Shrouded Seascape

"Oh my goddess! Everyone, look above! Something has snuck up on us over there!" Luke's terrified voice rang out, instantly stirring up a commotion in the tunnel.

Flames spewed out of their guns, illuminating the dim tunnel. A rain of bullets struck the elongated creatures, leaving behind spots of purple blood on the ceiling.

The elongated creature's writing was interrupted. The twenty or so elongated creatures with terrifying maws resembling bloody basins lunged at Luke and his crew at speeds that made them leave afterimages in mid-air.

Charles wanted to tell Luke and his crew to stop firing at the elongated creatures.

The elongated creatures could clearly understand human language and could express their thoughts.

Regardless of how they had acquired such abilities, what mattered was that they could communicate. If they were indeed the natives of this island, then things would become convenient for everyone by communicating with these creatures. Unfortunately, Charles wasn't with Luke and his crew himself. He was just controlling a spider, which didn't have a vocal tract.

Moreover, the spider was still in the hands of one of the green elongated creatures, and Charles' vision swayed left and right as the elongated creature moved violently.

Realizing that things had become chaotic, Charles bared his black fangs and bit down on the elongated creature's finger, injecting the spider's digestive fluid into the finger.

The resulting pain made the elongated creature let go of the spider, but the elongated creature was moving so fast that the momentum sent the spider crashing violently against the floor.

A tremor ran across Charles' vision, and immense pain coursed through him.

"Fuck!" Charles cursed, covering his empty eye socket with his hand, and his expression twisted in agony. His other eye was squeezed shut as he took the brunt of the agonizing pain.

"Captain? What's wrong?" His crew went over to him.

Charles pushed them away and focused his attention on the spider. Charles could feel that three of his spider legs were broken, and the spider's bulging silk glands had deflated upon impact.

Charles controlled the spider, making it crawl toward Luke, who was frantically attacking the elongated creatures.

The spider had just reached Luke's feet when the elongated creatures retreated abruptly, receding like a tide and vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Before the exhausted and panting crew members could make sense of what was going on, the sound of footsteps echoed from behind them.

Charles and Luke's crew members turned around. On the other side of the tunnel were dozens of people walking slowly toward them. Shockingly, the same green, elongated creatures from earlier were walking next to the group of people.

They were all naked, and there were several Feuerbach clones among the crowd.

"Hey, where the hell have you been? Those guys almost killed me," Luke said as he proceeded to light another cigarette.

"Come on, can they even kill you? Anyway, why do you always smoke your cigarettes yourself without leaving even one for us to smoke? I really don't know what to feel about that," a naked Feuerbach said. He stepped forward and casually snatched away the cigarette between Luke's lips.

Charles felt that something was amiss—no, it wasn't just him. Luke's crew members all felt the same.

"Boss, who are these guys? Do you know them?" the black-robed man asked as he eyed the green, elongated centipede-like creatures behind the naked crowd of people. The insects beneath his robe squirmed, making his robe billow out.

"Ah, let me introduce you to them," Luke said. He proceeded to light another cigarette before waving his hand at the green centipede-like creatures in the distance. "Hey! Hurry up and come over here. There are only six this time! The rest of you guys will have to wait until next time."

Six green centipede-like creatures hurriedly stepped forward with anxious looks, but they got into a fight with the other centipede-like creatures. They were all raring to step up, but only six of them could do so this time, which led to a fight.

The crew members were about to point their guns at the elongated, centipede-like creatures that had just attacked them earlier when their expressions abruptly relaxed. They threw down their guns and grabbed a cigarette for themselves.

In contrast, the green centipede-like creatures were horrified. They opened their terrifying maws to let out indescribable noises while trembling in fear.

As Charles stared alternatingly between the green centipede-like creatures and Luke's crew members, he was suddenly reminded of a few scenes, and a horrifying thought popped up in his mind—a body swap!

The elongated creatures that he had encountered earlier were humans whose bodies had been swapped with the green centipede-like monsters!

Everything had gone according to Luke—no, the tongueless "Feuerbach's" plan. Yes, the one who died in the tongueless "Feuerbach's" body was Luke's consciousness, as he had swapped bodies with "Feuerbach"!

Charles gnashed his teeth. He was about to open his mouth to warn his crew when a green hand reached out from behind him and picked up the spider.

"Narwhale! Approach that island!" Charles commanded.

The crew members on deck cast a surprised gaze at Charles' abrupt command.

"Captain, did you discover anything? Do you finally know the reason behind the explorers' string of disappearances?" Nico asked, walking over with a long-stem cigarette between his fingers.

Charles glanced at the cigarette between Nico's fingers before gulping a mouthful of his own saliva and saying, "Yes, and we found quite a few Foundation members along with their equipment. Anyway, let's hurry up and go."

Charles then turned to Dipp, who was squatting on the ship's railings. "Use my authority as Governor Charles and signal at the airships next to us using flag semaphore. Tell them to follow us. Hurry up and go."

"All right!" Dipp readily agreed.

Soon, the other two airships that had been hovering nearby approached the floating island. The sailors on Captain Luke's the Undaunted were puzzled to see the Narwhale hovering next to them. Why had they chosen to come down here?

"What are you doing standing there in a daze? Hurry up and move! Your captain has found a major clue!" Charles ordered.

Charles was the Governor of Hope Island, and he was also one of the people who had started the plan to save humanity. In other words, he was pretty influential.

The sailors had no reason to doubt Charles, so they followed him unconditionally.

"Captain, do all of them really have to come with us? The sailors, fine, but why do we need the cooks to come with us?" Dipp asked, scratching the gills on his neck.

"Stop the nonsense. That thing down below is too large, and we need as many people as possible to carry it out. I actually think that we need more people than this," Charles replied.

Meanwhile, a glint of doubt flashed in Bandages' eyes, who was quietly staring at Charles' figure from the sidelines.

Lily was on Charles' shoulder, and it seemed that she had the same suspicion as Bandages. She then proceeded to lift her tiny head and sniff at Charles.

In response to Charles' orders, everyone grabbed ropes and a variety of equipment in preparation to depart.

Just then, a right hand wrapped in bandages reached out from the side, patting Charles on the shoulder.

"Captain... I'm sorry… about Ginny's... death…"

Charles turned and looked at his first mate in confusion. "Ginny? Who's that? I don't know anyone with the name Ginny. Did you remember something just now, and you've mistaken me for someone else?"

Bandages shook his head slightly and lowered his hand.

"Buddy, you'd best write down everything in a diary. It'd be a shame if you end up forgetting something that you just remembered all of a sudden," Charles said. He then proceeded to dish out more orders after his kind advice to Bandages.

Lily ran up to Bandages and tugged at his bandages. She lifted her tiny head and softly asked, "Mr. Bandages, do you also feel that Mr. Charles is acting a bit weird? He's always been weird, but his 'weirdness' right now is different from usual…"

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