"Damn, this guy's trash! He can't even use his abilities right! I died again," the boy complained, tossing his phone onto the sofa in annoyance.
A girl watching TV nearby curled her lip in disdain. "You're the one who sucks, you noob."
Right then, the TV began showing a gorilla pounding its chest. The boy jerked his chin at the screen. "Hey, look, you're on TV again."
Furious, the girl grabbed a nearby cushion and threw it straight at him. "Gao Zhiming! Go to hell!" The two immediately started roughhousing.
"Alright, you two, knock it off. Come and eat," a woman's voice called from the living room, stopping the squabbling siblings.
At the dinner table, the woman in the apron said to her son, "You're not a kid anymore. Can't you go a little easier on your sister?"
"Why should I? She used to beat me up when we were kids, and she never went easy on me."
The girl, who had been eating, shot him an angry look and kicked her right foot out under the table. The boy immediately kicked back.
Watching the commotion growing under the table, the woman simply shook her head and stopped trying to persuade them. Her two kids had been fighting since they were little; she was used to it.
After a few more bites, she turned to her son again. "For this trip with your friends, why did you have to take a boat instead of the train? Boats are so dangerous."
"Mom, what era do you think this is? How are boats dangerous? Besides, it's Liu De's dad's ship. It'll be fine," Gao Zhiming said while shoveling food into his mouth, his feet never ceasing their fight.
"You never know. Didn't one sink in South Korea a few years ago? Why not just switch to the high-speed rail?"
"The tickets are already bought. You can relax, I promise. Absolutely nothing will happen," Gao Zhiming assured her with complete confidence.
Just then, he felt a sudden coldness on his ankle. Looking down, he saw a layer of pitch-black water covering the floor and rising rapidly.
Before the panicked Gao Zhiming could even stand, the water had already surged over his head. A single thought flashed through his mind: My sister can't swim.
Struggling, Gao Zhiming reached out for his family in the water, but his sister's face was twisted with pain. She seemed to be dragged away by something, getting farther and farther from him. He twisted his head to look for his mother, only to find she had already vanished without a trace.
He searched frantically underwater but couldn't find them. As the air in his lungs depleted, the feeling of suffocation intensified. In his final, dying moments, he saw a monstrous, gaping maw filled with sharp teeth swallow him whole.
HUFF! A terrified Charles jolted his eyes open.
Listening to the sound of the waves and feeling the swaying of the ship, he realized it had all been a dream.
"Nightmare, buddy? What'd you dream about? Tell me all about it and cheer me up."
Ignoring his other persona's teasing, Charles sat up and looked around. He realized he wasn't in the Captain's Room but lying on the deck wearing only a pair of shorts. He held a clear glass, and a pair of sunglasses were still perched on his face. He looked like he was on a beach vacation.
"Why am I sleeping out here?"
"It's my time. I was sunbathing."
Charles gave the pitch-black surroundings a deadpan look. "Are you nuts? Sunbathing out here?"
"You just don't get it. If you have a beach in your heart, anywhere can be the Maldives. It's a lifestyle."
"What's our heading?" Charles asked as he took control of his body and stood up.
"Same as ever. Still no sign of the island on the sea chart. I checked our supplies before my sunbathing session. If we don't find that island within ten days, we have to turn back."
Charles leaned against the ship's rail, staring silently into the dark sea. He was certain the sea chart was correct, but the situation back then had been critical, and he'd had to rely entirely on his visual memory. He couldn't be sure he hadn't made a small error.
"Don't be so gloomy. If we don't find it this time, we can always come back. You live your life way too seriously. Want to lighten up? How about I tell you a joke?"
Charles walked back, raised his glass, and downed the contents. As he tilted his head back, he suddenly saw several white dots flashing in the extreme distance high above.
"Stars? There are stars underground? Are we back on the surface?"
A few seconds later, the stars began to flash more frequently, then suddenly winked out, plunging everything into a darkness so profound that even Charles couldn't see.
SMACK. Out of nowhere, a small pebble fell from the sky and hit him in the face.
With his night vision, Charles's pupils constricted as if he'd seen something. His expression instantly became grim. He spun around and screamed at Second Officer Krona, who was behind the glass of the wheelhouse, "Second Officer! Hard to starboard! Full turbines!"
As the Narwhal began its sharp turn, more and more pebbles started to fall, until it seemed like the entire sky was raining stones.
With a deafening clap of thunder, a mountain-sized stalactite plunged from above, smashing down on the very spot where the Narwhal had been moments before.
A tremendous roar echoed out. The impact created a tsunami, sending wave after wave crashing into the Narwhal, tossing it about violently.
On deck, Charles had tied himself securely to a railing with a rope. It was the only thing that kept him from being swept overboard.
"What the hell, are the stars always this cranky? We barely looked at them and they're already falling down to attack us?" Richard ranted.
Spitting out a mouthful of bitter seawater, Charles replied, "Those weren't stars. That thing up there was alive. Whatever they are, they saw us. They're the ones throwing the stones."
"Shit, there's stuff above us? How are they not falling down? Are they geckos or something?"
"That's not our concern right now. Look! The stars are lighting up again!"
Overhead, the hazy white dots lit up once more. A few seconds later, they went dark again, and another series of mountain-sized stalactites rained down. The Narwhal fled desperately.
Another huge wave crashed over the deck. Richard yelled, "This isn't working! Those things are chasing us!"
Watching the sky light up with "stars" again, Charles thought for a moment before giving a direct order to cut all lights.
In the total darkness, the only sound Charles could hear was his own ragged breathing. When he realized the rain of stones had stopped, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Whatever those things were, they had been using the Narwhal's lights to lock onto their position. With the lights off, they could no longer target the ship.
In the darkness, Charles began communicating with his crew.
"Second Officer, don't stop. Keep moving forward. We're not completely safe yet."
"Captain, I can't see anything!"
"I can. I'll guide you."
Engulfed in darkness, the Narwhal continued on its course. Charles stood on the deck, holding the sea chart and nervously checking their position to ensure the ship didn't lose its way.
After about half an hour, just as Charles looked up from the chart to scan the sea again, Richard's excited shout rang in his ears.
"An island! That's an island! We found it!"