In the blood-supplying branch vessel that had just been electrified, the flow had not yet stabilized when a [Crimson Boat] was yanked off course by the suddenly strengthened current.
The dark-red hull scraped along the vessel wall for more than ten kilometers. The bony railings outside clattered all the way, the two steering fins at the stern snapped on the spot, and the transport players packed inside were thrown into a heap.
"Left! Turn left!"
"Turn my ass! The left fin already flew off!"
The bow smashed through a leftover clot of congealed blood and finally got wedged at a bend in the vessel. The moment the hatch opened, more than a dozen transport players crawled out, swearing under their breaths.
The leader glanced down at the wrecked outer frame, his face twitching in pain.
"This run was hauling bone armor from Molten City. I've made four round trips without a problem. You just cleared the blood vessel, and the first thing you did was scrape up my boat?"
The surrounding players immediately burst into laughter.
The Crimson Boat's dark-red skin was covered in scratches, and its outer frame had been patched more times than anyone could count. Several layers of transport team markings were stacked along one side of the hull, with the lowest layer already too faded to make out.
The [Crimson Boat] had been in service since the early days of the game and had long become the players' most common form of long-distance transportation. Wherever major blood vessels were navigable, transport teams used them every day to haul people, equipment, and [Biological Beacons]. This particular boat had originally been hauling cargo through an intact nearby vessel, only to be dragged into this branch by the newly restored blood flow.
[Data Maniac] did not look at the