Chapter 112: Cruise Ship: Sudden Rebellion

Chapter 112: Cruise Ship: Sudden Rebellion

"They made it! Thank goodness!"

Seeing the first mate and the other two successfully reach the outside of the time bubble, the crowd waiting on the gangplank couldn't help but let out a cheer.

However, their smiles had barely formed when they saw a figure wrapped in slime, pale as a gas-bloated corpse, suddenly leap up from the towering waves beside the small boat. It opened a massive mouth, fishlike but packed with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and bit down on the head of the first mate sitting in the center of the lifeboat.

The human skull, normally an incredibly hard thing, gave way like a chocolate bar torn from its wrapper.

With a sickening crunch, the first mate didn't even have time to scream. By the time the figure arced over the lifeboat and plunged into the sea on the other side, half his head was gone—the top half, eyes, brain, all of it—leaving only a bare jawbone and gums exposed, blood spurting like a geyser.

"Ahh... Ahhhhh!"

"No! First Mate Wright, First Mate Wright!"

The two crew members on the lifeboat, along with everyone waiting on the gangplank, stared in horror, unable to process what they'd just seen.

The monster that attacked the first mate was clearly the same kind of creature as the ones lurking under the Golden Anchor. But weren't they supposed to be sealed inside the time bubble? Why were they outside... No, they could absolutely appear outside—during those 7 seconds, not only was the massive cruise ship freed, but so were the thousand-plus monsters beneath it!

When the time bubble snapped back into place, these escaped creatures would revert to human form and return to the ship.

In the blink of an eye, the 7-second window closed, and the massive time bubble descended once more around the Golden Anchor. At the same time, the rope tethering the lifeboat snapped clean in two.

A wave slammed into the little lifeboat, sending it drifting helplessly away from the time bubble.

For the two crew members on board, being separated from the mother ship in a storm was nearly a death sentence, especially after witnessing their companion's gruesome death—the psychological blow they took was far heavier than anything the others on the Mary Jane felt.

But both crew members knew the weight of the mission on their shoulders—it was a chance bought with First Mate Wright's life, the hope of the entire ship!

So they gritted their teeth. One of them set down his oar and, on the pitching boat, opened the radio and dialed the Coast Guard's number.

"Hello, Newport Division, Atlantic Coast Guard, how can I help you?"

When the call connected and the familiar East Coast accent crackled through the radio, both crew members felt their eyes sting with tears.

Though getting out had only taken 7 seconds, by the time the two crew members fought through every obstacle and finally rowed the little boat back inside the time bubble, it was already 20:13 in the evening.

The first mate's death at the monster's hands had cast a pall over everyone. After 8 PM, cheerful music and laughter drifted up from both cruise ships. Amid the festive atmosphere, the Captain, heavy-hearted, draped his coat over the first mate's ruined head and carried him aboard himself.

The only good news was that the Coast Guard had received the Mary Jane's distress call and was expected to arrive within three hours with a fleet of speedboats.

Speedboats were smaller, faster, had higher hulls, and were far safer than any lifeboat. Once the guard arrived outside the bubble, they could come inside and wait, then use the next day's 7-second window to evacuate everyone.

With the rescue plan settled, the next step was to brief all the passengers.

Tomorrow's evacuation would be tense—only 7 seconds, no room for error, or an entire speedboat full of people could die.

At this point, there was no room for coddling panic. The Captain needed absolute order and absolute obedience.

So the dance in progress was abruptly cut short. The Captain wheeled the bodies of the first mate and Dali out onto the deck, turned on the ship-wide broadcast, and laid out everything that had happened from the Mary Jane's chance encounter with the Golden Anchor to now. He ordered all passengers and crew to return to their cabins, pack their things, and limit carry-on items to no more than 5 kilograms to lighten the load.

If any passenger objected, the Captain pointed to the two corpses on deck. The grotesque sight, the horrific wounds—that was the best proof of the truth. No one could keep their mouth shut after seeing those bodies.

So that night, everyone on the ship got moving.

Everly had packed her things long ago, ready to leave at a moment's notice.

She couldn't explain why, but even with victory seemingly within reach, she felt a nagging dread, a deep sense of unease.

The next morning, when Everly woke and stepped onto the deck to look around, the Coast Guard that should have arrived overnight was nowhere in sight. Her premonition had been right.

The Coast Guard hadn't come.

Something was wrong.

Realizing this, Everly hurried straight to the Captain's quarters.

"Do you know which waters the Newport Division of the Coast Guard covers?" Everly got straight to the point.

The Captain, a sharp man, went pale at the question: "That's the team that operates around Newport Harbor in Arigifu State. But we hit that storm near the port in North Naradka State—those two spots are over 350 nautical miles apart!"

"Yes, and that's exactly why the Coast Guard hasn't shown up—this time bubble is like a message in a bottle, drifting; it's not stationary, it's constantly moving across the sea."

The Coast Guard had specialized gear to pinpoint the source of radio signals for precise search-and-rescue operations. When the two crew members sent out the distress call outside the time bubble, the guard must have locked onto the signal's location and believed they could reach it in three hours.

However, neither the Coast Guard nor the Mary Jane's crew had considered that the time bubble's coordinates were constantly shifting. With such violent waves, three hours was more than enough to push the bubble to a completely new location. Even if the guard reached the original coordinates, all they'd find was empty ocean.

"To get real-time positioning, we'd need a rescue boat with radio equipment to stay outside the time bubble at all times, following it closely—but that's too difficult. That damn storm is relentless, and our lifeboats aren't sturdy enough; they'd capsize!"

"But we have to do it, or everyone will die here."

"Yes, because without resupply, the food and water on board won't last much longer. Without rescue, everyone will die here... Someone has to step up and maintain real-time positioning outside the bubble. Let me think, Ms. Everly, give me some time to think."

"Alright, please decide quickly."

Everly let out a long sigh and left the Captain's quarters.

Since the announcement had been made in advance, passengers and crew had been gathered around the deck since early morning, eagerly scanning the horizon for the Coast Guard.

But what they got was a broadcast saying "keep waiting."

"...The time bubble's coordinates are unstable and constantly shifting. We need to send a lifeboat outside to provide real-time coordinates for the rescue team. Once that succeeds, everyone will be saved. Please be patient..."

Despite the clear explanation in the broadcast, the passengers weren't buying it.

"Can you guys even do anything? Yesterday you said we'd leave today, now you're saying tomorrow—what if tomorrow falls through too..."

"If the Captain hadn't insisted on entering that damn bubble to explore that wreck, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"They're a bunch of pigs! Useless! Letting them run wild will doom us all!"

The dashed hope of rescue ignited the passengers' fury. They gathered outside the Captain's quarters and crew quarters, shouting protests in righteous indignation.

In the past, the Captain and crew could always find ways to distract the passengers and calm them down. But this time, for some reason, the passengers' anger was unusually intense. They seemed to have lost all faith in the crew, which was a death knell for a cruise ship adrift at sea.

Sure enough, by evening, the tension on board had reached a breaking point.

But no matter how heated the arguments got, someone had to do the job.

Around 19:50 in the evening, someone spotted a lifeboat being lowered into the water. Several crew members, carrying a tightly wrapped package, sneaked down the gangplank.

"Look over there! The crew is trying to escape!"

"See, the rescue story was all lies! They want to abandon us and take the supplies to save themselves!"

"I overheard the crew talking this morning—they said the supplies on board are running out fast. So it's true..."

Fueled by those with ulterior motives, the passengers rushed onto the deck, furious and panicked. A large crowd surged toward the gangplank, trying to push past the crew blocking them and board the lifeboat below.

"Everyone, settle down, settle down! The crew isn't trying to escape—they're going out to seek help, like they said over the loudspeaker earlier..." A crew member raised a megaphone, trying to calm the passengers, but before he could finish, someone punched him square in the face.

The passenger who struck the crew member snatched the megaphone and snarled, "Don't trust them! They're all lying!"

"Charge! The crew doesn't have guns—let's grab 'em all!"

"Ahhhh!"

...

Everly truly couldn't understand how things had spiraled out of control to this point.

Under the leadership of the passenger who had grabbed the megaphone, over 180 passengers aboard staged a mutiny, taking control of the 74 crew members and George and his two companions.

Even the few crew members who had braced themselves for the possibility of dying, planning to venture out during the "7-second failure window" to seek help, were forcibly dragged off the lifeboat—along with their radios—before the window even hit, and tied up tight with the rest of the crew in the banquet hall.

Everly had initially assumed this mutiny was a classic case of a bunch of idiots acting on a dumb impulse, but she quickly realized she had underestimated the rioters—or rather, she had underestimated the man who had sparked the passengers' uprising.

His name was Sritan, an unremarkable-looking middle-aged guy with a bald head, eyes set wide apart and bulging a bit, and a flat, elongated mouth, giving him a faint resemblance to a giant frog.

He seemed to suffer from a skin condition; even while delivering a speech on the banquet hall stage, his fingers kept scratching at the dense, orange-peel-textured skin on his neck, dropping little white flakes everywhere.

Yet, paradoxically, despite his unimpressive demeanor and appearance, his speech was crazy persuasive. Just hearing his low, hoarse voice made Everly involuntarily enraptured, like she was hearing heavenly music, completely spellbound.

Sritan said the Captain had deceived everyone. A surge of violent anger suddenly welled up in Everly's chest.

Sritan said that to escape the time bubble, there was no need to seek outside help—all they had to do was find the witch hidden aboard the Golden Anchor and destroy her corpse. Everly began to ponder where the witch's body might be hidden, determined to obliterate it completely.

Sritan went on to say that once the time bubble was broken and the thousands of trapped compatriots freed, he would offer the entire crew as living sacrifices, leading everyone in a ritual to become followers of the great "Deep One" leader, Father Dagon, gaining powerful, perfect bodies and eternal life... Everly began to fantasize about the immense power and glory she would attain upon converting to Father Dagon's faith.

As the brief speech concluded, nearly everyone in the banquet hall—except for the bound crew—was seduced by Sritan, their eyes gleaming with fanatical fervor, eager to rush onto the Golden Anchor, find the witch's corpse, liberate their compatriots, and go through hell and high water for the glory of Father Dagon.