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Scarlett hesitated for a second before tossing the potion over.

Half a minute later, a mask was torn off, revealing Natasha's true face.

“I know you don’t completely trust me yet, and I want to ask a question… never mind, I know myself. The waiter on duty at this hour is probably dead, and his body has been thrown into the sea, right?” Natasha said.

“No.” Scarlett put down her gun, seemingly already partially convinced. “It’s hidden because there’s something in the sea.”

"There's something in the sea?" Natasha paused for a moment, then waved her hand and picked up her clothes. "Never mind, let's go inside and talk. Although they were all at a banquet last time, it's better to be safe than sorry."

That's the good thing about having capable teammates; Natasha didn't even need to ask about the surveillance. Since "she" had planned to ambush them here, she must have made all the necessary preparations beforehand.

After entering the room, Natasha did her usual check. Although there were no listening devices in the room when she left, it was still necessary to take precautions.

"Let me ask you a question. When did you realize something was wrong?" Natasha asked after finishing her examination.

“At eight o’clock in the evening, I was supposed to meet with Corey as planned, but I saw you talking to him,” Scarlett explained.

“I have a guess. If the problem occurs every eight hours, the next one, barring any unforeseen circumstances, should be at four in the morning,” Natasha said.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Natasha and Scarlett exchanged a glance and then hid themselves.

Scarlett straightened her clothes and, through the peephole, saw Corey with a look of unease on his face and the group of people behind him.

"Corey? What do you want?" Scarlett opened the door, crossed her arms, and looked at them coldly, pretending to be in a bad mood because she had been disturbed.

“Miss Scarlett, it’s like this, one of our waiters has gone missing, and we suspect that some criminals may have infiltrated the ship, so we came to check if you were alright,” Corey hurriedly explained.

“Go look for missing people! And what about the criminals who have infiltrated our ranks?! What are you security personnel doing?!” Scarlett shouted angrily. “You don’t think I’m harboring that criminal, do you?”

“It’s not about harboring him, it’s that he might be hiding in your room. Would you like us to help check?” Corey wiped the sweat from his brow; he was no longer calm at all.

"Looks like I have no choice but to let you search. Come in and hurry up!" Scarlett said loudly, stepping aside.

A few minutes later, after confirming that no one else was in the room, Corey bowed and apologized to Scarlett repeatedly.

"Alright, I'm annoyed just looking at you. Take your people and get out of here!" Scarlett chased everyone away.

After things calmed down, Natasha suddenly appeared out of nowhere and gave Scarlett an "OK" sign.

Chapter Nineteen: More and More Replicas

After getting rid of Corey, Natasha told Scarlett all the information she had obtained in advance.

“Tomorrow, go through the same process I gave you last time, and pay close attention to see if anything has changed,” Natasha instructed. The human skin mask was useless once it was removed, so she had to be herself again.

“Wait a minute, you killed a waiter when you boarded the ship too?” Scarlett asked.

“No, according to my estimation, the waiter will probably come back to life after four in the morning,” Natasha continued. “By the way, you said there was something under the ship, what was it?”

“A bunch of strange creatures. I’ve never seen anything like them before, but they don’t look like herbivores,” Scarlett described the blue sac fish.

“In other words, we are now completely trapped on the ship.” Natasha said worriedly, this crisis may be the biggest in history.

Late at night, neither Scarlett nor Natasha rested. The two sat in the room, looking at the large bed.

At four o'clock in the morning, the same feeling came over me, and suddenly a person appeared on the bed clutching their chest, it was another Scarlett.

"As expected... the same time as the first day is repeated every eight hours."

The scene before her confirmed Natasha's guess.

Scarlett, who had just woken up, quickly recovered after a few tense seconds and began exchanging information with the other two.

Yang Qiu was quite satisfied with their actions. At least for now, he was certain that he was not far inferior to them, and it was time to start the next act.

Act Two: The Infinite Cycle

In the morning, Scarlett followed Natasha's plan, putting on the exact same clothes and getting ready to go out.

Standing behind her were Natasha and Black Widow; to make it easier to distinguish them, the three of them exchanged names.

After Scarlett left, Natasha climbed out of the window. Scarlett was in the light, while Natasha was in the dark, determined to search the entire ship.

As for Black Widow, without any further information, she can only stay in her room.

The main problem is that if two "Scarlett" characters appear at the same time, it might cause some bugs or issues.

Around 11:50, Scarlett concealed herself and returned to her room, while Natasha hid in a corner watching the place.

The moment the clock struck noon, Natasha's eyes flashed, and sure enough, there was yet another version of herself.

The entire ship seemed to refresh at that moment, except for Natasha herself, which resulted in multiple Natashas appearing at the same time.

Time passed slowly, and that very night, five Natashas suddenly appeared in Natasha's room, leaving them all looking at each other in bewilderment.

“Let me start. Every eight hours, everything refreshes, except for us. Also, I’ve tested it, and the traces we leave on the ship also refresh.” Natasha explained, “As for those strange fish, due to insufficient information, it’s impossible to tell whether they will refresh as well.”

“I’ve been sitting in the room all day, and I can confirm that no one else has come in all day except for ourselves,” Black Widow continued.

“Nothing has changed since midnight, at least I haven’t found anything,” Scarlett continued.

“I understand now, but there’s a problem: how do we distinguish the names?” said Natasha Number Three, who appeared last today.

“So I’m actually thinking about this at a time like this?” Natasha looked surprised. “This question is meaningless. If this continues, there will soon be countless versions of ourselves. We won’t have enough names. Let’s just use numerical codes.”

“I have no objection,” Natasha Number Two said. “Let’s divide the tasks. The only time we haven’t gathered information is the early morning hours, but the problem is, what is the target?!”

“The gaze might be on another unusual object or person,” Natasha said. “If we really can’t find it, then maybe we should try blowing up the whole ship or…”

Everyone fell silent; they all understood what Natasha hadn't said.

That is, they deliberately kill a "self" to see what happens. Some programs rely on bugs to run, and maybe once the bugs are cleared, the whole program will crash.

Of course, this is a last resort. Although having more people is troublesome, their strength is also constantly doubling. Natasha estimates that the task Nick Fury assigned can be completed in no time.

As all the Natashas began gathering information on the ship, Yang Qiu covered his face. Were these Black Widows really top-tier agents? They hadn't even noticed such obvious clues?!

The bells! The bells! Good heavens, no matter where you are, there are bells to remind you when it's time. Isn't that obvious enough?

That's what they say, but Yang Qiu clearly made a mistake. Outsiders and insiders are different. Natasha and the others are completely overthinking things. They think even a seemingly useless position might be crucial. With such a huge amount of information, it's normal to overlook some things for a while.

In addition, Natasha's disappearance has caught Nick Fury's attention, and the stealth aircraft has searched along the flight path more than once.

If this continues, external interference will increase, and in the end, it may actually affect the evolution of the script.

"No! We need to add a guide!" Yang Qiu patted his face.

Adding a guide without increasing the number of characters in the script, and ensuring that the guide is obedient, is no easy task.

"Meow~" An called out at this moment.

Yang Qiu suddenly turned around and looked at it. An was startled and tilted its head, as if asking, "Master, what are you doing?"

Yang Qiu gradually revealed a lewd smile and picked An up in his arms.

"Meow!" An sensed something was wrong; she was about to be in big trouble!

"An, how about I give you a task? How about a business trip?" Yang Qiu stroked An's fur a couple of times.

"Meow..." (Do you get dried fish while on a business trip?)

"No problem, I'll satisfy whatever you want to eat. Not to mention dried fish, I'll pick out a stunted bluefish for you to cook!" Yang Qiu said with a smile.

"Meow!" (Deal made!)

The next second, An disappeared, stepping into the shadowy passage and running wildly towards the cruise ship.

"Hey, hey, hey! I was just kidding!" Yang Qiu shouted as he watched An disappear in an instant.

"Meow?" (Are you sure?)

An poked half her head out of the shadowy passage and looked at Yang Qiu.

"What I mean is... pick a bigger one..." Yang Qiu felt a bit tasteless, even lying to a cat. You can't be so despicable.

After An disappeared again, Yang Qiu looked at the bluefish from afar. Alas, words spoken are like water spilled; they cannot be taken back.

Chapter Twenty: Kieran's Stopwatch

After a thorough search of the entire cruise ship, many of the Natashas were disappointed to find nothing; in their eyes, there was nothing unusual about the ship that could cause a time loop.

"What should we do? Why don't we just go for it? We have plenty of time and manpower. If that doesn't work, we can interrogate them one by one. I refuse to believe that what's happening on the ship has nothing to do with the people on board!"

Scarlett addressed the others, saying that the bodyguards on the ship were not strong enough to fight, and that they could easily take on ten of them. With the added advantage of surprise attacks, they could easily control the entire ship.

Unfortunately, although the idea was good, this incident really had nothing to do with the people on the ship.

Seeing that these people were about to enter a dead end, Yang Qiu had no choice but to give up his last hope and activate An to guide them. However, since a new element had been added, the script had to be modified slightly.

"Everyone! We've found the anomaly!" Natasha Number Five said to the others as she pushed open the door.

"Found it?! What is it?!" Natasha asked.

“A cat. Follow me.”

A few minutes later, Natasha, who was in various corners, focused her gaze on the deck of the cruise ship, or more precisely, on the edge of the deck, where a black cat was perched on the edge, its front paws resting on the deck, its head sticking out as if looking at something.

Natasha carefully observed the cat. It was shiny black, of medium size, and its claws showed signs of trimming. It was clearly a pet cat, not a stray.

At the same time, Natasha recalled the scenes she had seen over the years, and she was certain that this black cat had never appeared before.

"Who owns this cat?" Natasha asked Scarlett in a low voice.

“Nobody’s taking care of it. I spoke with Corey, and he confirmed that nobody brought pets aboard. What do we do now? Should we try to catch it?” Scarlett whispered her suggestion.

“Hmm… don’t rush, why don’t you go out and see what that cat is doing?” Natasha suggested. As long as they don’t appear at the same time, Scarlett will still be seen as a member of the big family.

“No problem.” Scarlett tapped her fingers on the wall, communicated with the others in Morse code, and then walked out.

With graceful steps, Scarlett walked to the deck, tilted her head to look at the black cat, and then followed its gaze downwards.

Blue bream are swimming happily underwater along the edge of the boat.

Fish? This cat doesn't want to eat sea fish, does it?

Scarlett looked at Ann, just as Ann stuck out her tongue and licked her beard, while also rubbing her paws.

I really want to eat fish! Is there anything special about this fish?

Scarlett glanced down at the blue sac fish, and the more she looked at it, the more she felt that the fish was a bit unusual. When she looked away, she suddenly realized that Anne was gone!

She looked up and around the deck, but couldn't see Ann anywhere. Then she waved to Corey.

“Miss Scarlett, is there anything I can do for you?” Corey asked with a slight bow.