Lu Ao put his things away and went to the dining deck for breakfast.
It was already past ten in the morning. The ship had only just set sail, and the chef had not had time to cook yet.
Knowing his way around, Lu Ao bribed one of the chefs with a pack of good cigarettes to make him a huge pot of egg noodles.
Everyone aboard smoked. Without cigarettes, they could not endure such dreary, tedious days of sailing at sea.
Lu Ao ate in the dining hall. Bored out of his mind, the chef smoked as he chatted with him. "You're a researcher, right?"
"No."
"Then are you maintenance staff?"
"No."
"An office worker?"
"No, I'm a diver." Lu Ao finished nearly half a basin of noodles in one go and asked, "Did you set out from West Bay City?"
"Yeah. We'd been drifting at sea for more than ten days. We only docked the day before yesterday, and today we were heading back out." The chef looked at him. "You really were a diver? Why was your skin so fair?"
"I was born this way." Lu Ao said, "What exactly was this research vessel here to investigate?"
"I don't know." The chef complained, "Those R Country and U Country people were all secretive about it. They wouldn't tell us anything."
"How long did it take you to get here from West Bay City? More than ten days?"
"About that long. We hadn't really done much research along the way. They only recruited people aboard after reaching your area. I heard they were planning to investigate somewhere nearby."
Lu Ao was puzzled. "What was there to investigate around here?"
"We're just rough laborers. Even if we heard about it, we wouldn't be able to make heads or tails