The Seventh Level

"I wonder what the scene in the seventh level of the maze will be like. Mr. Fool… No, I have to rely on the God of Knowledge for this kind of luck. I hope it's something I'm more familiar with…" Ebner prayed as he waited for Mr. Gaston to read the reward.

Even though he seemed to have grasped the key to passing the first two levels, that was just cheating. Objectively speaking, the first two levels were actually very difficult!

The ninth level was still alright. If he searched the room patiently, he would eventually be able to find the password. However, the heating device was also a hidden danger. If he was not careful, he would be so hot that he would dehydrate and lose his mobility.

On the eighth floor, not to mention how complicated the case itself was, it was extremely difficult to find the murderer before Conan. If Ebner did not know the plot, he would not dare to say that he was stronger than Conan in terms of logic and observation.

No wonder Mr. Gaston rarely cleared the eighth level.

"Well, let's get on with it." Even as Ebner let his mind wander, Mr. Gaston was back on his feet.

The three of them did not delay any longer and resolutely stepped onto the seventh level's passageway.

As the scene changed, Ebner realized that he was in a dark wooden room, but the 'ground' beneath his feet was unusually bumpy. He was very familiar with this feeling. A few days ago, he often felt this unstable feeling on the deck of the 'Brilliant City'.

"So, this is a scene on a ship?"

Before he could think about it carefully, a gust of evil wind came from behind him. Ebner, who already had the combat skills of a Knowledge Keeper, was not alarmed by this. His body slightly dodged the attack, and then he very naturally stretched out his leg to trip the attacker's foot. That person immediately fell to the ground due to his unstable center of gravity.

Ebner seized the opportunity to lunge forward, pressing his knee against the back of the man's neck and snatching the sword from his hand.

After doing this, he looked around and realized that Xio had already cut off a man who looked like a sailor. Mr. Gaston was even more decisive. He took out his revolver and killed the villain who was charging at him.

Although there were still faint sounds of fighting outside the cabin, it was already quiet in this cabin. Ebner cautiously opened the pure white eye 'Scene Backtrack'. After confirming that there was no danger, for the time being, he held the longsword against the attacker and shouted, "What is this place? Why did you attack me?"

However, the man who fell to the ground did not answer. Instead, he let out an inhuman 'ha' sound from his throat, and his eyes become bloodshot.

Ebner frowned when he saw this and looked at Xio's captive. He realized that the man was in the same state as him.

"Are they crazy? Or did they suffer some mental stimulation?" Xio guessed after seeing that she couldn't get anything out of the captive.

"Could it be that everyone on the ship has gone mad? Then what are our conditions for passing the test?" Ebner was also filled with questions.

At this moment, Mr. Gaston pointed at a piece of paper on the cabin table and said, "The conditions should be there."

Ebner followed Xio's example and knocked out the captive. He walked to the table and picked up the note.

"Find out the true cause of the internal strife."

"Most of the time, the conditions for passing are words that appear directly in front of us, but sometimes they will be displayed in other forms. For example, the note this time. For example, when I encountered Conan previously, the condition was that it appeared on a banner hung by an airship…" Mr. Gaston walked over at this moment and fired two shots at the captive that Ebner and Xio had knocked out. Then, he continued, "I can tell that you aren't used to killing people, but whether it's in the dream maze or in the real mysterious world, you should abandon that naivety as soon as possible. Heh heh, in my opinion, there's no harm in practicing and adapting while there's no real death in the dream scene. Besides, these attackers are mostly scum. They aren't real 'people'."

Ebner and Xio looked at each other, knowing that Mr. Gaston had a very good point and that he meant well for them. So they humbly accepted his advice and decided that they would not hold back when there was a fight later. Of course, this was not against their own principles of handling matters, and they would not kill innocents for no evil deeds.

After they gradually came to a realization, the three of them walked out of the cabin one after another and covered each other as they came to a remote side deck.

It was nighttime. The dark clouds in the sky were very thick, blocking out the crimson sky. The deck was dark, and visibility was very low.

Seeing that no enemies had appeared, Ebner habitually found a loophole in the conditions to pass the test and asked, "Is there no time limit for this condition? If we wait for the ship to dock and let the Nighthawks or Mandated Punishers investigate the truth, will that work?"

"That's impossible. Even though it's not written clearly, most scenarios have a time limit! For example, the Conan scenario on the eighth floor has to be identified before the murderer is identified. Otherwise, the challenger will be deemed to have failed. It should be the same here." Mr. Gaston shook his head. This hidden rule had tricked him several times.

As they were talking, a man's indignant roar and a woman's intermittent sobbing suddenly came from the corner in front of them. Then, another man's panting sound was heard along with the sound of clothes tearing…

Xio, who had spent so much time at the tavern in the East Borough, quickly realized what had happened. She and Ebner looked at each other, took out their revolvers at the same time, and hurried to the corner. Mr. Gaston walked behind, guarding against an attack from another direction.

What came into view was a scene that made Xio furious. A man had been nailed to the outer wall of the cabin by a sword, and two men who were dressed rather decently were tearing at a lady's dress on the ground with ferocious expressions.

This time, Xio didn't hesitate. She wasn't even willing to waste bullets on these two scum. Instead, she rushed in front of the two villains and stabbed them in the neck with the triangular blade hidden in her sleeve before they could react.

The lady who had most of her clothes torn off was dazed for a moment. Then, she suddenly pounced towards the man pinned to the wall and cried loudly, "Darling! Please! Please wake up… Don't leave me behind."

Seeing this scene, Xio felt very upset. Her eyes were already covered in a thin layer of fog. She retreated to Ebner's side and deliberately changed the topic. "The seventh level's suppression of Beyonder powers isn't as great as before. I can use most of the powers of an Arbiter, but the Ring of Judgment given by Mr. Stanton is still unusable."

With regards to this, Ebner only nodded slightly without giving a response. This was because it made no difference to him. So what if he recovered the strength of a Reader? The premise was that a Reader had combat strength! Furthermore, he had always been able to use Beyonder powers when the Pure White Eye was activated.

After crying for a while, the lady picked up a dagger that the murderer had dropped on the ground. She aimed it at her abdomen, and there was a struggle on her face. It seemed that she wanted to commit suicide just like that, but she was afraid of pain, so she didn't dare to do it.

However, Xio didn't give her a chance to make a choice. She directly struck the dagger away and comforted her. "You have to live strong! It's because he risked his life to protect you that you can't let him down. You have to live on!"

Although she knew that the lady wasn't a real 'person' and had guessed that this scene might have been reset countless times, she couldn't bear to see her die in despair and grief.

When the lady heard Xio's words, she looked at the man pinned to the wall and fell silent for a while. Then, she gritted her teeth and said, "Miss, you're right! I have to live! I want to avenge my dear! I want to execute all the animals on this ship!"

Seeing that she was gradually calming down, Ebner walked forward and asked, "What exactly happened on this ship? Why are there so many villains running amok?"

"You don't know?" the lady asked in surprise.

The intelligence of the people in this dream maze was so high that they actually doubted it. It was much stronger than the scene in Conan. Ebner thought this in his heart, but on the surface, he said vaguely, "We had been sleeping in the cabin above. When we woke up, we realized that everyone had gone mad…"

The woman nodded, not sure if she believed him or not, but she still answered Abner's previous question. "It started five days after our ship, the Clover, set sail from Caesar Port. We met that terrifying pirate, Nast…"

"King of the Five Seas, Nast?!" Xio and Ebner exclaimed. The latter felt that the name Alfalfa was very familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere before.

"Yes, King of the Five Seas, Nast, claims to be a descendant of the Solomon Empire and abides by the virtue of not killing captives. It's precisely because of this that we were only robbed of our money and didn't lose our lives. His subordinates even left us enough food…" At this point, the lady looked at the two people in front of her in puzzlement. No matter how much she slept, she wouldn't be unaware of the pirate attack, right? Nast's subordinates had searched every cabin.

Ebner also knew that he was very suspicious, but what he cared about was that this scene was actually derived from reality. It might even be something that had really happened.

"Everyone lost something, but it wasn't too much…" the woman continued. "I thought our misfortune was over, but during the following days, the passengers and crew of the Clover began having heated disputes. Arguments turned to fistfights, which escalated to gunfire and swordplay. They quickly descended into madness—killing anyone they saw, assaulting women, torturing the weak…and some true monsters painted the walls with blood and gore."

But at this time, Ebner no longer paid attention to these details. He already understood what was going on, so he only asked in the end, "Do you know what day it is today?"

"Huh?" The lady was almost confused by this question. After a while, she replied, "It should be July 1st."

Upon hearing this answer, Ebner looked at the night sky which was covered by dark clouds. He exhaled and said to himself,

"Perhaps…this is something happening right now."

(Chapter end)