Over the next few days of sailing, much to Annie's surprise, their Bear-Head No-Name Community's ship never did run into any kindhearted sailors. They could only watch helplessly as their supplies, like water and food, dwindled day by day.
That was because every ship hurried to avoid them as soon as it spotted them in the distance. It didn't matter whether they were ships belonging to participants or "NPCs"; none gave them the slightest chance to approach, intercept them, and state their case!
And since they weren't deliberately chasing anyone, nothing else happened in the end.
However...
Although their ship hadn't gone looking for trouble, sometimes trouble came looking for them!
Like today.
That morning, after Annie and the others had spent several days sailing south from Manila Harbor, they were considering whether to head east toward Manado to scrounge for supplies or south to Makassar to do business. That was when Izayoi, wearing beach shorts with his upper body bare and his skin already tanned dark, was leisurely fishing at the stern with nothing else to do. He was the first to notice something was wrong.
"??"
"Strange!"
"How'd my fishing line snap?"
He'd just felt a tug on his rod and hurried to reel it in, only to find that his bait had somehow vanished completely. Now, only half of his fishing line remained, dangling in the breeze. He scratched his head, then instinctively glanced at the sea behind the ship.
Unfortunately, all he could see in the water behind them were the trail of white bubbles left by their ship and the swirling wake.
"Damn it!"
"Was it a big fish?"
Knowing some big fish had probably swallowed the bait and snapped his line in one quick tug, Izayoi didn't make too much of it. He simply