All the evidence pointed to one conclusion, confirming Lu Li’s suspicion: one of the black shadows was indeed missing from the deck.
If this ship was one of the fishing vessels lost during the hurricane... why had it beco like this?
And where had they co from, those sea-dwellers in the lower cabins... those shadows with their fish-like features?
By lifting a corner of the veil, Lu Li had only found another, larger one beneath it.
But one thing was certain: this was all undeniably connected to the black substance.
Even if it wasn't the direct cause, it had at least indirectly led to...
Dong-dong-dong...
The sudden tolling of a bell shattered Lu Li's thoughts. He raised his head and glanced at the window, only to rember the glass was coated in that black substance. Turning back to the door, he pushed the chair aside, opened it, and stepped into the corridor.
Lu Li couldn't pinpoint the source of the tolling. It certainly wasn't coming from the sailing ship; it seed to resonate from sowhere in the surrounding dark sea, or perhaps from the void itself.
The last ti the bell had rung, it had been ti to eat.
Lu Li looked out at the deck. The shadows stood there, ignoring the tolling that echoed across the vessel.
Lu Li decided to return to the cabin for now, but as he approached the entrance to the upper cabins, he found the passage blocked by a thicket of vines. A faint, indistinct humming ca from the other side.
The cabins and the deck were now separated by the vines.
The change instantly filled the air with a sinister premonition, as if sothing was about to happen on the deck...
Lu Li stepped forward, intending to touch the vines and make them recede, but suddenly felt sothing sticky beneath his feet.
Lu Li glanced down and saw that the black substance had appeared from sowhere on the wooden deck, seeping out from the planks. It wasn't just under his feet; the substance was erging all across the deck. It continued to rise, flooding the surface.
So this was why the entire ship was covered in that black substance.
Without a second thought, Lu Li started up the stairs to return to the uppermost cabin, but an image flashed through his mind.
In the captain's cabin, the highest on the ship, even the ceiling was coated in the black substance.
Though he couldn't be certain if that was connected to what was happening now, it pointed to one conclusion: taking the high ground wouldn't save him from the black substance.
Where could he take shelter, then?
The black substance had already reached his ankles, a level high enough to spill over the sides, yet it continued to rise.
Lu Li turned and looked at the shadows on the deck.
They were just standing there...
Lu Li suddenly broke into a run, heading for those strangely frozen shadows.
Only a few seconds passed between thought and action. But even in that short ti, the black substance had risen past his ankles. Lu Li's strength was draining rapidly. The distance from the cabin to where the shadows stood was just over twenty ters, but it took him nearly ten seconds to cover it. By the ti he reached the empty spot among the shadows, nearly collapsing from exhaustion, his energy was almost completely gone.
The mont he stepped into formation, Lu Li’s body unexpectedly relaxed, as if all the negative effects had vanished in an instant.
Lu Li looked down. The black substance continued its ascent, and his legs were now completely subrged below the thigh, yet he felt no ill effects. It was as if his skin were coated in an invisible film, shielding him from the substance.
Lu Li caught his breath, stood in formation, and surreptitiously observed the humanoid shadows surrounding him.
Their feet seed rooted to the deck; only their upper bodies swayed with the motion of the ship.
They're alive...
Were they standing here to take refuge from the black substance...?
The black substance on the deck had already risen to chest level. If Lu Li had remained outside the formation, he would have been immobilized and collapsed onto the deck. Whether he would have drowned in the black ooze or transford into sothing strange... Lu Li didn't know.
His neck, his chin, his mouth and nose, and finally, his eyes. Lu Li’s world was instantly plunged into absolute darkness.
Lu Li narrowed his eyes slightly, fearing this darkness would trigger the Night Calamity, but as ti passed, nothing happened.
To so extent, the black substance was still 'protecting' him.
The wait in the darkness beca torturous, ti stretching on endlessly. Lu Li counted the seconds in his head. When his count neared a thousand, the black substance began to recede, like a falling tide.
His eyes were uncovered, then his neck, then his chest.
The interval, from the substance's appearance to its disappearance, was the sa as it had been in the dining hall.
The last traces of the black substance vanished into the cracks of the deck, leaving behind sticky residue that was similar, yet different, from before.
It seed he had found the reason the ship was coated in the black substance.
The previous 'tide' of the black substance had been two hours ago. Would the next one co in another two hours?
Lu Li leaned forward slightly, preparing to leave the formation and return to the cabin entrance to survey the situation.
The twenty-four shadows around him did the sa.
Lu Li froze, but they didn't. The strange shadows dispersed across the deck.
The shadow that seed to be the captain headed for the upper cabin, while the others scattered across the deck, busying themselves with strange tasks. Two or three shadows gathered together, sitting on the deck or pretending to clean it, though they had no mops or buckets.
They continued to perform the actions of their forr lives, but it all took place in complete silence.
A bizarre, silent pantomi.
The empty spot belonged to Harben, and Harben was a sailor...
Lu Li was the last to leave the formation. He started toward the cabin, wondering how he was supposed to act like a sailor.
It wasn't a difficult task. He had played the part of a repairman not long ago; he just needed to do what a sailor would do.
Lu Li pretended to hold a mop and, hunching over, made his way toward the cabin.
As he slowly drew near the cabin, Lu Li surreptitiously watched the deck. Not a single shadow approached the cabins, and the strange beings below deck likewise kept their distance, as if the ship had been split in two.
Reaching the cabin entrance, Lu Li peered inside. The barrier of vines was gone, but the residue from the black substance revealed a clear difference in color between the interior and the exterior.
The vines had protected the strange creatures in the lower cabins, just as they had the last ti the bell rang.
Lu Li had a choice: pretend to be a sailor and stay on deck, or pretend to be a repairman and return to the cabin.
Returning to the lower cabins might have allowed Lu Li to avoid the next 'tide' of the black substance, but the inexplicably open locker in the morgue had made him realize that the lower decks were not as simple as they seed. If sothing went wrong, escape would be difficult.
Staying on the upper deck, he might also find a way to evade the black substance, but his assumptions about the shadows were just guesses, and Lu Li didn't know if there would be new developnts. In the event of an unforeseen incident, however, he could at least try to save himself by jumping overboard instead of being trapped.
He had already located a lifebuoy hanging on the ship's rail.
On one hand, there was the deck, full of strangeness but with understandable rules. On the other, the cabins, where he could move freely but which concealed unknown dangers.
Lu Li decided to stay on the deck.
The dangers on this ship weren't necessarily fatal, but carelessness was.
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