Chapter 2 The Monster

"Do as I say! I know my ship!!"

After yelling at the vortex furnace, Charles looked down at the first mate on the ground, "John! Go and unload half of the cargo on the ship!"

He knows that the critical moment is not a time to hesitate, and life is more important than anything else.

"Yes!" The fat old man kicked open the cockpit door and rushed out.

Hearing the plop of the cargo falling into the water, Charles' heart was bleeding.

Fortunately, a series of measures were still effective, and after a few more impacts, the Mouse, which was lightly on its way, began to speed up, slowly throwing away the things behind it.

Charles, who was covered in cold sweat, slowly let go of the rudder in his hand when he saw the real navigation mark appearing on the bow.

The teenager lying on the ground tremblingly crawled to Charles' feet, hugging his thigh tightly.

"Boat... Captain, I just... I just saw—"

Charles pinched his cheek directly with his hands, preventing him from continuing to speak.

"Before boarding the boat, what is the third sentence I will tell you?"

"The monsters in the water can't be seen or thought about. Unless they are close to our boat, don't say anything when you see them..."

"Very good, now stand up and drop the anchor first, and then tell everyone on the ship to gather on the deck. I want to count the number of people."

Charles let go of his hands and walked out of the cockpit. At this time, the deck was in a mess, with water everywhere, and the ropes binding the cargo floated on the water and fluttered left and right.

Charles, who was wading through the sea water up to his calf, came to the stern of the boat. The spindle-shaped stern was dented in a large piece as if hit by a sledgehammer. Some kind of unknown black mucus was sticking to it, and it emitted a stench uninterruptedly.

Looking at the shape, it is easy to imagine the size of the creature that just hit the ship, but Charles' curiosity has been consumed by eight years of sailing career, and he is thinking about other issues at this time.

"It's a lot of money to repair this thing..." Charles was a little annoyed, he was one step away from his dream.

At this time, the whispering sound in the ear sounded again, as if spreading from the surrounding darkness.

"ph...nglui mglw...nafh..."

"Fuck!" Charles, frowning tightly, clenched his fist with one hand and kept hitting his forehead with the back of his hand. The pain diluted the irritability caused by the whispering.

Seeing the rest of the crew begin to assemble on the deck, Charles dropped his hands and walked over.

Seeing his captain approaching, several men of different heights quickly stood in a row. Regardless of their appearance, their faces were as scary as Charles.

"John, the chief mate, assists the captain and organizes various work plans, and is responsible for preparing the cargo stowage plan. Helmsman at 12~24." The fat old man was the first to speak.

Standing next to Old John was a tall, strong man with engine oil all over his blue clothes. After the first officer finished speaking, he quickly picked up.

"James, the second engineer, is responsible for maintaining the normal working order of the turbo furnace; at the same time maintaining the propulsion device and additional equipment, boilers, lubrication, cooling and fuel."

Next to the big tall man is a thin man, tall and thin like a telephone pole.

"Frey, the cook is in charge of the crew's meals."

Following the chef was Dipper with an ugly face. His body was shaking a little, and he didn't seem to have recovered.

"Di... Dipu, with one job, responsible for deck cleaning, maintenance and repair of anchors, cables, and loading and unloading equipment."

Quickly scanning the four people in front of him, Charles immediately found that one person was missing. "Where's the bosun?"

The four looked at each other and no one answered.

"Ahhhh!!" Suddenly, a horrific cry came from below the deck.

"Something is on board! Get your weapons!" Charles rushed over with everyone.

When they came to the dim crew lounge, everyone immediately felt a chill rushing from the tailbone to the brain.

There were only two people in the dim cabin at this time, and one person was standing, that was the boatswain of the Mouse, with a terrified expression.

Lying alone, it is impossible to tell who he is, because the skin on his body has been stripped, without the protection of the skin, every time his body touches the ground, the blood man trembles in pain,

He lay on the ground in a daze, screaming and struggling desperately, his breath getting weaker and weaker.

"Jim! Go ask his identity!" Charles quickly took out the revolver at his waist.

The bosun crawled over with fear on his face, and leaned in front of the bloody head to listen.

A few seconds later, he turned around with panic on his face, pointed at Charles and said, "Captain,...he said he was you!"

"I?"

Hearing the panicked footsteps of the crew behind him, Charles decisively pointed his gun at the bosun,

"Charles, the captain, is responsible for the safe transportation, production and administrative management of the ship, maximizing the safety of the life and property of the ship and crew, and handling all affairs decisively and steadily in case of emergency. Helmsman from 0 to 12! Boatswain! Now report your duties!!"

"You're going to kill him!! He is no longer your captain!" The bosun pointed at Charles in horror.

"Bang!" As Charles pulled the trigger, a blood hole appeared in the bosun's forehead, and what flowed out of it was not blood, but a semi-frozen dark yellow liquid.

Seeing that the incident was exposed, the body of the bosun who was shot began to twist and change, his mouth split to the back of his head, his limbs began to swell rapidly, and he rushed towards Charles with a strange roar.

"Bang bang bang!" The bullets quickly poured into the boatswain's body, and the human skin was torn apart like a sack, exposing the dark, rotten, twisted torso underneath like the hide of a toad.

After firing all six bullets, the monster was still alive. It spread its limbs and rushed towards the human in front of it.

Charles seemed to have experienced it many times, with no panic on his face, and his body rolled to the side, avoiding the monster's attack.

While dodging, he didn't stop with both hands, the bullets of the revolver had been reloaded, and he turned six shots directly.

Under the attack of twelve bullets, the monster's anti-joint legs went limp, and it fell powerlessly to the ground.

Panting heavily, Charles glanced at the corpse in front of him, which made human instincts retch, and turned to look at the terrified crew behind him.

"Don't be dazed, throw this damn thing overboard," Charles said, walking towards the blood corpse that was no longer moving.

Regardless of the bloody smell, he straightened his head with his hands. When he saw that the exposed tooth was missing a front tooth, Charles knew that this was his boatswain, and the one just now was the undersea monster in disguise.

There was a trace of pain on Charles's face, but he quickly restrained himself, took out the bullet and stuffed it into the gun again, and began to patrol his boat, looking for other fish that slipped through the net.

Dipper followed first mate John to carry the corpse with difficulty.

The boy said to his companion in surprise, "The captain is so powerful."

"Haha, of course, or he's the captain, and you're just a sailor. In fact, he was just like you when he first got on the ship."

"Really? What was it like when Captain Charles first came aboard?"

"It's been a long time. It's been seven or eight years. I was still the third officer on another ship, and Charles floated over from the sea. When I first met him, he couldn't even speak. Woolen cloth."

"Really? Then how did he become the captain?"

"The old captain felt sorry for him, so he let him follow far behind the ship. When he returned to the pier and found that he was not a monster, he stayed on our ship. He was learning to speak while learning to be a sailor. It wasn't long after he learned to speak. , he announced that he wanted a ship of his own to lead all mankind back to the Land of Light, and we all laughed at him for being crazy."

"and after?"

"Later, he went from sailor to bosun, and then from bosun to third mate. When we all thought he would change from third mate to second mate, he actually saved money and bought a second-hand small cargo ship. No, It's the Mouse under our feet."