Chapter 384 Anomaly 077

Chapter 384 – Anomaly 077
Cannon fire was roaring, hot shells were whistling and falling from the sky, huge columns of water were rising one after another inside and outside the harbor, some of which had almost grazed the White Oak’s sides, the sea was churning and surging, and the entire ship was rocking from the impact, making disturbing, creaking noises.

Lawrence and First Mate Gus led the twelve sailors up the rope ladder and made their way back to the deck of the White Oak without incident, while behind them, Dagger Island, still shrouded in fog and empty, was suddenly hanging over the harbor in a chaotic gust of wind, in which the fog swirled and tumbled as if full of malice, as if enraged by the uninvited guests.

The Bosun hurried over, the tall seaman full of nerves and clutching a rifle in his hand (though it would be of little use at all in a sea battle), and he came to Lawrence, darting to make sure of the captain’s state before sighing in relief, “Excellent! You’re finally back – we heard a thunder-like noise coming from the island earlier, and when you never came back, the second mate thought something had happened to you ……”

Lawrence’s mind flashed back to the scene he had just witnessed in the pier plaza, he remembered the four extra sailors and the green blaze that had suddenly appeared, and a complicated expression appeared on his face.

Something had indeed gone wrong, and it was not a small matter – but now was clearly not the time to explain.

“Forget that for now,” he shook his head, “what’s the situation now? Where’s Jason?”

“The second mate is on the bridge directing the battle, we’re engaging a warship of unknown origin,” the Bosun said quickly, “The ship fired on us as soon as it showed itself at a great distance, and it’s been approaching this way – the The stern of the ship has just been hit by a shot, fortunately the damage is not too serious, but we must hurry away, the White Oak is no match for a battleship.”

“Get out of here, now.” Lawrence said quickly.

The steam core let out a low rumble as the boiling gold catalysts began to release surges of energy, and the strong power mechanism drove the propellers, causing the White Oak to accelerate away from the bizarre harbor, and between the jets of water from the cannonballs that continued to fall nearby, the advanced cargo expedition ship with its clean white hull continued to accelerate, leaving the Dagger Isle behind in a thick fog.

The attackers, however, were in hot pursuit.

Lawrence went to the bridge and watched through the wide window at the side and rear of the bridge, and at the end of a vast expanse of sea he could clearly see the silhouette of the assailant – a not-too-large warship that was chasing after it and firing its bow guns, the bright flashes piercing the dimly lit sky that shrouded the entire sea again and again. The bright flashes of light pierced through the dim canopy that shrouded the entire ocean.

Fortunately, it was a small ship and not a battleship with fierce guns, otherwise the White Oak would not have been able to hold out in this attack until now.

Unfortunately, the ship was extremely fast, and even though the White Oak’s speed was repeatedly increased, Lawrence still judged that the ship would catch up sooner or later.

That ship was even accelerating.

“We can’t shake it off,” the first mate’s tone was a bit desperate, “it’s too fast …… but our firepower is no match for a warship!”

Lawrence didn’t say a word, just thought fast.

Classification-wise, the White Oak was indeed a civilian vessel, but that didn’t mean it was a lamb to the slaughter-as a special expedition ship capable of long voyages on the infinite sea and capable of transporting sealed items between city-states, it had a military-grade steam core and anti-submergence structure, and its keel, waterline hull, and superstructure had also been specially reinforced, so it could be said that in terms of hull strength alone, this ship was no weaker than a battleship of the same class.

What it lacked was only firepower – after all, as a civilian ship, it could at most only mount a few small-caliber guns used to fight small groups of pirates or monsters in the sea, and that thing was simply incapable of fighting against warships.

Looking at the current situation, the White Oak would be caught up sooner or later – when the distance between the two ships got a bit closer, the opponent’s gunfire hit rate wouldn’t be so low.

Even the strongest hull structure couldn’t last long if it was used as a target.

A sharp whistling sound suddenly came in from afar, followed by a loud boom that interrupted Lawrence’s thoughts, he felt his ears buzzing inside, the ground shaking under his feet, and in the corner of his eye, he saw a fireball suddenly rise from the side of the White Oak, with broken pieces of metal and deck structure crumbling in all directions.

The Bosun cried out, “Shot in the side …… Get to the fire!”

Lawrence steadied himself in the violent shaking while the expression on his face changed rapidly, as if he had suddenly made some decision.

“The cargo manifest,” he looked up to the first officer who was keeping order on the bridge, “bring the cargo manifest!”

“Cargo manifest?” The first mate was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood the captain’s intention, his expression became extraordinarily contradictory and gloomy, but still immediately carried out the order and sent a record book to Lawrence.

Lawrence opened the record book, his eyes quickly swept over it, and finally rested on one of the lines.

“Open the second sealing room and bring the sealing object ‘Anomaly 077’ to the bridge,” he raised his head and ordered quickly to the first mate, “Prepare clean shrouds and a new noose, ready for the second sealing. ”

The first mate’s face tightened, he looked extraordinarily hesitant even though he had long expected this to be the case, “Captain, this ……”

“The situation is urgent, it can only be like this,” Lawrence’s face was serious, “There is a precedent for unsealing the ship’s seals to solve a crisis under special circumstances – afterward, if the Church side wants to pursue the matter, I’ll go and explain to them. ”

The first mate seemed to want to say something else, but facing the old captain’s serious line of sight, he still swallowed back all the words he wanted to say, and finally nodded his head vigorously, “Yes, captain!”

The order was quickly carried out, and several seafarers specializing in disposing of sealed objects darted to the special area located on the lower deck, opened the second sealed room, and lifted the sealed status of the room in accordance with Anomaly 077’s rules of internment.

A few moments later, amidst the roar of gunfire, several sailors brought Anomaly 077 to the bridge and placed what the captain wanted in front of Lawrence. Lawrence lowered his head, his expression was particularly grave as he gazed at the “anomaly” that the sailors brought out from the sealed room—it was a corpse in a shroud.

It was a dried corpse wrapped tightly in a shroud.

Anomaly 077 – Sailor.

Lawrence knows the information of every piece of cargo on his ship, of course, including this anomaly.

Anomaly 077 first appeared on an expedition ship that had mysteriously disappeared for three years, and is believed to be responsible for the shipwreck. This anomaly appears to be a dried-up corpse, about 1.7 meters tall, and in its unsealed state, it exhibits the characteristics of a “living thing”, even capable of talking and thinking with people. Its power is highly consistent with its “identity”.

As a sailor, it will try to influence the nearest ship and take over the ship’s functions in a short time, regardless of environmental conditions, ship type, or control technology, and once the takeover is complete, it will cause the ship to randomly teleport – the entire process will only take a few minutes, and a ship of any size will be in the “sailor’s” hands. In just a few minutes, a ship of any size will be sent to a random corner of the infinite sea under the influence of the Sailor.

But it’s not a safe trip – a ship transported by Anomaly 077 is bound to be at the center of a major storm.

No one knows whether Anomaly 077 chooses a storm as the drop-off point for its teleportation, or whether it creates a storm just for the purpose of teleportation. The only thing we know for sure is that in the large number of teleportation events that have been documented, only a small number of ships have been able to safely navigate away from the storm at the “drop-off point”.

Many more ships, and hundreds of unfortunates, have fallen victim to Anomaly 077.

According to Lawrence’s information, the Anomaly 077 itself is not difficult to deal with – although the trapped Anomaly 077 will unconditionally activate its abilities until the teleportation is complete, once the teleportation is complete, it can be easily resealed, and will stop moving as soon as a new noose is placed around its neck, and will be wrapped in a shroud. Wrap it in a shroud, and it will return to its slumber – this dryad has nothing beyond human strength, and is not a strong fighter.

At that point, the only thing the crew of the White Oak needed to do was just figure out how to fight a storm-and Lawrence and his sailors had fought countless storms.

Lawrence bent down and slowly placed his hand on the shroud of Anomaly 077.

The crew on the bridge watched the scene nervously.

Lawrence took a deep breath and pulled back the rope clasp on the shroud.

A slight intake of breath reached his ears almost instantly.

The sound came from the wrapped dry body.

The shroud loosened up, as if an invisible force had instantly undone all the string fastenings, and the true face of Abnormality 077 was exposed to everyone’s gaze-a dry corpse wearing an old-time sailor’s smock, with sparse hair falling out, and a shriveled and near-skeletal body lay silently on the floor.

This dry corpse’s chest was rising and falling slightly, and the rise and fall became more and more pronounced, and in the end, Lawrence even felt that he heard the other person’s heartbeat and breathing.

Anomaly 077 is off the hook – the sailor awakens from his seal.

The dry body slowly opened its eyes and sat up a little bit stiffly, its joints splintering.

“You’re at the helm of this ship for the time being,” Lawrence said through clenched teeth and a complicated expression, “Get us out of here.”

Anomaly 077 sat up straight and looked around slowly, his eyes finally landing on Lawrence.

For some reason, Lawrence suddenly felt as if he saw a hint of horror in that drained, ghastly face.

Then he saw the dry body literally shiver.

“Don’t …… stop!”

A hoarse and frightened exclamation came from the dry corpse’s mouth, and in the next second it closed its eyes in full view of everyone and directly lay down to play dead.

It even reached out and tugged at the shroud scattered next to it, as if it was trying to secretly rewrap the cloth around its body.

Lawrence:”……?”

Sailors: “……?”

(end of chapter)