Some of the scales on Dipper's face had fallen off, and he looked like he had been punched, but he couldn't hide the joy on his face.
He first took a quick glance at Charles who was swallowing his food, then rushed to Feuerbach, snatched his half-eaten can and started eating it.
"Second mate, there are so many new crew members I don't know. Are they all new members?"
The green-haired young man didn't care at all when his food was snatched away, and considerately handed over the fruit soup.
"Yes, these are new members. Look, this is Tuba. You should have an impression of him. With this guy, we will never get lost again."
With a relaxed tone, he introduced the crew members who joined after Dipper left.
But the new crew members mentioned were not happy at all. They looked at the horrible fishman in front of them with horror.
No one told them what had happened before, and they didn't know where the thing in front of them came from, or why it called itself the boatswain of the Narwhal.
West quietly loaded his pistol and looked at the terrifying fishman in front of him with great vigilance.
However, after Chef Planck learned that it was Dipper who tipped off Hope Island, he was no longer afraid and busied himself preparing food for him.
"Director Dipper, I'm so sorry. I didn't expect it to be you when I suddenly saw something like this in the dark."
"Hahaha, it's okay. Sometimes I get scared when I look in the mirror. Heat up some canned food for me. I'm sick of eating raw fish every day these days."
Just as Dipper, with a happy look on his face, was mingling with the old crew members, Charles suddenly stood up.
"Did I come here to chat with you? Eat quickly, and then explore quickly after eating!!"
As soon as the captain finished speaking, everyone stopped talking and hurriedly sped up their eating. The sound of chewing could be heard one after another in the camp.
After just a few minutes, everyone had finished eating, holding their weapons and carrying their luggage, ready to move on.
"Wait a minute." Dipper stood in front of everyone, stopping them all.
"Captain, when I came here just now, I found some interesting things. They looked like they were left by a living person."
"What?" Charles turned to look at Dipper with a hint of surprise in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me earlier about such an important matter?"
The fishman's ugly face showed a trace of embarrassment. "I was just hungry, so I just wanted to finish eating first."
After he finished speaking, he rushed to Charles and said in a flattering manner: "Captain, do you forgive my previous behavior? Can I continue to follow the ship in the future?"
Charles, with a frown on his face, gave him a hard push and said, "Lead the way quickly."
Faced with Charles' rude behavior, Dipper was not displeased at all. Instead, he was in high spirits and led everyone to quickly shuttle through the strange forest.
He knew the captain's character, so it seemed that he had forgiven himself.
Soon, under the leadership of Dipper, Charles saw the so-called traces of humans.
Under a crooked tree, there was a "person" squatting. It was a person with an extremely slender body. If I had to describe it, it would be a matchstick man.
But the body of this thing is not black, it looks like it is made of brown linen rope.
Charles touched it gently with his hand and found that not only was the body of this thing like a rope, but it also felt like a rope.
"Could this thing have been made by the people on that wrecked ship?" A thought popped into Charles' mind.
Just as he was thinking this, Lily's voice rang out from beside him. "Mr. Charles, come here, look, there's more here."
The crew members gathered around and saw two ropemen standing behind another big tree.
But they do not stand alone, but are entangled with each other, with a thin rope hanging below the point where they are connected.
"Do you think they are having a baby?" Lily's words stunned Charles.
After careful observation, he found that this thing really seemed to be giving birth. The two rope men took out some of their own thread ends and wrapped them together to form a new rope man.
"Could this thing be alive?" A thought came to Charles' mind.
"Swish!" Charles chopped off the arm of a rope man. He picked up the short limb and looked at the cross-section. There was no flesh and blood inside. This thing was made of ordinary linen rope.
"What are these? Who made these?"
Just as Charles was thinking about this question, he felt something behind him. As he turned his head sharply, a rope man with strange facial features directly hit his face! !
"Swish~!!" The rope man's head fell to the ground instantly, and Charles, with an extremely ugly expression on his face, quickly retreated backwards.
"Everyone gather! These things are actually alive!" With Charles' low voice, the atmosphere suddenly became solemn.
No matter why this thing is made of just rope but can still move, since it can move, it means it can also kill people.
All the crew members quickly stood back to back, weapons in hand, and looked around nervously.
"Captain, this is none of my business. They wouldn't move at all when I was here before." Dipper explained to Charles in an anxious voice, fearing that the other party would doubt him again.
Charles was too lazy to pay attention to the boy at this moment. He found that in just a few seconds, the tangled rope men behind them had separated for the most part and moved about one meter towards him.
"Return the same way, quickly!" Following Charles' order, the crew members quickly retreated back the way they came.
However, something extremely disturbing happened. Under the strange tree trunk, the number of strange rope men increased.
No one could see how they moved. When people saw them, they were either squatting on branches or sticking half of their heads out from between the leaves.
Against the backdrop of these colorful trees, the simple smiles on their faces looked particularly strange.
Faced with this scene, the crew members' steps became a little disorderly and their breathing became rapid.
All the guns were loaded, but without the captain's order, they did not start the attack. No one knew whether these things were afraid of bullets.
Suddenly, Dipper in front stopped. Charles rushed to his side and looked forward, and suddenly felt his scalp tingling.
A huge net formed by brown hemp ropes blocked their way. Those strange rope-man heads popped out from all directions of the net like thread ends. They were completely surrounded by these things.
(End of this chapter)