance they were together had two demons playing around.

Fei You asked blankly, “What are you talking about?”

“Ahem, nothing!” Tang Mianmian silently raised his head and looked up at the sky, “If you can get out alive, then you will know.” Although they were born from the same root, who knew if these two could survive to the end? Saying anything now would be meaningless.

Fei You, “…Hey, hey! Don’t jinx us!”

Yu Fuling’s expression suddenly tensed, “A  storm is coming!”

Not long after her words fell, the whole ship shook violently. The strong sea gales mixed with churning waves hit the crumbling ship violently. Although some drowned ghosts were blown off the ship by the sea wind, the situation was obviously worse than before.

Xiao Tangqiu quickly grabbed the rails to prevent himself from being thrown out by the shaking. As the heavy rain struck, the ship sank faster and faster. In a blink of an eye, the cabin was flooded with water and the sea gradually covered the deck. A large wave of drowned ghosts took the opportunity to jump onto the deck.

“Quick! To the observation deck!” Shen Yuan promptly said.

The tallest place on this ship was the captain’s room and the observation deck in front of the captain’s room. These two places should also be the last places to sink to the bottom of the sea. Although they would sink sooner or later, they could at least buy them some time.

No one hesitated to turn to the observation deck. Although they encountered drowned ghosts in the way, they still managed to cut a bloody path through the obstacles. No, it was not “blood” to be exact. When their weapons pierced the drowned ghosts’ body, what splashed out was not bright red blood, but fishy and black sea water.

When they finally reached the observation deck, the ship was half sunk, the deck was completely immersed in the sea, and they finally saw the surrounding environment… The densely packed drowned ghosts were everywhere. They surrounded the ship, spreading out beyond what they could see. Once they fall into the water, they would be torn to pieces by these drowned ghosts!

“There is a telescope!” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly found a standing telescope on the observation deck and rushed over.

“What do you see?” Tang Mianmian asked nervously.

Xiao Tangqiu sighed, “It’s too dark, I can’t see anything…”

“Wait! I see something! There is a ship! No… it’s a cruise ship! A very big cruise ship!” He cried out in disbelief.

That huge cruise ship seemed to appear out of nowhere. On the originally dark and empty sea, a huge and luxurious cruise ship appeared out of thin air. The cruise ship was full of lights and colors just like a mobile city.

“Is it a mirage?” he couldn’t help muttering.

“No! No!” Tang Mianmian suddenly exclaimed, “Look! Look up!”

Xiao Tangqiu raised his head instinctively and not far ahead of them was a huge luxury cruise ship. There seemed to be a banquet on the deck of the cruise ship and countless men and women in luxurious outfits were playing in the dim lights.