What Are You Waiting For?

Qin Mao burst out laughing.

Like a western diamondback rattlesnake that had spent ages hiding, eating cat food and playing with a cat teaser, he had finally found a chance to bare his fangs.

"Wang, you're too naive. Once an arrow leaves the bow, there's no taking it back. Why would I stop halfway?"

Wang Tai gritted his teeth.

"Then give me back the potion! Or tell me what you want, and I'll trade you for it! That thing's useless to you anyway."

He was overwhelmed with regret. If he had known this would happen, he would have drunk that bottle during the day!

He swore to himself, too.

If he could get the potion back, he would pour it down his throat immediately!

Unfortunately, events were already beyond his control.

Qin Mao shook his head in the shadows. "Not happening."

"Fuck! You're already a transcendent. What do you need that thing for? Especially a defective one!"

"You want to awaken two sequences? Impossible! If a transcendent drinks it, not only will they fail to awaken a second sequence, but the conflicting transcendent characteristics will most likely kill them!"

Afraid Qin Mao did not know, he patiently explained it all again.

"Of course I know all that."

Qin Mao took a step back and leaned against the ship's wall. He pulled out a crumpled cigarette he had swiped from the Captain's Quarters, lit it, and took a drag.

"I already told you, your ship makes me uncomfortable."

"Stupid, cowardly rebels, numb, muddleheaded neutrals, groveling lapdogs... and a cruel leader with an overwhelming need for control."

"A place without the slightest freedom is more torturous than death!"

"Freedom? Hahaha!"

Wang Tai scoffed loudly.

"The apocalypse is here. Staying alive comes first. What does freedom matter? Where is there any freedom on this sea? Even before the apocalypse, how many people were free?"

Qin Mao exhaled a mouthful of smoke and coughed a few times.

He hardly ever smoked, thinking it was bad for his health, so he was not very practiced at it.

"It's precisely because freedom is so hard to come by that I demand it!"

"Fine, I'll give you freedom! Give me back the potion, and I'll let you go!"

Wang Tai spoke viciously.

Qin Mao shot him a contemptuous glance.

"Does a dumbass like you have any credibility? Let me go? Can a raft outrun a sailboat?"

"Qin Mao! You've gone too far! I'm trying to discuss this with you nicely, and you keep insulting me! I, Wang Tai, consider myself a good leader, and I even saved your life. Is this how you repay me? Kids born in the 2010s really don't have a shred of decency or gratitude!"

Qin Mao remained completely unmoved by this obvious provocation.

"It was just an exchange of value. Why bring feelings into it? You saved me, and I saved you. I even helped repair your ship."

"As for calling yourself a good leader? I wouldn't be so sure!"

"Would a good leader let factions aboard his ship fight each other to the death? Would a good leader forbid anyone from leaving the fleet while deliberately presenting himself as a brutal man to force people to flee? More like you're steering the conflicts so you can slowly turn the crew into your ammunition!"

With Qin Mao laying the truth bare, Wang Tai's face flushed red, then turned pale.

"So there really isn't any room left to negotiate?"

"There might have been."

Qin Mao blew another smoke ring.

"But the moment you decided to live and die with this ship, that room disappeared."

Wang Tai froze.

He had not expected Qin Mao to discover it despite how discreet he had been.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

His face darkened like the bottom of a pot, and he glanced at Zhang Qing behind him.

"Zhang Qing, go outside for now."

He could never admit to this. Even if he survived this crisis, admitting it would cause a riot aboard the ship.

Qin Mao chuckled and rubbed his nose.

"Nobody had entered the ammunition magazine for ages. There should have been a visible layer of dust by now, but when you took me there today, there were obvious signs that things had been moved."

"And several tightly sealed wooden crates suddenly appeared at the bottom of the hold. Considering your personality and character, is it really that hard to guess?"

"You made your plans fourteen days ago, didn't you? Either drink the potion tomorrow, awaken, and set sail again, or fail and blow up the ammunition magazine, dragging everyone down to hell with you!"

"Oh, Wang, what a Wang Mengde you are! Better for you to betray the whole world than let the world betray you!"

With so many people aboard the Hope, no secret could stay hidden forever.

After a few people learned the truth, it turned into the fleet's curse of certain death in fourteen days.

But this could not be made public.

Even if it were, most of his loyal followers would still support Wang Tai.

They believed-or perhaps were gambling-that Wang Tai could drink that bottle of contaminated potion and become a transcendent with absolute certainty!

At this moment, Wang Tai's expression was so dark it could have dripped water.

"Qin Mao, we've only known each other for six days, but you understand me better than anyone!"

"Why couldn't you just play dumb? Couldn't we have gotten along peacefully? You just had to fight and make trouble, until now one of us has to die!"

"Do you know how precious a Shipwright is at sea? Do you know how much it pains me to lose one?!"

He grew more agitated as he spoke, until he was practically roaring.

Then he abruptly drew [Just Verdict] and aimed it at Qin Mao.

"Besides, what makes you think I won't succeed? The Diviner said-I'm certain to succeed tomorrow!"

"Let it all end here... huh?"

Wait, this doesn't feel right!

It looked exactly the same, but it was much lighter!

Cold sweat instantly broke out over Wang Tai.

[Just Verdict] was his greatest source of confidence. Without that gun, he was nothing more than an ordinary man.

A handgun appeared in Qin Mao's hand as if by magic. With his index finger through the trigger guard, he twirled it right in front of Wang Tai.

"It's the apocalypse. How could you fall asleep on deck? And so soundly, too, Wang."

"How... did you do it? Aren't you an [Apocalypse Shipwright]? Can Shipwrights pick locks and make replicas, too? Are you in the Divine Thief Sequence? Dual sequences?!"

Remembering the opened locks on the Captain's Quarters and the hidden compartment, with no signs of forced entry, Wang Tai's eyes widened and his heart sank.

"I made two fake keys, just like this fake gun."

As he spoke, he pulled two wooden keys from his pocket and tossed them onto the floor.

Wang Tai let out a long sigh.

He wanted to slap himself twice.

He should never have flaunted his valuables. Why had he shown this fellow those wondrous items?

He had thought the fellow was "straightforward"!

Even when Zhu Yu tried to kill him, he had retaliated on the spot.

He had played the part of a frank, guileless, carefree man far too well.

It had led Wang Tai to keep thinking he was a straightforward young man who could not hide anything.

That was why he had tried to win him over by sharing secrets, intending to cultivate him into a loyal confidant.

This trick had always worked well on the youngsters at his company. Who knew this one would be an ungrateful bastard who would never become loyal?!

"Qin Mao, bring me the potion. Don't push me."

"You can't use that gun yet. This ship is only so big. If I call people over, you won't escape."

He pulled a remote control from inside his shirt and spoke grimly.

"Otherwise, I'll detonate the bombs right now. If the ship blows up, nobody lives!"

That potion was his hope now.

Without hope, he would rather have everyone die with him.

He had to take it when the sun rose in a little while!

Because taking it at that precise moment was his absolute lucky window!

Unmoved by these words, Qin Mao instead raised his wrist and checked his watch.

"Five twenty-nine. It's about time."

"About time for what?"

"Wang, remember how I said a few days ago that it was too stuffy aboard the ship, and I wanted to cut a hole for ventilation and keep it as a future gunport?"

"I remember. You... don't tell me?!"

Qin Mao checked his wrist again.

"Yep. We've been talking all this time, and I've been waiting for the bomb countdown. What are you waiting for?"

He lightly bumped his back against the ship's wall, and the large wooden panel behind him flew out as easily as if it were made of paper.

Momentum carried his body out of the cabin, and he plunged toward the sea.

The falling panel triggered a mechanism somewhere.

The ropes securing the raft to the Hope slid free, and the large wooden raft Qin Mao had upgraded fell toward the sea at the same time.

After hitting the water, he hid beneath the raft, using both arms and legs to swim desperately farther out and deeper into the sea.

Boom-boom-

Boom-

Behind him, a series of explosions thundered across the sea.

Blasted planks and severed limbs pierced diagonally into the sea like speeding swords, brushing past him and trailing streams of bubbles.

"Goodbye, Zhu Yu!"

"Goodbye, Zhang Qing!"

"Goodbye, Wang Tai!"

"I forgive you!"

"And Uncle Zhang... I've avenged you!"

Waves heaved and strange fish scattered in panic. Qin Mao could not breathe, yet amid this chaotic, bloody, dangerous sea reeking of salt and fish, he caught another scent.

"It's freedom!"