Charles and his party boarded the Unicorne, which was undeniably more spacious and cleaner compared to the shabby Rat—it was a delight just to look at it.
He ran to each cabin, meticulously checking them one by one to ensure everything was fail-safe. As captain, he had to be as familiar with every part of the ship as he was with his own body.
After verifying that everything was normal, Charles returned to the cockpit and casually waved his hand. The smokestack of the Unicorne started billowing thick black smoke, and the ship slowly sailed towards the deep sea.
Glancing outside the glass at Coral Island, which was gradually shrinking in size, Charles walked over to the communication pipe and shouted into it, "Chief Engineer, how does the new ship feel?"
A few seconds later, James's hearty voice came through the pipe, "Captain, the ship is great! The steam is coming out fast! And it's not hot below at all, just 39 degrees."
"Increase the turbine to maximum, let's test its speed."
"Aye, Captain."
As black smoke continuously poured from the smokestack, the speed of the Unicorne began to climb. At peak velocity, Charles felt almost as if he were driving a speedboat.
It was at this moment that he caught something white on the sea surface from the corner of his eye. "Chief Engineer, decrease speed!"
As the speeding Unicorne slowed down, Charles could see the object clearly—it was a corpse, bloated as if observed by a giant.
It should have been lying in the water being gnawed by fish, but eerily, it stood motionless on the sea surface, staring at the Unicorne.
Charles wasn't curious about the origins of this guy; he had seen stranger things at sea. He just wanted to find a target for his new deck gun.
"Boom!" The recoil of the deck gun made the ship shudder violently.
Although Charles wasn't experienced with the gun and had poor aim, after firing a dozen or so rounds, the bloated corpse was instantly blown apart.
Whatever force had allowed it to stand up again had to bow before the cannon fire.
Charles was certain that if he had been aboard this ship during their previous encounter with that buoy monster, the outcome would have been entirely different.
After testing the new ship's capabilities, Charles turned his attention to the sea chart on the wall.
It was a chart from the Explorer Association, and with it, along with a compass, they could find their destination.
"Let's start on route 6, and when we reach the 68th buoy, turn south towards our destination," Charles's finger glided over the chart.
"Alright, Captain!" replied the Second Officer in control. The red-haired fella seemed a bit excited, his eyes roving around.
"I remember your name as… Krona?"
"Yes, Captain, that's my name, my mother gave it to me. Captain, are you really as Frey said, someone who once explored an island? Can monsters truly create nonexistent persons in one's memory? How did you figure them out back then?"
Charles frowned slightly, as if recalling some unpleasant memory, "Just steer the ship well, when the time comes, the first mate will relieve you."
As he watched his captain walk out the door, Krona was puzzled, "Did I ask something I shouldn't have? I had my compliments ready."
Days at sea passed by, and the old crew members and the new ones gradually adjusted to each other. Except for Deep being too young and somewhat defiant, everyone else got along fairly well.
The Unicorne was fast, and in just seven days, they reached the waters near their target.
Bright beams of light swept across the dark sea surface, searching for the target island.
The sea chart and compass could only locate the approximate position, the exact coordinates had to be found slowly through more primitive methods.
Inside the cockpit, Krona looked at Charles beside him. "Captain, I've heard that some people at sea have special methods to find islands, much better than searching blindly like this, something like magic. Do you know it?"
"Stop blabbering and focus on steering your ship," Charles felt that the Second Officer was being excessively talkative.
"I... I have a way..." said the man sitting on the stool, Bandage, unusually interrupting.
As both men's gaze turned to him, Bandage slowly continued, "In the Sect... there is a... ritual, where we can seek the... help of the Futan God, it requires... the sacrifice of a person."
Charles looked at Bandage with mixed feelings, realizing that his First Mate had not yet freed himself from the Futan Sect; he hoped time would lessen the Cult's brainwashing.
"Forget those disgusting things, we don't need them."
"Captain, look! What is that?" Following the direction pointed by the Second Officer's finger, Charles saw a blurry island emerging in front of him; they had found it.
Excited crew members stood on deck, gazing at the distant island.
With prior experience in mind, Charles did not rashly land on the island and had the Unicorne circle around it for observation.
The limited brightness of the lights allowed only the periphery of the island to be seen. The island was large; it took three hours for the Unicorne to circle it fully at its speed. Under the lights, the island appeared very barren,
Most prominent on the island were oddly shaped stones—some as tall as three or four-story buildings, others half the size of a person. They were spaced apart and seemed to follow a certain pattern, giving Charles the illusion of being in a quarry.
"Can anyone live here?" Deep hesitated to ask, a question no one could answer.
Charles knew that whether or not the island was habitable, it definitely harbored some danger; this was a level 5 danger island, and already five exploration ships never returned after exploring it.
"Throw some live fish onto it and see if there are any meat-eating creatures."
Upon Charles's command, some fish were thrown onto the beach, deliberately slashed to emit a smell of blood, spreading the scent as everyone watched anxiously.
The freshwater fish quickly suffocated, and after half an hour, suddenly Charles spotted a pair of eyes lighting up amid the pile of stones. "Squeak, squeak, squeak~"
Black fur, a slender tail, and eyes the size of mung beans—it was a common rat.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the rat scurried to a dead fish and began nibbling on it.
Faces lit up with joy—seeing a normal creature come out was good news. If rats could live on this island, then perhaps humans could too.
But before they could celebrate, more greedy eyes emerged from the rocks, swarms of rats rolling in like waves towards the dead fish, instantly covering the white sand beach with black-brown fur.
The chewing sounds on the shore rose and fell, sending chills down the spine of those on the ship.
"These... there are quite a few rats..." Second Officer Krona said to his captain with a forced smile.