Endless Ocean: Survival Begins with a Dugout Canoe-Chapter 115 - 112: Target! Deep Sea Titan
"Any big news from the Twelve Stars recently?"
Reinhardt sat in the rec area of the galley, ready for his daily briefing on major events in the sea regions.
His assistant brought over the beer, news, and intelligence reports that had been prepared in advance, reading them to him one by one.
"The *Ganges River* was passing through Sea Region E112 when it was attacked by an unknown sea beast. It suffered heavy casualties, but fortunately, it managed to escape in the end."
"Oh?"
Reinhardt sat bolt upright.
"Gods be praised."
"I don’t care if those flatbread-flippers from the *Ganges River* die, but I hope nothing happened to the beautiful Miss Eliza. Her grace is truly something else, as sweet and unforgettable as a fine curry."
"No wonder my eye’s been twitching lately. I even dreamed of Miss Eliza last night..."
Sigh.
Reinhardt felt a pang of sadness for a few seconds.
His assistant didn’t leave him much time to lament, and had already started reading the next news item.
"The sea regions surrounding Europe have been calm recently, with a significant decrease in the frequency of C-rank and B-rank sea beast appearances. The Twelve Stars Sea Beast Research Institute believes this is a sign of the Twelve Stars’ vastly increased deterrent power in the European Sea Region, demonstrating the Twelve Stars’..."
"Next. There’s no need to include this type of intel in the future..."
"The Albert Clan has used the scales of a glacial sea beast to invent a portable device for deep-freezing and preserving food without consuming Energy Stones. Its preservation efficiency far surpasses refrigerators from the Golden Era, making it popular among the Twelve Stars’ stay-at-homes and the Bronze-level Wandering Ships."
"Could be a new direction for investment. Not every Wandering Ship has a freezing unit. Next."
"Unprecedented! The Wright Squad has assembled! Seven A-rank Awakened have formed an unstoppable hunting party, their target: the super A-rank Cave Mother Insect in an unknown sea region! If this hunt is successful, it’s estimated the Cave Mother Insect’s blood will be enough for each of them to awaken a new A-rank skill."
"Heh."
Reinhardt was noncommittal about this news, offering no comment.
But his eyes revealed a look of indignation.
...
...
...
Shi Ming sat in the captain’s quarters, looking at the messages popping up on his communicator.
A fierce "brainstorming session" was underway in the *Let There Be Light* channel.
[Divine Comedy: Urgent, urgent! Miss Yan has confirmed the Wright party’s target. Requesting relevant intel, requesting relevant intel!]
[Lighthouse: ???]
[Lighthouse: Idiot, just say what intel you need! Do you expect us to ask you one by one?]
[Divine Comedy: Apologies, sir. The signal was disrupted, the following message failed to send: Miss Yan has secretly discovered that the true target of this trip is the S-rank sea beast, the Deep Sea Titan. It is located near the decoy target, the A-rank Cave Mother Insect. When they hunt the Cave Mother Insect, they will inevitably disturb the Deep Sea Titan, which provides a logical pretext to rally the squad’s power against the S-rank beast. This is Wright’s plan and objective.]
[Divine Comedy: Divine Comedy has zero intelligence on the Deep Sea Titan. Miss Yan requests that headquarters and all colleagues share any relevant information.]
’Deep Sea Titan?’
Shi Ming froze.
’Isn’t that the S-rank sea beast I marked? What a coincidence!’
’And this plan of Wright’s... heh heh. He looks like a guy with a knightly spirit, but he’s actually a cunning old fox!’
Shi Ming even suspected that Wright had been setting a trap from the very beginning. On the surface, he was recruiting A-rank Awakened, but in reality, he was deliberately leaking intel about the S-rank sea beast to powerful factions. He wanted to make them think they could fish in troubled waters, get them to sign up, and then seize the final prize.
Little did they know, the exploiter was being exploited in turn; they were all just using each other.
’In a high-stakes game like this, it’s hard to say who the real hunter is!’
And then there was the Deep Sea Titan. Shi Ming had started gathering intel on it long ago, greatly coveting its skills. But he also understood that an S-rank sea beast was incredibly difficult to hunt. For any person or faction, underestimating it in the slightest and returning in failure would be a *good* outcome. If they lacked the strength, they could even face total annihilation!
An S-rank sea beast was nothing like an ordinary B-rank or A-rank one,
let alone the Deep Sea Titan, ranked 66th, which possessed the ancient bloodline of the Titan gods...
’But now that the waters have been thoroughly muddied, maybe... this is my chance, too?’
Shi Ming reviewed the key players in this hunt—
Wright, being deliberately vague, planning to kill with a borrowed knife;
Lighthouse, with its far-reaching plans, dispatching the suspected S-rank Awakened, "Miss Yan";
The Black Society, secretly infiltrating, lurking in the shadows.
’Everyone wants to be the hunter, so why not add me to the mix?’
Shi Ming began to calculate silently...
...
[Lighthouse: No data on this sea beast in the archives.]
[Michael: Michael has no relevant intel.]
[Jinshan: Jinshan has no relevant intel.]
[Liberty: No intel on the sea beast.]
[...]
As Shi Ming watched the messages pop up in the channel, he couldn’t help but curse them in his mind.
’You’re all supposed to be major factions, how is your intel network worse than mine?’
’I actually have specific data on that beast; I even know what its skills are.’
’Too bad I have no way of telling you.’
[Old Days: Old Days once acquired a piece of intel. An affiliated Silver-level Wandering Ship was attacked by a terrifying sea beast in the European Sea Region, the target suspected to be an S-rank beast. Unfortunately, the ship was quickly wiped out, and no detailed information was sent back. The captain only managed to urgently transmit one image before dying in the line of duty.]
[Old Days: There is no information in the image. It’s completely black. The decryption team has so far been unable to determine if the image hides any important intel.]
Shi Ming: ...
’What kind of intel is that?’
’Besides, a pitch-black image doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with a creature like the Deep Sea Titan.’
’It’s entirely possible the camera equipment just malfunctioned at the end.’
[Liberty: Perhaps we don’t need to limit ourselves to real-world intel. In the myths and legends, the Titans were all born of the Celestial God Uranus and the Earth God Gaia. There were six males and six females, the Twelve Titans, each with their own abilities. I think Miss Yan could find inspiration in Roman mythology.]
[Jinshan: Seconded.]
[Old Days: Seconded.]
The "brainstorming session" in the *Let There Be Light* channel, a pooling of everyone’s ideas, was quite reminiscent of the seminars Shi Ming had seen some organizations hold in his past life.
Unfortunately, while the various captains offered their opinions, they provided no substantive intelligence, leaving Shi Ming, the hidden spectator behind the scenes, feeling utterly helpless.
Fortunately, however, he still managed to extract some valuable information from it all.
For example, the Wright Squad was set to depart for their destination in two days, which was very soon.
For another, a member of the Black Society was indeed involved. His true identity was a mysterious Swordsman from the Vortex Country, codenamed Iwami, who was skilled with a blade and had the Awakened skill "Twelve Streams of Light."
As for Miss Yan’s true identity, however, no one mentioned it.
...
The brainstorming session ended.
Shi Ming got up from his office chair, walked out of the captain’s quarters, and stepped onto the deck.
"Captain."
"Mm, change course. Head for the Olympus region."
Time was short. He was going to lie in wait.
