Dimensional Lifeform

"Tell me."

Victor crouched beside the crewman as the others began discussing it. Almost every gaze was fixed on the crewman.

Seeing that everyone outside had remained safe,

Jiang Xiang slowly emerged with Gwen Stacy and stood at the edge of the crowd.

He was not there to join the commotion. He mainly wanted to listen for any useful information.

Just then, the crewman slowly spoke. "It was Ruth, the sea monster. It appeared."

"Take your time. What does Ruth look like? What powers does it have?" Victor calmed the crewman down while steering his account toward specific details.

"They say it's a giant eyeball with a cross marked in its center. It lives deep in the ocean, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. If a ship happens to pass while it's awake, it takes control of the ship and draws it into a place cut off from the world, where everyone is slowly tortured to death," the crewman stammered in panic.

The legend sounded vaguely familiar to Jiang Xiang.

Now I remember!

Isn't that the Evil Eye Lord from the account of local lore Old Man showed me?

There was also the previous account of Yinshenger.

Does that mean Old Man's ancient books might actually be real?

The haze overhead grew thicker.

The mist parted.

An oval shadow appeared behind the swirling vapor.

At first, it looked like a distant dot.

Slowly, the dot drew closer and closer.

Everyone froze in place as murmurs reached their ears.

The Black crewman stood up. His terrified expression was gone, replaced by a fanatical look, as though he had been bewitched. He fell straight toward the floor without putting out his hands to break his fall, and his head slammed into a protruding gear.

Bang!

Bright red blood spilled out.

Jiang Xiang's expression grew grave.

Gwen Stacy was stunned.

So was everyone else.

Who had ever seen anything so bizarre?

Who knew what had happened?

Jiang Xiang had some idea.

According to the account, the Evil Eye Lord could contaminate and assimilate others.

Anyone it targeted would gradually adapt to its behavior and begin seeing the world as it did. Ordinary people would slowly go insane or die outright.

The shadow drew closer.

With his excellent eyesight, Jiang Xiang could make out its appearance from afar.

It was an enormous eyeball, densely threaded with blood vessels.

A cross-shaped pattern appeared in its pupil.

"Go! Hurry!"

Jiang Xiang wrapped an arm around Gwen Stacy and hurried away from the area.

Rumble!

Behind them, the section of cabins they had just left suddenly shook.

Screams.

Wails.

They rose one after another, and Jiang Xiang and the others felt as though the ship had shifted through space.

Clearly,

the rescue the crewman had told them to wait for would never arrive. Staying in those enclosed cabins meant waiting for death.

Jiang Xiang and the others reached a more open area, their expressions varied as screams and wails echoed in the background.

Waves of belated fear washed over them. If they had kept waiting there, they would probably have been dead by now.

The night soon passed.

Along the way, they tried to find an area with a signal.

But they found nothing. This place seemed cut off from the world.

All they could do was watch the giant eyeball draw closer and closer to the cruise ship.

Few people were still following Jiang Xiang.

Some were too exhausted to keep up, while others had suffered the same fate as the Black crewman...

We can definitely get out.

Everyone who kept moving clung to that thought.

Soon,

they reached the outdoor swimming pool at the very front of the cruise ship's top deck.

Of course, it could no longer hold water. The ship had tipped onto its side, after all.

Once they arrived, the survivors grew even more disappointed, almost despairing.

Every route was blocked.

From the looks of it, there was no way to clear them anytime soon.

"Is there anything else we can do?"

Victor panted heavily.

He could feel his stamina draining unusually fast. Something would definitely go wrong if he stayed much longer.

If even he was in this state, Tony, the man he was protecting, would be worse off.

Tony Stark was already covered in a cold sweat and looked only slightly better than Pepper.

Jiang Xiang said gravely, "Maybe we'll only be safe once we leave the ship?"

"Leave the cruise ship out on the open ocean?"

"Maybe there's a better option."

"That's too dangerous."

Jiang Xiang said indifferently, "That's the only solution I can think of. You're probably running out of strength already. If you stay aboard, something might happen even if you don't move."

Of course, Jiang Xiang had more than one solution.

But unless he had no other choice, he would not reveal his hidden identity.

He would be fine regardless.

So would Gwen Stacy.

As for protecting everyone else?

Jiang Xiang did not consider himself responsible enough to protect a pack of wolves of Wall Street, and Tony Stark was no exception.

If it was convenient, fine. If not, forget it.

Victor chose to trust Jiang Xiang.

"Then where's the lifeboat?"

Jiang Xiang pointed toward a spot.

"There should be one over there."

In the end, only Tony and Pepper's group of four, Gwen Stacy, and the young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses intended to follow Jiang Xiang and try leaving the cruise ship.

The others were genuinely grateful that Jiang Xiang had brought them this far, but trusting them completely was impossible.

They only believed what they could see: the cruise ship had not sunk.

No matter how they considered it, leaving the ship seemed like a sure path to death.

Using the water and the ropes, Jiang Xiang guided a lifeboat large enough to hold twenty people into the sea.

"Get in."

Jiang Xiang glanced at the people around him, then spoke gently to Gwen Stacy.

He did not try to persuade everyone to leave the cruise ship together.

Ultimately, this was only his guess.

Old Man's account of local lore only recorded the Evil Eye Lord's name and general abilities. Jiang Xiang knew nothing about its habits or past behavior.

Tony suddenly shivered, and Pepper sneezed several times.

Gwen Stacy handed over a thick coat she had found.

Tony sniffled a few times and forced himself to hold on. "I'm fine. Give it to Pepper."

Gwen Stacy led the others into the lifeboat, where they put on life jackets.

Jiang Xiang and Victor went to operate the lifeboat.

As an agent, Victor was a professional. Operating a simple lifeboat like this was child's play.

"Mr. Jiang, do you think a rescue team will come?"

Jiang Xiang looked at Victor. "Do you want the truth or a lie?"

"The truth, of course."

"It's doubtful."

Jiang Xiang shook his head. "The sea is far too calm. You must have seen strange incidents while working with us. It's been a day, and we haven't heard a single rescue boat or aircraft."

More precisely,

Jiang Xiang suspected the distress signal had never gone out at all.

The outside world might not know that something had happened to the Tech.

"Those are minor issues. If things are as I suspect... we might be facing the worst-case scenario."

With a somber expression, Jiang Xiang checked this against the scenario in his mind involving Krillin's appearance.

"What scenario?" Victor immediately followed up.

"I suspect this might be a dimensional lifeform."

Jiang Xiang's face darkened, his expression grim.

"A dimensional lifeform?" Victor looked surprised.

[Emotional Value from Victor of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. +0.5]

So little!

Just what I'd expect from a nameless extra.