Nan Yue always slept well during missions, but she was woken up by the sound of knocking.
Beside her, Tan Xiaonan was still tossing and turning in a daze, but Nan Yue had already sat up.
The time was likely around two in the morning.
She didn't open the door immediately, sitting in the darkness to listen for a moment. The knocking was irregular and sounded like the person on the other side lacked patience.
Tan Xiaonan woke up and rubbed her eyes, jumping in fright when she saw Nan Yue sitting there.
"Nan..."
Nan Yue made a silencing gesture, and Tan Xiaonan immediately shut her mouth.
Nan Yue walked to the door, a faint black mist clouding her eyes as she looked through the peephole.
A man stood outside. His hair and beard were long, and his face was weathered, making him look like a vagrant.
But Nan Yue recognized him.
It was Joseph.
Nan Yue opened the door. Joseph stared straight at her before looking past her at Tan Xiaonan inside.
He made a gesture and then turned to walk away.
Nan Yue narrowed her eyes and beckoned to Tan Xiaonan.
"Follow me."
"We're going fishing."
Nan Yue and Tan Xiaonan followed Joseph to the deck. Only the three of them were there, suggesting that this adventure was split up.
It was highly likely that roommates were sent on these missions together.
Nan Yue thought of Wen Xiang Yuan, whose roommate had died during the first adventure mission.
She felt a flicker of concern.
However, now was not the time for distractions. Nan Yue used every second to scan the deck.
Everything looked normal, except for one harpoon gun on the port side that had been untied.
The massive black iron spearhead pointed toward the dark sea. The trigger looked like it would require immense strength to pull.
Not to mention, reloading such a spearhead would be incredibly difficult, likely requiring two or three people working together.
The lights in the cabins had been extinguished. Just like the night before, only a single oil lamp hung at the bow.
Joseph's face flickered in and out of the shadows under the light of the oil lamp.
He paid no attention to the two explorers behind him. He simply stood quietly by the harpoon gun, his eyes fixed intently on the pitch-black sea.
"Mr. Joseph, what do we need to do to help you?"
Joseph remained motionless, as if he hadn't heard Tan Xiaonan's courageous attempt to speak.
Nan Yue stepped forward and patted his shoulder, and he turned his head.
"Can we untie a few more harpoon guns?"
Nan Yue gave a sweet smile. "In case a truly precious fish appears, I don't want to miss it because of the reload time."
It was unclear if Joseph understood, but after a moment of silence, he tossed Nan Yue a rusty dagger.
Nan Yue cut the ropes of another harpoon gun and then looked at Tan Xiaonan.
"Try it. Can you operate this?"
Simply turning the harpoon gun required significant strength. If Tan Xiaonan lacked the ability to control it, she shouldn't touch it.
If someone were hit by this spear, they would likely be ripped in half.
Even ten Jiang Siyans wouldn't be able to stitch them back together.
Tan Xiaonan's face turned red as she tried to move it. She could turn it, but it was difficult.
The harpoon gun was also somewhat rusty, and even with a good aim, the swaying of the ship might throw it off.
In short, Tan Xiaonan wasn't confident in controlling the direction of the spearhead.
Nan Yue handed the dagger back to Tan Xiaonan. "Then stay close to me. When I need your help, cut the ropes."
Tan Xiaonan gripped the dagger and nodded seriously.
The cruise ship tossed in the darkness. The waves seemed to be getting larger, making them stumble and forcing them to use a great deal of strength just to stand firm.
Nan Yue smelled a faint scent of blood.
It was coming from the deck. It was very faint, and she only just noticed it now.
It must have been from the scavengers who fished here before...
Joseph was like a stone statue, standing motionless by the harpoon gun. Nan Yue believed he must be an excellent crew member.
To people like him, the waves were as familiar as family.
Suddenly, Joseph's eyes widened, and an excited expression appeared on his face.
He threw himself onto the harpoon gun, swinging the spearhead to point directly beneath the ship into the bottomless ocean.
Nan Yue turned her harpoon gun at almost the same moment he moved.
A bolt of lightning flashed, splitting the sky into two silvery-white halves. In that fleeting light, Nan Yue seemed to see something beneath the sea.
It was something darker than the pitch-black water, coiled beneath the ship.
Nan Yue's only impression was that it was massive.
Over ten seconds later, the roar of thunder finally echoed, and a torrential downpour instantly made the three of them drenched like a drowned rat.
The cruise ship was like a small boat in a storm, nearly tossed into the air by the waves.
Nan Yue and Tan Xiaonan clung to the harpoon gun, barely managing to stand steady. Nan Yue shouted through the wind and rain.
"The rope! Give me the rope!"
Tan Xiaonan bit down on the blade of the dagger, picked up the rope at her feet, and handed it to Nan Yue.
Nan Yue tied the rope securely to the harpoon gun and the railing. She then wrapped it around her waist several times before finally tying Tan Xiaonan up as well.
Nan Yue tied it very tightly, making Tan Xiaonan feel like she might faint, but she didn't make a sound. She even hoped Nan Yue would tie it tighter.
She didn't want to fall into the sea.
"In a moment, no matter what appears, follow my lead."
"Do not! Absolutely do not run around!"
Tan Xiaonan saw that Nan Yue's face was pale from the tossing of the ship. She gripped the dagger and nodded.
She needed to run across the deck to cut the ropes for the harpoon guns Nan Yue needed. It was a dangerous job, but compared to hunting the fish, she felt it was very simple.
Nan Yue really was a living saint.
Whoosh!
The spearhead tore through the air with a sharp whistle, instantly plunging into the ocean.
The sound of the storm was too loud for Nan Yue to hear if the harpoon gun had hit the massive thing beneath the ship.
But she immediately smelled a foul stench that exploded in the air.
It was a hit!
The smell was unbearable, fishy and rotten, like the stench of countless dead fish and shrimp that had been baking in the sun for days.
Tan Xiaonan even gagged a few times.
But in the next moment, Nan Yue knew things were going south because, through the sound of the storm, she heard a noise.
Squelching.
It sounded like the crawling of some soft-bodied creature.
Nan Yue gritted her teeth and turned the harpoon gun, scanning the darkness while Joseph raced against time to reload his spearhead.
They weren't far apart, and Tan Xiaonan went over to help him.
The storm drowned out all other sounds. Nan Yue's concentration was at its peak; she almost felt as if she were the only person left in the world.
Her gaze merged with the spearhead as she searched inch by inch through the darkness.
Then, she locked eyes with a blood-red eye.
Before she could even see what the creature was, her harpoon gun had already fired. It slammed into the eye, erupting into a cloud of foul-smelling blood.
A massive roar echoed through the sky. Nan Yue didn't know what kind of creature could make such a sound—a sound that made one tremble and feel the urge to end their own life just by hearing it.
Rate on N.U.
