“Xia, you’re way too suspicious,” said the other person in the room.
“The boiler room is usually a place no one goes to. What danger could there be? Even if the ship’s owner is cautious, he wouldn’t set traps in the boiler room, right?”
At that moment, Rick began walking toward the man who had spoken.
Sules had been watching him the whole time and naturally noticed this move.
She blinked, sharply sensing that something was off.
But there were three people here now, and even if Rick was acting strange, what could he possibly do?
With this thought, Sules momentarily looked away, turning her gaze to other parts of the room.
However, in the next second, she paid the price for her carelessness.
“ABO!”
Suddenly, the man whispered sharply.
Sules immediately looked over and saw a small wound on his arm.
It wasn’t large, but blood was slowly seeping out.
Her eyes shifted to the side, quickly spotting the weapon—a small knife Rick had in his pocket.
The tip of the knife was stained with blood, looking like he had accidentally cut the man.
Sules’s mind raced; the truth seemed on the verge of being revealed.
Rick immediately apologized, “I didn’t realize my self-defense knife had slipped out. I accidentally hurt you—sorry about that.”
The wound wasn’t big, and the man shook his head, about to say it was nothing.
Suddenly, his expression twisted in pain, his face contorted, and he clutched his head, shouting, “Ah! My head!”
Then he fainted.
The other member of the room stepped forward to check on him, but in the next moment, the man’s eyes suddenly opened.
Sules didn’t miss the fleeting look of wild joy in them.
“How are you? Why did you suddenly pass out?” the other person asked.
The man shook his head and smiled, “I’m fine. It’s just… an old problem acting up. I’m okay now.”
Rick laughed along with him, “Good, old buddy. Let’s move quickly—time’s not on our side.”
The man nodded meaningfully.
“Yeah, time’s running out. We have to hurry.”
***
“What time is running out?”
Sules licked her lips and forced a dry smile.
“Rick, I think I need to use the restroom. I’ll be back soon, and then we can search the next room together?”
Rick frowned, “I’ll go with you?”
Sulese hurriedly shook her head, “No, no, I’m a girl. Wouldn’t that be awkward? Don’t worry, this ship is so dangerous I’ll be quick.”
Rick hesitated for a moment, glanced at the other man in the room, then at Sules’s current spot, and nodded.
“Alright, but come back quickly. It’s really dangerous out there. It’s not safe for you to be alone.”
Sules smiled and nodded decisively, then stepped out.
As soon as she left, she immediately headed for Captain Jam’s room, silently calculating.
In those few short sentences, Sules had already pieced together the clues she’d gathered before into a result she was reluctant to believe—Rick and the man were both compromised, and if nothing else happened, the last person left in the room was surely doomed once she left.
What really woke Sules up was the man’s reaction after being wounded by Rick.
First, a small cry of pain, then a loud scream of headache, followed by fainting, and finally waking up as if nothing had happened.
Wasn’t that exactly how Rick reacted when he first came up on deck?
He had first shouted, then fallen silent.
When Captain Jam asked, he replied that he was fine.
With this suspicion in mind, Sules looked back at previous events and saw that the details matched perfectly.
The trigger must have been blood or injury, and wasn’t there a cut on Rick’s finger?
As she ran, Sules speculated that once someone was injured here, some kind of transformation would occur…
No, more accurately, they were being invaded.
Recalling some overlooked small details, Sules thought deeply.
She hadn’t noticed before, but now she suddenly realized that since boarding the ship, Rick hadn’t called Captain Jam “Captain Jam” anymore—only “Captain.”
Before this, Sules clearly remembered Rick saying that to show respect, he must call the host “Captain Jam.”
Now, his unconscious change in address could only mean one thing—Rick’s current body was driven by a different soul.
Connecting this with the skeletons on the deck and in the chest, Sules easily guessed that both he and the man were invaded by the ship’s wandering souls.
Putting all these clues together, Sules boldly guessed that once injured on this ship, the spirits attached to the skeletons could invade the body.
This was extremely dangerous.
Sules knew her strength was weak; after all, she had only recently arrived in this world.
She wouldn’t join the chaos of an eighth-grade ship’s affairs.
If those two fifth-grade martial artists were invaded, the whole crew wouldn’t stand a chance.
Why didn’t Sules go find the captain herself?
Because she had already sensed that Captain Jam’s attitude toward the other captains was complicated.
She feared walking into a trap.
Since the entrance was already closed, escape was impossible.
The back route was sealed off.
Either they solved all the undead spirits or found some special mechanism to get out of this predicament.
Special mechanisms were rare and hard to come by.
Sules crouched behind a cargo crate, pondering the spirits.
One thing was certain—spirits and humans were in a supply-and-demand imbalance.
This was an eighth-grade ship, and the original crew was definitely larger than on a sixth-grade ship.
Under these circumstances, if the number of bodies possessed by spirits increased, ordinary people wouldn’t survive.
She had to find a solution quickly or fall into a very passive position.
Generally speaking, the bridge was the place with the most secrets on a ship.
Sules stood and walked toward the upper deck’s cabins.
The first floor of the upper deck was empty.
Robert’s team should all be searching for treasure in the cabins.
Sules walked to the end, where there was a door with a wooden ship’s wheel emblem—an iconic mark of the bridge, easy to recognize.
She opened the door and found five people inside, Robert prominently among them.
Seeing Sules, he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“What are you doing over here?”
Sules thought for a moment, her expression growing anxious.
“First Mate Robert, I’m here to ask for help! Captain Jam is in grave danger right now. If no one helps, something bad might happen!”
Hearing this, Robert and the others’ faces changed, and he strode over to grab Sules’s arm.
“What’s going on? Tell me clearly—what’s wrong with Captain Jam?” As Jam’s bound crew member, he naturally cared deeply.
Smith, the fifth-grade martial artist, looked equally anxious.
He hurried over and asked, “How’s the situation over there now?”
Sules explained, “I discovered that the spirits on this ship might still be alive and are trying to possess living bodies. Another captain, Rick, has already been invaded, and two others are likely invaded as well. They’re all in the lower deck cabins.”
Smith asked again, “How do you know all this?”
Sulese spoke quickly, “I encountered someone who had been possessed, but I noticed something was off and snuck away.”
Robert let go of Sulese and immediately started heading out.
Suddenly, he stopped, looking at Sules with suspicion.
“Wait, how do I know you’re not invaded?”
Sules said helplessly, “If I were invaded, why would I tell you all this? What am I, a secret agent? I escaped because I sensed something wrong. If you were a moment later, Captain Jam would be in more danger. First Mate, I advise you to think carefully.”
Robert was an experienced First Mate of a sixth-grade ship.
Although Sules’s news had startled him, he quickly regained composure.
“No, I can’t go straight in.”
He frowned and looked at Sules.
“I’ll trust you for now, but tell me everything you know. Do those possessed bodies have any distinguishing features? How do I recognize them? And which room did the captain go to?”
Sulese replied, “There don’t seem to be any… Wait! There is one! They don’t seem to have the original owner’s memories. You can try testing them with that. The captain went to the innermost room, but I don’t know if he’s been replaced. It’s been almost ten minutes since I came out, so I don’t know about the bodies inside now.”
Robert nodded and waved to the other four who were still uncertain.
“Smith, and you others, come with me to rescue the captain. With Xiwen by the captain’s side, he probably won’t be in immediate danger.”
With that, he led the group toward the door.
At the threshold, Robert suddenly turned to Sules.
“Captain Su, aren’t you coming with us?”
Sules shook her head.
“I know my strength is weak, so I won’t stir up trouble. This place should still be relatively safe. I’ll stay here. Once you’ve safely rescued the captain, I’ll go with you.”
Robert hesitated but nodded, giving her a warning glance.
“Don’t do anything reckless. We’ll be back soon after rescuing Captain Jam.”
After they left, Sules didn’t rush to search but started thinking.
The bridge was definitely the first place everyone would go, so these five had probably been here a long time.
From their expressions earlier, it was clear they hadn’t found anything.
That meant even if there was treasure here, it wasn’t on the surface.
She didn’t need to bother searching desks or drawers.
Sules raised her head and scanned the bridge.
Because the captain was gone, the screens were off, leaving only a toppled desk.
The ship’s wheel, once fixed at the front, had been broken off and lay on its side, with some bloodstains on it.
Wait, bloodstains?!
Highly sensitive to the color red, Sules’s eyes widened.
She quickly crouched and examined the spot.
Sure enough, the wooden ship’s wheel had a sharp splinter with bright red blood.
She licked her dry lips, her gaze roaming the floor, silently praying not to see something else.
But the sea god was not kind.
In a corner of the room, Sules saw a pure white bone.
Damn!
One of those five people was likely already invaded!
Thinking that among those five were a First Mate trusted by the crew and a fifth-grade martial artist, Sules felt a chill run down her spine.
She covered her mouth with one hand, suppressing the shock, and turned to leave.
“Click.”
Suddenly, the door opened from the outside.
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