"Swish~" Dipper, who was at the helm, sniffed back the snot that was flowing down his nose. He shrank his neck but it didn't feel much better.
The cockpit of the Narwhal now has neither a roof nor glass. Standing here for several hours, being blown by the sea breeze, even a deep diver would find it a bit unbearable. He could hardly feel the existence of his fingers.
The sound of footsteps was heard, and the first mate, whose bandages were all stained red with blood, walked over. In his hand was the spare nautical chart from the captain's room.
"How long... have you been gone?"
"The direction has not changed. It is now exactly 60 nautical miles."
Bandage nodded silently and quickly proofread the simple nautical chart next to him.
"How's it going down there?" Dipper asked without turning his head.
The bandage pen paused for a moment, then continued to draw along the ruler. "Tommy... His right hand was not saved..."
Dipper sighed slightly. Although the crisis had passed, the situation of the crew members was not optimistic.
They survived, but the sea otter's sharp teeth tore off their muscles, exposing the bloody bones. In this situation, even Linda couldn't treat it and had to cut it off.
"It's okay. The captain will spend money to buy them prosthetic limbs. All in all, Tommy is making money."
Bandage spoke first, which was rare. "It's easy to talk to others... Feuerbach... is being rescued... He may not be able to hold on..."
"What, why?!" Dipper looked very surprised at the news.
"His stomach was cut open once by... the captain... and during the battle, a large part of his intestines were pulled out by the sea otters..."
Dipper sighed, "That Feuerbach kid went through so many storms, but he finally fell on this little sea otter."
"But there's nothing we can do about it. There are so many of them. If the Hope Island Navy was here, there wouldn't be so much trouble. We could just kill them all."
Three cabins below Dipper's muttering, Charles stood at the door of the medical room with his arms folded across his chest, waiting.
Suddenly the door was pushed open from the inside, and he hurriedly went to meet Linda who came out, and asked with a serious expression: "How is the second mate?"
"The intestines have been stuffed back in, but because of the delay, various pathogens have already invaded the blood circulation and caused acute systemic infection and sepsis."
"Add to that the other injuries on his body, and the chance of survival is less than 40%. If he is on the verge of death, I suggest using the Source Ritual to try his luck."
Charles' face turned very ugly. He didn't expect that after avoiding the crisis with great difficulty, his crew members would actually be killed on the way back.
And this is not the first bad news for him.
He turned his head to look at Tuba, who was neither moving nor speaking. Tuba had been like this since what happened before, looking like he had no soul at all.
"We'll talk about Feuerbach later. You should help Tuba with his treatment first."
Linda walked over and helped Tuba up. "Captain, you should know that ordinary medical treatment is of little use in his condition. I can only try my best."
With a "click", the door of the medical room closed again. Charles slowly sat down on the stool beside him, waiting for the result which was destined to be not good.
A soft little hand reached out and pinched Charles' right hand. "It's not your fault. I suddenly realized why that thing didn't attack us."
"They are the gatekeepers of various angles. They are like hounds chasing those stowaways. Whether it is the giant worm before or Tuba behind, they have left their own angles."
Charles turned his head to look at Anna next to him. "This is not much consolation. If this is true, then it means that Tuba from another perspective will no longer exist. I'm afraid Tuba from this perspective is dead."
"What can we do about it? This is not only dangerous for humans, but also for monsters like us."
The atmosphere in the dim corridor was somewhat depressing, and it was very quiet for a while.
Suddenly Charles said, "There's nothing to do here. Take Shanshan back first."
"It's okay. I'll stay for a while. If anything from the sea crawls onto the deck, I can help you deal with it."
"Go back, I can handle those things easily."
Anna saw Charles's firm attitude and said nothing more, but patted him gently with her hands.
"Swish~!" A white light flashed, and Shanshan, wearing a sky blue dress, appeared in front of the two people.
Anna reached out and picked her up, "Sparkle, say goodbye to daddy."
"Goodbye, Dad." The two of them disappeared in front of Charles in an instant.
Charles was waiting silently in the dim corridor. He stared straight at the door of the medical room. No one knew what he was thinking.
Time passed little by little, and as they got closer to Hope Island, the morale of the Narwhal began to improve, and the impact of the dead crew was slowly dissipating.
"Ah~" Tuba, like a turtle, slowly took the iron spoon filled with rye porridge and stuffed it into his mouth.
He had a small bib made from a shirt around his neck to catch the saliva that flowed from the corners of his mouth.
"He's recovering well. At least he can take care of himself." Linda, who was sitting opposite Tuba, said to Charles beside her.
Charles waved his hand in front of Tuba's eyes, but found that the other party ignored him and focused on eating the food.
"It's no use just being able to take care of himself. He doesn't know anyone right now, and he's crazy. No one can understand what he says."
"What's the difference between him and before? He's still crazy anyway, just a little crazier now."
After thinking for a while, Linda spoke again: "Actually, I'm not sure whether his current condition is the result of my treatment or his own recovery. Based on what you described, this is really beyond my scope."
Tuba was still eating slowly, not paying any attention to what the two people next to him were saying.
At this time, a brown mouse ran to Tuba's feet and bit his trouser leg, but it did not get the response it deserved.
Charles knew that the matter had come to an end, and no matter whether Tuba could return to normal or not, he would probably have to get off the ship in the future.
Seeing the navigator in front of him, Charles thought of the other injured person, "How is Feuerbach?"
"The situation is not optimistic, but his will to survive is very strong, so he is still holding on for now."
(End of this chapter)