Safe City Ch.99.3

Chapter 99.3: Merchant Ship and Sea Monster Barrier

‘This statue doesn’t work.’

That was the first thought to pop into Captain Kuka’s head the next morning, before he was even fully awake.

Because while he was still asleep, the ship suddenly shook violently, sending him flying off the bed like a projectile, pillow and all, and crashing onto the floor.

—BANG!

That impact nearly sent him flying off into oblivion.

Captain Kuka clutched his head and desperately grabbed onto whatever he could inside the violently rocking ship to keep his balance. When he pushed open the door and stepped outside, a fierce gale mixed with torrential rain slammed straight into his face.

This was clearly no longer the stretch of sea where the Sun had been yesterday.

They had encountered a sea-area transition. The entire ship, along with everyone aboard, had arrived in this region while they were asleep.

All Captain Kuka could hear was the howling wind. It wasn’t completely dark outside, but the sky had grown gloomy, and the sea that had previously been clearly visible had become hazy and indistinct, as though some enormous sea monster might emerge from it at any moment.

Ah, no.

One had already emerged.

Captain Kuka’s eyes widened as he stared at the colossal, hundred-meter-tall sea monster ahead of them. It looked as though a whale, a shark, and a manta ray had been fused together into a single gigantic three-colored creature.

It was enormous, almost covering most of the sea visible to the naked eye.

Its manta-ray-like skin was covered in millions upon millions of eyes, their pupils milky white.

At this moment, it was waving hundreds of arms, each ten meters long and shaped like the sickle blades of praying mantises, slicing apart a fleet that had already been reduced to pieces.

—BOOM!!

With a thunderclap, a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky.

For an instant, it brought light to the gloomy darkness.

But Captain Kuka felt no relief. Instead, he sank into profound despair.

Because in that brief flash of lightning, he not only saw that the fleet being carved apart appeared to be the somewhat notorious Purple Rosewood Pirate Group.

He also saw a small patch of skin on the enormous sea monster, on the side closest to the Sun, begin to ripple faintly.

The milky-white eyes covering it all turned in unison, fixing themselves on the ship that had suddenly been discovered.

—They had been seen!

Captain Kuka was so terrified that he nearly died on the spot, his heart pounding as though it were playing a funeral dirge for the Purple Rosewood Pirate Group.

But his years of experience living on Green Billow Star allowed him to force himself to keep running toward the bridge.

He put all his strength into pulling open the door, which the wind had blown so violently that it felt as though it had been welded shut. As soon as he entered, he saw the crewman on duty, his face deathly pale as he desperately tried to get the ship away as quickly as possible.

“Captain!”

Seeing Kuka enter, the crewman relaxed slightly, wearing an expression that seemed to say, “Even if the sky falls, the captain can hold it up.”

Kuka didn’t think he could hold it up.

But he could only rush forward and take control of the situation.

“Don’t turn on the searchlights! Shut them off! They’ll attract the sea monster’s attention!”

“Hard to starboard!!”

—BOOM!

A more-than-ten-meter-long sea-monster tentacle, shaped like a sickle, appeared beneath the dark water beside the Sun as lightning flashed, illuminating a huge shadow whose color was clearly different from the surrounding seawater.

The shadow writhed and undulated around the Sun, as though deliberately toying with it.

Chaos reigned on the bridge.

“Hard to port! Evade!! Hurry!! Steady! Don’t panic!”

“Hard astern! Turn back immediately!”

“Captain! The hull’s breached! Seawater is coming in!”

“Use that bucket of repair adhesive we just bought! Seal the cracks and don’t let any more seawater in!”

“Full speed ahead, full speed!!”

At this moment, Kuka couldn’t think about anything at all. He only wanted to escape this area as quickly as possible.

In theory, the Sun wasn’t particularly fast, and it should have had no hope of escaping a sea monster of this size. But the gigantic sea monster wasn’t in any hurry to devour all its prey in one go.

The enormous shadow followed alongside the Sun at a leisurely pace, occasionally using its sickle-like tentacles to smack the hull, shattering some windows and provoking panicked screams from the prey inside the ship.

—BOOM!

The thunder was deafening, accompanied by the enormous shadow that appeared and disappeared intermittently, the hurried breathing of the crew around him, and the stifled sobs of those who could no longer bear the pressure.

At this moment, Kuka had no inclination to wonder why the giant sea monster was being so unhurried.

But he soon found out.

The full-speed-ahead Sun was stopped by a net-like barrier.

Everyone who had been desperately trying every possible means to increase the ship’s speed and escape now wore expressions of despair after their minds went blank.

“It’s a sea-monster barrier—”

It was a barrier formed from bubbles exhaled by the sea monster, with a special function. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a faint mist, and ships could pass through it with ease.

But once a ship entered, it would discover that it had been trapped in the stretch of sea occupied by the giant sea monster.

The sea-monster barrier formed a complete circle centered on the monster. There were no openings inside, and ships could not break through the bubbles to escape.

No wonder. No wonder the sea monster had been so unhurried.

It knew that once a ship entered the barrier, no matter how desperately its occupants struggled, they would eventually become its meal.

Unless the seawater here underwent another transition, sending the Sun, which had been shifted into this region, somewhere else again.

“No, no…”

The Sun could no longer move.

A sickle-shaped tentacle more than ten meters long swept across the glass in front of the Sun’s main helm.

—CRASH!

As the enormous tentacle casually came down, the glass shattered, and rainwater carried by the wind once again splattered across Kuka’s and the crew’s faces.

—BOOM!

The thunder continued, as though counting down the remaining lives of everyone aboard the Sun.

Kuka trembled all over.

Just yesterday, he had still been basking in warm sunlight, buying precious goods and dreaming about a wonderful future.

But now, he was already facing the threat of death from the freezing rain and the gigantic sea monster.

“Please!!”

Captain Kuka pleaded in a trembling voice, not even knowing whom he was praying to:

“Please, let the seawater here undergo another transition! Let us get out of here!”

“Captain! Captain, look!!”

One of the crew members had noticed that the seawater around them was beginning to churn and boil. The sea area was about to undergo another transition!

“Wonderful! Wonderful!”

Kuka could hardly believe it. His prayer had actually worked.

He held his breath and waited for the Sun to follow the shifting sea area into another region.

The seawater bubbled and churned.

The dark, raging sea slowly transformed into another stretch of water, calm except for gentle waves.

Under the tear- and rain-streaked gazes of everyone aboard the Sun,

two ships were transferred in from the calm sea.

Kuka: “…”

The crew: “…”

It wasn’t them who had been transferred out?

Instead, new victims had been transferred into this hell?!

Everyone aboard the Sun had completely lost the ability to make any expression. There was only utter silence.

Kuka pushed open the half of the door that remained after being cut apart by the sickle-shaped tentacle and staggered back into the cabin. Amid overlapping thunderclaps and flashes of lightning, he threw himself down in front of the shrine.

But the shrine was completely empty.

With the Sun rocking so violently, naturally, the statue that had been sitting there had fallen off.

Kuka helplessly tumbled around with the swaying hull as he groped around on the floor. At last, he found the little statue.

“Great Blue Sea… whatever God you are… please, save me. Save us!”

—

“Holy crap?!!”

Jinfan Gang had been sleeping soundly when a tremendous force suddenly sent him flying toward the edge of his bed.

But relying on his instinctive physical reactions and formidable core strength, he braced himself with both hands and firmly caught himself on the bed, which was secured to the ship’s hull.

He yanked off his ridiculously cool military sleep mask and looked around angrily, clearly in a terrible mood after being woken up.

“Who the hell is it?!!”

Just yesterday, he had teamed up with Yuan Moshu, successfully using the Inkshadow as bait to lure in a small pirate ship, after which they had charged aboard and absolutely clobbered them.

Jinfan Gang thought he was truly brilliant.

Some time ago, through his personal friendship with Yuan Moshu, he had discovered that Yuan Moshu was a cautious person. So he had patted his chest and guaranteed that as long as Yuan Moshu teamed up with him, he would be as cautious as humanly possible.

If they encountered pirates, whether to fight or not would be entirely up to Yuan Moshu. He also knew that Yuan Moshu was worried about their lack of firepower, so they could affiliate themselves with the Little Blue Sea Guild and operate behind the Little Blue Sea, following in its wake.

If they encountered something they truly couldn’t handle, the Little Blue Sea would naturally turn around and come to their rescue.

After Jinfan Gang had rattled on and on, combined with the fact that the two already had a personal relationship, he successfully snatched the highly sought-after “bait,” Yuan Moshu, for their Stretch-and-Yawn.

Their first battle had ended in victory, and there had even been some fine liquor aboard the pirate ship. Delighted, he had dragged Yuan Moshu to the Stretch-and-Yawn for a few celebratory drinks, and once he was pleasantly drunk, he had promptly fallen asleep.

This was precisely when he needed a good sleep to replenish his energy after the battle. So what was with all this shaking and rocking?

Jinfan Gang angrily yanked open the door.

The door, held fast by the wind and waves, felt only slightly heavier than usual in his hands.

The ship was rocking violently, but relying on his extraordinary sense of balance, he remained firmly steady.

When the ship rocked to the left, his body leaned to the right.

When the ship rocked to the right, his body naturally leaned to the left.

In any case, he maintained a constantly shifting, bizarre posture as he steadily made his way toward the deck through the raging wind and rain.

—BOOM!

Lightning flashed, revealing a series of bizarre, distorted silhouettes across the powerless deck.

—They were all Blue Sea crew members using various strange postures to keep their balance.

Among the bizarre yet remarkably steady figures, the one who struggled to stand up, only to fall again before finally giving up and crawling forward, was particularly conspicuous.

Jinfan Gang hurried over and helped Yuan Moshu to his feet.

The wind and rain were so loud that he had to shout, “Are you okay?!”

Yuan Moshu frantically shook his head and pointed ahead.

Jinfan Gang had already noticed that dark shadow. Now, looking over carefully, he too became fired up.

—BOOM!

In the flash of lightning, a sea monster appeared before them for a fleeting moment. Its body bulged in the middle, and just that single visible section of its body was larger than the entire Stretch-and-Yawn.

In the distance, countless pirate ships lay shattered and broken.

Jinfan Gang’s eyes immediately lit up.

He shouted, “Oh! Oh!! Pirate ships!!!”

Yuan Moshu’s expression had initially been grim, but when he vaguely heard what Jinfan Gang was shouting, his eyes lit up as well.

He thought of that several-meter-long sea-monster tentacle.

Could it be that Jinfan Gang was confident they could kill this gigantic sea monster?

Although it sounded utterly preposterous, Yuan Moshu had already seen far too many preposterous things at that Blue Sea gathering.

Besides, he had already seen the sea-monster barrier in the distance. If they couldn’t kill the sea monster, then the sea monster would kill them.

He shouted, “There’s a barrier here! Once we’re in, there’s no way out!!! Given our strength, what are our chances of killing it?!!”

Jinfan Gang leaned close to his ear. “With you and me! There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that we’ll #￥*”

—BOOM!

The thunder drowned out the rest of his sentence.

Hope rose in Yuan Moshu’s heart. “What?!!”

Jinfan Gang shouted again, “A ninety-nine percent chance that we’ll lose!”

Yuan Moshu: “…”

At a critical moment like this! Couldn’t he stop phrasing things in such a misleading way?!

Jinfan Gang pressed a hand to his chest and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Don’t be afraid!! Let’s stall it for a while first!!”

It was very difficult for Yuan Moshu not to be afraid.

Especially when the other guy’s next sentence was:

“Our God will bless us!!!!”

“Our God will protect us!!!!!”

Yuan Moshu squeezed his eyes shut.

Goodbye, my life.

Goodbye, my friend whom I’d only known for a short while, yet who had given me such genuine friendship despite being a little short on brains.

—

Cheng Qisheng suddenly opened her eyes in the middle of her sleep.

She had sensed a believer calling for help.

Although there was a strange hint of excitement mixed into this particular plea, considering the person calling for help was an Old Eighth, it was perfectly reasonable.

—

Green Billow Star

At that very moment, in the waters near the sea-monster barrier, the believers sleeping aboard the Blue Sea ships all opened their eyes in their dreams.

They quickly sprang into action.

“Quick!!”

“This way! Full speed ahead!!”

Naturally, there were believers who had been asleep, as well as believers who had been up all night.

…

Two Blue Sea ships were chasing a pirate ship.

They chased it for a while before suddenly stopping.

Then they turned around and headed in the opposite direction, sailing away at a speed even faster than when they had been pursuing the pirates.

The pirate ship, which had been scared half to death by the pursuit, was left slowly coming to a stop, staring incredulously at the back of that bizarre ship.

Whoosh!

They had escaped disaster!

…

Compared to this small pirate ship, the reaction of another mid-sized pirate fleet was far less simple.

Taking advantage of the night, they were stealthily approaching a target they had spotted during the day.

Suddenly, the target accelerated to full speed and headed in a certain direction.

The mid-sized pirate fleet immediately became frustrated.

“They spotted us!”

“After them!!”

The Blue Sea ship sped ahead.

The mid-sized pirate fleet pursued rapidly from behind.

The faster the Blue Sea ship went, the more excited the pirates became, convinced that their opponent must have realized they were no match for them and was therefore running for its life.

In this game of cat and mouse,

the two fleets headed together toward the sea-monster barrier.

—

Jinfan Gang directed the crew of the Stretch-and-Yawn to evade the sea monster’s repeated attacks, continuously circling and weaving around inside the barrier.

Of the three prey targets, the Stretch-and-Yawn was clearly the most energetic. The gigantic sea monster was visibly drawn to it, slowly surfacing and sinking through the ocean as it took great interest in playing a game of chase with the ship.

Jinfan Gang actually still had a trump card.

He had wings, and a small portion of the crew aboard the Stretch-and-Yawn had wings as well.

Even in the pouring rain, they could still fly through the downpour.

The problem was that if they did that, even if each of them carried a crew member who couldn’t fly, there would still be people left behind to die.

So unless they reached an absolute last resort, Jinfan Gang would rather keep provoking the gigantic sea monster’s interest, continuing to circle around with it while waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

But to Yuan Moshu and the crew of the Sun, this looked like nothing more than the Stretch-and-Yawn’s desperate struggle before death.

Captain Kuka clutched the divine statue tightly and prayed even more fervently.

He was beginning to think that this lively ship, which had attracted the gigantic sea monster’s attention and was delaying the moment when everyone aboard the Sun would die, might actually be the gods answering his prayers and protecting the Sun from destruction.

As for Yuan Moshu, he looked at Jinfan Gang’s back, soaked through with sweat—or perhaps rain. The muscles across it were involuntarily taut from his intense concentration as he directed the ship.

Unable to bear watching any longer, Yuan Moshu held onto a fixed table and moved closer, shouting,

“Forget it!! We can’t get out! This is fate!!”

Jinfan Gang was drenched from head to toe, looking rather miserable in this desperate situation. Yet a smile curled across his face.

Smiling just like that, he shouted back,

“Only Our God can decide our fate!!!”

—

A Blue Sea ship charged into the barrier from outside.

Then came a second ship, a third…

BOOM!!!!!!

The thunder grew even louder.

Bolts of lightning descended in streaks of white light, illuminating the Blue Sea ships charging into the barrier one after another, almost as if they were lining up to enter.

The number of Blue Sea ships inside the sea-monster barrier continued to grow.

One hundred ships, two hundred, five hundred, over a thousand—

Ship after ship spread across a vast stretch of ocean, while even more Blue Sea ships continued pouring in from behind.

Captain Kuka, still clutching the divine statue, stared blankly at the ships appearing one after another, as though an army of divine soldiers had descended from heaven.

“God… praying to one really works?”

—BOOM!!!

Amid the deafening thunder, Jinfan Gang saw countless dark silhouettes flickering in and out of sight ahead with every flash of lightning. Layer upon layer, they formed an enormous fleet that, assembled together, was even more colossal than the gigantic sea monster itself.

Jinfan Gang took his hand off the helm and placed it over his heart. He bowed his head respectfully toward the sky, as though listening to something.

Several seconds later, Jinfan Gang finally raised his head.

He smiled at Yuan Moshu, who was already staring in stunned disbelief at the massive reinforcements outside.

“Oracle of Our God.”

“Our God has spoken.”

“Today, you and I shall live.”

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