Chapter 15 The "Sleeping" Sailor

Abnormality 077, ranked among the top hundred, once responsible for the deaths of dozens of ships and thousands of sailors in storms, possessing sentience and the characteristics of a "living thing," a dangerous abnormality that any city-state's church would treat with utmost caution—was now, right in front of Lawrence, choosing to close its eyes and play dead, refusing to exert its power.

Lawrence had envisioned countless possibilities after activating Abnormality 077, and had conceived several plans to re-seal the "Sailor," but he never expected this situation to occur!

The old captain looked up, exchanging glances with his first mate. They both felt that the condition of the dried corpse before them seemed different from what was recorded in the data, and were simultaneously wondering what exactly was wrong—but soon, the roar of water spouts from the nearby sea surface and the sound of the White Oak's defensive cannons firing interrupted their astonishment.

This was not the time to be distracted, the "Petrel" was already catching up!

Unable to win in a fight, and unable to escape, the "Sailor," with its ship teleportation ability, was the White Oak's only hope of escaping danger.

Lawrence lowered his head, staring intently at the dried corpse that was feigning death with its eyes tightly shut—no matter what was wrong with this thing, he had to find a way to make it cooperate and go out of control!

"Wake up!" Lawrence reached out, grabbing Abnormality 077's collar and shaking it vigorously—coming into such close contact with a dried corpse was undoubtedly repulsive, but he couldn't afford to care about that now. "I know you've broken free of the seal, listen, you're in charge of this ship now, Sailor! Don't you have the instinct to control ships? Don't you have a tendency to go out of control? Act! Take over this ship, take us away from here!"

The dried corpse lying on the ground made strange cracking sounds of joint friction as it was shaken, but it still kept its eyes tightly closed. However, the obvious rise and fall of its chest could not escape anyone's notice. At the same time, the constant explosions around the White Oak made Lawrence increasingly impatient. He finally couldn't help but slap the dried corpse: "I know you're awake!"

The dried corpse on the ground could no longer lie still. It finally opened its eyes amidst a series of shakes, but its first reaction was to dodge to the side, trying to avoid Lawrence's gaze while yelling, "Stop it! Stop it! Can't I just go back to sleep?! You can't be joking like this! This ship can't be touched, can't be touched!"

Lawrence didn't care about any of that. Seeing the dried corpse open its eyes, he immediately grabbed it and stood it up, dragging it towards the bridge. Several sailors nearby also reacted at this moment, and the bolder ones quickly stepped forward to help. Several people almost forcibly pressed the "Sailor's" shriveled body in front of the helm. The first mate roared from the side: "Press it against the rudder! That's the fastest way for its power to take effect!"

However, Abnormality 077 kept screaming shrilly, its struggles unusually violent: "Let me go! Let me go!

"You can't do this! Help, help!

"What kind of people are you... please, please!"

"Just touch the rudder!" Lawrence shouted while using all his strength to press the dried corpse onto the ship's rudder. "It'll be over soon!"

"No! Help!" Abnormality 077's resistance was astonishingly strong, so much so that several burly White Oak sailors couldn't hold down its arms. While struggling frantically, it tried to turn its head to look in the direction it had been lying. "Let me go back! Please—just put that rope around my neck, just once, and I'll go to sleep obediently. I'll never get up again! Or you can give me the rope, and I'll strangle myself... just don't make me touch this!"

The bridge was in chaos. The scene was simply bizarre to the extreme—Abnormality 077, with a fearsome reputation among the captains and sailors of the boundless sea, was struggling and begging like a victim being forced onto a ship, while the White Oak sailors, who were in desperate straits, were fiercely holding the "abnormality's" arms and trying to put them on the rudder. This scene, even the craziest lunatics in mental hospitals with zero rationality could not imagine in their wildest fantasies, was now actually happening on the White Oak.

However, Lawrence no longer had the time to reflect on how wrong the situation was. He only knew that the silhouette of the Petrel was getting closer and closer, and its artillery accuracy was also rapidly increasing. The White Oak's hull had been hit several times in a row, and the stern was on fire. If the next shell hit the engine room or the ammunition depot, or even the bridge, it would be all over!

And just as he was thinking this, a piercing whistle suddenly entered his ears. Listening to the direction the whistle was falling, Lawrence's mind suddenly went blank.

"Crap."

The next second, a deafening explosion swept across the upper deck. A huge fireball rose and burst close to the bridge. The Petrel's shelling had hit the side of the White Oak's bridge. This strike... was fatal.

The shockwave arrived with a roar. Metal and glass were torn into pieces under the power of the shell, and the scattered wall structure turned into deadly shrapnel. Lawrence's vision was filled with a blinding light of fire, and then he saw his first mate fly up, his body instantly engulfed by the surging flames. Next were the other sailors on the bridge, and then himself.

Flames devoured everything. Lawrence saw the fireball expand, engulfing the entire bridge, saw his body gradually burning in the flames. Time seemed to slow down. He clearly watched everything happen, even watching the flames spread inch by inch in the air, and gradually take on a strange, ghostly green color—ghostly green?

Lawrence's mind suddenly went blank. He barely had time to realize what had happened before he saw the crimson fireball surging into the bridge instantly turn into a ghostly green sea of fire. The sea of fire formed by spectral flames licked everything in sight—metal, wood, glass, leather…

Everything that was burned by the flames appeared to be translucent like a spirit body, and the crew members who had been swallowed by the fireball fell to the ground one by one. They were wrapped in spectral flames, their flesh and bones as crystal clear as jade marrow, and then they got up one by one as if nothing had happened, and looked at each other in astonishment.

This scene… was exactly the same as the first encounter with the Lost Ship.

It was as if the terrifying scene that had happened on the White Oak that day was being replayed.

A sense of solid ground came, and Lawrence woke up from his trance, seeing that he was standing in front of the helm at some point, and that he was also burning with raging spectral flames—he subconsciously reached forward, his hand landing right on the rudder.

In an instant, he felt—

He felt everything about the White Oak, from a screw to a window to a rope, all clearly reflected in his mind as if they were his own body.

He had spent so many years with this ship, but he had never been so closely connected to it as he was today.

And along with this feeling, an extremely strong thought涌入脑海, as if a voice filled with endless majesty was declaring his destiny to him—

Now, you are a member of the Lost Fleet. Go be loyal to Captain Duncan.

Lawrence blankly gripped the rudder, feeling the White Oak turn nimbly in his mind, and slowly point its bow at the "enemy ship" that was rapidly approaching in the distance.

Abnormality 077 was still there. The dried corpse was almost curled up into a ball next to the bridge, shivering while looking at the surrounding spectral flames, and wailing incessantly: "I said I wouldn't touch it, but you insisted on making me touch it. How could I dare to touch it? Sailors who usurp power are tied to cannonballs and thrown into the sea! I know the rules of the ship! I'm a sailor!"

Lawrence slowly lowered his head and glanced at the "Sailor." In fact, he was still deeply lost in confusion and didn't understand what had happened, but his gaze made Abnormality 077 quiet down instantly.

The dried corpse closed its mouth, carefully stood up, and looked around—the bridge, which had been torn apart by the shelling, was being quickly restored by the spectral flames. All the crew members were standing at their posts. These people now looked like ghosts, but instinct and the remaining rationality still made them return to their posts as soon as possible, waiting for the captain's next order.

"Captain…" Abnormality 077 turned its head, looking into Lawrence's eyes. "What do you want to do next?"

Lawrence was dazed again, then seemed to feel something, and slowly lowered his head.

"Lost Fleet is under attack... retaliate."

"Retaliate!" Abnormality 077 immediately shouted, "Retaliate!"

"Retaliate!" First Mate Gus's voice also sounded from the side. His body was burning with flames, and his voice was mixed with the crackling of the flames. "Captain's orders, retaliate!"

"Retaliate!"

On the bridge, the crew members roared in unison. In every corner of the White Oak, every crew member who had been transformed into a ghost simultaneously "heard" the order from the captain. The ship, which had completed its transformation in the flames, immediately took action—its steam core roared, all the turrets began to turn, and a loud whistle mixed with roars resounded across the sea!

The ship under his feet began to accelerate towards the Petrel, and almost at the same time, Lawrence saw another shadow next to the White Oak—it was another ship, a ship with almost only a dark outline, shrouded in thick fog and smoke.

Its outline was vaguely similar to that of the White Oak, and it was clearly a sister ship of the same type.

The shadowy ship accelerated side by side with the White Oak and launched an attack towards the Petrel at the same time.

Through the constantly rising spectral flames, Lawrence stared in astonishment at the phantom-like warship that suddenly appeared on the sea next to him. After an unknown amount of time, he seemed to murmur its name in a dream—

"Black Oak… Martha?"