Fishing boats definitely weren’t as good as other types of boats, but it was good enough so long as they could operate it. Dong Zheng and Lin Hangzhi steered while the others sat in the cabin. The fog was too thick. Even in the daytime, the visibility was less than ten meters. Luckily, the ship had a radar, and they could rely on the radar to avoid hitting other objects.
The sea was calm and without wind, and the dense fog obscured everything around them, feeling so close that it was almost suffocating. No one knew what was hidden in the fog. The thick fog filled every inch of the corner around the sea, spreading a fishy scent.
It was certainly uncomfortable and tiresome, but it wasn’t too unbearable when accompanied by teammates, and it was even kind of fun. Cui Zuojing explored the entire cabin. The fishing nets and harpoons that needed to be repaired were piled up in the corner. He held the harpoons in his hands and made a gesture as if to throw them away. Dong Linhai immediately pointed at him and shouted, “Parker!”
“If I’m Parker, then who are you?” Cui Zuojing smiled, “Tom?”
Dong Linhai held two fishes as double guns in his hands, pretending to be Lucian. “Holy gun baptism!”
The two core players of the alliance stood alone. Meanwhile, Lin Hangzhi, Wang Que, Xia Qiongyun and Victor formed a team to play Fight the Landlord. Outside, there was only the roar of the fishing boat engine. The seabirds that used to fly on the sea were nowhere to be seen. This kind of quietness always gave people an indeterminate premonition, but it had been smooth sailing so far.
When he arrived in an area where he wouldn’t hit rocks, Dong Zheng turned the boat’s direction toward the lights that glowed through the fog, and Lin Hangzhi watched beside him. Cui Zuojing played with the harpoon for a while until he got bored. He took out his phone and looked at it; there was no signal.
It was uncertain how long this trip would take. Cui Zuojing put his hand in his pocket and touched the brass key. There were several doors on the fishing boat. If there was an accident that was difficult to deal with, they could enter Fu Zhe’s castle at any time to escape.
An entire morning passed. Everyone gathered together and ate their first meal on the boat. Before departure, everyone had prepared enough food to stay at sea for three to five days or more. But forget it. The food was already ready. All meals were fresh and it would be inconvenient to preserve them. Wang Que even boiled a pot of soup.
Now that his nose had completely adapted to the fishy smell, Cui Zuojing ate and drank leisurely. Afterward, he took some food and went to the cockpit to look for Dong Zheng.
“How are things?” He brought the beef to the operating platform. The wheelhouses of large ships were mostly at the stern, but this was just a fishing boat. From the front window, they could just make out the fluorescent lights of their targets. In the fog, it was as faint as a small ball.
“I don’t know how long it will take.” Dong Zheng took the soup bowl from Cui Zuojing, and said while eating, “I hope it won’t take too much time.”
Time passed slowly, and night fell quietly. The light was still in front, like a mirage that could never be approached, guiding their way. By this time, everyone had played everything that could be played, and inevitably felt bored. Victor took over Dong Zheng’s place, saying that he would steer. In fact, he only needed to pay attention to the course so as not to deviate from the light.
At this moment, they were more than one hundred and fifty nautical miles away from the shore, and the radar was out of function. That night, Dong Linhai and Lin Hangzhi stood guard while the others rested.
The room where the fishermen usually rested was on the second floor. In the small room, they could sleep directly by pulling up the hammock, which saved space but wasn’t very comfortable.
Wang Que had seasickness. She didn’t get sick while on the cruise ship on Dusk Island, but she probably got sick now because the fishing boat swayed too much. The surrounding fog also lacked a focal point. Instead of forcibly enduring the discomfort, she turned over, jumped off the hammock, and went to Victor to help relieve her symptoms.
Victor was sitting in the cockpit, leaning on the back of the chair with his hands on his chest, silently looking at the distant light. When Wang Que gently pushed the door open, Victor turned his head, saw Wang Que, smiled, and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“I feel uncomfortable, probably because of seasickness.” Wang Que sat next to Victor.
Victor placed his hand on Wang Que’s shoulder, and almost immediately relieved Wang Que’s discomfort. “Better?”
Wang Que felt refreshed. She was no longer sleepy and felt more energetic. “It’s much better. Thank you, Uncle.”
“No need to be polite with me.” Victor withdrew his hand and looked at Wang Que. His youngest daughter was about the same age as Wang Que. He witnessed all the transformations Wang Que had undergone from Doll’s House to the present. He really considered Wang Que as his own child.
Wang Que looked out at the unchanging, monotonous scene outside and could not help but ask, “Isn’t it boring, Uncle?”
“Mmn, but I’m accustomed to it.” Eight years as a cat had caused Victor to learn how to deal with loneliness and how to kill time.
“I definitely wouldn’t be able to stand it,” Wang Que said. “Being alone for a while is fine, but if I was alone all the time, I would probably go crazy.”
“No,” Victor said, “In times like this, you will find that you are a lot stronger than expected. Sometimes, it takes being in desperate situations for some people to grow to their fullest potential.”
Wang Que thoughtfully nodded her head. Originally, in Snow Parasite Trail, she was in desperate straits and had to face her Fungi Bell ability.
“Go and rest,” Victor said. “I don’t know how long we’ll be there. In the latter half of the night, you’ll have to come and take watch. Go sleep and raise your spirits.”
Wang Que said okay and left the cockpit. She didn’t go back to the cabin to rest because she was no longer as sleepy. Instead, she stood at the door of the cabin and looked out into the distance, trying but failing to see through the fog.
Wang Que could perceive the presence of many low-level marine creatures below sea level to a certain extent. It made her realize that they weren’t completely alone. She took a deep breath and then exhaled, trying to relieve the unreasonable anxiety in her heart.
It was at this moment that she caught the barest glimpse of a shadow in the fog. It was a strangely shaped creature, and it was climbing along the side of the boat. But it soon turned and landed on the deck with a soft thud.
Wang Que’s breath caught in her throat. She immediately took a step back and hurried back to the cabin. She took out a vial and a scarab flew out with flapping wings toward the shadow in the fog.
The scarab passed through the gray fog and gradually approached the uninvited guest who had quietly climbed onto the deck. A tentacle whipped out, and Wang Que lost sense of the scarab.
But it was already enough for Wang Que to clearly make out the thing’s appearance. It was a soft octopus with eight waving tentacles. The soft and collapsed head was covered densely with countless eyes, and every suction cup on each tentacles had tiny barbs that allowed it to stick to surfaces. It also ensured that if those tentacles were stuck to a person, that person would have to endure the pain of tearing off the barbs in order to free himself.
Thud, thud, thud!
Without hesitation, Wang Que turned back to the cabin where Dong Linhai and Lin Hangzhi were keeping vigils and said, “Something came up from the sea!”
“What?” Dong Linhai was startled. He jumped from his chair and immediately grabbed the harpoon next to him, “Where is it?”
Lin Hangzhi rushed out to look at the thing. He saw the shadow in the fog moving along the ship’s side. In the strong light beam of his headlight, he could vaguely see its general outline. He shouted to Wang Que, “Hurry up and call the others!”
Wang Que ran to call Cui Zuojing, Dong Zheng and Xia Qiongyun in the lounge. Lin Hangzhi pulled out the shotgun from his waist. His ability wasn’t directly related to combat, so he especially went to the weapons dealer to order a weapon. He didn’t even have to aim. He only needed to shoot at the shadow casually, and each bullet would hit the target accurately, using Lin Hangzhi’s accumulated good luck to the extreme.
Dong Linhai turned on his headlight and rushed towards him. A strange octopus was approaching Lin Hangzhi from behind.
“Be careful!” Seeing that the octopus was about to touch his ankle and climbed up his legs, Dong Linhai threw the harpoon, and the sharp fork nailed it to the deck. No matter how hard it struggled, it couldn’t escape.
Lin Hangzhi looked down and was startled to see an octopus covered with eyes and suckers full of barbs. He hurried back to Dong Linhai. Soon, the deck was full of octopuses. They occupied the railings and bulkheads, attracted by the fresh breath of living people and wanting to hunt these rash human intruders.
The sudden noise outside work Dong Zheng. He got down from his hammock and had just opened the door in a hurry when Wang Que shouted from outside, “Something happened! A great many things in the sea are coming up!”
Cui Zuojing sat up. Just then, he saw a soft figure suddenly appear on the round porthole. It stuck tightly to the glass, its eight tentacles writhing as it climbed upward. Cui Zuojing clearly saw the barbs on the peristaltic sucker and the line of mucus it left behind.
He hurriedly put on his jacket, picked up the Tang sword and joined Dong Zheng outside. Except for Victor, who was in the cockpit, everyone hurried outside. Xia Qiongyun began to help drive out the octopuses that wanted to enter the cabin.
Cui Zuojing cursed. There were too many mutated octopuses, almost overwhelming the entire deck, and more and more kept climbing up from the sea.
Cui Zuojing swung a knife to split an octopus’s head and tentacles in two. The soft head fell on the deck and bounced feebly. Blue blood flowed out. The octopus had lost half of its head but it remained upright. It grabbed the door frame and quickly slipped into the cabin. Forty percent of neurons were concentrated in the brain, and these creatures had more than 60% of nerves all over their body, making their body structure quite different from humans. Each of their tentacles almost had independent consciousness. Xia Qiongyun had to take a step forward and nail it in place with a dagger.
But the tentacles were still constantly swinging, trying to entangle the dagger and put it out to save itself.
“Can’t we kill these things?” Dong Linhai was shocked.
Wang Que sensed the message coming from the sea, and her face paled. “There are so many in the sea! We need to get out of here quickly!”
“The propellers are stuck!” Victor exclaimed, poking his head out of the cockpit. “I can’t speed up!”
“I’ll clean it up!” Cui Zuojing said immediately. He took off his jacket and shoes and prepared to enter the water. When the others heard this, they tried to stop him from completing this dangerous action. But before they could speak, Cui Zuojing quickly said, “I’ll suspend time. During this time, you quickly clear out these things from the deck. If anyone gets injured, he needs to go to Uncle immediately for treatment. I suspect that this stuff is highly toxic. Wang Que can help me find the approximate location.”
After Dong Zheng established a communication platform on a conscious level to help Wang Que guide Cui Zuojing, there was nothing else he could do except to say, “Before careful and stay safe.”
“Don’t worry!” Cui Zuojing smiled and playfully pressed his index and middle fingers to his forehead. He took a deep breath and quickly ran across the deck. An octopus wanted to take this opportunity to grab his ankle, but was pierced by a silver arrow and firmly nailed to the deck.
Dong Zheng held a crossbow and aimed it at Cui Zuojing’s feet. The fog and night interfered with his vision, but the sound, smell and air flow outlined another clear picture in his kernel, which clearly predicted all the actions of the creatures on deck. He shot out another two arrows and completely cleared out a path for Cui Zuojing.
Cui Zuojing ran to the side of the boat, climbed onto the railing, and jumped into the sea.