Voting Decides

The yellowed nautical chart was slowly spread across the brown table. The next moment, a dagger slammed into the edge of the chart.

Bang!

The dagger's handle shook violently. In the next instant, a callused, well-jointed hand steadied it, then slowly traced across one island on the chart before pointing to another beside it.

"We're here. We've entered the trade wind zone, so the winds will be favorable for the next few days—we're down a mast, and the hull's somewhat damaged, so we'll be a little slower. But no matter what, we'll reach Perilous Earth Island in four days at most."

As she spoke, Captain Geliide looked up at the other side of the table.

It was morning. The sky was clear, the breeze gentle, and the azure sea was as calm as a mirror, nearly blending into the equally blue sky at the horizon.

Though the distant scenery was bright and beautiful, the large group of unkempt pirates nearby, with their varied expressions, cast a gloomy gray tint over the radiant scene.

The gunner, the old man, and the priest stood at the front of the pirates. Along with several other veteran pirate sailors, they stood across the table from the captain and Xia Lun.

Warm golden sunlight filtered through the clouds from behind the crowd, and shadows like a tide washed over Xia Lun and the captain's faces.

"In four more days, this stupid operation will finally be over. Wonderful."

The gunner whistled and raised his brows at Xia Lun.

"So, prisoner who can speak monster, what exactly did the monster say yesterday? Let me guess, it didn't just go 'hiss hiss hiss,' did it?"

Xia Lun ignored the provocation. He turned to glance at his ally, the captain, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod.

It was time for the next step of the plan.

Xia Lun's gaze slowly swept over the crowd before he said, "Perilous Earth Island. The monster said it wants to go to Perilous Earth Island."

Unlike yesterday's quiet murmuring, his voice was especially loud today. It rang clearly across the deck.

The old man and the priest both looked grim. Xia Lun could not read any inclination from their expressionless faces, while the gunner still wore his flippant, mocking grin.

"Heh, so we and the monster happen to be headed the same way." The gunner squinted and smiled. "Scarlet Lantern Island has a saying: 'A shark headed your way is a friend.' Maybe we really can make friends with the monster."

Xia Lun shot the gunner a glance, then continued, "Besides that, the monster demanded two fresh corpses every day—it attacked us yesterday to obtain... human flesh."

A cloud covered the sun, and the light seemed to dim slightly. Restlessness seeped through the crowd like a summer breeze.

Xia Lun noticed the old man uneasily lick his lips.

"So, if we obey the monster's wishes, it'll feast freely on Perilous Earth Island?" Captain Geliide deliberately put on a shocked expression and gravely played along.

"That's right." Xia Lun shifted his gaze to the increasingly restless crowd. "It demands two fresh corpses a day, but that's only its minimum intake. If we let it eat its fill, no one knows how many it could—"

"That's a good thing." The gunner immediately cut him off. "Those lords on Perilous Earth Island are stuck-up snobs. It's about time those cowards who don't dare wrestle with the sea learned a lesson. Letting them taste the monster's power will raise our standing."

Before Xia Lun could speak, the one-eyed old man suddenly clenched his fist and glared viciously at the gunner.

The gunner's words caught in his throat when he saw the old man's glare.

There was an opportunity to drive them apart. Xia Lun's heart stirred.

"Say whatever you want. Don't be afraid." He smiled as he stoked the flames. "The most important issue now is what to do about the monster. Everything else can wait."

The gunner hesitated and said nothing.

"There won't be many chances for public statements like this." Xia Lun looked up at the crowd. "If anyone has something to say, now's the time."

The gunner took a deep breath, turned around, and faced the crowd.

"Everyone, our first priority is staying alive and making a fortune. Don't flatter yourselves and play hero. That's not what a bunch of rotten pirates like us should be thinking about." The gunner's voice trembled.

Xia Lun glanced at the crowd from the corner of his eye.

A few pirates nodded slightly, but more of them instinctively looked away.

The old man's expression at the edge of the table did not change at all, but his tightly clenched fist had turned his nails white. As for the priest, his eyes had gone cold.

The gunner continued his speech without pause. "So I think there's nothing wrong with cooperating with the monster. It's no different from us. It eats flesh, we take money, but we all kill people just to survive."

"Everyone, morally speaking, there's nothing wrong with that. Self-preservation is the most justified thing in the world!"

"That's right, we all need to survive," a red-haired pirate in the crowd agreed.

Without even raising his head, Xia Lun fanned the flames in the opposite direction. "But the monster needs two fresh corpses every day, and we still have at least four days before we reach Perilous Earth Island. That means we'll have to sacrifice eight people."

"That's still better than risking our lives against the monster." The gunner smiled. "Everyone, isn't that right?"

As the gunner spoke, several Jump-tail Sharks leaped from the distant sea, their splashes glittering gold beneath the sunlight.

Yet the atmosphere on deck grew increasingly oppressive.

Bang! The next moment, the priest suddenly slammed his fist onto the table without warning. The sharp sound startled everyone.

The gunner turned around and glared at the priest in extreme displeasure.

The priest said nothing, only returned the gunner's stare coldly.

"If you've got something to say, say it. Don't slap the table. We don't have many tables left," Xia Lun continued to provoke.

The priest looked furious. Several times he tried to speak, but each time the equally grim-faced old man stopped him.

Xia Lun found it rather regrettable—if the old man had not restrained the priest, then with the gunner's loose tongue, their alliance would have collapsed in a public internal conflict.

By now, even the dullest crewmen had sensed the strange, tense atmosphere among the senior crew members. Some of the smarter ones had vaguely realized that the few remaining senior crew members seemed to have formed an alliance in private, and that the gunner appeared to have betrayed it.

"When does the monster want the corpses?" the captain suddenly asked. She took out her pipe and contentedly drew on it.

"This afternoon." Xia Lun immediately understood her meaning. "There isn't much time, friends. We have at most 120 minutes to make a decision."

The one-eyed old man suddenly turned to Xia Lun and said in a deep voice, "Since you've reached an agreement with the monster, why don't you come up with an idea?"

"I only communicated with it. I did not reach an agreement." Xia Lun leaned forward, both hands braced against the table, his voice clear and loud. "Do you understand the difference?"

The old man froze for a moment, then his hard attitude softened considerably. "Smooth talker—do you have a solution or not? There's no point dragging this out."

"I do have a solution." Xia Lun guided him unhurriedly. "But first, I need the captain's approval."

Captain Geliide smiled and set down her pipe. Then, following their prearranged plan, she said, "Let's follow our tradition—when it comes to something this important, we settle it with a secret ballot."

"We should've voted long ago, so a few brutes wouldn't be controlling everyone and sending us to our deaths over their personal grudges."

The gunner said mockingly.

"If we'd voted earlier, we never would've taken this job. Look at us now: our flagship sank, the capable people died, and we haven't gotten a single coin. Heh, all we got was a shipload of stinking whale oil and a man-eating monster. Wonderful."

Captain Geliide stopped smiling. She narrowed her eyes at the gunner, her gaze as cold as a hunting leopard's.

"The solution I want to propose is also a vote." As Xia Lun spoke, he pulled several yellowed sheets of paper from beneath the table. "To ensure fairness, I need a vote counter. Who is willing to count the votes?"

The priest raised his brows and was just about to speak when the gunner stepped in front of him and said first, "I'll do it."

Xia Lun nodded with a smile. The way he looked at the gunner was like he was watching prey slowly walk into a trap.

"Wait." The old man suddenly stopped them. His one remaining eye fixed on Xia Lun's face, as though he wanted to carve out the thoughts hidden behind that smile. "I suggest we have someone supervise the count as well, to prevent anyone from colluding beforehand."

"Of course." Xia Lun agreed at once. "Then would you supervise the count?"

The old man frowned suspiciously, then nodded.

The sea breeze blew, white clouds drifted by, and the sunlight brightened once more.

Xia Lun picked up a stack of blank paper from the table and displayed the sheets to the crowd against the sun like a magician showing off props.

The noon sun shone through the backs of the papers, making the fine fuzz along their edges clearly visible within the golden glow.

"These papers have no markings. As the captain said, this will be a secret ballot." As he spoke, he handed the paper to the old man. "Please inspect them and make sure there are no stains or anything else."

The old man took the sheets and carefully inspected them one by one. Dozens of seconds later, he nodded. "These papers truly have no markings. But there are twenty-three of us in total. These few sheets aren't nearly enough."

Xia Lun took the paper back from the old man, then pulled out three sheets.

"So, we'll need to tear the paper." As he spoke, he folded several sheets in half three times, then tore them along the creases. "With a vote, every one of us can safely express our thoughts."

With a slight movement of his fingers, he gathered the twenty-four ballots together and tapped them against the table to align their edges.

"If you lack the courage and are willing to sacrifice your friends and the strangers on Perilous Earth Island, letting that monster go to Perilous Earth Island, then draw a checkmark on your ballot."

His tone was solemn as his eyes slowly swept through the crowd.

"But allow me to say a few more words. Even if you choose to obey the monster, that does not mean we'll be safe, because the monster needs to eat people every day—there's a 38.1% chance of that happening. That's nearly a fifty-fifty chance."

"What kind of nonsense is that?" the gunner said impatiently. "What are you babbling about? Do you really think you're some scholar? Hand out the ballots already."

As though he had not heard the gunner's objection, Xia Lun continued, "But if we stand united, there may still be a chance to turn things around. Draw an X if you refuse to become a slave to a man-eating monster. Many people may die that way, but at least we'll hold our own fate in our hands."

He paused, then handed the first ballot to Captain Geliide. "So, friends, let wisdom, courage, and conscience guide our choice."

The next moment, Xia Lun turned and slowly walked toward the crowd. Everyone stared at him with different expressions—nervousness, anticipation, disgust, and more. He took them all in.

"Quit dragging your feet." As the gunner spoke, he walked up to Xia Lun and reached for the stack of ballots.

The instant the other man drew close, Xia Lun's thoughts shifted, and he entered a state of Heightened Focus.

Buzz!

As the humming sound stretched out and faded away, time seemed to sink into a swamp, and the gunner's rough movements instantly slowed.

Xia Lun flicked his wrist, silently positioning the second ballot between the gunner's fingers.

The gunner pinched his fingers together and naturally caught the second ballot. Xia Lun gave it a slight upward push, and the second ballot landed in the gunner's hand.

In that instant, Xia Lun's black pupils contracted slightly. A great many details of the second ballot flashed before his eyes, then were methodically organized in his mind.

The second ballot had been at the upper-left corner of the torn paper, so two of its sides were straight and neat. The two sides torn along the folds, however, were like snowflake fractals, filled with tiny, nearly imperceptible twists and turns. At the finer edges of those tiny turns were faint, trembling fibers.

Time seemed to slow even further, and Xia Lun's pupils shrank again—in that fleeting glance, he directly memorized the direction of every minute tear on the second ballot.

Simply put, he forcibly memorized this ballot through the characteristics of its torn edges.

When the ballots were torn, the tear marks on adjacent ballots from the same sheet corresponded exactly. Since the second ballot happened to be at a corner of the original sheet, remembering it allowed him to deduce the other two ballots with adjoining tear marks.

And because the ballots' order after tearing corresponded strictly to their relative positions, Xia Lun directly gave the third ballot to the old man and the eighth ballot to the priest.

In other words, ballots two, four, and eight were adjacent.

Using the same method, Xia Lun forcibly memorized three more corner ballots, then handed those ballots and their adjacent ballots to crewmen he suspected.

In total, he memorized twelve ballots.

—To be fair, he had originally wanted to memorize every ballot, but human working memory had its limits. By the time he reached the fourth ballot, he abandoned the original plan.

After handing out the last ballot, Xia Lun also left the state of Heightened Focus.

His vision swayed slightly as time's flow abruptly returned to normal. The noisy voices and crashing waves instantly flooded back in.

Xia Lun blinked. The vivid, orderly sense of control from moments ago vanished, and several drops of warm blood slowly flowed from his nostrils.

"Please write down your choice in secret, fold the ballot, and place it in the box." He endured the discomfort as he spoke. "In five minutes, we'll count the votes."

As he spoke, he drew a large X on his ballot, folded it casually, and dropped it into the wooden box.

Time passed quickly. One ballot after another was tossed into the wooden box, gradually filling what had once been empty.

Five minutes passed in an instant. Following procedure, Xia Lun, the old man, and the gunner stood before the ballot box.

"Heh, let's see how many people are in such a hurry to die." The gunner sneered, looking as though victory was already assured. He turned toward the anxious, tense crowd. "So, let's start counting."

Xia Lun lowered his eyelids, his voice as calm as the sea breeze. "Yes. Let's begin."