Although Xie Tianlang and Sea Otter Fugui seemed to be having a proper question-and-answer session, Qin Feng and the other two still doubted whether the sea otter in front of them truly understood the questions Xie Tianlang asked and could actually guide them.
It wasn't until Sea Otter Fugui proved his intelligence, bravery, and strength with solid capability that their doubts were dispelled—after desperately swimming for over forty minutes in the direction Sea Otter Fugui had chosen, Qin Feng and his two companions, who were almost questioning their life choices and considering raw sea otter for dinner, finally saw the massive ship violently rocking in the great storm, already half-submerged in the sea.
Even though they were still some distance from the sinking ship, the vessel itself and the screaming people on board proved that Sea Otter Fugui had indeed led them on the correct path.
However, it was clear that the situation of the people here was even worse than theirs. Beneath the giant ship, countless people who had fallen into the sea were screaming helplessly for help; even the roaring storm and crashing waves couldn't drown out their desperate, piercing shrieks.
As a transformed sea otter with keen hearing, Gou Fugui heard it all even more clearly.
"Help—help! Don't push me! I can swim, don't push me!!"
"Mom! Dad—I want to go back to find Mom and Dad, wu wu wu wu!"
"There are no more lifeboats, everyone, don't crowd, don't fight! Let the elderly, children, and women board first! We're all wearing life jackets, we might not... we might not necessarily die..."
"Who are you trying to fool?! Can anyone on a sinking cruise ship survive?! Get out of my way! I don't want to die now!"
Each of these voices was shrill and piercing, filled with terror, sorrow, and malice.
So much so that Gou Fugui, hearing such sounds, lost all desire to rub his face or groom his fur—only at this moment did he realize, with stark and brutal clarity, that he was truly in a world of apocalypse.
At the very least, the scene of the giant ship foundering and collapsing in the storm ahead looked exactly like the end of the world.
Xie Tianlang and the three others also wore grim expressions. Swimming for forty minutes in the wind and rain had drained most of their stamina; their remaining strength clearly wasn't enough for effective rescue of those screaming for help. Yet, the sense of duty ingrained in them as soldiers ultimately made it impossible for them to stand by and do nothing.
"Captain Xie." Qin Feng looked towards Xie Tianlang, who had conserved his energy the best. "Those people need help..."
However, the expression on Xie Tianlang's face at that moment was unexpectedly cold and detached, surprising Gou Fugui. This man, whose aura was clearly more that of a special elite than the other three, spoke words that seemed less than responsible: "With the stamina you have left, swimming over there would at most mean shouting encouragement in their ears. Why insist on sinking together?"
"Moreover, look at those who are surviving. How many are truly the weak in need of help? And how many are selfish, greedy fools stepping on others' bodies to save themselves?"
At this point, Xie Tianlang revealed his trademark mocking, insincere smile again: "Dying now might be a blessing for them. It's the apocalypse anyway. A wave of deaths is inevitable."
"Boss!" Qin Feng shouted, his mouth twitching. Xie Tianlang looked at him and curled his lip again: "I've been meaning to say this. No need to call me Captain or Boss. I was discharged a year ago.
The psychologist's assessment labeled me as an 'extremely dangerous' individual—'cruel and bloodthirsty, arrogant, lacking empathy, and skilled at deception.' The only reason they called me back for this mission and made me a one-man team is to make use of discarded goods, right?"
"Since that's the case, don't impose your standards on me. I won't admit to being cruel and bloodthirsty, but arrogance and excessive indifference... I find it hard to argue against those."
"But I never pretend," Xie Tianlang emphasized. "Putting on airs is just asking for trouble."
Having had the awkward truth laid bare by Xie Tianlang, Qin Feng and Lu Hu, already pale, turned even whiter. But Song Sanchuan, clutching his life jacket, tried hard to surface and protest:
"Pah! Captain Xie, don't listen to that quack psychologist, Cripple Wu! He's just jealous you're better than him in every way! Handsomer, taller, and the dangerous missions you've completed—he could never catch up even if he tried! He just couldn't find another way to attack you, so he latched onto your personality!"
"We're all soldiers carrying out the most dangerous missions. It's either we kill the enemy or the enemy kills us—how can that be called cruel and bloodthirsty? And Captain, you're just a bit harsh on enemies and have a minor hobby of... thorough investigation, but how many people have you saved during missions? You saved me three times alone! Even if you're not in the corps anymore, you'll always be the god in my heart!!"
Gou Fugui watched Song Sanchuan who had just spouted a series of flattering praises, extended his two little paws to rub his face, and gave the guy an approving little look.
Regardless of whether this Xie guy truly had a cruel, arrogant personality, this kid's boot-licking behavior was definitely not wrong. Back when he was lying low in the organization, he used to butter up his own boss the same way.
Usually, as long as you laid on the flattery thick enough, as long as the other party didn't intend to finish you off on the spot, you could successfully stabilize the situation!
The facts proved that Fugui's judgment was correct.
At least after Song Sanchuan finished speaking, Xie Tianlang didn't say anything more about not being called captain. However, he didn't respond immediately. Instead, he suddenly turned and grabbed Sea Otter Fugui by the scruff of the neck again, dragging the otter from beside him to face him: "Yuan Yuan, do you think we should go save people or not?"
Sea Otter Fugui rolled his eyes at him speechlessly, began struggling frantically, and started yelling "ah ah" towards the crowd over there.
Since we're already here, we should at least save a few to ask about the situation! Otherwise, how can we successfully blend into this world? Besides, repairing the world's core requires enough lives saved. The more survivors, the better!
Xie Tianlang glanced at the chaos over there, saw the weeping women and children in the water, and finally gave Sea Otter Fugui's glossy, sleek fur one last stroke: "Alright. If Yuan Yuan wants to save people, then we save people."
The handsome man said this with a slight curl of his lips: "I'd only heard dolphins are friendly to humans and actively rescue them. I didn't expect a sea otter like you to also have an unusual brain."
Sea Otter Fugui: "...Ah ao." The one with the strangest brain should be you.
After barking at Xie Tianlang, Sea Otter Fugui swam away. Xie Tianlang narrowed his eyes, stretched his body slightly, and after throwing down one last sentence, shot forward towards the crowd of people in the water like a fierce, swift fish, easily overtaking the hard-paddling Sea Otter Fugui along the way.
"Do what you can within your limits. If you die in this world, I won't be bringing your ashes back."
Qin Feng and Lu Hu grinned at Xie Tianlang's words. Song Sanchuan couldn't help but sigh beside them: "The boss is still such a tsundere!"
Qin Feng's mouth twitched. That really wasn't being tsundere. But at least those words proved that Captain Xie was still their Captain Xie. Even if he was cold and ruthless like a demon on the battlefield, to his comrades he remained the absolutely reliable God of War in their hearts.
As for Captain Xie's personality issues? In this day and age, who doesn't have some minor flaws? As long as one can control them and not harm others, it's fine.
So, Qin Feng and the other two also took a deep breath, prepared themselves, and quickly swam towards the massive ship ahead.
The sky remained gloomy and dark due to the overcast clouds and fierce winds, with dense rain continuously pounding the sea's surface and the people struggling for survival in the water.
The capsizing and sinking cruise ship, the Brilliant Crystal, was enormous. It was carrying 2,500 tourists on this voyage, plus over a thousand crew members, bringing the total number of people on board to more than 3,600.
Although the ship was equipped with life jackets, life rings, and lifeboats sufficient for emergency evacuation as per regulations, amid the sudden tsunami and storm, only four lifeboats had been launched in time. Even if all eight lifeboats were fully loaded at a capacity of 150 people each, only 600 people could be barely rescued.
The remaining 3,200-plus people had no choice but to jump into the sea wearing simple inflatable life jackets, frantically struggling in the water and searching for the dozens of inflatable life rafts that had been released.
Thus, on the turbulent sea, one could see people screaming as they jumped or fell from the giant ship from time to time.
But jumping didn't guarantee survival. Aside from the waves and torrential rain that made it nearly impossible to struggle, prolonged exposure to the icy seawater would lead to death from hypothermia.
Consequently, the fear of death began to magnify infinitely, and selfish genes took over the brain.
Gou Fugui, who had swum to the side of a life raft, witnessed firsthand a young boy sitting at the raft's edge being violently yanked into the sea by a man in a life jacket. As the boy screamed and was pulled into the water, the burly man clambered onto the life raft himself, seizing a chance to catch his breath.
Even after he boarded, with everyone around him glaring in anger, even scolding and cursing him, the man revealed a fierce and frenzied expression, shouting loudly on the raft, "What right do you have to curse me? Who can afford to be noble in a situation like this?! You're just talking without feeling the pressure! If you're so noble, why don't you jump down and swap places with that kid?! Go on! Since you're so high and mighty, go save that child!"
When the man roared these words, the furious people on the life raft who had been berating him gritted their teeth and fell silent. Although they deeply sympathized with the child and were disgusted by the man's actions, not everyone could make a selfless decision at a life-or-death juncture.
However, a few elderly people and women on the raft still looked unwilling, seemingly struggling with the thought of whether to jump and swap with the little boy.
Meanwhile, the little boy was screaming and flailing in the sea. He was also wearing a child-sized life jacket, but he appeared to be only six or seven years old and couldn't swim at all. After being suddenly pulled into the water, panic left him only able to struggle.
"Cough, sob, sa...save me!"
"Mommy, sob, save, save me! Cough!"
The boy's cries for help finally became too much for one woman on the raft to bear. Just as she clenched her teeth, preparing to jump into the sea to swap places, someone on the raft suddenly exclaimed, "Look! Something seems to be swimming over there! What is that?!"
Su Hong, who was about to jump, halted her movement immediately. She looked up and indeed saw something indistinct but alive swimming towards the boy from an angle behind him.
"Oh my god, could it be a shark?! This damn weather and storm! Start the engine and get away from here, quick!"
"Probably not a shark, it doesn't look like one... Ah! It's surfacing!"
At that moment, the hundred or so people on the small raft instinctively held their breath, waiting to see what exactly the "thing" in the water was. Almost everyone had conjured up various terrifying guesses in their minds. Yet, when the thing surfaced, they didn't see a gaping maw or a brutal, murderous scene. Instead, they saw a small, round head.
The little head even had white, layered fur, completely unlike a shark's smooth skin.
Then the small creature, whose form was still unclear, let out two "ah ah" cries towards the drowning boy, extended its two short little paws, and with some difficulty but considerable strength, pushed the flailing, crying boy upwards.
The boy initially screamed in terror the moment he was touched by the soft, tiny paw, but when he turned his head and met Sea Otter Fugui's round little head and dark, grape-like eyes, his scream abruptly stopped.
Sea Otter Fugui blinked his little eyes, then treated the boy to a classic head tilt. Finally, with two more "ah ah" sounds, he continued pushing him towards the life raft.
The boy's eyes widened. Watching the little sea otter diligently wagging its tail and kicking its legs, he suddenly stopped crying and even let out a somewhat delighted cry: "Doggy! Sea doggy!"
The otter pushing the child, Gou Fugui: "..."
Ignorance is truly terrifying, kid. Does your 'sea dog' look like an otter?!
Nevertheless, Sea Otter Fugui eventually pushed the little boy to the side of the life raft. Su Hong and others on the raft reached out to pull the child aboard, but the man who had pulled the child down suddenly shouted to stop them, his face dark:
"Don't anyone pull him up! This raft is already overloaded. Who knows if adding another kid will capsize it?! And with these huge waves, if we don't leave now, it'll be too late. We need to get away from this storm zone and reach shore—that's what matters most!"
Hearing this, Su Hong finally couldn't take it anymore. She turned and roared at the man, "Do you have any conscience at all?! Pulling the child down to take his place was bad enough, and now you won't even let him back on! He's just a six or seven-year-old child, how much weight could he possibly add?!"
But the man sneered and stomped his foot hard, causing the already heavily rocking life raft to shudder even more, eliciting gasps from the crowd: "I say he's heavy, so he's heavy! Can't you see how much the boat is shaking?!"
"You want to save people, play the hero? Fine! You jump down and swap with him! Otherwise, with me here, just see if you can get that kid onto this boat!"
Su Hong and many others on the raft were trembling with rage. But most people on the inflatable raft were the elderly, weak, and women, and the few slightly stronger men were all injured. No one could actually confront this man head-on.
Listening to the man's words from beside the raft, Gou Fugui felt his whole otter self going numb. In all his life, he had never encountered someone so shameless!
So, Gou Fugui's small, pitch-black eyes fixed intently on that man—the one with a mole on his chin. When the man met Sea Otter Fugui's gaze, he inexplicably felt a chill, which quickly turned into rage. He grabbed a bottle, aiming to smash it on Sea Otter Fugui's head. "A mere beast dares to glare at me?!"
However, before the man could hurl the water bottle in his hand, a figure suddenly emerged from the sea beside him. With a splash of water, a man surfaced, his long, powerful hand shooting out to accurately seize the arm the man was using to throw the bottle. Then, mimicking the man's earlier action of pulling the little boy into the water, he yanked the man's arm downward with force!
This brawny man, weighing a good two hundred pounds, was easily pulled off the life raft and slammed into the sea. Amidst the man's incredulous, shocked curses, the handsome man who had surfaced from the water first kicked the mole-marked man several meters away in the water. Then, under the stunned gazes of everyone, he lifted the little boy back onto the life raft as effortlessly as picking up a chick.
Just as everyone on the life raft thought this cool, domineering man would climb aboard next, he instead reached out and ruffled the head of the equally dumbfounded Sea Otter Fugui. "Roundy, you're not cutting it."
"Master has to step in at crucial moments. I've saved seven already."
"You're still at zero."
Sea Otter Fugui: "Aahhh!!"
You're the zero! Your whole family are zeros! I clearly saved one!
Everyone on the lifeboat: So this sea dog is someone's pet? Roundy is such a cute name!
Sea Dog Roundy: ...Too many complaints, I don't even know where to start.
