Cable Blood Leech

The sun gradually rose higher. With no shelter on the open sea, the heat was unbearable.

After most of the day, the crude seawater collection device Qin Mao had upgraded had yielded only half a bowl of fresh water.

It was nowhere near enough to quench his thirst.

So he tried upgrading seawater instead.

It turned out that one liter of fresh water cost him a staggering 150 Kill Points.

Gritting his teeth, Qin Mao upgraded one liter, leaving him with only 1,650 Kill Points.

He looked around, hoping to find a small island.

There would most likely be eerie creatures on an island. Perhaps he could gather something to eat before they discovered him.

Unfortunately, the vast sea was nothing but water. There was nothing else in sight, not even a bird.

Enduring the intense pain in his left shoulder, he adjusted the sail and steered with his right hand, choosing a direction and sailing onward.

The exertion pulled at his whole body, tearing the wound on his left shoulder open again. Blood seeped out.

"Food... food..."

Qin Mao muttered to himself.

He had spent three months fleeing Bashu to reach the sea, then barely managed to escape from the belly of the Eight-Eyed Ice Weird Spider.

He had also escaped the massive explosion of Wang Tai's ship, obtained a wondrous item, and acquired a vessel of his own...

If he now starved to death in an ironic twist, he would truly be speechless.

Time slipped by, and Qin Mao's heart sank little by little.

He could not find an island.

Finding an island on this boundless sea seemed to be a matter of luck.

Zhu Yu had told him that sometimes they encountered two islands in a day, while at other times they went half a month without finding a single one.

When there were no islands, those aboard could only tighten their belts and endure their hunger.

Of course, finding an island did not necessarily mean finding food.

Some islands were barren, with nothing to eat. Others harbored vigilant eerie creatures they could not fight.

Most of the time, survivors could only go hungry.

The sun slowly sank below the horizon.

The Eerie Coconut was still drifting at sea.

The Jade Moon once again cast green light over the water.

Qin Mao watched the minute hand on his watch circle around and around, from six to eight, then ten, then midnight.

It was late at night.

His stomach growled with hunger.

That night, Qin Mao lay slumped over the workbench in the Captain's Quarters, drifting into sleep.

He never noticed that something had silently crawled aboard the Eerie Coconut.

As he slept, he felt an itch beside his ear as something brushed against him.

Opening his eyes slightly, he saw the end of a cable in the moonlight.

"Annoying rope."

He muttered, rolled onto his side, and went back to sleep.

The cable swayed through the air and accidentally brushed his neck again.

There was a faint sting, then nothing.

Qin Mao was deep in sleep, but alarm stirred in his subconscious.

Wait, I'm in the Captain's Quarters. Why would there be a cable in here?!

The instant that thought surfaced, he jolted awake.

He rubbed his eyes hard, then turned and stared upward with wide eyes.

A thick, greasy black cable hung from the ceiling, its head resting on his shoulder as its body writhed.

Blood flowed uncontrollably from his body through his shoulder and into the cable.

Horrified, Qin Mao grabbed the cable with his right hand and pulled it away.

His first tug did not budge it!

Only when he gritted his teeth and yanked with all his strength did he pull the cable off his shoulder.

A ring of tiny, closely spaced holes had appeared on his shoulder, with a little blood trickling out.

He took a closer look at the cable.

It was a little over a meter long, with a mouthpart at its bottom end, densely packed with sharp teeth like a rasp.

"Damn it, how did I not feel anything? It didn't hurt at all!"

Angry at having its meal interrupted, the cable hissed and thrashed violently.

Qin Mao's first instinct was to run.

Then he immediately remembered that he had already awakened as a Sequence Transcendent. There was no need to run!

With no melee weapon nearby, he grabbed the claw hammer he had carried with him earlier and brought it down on the cable.

It remained completely unharmed.

Ordinary human weapons could not harm eerie creatures!

It looked like he needed to upgrade a melee weapon as soon as possible.

The cable monster twisted back and forth, struggling desperately to escape the human's large hand.

It did not understand. Similar creatures it had encountered before had all been silently drained into dried corpses in their sleep.

Even when discovered, their meager strength had never been enough to hold its body.

Why was this time different?

Seeing that the hammer was useless, and with [Just Verdict] yet to recognize him as its master, Qin Mao opened the cabin door and rushed out of the Captain's Quarters onto the spacious deck.

He pinned the cable's tail to the deck with one foot, gripped its head with his right hand, and pulled hard!

Crack-

Crack-

Bang-

All three sounds rang out at once.

After becoming a Transcendent, not only had his strength increased dramatically, but every movement carried an indescribable, mysterious power that allowed him to touch and harm these eerie creatures.

The cable in his hand split into two with a bang before it could even scream.

Blood splattered across the deck, and a thick, bloody smell filled the air.

[Ding-you killed a Cable Blood Leech and gained 333 Kill Points]

Smelling the blood, the Thousand-Faced Eerie Coconut cawed loudly, "Caw, caw, caw... blood... eat..."

At the same time, two more cables lunged onto Qin Mao, one coiling around his ankle and the other around his right hand.

The two cables had a clear objective and did nothing unnecessary.

Once they bound their target's limbs, they focused solely on sucking furiously.

"Fighting dirty!"

Feeling his blood rapidly draining away, Qin Mao panicked.

Sequence 1 [Lone Walker] had given him only physical enhancements and passive abilities, with no active means of attacking and dealing damage.

Gritting his teeth, he quickly scanned his surroundings and saw no more cables.

Then he tried to wrench his hand and feet free of the tightly wrapped cables.

They were wrapped too tightly, firmly locking his wrist and ankle joints.

With one arm out of commission, he had expected this to be difficult.

But to his surprise, the moment the thought arose, his wrist and legs twisted sideways at strange angles, instantly slipping free of the cables.

[Ability 3: Escape Restraints]: You can always escape physical restraints. Handcuffs, ropes, shackles, and the like... have no effect on you!

The two cables, which had been desperately writhing as they coiled around and restrained their prey, briefly froze.

They had never expected him to slip free so easily when they were wrapped so tightly. They practically questioned their entire eerie existence, and even their bloodsucking visibly paused.

Immediately, their bodies loosened, then twisted forward to coil around him again.

But Qin Mao had already gained a moment to breathe.

He grabbed the cable on his foot and pulled it off, then repeated his earlier method and forcibly tore it in two.

Then came the other one.

Bang... bang!

Looking at the three cables lying completely dead on the deck, Qin Mao panted heavily.

Although he had lost quite a bit of blood and was weak,

the satisfaction of tearing an eerie creature apart with a single pull, along with the 1,000 Kill Points he had gained, still thrilled him.

He could somewhat understand the appeal of those extraordinary heroes tearing Japanese invaders apart with their bare hands in over-the-top anti-Japanese war dramas.

"Being a Transcendent... is pretty good!"

Had he been an ordinary person, he would have faced certain death against even one cable, let alone three.

Most eerie creatures could not even be touched by ordinary people, who would pass right through them like shadows.

Yet those eerie creatures could hurt humans!

The few remaining eerie creatures ordinary people could touch were all difficult opponents, with strength vastly beyond that of ordinary humans.

He stepped forward, picked up half a blood-dripping cable, and examined it closely.

[Wondrous item material]: Cable Blood Leech remains

[Description]: Remains left behind after a Cable Blood Leech's death. Possesses bloodsucking properties and intermediate toughness. Can be used to craft basic wondrous items.

Cable Blood Leech... basic... judging by this description, it doesn't seem particularly powerful. It seems more like a low-level minion among eerie creatures.

After collecting all six pieces of the remains, he carefully inspected the ship again, especially the sail and cables.

Only after confirming that no Cable Blood Leeches remained hidden did he sit cross-legged on the deck.

He reviewed the lessons and shortcomings of this ambush.

As he thought, a loud horn suddenly sounded in the distance.

Something was approaching through the green night.

As it drew closer, its outline seemed to be that of a large ship.

Then came a second, a third...