Chapter 522

Chapter 390: Humidity

Conquer Sea, Shining White Pearl.

Under the dark night sky shrouded in clouds, the massive cruise ship was slowly sailing towards an unknown distance, slicing through the waves with its steel hull and leaving behind a long white wake.

In a luxurious cabin, Dorothy sat alone on a soft white bed, with a large world map laid out in front of her. At this moment, Dorothy was frowning slightly as she looked at the map before her.

Due to having much idle time on the ship, Dorothy decided to find something to do to pass the time. She attempted to calculate the approximate position of the Shining White Pearl on the map without satellite positioning. However, the result was somewhat unexpected.

“According to the voyage of the Shining White Pearl, it should have set sail from the port of Barse in the northwest of Faraluo, then sailed west and south, rounding the peninsula country Castia’s Far Lookout Cape before entering Conquer Sea, and then heading east toward Iwig.

“Based on the average speed of the Shining White Pearl, it should have been two days since they passed Far Lookout Cape and entered Conquer Sea. The ship should have continued eastward toward Iwig, rather than continuing south.”

Sitting on the bed, Dorothy pondered. Although it was pitch black outside and difficult to find landmarks, she could still determine that the Shining White Pearl was currently sailing south based on her sense of the planet’s magnetic field, not east as theoretically expected.

“How interesting…”

After realizing this, Dorothy couldn’t help but stroke her chin and murmur, then began seriously considering the reasons for this situation.

“The current course of the Shining White Pearl doesn’t match my calculations… There are three possible reasons: first, there might be a mistake in my calculation. Second, the ship isn’t traveling at its usual cruising speed but is moving slower, so the entire ship is still sailing south near Castia and hasn’t rounded Far Lookout Cape yet. Third, the ship has unknowingly deviated from its preset course.”

Dorothy listed these three possibilities in her mind. Confident in her computational abilities, she ruled out the first point after verifying it once. That left two possibilities: the ship’s speed was slower or its course had deviated.

Both of these issues were related to the crew, so Dorothy decided to investigate what was actually happening.

With her decision made, Dorothy put on her shoes by the bedside and walked onto the carpet of the cabin. Then she opened the door and stepped outside. After wandering around the cabins for a while, she arrived at a deserted corner. Next, Dorothy took out the Magic Box from her body, placed it on the ground, opened it, and started manipulating the objects inside.

Soon, countless small zombie puppets like spiders, geckos, mice, mosquitoes, etc., flew or crawled out of the Magic Box. Under Dorothy’s control, they spread out in all directions.

After releasing these numerous reconnaissance zombie puppets, Dorothy returned to her cabin, closed the door, and sat down on the sofa. She then began to use the small zombie puppets to monitor the entire Shining White Pearl.

Under Dorothy’s manipulation, her small zombie puppets used the ventilation system to conduct surveillance throughout the ship. Using various sensory capabilities of the small zombie puppets, Dorothy saw scenes from all over the ship. The band in the ballroom was still playing melodious music, and gentlemen and ladies were dancing on the spacious floor. In the casino, many gambling games were being played simultaneously; some gentlemen even shouted in frustration. Waiters were still busily serving to meet the guests’ diverse needs. In some secluded corners, noblewomen dressed elegantly were whispering and laughing with young, handsome men behind their husbands’ backs.

Various scenes on the Shining White Pearl were reflected in Dorothy’s mind. She didn’t pay much attention to other things and instead sent many small zombie puppets toward the bridge to see what was happening there.

After spending some time mapping out the ship’s ventilation system, Dorothy quickly found the way to the bridge. She manipulated the small zombie puppets to enter the bridge via the ventilation ducts and observed the interior through the vents.

At this moment, there were three or four sailors in the bridge. They weren’t doing much operation but were resting and guarding the port. The rudder was fixed, and no one was operating it at the moment.

Using the ventilation opening in the bridge, Dorothy observed the situation inside. She noticed that the sailors in the bridge were very silent and didn’t talk much. Even when they did speak, it was mostly trivial complaints without any substantial content. However, Dorothy wasn’t worried and patiently waited. Finally, after more than half an hour, she heard a useful piece of information. A sailor looked out the window at the dark sea and said:

“Is the course correct? Don’t let Mr. Costa scold us again.”

“There’s no problem. Mr. Costa just checked, and the current course is correct,” another sailor replied. The previous sailor was surprised and asked:

“Did Mr. Costa come here? When? Where is he now?”

“He came to the bridge about an hour ago. Now, he should be back in his captain’s cabin.”

“Oh…”

After a brief exchange, the bridge fell silent again. In her cabin, Dorothy nodded in her heart after hearing this conversation.

“Costa? Isn’t this the name of the captain of the Shining White Pearl? So, setting the course to this direction… is done by the captain of this ship?”

After hearing the sailors’ conversation, Dorothy realized where the main issue lay. She immediately began searching for the location of the captain’s cabin.

Fortunately, there was a detailed overhead plan of the entire ship on the wall of the bridge. According to this diagram, Dorothy quickly located the captain’s cabin and then manipulated the small zombie puppets to move swiftly toward the captain’s cabin via the ventilation system.

The captain’s cabin wasn’t far from the bridge; both were in the superstructure above the deck. Soon, Dorothy found the ventilation duct leading to the captain’s cabin and maneuvered the small zombie puppets along the duct toward the cabin.

However, as the small zombie puppets approached the captain’s cabin, Dorothy noticed something unusual.

After Dorothy’s promotion to White Chalk, the range she could manipulate zombie puppets had significantly expanded. Now, Dorothy could control even small zombie puppets like mosquitoes. Among those placed in the ventilation duct to approach the captain’s cabin were such miniature mosquito zombie puppets, positioned at the forefront.

As Dorothy’s mosquito zombie puppet got closer to the captain’s cabin, she felt something abnormal on the mosquito zombie puppet. Simply put, the mosquito zombie puppet’s wings became heavier.

Yes, under Dorothy’s incredibly precise perception, she noticed that the mosquito zombie puppet’s wings were starting to become slightly heavier. Upon noticing this anomaly, she immediately searched for the cause and found that a layer of fine water droplets had begun to form on the thin film wings of the mosquito zombie puppet.

“The air humidity here is higher than elsewhere…”

Realizing the abnormality on the mosquito zombie puppet, Dorothy immediately stopped all the zombie puppets still moving toward the captain’s cabin and watched quietly. Dorothy used a spider zombie puppet crawling on the wall of the corridor outside the ventilation duct to watch the distant captain’s cabin, closely watching the locked door. After staring for a while without any movement, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.