There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Gray gave a French salute against the wall again and quickly explained, "No, no, no, within seven paces, the gun is accurate and fast!"

But in that instant, a bald, thin figure rolled out of the crowd, swiftly passing by the old sea dog slumped on the ground, casually snatching the waist knife from his hand, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared near the captain's fallen hat.

The shameless informant from just moments ago had transformed into an assassin with the sun rising above his head, his shoes resting on his filthy hat, the blade angled upwards close to the captain's beard, smiling silently as he watched him.

Gray finally stopped bowing, scratched his head, and said feigning difficulty, "Sorry for interrupting, where were we... Oh right, we were talking about being accurate and fast..."

Gray stepped forward, snatched the double-barreled shotgun from the captain's furious glare, skillfully unloaded the bullets, checked the gun's condition, and then reloaded it, pointing it at the captain.

"Your gun is great, but unfortunately it belongs to me now."

Chapter 623 The Lost One (Part 2)

The atmosphere in the room froze for a moment. The murky air and heavy breathing contrasted sharply, with only Gray's slightly smug eyes flashing as he looked around at everyone in the cabin.

Kill me!

The captain, with a double-barreled shotgun pointed at his head, roared angrily, as if he had been insulted in a way that was more unbearable than death.

Kay reversed the knife in his hand and threw it without hesitation, embedding it in the wooden plank only centimeters away from the captain, where it trembled and shook.

"If that's really what you think, I don't mind doing it."

In Kay's eyes gleamed a sharp, shrewd look that made the captain particularly wary. This kind of gaze was a special quality possessed only by seafarers who danced their way through the waves. But for him, this trait, which should have been commonplace, simply meant being difficult, cunning, and ruthless in achieving his goals.

Tell me where we are now!

As Kay took a step closer, Gray raised his gun slightly, aiming it directly at the man with the bushy beard, the smell of gunpowder faintly wafting through the air.

"Hmph, this is a path leading astray. I don't know!"

"Then open the door and let's go out and see for ourselves."

Receiving the expected answer did not discourage Kay. Instead, she made her request with exceptional amiability, like a diner who had settled for a less desirable option on a restaurant menu.

"Impossible! The cabin has been locked from the outside; no one can open it."

Gray handed the gun to Kay, then used his power to push the locked iron door, pulling on the doorknob from all sides, but it wouldn't budge, as if the door was just a uniquely designed decoration on the wall.

Suddenly, a surge of waves erupted inside the ship, causing it to rock violently as if it were about to overturn the iron cage.

"...Who are you people? Are you military police sent by Caldwell Military Industry?"

A weak voice suddenly rang out, causing even greater commotion among the passengers on board. Gasps and cries rose and fell as they all called out the same name.

"Mr. Siennis."

The middle-aged man, who was lying unconscious on the ground, carefully avoided the wound on his arm, slowly got up from the ground, and leaned against a suitcase.

"We're not detectives, and we mean no harm. If anything, we're just people searching for answers."

Kay smiled and brushed the dirt off his clothes. "What I'm more curious about is why you've been pretending to be unconscious until now?"

With Mr. Siennis helped to his feet, the passengers also stood behind him, and with the captain glaring angrily at them, Kay and Gray suddenly seemed to be isolated and helpless.

The thin, middle-aged man took out his pocket watch and tried his best to tell the time. "I only rested for an hour. Aren't you being a bit too harsh on a wounded soldier?"

Gray had maintained an air of equal authority with the captain throughout, facing him without flinching as he held his gun. But now he turned to him and said, "Kay, he won't admit it."

Kay casually spread his hands, completely abandoning the opportunity to hold the knife, and faced the passengers in the cabin without any defense.

“We naturally have no objection to you sleeping, but the timing of your sleep and the precision of your wake-up is truly admirable.”

A passenger behind them spoke up, "You're not allowed to slander Mr. Siennis! He's been protecting us all along!"

But the middle-aged man stopped him from speaking further.

"It's alright, let him continue."

Kay smiled and continued, "From the beginning, your breathing, though weak, was unusually steady, which I found a bit strange. And since you're the one directing the ship's route, I really need your guidance on where we are..."

"There are two kinds of heavy things in the world: one is knowledge and truth, and the other is reality and dreams."

Mr. Siennis said helplessly, "The weight of knowledge and truth lies in their visibility, while the weight of reality and dreams lies in their intangibility. If you pursue the truth, can you spare the lives of those who want to live in dreams?"

After saying that, he whispered to the captain, "Open the door for them."

The captain frowned, picked up the pipe that had fallen to the ground, wiped it haphazardly, and put it back in his mouth.

"That's not how you open the door, young man."

The captain grinned maliciously as he kicked the old sea dog over, then knocked on the tightly locked iron gate. Suddenly, a threatening roar that could shake the world echoed from outside.

At that moment, the door swung open easily, like a half-closed door that had never been locked. Without realizing it, Gray and Kay had already stepped out of the rusty iron gate and were face to face with a hunched figure standing in the doorway.

Amidst the swirling gray fog, on the ashes-covered deck lay an extremely long and narrow ship-shaped coffin. The passenger within seemed to sense their arrival, its sunken eye sockets gleaming with an eerie light, glancing sideways with a mocking air. Sharp, blood-stained teeth protruded from its twisted, gaping mouth, laughing at its inevitable, ugly, and ultimately doomed fate.

When it opened its mouth, it emitted a low, mocking bark, like the sinister howl of some enormous hunting dog, coveting the flesh and blood sacrifice of its prey. But as a gust of wind blew, the unknown skeleton turned into smoke and drifted into the sea, vaguely transforming into the silhouette of a young man with hair standing on end…

"When Aldebaran shines brightly in the sky, this island submerged in the sea will rise, carrying with it the endless aura of death that has lasted for millennia, presenting travelers with the cruelest ending..."

Mr. Siennis emerged from the cabin at some point and stood with the two of them. "To escape capture, I took them out to sea to escape, but one disaster after another followed, until we were trapped on this doomed Kuroshio Island."

His tone was full of sighs, “The truth can only be left to a few. The passengers needed hope of being rescued, so I became their hope; the passengers needed a target for their anger, so the captain became their enemy; the passengers needed a place to express their sympathy, so the mother and child were hidden among them... But what did the passengers ultimately need?”

"They just want to survive."

Kay's gaze remained fixed, meeting Mr. Siennis's tired eyes without wavering.

"What I've been hiding from them is that last glimmer of salvation. Because once salvation is shattered, and the Redeemer fails to arrive as promised, the hearts of those on this ship will ultimately be stranded on Kuroshio Island..."

Kay seemed to understand something and whispered, "Yes...who can stand at the center of the vortex, unwaveringly shouldering the fate of everyone, and 'walk on' the path forward..."

Mr. Siennis said in a low voice, "I watched him leave... He told us he would come back and rescue everyone... So we must buy enough time, whether it's by deceiving, coaxing, devising a plan, or diverting attention, we must make the passengers forget the passage of time and wait for the salvation that may come at any moment..."

"...Will salvation come?"

Kay didn't react at all, and just followed along blankly.

“I wanted to be a poet; but the poverty, sorrow, and family crest in the city led me down a darker path… My mask was too heavy; I needed to find a mirror…”

Mr. Siennis rambled on, “Everyone says that mirror is ominous, but I feel it’s destiny… ever since I glimpsed the inhuman mannequin in the basement…”

Kay listened to the narrative with suspicion, feeling that all these reactions were morbid, but his keen logic and deep sense of humor cleverly offset them, leaving only an empty and withered skeleton.

But when Kay turned around, he was shocked to find that Mr. Siennis had vanished, leaving only a chilling crimson stain in the cabin...

There's something in the fog...

Gray remained silent from beginning to end, but his body was as tense as a fully drawn bowstring, trying to glimpse the true face obscured by the thick gray fog.

But the next second, a massive, silent bomber suddenly emerged from the gray fog, skimming low over the stranded ship. But as it emerged from the chaos, an enormous, long-horned creature, like a walking shark, was battling an unseen enemy in the void. Strange rays that blurred human perception were appearing out of nowhere, and its four-legged, crawling body violently shook the field of vision.

Further away, on the island, two creatures covered in ugly patches, resembling lizard-like toads, were snarling crocodile-like mouths. Their faces were gloomy and swollen, their outlines resembling ape-like monsters, their bodies covered in scales as tough as rubber, with huge claws on their forelegs and hind legs, and menacing spikes protruding from their heads, were fighting an unseen enemy.

At this moment, the two monsters unleashed a massive storm that swept across the sky, causing layers of smoke to peel away the ash and tear apart coral, silt, and carcasses in the sea, creating a cataclysmic tornado...

"It's time to wake up."

Two claps suddenly rang out.

Chapter 624 Shattered Reality

In the darkness, the person wearing a headscarf suddenly sat up, then rolled on the ground clutching their forehead, bewildered and disoriented in the cramped cabin amidst the excruciating pain.

"Ugh... my head hurts so much..."

This struggle led to an even greater change. Kay coughed twice with difficulty, then suddenly vomited a pool of black liquid from his mouth before regaining some consciousness.

Gray, who had been silently watching from the window, noticed something was wrong and reached out to support his friend.

"Where...are we...?"

Kay asked the more pressing question in a weak voice, but no one could answer it.

Gray was in much better condition than Kay, and quickly said, "Don't move around. You might have swallowed some water. Don't let it get into your lungs."

"I think I just... cough cough... had a dream..."

"Me too! Not only did I dream that I was trapped on a ship, but you also turned into a bald old man..."

In his confusion, Gray began to distract Kai with small talk, hoping to help him understand the current situation as much as possible.

"Then I woke up in this cabin... Hey, hey, don't panic, why are you coughing even more!"

Kay pounded his chest with great difficulty, overcoming his discomfort with sheer willpower, trying to steady his breathing. After a long while, he finally said in a hoarse voice, "Your dream... cough cough..."

"Don't rush, speak slowly..."

Gray kindly patted his back.

"We can't delay... Your dream... seems to be just like mine!"

Upon hearing this, Gray's blank expression turned into confusion, then into astonishment, and he froze on the spot without any warning.

Afterwards, the two of them discussed it back and forth for a while and were surprised to find that their dreams were exactly the same. Even the other person's actions in the dream were exactly the same as their own perspective, as if they were both participating in an absurd drama.

"I've heard that watching certain eerie plays or hearing certain secret names can draw people into shared dreams, but I've never heard of dreams being interactive..."

Kai's vision was impaired by dizziness, and he could only grope in the dark, trying to find a corner to lean against to give himself some help to stand up. However, a cry of surprise rang out immediately.

"What is that! What did I touch?!"

Grey leaned against the window, watching him nonchalantly. "You touched Miss Elliott... Don't move, she's already got a shoe print on your face..."

Kay said doubtfully, "That can't be right, I definitely touched it with my hand!"

Gray: "...Anyway, don't move anymore. If you move any further to the left, Boss Marcus is lying there too. There are no shoe prints on him, so it definitely wasn't me who stepped on him!"

Kay caught his breath for a moment. "Was Stuart found on the ship?"

The young man from the small town shook his head. "I didn't find it. When I woke up, I was trapped in this cabin. Everyone else was unconscious and unresponsive no matter how I called them."

"Nothing was found?"

"Yes, but only a little... Starting from where you are, don't you feel like everything looks a little familiar?"

The dim light didn't affect them for long; Kai's eyes gradually regained their sparkle. They were in a dusty cabin, with tattered, rotten pieces of cloth and dry, brittle debris piled haphazardly in the corners.

The steel wall panels, which had long been painted to prevent rust, were now covered with dense rust under the erosion of time, mottled and disordered, and the same debris was scattered all over the ground, making a rustling sound when stepped on.

There were some dried stains of unknown origin splashed on the wall and floor. Kay's eyes widened in disbelief as he bent down to pick up a wallet from the ground. Among the peeling leather scraps and paper scraps, he found and picked up a piece of metal.

The young man in the purple headscarf found a line of text in the equally blurry handwriting and pieced together the whole message from memory...