Chapter 91.3: Weaselfolk Civilization
“Wait, wait, wait! There’s a rotten plank floating up ahead! Quick, quick—fish it out!”
“And over there! A garbage bag! To the left, to the left! Let’s hurry over and see if there’s anything valuable inside!”
Whoosh!
A native Green Billow Star fish was reeled aboard a small fishing boat.
The Blue Sea resident who had caught it dropped it into a bucket. Just then, one of his Dazzling Star teammates, who had just finished another task, hurried over.
“I’ll take that.”
He carried the fish to a makeshift galley at the stern.
Before long, the aroma of freshly cooked food drifted across the boat.
Removing his apron, the Dazzling Star man called out to the Blue Sea teammates who were still fishing.
“Food’s ready!”
“Coming!”
The six of them gathered on the deck.
Three dishes, one soup, and a large basin of rice—more than enough for everyone.
The Dazzling Star people preferred a clean environment, so after cooking, he always tidied up the cooking area before sitting down to eat.
The five Blue Sea teammates simply waited for him.
Only after their Dazzling Star companion joined them did they grin, pick up their chopsticks, and start eating.
“Mmm! Smells amazing!”
“This is incredible! The fish doesn’t taste fishy at all!”
The Dazzling Star man listened contentedly as his teammates praised his cooking.
At the same time, he was already thinking about the wooden plank they had salvaged earlier. After lunch, he planned to modify it into a fire shield for the galley.
Bang! Bang!
Something struck the hull.
The six diners were instantly on their feet.
One of the Blue Sea teammates stepped in front of the Dazzling Star man to shield him.
The Dazzling Star man also drew his knife and looked warily toward the source of the sound.
Several snake-like creatures slithered over the gunwale with loud thwack, thwack sounds.
They flicked out their forked tongues, spitting venom that corroded parts of the deck.
“Oh, come on!! We just finished repairing this!”
One of the Blue Sea residents was so furious his hair practically stood on end. He stomped on one of the “snakes,” dodged the attacks of the others, then drove his dagger downward, pinning one of them to the deck.
“Don’t nail it down! We can’t eat it, and you’re just wrecking the deck even more! Kick it back into the sea!”
The Dazzling Star man hurriedly stopped him.
“Don’t kick them overboard. I experimented with one this morning. If you boil the skin of these sea monster snakes, it turns into a kind of glue that can repair the deck.”
“Huh?”
This thing’s actually useful?
The other Blue Sea teammates immediately looked at the “snakes” with entirely different expressions.
Three minutes later, several sea monster snakes had been pinned to the deck.
Some had stopped moving altogether.
Others were still hissing and flicking their tongues.
“Hey!!”
A fishing boat about the same size drew alongside them.
“Need a hand?”
“Nah! Just a few sea monster snakes!”
The group laughed before turning to their Dazzling Star teammate and asking quietly,
“Is it okay if we tell them what you discovered?”
The Dazzling Star man nodded without hesitation.
Of course it was.
Sharing useful knowledge about prey had always been common practice among his people.
His teammates smiled.
“Then you tell them.”
The Dazzling Star man still wasn’t used to shouting.
Back on Dazzling Star, raising your voice like that could attract snow beasts.
But surrounded by his teammates, he felt completely safe.
Taking a deep breath, he called out loudly,
“If you run into sea monster snakes, kill them and boil their skins in water! The glue you get can repair your deck and patch up holes!”
The Blue Sea residents aboard the other fishing boat immediately lit up.
“Thanks! We’ve been trying to figure out how to repair our deck!”
A sturdy loaf of bread, still in its wrapper, came sailing through the air.
“We fished it up this morning! Take it and enjoy it with your meal. Consider it a thank-you gift!”
The other boat gradually drifted away with the waves.
Holding the loaf of bread, Xiruotu called out,
“You can tell everyone else too!”
“You got it! What’s your name?!”
“My name is Xiruotu!”
The fishing boat slowly receded into the distance, but the Blue Sea resident’s reply was still loud enough to carry across the water.
“Got it, Xiruotu! My name’s Zhang Huxing! We’ll tell everyone—it was you who discovered it!”
Xiruotu watched the boat sail farther away.
All around them, numerous other boats were also heading in the same direction.
They were all small fishing boats that had deliberately departed together.
That way, during the early stages of exploring this unfamiliar sea, every crew would have plenty of nearby companions.
Just like a moment ago.
When they had been fighting the sea monster snakes, that ordinary fishing boat had been the closest, so it had immediately sailed over to ask if they needed help.
The feeling…
Was just like hunting together with one’s family.
It filled him with a profound sense of security.
Of course, as the exploration continued, the boats would gradually spread farther and farther apart.
But by then, the explorers would already understand the rules of these waters well enough to sail on their own.
Still, that didn’t matter.
Even if, upon the boundless sea, each vessel eventually found itself sailing alone…
There were still teammates aboard.
“Xiruotu! Come finish your lunch! Want to try the chili sauce I’ve been saving?”
Xiruotu withdrew his gaze, smiled, and turned back toward his companions.
“Coming!”
…
Yao Dangkong woke early that morning.
After sitting up, she first inspected her room, then unlocked the heavily reinforced door layer by layer before climbing the stairs to the deck.
Gripping a battle axe in her hands, Yao Dangkong carefully checked every step of the way.
When she reached the deck, she noticed a trail of slime left behind by some crawling creature overhead.
Every hair on her body stood on end.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she threw herself flat onto the deck.
The next instant, a twisted tentacle lashed out from behind her, barely missing.
The tentacle slammed into the deck instead, smashing a hole straight through it.
Yao Dangkong rolled swiftly across the deck, dodging one tentacle strike after another. Seizing an opening, she gripped her battle axe with both hands and swung with all her strength.
“Hiss—!”
A monstrous shriek came from alongside the boat.
Half a tentacle was severed and landed on the deck, twitching violently. Yellowish-green blood poured from the wound, quickly eating away at a large section of the planks.
Fortunately, the creature seemed to realize Yao Dangkong wasn’t easy prey.
Its remaining tentacles reluctantly withdrew from the deck and slowly retreated over the side.
Yao Dangkong picked up a dented, pitted iron shield, holding it in front of her face with one hand while gripping her battle axe in the other. She cautiously edged toward the direction in which the tentacles had disappeared.
Soon, she reached the railing.
Just in time to see an enormous octopus-like sea monster crawling down the side of the boat before sinking back into the sea.
“Phew…”
Only then did Yao Dangkong finally let out a long breath and collapse onto the deck.
This was just an ordinary sea monster.
Once it suffered enough damage, it would stop treating her boat as a target.
Using a pair of curved tongs, Yao Dangkong picked up the severed tentacle and examined it.
Unfortunately, it was poisonous.
She couldn’t eat it.
She checked the five fishing rods she currently had set out.
None of them had caught anything.
There was still plenty to do today.
The fishing net had been damaged during the last haul, so she’d need to mend it.
She glanced at her remaining supply of fresh water.
There wasn’t much left.
Even so, she gritted her teeth and watered the plants growing in her planter box.
As for the severed sea monster tentacle…
She decided to leave it for now and see whether it could be used as fertilizer after it rotted.
Even if it couldn’t, the scent of blood from a medium-sized sea monster might still intimidate smaller sea monsters and keep them from climbing aboard her boat at night.
Yao Dangkong found a wooden bucket and carefully placed the tentacle inside with the cut end facing upward.
After finishing that, she checked on the chickens she was raising.
No eggs today.
They had probably been frightened by last night’s sea monster attack.
Yao Dangkong felt a little disappointed, but she still scattered feed for the chickens.
As she watched them lower their heads and peck away at their food, she couldn’t help swallowing.
It’s been so long since I’ve had meat.
There were too few fish in these waters.
She hoped the waves would carry her boat into a different sea soon.
Because…
Yao Dangkong’s boat had no power source.
Like most of Green Billow Star’s inhabitants, she relied entirely on the chaotic, unpredictable nature of the Sea of Souls to travel.
For example, she might be sailing in Sea Zone A.
The water looked exactly the same.
But in the next instant, Sea Zone A might suddenly become Sea Zone B.
From the perspective of someone aboard the ship, there might be other vessels nearby one moment…
…and the next, nothing but an endless ocean.
Or perhaps there had been nothing ahead a second ago…
…only for another ship to suddenly appear directly in front of them.
For the people of Green Billow Star, this was actually quite convenient.
It saved the fuel that would otherwise be needed to propel a ship.
Still, those who could afford it always kept some fuel in reserve.
After all, no one knew when the sea would suddenly change.
If danger appeared, they still needed enough power to sail away on their own.
Yao Dangkong did have some fuel.
But that was strictly for emergencies.
Although her food supply was running low, she still had a little left, so after thinking it over, she decided not to use any fuel.
Who knows?
The very next moment, the sea might carry both me and my boat into an entirely different region.
She cut half a potato into slices and sprinkled a little salt over it.
That would be breakfast today.
A lavish breakfast, by her standards.
After all, she had just driven off a sea monster.
She deserved a little reward.
Besides, the creature had damaged her deck. She’d be spending most of the day repairing it, and she needed enough energy for the work.
Just as she was eating, one of her steel fishing rods suddenly bent over violently.
She hurriedly stuffed the rest of the potato into her mouth and grabbed the rod with both hands.
What luck!
She reeled up a coarse burlap sack.
From experience, she knew there were almost certainly small fish or shrimp inside.
She had to be careful when emptying the sack, though.
There might also be poisonous jellyfish or sea snakes mixed in with the catch.
One bite from either of those would spell disaster.
An experienced survivor, Yao Dangkong quickly emptied the contents of the sack.
Just as she’d expected, it contained three small shrimp and one small fish.
She dropped them into a bucket of water.
Not bad.
Lunch just got an upgrade.
Swallowing the last of the potato, she set the fishing rod back in place and began repairing the deck.
It was a major undertaking.
First, the damaged planks had to be dried out.
Then the rotten sections had to be chiseled away.
After sweeping everything clean, she twisted hemp fibers into caulking of the proper thickness, stuffed them into the gaps, and hammered them tightly into place.
After that, she still had to seal everything with precious materials like tung oil and lime oil—supplies that were incredibly difficult to come by.
Large holes were even more troublesome.
She had very little hardwood stored away and wasn’t even sure she had enough to patch the damaged section of deck.
Unable to help herself, Yao Dangkong thought back to life before the apocalypse.
Back then…
If you wanted to buy something, the market had everything.
When tables, chairs, or doors broke, most people couldn’t be bothered fixing them.
They simply tossed them beside the trash bins.
Yao Dangkong herself had once thrown away a wooden chair with a broken leg.
At the time, she had never imagined that wood would one day become a scarce resource.
Now, if she managed to fish a battered wooden door out of the ocean, she’d be so happy she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night.
Unfortunately…
Forget wood.
She hadn’t even encountered another living person in over half a year.
Well…
She had run into someone six months ago.
The problem was that they were pirates.
They chased her for half a day, and she escaped only because the sea zones shifted at just the right moment.
Crash…
The sound of the waves pounding against the hull suddenly grew much louder.
Yao Dangkong immediately stopped what she was doing.
Whenever the sea zones shifted, the waves became unusually violent.
Gripping her battle axe tightly, she hurried downstairs into the cabin, locking the reinforced door behind her one layer at a time as she waited silently for the transition to pass.
After a while, the rocking gradually subsided.
The sea zone had finished shifting.
Together with her boat, she had been transported into another stretch of ocean.
Yao Dangkong listened quietly for a while.
Only after confirming that no sea monsters had climbed aboard did she cautiously unlock the doors one by one and quietly step outside.
Then came another full inspection of the boat.
Once she had finished checking everything, she returned to the deck, ready to resume repairing it.
Hopefully this new sea zone has plenty of fish.
She labored away, grunting with the effort, occasionally glancing around her surroundings.
On the eighteenth time she looked up, she suddenly noticed something unusual in the distance.
A ship.
Then another.
Two…
A dozen…
As they continued sailing forward, more and more ships entered her field of vision.
There were at least a hundred of them.
And every single one appeared to have ample power. They were moving at astonishing speed.
Yao Dangkong hadn’t even managed to finish refueling her own boat before the fleet had already surrounded it.
How could there possibly be so many ships gathered together on Green Billow Star?
And every vessel looked pristine.
There were no obvious signs of damage.
They looked almost like ships from before the apocalypse.
Pirates?
Or some enormous family fleet?
She had no idea whether they would jump aboard in the next instant, steal everything she owned, and throw her into the sea.
All she could do was desperately continue feeding fuel into her boat.
The first ship reached her.
Without paying her the slightest attention, it simply sailed past.
Then came the second.
Then the third.
Her tiny vessel was completely surrounded by hundreds of ships that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
The hand she was using to load fuel slowly came to a stop.
These ships…
Didn’t seem to care about her at all.
Every single one simply continued straight ahead, passing by her little boat as though it wasn’t even there.
A mirage?
A year ago, she’d heard a captain tell a story.
There was supposedly a type of sea monster capable of blowing enormous bubbles.
The bubbles could envelop an entire sea zone, causing everyone trapped inside to lose their bearings and see all sorts of illusions.
Those bubbles were known as sea mirages.
Could I really have wandered into one by sheer coincidence?
“Hey!!!”
Yao Dangkong jumped in surprise.
Only then did she notice that one of the ships had come very close to hers. A sturdily built woman aboard it was enthusiastically waving at her.
The strange part was that, although the woman was speaking a language Yao Dangkong had never heard before, she understood every word.
“Your deck’s damaged?! Boil the skin of those sea monster snakes into glue—it’ll repair it!”
“Like this one! This one!!”
The woman held up the corpse of a venomous sea snake and pointed at it for emphasis.
Yao Dangkong had no idea what was happening.
She had weathered countless storms and encountered every manner of sea monster, but she had never experienced anything like this.
Meanwhile, the woman remained as cheerful as ever.
“The one who discovered it was Xiruotu. Remember to tell the next person you meet!”
“I just caught this one—it’s still fresh! Hahaha!”
Grabbing the dead venomous snake by the tail, the woman swung it around a few times before sending it flying with astonishing accuracy.
It landed right in front of Yao Dangkong.
“Use it while it’s fresh!”
“No need to thank me!”
