Unexpected Incident and Coincidence

With a deafening bang, the ugly, shriveled "mummy" shot up from the deck and slammed like a cannonball into a pile of junk nearby.

The sailors on deck jumped at the tremendous commotion. Lawrence, who had been watching from nearby, instantly leaped down from the platform and rushed toward where the "sailor" had landed with a group of men. Amid the scattered debris, the shriveled corpse in a sailor's smock was struggling laboriously. It took him quite a while to pull his head out of a smashed crate. Seeing the sailors gathering around him, he shook his head groggily. "I... I saw..."

"What did you see?" First Mate Gus asked as he hauled the mummy out with all his strength.

"I saw my great-grandma..."

The first mate kicked the mummy right back in. "The hell kind of great-grandma would an Anomaly have?!"

Lawrence immediately concluded that Anomaly 077 was perfectly fine, then turned and walked toward the "man overboard" who had just been hauled aboard.

An elf dressed in southern-style clothing sat half-reclined on the deck, leaning against a winch used for hauling cargo. His expression was vacant and confused. He was soaked through and bedraggled, but seemed to have no obvious injuries.

But when Lawrence approached, the elf's reaction was clearly abnormal. He merely turned his head slightly and sluggishly, as if he had yet to fully wake up. His vacant gaze swept over the surroundings before slowly turning away again.

Ted Riel was still lost in a dazed stupor, with no idea where he was.

Ever since instinctively knocking that ugly, shriveled mummy flying, he had remained in this state. It was as though a massive lump of sticky, chaotic paste had been stuffed into his head. Strange noise echoed incessantly in the depths of his mind, while