The rain was steadily growing heavier and heavier with each passing minute. The wind roared as if it threatened to overturn the entire world. The churning of the sea only added to the chaotic scene outside.
The inside of the tent though felt like a completely separate world. With an atmosphere so thick that people inside seemed to have some trouble breathing, oblivious to what was happening on the other side of the tent's walls.
Matoimaru had already taken the soldier's body and laid it flat on the ground. After twisting his neck back to its proper place, she closed his eyes and she had started reciting a prayer in her language.
Although Lin Ye didn't understand anything that she was saying, he was certain that it was something along the lines of "Rest in Peace".
Skyfire was crouching down next to the corpse, inspecting the mud on the soldier's trouser legs, "He should have come from somewhere muddy."
Magallan glances towards Skyfire, "In other words, in the time between his disappearance and his appearance, he left the tent?"
"Yes," Skyfire nods, "Doctor Lin Ye said it himself, right? His time of death was an hour ago, which doesn't fit in with the time that everyone else disappeared. In other words, he was already dead, before people started disappearing. "
"If he was already dead, then what exactly did we see in the camera just now?" Magallan asks nervously.
"It's his corpse," Lin Ye's expression is a bit complicated, "Think about it carefully. By the time he arrived, it's hard to say that he was still alive. At that time, he was already dead, but the body was being controlled by some force, which could explain how he broke his neck. Something must have happened to him."
Lin Ye didn't know why but he couldn't help but feel that someone out there hated him with a passion. It wasn't his first time dealing with this type of scenario, but that didn't mean he liked experiencing these things. Although his previous experiences were also dangerous, this one was so much worse. At least before, he had to deal with enemies that he could see. But this time, he didn't even know what he was dealing with.
He hated dealing with things that he didn't know. It felt very uncomfortable for him, knowing anything could happen at any time.
"Then... What should we do now?" Magallan says softly.
"We still have to go to the pier and find a boat," Skyfire says, "At the very least we need to find out where the other people went."
"What if they really went out to sea? Wouldn't we be just entering a trap?"
"That-," Skyfire's answer dies off, as she doesn't know what to say to that.
If those people really did go out to sea did they have to chase after them? Not to mention that they didn't know what they were even going to face. Even considering the thought of trying to find them in this kind of weather was suicidal.
Lin Ye squints at the corpse lying on the ground. The most critical question they haven't figured out yet is, why did this corpse return? Didn't it disappear with the other people? If the power controlling this corpse was some sort of ability belonging to a deep-sea creature, then why did it send this corpse back?
Lin Ye wasn't the only one thinking about this. The others were also thinking about this issue, but they couldn't figure out why as well.
Until Matoimaru spoke up, "You mentioned that the Deep Sea might have a brain?"
"Deep Sea?" Lin Ye asks.
"Just to put a name to the creature that we are dealing with," Matoimaru says
Lin Ye nods and looks at her, "And what do you mean by having a brain?"
"What I want to ask is, does it have the ability to think." Matoimaru explains, "Is it a kind of mindless beast that just has an extremely powerful ability, or is it the kind of creature capable of thinking? Just like us."
Blue Poison replies, "It depends on the type. Although the food chain of the ocean is very different from the food chain of the land, there are some similarities."
"In other words, is the Deep Sea intelligent? If so, it will use strategy if it encounters a strong enough opponent." Matoimaru turns her head to look at the soldier's corpse again, "Then it wouldn't do meaningless things. Meaning that if it let the corpse come back alone, it had the same idea as us."
"The same idea as us?" Lin Ye is puzzled by the statement, "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying it did the same thing we did.", she points at the soldier's corpse, "He's like that."
Then she points at the drone.
Magallan corrected her, "That's my drone."
"That's what I meant. Don't interrupt," Matoimaru hadn't finished speaking yet, but Skyfire stood up with a look of realization on her face.
"You don't mean..."
"We use drones to check on the Deep Sea, then the Deep Sea is using this corpse as one too..," Matoimaru looks at Lin Ye, "Isn't that doing the same thing as us?"
Lin Ye is stunned.
He recalls the eye in the video just now. Yes, this soldier was obviously dead, then why would his eyes stay open?
The image captured by his eyes was no longer being transmitted to his brain. Where did it go?
The people in the tent collectively shuddered, as they all reached the same conclusion.
That was the wrongness that they felt in the soldier's gaze. It hadn't been the soldier staring at them, but the Deep Sea all along!
Lin Ye didn't know if he was just imagining things, but it felt like the temperature within the tent suddenly dropped after the discovery, with the cold seeming to come in from all sides.
He couldn't help but take two steps closer to Skyfire, due to her body temperature being much higher than that of ordinary people.
"That can explain why he did such weird things, right?" Matoimaru clapped her hands, seemingly oblivious to the mood, "If I were to control Magallan's drone, it would have crashed after flying two laps. Deep Sea probably isn't that proficient in controlling the 'drone' either, that's why he-."
"Matoimaru!"
Lin Ye was surprised that it was the quiet Frostleaf who interrupted Matoimaru. She must have been unnerved by the situation. After understanding the meaning of Matoimaru's words, she couldn't help but interrupt her, because of how her terrible comparison wouldn't really help.
"Don't get angry, I'm just guessing things," Matoimaru shrugs, "I don't know if that's really the case. just forget about it if you think it's wrong."
No, it's not wrong. Everyone knows. Lin Ye thought.
The scary thing was that this guess was likely true. Who could have expected that while they were probing and observing the Deep Sea, it would also be probing and observing them back!
"But why?" Magallan can't help but ask, "Deep Sea clearly has the ability to directly take out the other three tents entirely. Why couldn't it handle 6 people?"
Skyfire turns her head and looks at Lin Ye "There's only one explanation."
Lin Ye lowers his head and looks at Maple hanging around his waist.
Deep Sea, from its point of view, was dealing with something on par with itself.
That is, this sword that was forged by a god!
Crack!*
At the exact moment Skyfire finished her sentence, lighting roared in the sky, momentarily lighting up the gloom within the tent. The timing made it appear as if the lightning was responding to Skyfire.
Yes, Deep Sea didn't need to care about them at all, and only needed to be wary of an existence on the same level as it, such as a god.
Messiah, the God of Karlan. The girl whose smile can easily heal his soul. She gave him the greatest tool they had right now. She was the reason why they were still standing in the tent now, making Deep Sea think it wasn't dealing with a human but a god.
"So, it thinks we're gods?" Matoimaru is surprised, "That's why it doesn't dare to do anything to us?"
"No," Blue Poison shakes her head, "I think it's sizing us up. Like every predator, they have the same hunting habits."
"Hunting... Habit?" Lin Ye glances at her.
"Yes, no matter what the beast, the first thing they do when they see a creature they've never seen before is observe it. In order to determine whether the opponent is dangerous or not.", Skyfire explains.
"So has Deep Sea decided?" Matoimaru asks, "Does it know whether we're predator or prey?"
"I don't know yet," Skyfire looks back at the Ursus soldier's corpse, "As you said before, with the 'drone', it didn't know how to use it and accidentally broke it. I think that it only managed to see the drone, and with the intelligence of the Deep Sea, it is unlikely that its drones would be included in its list of hunting targets."
"Then we've escaped its detection?" Frostleaf asks.
"Probably," Skyfire says with little conviction, "I can't say for sure, but if these speculations are true, then there is a high possibility that those who've disappeared are still alive, and might not have even gone out to sea yet, merely hidden somewhere else nearby."
Magallan perks up at that, "How can you be so sure?"
Skyfire didn't speak, instead it was Blue Poison who answered, "Because beasts will not eat when they feel threatened by something."
Everyone exchanges glances with each other.
"I have the feeling that we're about to meet this Deep Sea soon," Matoimaru tilts her head, "Then, what will Deep-sea do next?"
Skyfire asks her, "When we saw this corpse, what was our first reaction?"
Matoimaru answers without hesitation, "Of course we... came to... check the situation..."
Everyone falls silent.
Thud*
Thud*
Lin Ye initially dismissed it as his imagination when he thought he heard a steady thumping sound accompanied by faint tremors, but when he realized it was slowly getting louder, despite the downpour outside, he tensed up. Taking a quick glance at his companions, he saw that they had noticed it too.
"Something is coming," Skyfire softly mutters.
Lin Ye drew Maple out.
Blue Poison loads a poisoned bolt into her crossbow.
Frostleaf hefts up her halberd.
Matoimaru grabs her sword with one hand.
Magellan activates her drones' armed systems.
Skyfire holds her staff out in front of her.
Everyone's eyes had gathered on the curtain of the tent, holding their breath.
The footsteps had stopped, but they knew that the "Deep Sea" was just outside the tent.
All that was separating them was a thin curtain of cloth.
Lin Ye has never felt this nervous before in either of his lives.
His heart was hammering in his chest, and his palms were sweaty enough to make him worried that he might be unable to hold Maple properly. But he also knew that his worries were unnecessary. Once "Deep Sea" parted the curtain, he definitely wouldn't be letting go of Maple.
One second, became two seconds, became half a minute, the whole time Lin Ye was focused on the tent flaps. It was a good thing the wind blowing on him and the raindrops falling on him was helping him cool off, the atmosphere was making it feel stuffy in the tent.
Wait— raindrops?!
Lin Ye jolted in realization, his body reflexively stiffening in an instant, as he slowly raised his head.
Then he sees it.
A golden orb, only slightly larger than a basketball, staring at him through the massive hole in the front of the tent.
Lin Ye felt his jaw slightly drop, before he then heard a loud shout from Skyfire beside him.
"The flames of the sun shall devour you!" she cries as her staff lights up.
In the next second, fire fell from the heavens to bathe the golden pupil above him in flame, swallowing up "Deep Sea" in an instant.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft by Jaq
Proofread by PanzerComrade56
Edit by Jaq