Card Room

Chapter 128 – Endless Seas 03

Shao Qingge’s idea was that so many people went to the free restaurant to eat. If there were food problems, everyone would collectively vomit and have diarrhea. He chose an expensive and elegant Chinese restaurant for breakfast. Who would’ve thought that the Keeper of Spades didn’t play according to common sense. He spent money and still got diarrhea! For Shao Qingge, this was the first time he ‘paid for his sins’ and he inwardly scolded A of Spades a hundred times.

There were long queues for the public restrooms and everyone was forced to go back to their cabin to solve the problem.

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou headed to the infirmary together and asked for medicine for diarrhea. Old Mo went back to the shopping centre on the 7th floor to buy some common medicine for fever, headaches, etc. He also bought bandages, iodine for disinfection etc.

By the time the group gathered again in 311, the supplies were fully prepared. Xiao Lou asked Mo Xuemin, “Old Mo, have you participated in the Spades weekly room? Have you encountered food problems?”

Mo Xuemin replied, “In last month’s World Weekly, A of Spades took everyone to a desert island. We found many wild vegetables and fruit. As a result, people died of poisoning after eating them. There is always a high probability of food problems in the Spades secret rooms. I didn’t expect that this time, Shao Qingge was affected despite avoiding the free restaurant and taking us to eat expensive dumplings!”

Shao Qingge had a headache. “Don’t mention it. My wisdom was in the wrong direction.”

Xiao Lou smiled and glanced at Shao Qingge. “It doesn’t matter. You spend money and can always make more money then you spent.”

Shao Qingge was comforted by Professor Xiao and his mood improved a bit.

Xie Qi suddenly said, “Yes, I don’t know what happened to the person who booked a meal at the captain’s restaurant yesterday? It is said that they are delicacies made by the captain himself and costs hundreds of thousands per meal. It would be a real injustice if they get diarrhea!”

Hearing this, Xiao Lou suddenly sensed that something was wrong. “There is a food problem no matter what restaurant you eat in. This isn’t a food problem but a problem with the fresh water stored on the ship. My guess is that the water source onboard has been polluted. Judging from your symptoms, it is very similar to the acute gastrointestinal bacterial infection caused by Salmonella or Staphylococcus exceeding the standard.”

There was a doctor in the team and everyone was naturally convinced of Xiao Lou’s judgment.

Xiao Lou’s analysis was very reasonable. In the morning, they ate steamed buns and porridge. They also drank the free water. At the free restaurant, people would eat cake and milk or noodles. The cruise ship would definitely check the food before going to sea. It is impossible for all the vegetables, meat, rice, noodles and egg to be rotten. There is only one possibility for why everyone has diarrhea. There is something wrong with the water.

As long as the drinking water was contaminated, every tourist on the ship would be affected. The more terrible thing was that more people were used to drinking hot water to warm their stomachs and relieve the discomfort in their gastrointestinal tract when they had diarrhea. They didn’t know that the water was the real culprit!

If a challenger with a bad stomach couldn’t figure this out and kept drinking water or used the water on board to take medicine, the symptoms wouldn’t be reduced. Instead, they would become more and more serious.

Yu Hanjiang frowned. “The ship provides free hot water. Every floor contains a water tank in the corner. I just saw many people holding cups to go and get hot water. People with acute diarrhea will continue to drink water containing bacteria. Professor Xiao, will they die if their symptoms get worse?”

Xiao Lou nodded seriously. “Continuous diarrhea can cause a disorder of electrolytes in the body, an imbalance of sodium and potassium ion in the blood, damage to myocardial cells and this will lead to eventual shock and even death.”

Xie Qi looked at the cup of hot water he just grabbed like he was poisoned. He immediately poured the water in the cup into the bathroom and patted his chest with fear. “I almost drank it! From childhood, our parents have instilled in us the concept that when we have a cold, diarrhea or are uncomfortable, we should drink hot water…”

The subconscious habit at this time was likely to take everyone’s life.

Old Mo quickly took out a sealed mineral water bottle from his backpack. “The mineral water should have no problems?”

Xiao Lou took the bottle and carefully checked it. “The seal is normal and the mineral water trademark is the same as what we have bought in the previous Financial Crisis room and the materials supply package. It should be okay.”

Everyone was relieved and Yu Hanjiang opened the bottle of mineral water. “Use the mineral to take medicine and control the illness as soon as possible.”

After an hour of rest, everyone’s symptoms had eased a lot.

Yu Hanjiang went to the seventh floor to see the situation and everyone followed him to the shopping centre. Sure enough, many challengers realized that something was wrong with the water and bought mineral water directly by the box in the supermarket. More than half of the mineral water had been removed from the shelves of the supermarket and many challengers were entering the supermarket to buy materials.

This made Xiao Lou think of the original Financial Crisis where everyone emptied the market.

Just then, a scream was heard from the crowd. “Ah! A dead person!”

Xiao Lou immediately strode forward and squeezed into the crowd. He saw a young girl lying on the ground. Her face was as white as paper, her lips were purple-blue and she had no breath. Another girl was holding her and repeatedly calling her name. “Xiao You, wake up!”

Yu Hanjiang also walked over to see the situation.

The girl was crying while saying, “Xiao You had diarrhea and her stomach was uncomfortable. She didn’t eat anything today and only drank a few cups of hot water…” She seemed to detect something was wrong and was slightly stunned. “Is the water poisonous?”

Many people heard this and their expressions were difficult to see.

A grumpy woman screamed. “It must be poisonous water! No wonder why my husband’s diarrhea didn’t stop. He has been drinking hot water!”

“Where is the Captain?”

”He checked for so long and haven’t found any results!”

“We want a refund for our tickets!”

The group of people ran to the deck on the top floor, demanding that the captain was found. Several more people suddenly fell down on the way, dead. In the blink of an eye, several passengers died and the entire cruise ship was in a state of panic.

Some calmed down and grabbed mineral water from the supermarket. Some leaned against the fence and looked at the bodies of the people in a daze. Some radicals rushed to the captain’s room, angrily denouncing the cruise company and asking for a statement from the captain.

The old captain ran to the deck while sweating. “Please don’t get excited! We are investigating…”

The tourists didn’t listen to his explanation and roared, “What investigation? It has been so long and you haven’t found the reason?”

”There must be a water problem. I only drank a glass of water in the morning and I also have a stomach problem!”

”The entire ship has food poisoning and people have died.”

”Don’t you have to be responsible for the death of so many people?”

A man suddenly rushed over, grabbed the captain’s collar as he growled out, “My wife! My wife is dead, dead! She died of food poisoning just because she got on your damn cruise ship!”

The people around here heard this and moved forward, surrounding the captain. Someone suggested, “We should immediately call the police!”

“The cruise ship has gone out to sea and there is no signal. We can’t get in contact with people on the shore!”

A girl’s voice wailed, “What to do?”

”Will we die on this ship?”

The situation became more and more chaotic. The captain was pushed around and his face was pale. He had been a captain for many years and had never encountered such a situation. The entire ship had food poisoning… he thought that before the cruise ship left the dock, the fresh water reserves and food reserves had been inspected by the ship’s chief logistics officer. It was confirmed that there was no problem. How could this happen?

The captain’s spirit was violently startled. “Go and call Director Qi for me!”

The subordinate immediately went to the lower deck of the ship to find the director. As a result, he couldn’t be found anywhere on the ship. The subordinate came back frustrated. “Director Qi is gone!”

The old captain had a bad feeling in his heart and clenched his fists. “Broadcast it through the entire ship! Find him for me!”

Just then, a low voice was heard. “Don’t look. He just left in an escape boat.”

It was Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou. Just now, they stood at the stern and saw a person checking the escape boats. They thought it was a crew member in charge of safety. As a result, the man suddenly untied the rope of an escape boat and drove it away! The electric escape boat was so fast that in the blink of an eye, the man disappeared into the vast sea.

Yu Hanjiang soon judged that this person was the one who poisoned the entire boat full of tourists!

Shao Qingge asked curiously, “Is he a hunter? Does he want to let all the passengers of the cruise ship die on the vast sea by polluting the water source?”

Old Mo shook his head. “No, the hunters receive bonuses according to the number of challengers killed. If they kill powerful challengers such as the presidents of some guilds, they will get a bonus of 100 million. He ran straight away despite not knowing how many people will die on the ship. This isn’t the style of a hunter.”

Xiao Lou agreed. “If he wants to kill people directly, he shouldn’t put bacteria in the water. He should directly poison the water to make people die after drinking. This is faster.”

Xie Qi’s eyes suddenly brightened. “I know, he was the logistics director who was complaining about low wages and not being able to afford a family when I eavesdropped last night. He also mentioned that he didn’t want to continue working on the cruise ship. Perhaps he has a deep grudge against the captain and the cruise ship company so he retaliated in this way?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded and thought that Xie Qi’s statement was reasonable.

Listening to the noise on the deck, Yu Hanjiang immediately decided. “We have to stop the passengers from making trouble. If the captain is forced to flee then the entire cruise ship will be helpless at sea and it will be more difficult to pass the instance!”

The group agreed with Group Leader Yu’s proposal and immediately went to the top deck. On the deck, the captain heard Yu Hanjiang’s voice and was shocked. “What did you say? Director Qi ran away?”

Yu Hanjiang stated, “Yes, we just saw him run away in the escape boat.”

The people realized that the culprit had escaped. They vented all their hatred on the remaining crew and some people even clamored to fight the captain…

Yu Hanjiang’s sharp eyes swept over the entire scene and he shouted, “Quiet! Can making trouble solve this problem?!”

His voice seemed to have a type of magic that made everyone quiet down. Yu Hanjiang continued coldly, “If you beat up the captain then who will be responsible for the ship?”

Everyone heard this and awkwardly stepped back.

The captain grabbed at the straw and immediately agreed. “Yes! Don’t get too agitated! We will safely send you to the City of the Sun! If the fresh water stored on the ship is polluted, there is actually another way. We have a very advanced desalination system. The equipment on the ship can handle several tons of seawater a day. You don’t have to worry about having no water to drink!”

The passengers’ faces were filled with doubts and the man asked, “Is the equipment that you mentioned reliable?”

The captain nodded. “Don’t worry. The drinking water of many residents in coastal cities is also provided by this desalination system. The equipment uses reverse osmosis technology and the pore diametre of the osmosis membrane is very small. It can effectively remove dissolved salts, colloids, microorganisms, organics, etc. in the water. The water quality after filtration is similar to that of mineral water!”

Xiao Lou had heard of this reverse osmosis technology. It wasn’t surprising that a remote cruise ship was equipped with a desalination system. After all, if there was an accident at sea and the water couldn’t be drunk, the most convenient and fastest way to desalinate the seawater into drinking water was by using reverse osmosis technology.

Yu Hanjiang stated, “Everyone, temporarily drink mineral water while the captain deals with the water source.”

The expressions of the group eased a lot. Some of the relatives and friends of those who had died still looked ugly. “So my wife died in vain?”

”Yes, my brother fell down just now because of food poisoning… Captain, are you going to give us a statement?”

The old captain looked sad. “I’m sorry everyone, I didn’t expect this to happy. Our ship’s logistics director didn’t do his best and there is something wrong with the drinking water. Rest assured, we will give corresponding compensation for the death of relatives! I have contacted the dock. The police will send a rescue boat to pick up their bodies and send them back to the City of the Moon…”

The mood of the crowd was temporarily pacified and they returned to the cabin to rest. It was just a small episode during the cruise. The captain soon called for the police rescue ships to come and take the bodies and their relatives. A team of challengers followed. There was a total of 10 people.

Xiao Lou made such a judgment because the group had a mixture of middle-aged people and students. There were six men and four women. They didn’t seem like relatives. There was the dead girl who was called ‘Xiao You’ at the start and the nine people carried his body to the rescue ship. The girl who had a good relationship with her was crying the whole time. The others looked ugly but they weren’t crying. If they were relatives then they wouldn’t be so cold.

Xie Qi watched the rescue ship go away and asked curiously, “The challengers on the ship were taken to the City of the Moon by the police. The rescue boat is fast. Perhaps they can reach the City of the Moon before dark? Will they directly pass the instance?”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “No, they have been eliminated.”

Xie Qi wondered, “What do you mean?”

Xiao Lou sighed and said, “We were reminded when entering the World Weekly secret room that the goal this time is to survive at sea for seven days. They left early and can’t complete the seven days at sea. The moment the left the cruise ship on the rescue boat, it is equivalent to giving up this week’s regular task.”

Old Mo lamented, “Actually making such a low-level mistake… before entering the secret room, you must be clear about the task objectives. They don’t have a clear memory of the four levels they passed through. It is a pity that the team was careless at this time.”

Xiao Lou said, “It is probably that the sudden death of a teammate made everyone a mess.”

A team must have someone who can stabilize hearts in any situation. If this was Xiao Lou’s team, even if someone suddenly died, Yu Hanjiang wouldn’t make the foolish decision to leave with the police.

The 10 person team was eliminated. However, the things that would happen to the challengers who remained on board was unknown. When exactly would the thunderstorm come? Xiao Lou looked at the endless sky with worry.