Chereads / I Shall Rule The Seas! / Chapter 7 - It's That Cowardly Friend of Yours!

Chapter 7 - It's That Cowardly Friend of Yours!

"You stole that line from a movie, didn't you?"

[Maybe]

Finally calming his nerves, John finally got a chance to take a clear look around his surroundings.

He watched as a few schools of fish swam around him, with sharks and the common fish in the area!

Surprisingly, there's even a manta ray among them, three of them!

Though unfortunately, he didn't see any deep water coral reefs, just sand.

"Whoa, this is my first time seeing a manta ray this close, and everything is so...clear, it's amazing!"

He was clearly mesmerized with was happening to him, but at the same time, deep inside, he was also feeling a little uncomfortable.

Why?

Because he's still not sure if what's really happening to him is happening for real or if he's just having a lucid dream, and if it's the latter, it would certainly suck after all the excitement he had so far.

"Oberon, I'm not dreaming am I?" asked John while pinching his cheek.

[You are not, everything is happening for real]

John smiled with a slight relief and said, "Just making sure, though my cheek hurts a lot. So I guess I'm not on illegal drugs and hallucinating"

After a while of playing and swimming around, John finally remembered something and said, "Oberon, can you calculate how fast I can go?"

[Certainly]

"Then.."

Remembering that scene in the movie Aquaman during Arthur's first swim, John slightly bent his knees down, then a second later, he sprung forward!

BOOM!

The resulting action created a small sonic boom underwater as his body barreled through the water like that particular hard rod barreling through that tight wet hole!

"Woohoo! It actually works! This is awesome! Kuhahaha!"

He was going so fast that he felt like making a lap around the world in a couple of minutes is not an impossible feat, though only a few seconds had passed when John was forced to stop when he stumbled upon a shipwreck.

While observing the shipwreck with school of fish constantly swimming around it, John said, "So how fast did I go Oberon?"

[147.3 kilometers per hour]

"That fast?"

[Yes]

"What aquatic creature can currently beat my speed?"

[None, the current recorded aquatic creature just following behind you is the Pacific Sailfish with a record of 110 kilometers per hour]

"Hahaha!"

There was a short silence for a couple of seconds, before John burst into a laughing fit as he can't believe it! He's faster than any other aquatic creature found on the planet, even the sailfish can only lag behind in second!

In his glee, he suddenly started twisting around and somersaulting like the crazy Peter Pan!

A few moments later, his excitement slowly died down as he finally addressed the issue in front of him.

"Though this is surprising, but that's a shipwreck right?"

[Yes, it is]

Astonished and curious, he slowly swam over towards the wreckage, he curiously swam around it while mumbling to himself, "The shore isn't that far from here, but I didn't know that there had ever been a shipwreck here. I wonder how lon- Oh! isn't that the anchor!?"

The thing he was full of rust and was in the shape of a curving T like any other ship anchors out there.

John swam towards it and curiously ran his fingers over, "That's disgustingly slimey, and that's pure iron, I think. Though I wonder how much I can sell this for on the junk shop?"

[If you don't want to spend time in jail, then I suggest that you should report your discovery to the authorities instead]

"Why? In it's current state, I'm pretty sure the authorities already knew about this shipwreck and had salvaged whatever that can be salvage"

[If they did, then you wouldn't have even found this anchor still lying here]

With a thoughtful look on his face, John slowly raised his head and stared towards the water surface while rubbing his chin.

"Forget it, the depth I'm at right now is probably around 200 meters, maybe even more. I wouldn't be able to explain how I even found this shipwreck. Free diving won't even cut it since I don't even own a boat. They'd just be suspicious of me, and I don't like dealing with troubles, especially if the government is involve"

[Wise choice]

"No, it's common sense to avoid troubles if the government is involve"

Boom!

John just lightly shook his head as he slowly turned around, and with an almost similar sound to a torpedo barreling through underwater, he went back towards the direction of where he came from, leaving the shipwreck location where there's only an anchor remaining that shows that there was once a ship buried there.

Meanwhile, at the shore.

Andy waited for John to surface from the water as he wanted to talk to him about something.

Seconds turned to minutes, and his worry slowly grew, prompting him to call the authorities, but just as he was about to do it, it suddenly struck him that John is somewhat a relatively famous free diver in their area and put off calling the authorities and started fishing instead while still keeping on eye to where John disappeared to as he is still a little worried.

"While waiting for my good friend John, I'm going to busy myself with fishing. During the last video, I told you guys before that I won't be using lures for the time being, and that's what I'm about to do. So yesterday, I went to the supermarket and bought some chicken livers! I did some research and saw chicken liver is popular among anglers in other nations, so yeah. I went and bought half of a kilo of it. I just hope I catch a big one since it's been a while since I caught some big fish in the area"

With a huge smile on his face, Andy turned his head back towards the camera before casting his rod towards the water.

"Now, we wait. I hope I catch big fish this time as I've only ever caught a few before...well, one to be precise. I really envy John, he always catches the big fishes whenever he's around. Sometimes, It just makes me wonder if I had used up all of my luck from my past life"

Andy continued talking to his camera, talking about this and that, mostly related to fishing or whatnot, then from the corner of his eyes, he noticed someone surfacing from the water.

"John! Yo! Where did you go? Dang, you can really hold you breath well, even I'm afraid of going out there in the sea by myself"

With tens of meters of distance between them, Andy started running and yelling towards John while waving his hand towards him.

John turned his head towards the direction of where the voice was coming from and saw Andy running towards him from afar.

"I just went out for a swim! You should really rent a boat instead of fishing on the shore! Big games are out there in the middle of the sea" John yelled in reply while thinking about those large games he saw on the way.

"Wait, I have to tell you something!" Andy increased his speed when he saw him preparing to leave.

"What is it? Got any fish yet?" John laughed while watching Andy catch his breath in big gulps of air.

"Never mind the fish, do you want to come with me at the opening of the Aquarium next week!?" asked Andy after finally catching his breath as he looked at John with shining eyes full of excitement.

John looked at those googly eyes, and it sent a shiver down his spine as he frantically took a step back.

It would have been fine and dandy if it was from a woman, but the one before him is a freaking man!

Like who does that!?

"Do that next time and I'm gonna punch you in the face"

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad! My girlfriend likes it when I do that"

"Do I look like your girlfriend then?"

"Uhh no?"

"Exactly, now I'm leaving"

"So, are you coming to the Aquarium next week then!?"

"Sure, as long as everything's on you!"

"No problem!"

Andy had almost forgotten his purpose for approaching John, so he immediately yelled towards John the moment the latter slowly started walking away from him and it made him smile brightly when he heard the answer he wanted to hear!

"You guys heard it, Kylie's coming to the Aquarium! Well, technically, I asked John, but still, he's only the plus one! Nyahaha! And you dawgies will only be seeing this video after we went to the Aquarium as I don't want John to see this and learn that I only invited him because Kylie is more popular than him...and me, I guess. Anyway, let's get back to fishing dawgies! Woo! It's going to be great day!"

it was a couple of minutes later when John arrived at their house and saw Kylie standing on the balcony with her hands on her waist, staring at John dead in the eye.

"Where have you been? Ate Lorraine had advised you yesterday that you still need to take some rest, that's the reason why Uncle Gin gave you the day off today and not to fool around" Kylie said, scowling.

'But I was just out for ten minutes' John couldn't help have those thoughts bitterly inside.

"Alright, alright, I'll take some rest okay? Geez, I just went to the beach and since when did my little sister started acting like a grown-up?"

Scratching the back of his head, John walked over with a smile on his face and started ruffling her hair as he stood before her.

In annoyance, Kylie swatted his hands away from her and said angrily, "I'm not a kid, I'm more mature than kids my age!"

John dug his ear and said, "Yes, yes, Kylie is a grown-up now, so do you want to eat some Tocino for lunch then?"

Hearing that, Kylie's eyes quickly lit up, but then she quickly wore her "grown-up" look on her face and started talking like she didn't have a choice.

"Well...eating Tocino is not bad, but make sure we eat something heal...healthy later tonight!"

John smiled at her and once again rubbed her head before making his way inside.

'Tocino, and you say you're not a kid anymore, tut, tut'

"I'm only eating Tocino cause it tastes good okay!? And it's not because I'm a kid!"

Kylie shouted from behind him before she ran past him and went back inside.

"Yes, yes"

John's amused voice sounded from inside the house, followed by the sound of laughter and yelling echoing throughout the house..

Meanwhile.

"Fish on! Let's go!"

Andy immediately started yelling when he felt a powerful tug on his rod, so he started reeling in the fish after tiring it, but as the silhouette of the fish became clearer as it got closer to the shore, Andy's eyes couldn't help but widen in shock as he exclaimed in horror!

"Holy sh*t! Why is it a freaking shark!?"

Even though the shark was only three feet long, he was already slightly shaking as he doesn't know how to deal with it.

After all, sharks are one of the top predators in the ocean, and it could still pack a bite no matter how small it is.

And this shark probably wouldn't even hesitate to have a little taste of Andy if he makes a mistake in taking the hook out of its mouth.

Andy just stared at the shark, then he looked around his surroundings and saw that he was all by his lonesome self, which just made his situation even worse that it already is!

"Sh*t, how do I deal with this?" he said helplessly as he's scared to even touch the damn shark, much less taking the hook out that's stuck in its mouth.

But then the face of a certain someone popped up in his mind, so he immediately took his phone out from his small bag hanging over his shoulder, and while he was doing that, he pulled the shark through his rod towards the water, just enough for the seawater to reach it and prevent it from dying.

He looked through his contacts and quickly dialed John's number, and a few seconds later, the call got connected.

[Smith household, who is this?]

The voice of a little girl sounded from the other side of the call, and Andy quickly realized that it was John's sister who had picked up the call.

"Hello Kylie, this is Andy, is your brother there?" he asked while making his voice as friendly as possible.

[Who is it, Kylie?]

Not even a second after asking her, he immediately heard John's voice, though he sounded far away.

[It's your friend! It's that cowardly friend of yours from Laoag City! He's looking for you!]

"..."