Why is my anime art style so weird?

Xu Ming hesitated for a moment, put the crowbar and phone back into his backpack, tightened the backpack straps, and then reached for the rope ladder.

A sticky, slippery feeling came from his palm, as if he were holding not a rope, but a pile of seaweed, and the seaweed seemed to be wriggling, making the touch quite disgusting.

Xu Ming didn't want to think too much about it and quickly climbed up.

The rope ladder was shaky and slippery, and it took Xu Ming a lot of effort to slowly climb up to the bow of the boat.

He was taken aback as soon as he climbed to the bow of the boat.

A figure stood near the bow of the ship, staring at him.

"who!?"

Xu Ming gave a cold shout, and at the same time, he pulled out a crowbar from his backpack and aimed it at the figure.

But the figure seemed not to hear, remaining completely unmoved.

Xu Ming frowned, just about to speak.

A sea breeze blew by, the fog dissipated slightly, and the figure became visible.

It was a mummy with a hideous face!

Xu Ming's pupils contracted instantly, and his grip on the crowbar tightened involuntarily.

However, it seems to be just a dried corpse, without any of the negative energy unique to the 'weird'.

Xu Ming moved a little closer.

The skin of this mummified corpse was dry and shrunken, with the skin clinging tightly to the bones, making it resemble a skeleton.

Strangely, despite having no support, this mummified corpse stood steadily at the bow of the boat with its head down.

Xu Ming walked around to his side and discovered that a harpoon was stuck in the back of the mummy. The harpoon's shaft was wedged in the railing behind it, which supported the mummy as it stood there, enduring the wind and rain day after day, year after year.

Dense fog, ghost ships, mummified corpses...

Everything seemed to be gradually becoming strange.

Xu Ming waited for a while, but the boat still showed no sign of moving.

This situation left Xu Ming somewhat bewildered.

He thought for a moment, then turned to look at the wheelhouse at the back of the fishing boat.

The driver's cab windows were covered with moss, bird droppings, and other miscellaneous debris, making it impossible to see inside.

It seems we have no choice but to go inside and see what's going on.

Xu Ming made up his mind and walked towards the superstructure located at the stern of the ship.

Chapter 377 Sailing Log

The fishing boat has only three floors in total.

The lowest level, level with the deck, contains the crew quarters, dining room, kitchen, and staircases leading to the lower cabins.

The second floor is the driver's cab that Xu Ming wants to go to.

The third level is an open-air platform with a canopy, mainly used for operating fishing equipment.

Xu Ming went directly to the outside of the cockpit via the gangway next to him.

Click!

He reached out and grabbed the doorknob, giving it a hard twist. Surprisingly, it didn't open on the first try, and instead, his hand was covered in orange-red rust, indicating that it was completely rusted shut.

Having no other option, Xu Ming picked up a crowbar, wedged it into the gap, and pried it open with force.

With a sickening sound, the heavy waterproof door was pried open immediately.

A foul stench wafted over.

The cockpit was a mess, not to mention the moss and algae, Xu Ming even found a dead pigeon by the porthole.

Even more horrifying, two grotesque, highly decomposed corpses lay in the very center of the driver's cab.

One of the corpses had a dagger stuck in its chest, and the other had a large gash slashed open in its throat.

The two corpses, one empty-handed and the other holding a sharp kitchen knife, appeared to have perished together.

Xu Ming endured the stench and rummaged through the cockpit until he finally found a nearly rotten nautical logbook.

After picking it up and examining it briefly, Xu Ming immediately noticed something amiss.

The first part of this logbook is a dry record of the voyage, including when we arrived at which coordinates, the weather conditions at the time, and so on, interspersed with some information about fishing.

However, upon turning to the next page, some different situations arose.

August 14th, sunny.

We've been at sea for two weeks now, and the fishing situation this time doesn't seem very promising; we're far from achieving our expected catch.

April 15th, cloudy.

Today was another disappointing day. If things continue like this, this voyage will be a huge loss. How should I explain this to my boss?

Later on, the tedious voyage log gradually transformed into a diary for the recorder to vent his emotions.

The fishing boat seemed to have bad luck when it set sail, failing to reach its expected catch throughout the voyage.

The recorder was afraid he wouldn't be able to explain himself to the boat owner, and his words revealed a sense of anxiety and unease.

However, these are not the main points; the truly important things are yet to come.

September 21st, torrential rain!

The rain was getting heavier, and we had originally planned to find a place to anchor and wait out the downpour.

I never expected Takano to have such good eyesight; he actually discovered an island that wasn't on the sea chart!

Moreover, upon closer inspection, we discovered a simple wooden dock, suggesting that people had once lived there!

The next few pages, containing some unknown information, were torn out.

If you flip to the next page, the date becomes September 24th.

It seems the crew has made some significant discovery on the island over the past three days.

Upon seeing this, Xu Ming fell into deep thought.

Could this island they discovered be 'Starfall Island'?

According to the system's prompts, this 'Ark of the Other Shore' will carry him to 'Starfall Island'.

Therefore, this abandoned fishing boat, which has now become a ghost ship, must have a deep connection with Starfall Island.

Thinking of this, Xu Ming had a sudden inspiration and immediately took out the painting he found at the Xingyou Shrine and the Kagura Bell given to him by Xue Mu.

As soon as Xu Ming took the painting out, it and the nautical chart on the table simultaneously emitted a purplish-black light.

In a flash, the two merged into one, transforming into a strange map.

The map not only marks the location of Starfall Island, but also includes a topographical map of the island.

The dock, the Forest of Lost Paths, Snow Village, Flamefall Mountain, Ancestral Shrine, Crimson Flame Shrine, Dark Flame Palace... a whole bunch of place names are marked on it.

Then Kagura Rin also emitted a similar purplish-black light, and flew up to the top of the sea chart, hovering above it and emitting a purplish-black light that flickered on and off.

Xu Ming suddenly felt a jolt beneath his feet.

Without any movement from the diesel engine, the screw began to rotate on its own.

Large white bubbles immediately appeared behind the fishing boat.

Ugh!

The sound of the steam whistle pierced through the fog and soared into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, the steering wheel in the cockpit began to turn automatically.

The fishing boat slowly sailed away from the dock without any human intervention!

After leaving the dock, the fishing boat silently began to accelerate further, quickly heading into the depths of the thick fog...

In the pitch-black cockpit, the fishing boat swayed slightly with the waves. The purplish-black light emanating from the Kagura bell cast flickering shadows on Xu Ming's face, making everything look extremely eerie.

Xu Ming picked up the nautical logbook again and flipped to the back to continue reading.

March 24th, cloudy.

We left that eerie island. Fukuda suggested that since the fishing wasn't good this time, and we were going to find those things on the island again, we might as well turn back as soon as possible.

Everyone agreed with his opinion.

That's good, it's been a long time since I've seen my beloved Yanzi.

It's good to go home early.

It was sunny on March 9.

Xiaodao accidentally fell into the sea!

Chi Zhu, who was with him, repeatedly assured him that Kojima had gotten drunk and accidentally fell into the sea.

However, no one seemed to believe him, and many even suspected that he had pushed the island off the cliff.

In the end, Chi Zhu was locked in the small warehouse.

November 29th, light rain.

The atmosphere on the ship grew increasingly strange, as everyone looked at each other with wariness because of the island incident.

If this continues, won't something bad happen?

October 2nd, moderate rain.

That guy Nakamura actually secretly teamed up with a few people to try and hijack this fishing boat!

They must want to kill everyone else and then take all the stuff for themselves!

These barbaric and despicable Okinawans are definitely unreliable!

Fortunately, Fukuda discovered it.

I need to make plans early!

December 4th, heavy rain.