Chapter 130: The Cat’s Help

Description

Floating quietly on the pitch-black sea surface, the years pass by in peace.

Engaged in an endless cleaning task by the ship’s railing, Guocha was half-awake, her tail swaying unconsciously, looking quite leisurely.

Curled up into a ball, her pure white fur was dyed a faint golden hue by the sunlight.

At the edge of the Silent Sea, with no wind or waves, the Willy floated quietly like a withered leaf.

On the deck, Mickey was still humming cheerful tunes with his usual boundless energy.

Ghostfire burned quietly, gazing out at the mysterious and eerie Silent Sea before them.

Guangge stood silently at the ship’s railing, blue flames flickering softly in his hollow eye sockets.

The three remaining on the Willy were immersed in a rare moment of peaceful time, savoring the hard-earned leisure.

Ring-ring-ring—!

Suddenly, an incredibly crisp bell sound shattered the calm and tranquil beauty completely.

The copper bell at the bow was yanked forcefully by a rope tied to it, emitting a restless, agitated noise.

Mickey’s whistling came to an abrupt halt.

Reacting quickly, he dropped his mop and dashed over to the rope in a few swift strides.

The previously slack rope was now pulled taut, thumping continuously, vibrating with each pull, as if something beneath the water’s surface was relentlessly tugging at it.

Seeing this, Mickey quickly slapped the red button on the control panel.

The next second, the Willy’s mechanical gears began to churn, the winch spinning at breakneck speed, reeling in the taut rope at lightning speed.

Before long, on the calm sea surface, three figures burst through the water, floating atop the waves.

“Aaaaah, it’s the sun! It’s the sun!”

Accompanied by a cry of joy tinged with wailing, Tunzuo grabbed the hand Mickey extended and scrambled aboard the Willy’s deck, rolling and crawling her way up.

Without even taking time to dry herself with magic, Tunzuo collapsed onto the deck like a heap of mud with a wet slap, limbs splayed out, lying spread-eagled on the deck in complete disregard for appearances.

“Phew, it’s finally over…”

Olivia and Hai Lanyue climbed aboard right behind her, soaked in exhaustion and dishevelment, too spent to bother with appearances.

They flopped down beside Tunzuo, lined up neatly in a row.

The three of them, fresh out of the sea and not yet cleaned up, had completely turned into blobs, sprawled limply across the deck, unable to move.

At this moment, Tunzuo and the others looked like three squids that had just been hauled out of the sea, not yet processed, completely congealed and limp on the deck.

Water droplets sprayed from her body.

Clicking her hooves lightly, Shub elegantly shook the water off herself, striding straight toward Yuge at the ship’s railing.

A true skeleton and a small black sheep stared at each other in a face-off—no words, no movement, communicating in some manner exclusive to Cthulhu-lineage kin.

As for Naiya, seeming to have eaten her fill, the Pale Mask rested quietly on Tunzuo’s face, rarely refraining from bickering with Olivia or causing trouble.

“You’ve all worked hard. Get some rest.”

Watching the three exhausted witches sprawled on the deck, Mickey turned and headed into the cabin to prepare some food that could quickly restore their energy and warm their bodies.

Hearing the commotion, Guocha quietly cracked open one eye, her heterochromatic pupils swiveling, gaze lingering briefly on Tunzuo’s weary figure.

She yawned and wisely chose not to cause trouble at this moment.

And so, a scene unfolded: Tunzuo, Olivia, and Hai Lanyue lay like three “corpses” quietly on the Willy’s deck, letting the bright sunlight seep into their skin bit by bit, replenishing their overdrawn stamina, slowly healing the physical and mental energy they’d consumed in the Silent Sea.

After nearly an hour, Tunzuo finally managed to recover enough under the sun’s nourishment.

She flicked her fingers, casting a drying spell on herself and the two witches beside her, their bodies becoming dry and fresh once more.

Then, with a thought, the shadows beneath her began to stir.

Under her manipulation and command, they swiftly wove themselves into three comfortable shadow recliners, lifting her, Olivia, and Hai Lanyue off the deck and settling them into the chairs.

After all this was done, soft shadow lumps thoughtfully bulged out from the backrests, beginning to rhythmically massage the three witches’ stiff backs and waists.

“Mmm… comfortable.”

A satisfied Tunzuo let out a warped little hum, sinking completely into the embrace of the recliner.

“So comfortable, it feels like I was a zombie crawling out of a grave, finally purified by holy light, liberated at last…”

“Hehe, Little Ghost, coming from you, that doesn’t seem quite fitting.”

The weary Olivia, lying on her recliner, chuckled softly, teasing Tunzuo’s remark with a couple of light jabs.

Her voice was hoarse, deep exhaustion impossible to hide.

As for Hai Lanyue lying on Tunzuo’s other side, she had already drifted off into dreamland, faint snores rising.

“You’ve worked hard, young ladies.”

Mickey emerged from the cabin carrying a tray.

He pulled out two delicate little round tables, placed them neatly between the three witches, and set the tray on top.

“Hot chocolate milk, and some delicious butter cookies. Drink while it’s hot—it’ll help ward off the deep chill of the Silent Sea.”

Mickey handed steaming white porcelain mugs to Tunzuo and Olivia, then turned to grab a wool blanket and gently draped it over the soundly sleeping Hai Lanyue to keep her from catching cold.

“Slurp…”

Tunzuo cradled the warm porcelain cup in both hands, blew on it gently, and took small sips.

The rich aroma of cocoa mingled with the sweetness of milk exploded on her tongue.

Full-bodied warmth and ample sugar flowed into Tunzuo’s body, little by little rewarding every limb and organ.

The feeling of being warmed by the hot drink made Tunzuo squint her eyes in bliss, the corners of her mouth curling into a contented cat-like smile as drowsiness slowly crept up.

“So, young ladies, did your deep-dive journey into the Silent Sea go smoothly?”

In response to Mickey’s inquiry, Tunzuo made a sour face, took another sip of her milk, her stomach full of frustration with nowhere to vent.

“Sigh, I can’t say it was completely fruitless, but it was just barely negligible.”

After dealing with the ghost leviathan cluster and collecting the corresponding materials, Tunzuo and the other witches had continued their survey of the Silent Sea, trying to gather other resources.

But whether it was because the earlier battle with the ghost leviathan cluster had been too loud, scaring the wits out of the Silent Sea’s creatures, or because they’d happened to hit the Silent Sea’s rest period—either way, the result was that Tunzuo and the others searched frantically for ages and found absolutely nothing, aside from a few starving, dim-witted creatures that recklessly slammed right into their line of fire!

After all that busywork with zero results, Tunzuo’s mental state was on the verge of collapse.

Helpless, she and the other witches had no choice but to return to the Willy first, rest up, and regroup.

“Mickey, how much time has passed from the start until now?”

Tunzuo turned to ask the time.

Mickey glanced at the doodle-covered watch face on his wrist before answering truthfully.

“Twenty-four hours have passed, miss.”

“Twenty-four hours… well, that’s really pushing through. I can only say Mommy’s mental fortitude training really does work. Otherwise, in the past, I’d have blacked out long ago.”

Tunzuo let out a weary sigh, leaning back into the recliner, staring blankly at the blue sky with unfocused eyes.

Honestly, if it weren’t for the ghost leviathan cluster’s earlier shenanigans having shattered her mental state, Tunzuo wouldn’t have felt all that tired.

But going back and forth for nearly nineteen hours, nearly soaked through, her internal clock was constantly sounding alarms, her upper and lower eyelids fighting to close.

Once the force of will faded, the suppressed fatigue surged back like a tidal wave.

And yet the progress bar had barely moved at all…

Tunzuo pulled out the material distribution map Mickey had given her, her face full of worry as she sighed long and hard.

Although the materials they’d collected on this deep dive were considerable in number, when she opened her storage artifact, they turned out to be almost entirely drops from the ghost leviathans.

Ghost leviathan materials were precious, but there was no need for that many.

The surplus could only be exchanged for points, which did nothing for the Willy’s future upgrades.

“If we just keep blindly searching like headless flies, we won’t even make it out of this Silent Sea by the time the annual competition ends.”

Just as Tunzuo was fretting over the material distribution map, pondering how to efficiently gather materials, a ball of white fluff silently rolled up beside her.

“Ooh, a map! Can Meow play with it?”

Guocha’s heterochromatic eyes went wide, blinking with sparkling curiosity, locked onto the material distribution map in Tunzuo’s hand, a desperate gleam shining in her gaze.

Tunzuo tilted her head to look over, seeing the mysterious little furball staring at the paper in her hands with keen interest, her two fluffy tails swaying like dog-tail grass in the wind.

Tunzuo weighed the situation silently in her mind.

The shallow-water materials were already collected.

This map wasn’t of much use to her anymore anyway.

Might as well let the kitten play with it, if only to keep her from getting bored and pulling some stunt later.

“Take it. But this belongs to the Willy, so don’t break it on Mickey’s watch, or you’ll be in trouble!”

“No problem! Meow is the best behaved!”

Guocha excitedly reached out and snatched the material distribution map from Tunzuo’s hand.

The next second, Guocha held the map up to the sunlight with a flourish, flipping it this way and that, her heterochromatic pupils shimmering.

A smug grin spread across her lips as a knowing purr rumbled from her throat.

“As I suspected, the same old tricks. Uncle Mickey didn’t even bother changing things up—no creativity at all.”

“In that case, let Meow speed things up a bit. After all, Meow is the one who has room to shine.”

“Meow doesn’t really like the water. The sooner this is over, the sooner Meow can get back on land.”

Having made up her mind, Guocha wasted no time.

Her fingers moved swiftly, folding and flipping the material distribution map in her hands.

In no time, the once-flat map had been transformed into a large paper airplane.

Guocha stood up, took a deep breath, and hurled the paper airplane skyward with all her might.

“Fly high for Meow—GO!!”

“Hey! You little menace!”

Seeing Guocha fold the material distribution map into a paper airplane and send it flying, Tunzuo was horrified.

She quickly set down her porcelain cup, grabbed Guocha by the scruff of her neck, and hoisted her up on the spot, all four paws dangling in the air.

But alas, it was already too late.

The large paper airplane traced a graceful arc through the air, circled a few times, and then, pulled by gravity, dove headfirst into the Silent Sea.

“Aaaah, what a pain!”

Watching the paper airplane sink into the water, Tunzuo rubbed her temples in frustration.

With no other choice, she manipulated her shadow tentacles to fish the material distribution map out of the sea.

Finally, just before the map could be fully swallowed by the seawater, the shadow tentacle precisely curled around a corner of the paper airplane and hauled it back, dripping wet.

“You little menace, you really are a troublemaker through and through! You don’t do a single useful thing—you only cause chaos. Why on earth did I ever think to take you in back then?”

Tunzuo held Guocha up irritably, administering the “good tea shake” service.

The relentless up-and-down jostling made Guocha let out continuous “oh-oh-oh” cries of mercy.

“Honestly, it’s soaked through. If you broke it, just see what I’ll do to you!”

Tunzuo grumbled while carefully unfolding the material distribution map that had been folded into a paper airplane and drenched in seawater.

But the sight that met her eyes next made her freeze, her hands pausing mid-motion.

On the material distribution map soaked in the Silent Sea’s waters, the dense lines and markings gradually blurred—but the ink didn’t disappear.

After a brief smearing, it began to re-form, ultimately transforming into a completely different appearance.

And the new markings that appeared on the material distribution map were unmistakably the materials Tunzuo and the others needed to collect in the Silent Sea.

“What’s going on here?”

Tunzuo stared at the suddenly-revealing material distribution map in her hands, utterly bewildered.

At that moment, Guocha’s smug laughter reached her ears.

“Meowaha! Meow already knew this map was suspicious! Meow did that on purpose just now! Now praise Meow!”

Watching Guocha lift her chin with a cocky, cat-got-the-cream expression, Tunzuo’s mouth twitched.

She wondered if this brat really had stumbled onto the answer by pure accident.

Still doubtful, Tunzuo turned her gaze to Mickey, who had given her the material distribution map in the first place.

At that, Mickey stopped hiding things.

He spread his hands and explained to Tunzuo with an innocent look.

“Miss, I did say there was only one material distribution map, but I don’t believe I ever said this map didn’t contain information on the Silent Sea’s materials, did I? As long as it comes into contact with the seawater of the corresponding region, the map will automatically mark the locations of all material resources within that area.”

Oh, of course.

Another one of the usual riddle-speaker routines.

Tunzuo rolled her eyes hard.

She didn’t need to think to know this was either Antuxi’s instruction or Fafnir’s arrangement—it couldn’t possibly be Principal Andersen’s little brainstorm, could it?

Now that she understood everything, Tunzuo looked down at the Guocha she was still holding, silently set her down, and casually smoothed the kitten’s fur.

“Alright, I’ll count that as you stumbling onto a win by accident. I won’t hold this against you.”

“Then can Meow still play with the paper airplane?”

Once on the ground, Guocha kept eyeing the material distribution map in Tunzuo’s hands eagerly, as if she hadn’t gotten enough playtime just yet.

“Shoo, shoo, go play somewhere else! Don’t cause trouble right now, or I really will toss you into the sea to feed the sea beasts. I mean it this time!”

Tunzuo held the material distribution map far away from Guocha, her gaze wary.

In her eyes, Guocha had just been elevated to Public Hazard Number One.

“Aw, fine…”

Rejected mercilessly by Tunzuo, Guocha slunk away, ears drooping, thoroughly dejected, and went back to her usual spot by the railing to curl up again.

As for Tunzuo, having shooed Guocha away, she composed herself and carefully studied the material distribution map in her hands.

The markings on the map were crystal clear.

If she planned the route well, combined with Hai Lanyue’s good luck, then barring any mishaps, just one more trip into the sea should be enough.

“Whoo—”

With the big problem resolved, Tunzuo let out a long sigh of relief.

She pulled over the wool blanket Mickey had brought and draped it over herself, wolfed down the remaining milk in her cup and the cookies on the plate, then, with a thought, wove a sleep mask out of shadows and placed it over her eyes.

Now, it was sleep time!

As for gathering materials, that could wait until after she woke up.

She settled blissfully into the recliner.