The culprit

Qin Mao looked grim.

He had searched two or three times, but there was no one aboard.

Not only were there no people, there were no other anomalies either-nothing extra, nothing strange.

"Fuck! Someone nearly wrecked my home while I was away!"

Furious, he walked out of the cabin and back onto the deck, where he saw Zhang Yu leaning against the mainmast, his clothes off, wringing seawater from his sleeves.

"You've got some nerve, getting that close! Aren't you afraid the coconut will eat you?"

Cursing the unknown eerie entity, Qin Mao pulled Zhang Yu far away from the mainmast.

Then he had the fleet stop and borrowed three survivors from the neighboring Rose, offering three bottles of fresh water in exchange for their help clearing the seawater that had flooded the bottom of the cabin.

Soon, the standing water in the cabin was cleared away, and the Eerie Coconut regained its vitality.

But just then, splash-

Another crew member fell into the sea from the Hope.

This time, Qin Mao and the other Transcendents happened to be on deck.

Although they still missed how the man fell overboard, they hurried toward the sound and caught the final, horrifying moment.

The man who had fallen thrashed twice in the sea before a fish over a meter long shot straight up behind him and swallowed him.

With a crunching sound, the fish sank underwater and slowed down, once again following close behind the fleet.

Despite the dim light, the Transcendents could still make out the thing in the sea by the green moonlight.

It was a giant pufferfish with vacant eyes.

"Green eyes, black fins, a dopey mouth, and an overall shape like an oversized pufferfish... could it really be a Chang-Driving Pufferfish...?"

Qin Mao muttered to himself in disbelief.

"You recognize it?" Ye Xuanyin and Yan Qi asked.

So Qin Mao explained this eerie pufferfish's traits to the two of them again.

"But my buddy told me it could only control the corpses of marine creatures! For example, it could control a swordfish, making it leap aboard and spear someone into the sea for it to eat, or control an octopus to crawl onto the deck and fling someone overboard..."

"I've never heard of this thing being able to control humans' minds!"

"Could it be a mutant?"

The four discussed it at length without reaching a conclusion, then returned to their respective ships.

Judging by the Chang-Driving Pufferfish's speed just now, it was clearly faster than the fleet. They would never shake it off by continuing to flee.

Yang Fan simply ordered the fleet to drop anchor and had everyone stay together, conserving their strength while waiting for it to expose an opening.

That way, even if someone was mentally controlled into jumping into the sea to kill themselves, those nearby could restrain them in time.

Time ticked by, and soon dawn came.

Sunlight shone over the sea, its surface calm and still.

"Has it left?" Qin Mao asked Yang Fan.

After observing for a long while, Yang Fan said with some hesitation, "It's gone."

The odds of encountering eerie entities dropped drastically during the day. Perhaps it really had left.

But everyone's worries barely eased. Even during the day, they still came out for air and meals in groups of two or three.

Zhang Yu said he had eaten bread in the cabin, so Qin Mao left him alone.

He boiled some dried noodles for himself, then charged the solar-powered freshwater collector and produced fresh water.

Time passed bit by bit, and soon it was noon.

There was no danger.

Nor did anyone else jump into the sea.

The tension everyone had been under since noon yesterday finally eased.

But as Qin Mao felt his abundant physical energy, his heart sank to rock bottom.

That terrible suspicion in his heart was gradually proving true...

Wait. Wait a little longer...

He quietly reassured himself.

He could not afford the slightest carelessness against something as evil as an eerie entity. He had to remain fully alert and make sure to kill it in a single strike.

Soon, a day passed, and the sky darkened again.

The jade moon hung high.

Splash-

The sound of something heavy falling into the sea rang out again, like a devil's curse.

Fear flashed across the faces of every survivor who heard it, and they trembled all over.

They dreaded being next.

Yang Fan looked at the sea around the fleet and spotted a familiar disturbance amid the faint ripples.

"It just won't leave us alone. Here it comes again..."

The youth shook his head slightly, but this time he no longer panicked. Instead, he was confident, having already devised a way out.

Elsewhere, Qin Mao stood beside the wheel at the stern, his fingers slowly stroking it as an almost imperceptible glint passed through his eyes.

Everything seemed like puzzle pieces, constantly rearranging themselves before his eyes until they finally formed a complete picture.

He walked to the side of the ship and leaned against the railing, extending half his body out over the sea as he looked left and right.

"Mao, what are you looking at?"

Zhang Yu walked over and asked worriedly.

"Why don't you ask Team Leader Yang again and see if he can find a way to shake off that eerie thing?"

"Go find Yang Fan?" Qin Mao nodded thoughtfully. "So you can make another hole in the ship?"

"What?! Mao, what are you saying?"

Zhang Yu backed away two steps with an ugly expression, staring hard at Qin Mao. "You think I made that hole in the ship? You suspect your own brother?"

"Mao, have you lost your mind? What would I gain from that? If the ship sank, I'd die too!"

Qin Mao remained calm.

Watching Zhang Yu's displays of anger, heartbreak, and sincerity, he felt not the slightest ripple in his heart.

He merely waited quietly for him to finish venting before asking evenly, "But what if... you were already dead?"

"Huh?"

Zhang Yu froze, his lips quivering.

He shakily raised a hand and pointed at Qin Mao. "Are you cursing me to die? Have you ever seen a dead man who could talk?"

"Stop acting. Aren't I looking at one right now?"

"If the Chang-Driving Pufferfish can command the corpses of marine creatures, it might well be able to command human corpses too."

"If a swordfish's corpse can leap out of the sea and kill people just as it did when alive, then there's nothing strange about a human corpse under its control retaining self-awareness, is there?"

Zhang Yu lowered his eyelids slightly, then blinked and smiled.

"Quit joking, Mao. That's just your guess. Have you forgotten? Whenever those people jumped into the sea, I was staying quietly aboard your ship. I never had a chance to do anything!"

"Exactly. That's why you managed to hide for so long."

Qin Mao walked toward Zhang Yu step by step, his gaze sharp. "Because you didn't need to do it yourself-after all, you're a Transcendent."

"A self-aware mental-type Transcendent controlled by the Chang-Driving Pufferfish!"

"You came close to me just now because you wanted to push me into the sea, didn't you?"

Bang!

[Just Verdict] let out a deafening roar, and a hole appeared in Zhang Yu's chest. Strangely, no blood flowed out.

"You really could bring yourself to shoot me, Mao."

Zhang Yu looked down at his wound in astonishment, then raised his head in pain and gave a bitter chuckle.

He could no longer maintain the false smile on his face.

He slumped onto the deck, his vitality beginning to drain away.

He stared at Qin Mao for a long while, until he confirmed that Qin Mao remained utterly resolute.

Unmoved by his injuries.

Only then did he rub his face, wiping away that hypocritical smile.

"That's right. Looks like there's no point arguing anymore."

"Ah, believing you're already dead really is a hard thing to accept..."

He smiled again, but this time his smile was utterly sincere.

"An Anomalous Object Vehicle with an inexplicable attraction for 'it,' a Transcendent alone aboard his ship... that beast's desire to devour you was overwhelming, but it never expected you to be such a difficult customer."

With his identity exposed, Zhang Yu actually became less hurried.

He leaned against the foresail, stroked the gaping hole in his chest, and began chatting calmly with Qin Mao.

"How did you find out? Even if I'm dead, my skill shouldn't have failed against a little Sequence 1 fellow."

Qin Mao spun [Just Verdict], idly toying with it.

"Want to hear? You gave yourself away in quite a few places."

"Let's hear it."

Zhang Yu yawned and looked up at the full moon, one arm folded across his chest and his other hand propping up his chin, listening with interest.

As though he were not the one who had just been shot and was now dying for good.