Escape at sea

Yang Fan came out of the Captain's Quarters and interrupted the rescue operation.

"Captain Yang, Wang Lao'er just fell into the sea..."

"I know. Everyone-stay out of the water. Go back into the cabins and keep moving!"

"Yes!"

Yang Fan leaned his slight frame against the mast and turned to look at the sea behind them.

The Navigator Sequence gave him an unusually keen sense for judging the sea.

Through the almost imperceptible ripples in the currents, he could feel that the "thing" was still there.

Somewhere beneath the surface.

It was sticking close behind the Hope Fleet!

It intended to pick off the humans aboard, who had nowhere to retreat, one by one.

"But how is it making people fall into the sea? Singing? Fantasies?" Yang Fan worked through it step by step.

Meanwhile, Qin Mao was also thinking as he steered.

Someone had suddenly fallen off a ship. Most likely, an eerie creature had beguiled him.

But just like the Sound Charm before, eerie creatures needed a medium to beguile people. Most misled humans through their five senses.

Singing, for instance, or illusions.

Yet when these three people had thrown themselves into the sea, no one had noticed any other signs.

"Could it be mind control?"

Qin Mao recalled Su Miaomiao's mind-control skill on him.

But he had heard Wang Tai say that powerful eerie creatures capable of inducing suicide through mental power alone were rare even in the Blood Moon Sea, and almost impossible to find in the Azure Moon Sea.

"Good thing I have mental resistance."

Keeping an eye on his surroundings, he casually took out [Just Verdict], slipped his index finger through the trigger guard, and spun the gun to pass the time.

"I have to say, this toy gun is a pretty convincing replica! Too bad it doesn't even have a trigger. It's only good as a stress toy."

"If only this were a real Anomalous Object!"

He shook his head and put the gun back in his pocket, bored with it.

Splash-

Splash-

In the middle of the night, two more people threw themselves into the sea.

One was a child aboard the Yaximu, the other a man aboard the Rose.

"Xuanxuan, Xuanxuan..."

It was the child in the black shirt.

The woman's heart-wrenching sobs made the night wind feel colder, but the crowd soon pulled her back into the cabin.

Crying at night might attract eerie creatures, so in the apocalypse, people did not even have the right to cry.

"Brother Octopus, take the helm. I'm going over there to have a look!"

The three ships were right beside one another.

Qin Mao nimbly leaped aboard the Yaximu. The other three Transcendents had all gathered there, their expressions grave.

"Captain Yang, any clues?"

Yang Fan stood at the bow and shook his head. "Not many."

"According to the other witnesses, everyone who fell into the water went out with a companion before they died, and then never came back."

"How is that not a clue?" Qin Mao countered. "Wouldn't whoever went out with them be the prime suspect?"

"At the very least, they should have seen something, right?"

"That's precisely the problem," Ye Xuanyin said, pursing her lips.

"All the witnesses only remember that the people who fell into the water went out with companions, but none of them can remember who those 'companions' were."

"And none of the survivors have admitted to it."

"Now that's strange." Qin Mao rubbed his nose, feeling an eerie chill sweep through his bones.

"What did the victims have in common?"

"We haven't found anything yet. There were men and women, young and old, across all three ships. What they did before they died differed too. Some had just eaten, some went to get water, and some went to the toilet."

Yang Fan lifted his young face and shook his head.

Qin Mao felt a headache coming on.

He was not worried about the others so much as afraid that, if they did not figure out the problem soon, his turn would come as the deaths continued.

Eerie creatures did not go through so many twists and turns to kill people. Even some rule-based eerie creatures had very obvious traits.

"Actually... there really is one exception," Yan Qi suddenly broke the silence.

"Who?"

"The little boy who jumped into the sea from our ship was called Xuanxuan. A crew member saw him go out with his older brother."

"He fell into the sea, but his brother came back. The child was badly frightened, though, and couldn't answer any questions."

Xuanxuan... Qin Mao found the name familiar and soon remembered.

The red scarf and the black shirt.

Red Scarf seemed to be the older brother, named Lele. Black Shirt was the younger brother, named Xuanxuan.

"Little Yezi, use the Book of Answers to question that little boy. I'll have the fleet speed up and see if we can shake off this eerie creature."

"All right!"

Soon, the Hope Fleet began picking up speed.

The four vessels, three large and one small, sailed downwind with their sails full, pushing their speed to the limit.

Everyone was worried.

They silently prayed that they could shake off the eerie creature behind them.

Qin Mao sent Zhang Yu back into the cabin to hide while he managed the sails and helm himself. With the help of the Thousand-Year Eerie Coconut Tree Root, he barely kept pace alongside the fleet.

This Anomalous Object Vehicle still wasn't fast enough...

Over the dark-green sea, the fleet shot forward like an arrow, sailing at full speed for three whole hours.

He glanced at his watch. It was now 11:48 p.m.

Qin Mao stretched, feeling the abundant Transcendent Power within him, and a terrifying suspicion began to stir in his mind...

"How's it looking, Captain Yang? Did we lose it?"

He shook out his tired arms, drained a large bottle of boiled water that had cooled after being stored during the day, and jumped aboard Hope.

Yang Fan looked through his binoculars at the sea behind them, his expression grim.

"It's still there."

"Uncle Zhang, we can't shake it. Have the fleet slow down for now."

"All right."

Soon, the Hope Fleet stopped moving.

"Damn it! What kind of eerie creature is this persistent?"

If only Wang Tai's sailing journal were here...

It most likely contained a record of this eerie creature's traits.

"This thing is so persistent. It's as much trouble as a Chang-Driving Pufferfish!"

Qin Mao leaned against the ship's rail and sighed.

"What's a Chang-Driving Pufferfish?" While thinking of a way out, Yang Fan found a moment to ask out of curiosity.

"Oh, it's a kind of eerie creature I heard about from a sworn brother of mine."

Qin Mao licked his lips and explained.

"It's a pufferfish-shaped eerie creature that lives in the sea. It doesn't have much fighting ability itself, but it turns the corpses of other sea creatures into servants and has them attack humans from the sea-tuna, octopuses, and so on. It waits behind the ship for a ready-made meal.

"It's a bit like the legendary tigers that make the ghosts of their victims hunt food for them."

"But Chang-Driving Pufferfish are easy to figure out. You just kill the fish they're controlling. After that, they either leave or attack the ship themselves. Then all you need to watch out for is their self-destruction..."

Before Qin Mao could finish, something suddenly lurched in the lower-left corner of his vision.

In his field of view, the Ten-Thousand-Li Divine Radiance rocked violently several times, like a little rubber duck bobbing unsteadily in a bathtub.

Then it listed slightly to the right, its mast swaying from side to side, looking ready to sink at any moment.

"Oh no! My ship!"

Qin Mao's expression changed drastically. He had no idea what had happened to his ship in those few short minutes.

He quickly jumped from Hope onto the Rose, then used the Rose as a stepping stone to get back aboard his own ship.

The Eerie Coconut.

The deck was calm, but the mainmast swayed. Qin Mao judged that the problem must be inside the hold.

He made his way down to the third level of the hold and saw Zhang Yu frantically trying to plug a leak.

A gash about a meter long had abruptly appeared in the bottom of the hold, and seawater was pouring in furiously.

Zhang Yu shouted anxiously.

"Mao, I saw a black figure sneaking around earlier. I chased it here, but it disappeared, and the ship sprang a leak too..."

"All right, got it! Go up first!"

Zhang Yu froze for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Don't you need my help?"

"No. Hurry up and go. I can fix it myself!"

The system could not be seen by anyone.

"All right! Be careful!"

Without hesitating, Zhang Yu braced himself against the wall and staggered up onto the deck.

Qin Mao immediately pressed his hand against the hull and called up the system.

"System, repair!"

The breach was not large. Ten seconds later, the bottom of the hold was more or less repaired.

Though the workmanship was a little rough, at least water was no longer coming in.

But his remaining three hundred-odd Kill Points had been completely used up.

[Kill Points balance: 0]

Qin Mao wiped his face. He was drenched, his clothes thoroughly soaked with seawater.

"Get out here! You sneaky bastard, who punched a hole in my damn ship?!"

Fuming, he began searching the ship for the culprit.