Although Xie Tianlang and the sea otter Fugui seemed to be answering questions in a very professional manner, Qin Feng and his two companions were still very skeptical about whether the sea otter in front of them had truly understood Xie Tianlang's questions and could lead them the way.
It wasn't until the sea otter Fugui proved his intelligence, courage, and strength—after swimming desperately for over forty minutes in the direction chosen by the sea otter Fugui, Qin Feng and his two companions, who were almost questioning their existence and even wanted to eat the sea otter alive, finally saw the giant ship that was violently rocking in the storm and was already half-submerged in the sea.
Even though they were still some distance from the sinking ship, the ship and the screaming people on board proved that Sea Otter Fugui had indeed led them on the right path.
But clearly, the people here were in a worse situation than they were. Countless people who had fallen into the sea beneath that giant ship were screaming helplessly, and the roar of the storm and the waves could not stop their desperate screams.
As a transformed sea otter with very keen hearing, Gou Fugui could hear it even more clearly.
"Help—Help! Don't push me! I can swim! Don't push me!!"
"Mommy! Daddy—I want to go back to find Mommy and Daddy, waaaaaah!"
"There are no more lifeboats, so please don't push or shove! Let the elderly, children, and women board first! We're all wearing life jackets, so we might not die..."
"Are you kidding me?! How could anyone survive a cruise ship sinking?! Get out of my way! I don't want to die right now!"
Each of these sounds was shrill and piercing, venting fear, sorrow, and malice.
So much so that Gou Fugui lost all interest in rubbing his face and grooming himself upon hearing such sounds—only now did he realize with absolute clarity and reality that he was indeed in a post-apocalyptic world.
At least the image of the giant ship sinking and collapsing in the storm ahead really resembled the end of the world.
Xie Tianlang, Qin Feng, and the other two also looked unwell. They had swum for forty minutes in the wind and rain, exhausting most of their strength. Their remaining energy clearly wouldn't allow them to effectively rescue those crying for help. However, their sense of duty as soldiers was ingrained in their hearts, ultimately preventing them from standing by and watching others die.
“Captain Xie.” Qin Feng looked at Xie Tianlang, who had the best physical condition. “Those people need help…”
However, Xie Tianlang's expression at this moment was unexpectedly cold to Gou Fugui. This man, whose aura was obviously more like that of a special elite than the other three, spoke words that were not so responsible: "With your current physical strength, at most you can just cheer them on in their ears if you swim over. Why do you have to sink with them?"
"Moreover, look at those who survived. How many of them are truly weak and in need of help? And how many are selfish, greedy fools who survive by stepping on others?"
Xie Tianlang then revealed his mocking, fake smile again: "It's their good fortune to die now, since it's already the end of the world. A wave of people are bound to die anyway."
"Boss!" Qin Feng called out, his lips twitching. Xie Tianlang looked at him and curled his lips again: "I've wanted to say this before. There's no need to call me captain or boss. I've been expelled for a year."
My psychologist diagnosed me as a 'extremely dangerous' individual—cruel, murderous, arrogant, lacking empathy, and adept at deception. This mission brought me back and made me a one-man team—isn't that just an attempt to make use of me?
"In that case, don't use your standards to judge me. After all, I don't admit to being cruel and bloodthirsty, but I can't really argue with arrogance and excessive indifference."
"But I never pretend," Xie Tianlang emphasized. "Pretending to be cool will get you struck by lightning."
Xie Tianlang's direct pointing out their embarrassing point caused Qin Feng and Lu Hu's already pale faces to turn even paler. However, Song Sanchuan, clutching his life jacket, desperately tried to peek out and deny it:
"Pah! Captain Xie, don't listen to that barefoot psychologist Wu's nonsense! He's just jealous that you're better than him in every way! You're better looking than him, taller than him, and he can't even catch up to you in the dangerous missions you've completed! He just can't find any other way to put you down, so he can only bring up your personality, Captain Xie!"
"We're all soldiers carrying out the most dangerous missions. It's either us killing the enemy or the enemy killing us. How can that be called cruel and merciful? Besides, Captain Xie, you're just a little ruthless towards the enemy and have a bit of a hobby of researching things thoroughly, but how many people have you saved on missions? You've saved me three times! Even if you're no longer in the legion, you'll always be a god in my heart!!"
Gou Fugui looked at Song Sanchuan, who had rattled off a series of flattering remarks, rubbed his face with his two little hands, and gave the boy an approving look.
Regardless of whether this werewolf surnamed Xie is truly cruel, bloodthirsty, arrogant, or conceited, his behavior of currying favor with the powerful is definitely not wrong. He was doing the same thing when he was hiding in the organization, praising their leader in the same way.
Usually, as long as you flatter them hard like this, and the other party doesn't intend to kill you on the spot, you've successfully stabilized the situation!
As it turns out, the assessment of Fugui was correct.
After Song Sanchuan finished speaking, Xie Tianlang didn't say anything more about not letting people call him captain. However, he didn't reply immediately. Instead, he suddenly turned around and grabbed the back of the neck of the sea otter Fugui again, dragging the otter from the side to his face: "Yuanyuan, do you think we should go and save people?"
Sea Otter Fugui rolled his eyes at him speechlessly, then began to struggle frantically and howl at the crowd.
Since we're already here, we should at least rescue a few and find out what's going on! Otherwise, how will we manage to infiltrate this world? Besides, repairing the world's core requires enough lives; every extra life we can save is a life gained!
Xie Tianlang glanced at the chaos over there, saw the woman and child crying in the water, and finally stroked the sea otter's rich, shiny fur: "Alright, if Yuanyuan wants to save people, then let's save them."
The handsome man raised the corners of his mouth as he spoke: "I had only heard that dolphins are very friendly to humans and will take the initiative to save people, but I didn't expect that you, a sea otter, would be so different."
Sea Otter Fugui: "...Aww." You're the one with the strangest brain, aren't you?
After howling at Xie Tianlang, the sea otter Fugui swam away. Xie Tianlang squinted and stretched his body slightly. After throwing out a sentence, he rushed towards the group of people who had fallen into the water like a fierce and fast fish, and easily overtook the sea otter Fugui who was struggling to swim.
"Do what you can. If you die in this world, I won't take your ashes back with me."
Qin Feng and Lu Hu grinned when they heard Xie Tianlang's words, while Song Sanchuan couldn't help but sigh, "Boss is still so two-faced!"
Qin Feng's lips twitched; it really wasn't just empty talk. That statement at least proved that Captain Xie was still their Captain Xie, even if he was as ruthless as a demon on the battlefield, he was an absolutely reliable war god in the hearts of his comrades.
As for Xie's personality issues? Everyone has their flaws these days, as long as they can control themselves and not hurt others.
So Qin Feng and the other two took a deep breath and prepared to swim quickly toward the giant ship ahead.
The sky remained dark and gloomy due to the dark clouds and strong winds, and dense rain continuously pelted the sea and the people struggling to survive in the water.
The Crystal Brilliant, a large cruise ship that is currently capsizing and sinking, carried as many as 2,500 passengers and more than 1,000 crew members, bringing the total number of people on board to over 3,600.
Although the cruise ship was equipped with enough life jackets, life rings, and lifeboats for emergency evacuation as required by regulations, it could only launch four lifeboats in time during the sudden tsunami and storm. Assuming each lifeboat could hold 150 people, even if all eight lifeboats were full, only about 600 people could be rescued.
The remaining 3,200-plus people could only wear simple inflatable life jackets and jump into the sea as a last resort, frantically struggling and searching for the dozens of life rafts that had been released.
Thus, on the turbulent sea, one can see people screaming as they jump off or fall from the giant ship from time to time.
But jumping in doesn't guarantee survival. Aside from the almost unbearable waves and torrential rain, prolonged exposure to the icy water can lead to hypothermia and death.
Thus, the fear of death begins to amplify infinitely, and selfish genes take over the brain.
Gou Fugui swam to a life raft and watched as a little boy sitting on the edge of the raft was suddenly pulled off by a man in a life jacket. As the little boy screamed and was pulled into the sea, the burly man climbed back onto the life raft and got a chance to catch his breath.
Even though everyone around him glared at him and even cursed and yelled at him after he boarded the boat, the man revealed a ferocious and crazed expression and shouted loudly on the raft: "What right do you have to curse me? Who can be noble in this situation?! Aren't you just talking without understanding the situation?! If you're so capable, jump down and take that kid's place! Go! Since you're so noble, go save that child!"
When the man shouted those words, the people on the life raft who were angrily rebuking him gritted their teeth and shut their mouths. Although they felt great sympathy for the child and were ashamed of the man's behavior, not everyone could make such a fearless decision at the critical moment of life and death.
However, there were still a few elderly people and women on the boat who looked unwilling, seemingly struggling with whether to jump overboard to exchange for the little boy.
At this moment, the little boy was screaming and thrashing about in the sea. He was wearing a small life jacket, but he looked only six or seven years old and couldn't swim at all. In his panic after being suddenly pulled into the sea, all he could do was struggle.
"Cough cough, oh, help...help!"
"Mommy, sob, help, help me cough cough!"
The little boy's cries for help finally became too much for one of the women on the boat to bear. Just as she gritted her teeth and prepared to jump overboard to save him, someone on the raft suddenly exclaimed, "Look! Something seems to have swum past! What is that?!"
Su Hong, who was about to jump into the sea, suddenly stopped. She looked up and saw, sure enough, something that looked like a living creature was swimming towards the boy who had fallen into the water, diagonally behind him.
"Oh my god, could it be a shark?! This damn weather and storm! Get the boat out of here quickly!"
"It shouldn't be a shark, it doesn't look like one... Ah! It's popping up!"
At this moment, everyone on the small boat instinctively held their breath, waiting to see what the "thing" in the sea actually was. Almost everyone had all sorts of terrifying guesses in their minds, but when the thing emerged, they didn't see a gaping maw or a gruesome killing scene, but only a round little head.
Its little head was covered with distinct layers of white fur, which was nothing like the smooth skin of a shark.
Then the little creature, whose appearance was obscured, cried out twice at the little boy who had fallen into the water, and with some difficulty but great strength, stretched out its two short little paws and pushed the struggling and crying little boy up.
The little boy screamed in terror when he was first pushed by those soft, tiny paws, but when he turned his head and met the sea otter Fugui's round little head and big, dark grape-like eyes, his scream stopped abruptly.
The sea otter, Fugui, blinked its little eyes, then tilted its head at the little boy. Finally, it let out two "ah ah" sounds and continued pushing him towards the life raft.
The little boy opened his eyes wide, watching the little sea otter struggling to wag its tail and kick its legs. Suddenly, he stopped crying and even shouted happily, "Doggy! Sea dog!"
Gou Fugui, who pushed the child: "..."
It's terrible to be uncultured, little guy! Does your seal look like an otter?!
However, in the end, Otter Fugui still pushed the little boy to the side of the life raft. Su Hong and the others on the life raft tried to reach out and pull the child up, but the man who had pulled the child down suddenly stopped them with a dark face:
"Don't pull him up! This raft is already overloaded. Who knows if it will capsize if another child comes on?! Besides, the waves are so big right now, if we don't leave now, it will be too late. Getting out of this storm zone and getting ashore is the most important thing!"
Hearing this, Su Hong finally lost her temper and turned to the man, roaring, "Do you have any conscience?! It's already outrageous enough that you dragged the child down to take your place, and now you won't let the child come up! How much can a six or seven-year-old child weigh?!"
But the man sneered and stomped his foot hard, making the already rocking life raft shake even more, eliciting gasps from the crowd: "I said he's heavy, so he's heavy! Can't you see how much the boat is shaking?!"
"You want to save someone, want to be a hero? Fine! Jump in and take his place! Otherwise, I'm right here, see if you can pull that kid onto the boat!"
Su Hong and many others on the boat were trembling with anger, but most of the people on the raft were elderly, weak, and women, and the few stronger men were all injured. Not a single person was able to confront this man head-on.
Gou Fugui, sitting by the raft, was utterly disgusted by the man's words. He had never seen such a shameless person in all his life!
So Gou Fugui's big, dark eyes stared intently at the man. When the man with a mole on his chin met Gou Fugui's gaze, he felt a chill run down his spine. Then, in a fit of rage, he grabbed a bottle and was about to smash it over Gou Fugui's head: "You beast, how dare you glare at me?!"
Before the man could even throw the water bottle in his hand, a person suddenly emerged from the sea next to him. With a splashing sound, the person stretched out a long, strong hand and accurately grabbed the man's arm as he was about to throw the bottle. Then, just like the man had pulled the little boy into the water earlier, the person pulled his arm and yanked him down hard!
This strong, muscular man, weighing at least 200 pounds, was easily torn off the life raft and slammed into the sea.
Amidst the man's incredulous and shocked shouts, the handsome man who emerged from the water first kicked the man with the mole several meters away in the water, and then, to everyone's astonishment, picked up the little boy as if he were a chick and put him back on the life raft.
Just when everyone on the life raft thought this cool and domineering man was going to board the boat himself, he reached out and ruffled the little head of the sea otter Fugui, who was also staring blankly at him: "Yuanyuan, you can't do it."
"It all comes down to the master when it matters. I've already saved seven."
"You're still a zero."
Sea Otter Fugui: "Aaaaaah!!"
You're the one who's a zero! Your whole family are zeros! I clearly saved one!
Everyone on the lifeboat: So these seals are kept by humans? Yuanyuan is such a cute name!
Sea Dog Yuanyuan: ...I'm speechless with frustration.
Author's Note:
The number of lifeboats and life rafts has been adjusted.
Xie Tianlang: Thanks for the invitation. I'm a ruthless guy, a strong 1, and not very rule-abiding. Hobby: Currently, it's the sea otter Yuanyuan.
Sea Otter Rich: A beautiful character, skilled at running away and hiding, relies on intelligence to survive, and doesn't follow the rules. Also, her name isn't Yuanyuan, and she's not a sea dog!
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