The cold sea water rushed in, and the mont he fell into the water, he felt like a stone plumting rapidly.
His stress response to the imrsion made him a bit muddled, but he still rembered the direction in which he had initially fallen.
He imdiately executed a spatial displacent in that direction.
"Bang bang!"
He didn’t gauge the height well during the teleport, and he nearly crashed onto the deck, numbers indicating fall damage appearing above him.
The wound on his chest hadn’t fully healed, and now it began to bleed again.
He quickly got up and his gaze instantly shifted to Ming’an’s direction.
He saw a stretch of dark water.
The captain’s cabin had been completely flooded by the water that surged in so abruptly just a mont ago.
He had no idea what Austin had done, but at this ti, a large-scale influx of water into the cabins below had started, and the people who had been hiding underground erged as if fleeing for their lives.
Su Ming’an originally wanted to rectify the situation, but he found that the ship was tilting at an extrely fast pace.
He held onto the railing nearby, watching the water, coming from who knows where, surge up onto the deck with great speed.
...This was happening way too fast.
After briefly thinking it over, he placed his fingers on his temples.
In the current situation, he could only rely on a ti reversal to resolve things in advance. He truly hadn’t expected Austin to surprise him this way since this move appeared totally irrational. It only made sense if other players had interfered with the process.
He closed his eyes, feeling familiar pain enveloping his body.
When he opened his eyes once again, he saw a torrent of rain sweep past him.
The girl lay in a pool of blood, sleeping very peacefully.
"You send Nailuo back," he instructed Ming’an and told him the precautions for Saya’s sea burial, then he headed straight for the captain’s cabin.
There was a ti gap between the current mont and when the ship had started to tilt. He was quite curious about what Austin had done during this period.
He made his way to the captain’s cabin and found the door unlocked, so he entered directly.
A middle-aged man was piloting the ship, a box of cigarettes beside him. His hand fidgeted restlessly on the cigarette box, then moved to a blood-red button beside it. Suddenly, through the reflection in the mirror, he saw Su Ming’an entering.
As if he had been shocked, Austin quickly retracted his hand and posed as if nothing had happened.
Su Ming’an gazed out through the cabin glass.
The lights in the captain’s cabin were still off, making it hard for him to see, but outside, the sea seed normal and there were no suspicious explosives inside.
As he observed, he suddenly heard rapid footsteps coming from the corridor.
He turned around just in ti to make eye contact with a pair of sowhat lifeless eyes.
It was a sowhat short tycoon adorned with what appeared to be very precious diamond accessories. From this person’s course of action, it looked like a player who wasn’t running for shelter but was looking for an opportunity.
"—Player?"
"—Player?"
Both spoke at the sa ti.
Su Ming’an frowned slightly.
He and the tycoon player were both in disguise, neither knowing the other’s true identity.
But one thing he was certain of, from the previous loop, it was this daredevil individual who lead to the capsizing of the ship.
"Viscount, this is Lord Qatar," Austin introduced to Su Ming’an. "He is a good friend of mine and also has so understanding of ship navigation."
Su Ming’an understood.
It was the "Austin friend" identity of this Player that had caused Austin to let his guard down, leading to the accident.
"Shall we cooperate?" the wealthy Player asked Su Ming’an.
"How do we cooperate?"
"Kill the Captain, take control of the ship," the Player said nonchalantly, his voice sowhat timid, yet he seed confident: "I’ve mastered ship piloting Skill, I can steer this vessel. Once we have control over the ship, all treasures on board will be ours. I’ve seen you’re quite familiar with the Captain, so you must be strong as well. I don’t want to start a conflict with you here."
Austin watched, dumbstruck, as his forr friend once again spoke of backstabbing, feeling as if he had been viciously stabbed in the heart.
Su Ming’an laughed, "It’s not as if killing the Captain would give us control over the ship."
"I know," said the wealthy Player, "But all threats on board have been eliminated. Two Soul Hunters are dead, another didn’t make it to the lifeboats in ti, probably dead too. And I’m confident I can handle the remaining Soul Clan mber. This instance isn’t difficult at all, I’m confident in that."
Su Ming’an was rather speechless.
The difficulty of this instance was far from low, in fact, it was quite high.
If it weren’t for his own Combat Power being at a bug level, just those three Soul Hunters would have been enough to wipe out the Players, not to ntion the hidden Saya.
His own existence led to the Players’ misjudgnt of the difficulty.
"Austin is quite good, I don’t plan on changing Captains," Su Ming’an declined the Player’s suggestion.
He was now curious how this Player managed to screw up, causing the ship to flip.
"...So you choose to be enemies?"
The wealthy Player hung his head, sowhat regretful.
He took small, hesitant steps back from Su Ming’an, his posture sowhat bashful. As he pulled out a Black Blade, his aura gradually grew somber.
Watching his actions, a flash of genius struck Su Ming’an.
He rembered a na that had appeared in the channel chat before.
"Yamada Machiichi?"
He suddenly spoke.
He vividly rembered this cross-dressing mogul who had made an appearance in the Fourth World as Lolita. That ashen look in the eyes was exactly the sa as now, and even these sowhat feminine gestures were identical.
The wealthy Player froze, a surge of coldness in his eyes, the sharp edge of the Black Blade flashing as if eager to silence him.
At that mont, a faint light from a lantern passed by.
Ming, having dealt with the matters at hand, walked over from the corridor, carrying a lantern.
"The situation has been taken care of. Now we just wait for the ship to safely reach Mariti City. I’ve just checked; the ship is traveling swiftly, there’s only half a day’s journey left... Hm?"
Ming’s gaze t Yamada Machiichi’s.
Ming looked exactly like Su Ming’an.
In the instant Yamada Machiichi saw Ming, the ferocity in his eyes turned to fear, transforming extrely quickly.
"Su Ming’an?" he exclaid.
Ming smiled.
"Hello, Miss Yamada..." Ming greeted her quite warmly.
But Yamada Machiichi, who had been brimming with murderous intent, imdiately shrank back upon seeing him, like a turtle retracting into its shell. He turned, stepped forward, and a dark light flashed over his body.
"Whoosh!"
The next second Su Ming’an blinked, Yamada Machiichi had already appeared outside the cabin, standing on so kind of aquatic creature, zooming away like on a hoverboard. His escape was extrely awkward—as if a shark was chasing him with a life-or-death urgency.
The viciousness, gloom, and killing aura that had previously emanated from him vanished in an instant, as if he had turned into a startled rabbit.
He stepped on a dolphin-like creature, performing a high-speed water maneuver on the sea surface, exemplifying "frantic escape" to its extre.
Watching this scene, Su Ming’an fell into silence.
"Hmm..." Ming’an paused, "Original body, you look like you’ve scared them."
"I’m also puzzled why he’s so afraid of ," Su Ming’an said.
As soon as he saw him, Yamada turned and ran, not even daring to board the cabin, but teleporting directly above the sea, fleeing across the waves.
From his actions, it seed Yamada planned to just drift all the way to the Waterborne City. He was abandoning the ship and fleeing, leaving behind the original "control of the Yate Vessel."
... This eagerness to escape from Su Ming’an even made him doubt whether he had done sothing excessive to the other party.
The audience watching this spectacle also fell into a state of shock:
[? Is this a guilty conscience? It must be a guilty conscience, right? What on earth did Yamada do?]
[... Damn (a plant), shouldn’t we suspect what Su Ming’an did?]
[The cross-dressing Lord... wuwuwu, don’t go, my cross-dressing Lord... my goddess...]
[Wuwuwu, Saya... my Saya... I really thought Su Rin was going to enact a romantic elopent under the old man’s watchful eye, but I didn’t expect it to end like this...]
[I heard that Yamada participated in the "Number One Player" fan project, maybe that’s why he feels guilty...]
[No, in my opinion, any player would run in this situation, otherwise they’d wait to be chopped. The Number One Player never actively cooperated with other players.]
[Mo Yan... my Mo Yan... where is he, why is there no movent at all...]
[...]
Su Ming’an watched in astonishnt as Yamada Machiichi made his way through the water, fading into the other side of the torrential rain.
Apart from being surprised at the other’s flight, he also found it odd.
Last loop, what exactly did Yamada Machiichi do to cause water ingress into the cabin and the whole ship to tilt?
He was puzzled, but it was already beyond his ability to find the answer.
To the side, Ming was seriously reading the manual, apparently furthering her learning.
Austin was quietly piloting the ship, making the cabin very tranquil.
Su Ming’an was about to step outside when suddenly he heard Austin speak.
"Viscount," he said, "do you think I’m soone who fears death?"
Perhaps hearing his exchange with Yamada, and learning that a forr friend also wanted to kill him, this captain’s tone was somber.
Su Ming’an hesitated for a mont.
"Survival is a basic human need; there’s nothing wrong with that," he said.
Struggling to survive, there’s nothing essentially wrong with that.
"To stay alive, I can turn a blind eye to your ship-stealing behavior," said Austin, "because I know deep down, you have saved , Viscount. Even if you were intending to harm other nobles for so power struggle, I can understand. I am just a knight, a lord, loyal only to the royal family, loyal to the great Yate Empire that conferred my knighthood, not responsible to dukes and the like."
"Are you trying to have a heart-to-heart with ?" Su Ming’an asked.
Austin did not take up his response but continued to pilot the ship, saying, "... My mission is only to pilot this mariti gem to the Mariti City, to fulfill the mission given by the Empire. Although I am aware that seizing the helm of this gem and plundering the treasures of the great Empire are extrely excessive acts, I can montarily overlook them to ensure the successful arrival of the Yate Vessel at its destination..."
Su Ming’an turned his head.
He saw Austin take out a cigarette case and begin smoking, his expression sowhat distressed.
"Viscount..." he said softly, "But there is one thing I cannot tolerate because of my Knight’s Spirit, my oath under the sacred flag of the Yate Empire."
He turned around, his bearded face frad by a pair of eyes filled with despair.
His eyes no longer held even the slightest desire for life.
"I can’t tolerate a Soul Clan mber controlling the great Yate Vessel," he said. "Viscount, take a look at this."
A display screen lit up behind him.
It was a scene of a rooftop.
On the screen, blood was everywhere, and Lar Ya’s body lay on the rooftop floor, drenched by the pouring rain.
Upon seeing this surveillance screen, Su Ming’an imdiately realized his identity had been exposed.
The whole process of him killing Lar Ya and Saya just now might have been fully witnessed by this Austin.
In that mont, Ming’an took action instantaneously, reaching out to press down on Austin, who was still smoking, and forcefully pushing his head to the ground.
"Controlled," Ming said. "Don’t worry, original body, I can also pilot this ship. You go back to the cabin and wait for the ship to arrive safely, leave everything to ."
Austin was pinned to the ground, his face scraping against it until it bled.
He laughed.
"Soul Clan, detestable Soul Clan," he said through gritted teeth. "You are a race dood to die, beings that shouldn’t exist..."
"Kill him," Su Ming’an said indifferently to Ming and turned to leave.
But in the instant he turned, he heard a shattering sound.
The sound of breaking glass.
"On the Yate Vessel, there is a secret known only to the captain."
Austin’s voice ca from behind him.
In his final monts, the captain seed extraordinarily calm.
"You might not know this, Viscount. The Empire also considered the tiny possibility of the ship being controlled by the Soul Clan—in such an eventuality, the captain can choose to initiate the self-destruct chanism, sinking the Empire’s jewel... This is Yate’s ultimate asure, our final dagger aid at your aberrant race."
Austin truly was just an ordinary man afraid of death.
He feared injury and pain, greedily clinging to his captaincy, but upon learning his enemy was of the Soul Clan, he was prepared to sacrifice the life and ship he treasured, wanting to drag his adversaries down with the Yate Vessel.
It was hard to describe the depth of hatred between humans and the Soul Clan.
Su Ming’an’s heart suddenly gave a fierce thump.
At the mont when the glass shattered and the sea water was about to flood in, he didn’t flee. Instead, he quickly turned back and grabbed Austin by the collar.
"When exactly did you initiate this self-destruct sequence?" he asked coldly.
"..."
The middle-aged man with a beard t his gaze with a pair of muddy, despairing eyes and gave him a smile.
"...When I realized you were a mber of the Soul Clan."
"Bang—"
The glass shattered, sea water surged in, and the crisp sound of breaking filled his ears.
Su Ming’an abruptly let go of him and teleported away in a spatial displacent.
In the last mont before being subrged by the sea, the middle-aged man clutched at the golden badge hanging on his chest.
Inside the badge, a photograph of a little girl was tucked.
The little girl smiled brilliantly, like a flowering bloom.
"...Avenge my dear Rin," Austin closed his eyes.
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