Endless Ocean: Survival Begins with a Dugout Canoe-Chapter 45 - 43: The Shipwreck of the Lost Sea
11:45 PM.
Fifteen minutes had passed since Shi Ming gave the order to turn back.
The helmsman steered the wandering ship, his eyes fixed on the planned route without blinking. A thin layer of sweat beaded on his forehead.
He was nervous.
He had followed the captain’s orders, heading back the way they came.
Normally, a ten-minute voyage should have been enough to leave the area of abnormally high Sea Crystal Stone concentration and return to normal waters.
But the ship had been sailing at full speed for fifteen minutes and was still within the abnormal region. It seemed they had lost their way—or worse, gone even deeper.
On top of that, a fog had risen over the sea.
The fog was growing thicker and thicker!
’What the hell!’
"Sea Crystal Stone energy concentration: 345%!"
"It’s gone up again!"
"We’re supposed to be heading back. How is the concentration getting higher?"
Shi Ming felt no joy. Where there was smoke, there was fire. Besides, the crew had followed his orders to retrace their course, so how could this be happening? The ship’s navigation instruments weren’t damaged, and even the voyage data recorder showed everything was normal.
"Captain, I think we’ve gone deeper. Something seems to be interfering with the ship’s course..."
Shi Ming frowned.
"Is it a sea beast?"
He had only been asleep for a little while, and now he was faced with this bizarre situation.
"Have we ever encountered anything like this before?"
"Never."
The crew gathered to discuss a solution. A few of the more experienced sailors speculated that the high concentration of Sea Crystal Stone energy was interfering with the magnetic field, causing the ship’s course to drift and leading them deeper into the anomaly.
In the Wandering Era, there was no GPS, no internet, no signal towers.
The only way to solve this problem was to wait for sunrise. Once the fog dissipated, they could use the most primitive navigation methods to find their way out.
"Drop anchor immediately! Halt our course! All hands, first-degree alert! Prepare for a potential sea beast attack!"
Shi Ming commanded.
He walked out of the control room and onto the deck.
It was nearly midnight. The night wind made the deck feel chilly, and the fog blanketing the sea grew steadily thicker, carrying a cold bite with every breath.
He walked to the edge of the ship and looked out at the calm sea.
After two days of eating blue trout, his night vision was quite good. But right now, the sea—both on the surface and below—was deep, dark, and showed no signs of anything unusual.
Yet the ship was trapped, going in circles within the fog.
Like a caged animal that had lost its bearings.
Perhaps only when the sun rose to dispel the night fog could they use it to get their bearings and leave.
But Shi Ming didn’t have the patience to wait until dawn. Anchoring in such a strange stretch of sea left him feeling uneasy. ’If there’s a powerful B-rank or A-rank sea beast hiding in these waters,’ he thought, ’I’m not confident I can handle it alone in this fog.’
’Even if I won, the ship would suffer catastrophic losses.’
The moment it struck midnight, he activated his Eye of Intelligence.
"System, acquire intelligence."
[BEEP... BEEP...]
[Compiling intelligence...]
[Searching. Confirming host’s precise coordinates... Search successful. Summarizing intelligence...]
[BEEP BEEP]
[BEEP BEEP]
[BEEP BEEP]
Shi Ming’s expression grew grim.
...
[Congratulations!!! You have obtained rare A-rank intelligence: The Lost Sea!!!]
[Intelligence generated.]
’A-rank intelligence?’
’The higher the intelligence rank, the greater its value and the bigger the potential rewards! Under normal circumstances, I might even be celebrating.’
’But in a bizarre situation like this, A-rank intelligence means A-rank danger. This is nothing to celebrate.’
’Not to mention a name like the Lost Sea. It’s obviously a bad omen.’
The A-rank intelligence report was long. As he carefully read every word, his expression grew even colder.
In short, the Lost Sea was a region of the ocean where it was exceptionally easy to get lost.
It was the graveyard of a species of sea beast called the Mist Jellyfish.
Twenty years ago, they had been a powerful species. The strongest of the Mist Jellyfish had evolved to A-rank, making them a true oceanic power. Unfortunately, they were hunted to extinction by the Golden Ship [Huangshi] while it was patrolling these waters.
The [Huangshi] reported directly to the King-level Wandering Ship, the [Lighthouse], and was hailed as the most powerful Golden Ship.
Its interior was filled with countless weapons, spoils of war, and collectibles. It was considered a lost gem from the age of technology, and one of the pride and joys of America.
The battle that followed was exceptionally brutal. All the Mist Jellyfish were slain, but the price the [Huangshi] paid was even greater. The two A-rank Awakened aboard were killed, and that pearl of America’s technological age sank into the foggy waters, its location lost.
The [Lighthouse] was furious and tried to recover the sunken [Huangshi], only to find it completely untraceable.
The [Huangshi] had failed to transmit its coordinates before it sank.
A massive bounty offered for over a decade yielded nothing.
Eventually, the matter was dropped.
Thus, the legend of the Lost Sea was born. It was said that anyone who could find those waters would have a chance to locate the sunken ship and claim the vast treasures on board—treasures so great that even the [Lighthouse] mourned their loss.
Unfortunately, no one was ever able to reach those waters. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Or perhaps, they simply repeated the [Huangshi]’s fate: sinking into the fog, never to escape.
...
’The rougher the seas, the more valuable the fish.’
’Since I’ve ended up at these coordinates, it must mean I’m fated to find the sunken [Huangshi].’
’That was the ship hailed as the number one Golden Ship in the world!’
’It’d be a lie to say I’m not tempted!’
’Just finding the wreck and selling the intel to the [Lighthouse] would fetch a handsome price. And that’s not even mentioning using diving gear to explore the wreck itself, unearth a mountain of treasure, and get rich overnight!’
But Shi Ming knew that opportunity and crisis often went hand in hand.
For more than a decade, wandering ships of every class had tried to find the [Huangshi]’s whereabouts, but all came back empty-handed.
Besides, the intelligence report stated that the blood of countless Mist Jellyfish had mingled with the energy in these waters, causing the area to be perpetually shrouded in fog with a chaotic magnetic field—
[The blood of the A-rank sea beast, the Mist Jellyfish, has thrown this area’s magnetic field into chaos and shrouded it in a fog that is difficult to escape. Land-based creatures who inhale too much of the fog are prone to extreme drowsiness. A normal human can last for about 24 hours, while an Awakened can last longer, depending on their individual constitution.]
Now that he knew there was treasure here, he was determined to claim it.
But a normal person would fall unconscious after just 24 hours in the fog.
The most urgent task was getting the ship out of this place.
’If my entire crew falls asleep, a single D-rank sea beast could wipe us all out and send us to the bottom to become part of the treasure ourselves!’
Shi Ming’s mind raced, searching for a way out.
’Or, if all else fails, should I use the Gold-level canoe’s submersible mode to dive to the seafloor and search for a solution down there?’
