Chapter 291 - 270: The Nether Sea Storm Approaches
Da Fei’s fleet had been away from Fatalon for three days without incident. The red blip sea monsters they encountered on the radar remained on the outer warning perimeter, posing no threat. Presumably, those were disorganized wild creatures.
Every day, the sailors earned experience, but Da Fei was perplexed by the mysterious "crisis management" skill information that hadn’t appeared. What was going on? Could it be that no one was trying hard enough? No, everyone was invigorated and worked harder after Samael’s blessing.
A new day began, and once again, the sailors gained experience, and finally, the long-missed skill information appeared.
—System Prompt: You gained skill information for "Crisis Management."
—System Prompt: Your Vice Hero, Katelina, gained skill information for "Crisis Management."
...
Da Fei suddenly realized that last time the information appeared was three days after arriving at the Nether Sea, suggesting this skill information required three days to appear?
No way! As an experienced expert, Da Fei didn’t believe the game would have such a bizarre comprehension setting. Da Fei was convinced that if you wanted to gain skill information, the current situation must satisfy the conditions to obtain the skill!
Since this skill was called "Crisis Management," it meant the fleet was now in a crisis, whereas the previous three days had not been a crisis. Why was this happening?
Samael had said that strictly guarding against hidden dangers and eliminating them wasn’t averting misfortune; it merely accumulated misfortune for lack of opportunity to strike. Meaning, the accumulated power of misfortune over the three days constituted a crisis! That was the answer!
In other words, the current situation was like water being held back high against a dam; making no mistakes was fine, but a single mistake could lead to a catastrophic breach! It was not just a matter of blackened cargo holds from a little fire, but any fire might quickly spread with the wind throughout the ship!
So the task now was clear: find some enemy out of bad luck! More precisely, let the enemies share Da Fei’s misfortune! Exactly, this crisis management information should serve as an early warning!
No need to say more, Da Fei saw a cluster of red blip sea monsters gathering on the sea surface to his right front, not appearing very strong. They would be the targets.
As Da Fei’s fleet approached, those red blip sea monsters seemed to have sensed the threat long ago and immediately submerged or fled, disappearing in an instant!
Da Fei was suddenly stunned! Damn it! How could they be so alert? Da Fei had to shift the target to another cluster of sea monsters in the distance, only to find the same thing: no sooner did the fleet get close than the sea monster group vanished without a trace!
Apparently, being powerful came with frustrations like this!
Then back to the old tactic, Mysterious Stealth Navigation! Da Fei could hardly believe it; even the Narwhal King was caught, so were these trash sea monsters to not comply?
Mysterious Stealth Navigation only affected one ship, leaving Da Fei no choice but to keep Whale Hunter and Octopus far behind, while Radiant Wings transformed into nothingness in the rising fog, sneaking up to another group of wild monsters.
Sure enough, they were getting close! Hah! Da Fei knew it, how could they resist his Divine Skill!
But before Da Fei could fully enjoy his triumph, the sea monsters immediately grew alarmed and uneasy, once again diving into the water and running away clean!
Da Fei was dumbstruck on the spot! What happened? Were they more vigilant than the Narwhal King? Or was this Nether Sea unsuitable for using Divine Skills? Or did the life aura on the ship scare them away? Damn! These wild creatures were too cowardly!
No choice left, if nothing else works, keep singing, it would eventually attract some slightly stronger big sea monsters to cause trouble! As long as Da Fei’s fleet was in normal condition, it wouldn’t be entirely without a fighting chance.
And at this moment, purple light flashed in the sky—boom! Thunder roared across the sea and sky!
The sailors were in uproar: "Whale Hunter was struck by lightning!"
Da Fei was stunned, rushing out of the cockpit to see Whale Hunter aflame in the rear. True enough, it was ablaze!
Da Fei was left dumbfounded! Lightning really hit it!!! How was this possible! How could Da Fei’s God-level Luck Skill not withstand Heavenly Destiny and be struck by lightning?
Wait! It was Da Fei’s fault! He ran too far away, causing Whale Hunter and Octopus to not be in the same battlefield and lose the skill bonuses!
Da Fei shouted urgently, "Signal the fleet! Fleet reunite!"
And just then, Da Fei noticed from afar a faint black smoke rising from Whale Hunter and Octopus, swirling into a faint dark cloud above the ships! Yes, a dark cloud, barely noticeable up close but clear from afar!
Da Fei’s eyes narrowed in shock, could this be the proverbial extreme bad luck, with clouds looming overhead?
That meant those sea monsters actually saw this air of doom from a distance and ran clean away? Damn it! This must be it!
Now, the fleet reunited. Whale Hunter’s fire was extinguished at once, and Selvia’s golden light flashing on the ship signaled healing the wounded.
Hurriedly boarding the Whale Hunter, Da Fei asked anxiously, "Were there many casualties? Was the loss significant?"
Spielberg wiped the sweat from his brow, recalling in a frightened tone, "Luckily, the lightning struck the cargo hold, which was full of ores and didn’t affect anything."
"That’s good! That’s good!" Too sinister! Looking at the blackened deck, Da Fei couldn’t help feeling secretly fortunate.
Legend had it that losing money could avert disaster. Da Fei having been struck by this lightning must have somewhat consumed a bit of misfortune. But judging by that cloud’s dominance, this was clearly not enough; sea monsters needed to be found to share the bad luck. The problem was, the wild creatures fled on meeting Da Fei, giving no chance!
Unless some local undead forces were sought to break, but the issue was—
Da Fei suddenly realized he had made a grave oversight by not consulting Samael about the distribution of local undead forces! Damn it, since he knew the Undead God’s name was bam, it meant he was familiar with the surroundings! And yet he didn’t say anything when I didn’t ask! This was too frustrating and irresponsible! At the very least, shouldn’t he have cautioned on which way to go or something before Da Fei set sail? Damn it, isn’t all this talk redundant! Everyone Da Fei met would be the same!
Now there was no way, Da Fei couldn’t wander around like a headless chicken, only a straight line towards the Nether Sea Miracle Island. At the current speed, it would take over half a month to reach, a distance no shorter than from Elorin to Fire Dragon Island! Damn, Da Fei refused to believe no big sea monsters would be encountered on this long road? In any case, whoever met Da Fei would be the unlucky one. Speaking of which, how should the value of this long journey in terms of pricing be calculated? Considering junior high physics, only the direct line distance between two points was useful work, wasn’t Da Fei’s roundabout through the Nether Sea an unnecessary effort? Annoying.
After the fleet rested, they set off again. Being struck by lightning left all the crew too alarmed to slack off even a little, with no need for each ship’s captain to urge them. This lightning wasn’t entirely pointless?
The fourth day at sea passed tensely.
On the fifth day, a familiar system information display flooded the screen.
Da Fei looked all around, the vast Nether Sea stretching endlessly. Looking overhead, black clouds swirled above like a vortex. Damn, why so dark? Yesterday they were colorless! And it expanded so much? Could it be planning to black out Da Fei completely? Hey, could Da Fei’s God-level Luck withstand "Heavenly Destiny"?
Da Fei was infinitely conflicted and fervently hoped for some inattentive sea monster to pick a fight, but today not even the red blip sea monsters on the radar appeared, nor a single small skeleton fish or fish bubble! What does it mean when life doesn’t go as planned ten times out of nine? This was it! When Da Fei didn’t want to encounter sea monsters, they came layer upon layer, and now that he sought them out, nothing at all could be found?
The only way now was to be careful, careful, again careful! Until finding sea monsters to take the fall for Da Fei, he had to hold on!
The moon in the sky not only continuously waned but grew darker, and when it descended into the sea, a new day began. However, the moon didn’t rise again!
The sky was densely clouded, violent winds howled across the sea, waves surged violently!
Da Fei was left completely shocked! What rhythm was this? This was the rhythm of a storm!
Damn it! Was this misfortune? Impossible! Could Da Fei’s misfortune cause such a huge commotion? This must be a normal weather forecast! Da Fei with absolute misfortune plus a storm encounter, what more could he ask for in life!
...
Fatalon, gales surged, waves pounded the shore, grasses and trees flew about.
Samael stood in the wind, gazing at the heavens, murmuring to himself, "A butterfly cannot fly across the sea, but a butterfly’s wing flap can cause a storm across the ocean. Mortal, what size storm can you stir in this vast Nether Sea? I’m eagerly waiting to see!"
(New year, new outlook, the Ashtray also registered on Weibo, with the Weibo nickname "Supersized Ashtray’s Weibo." Everyone interested is welcome to follow! Incidentally, beginning of the month means vote requests.) (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to qidian.com to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)