Conan Rick's Investigator

"Could it be that this kid was bored and ran to the second floor?" Qin Zhibo stood there, thinking with a frown.

As a young man who is extremely curious and energetic, and having stayed on this ship longer than himself, Kuroba Kaito is very likely to be curious about the cabin below.

He was particularly curious about where the ship's power came from, keeping it running day and night. In fact, even Qin Zhibo himself was somewhat concerned about this issue.

But since no one on the ship dared to touch this taboo, there must be a reason. So, did this kid do it?

Qin Zhibo stopped thinking and quickly ran to a corner at the end of the public cabin. The wooden planks of the entire public cabin were seamless, except for a huge square floor door measuring 5 meters x 5 meters at this location.

Qin Zhibo had noticed this place since the first day he arrived on the ship. Qin Zhibo looked down at the ground. The floor door had two leaves, one on the left and one on the right, with a gap in the middle that could be opened, but there was no door handle.

This was the only possible passage from the common cabin to the oar deck below, but the trapdoor was completely flat and could not be raised by any means.

Furthermore, it would be extremely difficult for a human to pull this huge door open, unless they pushed it upwards from below... Qin Zhibo squatted down, his fingers lightly touching the gap between the floor and the door.

The gap is so narrow that you can't even put your little finger in, let alone your whole palm, and open the door.

Even if Kuroba Kaito is a Phantom Thief in the real world, he has no use in this dreamland.

Could it be... Qin Zhibo pondered for a moment and suddenly thought of a possibility. He quickly ran to the deck and found Larkin, who was still keeping watch in the same position as yesterday.

"What's up?" Larkin asked, glancing sideways as he heard Qin Zhibo approach. Qin Zhibo slowly approached and said calmly, "I'd like to ask, besides the deck and the public cabins, are there no other places for passengers on this ship to go?" He didn't ask directly, but instead used a method to elicit information.

"Anywhere else to go?" Larkin turned to look at Qin Zhibo, then shook his head indifferently.

"No, except that you can go to the cargo hold once when boarding and disembarking, you can only move on the deck and public cabins at other times."

"Even if it's your first time taking a boat, you should know the rules after staying here for so long, right?"

"Rules..." Qin Zhibo groaned.

"But how can the rules of this place be binding?"

"There is no crew to manage it here, and it's on the sea far away from the land. Even the captain doesn't know who it is, so what's the use of the rules?"

"It's like riding on a ghost ship..." Facing Qin Zhibo's complaining muttering, Larkin turned around and took his hands off the railing.

"Then just think you are riding a ghost ship..."

"Actually, passengers disappear occasionally in this place. Passengers who were originally on the ship suddenly disappeared one night."

"And these passengers, without exception, had been unable to behave themselves on the ship before and had behaved in ways that disrupted the rules here."

"So even if there is no one managing this place, it's completely like someone is managing it, right?" After saying that, Larkin turned his head and continued to look at the sea.

But his words kept lingering in Qin Zhibo's mind. Indeed, although it seemed that there was no one managing this place, there had been no murders, fights, or other serious incidents since the boat was launched.

Everyone stayed on the boat quietly, killing time and waiting for the ship to dock. In this kind of environment that is most likely to arouse people's inner darkness, it is impossible for humans to be so honest.

There must be some kind of rules that are binding them. This is what Qin Zhibo realized just now after discovering that Kuroba Kaito had completely disappeared from the deck and public cabin.

This place wasn't without rules, but it was bound by an invisible rule. And last night, Kuroba Kaito had just broken this rule by stealing something from an Arab.

This is exactly what Qin Zhibo is most worried about. Because if there is something on this ship

"Rules", then the only ones who can enforce these rules are the people on this ship.

"Crew." ...First floor, public cabin. Qin Zhibo stood in front of the floor door in the end corner, his chin held high in a serious expression.

If the crew is the one who maintains order on this ship, then the crew can only come from the second level where no one has ever been.

The floor door leading to the second floor is designed so that it cannot be opened from above and can only be pushed open from below.

This is probably to serve

"Rules". Kuroba Kaito stole something from an Arab last night and was

The "crew" discovered it, so they were caught down there.

How did the "crew" discover it? There were no crew members on this floor, let alone high-tech surveillance systems, so how could they have known that it was Kuroba Kaito who stole the items?

This place is very strange... Qin Zhibo frowned, thinking about his current strategy. Although Kuroba Kaito realized that he was in danger that he could not handle, he might very well leave the Dreamland on his own.

But if he is unable to exit the dreamland, then it will be troublesome. He cannot return to the real world now to check whether Kuroba Kaito has returned.

Because the prerequisite for the synchronization of progress between the dreamers who form a team must be that one party will not be stranded in the dreamland.

Once Kuroba Kaito does not return to reality and enters the dreamland again, Kuroba Kaito may have followed the ship to the shore and returned.

By then, he would be completely separated from Kuroba Kaito. Such a risk was definitely unacceptable. The only solution now was to head down to the lower levels and personally confirm Kuroba Kaito's whereabouts.

Simply entering through the trapdoor was out of the question. The only item he could use in the Dreamland was the Oathkeeper, but using it openly would mean making enemies with the entire crew.

It is obviously not a rational behavior to be enemies with the majority of people on the only foothold in this vast sea.

Then there was only the second option left... On the first deck, two passengers wearing fur vests were playing cards.

A dozen yellowed playing cards were stacked on the wooden box, and the remaining playing cards were in the hands of two people.

"Hey, do you want this face card or not?"

"Hmm... let me think about it first." Just as one of them was staring at the cards in his hand and frowning in thought, a pair of hands suddenly pressed on the wooden box in front of them that served as a card table.

Then, the entire wooden box, along with the cards on it, was blown away. Bang! The wooden box rolled in the air and hit the deck hard.

The cards were all blown away, and some were even blown over the fence by the sea breeze and fell into the sea. Two passengers who were playing cards were stunned when they saw the mess in front of them.

One of the men hurried to the fence to remedy the situation, but it was too late. He could only look at the pieces of paper floating on the sea with regret.

"Hey!"

"What are you doing?!" The two of them looked angrily at the man who flipped the table next to them. The man was dressed in black, wearing a black cloak, and was looking at them with a smile.

"Sorry, I just slipped accidentally..." The two of them became furious when they heard this.

"What feet? You were clearly using your hands!"

"And what you did was not an accident, it was clearly intentional!" The two men accused the strange man indignantly, attracting some onlookers nearby.

It is normal for these two people to be so angry, because this is the only entertainment tool in this sea.

But at this moment, the man in black in front of him showed no regrets at all, but instead showed a mocking smile on his lips.

"Oh, you saw it~"

"Yes, I did it on purpose~"

"I saw that you guys played cards so badly, so I just overturned the table, hehe~" Such a blatant provocation surprised everyone around.

It was clear that they had been sailing on the sea for more than ten days without incident, but when they were about to arrive on the mainland, they did such a stupid thing.

Doesn't this person know this place?

"Rules"? Seeing the black-clad man's frivolous smile, one of the men playing cards couldn't hold back any longer and clenched his fist, ready to strike out.

But just halfway through his punch, his companion held his shoulder and stopped him.

"Hey, we're on a boat here..." His companion's words reminded the man. His pupils trembled, and he quickly put down his fists and sneered.

"Hmph...you don't have to be too proud, because you will be punished soon."

"Let's go." The two men playing cards said nothing more and turned away. As they walked, they smiled in delight.

Qin Zhibo watched them depart, his previous suspicions confirmed. The fact that they hadn't fought despite his provocation proved that this place was indeed bound by rules.

Judging from the words of the man playing cards, his unprovoked provocation should be considered a violation of the rules, and he will soon be punished.

"Punishment." In that case, let's wait until night... Time passed quickly, and soon it was night again.

As the last rays of sunlight faded from the sea, the people on deck gradually returned to the common cabin. The unpleasant odor filled the air again, and a chaotic cacophony of sounds made the entire cabin as noisy as a market.

Perhaps because the ship would arrive at its destination tomorrow, the passengers tonight were extremely excited. They even stayed longer than usual to extinguish the candles, and enjoyed food and drinks to their heart's content.

While there were relatively few people around, Qin Zhibo walked around the public cabin, but still didn't find Kuroba Kaito.

It seems that we can only proceed according to the original plan and search in the second cabin... The active time at night lasted for more than an hour before the candles gradually went out.

Darkness descended upon the public cabin once more. Although Qin Zhibo lay in the hammock, his muscles remained tense, his teeth clenched gently.

What exactly is it like

What about the "punishment"?

What exactly are "crew members"? Could they be related to spiritual beings? Qin Zhibo was resting his head on his arms, thinking, when he suddenly felt something was amiss.

The soft hammock on his back suddenly became cold and hard. He quickly stood up and looked around, only to find that he was in an unfamiliar environment.

At this time, he was lying alone on the floor of a dark space.

Chapter 1251 The Moon Beast’s Conspiracy

here it is……

Qin Zhibo slowly raised his body from the floor and looked around him warily.

This is a dark and empty space. Judging from the slippery and slightly shaking floor, this place is still on a black sailboat and should be in a cabin on a certain floor.

It's just that there are no hammocks, wooden boxes, or anyone else...

No.

Someone.

In the darkness, two humanoid silhouettes were holding thick wooden sticks.

The wooden stick was not close to Qin Zhibo, but was spinning round and round with a certain rhythm.

Then, the darkness in his eyes gradually faded, and two rickety figures holding wooden sticks and shaking them appeared.

Those turned out to be two skeletons!

The rickety and broken skeleton held a huge oar in both hands and swayed round and round.

The clothes on the skeleton had decayed into rags that hung on its ribs and joints, and its bones made a terrible "crunching" sound.

Crunch, crunch.

For a time, countless such sounds sounded in the cabin.

Qin Zhibo took a closer look and discovered that there were a large number of skeleton monsters lined up on the left and right sides of the cabin.

They are in groups of two or more, swinging the oars slowly but tirelessly.

Most of these skeleton monsters have human characteristics, but some have obvious animal characteristics, such as horns on their heads and hooves on their feet.

Hey!

Is this the inaccessible second cabin?

But how did I get here?

Qin Zhibo remembered that he was just lying in the hammock, and not long after closing his eyes, without even consciously falling into a deep sleep, the person suddenly appeared here.

Is this ship blessed with magic?

It should be these skeleton monsters that provide power for this ship.

No wonder this ship can sail day and night. It turns out that the crew is not human at all...

No, I should have thought of this possibility a long time ago.

After all, this is a dreamland, and anything that violates the physical rules of the real world can happen here.

Just when Qin Zhibo's brain was analyzing the current situation, the skeleton monsters who were rocking the oars suddenly tilted their heads and made a short crunching sound.

Although they don't even have eyes, it can be seen that all the skeleton monsters are looking at the only living person in the cabin!

Qin Zhibo was shocked. He didn't want to announce something!

Thirty-six strategies, walking is the best strategy!

The difference in numbers was so big that Qin Zhibo subconsciously chose to turn around and run away.

But as soon as he turned around, he found that the skeleton monsters at the end of the cabin had put down their oars one after another and moved closer step by step.

This is true on both sides and the capital of the ship.

Skeleton monsters came from all directions in the cabin, like zombies without self-awareness.

In this terrifying sea of ​​skeletons and monsters, Qin Zhibo standing in the middle seemed weak and had no possibility of fighting back.

Gradually, his figure was submerged in the sea of ​​monsters.

crunch, crunch...