The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 191 - 192: Discoveries All Around

I walked to the corner of the corridor and softly asked the water ball if there was something hidden under the ship.

The water ball seemed to only understand our speech; describing what it saw was rather difficult for it.

It jumped to the ground, tugged on my pants, indicating that I should follow it.

We returned to the deck, where the guard was on a rotating shift and not stationed at a fixed location; I didn’t see any guards when I came out.

The water ball pulled me all the way to the edge of the railing, then suspended its body and slapped the exterior hull of the ship.

This meant I should look outside. I climbed over the railing and leaned down to see the dense blood handprints on the exterior hull.

When Captain Jack first lowered the camera, he showed no change in expression, so the blood handprints probably weren’t there back then.

"Sss—pshh—" A strange hissing sound came from nearby. I turned my head and saw Bi Shi hanging on the ship’s iron chain.

Because the anchor chain broke, it hadn’t been retracted. She was now climbing on the chain, clearly also examining those blood handprints.

"I snuck a look at the video content," she said while gesturing, "when they filmed, these handprints only reached here!"

She pointed to the part of the hull above the waterline, then marked another spot higher, saying, "Now they’re here."

I naturally saw it too because this position was right below the railing, feeling like it would climb over and onto the deck at any moment.

Could it be that the ship is moving toward the island, being pushed by these ’hands’?

I had seen blood handprints on the dinghy during the day that looked exactly like the handprints on the fishing boat now.

However, we only saw the handprints, not their owners. The crew member who accidentally fell overboard was dragged into the sea by several hands, indicating that the handprints didn’t appear out of nowhere.

"Let’s go, nothing more to see." Bi Shi quickly climbed up the chain without making a sound.

I climbed back over the railing, and together we entered the cabin. We were getting closer to the island, and it wouldn’t be long before the fishing boat would run aground.

If we don’t execute the plan to seize the boat now, it will be useless once it’s aground.

Our group gathered once more. Qinghan had regained his composure and obtained vital information from the mouth of the surviving woman.

Lu Xiaodao and the leader had also gained a lot. We gathered in the utility room, forming a small circle to hold a secret meeting.

Lu Xiaodao said he searched every corner of the ship but did not find any room or hidden area solely for storing weapons and ammunition.

Thus, he speculated that the ship’s weapons might be spread out, or they were using unconventional weapons he didn’t recognize, leading him to overlook them.

Though he didn’t find an armory, he discovered something very strange. Those huddled in the lab were consuming some kind of unknown liquid.

We had never seen them eat in the cafeteria and assumed they’d call for ’takeout’ from there.

The result was that they were hiding in the lab taking medicine; we just didn’t know what miraculous concoction it was that allowed them to forgo meals.

"I told you, they’re not normal, like robots; what they drink is probably motor oil!" Bi Shi snapped her fingers triumphantly.

"I found a prison in the ship’s hold with several people inside, um... about five or six." the leader continued.

"I also discovered that a painting hanging in the hallway had been moved." Guan Hai, not having the leader or Lu Xiaodao’s skills to avoid surveillance in the corridor, wasn’t assigned a task.

But on his way to the infirmary, he noticed a painting had moved. He visited Cong Zhibo every day and had paid special attention to the decorations in the hallway.

"Maybe it went askew when the ship rocked," Bi Shi said.

"No, I found a secret compartment behind the painting, but I couldn’t open it. It requires fingerprint verification," Guan Hai immediately said. "I initially thought it shifted because of the ship’s rocking, but there are several paintings in that location, and only one was off-kilter, which made me curious to check it."

"Have you checked other paintings?" Chen Qinghan asked.

"I have, and every painting has a secret compartment behind it."

"Each hallway has dozens of paintings. Combining all the ship’s corridors... could that be their weapon cache?" the leader mused.

"It’s a possibility," Chen Qinghan pondered and said, "We could find someone to test it."

"Wait~ only one painting was tampered with? It seems now only the captain’s bodyguard carries a gun." An idea struck me, and I quickly said.

"Yes, perhaps he was too hurried to reposition the painting," Guan Hai nodded.

The medical area is closest to the cabin door, and the hallway with the infirmaries takes a turn leading to deck access.

The bodyguard probably took the weapon from nearby and rushed to join Captain Jack on deck.

During our days on the ship, we rarely saw the bodyguard, as he wasn’t a 24-hour protector; most of the time, he stayed in his own room.

He only appeared with Captain Jack when the Sea Demon boarded and when the crew member fell overboard.

Storing weapons in the hallway allowed crew members to quickly grab them in case of danger, just by stepping out of their rooms.

It’s convenient but has drawbacks. Since it unlocks via fingerprint verification, to avoid errors in a hurry, any fingerprint can access the compartments.

This might be why Captain Jack compromises with the crew; they can easily access weapons, and in case of a mutiny, Jack could be shot dead amidst the chaos.

The design of this armory certainly wasn’t from Captain Jack, whose role was merely that of a steward on the ship.

"Wait a moment... those weapons are so accessible, so why did nobody go back to the cabin to get some?" I thought again. With the crew both terrified and panicked, when they suspected me of being a witch, they were scared to death and wanted to kill me. Why didn’t anyone think to grab a gun and shoot me?

Out of a hundred people, finding one who’s quick-tempered and impulsive isn’t hard.

They’re not as unfamiliar with guns as ordinary people. Sneak one out and shoot me, the captain wouldn’t demand his life in return.

We need to figure out how the armory is activated so we can seize the ship without the crew obtaining weapons.

"Could there be a master switch? The main switch is on, then the sub-switch has power?" Guan Hai speculated.

"What happens if there’s a power outage on the ship?" Lu Xiaodao immediately asked.

Their question led us to two different courses of action.

According to Guan Hai, if the armory needs to be activated by a master switch and only then can the compartments be fingerprint-accessed, we should just take control of the master switch.

If, as Lu Xiaodao suggested, we disrupt the ship’s power system, then we should head to the engine room.

"We cannot allow a blackout," Chen Qinghan promptly rejected, "the laboratory has refrigeration units containing items that need to be kept at low temperatures."