Chapter 8: Not-so-Shallow Anymore!
"This..." Looking at the massive hole in front of them with a depth so frightening it made it look like an abyss, one of the crew members expressed his shock outwardly.
While they were joyful because of the fact that the remains of an ancient civilization could very well exist within such a place, for them to actually reach it wasn't easy.
The high-ranking members were also standing right on the edge of the hole with faces that clearly displayed the dilemma they were facing.
Not even them could guarantee their survival if they were to jump right in.
Ken arrived shortly after, and seeing how everybody was either shocked or beaming with happiness, he looked straight at the high-ranking men and hid himself.
He was sure something not-so-pleasant would occur in here, and he wasn't planning on being the scapegoat they use for it.
And just as he thought, the high-ranking men looked at each other, and then they looked behind them at the hundreds of crew members.
"Hey, you bastards, who's willing to jump from here? We'll make sure to reward him." One of the high-ranking men suggested.
"Hahahaha." Almost as soon as he finished, the crew members started laughing.
"Sir Taro, you're really funny. Hahaha." With the crew being comfortable with their high-ranking members, they thought they were joking.
Though such a thing has happened before, this time it wasn't something they could come out of alive, so surely they're just kidding, right?
...
Right?
...
Seeing the serious faces of their high-ranking members, who were looking at them like death reapers, the guards finally understood the situation they were in.
"You can't be serious, right? If you guys are unsure of surviving the fall, then we'll surely fall to our deaths. How do you expect us to just go in exchange for a promise we might not live to see? right guys?" And that's when the man who had been speaking realized how fucked up he was.
The other crewmates distanced themselves from him and didn't even dare to look at him, and when he turned to see the faces of the high-ranking members, his entire body shivered.
"I take it you don't need any rewards." The high-ranking man who had suggested this, Taro, spoke again.
"I can't tell you how grateful we are for your sacrifice." He covered his face with his hands, but his smile and the smile of the others were far too obvious.
While the crew members weren't close enough to see anything, they, who had been on the edge, did.
They saw glimmers of treasures, and their years of experience raiding islands and snatching treasures formed an intuition that screamed for them to jump right in, but they couldn't be reckless, as many of their comrades had fallen to this very greed.
"No! No, no, no! I'm not going; I'm not doing it. You can't do this to me! I've been faithfully doing my best job like a slave for you, and this is how you pay me back?" The man cried out and even turned to run, but this only further deepened his situation.
One could easily guess from the eyes of the high-ranking members and the crewmates that nobody gave a fuck what one little crew member did to the ship.
He was as insignificant as every one of them, and if anything, he was the one benefiting from being part of this crew.
The man ran and ran and ran, but none of the high-ranking members moved; instead, it was some of the man's own comrades who had stopped him.
Having been in his way, the mere look the high-ranking crewmen gave them made them clench their hands, hold their weapons with closed eyes, and move on to stop the man.
"Don't stop me! Don't stop me or I will kill you!" The man shouted and shouted, but what can a single man do in the face of ten?
Thus, the second the man tried to hit the first crew member to show up in front of him, he received several hits from his sides that sent him tumbling to the ground.
After that, he was held by his hands and dragged all the way to the edge of the hole.
"Please, don't do this. I'll do anything!"
"What are you waiting for? Throw him!" Taro ordered.
"No! No, please, I don't want to die." The men who had been reluctant to throw their comrade once again moved without their will and threw the poor fella who had been shouting, resisting, and crying.
"NooOooOo!" The voice of the man progressively lessened until they thought they couldn't hear him anymore and then.
Push
...
...
Silence reigned over the entire place as nobody moved nor said a single word.
The high-ranking men were also looking at the hole before they looked up at each other.
"As we thought, it's dange—" Before the man could even finish his words...
"Hahaha! I'm alive! I'm alive! Fuck you all; I swear I will come back to kill you!"
Fwshh Fwshh Fresh
"Huh? What's this? Ah, no, spare me, Sir! I was wrong. Please don't do this! AAAAAaah!" Just as the man's voice was heard, the high-ranking crewmen jumped down and, without wasting a single second, silenced the man who could become a threat... for life.
"Get over here, lads!"
-----End-----
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