96: Everyone was terrified! Who would use a coffin as building material?

The screams hadn't even died down.

The calm black sea surface suddenly seemed to have a depth charge dropped into it.

Boom—!

Water exploded!

ferry no. 0819 jolted violently!

The girls on the deck were knocked off balance, and their screams even scared away the ravens on the ship's railing.

"Don't panic."

Chen Du's feet seemed welded to the deck; his body didn't sway a bit.

With a casual reach, he caught An Nuonuo, who had almost flown off.

His Golden Wheel Pupils constricted slightly, locking onto the port side.

Under the moonlight.

A shadow so massive it was suffocating covered half the sky.

A twenty-meter-long shark burst out of the water!

No, it couldn't be called a shark!

It was simply a Stitched Monster from the deep sea—

Its skin looked like it was patched together from rotten fish skin, and the thick black stitched seams were oozing pus.

The most Sanity-draining part was its dorsal fin, which was densely packed with human eyeballs.

They were rolling around wildly, staring fixedly at the fresh flesh on the ship.

"Roar—!"

A roar carrying a rotten, fishy stench exploded!

That abyssal giant mouth, capable of devouring a tank in one bite, lunged straight for the middle of the ship's hull!

"Oh my god! What kind of underworld thing is this!"

Lin Keke was so scared she fell onto her butt on the deck, and the [Slowness Totem] in her hand rolled several meters away.

"Defense! Everyone, defend!!" Xia Lai roared.

Blue light flashed from her mechanical arm!

Three alloy crossbow bolts shot toward the monster shark's cluster of eyes with the sound of breaking air!

Clang, clang, clang!

The crossbow bolts, which could pierce even steel plates, hit the monster's rotten skin and were deflected after only producing a few sparks.

"Just a scratch?" Xia Lai's pupils shook, "This thing is too tough!"

A human-like mockery flashed in the monster shark's hundreds of eyes, its giant mouth almost pressing against their faces.

The fishy stench of death scared the girls into closing their eyes.

"Seeking death!"

At the critical moment, Chen Du finally moved.

To be precise, he just tilted his chin slightly.

A hint of violence flashed in his Golden Wheel Pupils.

"Giving you face? Get back down."

He let out an angry shout, and the shadow beneath his feet instantly boiled, turning into a pitch-black swamp.

Psh! Psh! Psh!

Seven or eight pitch-black shadow spears, as thick as utility poles, shot out from the deck's shadows without warning!

The speed was so fast it created sonic booms!

Precise, brutal, and unreasonable!

Those shadow spears were like venomous snakes with eyes, precisely piercing the eyeballs on the monster shark's dorsal fin!

They even pierced straight through its fragile gills!

"Gaa-ooh—!!"

A shrill scream echoed through the night sky.

Immediately after.

A scene with immense visual impact occurred.

This deep-sea behemoth weighing dozens of tons was actually held up in mid-air by the shadow spears!

Suspended!

The massive sea monster twisted frantically in the air!

No matter how it struggled, it couldn't escape the shadow's imprisonment.

And Chen Du still stood in the center of the shadows with one hand in his pocket.

"Is this... the King of Shadows?"

Li Yaozhi stared blankly at that back, her heart pounding wildly; it was as if some switch had been flipped.

Violence.

Pure violent aesthetics.

In this post-apocalyptic world where one could die a miserable death at any moment, this kind of absolute power was the most fatal attraction.

"Shatter for me!"

Chen Du made a grasping motion in the air with his right hand.

The shadow spears piercing the monster shark's body suddenly began to spin and contract frantically like a meat grinder!

A rain of purple-red blood fell from the sky!

The Stitched Monstrous Shark, which had been so arrogant just a second ago, was instantly ground into a dozen pieces of mangled flesh.

They fell back into the sea with a series of splashes.

Only a massive head was tossed onto the deck by the shadows.

The deck vibrated.

All the girls were dumbfounded.

An instant kill.

No wind-up, no chanting, he didn't even have to move his hands.

"What are you all standing there for?"

Chen Du turned his head and glanced at his infatuated crew members.

"An Nuonuo, use air currents to blow the deck clean. Xia Lai, skin the fish; this thing has good toughness, don't let it go to waste."

"Ah? Oh!"

"H-heavy, okay!"

The girls snapped out of it, their admiration for Chen Du reaching off-the-charts levels.

After dealing with the trouble, Chen Du's consciousness sank into the sacrifice notebook.

A monster of this level had to have every last drop of value squeezed out.

[Sacrifice Target: Stitched Monstrous Shark Head.]

[Obtained: 10 barrels of Deep-sea Bio-grease.]

[Obtained: 20 sheets of High-toughness Mutated Fish Skin.]

"Grease?" Chen Du rubbed his chin, "Perfect, the engine needs maintenance; this should increase the speed quite a bit."

The busy day passed quickly.

Night fell.

The ferry maintained a speed of 18 knots, cutting through the waves.

In the lower hold, inside the newly built cold storage.

White cold air swirled.

Chen Du was checking a batch of supplies he had just put in.

He found that the cold storage door had been pushed open.

Li Yaozhi walked in sneakily.

She was only wearing a thin silk nightgown, and in this ten-degrees-below-zero environment, she was shivering uncontrollably.

"Cap... Captain..."

She hugged her shoulders, her teeth chattering, "I... I just performed a divination."

"Oh?" Chen Du looked at her with a half-smile, "Coming to the cold storage for a divination in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? What, did you calculate that there's treasure here?"

"N-no..."

Li Yaozhi's cheeks were crimson, though it was unclear if it was from the cold or embarrassment.

Seeing Xia Mo and Xia Lai getting more in sync with Chen Du every day, the sense of crisis in her heart was about to explode.

Rather than being marginalized, it was better to take the initiative.

"The hexagram shows... this place has... has the answer I want..."

"The answer?"

Chen Du suddenly took a step forward, forcing her back into a corner.

A shadow loomed over her, carrying a pressure that made her legs feel weak.

He took off his coat, which still carried his body heat, and draped it directly over Li Yaozhi, supporting himself against the wall with one hand.

They were close enough to hear each other's breathing.

"Li Yaozhi."

Chen Du lowered his head, his warm breath fanning her ear, "The answer you're talking about... couldn't possibly be related to me, could it?"

Li Yaozhi's mind went blank.

The coat was filled with the man's strong hormone scent, instantly surrounding her.

Thinking back to that cave, her legs felt a bit weak.

"I... I just came to confirm!"

She clutched the coat, trying to maintain a shred of her cold aloofness, "Don't... don't be too narcissistic! Who would... mmm..."

Stubbornness was useless.

Those hazy eyes and her no longer resistant body had already given her away completely.

As things were heating up and about to go further.

An Nuonuo's scream suddenly came through the loudspeaker overhead.

Her voice was strained to the point of cracking: "Captain! Come quickly!"

"Ahead... there are coffins everywhere ahead!!"

"They really don't let me rest!" Chen Du's gaze sharpened.

He let go of the dazed Li Yaozhi, grabbed her, and rushed out of the cold storage.

They arrived on the deck.

The sight before them made even Chen Du, who was used to big scenes, narrow his eyes.

The moonlight was blood-red.

On the pitch-black sea, hundreds of bright red wooden coffins were floating densely!

They rose and fell with the waves, moving against the current toward ferry no. 0819!

With the help of the moonlight.

One could clearly see that on every coffin lid, a name was written in bloody, large characters.

[Zhao Mengmeng], [Xia Lai], [Li Yaozhi]... there was even... [Chen Du]!

The scene was incredibly eerie!

"That's my name! That's my name!!" Zhao Mengmeng pointed at a coffin, crying in a breakdown.

This was simply a life-claiming scene straight out of a horror movie!

The gloomy atmosphere caused the temperature of the entire deck to drop to the freezing point.

Standing at the bow, Chen Du narrowed his eyes and leaned in.

A wisp of black shadow slithered out from his fingertip like a snake, wrapping around the nearest coffin.

Crack!

The shadow tightened with force, but it actually didn't break?

This hardness... "Eh? Could it be high-density bogwood?"

The wariness in Chen Du's eyes gradually turned into pleasant surprise.

Looking at the coffins scattered everywhere in the water, it was like looking at floating gold bars.

A fanatical smile that the girls couldn't understand even appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"What are you crying for?!"

Chen Du kicked Zhao Mengmeng's butt, "Stand up! This is clearly a deck expansion pack sent by the Heavens!"

"And it's even home-delivered! I was just thinking the deck was too crowded!"

He pointed at the coffins everywhere and waved his hand:

"You guys too, get moving!"

"This is free building material! Fish them out for me!"

"Don't let a single piece of wood go! We'll dismantle them and make floorboards later!"

The girls: "...?"

No, Captain, are you okay?

Those are coffins! They're coffins with our names on them and they're still bleeding!

You're using them to build the deck?

Isn't this operation... a bit too underworld!