Endless Ocean: Escape Starting from a Canoe

Chapter 8 Death Arrives!

The sea breeze at night is like the kiss of a cool, young girl.

On the adrift ship, the captain stands at the bow, the only awakened one on board, like a guiding beacon.

He obtained the island's coordinates at a considerable cost from a captain who lacked exploration skills, so he naturally valued them highly.

The first mate, second mate, chief engineer, exploration team leader, and others stood behind him. They had just finished a strategic meeting before landing on the island, and were now gazing at the island that might provide them with a large amount of supplies and treasures, as if admiring a work of art that they were about to acquire.

Specialty products, minerals, meat from land creatures, and the blood of the most precious and powerful sea monsters...

These are all readily available.

At this moment, they could see the firelight on the island without even needing binoculars.

It's as bright as a target at night.

"These slaves are fucking stupid! They actually dared to set fire to the island."

The second mate spat.

The others also looked disappointed and disappointed.

The captain, however, showed no emotional fluctuation.

"This also proves that sending them to explore the new island was the right choice. If everyone is cautious and afraid of death, who will be the pathfinder to detonate the mines? Their value lies in helping us discover the hidden dangers on the island."

"But Captain, what if the slaves are sent to lead the way and they manage to get there first, even if there really is a strange beast on the island that can awaken human consciousness?"

The first mate raised his biggest concern.

"Don't worry, sea beasts that can awaken people are not easy to deal with."

The captain put down his binoculars, his words devoid of any emotion.

"Back then, I fought a bloody battle and with the help of four seniors, I finally hunted down a deep-sea black shark, bathed in its blood, and luckily awakened a rare D-level superpower, the power of speed."

"But even now, if I were to face that black shark alone, I still wouldn't have a chance of winning. The ocean is the domain of sea creatures, and the land is the domain of humans. But fortunately, our next battlefield is on land, and we have intelligence and weapons."

"The difference between humans and animals is that humans can use weapons."

“Slaves are also a kind of weapon. Although each of them can be sold for 300 nautical coins, it is all worth it as long as we can conquer this island.”

The crew members nodded in agreement.

No one would wish for an awakened individual to join the ship.

Over the years, they have encountered some powerful sea monsters during their voyages, but it has been difficult for them to even avoid defeat, let alone capture or kill them.

Even if the sea monsters were outmatched by the firepower, they could often simply turn around and disappear into the deep sea, making them difficult to hunt again.

But as the saying goes, a phoenix fallen to the ground is no better than a chicken. Although the sea monsters on the island may be stronger, as the captain said, the land has been the domain of humankind for generations, so there is still a chance of victory against them.

Humans have plenty of methods, strength, and means: tactics, human wave attacks, human wave tactics, traps, poison attacks, guns and cannons...

Most humans who wish to awaken usually explore new islands at sea by drifting on ships, and then hunt amphibians, reptiles, or even rarer flying marine mammals on the islands.

This is the safest way; the only difficulty is that there is too little land.

But what these crew members didn't know was that humanity can awaken more than once. And the opportunity to awaken wouldn't come their way.

The power of speed is a D-rank awakened ability. Although powerful, this captain will never be satisfied with the status quo.

This time, he will take another step on the road to power.

No one can take him away from him.

He gazed at the distant firelight, which made the light in his eyes shine even brighter.

……

The firelight was nearby.

"Brother, that's a really good idea! You actually managed to make fire by rubbing sticks together. It's much warmer now."

"Hehe, I've watched some wilderness survival videos before! You know those videos, right? Only upper-class people can access them! Things like starting fire by rubbing sticks together, striking stones to start fire, all sorts of science experiments, what foods taste like chicken and are high in protein, what foods are poisonous—it's all recorded in them!" "Impressive! I didn't know you were an intellectual!"

"That's right! If this were the land-based era, I could easily become a politician and maybe even win the US presidential election!"

"Then I'll definitely vote for you!"

"terrific!"

Under a low tree, several slaves huddled together, lighting a fire to keep warm using the light and heat from the burning dry leaves and branches.

The nights here are so cold, though the stars are exceptionally bright, but unfortunately, starlight can't provide warmth.

But things are better now, thanks to a "small scientific experiment" by an intellectual, they have a campfire to keep warm.

The group chatted and laughed.

"By the way, do you guys remember the guy the new team leader killed on the ship? My god, when they lifted him up, there was a bunch of white, splattered brain matter coming out of the back of his head. Tsk tsk, that was really ruthless."

"That guy's tough. Don't mess with him."

For slaves, life on the ship was too oppressive, and they often didn't even have enough to eat. On this island, they were able to finally unleash their nature and gain a brief period of freedom of action and speech. They had an endless supply of fruit and no annoying captains or exploration team members ordering them around.

If they could live like this every day, they would be willing to live on this island.

Unfortunately, their freedom lasted only one day.

In fact, it didn't even take a day.

"Ok?"

"what happened?"

"Did you hear anything? A rustling sound..."

"No? What's that sound?"

"The bucket! On your head!!!"

The slave called "Water Bucket" rolled his eyes in horror and saw a huge, ferocious moth that had landed on his head at some point. It extended its sharp mandibles, as if pulling the trigger of an execution, and easily inserted its sharp mandibles into his hard skull, sucking away with a "plop plop plop" sound.

"what!"

The bucket could no longer scream; it simply lay silently beside the fire, its eyes filled with terror.

The other two slaves noticed that, under the cover of night, countless ferocious moths were flying towards them.

They bared their teeth and claws, like the legendary messengers of death.

"Fire! The video says insects are afraid of fire, let's get closer to the fire! Let's light more fires!"

What they didn't expect was that moths are naturally drawn to fire, and the warm fire became both a target and a death warrant.

The moths surged forward one after another, causing the campfire to burst into even more sparks. Some of them acted on instinct, not caring that their large, fan-like wings would be ignited by the fire, while many more were eager for fresh food.

With its warm brains and flesh, it may not be as good as the flesh and blood of Xuanwu, but its taste is superior.

The feast came to an end in an instant, and the extinguished fire could no longer emit light.

Just moments later, only a few ferocious moths that had burned to death and dull, lifeless bones remained on the spot.

……

The people on the adrift boat watched as the bright fire gradually died out.

"Analyze their current situation based on the slaves' chip data."

"Captain, three people are dead, just now."

"From the moment the fire started until it went out, less than twenty minutes passed. All of these slaves survived during the day, and their heart rates didn't even fluctuate much! But as soon as the fire was lit at night, three of them died."

"Keep a close eye on the data and conduct thorough analysis!"

(End of this chapter)