Chapter 101: Backup Plan

Chapter 101: Backup Plan

The cold seawater instantly submerged Klein, soaking through the golden-red dress he wore and making it as heavy as stone, dragging his body sharply downward.

At the same time, however, Creeping Hunger had also devoured that pirate, removing the weight of an entire person.

Klein did not attempt to float back up. Instead, he continued sinking. Through the waves, he vaguely heard several distant splashes, as if pirates of the Sailor pathway were relentlessly pursuing him.

This was their home field!

They could move through water like fish for a very long time!

Klein did not panic. As a Magician who never gave an unprepared performance, he had naturally considered an evacuation plan in case the operation failed. After all, nothing in the world had a one-hundred-percent chance of success.

To play Elaine as perfectly as possible and avoid exposing flaws to Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, not only had he brought no other mystical items, wallet, or cash, he had even left the newly crafted charms related to water and wind domains above the gray fog. Yet that did not prevent him from making his move. The state of being deity, Blessed, and believer in one gave him many marvelous options for handling similar situations.

He quickly made Creeping Hunger turn pale and take on a sinister green tinge. The seawater around him froze in response, turning into layer upon layer of white frost.

Before the frost fully condensed into ice crystals, Klein moved the muscles along his back and abruptly spread his arms to both sides, using the strength of a Living Corpse to shatter those frozen layers and send them flying into the farther seawater.

This temporarily created a small space around him where no seawater existed.

The current instantly surged backward, trying to fill the empty space. Klein extended his left palm and released terrifying cold once more, letting it spread outward and forming one seawater ice wall after another.

For a brief moment, he seemed to stand inside an underwater ice prison. He could stand. He could speak. But he was restricted to an extremely narrow space.

Klein immediately took four small steps counterclockwise and softly recited the honorific names of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings, quickly sending his spirit body above the gray fog.

The moment his figure appeared in The Fool’s high-backed chair, he directly picked up the Sea God Scepter that had already been placed before him.

Without needing to identify it, Klein willed it, and the point of light symbolizing the new Sea God believer Gehrman Sparrow was selected. Following the connection he had established in advance, he lifted the milky-white short scepter, causing the blue-green “gemstones” to bloom with hazy brilliance.

He responded to the “believer,” layering spell-like effects over himself one after another, including, but not limited to, underwater breathing, free movement, and pressure resistance.

Finally, he used a paper angel to interfere with divination, and issued an order to the sea creatures in the surrounding waters, commanding them to help and cover Gehrman Sparrow’s escape.

After completing all this, Klein did not delay. He immediately returned to the real world and once again took control of his body.

By then, the seawater’s pressure had already crushed the melting ice walls and swallowed that “independent” space again.

But Klein could now breathe smoothly and swim rapidly.

Through the rippling, crystal-clear water, he saw one fish after another swim over. He saw a shadow rise from beneath his feet, and some unknown giant monster speedily ascend.

It was a brownish-red octopus with a somewhat strange appearance. It was so enormous that it seemed capable of using its tentacles to embrace and coil around an entire ship.

It sprayed ink into the surroundings, instantly darkening the nearby sea. The Beyonders of the Sailor pathway who were searching for and pursuing the attacker abruptly saw nothing but blackness, and their bodies even became faintly paralyzed.

Not knowing what had happened, they immediately floated up to the surface to deal with the abnormalities affecting them.

By the time they dived again to search for the enemy, they had completely lost Klein’s traces.

At that moment, Klein was swimming leisurely along the seabed, even with spare attention to savor the operation just now and review its gains and losses.

“Playing Elaine involved sufficient preparation. Even Tracy, who shared a bed with her for who knows how many nights, failed to see through me immediately. That promoted the digestion of my potion.

“During the process, I also overcame a psychological barrier and found a mental state of both immersion and detachment. This is extremely helpful for the digestion of the potion.

“In battle, I also basically did my best. It counted as a prepared performance. But I still underestimated the strength of a Sequence 5 Demoness of Afflictions, and underestimated the experience of Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, who climbed step by step to that level. Even though she lost her mystical item at the very beginning, with my current strength plus Sealed Artifacts, killing her quickly is still very difficult unless I use the Sea God Scepter… but this is within the waters of the Rorsted Archipelago.

“Today’s battle made one thing very obvious: I still lack a powerful offensive mystical item…”

Facing the fact that the operation had failed, Klein was undoubtedly a little disappointed, but he was not dejected. The matter was not over yet. He intended to write to Mr. Azik and ask whether the other party was interested in ancient documents related to Death, and whether he had time to come over.

Before leaving the captain’s cabin, Klein had snapped his fingers to ignite the men’s clothes he had changed out of in the dressing room, along with his hair and dead skin. On the surface, that looked like an attempt to erase all traces, but in reality, it was concealment and deception.

What he wanted to hide was the hair and buttons he had secretly dropped into certain rooms after entering the cabin—items no one would notice at all.

Once Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy was misled into believing the attacker feared exposing his identity, feared a curse from afar, and had carefully erased all traces of himself, it would be very difficult for her to have the pirates seriously inspect whether similar items remained.

With those strands of hair and buttons, Klein could, for a certain period of time, use divination to lock onto the Black Death’s location. That way, as long as Mr. Azik expressed interest, Klein could bring him along and swiftly find Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy.

Sigh. I thought I would not need Mr. Azik’s help and that I could succeed on my own. In the end, I was still just a little short… Klein sighed, feeling as though his pride had taken a hit.

This was one of the reasons he had not looked for a big shot’s help from the beginning. The other reason was that he could not completely confirm whether Tracy had that batch of ancient documents related to Death. If she really did not, making Mr. Azik run over for nothing would be rather awkward. Besides, he was worried that even with Mr. Azik’s assistance, to find the Black Death and find Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, he might still have to become Elaine, wear her clothes, and use himself as bait to carry out the operation.

In front of someone familiar, that would be far too shameful!

“Actually, if it is only to get rid of Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy and not to obtain intelligence, things would be much simpler. Once I swim back to Bayam, I can go above the gray fog and use the locked location to create a storm with the Sea God Scepter…

“That is not to say a wide-area attack would definitely kill Tracy on the spot, but it would attract the attention of Sea King Ain Kottman. By then, the Black Death’s traces would be exposed under the Church of Storms’ nose… Sea King gets a Maiden of Sickness for free…”

Klein shook his head in self-mockery and, following the guidance of a Seer’s spiritual intuition, swam rapidly toward the coastline.

…

On the Black Death, Tracy removed her layers of defense. Wearing a torn, bloodstained shirt, she walked to the diamond-studded bracelet and bent down to pick it up.

“A very cautious attacker. During my time as an Assassin, perhaps I was not as good as her—no, as him…” Tracy suddenly gnashed her teeth.

It was not merely because she had nearly died at the other party’s hands. It was also because she felt that the other party had an affair with Elaine.

According to Emperor Roselle, she suspected that the top of her head had turned a little green.

“Elaine, are you truly that cold and heartless? No… perhaps, perhaps she was forced.” Tracy turned her head slightly and looked at the huge, hideous wound on her left shoulder, feeling the drilling pain.

If not for the fact that both Assassin and Instigator had strengthened her body, and later Sequences had improved it further, that single strike might have torn off her entire shoulder, just like what happened to pirates shot by rifles.

Blood flowed down, dyeing her vision red. Tracy ordered the blond maid to come in and use her own abilities to help treat the wound. At the same time, she instructed the surrounding pirates, whose eyes seemed unable to pull away, to search for any items left behind by the attacker.

Unfortunately, the pirates told her that the other party’s clothes had burned themselves away.

This made Tracy recall the snap of the attacker’s fingers before leaving, and she secretly sighed again:

“Truly cautious.

“And not greedy at all. If he had taken this bracelet, I would not be worried that I could not chase him down.”

Tracy waved, signaling most of the pirates to leave and keeping only the Silver-Tongued Misor King and several high-ranking officers of the fleet.

“Third Mate, go to Bayam again and investigate exactly where the rebels found that Elaine.” Tracy gave a deep-voiced command.

Misor struggled to withdraw his gaze from the captain’s chest.

“Understood!”

Tracy thought for a moment, then added, “Spread word of this. Say that I have suffered heavy injuries and will not recover for a long time.

“Also, First Mate, set sail immediately. Do not remain here any longer.”

Order after order was issued, and Tracy’s surroundings soon regained silence.

Only then did she have room to think about which faction the attacker belonged to, why they wanted to deal with her, and what his true objective was.

But the more Tracy thought, the more she felt this was like a fog. She could not see the truth at all. Although she had many enemies, none possessed similar abilities.

Finally, she found one clue and murmured in a low voice:

“Creeping Hunger?”

…

Late at night, at the private harbor on Blue Mountain Island.

From within the retreating and returning seawater, a female figure suddenly stood up. It was Klein, still disguised as Elaine.

Encircled by seawater, he quickly went ashore, slipped into the nearby home of a fisherman, found a set of ragged clothes to change into, and returned to the appearance of Gehrman Sparrow.

Leaving behind that expensive dress as compensation, Klein swiftly moved away from the private harbor and returned to the City of Generosity, Bayam, before dawn.

He did not rush to meet Danitz. He casually found a small inn to stay in and used a ritual to bring Azik’s copper whistle, other mystical items, his wallet, and cash back into the real world.

After confirming that he could divine the Black Death’s location, he blew the copper whistle.