I'm Chen Xing, a captain who once thought I had already died. My nautical journal ends on January 22, 2027, the last day I commanded the “Niger.” A whirlpool in the South Pacific swallowed the entire cruise ship like the gaping maw of hell. Two thousand six hundred people sank into the abyss, while some malevolent force chose me as its sole “survivor.”
For the five months I was missing my memories, I was like a ghost trapped in a glass cage. The memories that had been erased always returned at midnight as nightmares: scarlet eyes gazing from the depths of the whirlpool, the shattered ship sinking in despair, a girl's voice calling my name in the dark... Then an invitation to “Dreamback Island” arrived, dragging me into this endless cycle of nightmares.
Here, every day is a repeated death sentence. The island feeds on my fear, weaving fragments of the shipwreck into a prison of time. I try to escape, but always wake at dawn on the thirty-second day. The red eyes of the stone statues are still watching me, and the cycle never ends.
My nautical journal has long been soaked with blood and tears, and the secret of Dreamback Island may lie in my gradually returning memories. But I know that escape is futile. This island never releases its prey.
(Last page of the nautical journal: I cannot leave. Trapped here forever.)
