Conquest Sea, Shining White Pearl.
Under the black night sky covered by dark clouds, the huge cruise ship was slowly sailing towards an unknown distance, its steel hull cutting through the waves, dragging a long white wake.
In a certain luxurious passenger cabin, Dorothy sat alone on the soft white large bed, with a large world map spread out in front of her. At this moment, Dorothy was looking at the map before her with a slight frown.
Because there was a lot of boring time on the ship, in order to entertain herself, Dorothy began to try to find something to do. She attempted to calculate the approximate position of the Shining White Pearl on the map in this era without satellite positioning, relying solely on calculations. However, the result surprised her slightly.
'According to the Shining White Pearl's voyage, it should have departed from Port Bace in northwestern Faloro, sailed west and then south, rounded the Cape of Far Sight of the peninsula nation Castile before entering the Conquest Sea, and then sailed eastward all the way towards Iweig.'
'According to the Shining White Pearl's average speed, two full days have passed now. It should have completely rounded the Cape of Far Sight and entered the Conquest Sea by now. After reaching the Conquest Sea, the ship should sail eastward all the way to Iweig, not continue heading south.'
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Dorothy thought to herself. Although it was a dark night outside the window with no stars or moon visible, making it difficult to find beacons to determine direction, by sensing the planet's magnetic field, Dorothy could still be very certain that the Shining White Pearl was currently sailing south, not eastward as theorized.
"Interesting..."
After realizing this problem, Dorothy couldn't help but mutter while stroking her chin. Then, she began to seriously ponder the reason for the current situation.
'The Shining White Pearl's current heading doesn't match my calculations... There are three possible reasons. First, my calculation is wrong. Second, the ship is not sailing at its usual normal cruising speed but is moving slower, so much so that the entire ship is still sailing south on the west side of Castile, and hasn't rounded the Cape of Far Sight to enter the Conquest Sea yet. Third, the ship has deviated from its preset route without realizing it.'
Dorothy listed three possibilities in her mind. Due to her confidence in her own calculation ability, she verified it internally and, finding no issues, dismissed the first point. That left two points: the speed was slow or the heading had deviated.
Both of these points were issues with the crew. Therefore, Dorothy now wanted to investigate what was going on.
Having made up her mind, Dorothy got out of bed, put on her shoes, and walked onto the cabin carpet. Then she opened the cabin door and went outside. After wandering around the ship's interior, she came to an deserted corner. Next, Dorothy took out her magic box from her person, placed it on the ground, opened it, and began using her ability to manipulate the things inside.
Before long, countless small Corpse Puppets such as spiders, geckos, rats, and mosquitoes flew and crawled out of the magic box one after another, spreading in all directions under Dorothy's control.
After releasing countless small Corpse Puppets for reconnaissance, Dorothy returned to her passenger cabin, closed the door, and sat on the cabin sofa. Then she began to use the small Corpse Puppets to conduct reconnaissance and monitoring of the entire Shining White Pearl.
Under Dorothy's manipulation, her small Corpse Puppets used the ventilation ducts to monitor the entire ship. Using the senses of various small Corpse Puppets, Dorothy saw scenes from all over the ship. The band in the ballroom was still playing melodious music, and gentlemen and ladies were still dancing on the spacious floor. Many gambling games were still going on simultaneously in the casino, and some gentlemen who were gambling intensely even shouted without regard for their image. Waiters were still constantly rushing around, busy satisfying the guests' diverse demands. In some secluded corners, elegantly dressed noblewomen were quietly chatting and laughing with young handsome men behind their husbands' backs.
The various scenes on the Shining White Pearl were reflected in Dorothy's mind. Dorothy didn't pay much attention to other things but instead sent many small Corpse Puppets to infiltrate the location of the bridge, wanting to see the situation there.
After spending some time figuring out the general structure of the ship's ventilation system, Dorothy quickly found the way to the bridge. She controlled the small Corpse Puppets to enter the bridge all the way along the ventilation ducts, and then observed the situation inside the cabin through the ventilation openings.
At this time, there were three or four sailors in the bridge. They weren't doing much operation but were resting and guarding the port in the bridge. The ship's rudder was in a fixed state, and no one was operating it at the moment.
Using the ventilation openings in the bridge, Dorothy observed the situation inside the bridge. She found that these sailors in the bridge were very silent and didn't talk much. If they said anything, it was just some insignificant complaints, without any substantial content. However, Dorothy didn't get anxious about this but continued to wait patiently. Finally, after more than half an hour, she heard a useful piece of information. A sailor looked at the dark sea outside the window and couldn't help but speak.
"Is the heading okay? Don't want Mr. Costa to scold us again."
"No problem, Mr. Costa just came to check. It's the correct heading now," another sailor replied, while the sailor who had asked the question earlier spoke up in surprise.
"Mr. Costa was here? When? Where is he now?"
"He was just in the bridge about an hour ago. Now, he should have returned to the Captain's cabin."
"Oh..."
After the brief exchange, the bridge fell silent again. Meanwhile, Dorothy in her own cabin couldn't help but nod and think to herself after hearing these words.
'Costa? Isn't that the name of this Shining White Pearl's Captain? So, the one who set the heading like this... is the Captain of this ship?'
After hearing the sailors' conversation, Dorothy realized where the main problem lay. Thus, she immediately began searching for the location of the ship's Captain's cabin.
Fortunately, there was a detailed overhead sectional view of the entire ship on the bridge wall. Based on this diagram, Dorothy quickly located the Captain's cabin and then controlled the small Corpse Puppets to quickly set off towards the Captain's cabin using the ventilation ducts of the ventilation system.
The Captain's cabin was not far from the bridge, both located in the superstructure above the deck. Before long, Dorothy found the ventilation duct leading to the Captain's cabin and controlled the small Corpse Puppets to advance all the way along the ventilation duct towards the Captain's cabin.
However, after Dorothy's small Corpse Puppets approached the Captain's cabin, she discovered something unusual.
After Dorothy's promotion to Chalk, the range of Corpse Puppet sizes she could control expanded significantly. Now, Dorothy was able to control Corpse Puppets as small as mosquitoes. Among the Corpse Puppets she placed in the ventilation duct to approach the Captain's cabin, there was such a miniature mosquito Corpse Puppet, positioned at the forefront to lead the way.
And as Dorothy's mosquito Corpse Puppet got closer and closer to the Captain's cabin in the ventilation duct, she also felt a slight abnormality on the mosquito Corpse Puppet. Simply put, the mosquito Corpse Puppet's wings were getting heavier and heavier.
Yes, under Dorothy's extremely fine perception, she discovered that a layer of fine water droplets had actually begun to accumulate on the mosquito Corpse Puppet's thin membrane wings.
'The humidity here is higher than in other places...'
After realizing the abnormality on the mosquito Corpse Puppet, Dorothy immediately stopped all Corpse Puppets that were still moving towards the Captain's cabin and then observed the situation. Dorothy used a spider Corpse Puppet located outside the ventilation duct, crawling on the wall of the ship's corridor, to look towards the distant Captain's cabin, staring intently at its distant locked door. After watching for a while and seeing no movement, she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
'Phew… It seems that no alarms or anything have been triggered yet, and it doesn't seem to have been discovered…'
Letting out a slight sigh of relief, Dorothy thought thankfully in her heart. Dorothy had been discovered many times when using corpse puppets for reconnaissance, such as being discovered by stepping on extraordinary spider silk, being discovered by spiritual perception, or being discovered by blood mist… Therefore, Dorothy had developed a very cautious habit when using corpse puppets for reconnaissance. Even if she noticed a slight abnormality such as the increase in air humidity, she immediately became vigilant.
After realizing that the air humidity on the way to the Captain's cabin had increased, Dorothy did not immediately continue to move forward, but began to experiment and try, allowing more mosquito corpse puppets to try to approach the Captain's room from different directions and different paths. As expected, as long as they approached the Captain's cabin to a certain extent, their wings would become heavy.
Although the air humidity on the ship was already higher than on land, according to Dorothy's reconnaissance, the humidity around the Captain's cabin was even greater than in other parts of the ship. Flying insects are very sensitive to changes in air humidity, and Dorothy, who could manipulate flying insect corpse puppets, could clearly feel this change in humidity.
The humidity around the Captain's cabin was slightly higher than in other parts of the ship, but the location of the Captain's cabin was not a place that was easily damp. Therefore, the increase in humidity around the Captain's cabin was an abnormal phenomenon.
And in this world, abnormal manifestations are almost equivalent to Extraordinary interference. The environment around the Captain's cabin is likely affected by some Extraordinary factor.
"Heh… It seems that traveling isn't peaceful either…"
Encountering an Extraordinary phenomenon again during the journey, Dorothy couldn't help but sigh slightly helplessly, and then quickly cheered up and began to consider the problem at hand.
'The cruise ship's course is abnormal, and the Captain may have some connection with the hidden Extraordinary. It seems that I must find out exactly what is going on before I can feel at ease. However, with this abnormal increase in humidity, I feel that I cannot approach the Captain's cabin rashly.'
Frowning slightly, Dorothy thought to herself, and then she began to seriously consider the problem of the abnormal humidity in the Captain's cabin at the moment.
In order not to be illuminated by things like Hui Jian Lamp, all of Dorothy's corpse puppets were conducting reconnaissance with spiritual vision. In Dorothy's eyes, although the humidity near the Captain's cabin was abnormally high and the water vapor was dense, she did not see any abnormal spiritual phenomena.
It does not contain abnormal spirituality, which means that these water vapor are ordinary water vapor and do not possess any Extraordinary power. It is not the Spider-Man's spider silk or the Spiderfang Priest's blood mist, and her corpse puppets will not be perceived even if they come into contact with it.
However… even ordinary water vapor, this abnormal accumulation is still alarming. In order to figure out the role of these water vapor, Dorothy decided to conduct some verification.
First, Dorothy walked out of her cabin, found a corner, and released a humanoid corpse puppet wearing decent clothes. Then she let this humanoid corpse puppet walk in the large cruise ship and walked all the way to the ship's bar.
After Dorothy's corpse puppet pushed open the bar door, what came into view was a slightly noisy scene. Many passengers gathered in twos and threes to drink and compete in drinking. After getting drunk, they were noisy and boisterous, and some drunk passengers curled up in the corner and fell asleep.
Dorothy let her corpse puppet quietly approach a big-bearded male passenger who was drunk and asleep in an Nobody's Corner, and then took out a quill pen from her pocket. After glancing around, she quickly drew a mysterious symbol combining an inverted pentagram and a cup on the palm of the drunkard. That was the Living Puppet mark!
After drawing the symbol, Dorothy began to use the ability of the quill pen to turn the content drawn by the quill pen into "Common Sense Text", setting it so that only she could understand it.
Therefore, in the eyes of others, the obvious mystical mark in the drunkard's hand turned into a messy scribble, as if the drunkard had accidentally touched the pen and drawn it on after getting drunk.
After drawing the Living Puppet mark on the drunkard without anyone knowing, Dorothy let her corpse puppet quickly leave the bar, and then she used the Living Puppet mark to control the big-bearded drunkard, who was full of alcohol and unconscious, to stand up staggeringly. After a few hiccups, he took a bottle of wine and walked out of the bar staggeringly.
Dorothy controlled the carefully selected drunkard puppet, staggering all the way towards the Captain's cabin, drinking a couple of sips of wine while walking, and cursing a couple of times out of thin air, looking exactly like a drunkard returning home.
Dorothy let the drunkard puppet walk directly near the Captain's cabin, close to the area around the Captain's cabin where the air humidity was abnormal, and then kept pacing back and forth around there, sometimes walking there, sometimes walking here, getting a large amount of water vapor on him.
Just after Dorothy's drunkard puppet had been moving around the Captain's cabin for a while, in the eyes of the small corpse puppet that Dorothy was observing remotely, the door of the Captain's cabin suddenly opened, and a sailor in uniform walked out. He frowned and quickly turned several corners, and in no time he accurately found the drunkard puppet lingering behind the Captain's cabin.
"Mr.… This is the crew rest area, not the passenger area. What are you doing here?"
With a serious expression, the sailor spoke to the drunkard puppet, and the drunkard puppet, who was full of alcohol, shook his head and looked at the sailor in front of him blankly, speaking in an incoherent tone.
"Ah… crew… what crew… bullshit crew! I want to go back to my room… My room is here! It was just here… I don't know where it drifted to…"
The drunkard puppet said loudly to the sailor, and the sailor frowned, choked by the smell of alcohol, and then spoke.
"Mr., you are drunk. Do you remember your name? Which cabin number do you live in?"
"Drunk? Drunk your head! I'm not drunk?! Do you dare to say I'm drunk?!"
Saying that, the drunkard started throwing a drunken fit at the sailor. Seeing this scene, the sailor immediately grabbed the drunkard's hand with his hand and firmly restrained the burly drunkard with great strength. The drunkard was completely unable to resist for a while.
"Mr., you are quite drunk. Let's go to another place and talk slowly. Please don't worry, we will figure out your identity information and send you back."
"Let go of me! You kid, I'm not drunk! I want to walk back myself!"
Just like that, the sailor restrained the drunkard and walked away from the Captain's cabin, and Dorothy, who witnessed this scene completely, couldn't help but think in her heart.
'This area of water vapor without spirituality… if you get too much of it, you can really be sensed…'
'So, what kind of Extraordinary power can have such a strong sensing ability even for ordinary natural moisture?'
Dorothy thought to herself, and soon she had the answer.
Some Extraordinary have a certain ability to sense natural things with thin spirituality. This is an Elementalist. For example, Dorothy, who simulated a Summoning Thunder Master, can sense normal discharge phenomena in nature. If there is natural lightning around, she can predict it.
Then… changing the way of thinking, even ordinary water vapor, after being stained with too much, will it be sensed by Extraordinary of the Water Manipulator line?