Charles shook his head, "I can't sleep in this situation. What are the moods of the other crew members right now?"
"No problem. We are all veteran sailors. We all know that the more serious the situation, the more we should not mess up."
Charles felt a little relieved, fortunately his crew was reliable and as long as people were alive, they could overcome any difficulties.
As half a cup of warm soup rolled into his stomach, Charles felt a little sleepy.
Charles shook his head, trying to shake off the sleepiness, but he became even more sleepy.
Feeling his eyelids starting to twitch, he glanced at Dipper beside him and said, "I'll take a nap. Wake me up in half an hour."
"Okay." The boatswain agreed readily.
Charles closed his eyes peacefully, leaned on the stool and fell asleep. He slept very well. When Charles woke up, he felt that all his mental and spiritual fatigue were swept away.
Dipper was still at the helm, and the glass in front of him was still pitch black, with no changes from before.
Just as Charles was about to stretch and stand up, he saw the clock on the wall, which showed that nearly 9 hours had passed.
"Dipper, didn't I tell you to wake me up in half an hour?" Charles said somewhat dissatisfiedly.
Although he knew that Dipper might want him to rest more, this was not the time to sleep in.
In response to Charles' question, Dipper said nothing and just chuckled twice.
Just as Charles was about to say something else, the deck gun on the deck suddenly moved on its own. It turned and fired directly at the sea nearby.
"Something's going on. The Narwhal must have discovered something!" Charles quickly moved the searchlight and shot it over.
Under the bright light, a black rock pillar with pits and holes fell obliquely towards the water.
Charles blew the whistle hard and rushed to the deck with the left wheel. "Dipper, stop the ship. There was no such mess on the previous route."
Hearing the whistle, the crew gathered on the deck. Without Charles' reminder, Odric quickly turned into a bat and explored the surroundings.
Soon he came back with extremely bad news.
"Captain, the surrounding sea is full of black rock pillars. We didn't return to the previous sea area. We took the wrong road."
"XXXX!" Charles's steel prosthesis hit the edge of the ship, making a metallic collision sound. The plan he had planned before should have been completely fine, so what was going on now
Just at this moment, Charles suddenly discovered a few cold green lights under the sea, and it seemed that something was moving in the dark sea water.
Charles felt a little uneasy. He didn't want to know what these things were at the moment. He just wanted to leave this strange place.
"Dipper!! Drive the boat! Hurry up!!"
"Click, click, click" the anchor machine rotates rapidly, and the anchor head weighing hundreds of tons falls directly into the water.
"Are you crazy? Is this the place to anchor?" Charles rushed over angrily, but stopped halfway.
He looked at his boatswain with disbelief in his eyes, "It was you?"
"Crack!" Charles raised the muzzle of the skeleton gun and pointed it at Dipper's head. "I have clearly checked your identity. Who are you? Where is Dipper?"
"Captain, there is no monster replacing me. I am Dipper, your boatswain." Dipper, who was next to the anchor machine, clapped his hands and said in a flat voice.
"Bang!" The bullet left a bloody hole in Dipp's foot.
Dipper didn't fight back. He dragged his injured leg towards the side of the ship. "Captain, I'm sorry for lying to you, but I did this for your own good."
"Who the hell are you! My boatswain will never betray me!!" Gunshots rang out again, and Dipper staggered to the ground.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss~" A sound like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue came from under the sea surface, making people instinctively feel cold.
"Your boatswain will never betray you!" Dipper, who was lying on the ground, stretched his neck and shouted loudly.
"You are like my father. I don't want you to die. I want you to live and live forever. Mother said she can help me. She can give you eternal life."
Charles didn't want to talk any more. He had to take the crew away from this damn place. "James, weigh the anchor! Dipper has been bewitched by something!"
As Charles gave the order, the chief engineer's body grew bigger, and he grabbed the anchor winch and started to turn it quickly, but before he could turn it a few times, the chain with iron filings was stretched straight and slowly pulled back, as if something was pulling the anchor under the water.
"Click~" A wet, webbed green hand grabbed the edge of the boat. It was the hand that Charles had broken before.
This was just the beginning, as one strange green hand after another placed itself on the edge of the boat.
Charles suddenly sensed something. He turned around quickly and saw seven or eight deformed green monsters squatting on the edge of the boat, motionless like sculptures.
Their bodies are a dull green, though their bellies are white. Most of their bodies are shiny and smooth, with high scaly ridges running down their backs.
The body had vague human features, but the head was that of a fish, with huge protruding eyeballs that never closed, and gills that kept trembling on both sides of the neck.
"Don't be afraid, everyone. They won't hurt you, really." Dipper's voice came from the side.
"Who is your leader? Why did you control my crew and trick me into coming here?" Charles asked loudly while secretly taking out the Bat Mirror.
The other party seems intelligent, so there might be a chance for negotiation.
At this moment, a deformed monster came over, opened its right palm which was missing a large part, and helped Dipper up.
"Captain, it's not that they control me, in fact, I am also them."
Dipper said as he took off the scarf from his neck. Three pairs of symmetrical gills grew out of his neck that he had been scratching for years.
"I didn't believe it before, but when I saw the changes in my body, I realized that I belonged to them, I belonged to the Deep Divers. If I had stayed in the North Sea, I might have lived to old age like an ordinary human. But when I came to the South Sea, my mother found me and awakened me."
"Da Da" Dipper's eyes bulged out like a fish, and Dipper's voice began to become extremely unpleasant.
"But don't worry, this is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it is a good thing. Captain, as long as you join us, you will not only live past 40, but you will also have an endless life. By then, I will follow my mother to help you find a way home."
(End of this chapter)