NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 177 - Training Exercise 25
Five days passed quickly, and during these five days, they had not encountered any mutant fish attacks, confirming that the Sunlight Squad’s guess had been correct.
After the level six mutant fish ate the mutant beast meat they provided, for reasons unknown, it unexpectedly took on the role of their protector.
With no threats from sea creatures or mutant fish in these past few days, the Sunlight Squad focused most of their energy on rowing. What had started as a two-person team now became a four-person team, and they were able to row more than 600 kilometers in a day.
At this pace, they had completely made up for the distance they had lost during their time in the mountains, and the Sunlight Squad was confident that they would reach the mission’s designated coordinates on time.
However, this peace was soon broken. On the eleventh day after entering the ocean, the winds that had been blowing steadily—whether light or strong—suddenly stopped, and the entire surface of the sea became completely calm.
Yet, the Sunlight Squad could not shake the feeling of unease. In the midst of this calm, they sensed an invisible pressure that made the air feel heavy and oppressive.
“Captain, this feeling… it seems like some great disaster is about to happen,” said Booker with a serious expression.
Ye Zhengyan nodded. He thought the same, and he had a pretty good idea of what kind of disaster might occur.
“Captain, look at that mutant fish!” one of the team members shouted.
The Sunlight Squad turned to look, and saw the level six mutant fish that had been trailing behind their raft making a move as if it was about to submerge into the water.
The reason the Sunlight Squad thought this action was directed at them was that the mutant fish submerged into the water, surfaced again, submerged once more, and then resurfaced. On its third rise, it emitted a “chirping” sound towards them.
It was the first time the Sunlight Squad realized that fish could make sounds, and they almost dropped their jaws in surprise.
However, they quickly lost interest in this oddity, because after the mutant fish “chirped” at them, it submerged into the sea again.
At first, the team thought it would surface again quickly, but after a minute or two, when it still hadn’t appeared, they began to wonder if it had swum away.
The Sunlight Squad kept watching the rear of the raft, and it wasn’t until half an hour later that they confirmed the level six mutant fish had indeed left.
Although the level six mutant fish had posed a certain threat to them and had consumed most of their hunted mutant beast meat, the safety they enjoyed in the past few days was due to its protection. Moreover, in the vast ocean, keeping an eye on this mutant fish had added some fun to their journey.
They had grown accustomed to its presence, and now that it had left, the team couldn’t help but feel a little reluctant.
“A major storm is likely approaching,” Ye Zhengyan said.
Hearing their captain’s prediction, and looking at the increasingly strange sky and feeling the growing oppressive air, the Sunlight Squad completely agreed with their captain’s assessment.
“Looking at the weather, it seems like it will rain soon. Everyone, eat up first,” Ye Zhengyan said calmly.
It had been less than two hours since their last meal, and no one felt particularly hungry yet.
However, since the captain had said so, the Sunlight Squad understood that he wanted them to eat more so they would have enough energy to endure the coming storm.
The squad members sat on the raft, took out the food from their spatial storage devices, and started eating, with Ye Zhengyan doing the same.
Ye Zhengyan’s guess was correct. They had only eaten halfway when they began to feel the wind picking up around them. The wind had stopped suddenly before, but now it was picking up forcefully, and the waves were becoming more and more turbulent.
As soon as the Sunlight Squad had finished eating, the front of the storm reached them, and the sky opened up with a loud, cracking rain.
The ocean quickly became rough, with strong winds and high waves. The bamboo raft was tossed about in wave after wave, at risk of capsizing at any moment.
In the ocean, a strong storm is the most dangerous natural disaster.
“Captain, what should we do now?” Booker asked.
Although both Ye Zhengyan and Booker could tell the direction of the storm from the changes in the clouds and the way the wind was blowing, their bamboo raft relied solely on human power to row, and they could not outrun the storm with speed.
“Everyone, stop rowing. Keep your bodies steady and don’t get thrown into the sea,” Ye Zhengyan ordered.
The winds and waves were growing stronger by the minute, and rowing would only waste energy. Letting the raft drift with the wind and waves was the best course of action.
Upon hearing Ye Zhengyan’s command, the Sunlight Squad immediately sat down in a row. In the midst of the storm, the bamboo raft was tossed around like a leaf, thrown from wave to wave.
However, this was a raft that wouldn’t sink easily, and even though the waves kept splashing over it, it wasn’t in danger of sinking.
As long as the raft didn’t fall apart, and as long as the Sunlight Squad could stay steady on it, they had a good chance of surviving the storm.
As for how to keep themselves from being thrown overboard by the waves, the role of the vines and the holes in the raft became apparent. The Sunlight Squad had already prepared contingency plans for encountering a storm at sea. While a small storm might be manageable, they also had ways to handle a big one, so everyone remained calm.
After drifting with the waves for half an hour, the storm grew even stronger, and the bamboo raft was at risk of flipping over and breaking apart.
Seeing the situation, Ye Zhengyan didn’t hesitate any longer. He took a massive tree trunk from his spatial device and placed it on the raft.
The tree trunk was about two meters in diameter and four meters long. This tree wasn’t one they had felled; from the marks on the trunk, it seemed to have been struck by lightning and burned before it fell.
Such a large tree, without tools, would have been impossible to fell with just their strength.
When Ye Zhengyan saw the half-burned tree trunk, an idea struck him, and he stored it in his spatial device. Later, when thinking about how to deal with a storm at sea, he came up with the idea of using the half tree trunk.
Seeing the captain bring out the massive tree trunk, everyone immediately sat down. The eight of them split into two groups, using vines to tie themselves to the trunk.
They didn’t tie themselves tightly; instead, they tied one end of the vines around their waists and the other end around the tree trunk, leaving about half a meter of space between them.
This way, even if the tree trunk was flipped by the wind and waves, they would have some leeway, preventing them from being trapped underwater by the tree trunk.
Once everyone was secured to the tree trunk, an uneasy Ye Zhengyan, worried about the risk, checked everyone again.
In such fierce winds and rough waves, if someone were to come loose from the tree trunk, they might never be able to find them again.
With the wind and waves so strong, it seemed like the raft could be flipped at any moment, making any movement on the raft extremely dangerous.
Ye Zhengyan, however, stayed firmly in place, not being thrown off. Once he confirmed that everyone was securely tied, he took the vines and tied himself to the tree trunk as well.