"Route"

It was no exaggeration to say that Duncan clearly heard a crisp crack from somewhere on the sailor's body—apparently, one of the dried corpse's joints had slipped out of place when he shuddered.

Then Anomaly 077's wailing exploded across the aft deck. "Captain! Captain, don't scare me like this! I'm loyal, diligent, hardworking, and honest! If I did something wrong, just tell me and I'll fix it! Don't use this to scare me... You could stuff me into a cannon and fire me out instead..."

The dried corpse's broken-gong voice echoed across the entire aft deck. As he screamed, he desperately dragged himself toward the railing at the edge of the bridge, looking as though he would leap off at any second—indeed, he really did scramble over the railing. But just as he was about to jump, a rope shot out like an arrow, wrapped around his ankle, and dragged him back onto the bridge, looping around him several more times for good measure.

Duncan gave Anomaly 077, who was still struggling to crawl away, an amused look. Then he stepped forward twice and simply stood there, silently watching him.

Anomaly 077's wailing stopped abruptly. He visibly shuddered again, hunched his neck, and froze. After holding it in for a long while, he finally muttered, "If you're bored, just stew me... I can do sit-ups in the pot for you..."

"There isn't a pot that big on this ship," Duncan said casually. Then the smile vanished from his face, and his tone turned serious. "I'm serious—I need to conduct some tests."

Noticing the change in the captain's expression and tone, Anomaly 077 finally realized something. He stared blankly up at Duncan. "...Tests?"

"Release him," Duncan said with a nod. The living ropes immediately unwound themselves from Anomaly 077, rustling as