After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle

together,” he added.

“Okay.”

Chi Nan came down from the bed and dragged out the wooden box from under the bed.
He saw that the lock of the wooden box was inexplicably opened and frowned.
“You really didn’t do anything to the wooden box?”

He looked up at Ye Chang.

Ye Chang looked blank as he shook his head.
“No.
Is it possible that this box opens automatically at a fixed time?”

He speculated in a good direction.

Chi Nan directly opened the lid of the box.
Lying in the large wooden box was a seemingly ordinary booklet.

Then after opening it, he found that the booklet was full of stamps.
The patterns on these stamps were the reduced versions of the works in the death painting exhibition hall.
Each stamp had a corresponding number.
For example, the one he was holding had 60 NM on it.

“What is this? A death stamp album?”

Chi Nan didn’t speak.
He quickly flipped through the stamp album and confirmed that these patterns were what he saw in the exhibition hall.Still, it was strange to call them stamps.
They didn’t have any ordinary stamp information such as inscriptions, watermarks, country name, serial number, etc.

He was silent for a moment before asking Ye Chang, “Do you know what NM means?”

Ye Chang nodded.
“Nautical miles.”

“Then what does nautical miles have to do with these death paintings?” Ye Chang stared thoughtfully at the stamps.

“Each stamp is marked with a corresponding nautical miles number.
Is it possible that the death of a passenger might be related to nautical miles i.e.
the distance traveled?”

Death, the sea, cruise ship, special gifts from previous guests, travelers at dusk…

Chi Nan went over this information in his mind before wondering, “Can it be that the Dusk Ship uses the death of a passenger as fuel? This is a special room which means it is the soul collection place of all the guests who have died in the past?”

Ye Chang looked stunned.
“Just now, there was a sound from the box.
It is possible that those souls were sealed in the box and our stay made them eager to move.”

“Then what is the basis for the numbers on these stamps?” Chi Nan thought about it.
The numbers in the exhibition hall were the date but these stamps were obviously different.

Ye Chang held a stack of stamps in his hands and looked at them.
“The old captain stipulated that we must tell a horror story every night.
Do you think these numbers are the fear value of the deceased? Each deceased has a different fear value so the nautical miles obtained are different.”

“In other words, the fear value affects the number of nautical miles.
Thus, the captain is deliberately creating an atmosphere of horror…”

“Yes, horror will stimulate the travelers’ fear.
Judging from the two previous deaths, the Dusk Ship has the ability to embody the traveler’s fear and devour the people who generate them.”

It wasn’t just the horror story.
Many of the designs of the Dusk Ship were deliberately inducing horror.

For example, the death exhibition hall, the death traces of each room, the captain deliberately placing the body of the deceased in the banquet hall where everyone could see them…

It was the so-called thinking every day and dreaming at night.
It successfully produced the seeds of fear in the sleepwalkers.

Once the plot of a horror story was deeply rooted in the hearts of people, it would spread unknowingly.
The whole process almost couldn’t be controlled by reason.

Human minds weren’t like doors and windows that could be opened and closed at will.
Fear was the same.

It was like watching a horror movie.
It didn’t seem particularly scary at the time but the after-effects could often last two or three days.
Some horror scenes could even affect a person’s life.
For example, people couldn’t help but look in the bathroom mirror when going to the bathroom late at night or they couldn’t restrain themselves from looking at the bottom of the bed.

Sometimes the more scared they were, the more they couldn’t control it.

The Dusk Ship seemed to take advantage of a human’s inability to resist fear.
It spread fear in people’s hearts and materialized these fears, thereby devouring the people and using their deaths as fuel to move the Dusk Ship forward.

Ah Yu of the triplet sisters, the aunts of 309 who died playing mahjong and the countless works in the death painting exhibition hall confirmed it.

This Dusk Ship wasn’t just a cruise ship but a monster floating on the sea that devoured human fear.

“Once it is dawn, we will bring out the stamp album and compared them to the death paintings in the exhibition hall one by one.
Perhaps we can find the missing painting.”

“Yes, that is the only thing we can do now.”

There were still three hours until 8 o’clock.
Chi Nan simply lay back on the bed to sleep.
Ye Chang also put down the exercise book in his hand and closed his eyes to rest beside Chi Nan.

“Brother Nan, what are you afraid of?” Ye Chang’s voice was very soft and dream-like.

Chi Nan’s closed eyes cracked open a bit and he looked over.
“I can’t say.”

He felt that most people wouldn’t believe it if he said he didn’t feel fear.
Thus, he just answered in a perfunctory manner.

Ye Chang didn’t seem to expect that the answer would be like this.
He was stunned for a moment before smiling.
“Yes, if you say the words then it might be used by the Dusk Ship.”

“Then can I ask you a question?” Chi Nan, who had always seemed disinterested in people, suddenly asked something.

Ye Chang took a breath.
He naturally thought of the pocket watch placed on the bedside table and his heart sank.
Still, he was a bit excited.
“Yes, ask.”

He concealed his emotional ups and downs and his voice seemed like he was just chatting.

Chi Nan glanced at his glasses.
“Why do you sleep without taking off your glasses?”