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Klaus shoved the "unidentified nautical logbook" into Ivan's hands.

He turned and charged toward the mast.

"..." Ivan had no choice but to throw his diary into the treasure chest in the captain's cabin, then rushed over to help.

The newly fitted lightweight sails were quickly lowered with the tacit cooperation of the two.

Filled with sea breeze,

Proceed at full speed in the exact opposite direction from the whale fall site.

Meanwhile, Renyi held a simple telescope and looked in the direction of the whale fall.

They had stopped their boat at a distance that was neither too close nor too far, so that they could rest and see if there would be an opportunity to go up and loot some good stuff.

After all, the remains of those ancient creatures

Every piece of flesh

Each bone is a rare and precious find.

Besides the system warning, another reason for not directly decomposing that special heart at that time was the fear of disrupting the ecosystem that maintained the activity inside the whale carcass.

The explosion of a single whale on Earth can affect an area of ​​half a kilometer in radius.

If this ancient behemoth, whose size rivals that of an island, were to explode...

Looking through the lens at this moment,

I could clearly see a chaotic escape unfolding on the sea not far behind me. Schools of fish of all sizes scattered like hornets whose nest had been disturbed, fleeing in all directions without any sense of direction.

The flock of birds fled into the distant sky without looking back.

"It's too late," Renyi said gravely, putting down his binoculars.

Ivan touched his face.

"Katyusha is slowing us down..."

That was his boat, his lifeline, which had just been renovated.

Although Klaus always complained, he also put a lot of effort into it, and it was he who gave Katyusha a completely new form.

"Let's give up on her."

Ivan's voice was a little hoarse, but unusually firm, "But don't leave her here... break her down into materials and take her with you, she can still be useful."

Rather than be swallowed by the unknown terror, let her continue to accompany him on his journey in another form.

There was a struggle in Klaus's gray eyes.

I was about to say something when I was arbitrarily stopped.

"This is not abandonment, Ivan is right."

Without any hesitation, Ren Yi placed one hand on Katyusha's shark head.

[Disassembleable target detected: Modified Ship (Lv2)]

[Disassembling yields: 80 wood, 20 iron blocks, 106 shattered crocodile shark skeletons, 8 crab shells...]

[Confirm decomposition?]

"confirm."

Accompanied by blue light, the modified ship that carried Ivan's hopes and Klaus's hard work was erased like a sand painting.

[Decomposition successful! Materials have been stored in the warehouse.]

With the 'counterweight' gone, the Ghost Bone Boat suddenly accelerated, its hull so light it seemed to take flight.

Ivan opened his eyes, and all that remained behind him was the churning, azure sea.

Klaus patted him on the shoulder without saying a word.

......

The atmosphere on the ship remained very heavy.

Klaus kept adjusting the sails according to the wind direction, trying to make the most efficient use of the wind to increase speed, while Ivan paid attention to the situation behind him.

Meanwhile, Renyi was squatting in front of the newly upgraded ruminant digestion module.

They stuffed in pieces of rotten shark meat and contaminated crocodile shark flesh.

While on the frontier, he comforted Xiao Jiu, whose eyes were darting around following his every move.

"Don't be tempted, I'll get you even better meat later."

Xiao Jiu lowered her head and gave Renyi a headbutt, then they all scrambled down to help Renyi stuff it in.

The rumination digestion module kept burping.

The bio-energy storage bar on any panel continues to rise.

Just then, something unexpected happened.

"BOOM—BOOM—!!!"

The sound came from afar, from the direction of the whale fall, which had completely disappeared from sight.

"BOOM—BOOM—!"

The second sound, compared to an explosion, was more like a dull resonance, as if it came from the sky, from the seabed, from every drop of seawater.

The sea began to shake.

The magnitude of the storm far exceeded any storm they had encountered in the Tranquil Sea since entering the game!

Caught off guard, Jiro Sato nearly fell over in a panic as he stared at him in the distance.

"Never mind..." Renyi quickly glanced around.

With the sails fully unfurled and the ship already at maximum speed, the slight increase in speed that could be achieved by adjusting the sails was utterly ineffective against the rapidly brewing disaster behind them.

"Get to the captain's cabin, quickly."

Ivan and Klaus immediately followed suit.

He casually dragged Jiro Sato into the captain's cabin, leaving the ghost bone boat to roam freely.

"Bang!"

They slammed the door shut and then locked it with the bolt.

The four men crowded around the captain's cabin's circular observation window, and after just one glance, they gasped in shock—

The distant sky was dyed an eerie orange-red.

next second.

"boom----!!!"

It was as if the core of the sun had been split open, releasing its most primal energy without reservation, and orange smoke bursting from the sea surface suddenly filled the entire world.

As our vision was swallowed up by the orange light...

Everyone's mind went blank, their ears were ringing, and it felt as if their thoughts had evaporated.

Then,

The devastating impact came belatedly.

"Absolute defensive stance!"

Renyi issued the command almost instinctively.

The ghostly bone ship resembled a colossal beast awakened by a natural disaster; its translucent biological buffer layer suddenly contracted, covering the entire ship.

Every inch of 'muscle' is taut and hardened.

Countless biological fascia and fibers beneath shimmered faintly, interwoven to form a defensive network.

[Absolute Defensive Stance activated! Reduces impact damage by an additional 50% for 5 minutes. Timer begins.]

Almost at the same time the system notification appeared,

"Thump—!!!"

The ghost bone boat was lifted up from all directions by an unparalleled force and thrown forward.

The feeling of weightlessness gripped everyone.

Jiro Sato let out a short scream, his whole body slammed against the cabin ceiling like a broken sack, and then fell heavily to the ground.

Fortunately, the furniture in the captain's cabin was all fixed to the floor.

Ivan and Klaus cleverly wedged themselves between the two benches.

"Boss!"

Without grabbing anything, he slightly bent his knees and braced himself with his hands on the ground the instant the boat was thrown into the air.

His eyes were calmly fixed on the panel in the void.

[WARNING! Ship has suffered a severe impact! Durability -200!]

[Remaining time for Absolute Defense Stance: 4 minute 37 seconds.]

Faced with this cataclysmic impact, the ghost bone boat was not like a vehicle, but like a fragile creature tightly curled up in the deep sea.

"Bang!"

The nimble boat was nearly tilted to its side by the force of the renewed attack.

Outside the window, besides the devastating orange-red,

It was seawater so thick it was black.

The waves, carried by the shockwaves, crashed against them like waves of tsunamis.

【幽灵骨艇（Lv.2）耐久度：240/500……200/500……】

[Bioenergy reserves: 85%]

The ruminant digestive module contracted violently.

The large amount of energy that had just been ingested was delivered to the most severely damaged area.

The white fascia, like wildly growing weeds, desperately entangled and closed between the fractured bones.

[Durability +20]

[Durability +20]

......

"Thump!!!"

Another wave of impact.

This time it was debris thrown out by the whale's explosion; perhaps it was the whale's steel-hard ribs, or some kind of deep-sea sediment that was blasted away...

It slammed heavily against the side of the bone boat, the bio-armor formed by the absolute defensive posture emitting a tooth-grinding scraping sound.

[WARNING! Durability: 180/500!]

[Remaining time for Absolute Defense Stance: 2 minute 15 seconds.]

"Aaaaaah—!"

Sato Jiro, who had just slammed his head against the wall again, let out a nervous scream.

"I'll die... I'll die! This is Orochi! This is the god of calamity—"

"Shut up."

He spoke softly, his eyes never leaving the panel:

I said, "I can live."