Chapter 575 Picking A Fight
It was then that I noticed the three black-robed figures had plugged their ears at some point, so they wouldn’t hear the Siren’s song and be mesmerized.
The captain, holding an hourglass, waved his hand. A black-robed figure next to him, wearing a white mask, lifted his robe and drew a chainsaw from beneath it. He pulled hard, and the chainsaw roared to life.
Holy crap! That weapon was wild. How did he hide such a large weapon under his robe?
Moreover, this chainsaw wasn’t like the ones I often saw for cutting trees in my previous life; it had handles for two hands.
The chainsaw in the black-robed figure’s hand was sword-shaped overall, with a hilt. If you ignored the high-speed rotating teeth, it was a typical two-handed sword.
This meant the chainsaw was built with a weapon in mind, and using such a strange weapon would require a lot of strength from the user.
But the white-masked black-robed figure swung the chainsaw sword as if it were a regular one-handed sword, cleanly and steadily hacking towards Keith’s neck.
Perhaps because the chainsaw’s noise interfered with the Siren’s song, Keith suddenly regained a bit of his instinct. By the time the chainsaw sword reached his neck, he had no time to think and could only instinctually swing his axe at the masked man.
Both struck the vital spot of the other’s throat almost simultaneously. The axe cut diagonally down from the connection between the neck and shoulder, just like Captain Delana’s encounter before, while the chainsaw sword smoothly entered Keith’s neck, the high-speed rotating saw tearing his flesh and blood.
“Ahhh!” Keith screamed tragically, spitting out a lot of blood from his mouth. But the masked man on the other side, despite having half his neck severed, stood silently as if nothing had happened.
“Bzzzz!” With the roaring scream of the chainsaw sword, Keith’s neck was completely severed, and his head flew off, rolling a couple of times on the ground.
However, even with his head severed, he didn’t die immediately. His headless body was still wildly swinging his axe everywhere, but since he couldn’t see his target, he was just flailing around like a headless fly.
His head, with its five wide-open eyes, was also making inhuman howls. The mutation had granted Keith immense vitality but stripped him of all reason. He was now just a powerful walking corpse.
The captain inverted the hourglass, and the Siren disappeared, her music ceasing. The three black-robed figures then removed their earplugs.
“I’ll leave dealing with him to you. Remember to see a doctor when you get back. You’ll be acting alone from now on; don’t infect anyone else,” the captain said, patting the piper’s shoulder. He nodded, picked up his flute, and began to play again.
This time, instead of those Ratmen appearing, a lot of rats scurried out. They pounced on Keith’s corpse and head, frantically tearing and devouring his flesh and blood.
Soon, Keith’s sounds gradually faded until they disappeared completely, leaving only the sound of countless rats gnawing and chewing on human flesh.
While the rats were gnawing on Keith’s body and the noise in the engine room was at its peak, drawing the attention of the three black-robed figures, Sebastian quietly leaned over to my ear and whispered.
“The hourglass that person is holding likely seals two living people. They were once human, but later mutated into Sirens and sea demons. If you are deemed a threat, your fate might become the same as those two girls.”
My heart sank. Indeed, as I looked at the two frozen girls in the hourglass, they seemed like real people. If they were once human but were now sealed in the hourglass, unable to move, and even forced to have their power exploited, it was truly too cruel.
When the rats dispersed, only a pool of blackish-red blood remained on the ground. The axe that had fallen to the ground was the only evidence of Keith’s existence. This powerful culprit had thus died at the hands of the mysterious Custodians.
“Alright, I need to investigate the engine. You two, clear out any potential lingering Mutants in the various cabins. Ah, and the rest of you, please leave the fishing boat immediately,” the captain commanded, not being polite to us at all.
However, Sebastian seemed to have overcome a hurdle. He nodded and said, “We’ll head out now,” and then led Mr. Zhang and me away, as if afraid of being questioned if we lingered any longer.
“Ah, right!” the captain suddenly remembered something. My heart tensed. Had I not escaped inspection after all? I had many mutated traits and several hidden props on me. If he checked seriously, he would undoubtedly find many problems.
But the captain didn’t look at us. Instead, he put away the hourglass and took out a Rubik’s Cube from his embrace. “I almost forgot, the space here is still sealed. You won’t be able to leave if it’s not unsealed.”
As he spoke, he twisted the Rubik’s Cube. To my surprise, as he manipulated it, I could clearly feel the surrounding space changing, and the disordered space was gradually being straightened out.
When the captain fully aligned the Rubik’s Cube, I felt the enclosed space around us instantly open up completely. My senses could easily extend outwards, feeling the people outside, and I could also detect several other Mutants and survivors on the Sturgeon No. 3.
“Alright, the fishing boat has returned to normal. You can go now,” the captain said, putting the Rubik’s Cube back into his embrace.
It was truly a magical prop that could even repair space. However, I believed it was also because I had already emptied the oil depot of the Sturgeon No. 3, resolving the source of the mutation. Otherwise, it probably wouldn’t have been so easy for him to restore the distorted space.
At this point, the two black-robed figures who had been by the captain’s side had already vanished without a trace. Naturally, we didn’t want to linger either and headed directly towards the upper decks of the ship.
The atmosphere in the cabins had truly changed. The slight rocking as if drifting at sea was gone, and the air was no longer so stuffy. Fresh sea breeze blew into the cabins, blowing away all sorts of mixed stenches.
Although it was still dark, there was no longer that oppressive feeling. Now, it just felt like dim light, making it hard to see. Before, it felt like being in an abyss, where darkness would swallow light and living beings.
It was unclear whether it was because the Blood Oil had been cleaned up, or because the captain had used the Rubik’s Cube to open the sealed space, or both. In any case, the Sturgeon No. 3 should now just be an ordinary fishing boat.
Just as we were about to reach the first floor, we encountered the black-robed piper we had parted ways with earlier. He seemed somewhat surprised to see us again and glanced at us as he passed.
“Wait!” His gaze suddenly focused on me. “Little girl, stop!”
