Chapter 553 Traces
On the cruise ship that was constantly slicing through the waves, Dorothy stood on the aft deck, holding a plate of grilled fish. She frowned as she scanned her surroundings, immediately sensing something amiss when she detected a faint trace of medicine in the fish. Her vigilance heightened instantly.
“Ah… Miss Dorothy, don’t you like fish? If you don’t want it, I can have it…” At this moment, Nephne walked slowly from behind Dorothy, carrying a plate with only fish bones. Seeing the almost untouched grilled fish in Dorothy’s hand, she couldn’t help but say, and what she received was Dorothy’s solemn gaze.
“Stop eating for now, there’s something wrong with this fish…”
“What? What’s wrong?”
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Nephne showed a surprised expression and then lowered her voice to ask. However, Dorothy did not respond immediately.
“Forget about it for now… Just remember not to eat any more of those fish…”
Dorothy instructed, then controlled several seagull zombie puppets hidden on the ship’s roof to spread their wings and soar into the sky, circling before diving into the crowd below, snatching the grilled fish from people’s plates. Dorothy herself also had her fish snatched away by one of these seagulls.
The crowd became chaotic as the seagulls snatched the food, leading to screams and confusion. Many tourists cursed at the flying seagulls, while some laughed. After a cry of alarm, Dorothy watched her grilled fish being taken away by a seagull, managing to dispose of it without drawing attention.
“These grilled fish contain a trace amount of medicine. Don’t eat them anymore…” After dealing with the grilled fish with the help of the zombie seagulls, Dorothy sternly told Nephne. Nephne was slightly startled by Dorothy’s words and quickly replied in a low voice.
“Medicine? What kind of medicine? Will it harm my body? Could something be wrong with me?”
“This is a highly addictive drug, often used by certain ‘Cup’ societies for profit and control. As for long-term effects… they only appear after prolonged use. The dose in this fish is very weak and shouldn’t cause significant harm,” Dorothy responded softly to Nephne. Hearing this, Nephne felt relieved.
“Phew… probably nothing to worry about then. That’s good…”
“Even if there’s nothing to worry about, we can’t let our guard down. The key now is to find out who added the medicine to these dishes and why they did so with such a mild dose. In short, we need to be cautious from now on. There might be other extraordinary beings planning something on this ship,” Dorothy continued seriously. Hearing this, Nephne swallowed hard and nervously glanced around.
“What could the other extraordinary beings be plotting? Is this similar to what happened on the Shining White Pearl? Are there ‘Cup’ cult members trying to sacrifice us again? Why do such things keep happening to us…”
Nephne said anxiously, while inwardly complaining about how easily she encountered trouble following Dorothy. Dorothy shook her head and replied.
“We don’t know the situation yet… We can’t make rash judgments. For now, let’s stay low-key, avoid drawing attention, don’t touch the fish, and just go about our business. Let’s gather more information first…”
Dorothy instructed Nephne, who nodded silently and walked away to continue her work worriedly. Meanwhile, Dorothy quietly released her zombie puppets in an unoccupied area, deploying miniature zombie puppets to monitor the entire cruise ship.
Dorothy focused on monitoring the fishermen and the chefs cooking the grilled fish, checking if they were adding anything extra to the fish during their work. However, after watching for a long time, she found no evidence. Neither the fishermen nor the chefs seemed to be doing anything unusual.
Seeing this, Dorothy decided to wait. She waited until the school of fish gathered at the edge of the ship dispersed, the fishermen packed up, and all the fish caught were grilled and the chefs finished their work. Then, using the miniature zombie puppets, she continued to follow these two groups. When they rested, she used the miniature puppets to secretly check their baits and seasonings, even stealing some back for her own inspection. However, the baits and seasonings were ordinary, indicating that neither the fishermen nor the chefs had tampered with the fish.
After getting this result, Dorothy was slightly surprised. She hadn’t expected the fishermen or the chefs to be innocent. They hadn’t done anything suspicious to the fish.
‘They’re not the fishermen… or the chefs? Interesting… So who added the medicine to the fish?’
After a brief surprise, Dorothy quickly adjusted her strategy. While continuing to monitor the chefs and fishermen, she expanded her surveillance to include all crew members led by the captain. Based on her experience on the Shining White Pearl, if there were extraordinary beings plotting something on the ship, the crew members would likely be involved. By closely monitoring all crew members, they would eventually reveal themselves.
So, Dorothy deployed a large number of miniature zombie puppets, spreading them throughout the ship via the ventilation system. After finding the crew list in the captain’s quarters, she implemented real-time monitoring of all crew members, determined to uncover any suspicious activities.
Thus, under the shade of an umbrella on the deck, Dorothy lay back and observed the various corners inside the cruise ship, monitoring the actions of all crew members from the captain to the boiler workers. Over time, Dorothy comprehensively learned the operation methods of the entire cruise ship. By the time the sun set over the sea, she had mastered how to operate the cruise ship single-handedly, using a group of zombie puppets to recreate the full service.
Throughout the afternoon, Dorothy learned how to run the cruise ship but still didn’t figure out where the medicine in the fish came from. Under her surveillance, whether it was the chefs, fishermen, waiters, or sailors, everyone on the ship seemed perfectly normal, without any abnormalities.
The captain and chief officer were confirming the route and performing checks, the waiters were meeting passenger needs, and the boiler workers were working tirelessly in dimly lit rooms. Everyone appeared normal, and over a long period, none of them mentioned anything secretive. Dorothy found no cult items in their cabins, making them seem like ordinary people. Sitting in a chair, Dorothy rubbed her temples in frustration.
‘Hmm… Nothing seems out of place with these people. Could they all be ordinary? Then who put the medicine in the fish?’
On the deck at sunset, Dorothy rubbed her temples and fell into deep thought. After a while, she suddenly realized a crucial point she had overlooked.
‘Wait… Why does the medicine in the fish have to be added by someone? What if… it was already there naturally?’
Suddenly, Dorothy realized she had overlooked an important possibility: the fish might naturally contain the medicine. Although Dorothy found this idea unbelievable, she immediately controlled the zombie puppets to steal a live fish recently caught from the kitchen. Many fish were caught today, but not all were grilled; some were kept by the fishermen, and others were taken by the chefs to prepare different dishes for dinner.
With the cooperation of several human-form zombie puppets, Dorothy successfully stole a fish from the kitchen and transported it to an empty storage area below deck. Here, she dissected the fish using a Radiance Lamp, confirming that it contained a trace amount of medicine.
‘So… the medicine in the fish wasn’t added after they were caught, but was already present in their bodies… No wonder the chefs and fishermen weren’t involved…’
Seeing the dissection results, Dorothy understood, but new questions arose: Why did natural fish in the sea contain medicine?
With this question in mind, Dorothy slowly stood up and walked to the ship’s railing to look at the turbulent sea below. The large school of fish gathered at the edge of the ship had dispersed, and without the attraction of the fish, most of the spectators had left. The deck was now filled with tourists enjoying the sunset, creating a peaceful scene.
“Let’s wait a little longer before confirming…”
Looking at the scene, Dorothy muttered, then got up and returned to her cabin.
…
Time passed swiftly, and soon the sun set completely, ushering in the night. With the arrival of night, tourists on the deck returned to their cabins and began new activities in the entertainment rooms. At this moment, Dorothy, who was resting in her room, took action.
Sitting on her bed, Dorothy controlled the bird zombie puppets she had prepared earlier, which flew into the night sky, landing gently on the ship’s railing. Flying alongside the ship, they moved forward with it. Controlled by Dorothy, the bird zombie puppets flew a few meters above the sea, close to the hull. During the day, the school of fish had gathered at this position on the ship.
Next, Dorothy directed the zombie birds to open the small lantern held in the mouth of another bird, illuminating the dark sea. Dorothy could see everything more clearly.
Using the zombie birds’ vision, Dorothy observed the ship’s hull, carefully examining every corner, especially the steel walls exposed to the surging waves. Finally, she found a circular opening.
This was a circular opening with a short pipe extending from its edges. Around the opening, there were various sticky black substances—oil, vegetable leaves, and other unknown materials. Clearly, this was the cruise ship’s sewage outlet, where wastewater was discharged into the sea.
Seeing the sewage outlet, Dorothy paused briefly, then directed the zombie birds to interact, turning on the light held in another bird’s mouth. This lamp emitted a soft orange glow. When it shone on the sewage outlet, tiny red dots appeared under the light, and red warning signs appeared on the orange lamp.
Indeed, the lamp Dorothy used was a Radiance Lamp. Under high power, it could illuminate artificial spiritual traces that even Dorothy’s spiritual vision couldn’t detect. These were the traces found on the sewage outlet.
‘So it is indeed so…’
Seeing the traces on the sewage outlet, Dorothy understood why the fish had gathered at this location earlier. It wasn’t due to normal reasons but because something here had attracted the fish.
What attracted the fish was the sewage flowing out of the outlet. This sewage contained a large amount of medicine, attracting the fish to gather near the outlet, where they competed to consume the medicine. Due to the nature of the medicine, it was rapidly absorbed into the fish’s bodies. These fish were then caught by tourists, grilled, and served to passengers, who unknowingly consumed the medicine.
“Luckily, I didn’t eat any…”
Having identified the source of the medicine in the fish, Dorothy couldn’t help but sigh in relief, then continued analyzing her new discovery.
‘The medicine is mixed with the ship’s wastewater and discharged. This suggests that the person handling the medicine might have been unaware of the consequences. The fish gathering due to the medicine may have been an unintended consequence. Feeding the fish medicine might not have been intentional… It could be a coincidence rather than a conspiracy…’
Dorothy reasoned, but she wasn’t going to relax until she had thoroughly figured out the situation. She needed to continue exploring the secrets of the ship.
Immediately, Dorothy recalled the bird zombie puppets from the sea and repositioned the numerous miniature zombie puppets scattered throughout the ship. She began searching and monitoring areas like the kitchen, laundry room, infirmary, and bathrooms—places where ship wastewater was generated. During this process, Dorothy used a Trace-Sensing Sigil, a gift from friends of the Abyss Cult during the previous incident on the Shining White Pearl.
Soon, Dorothy’s search yielded results. In one of the bathrooms on the ship, she detected a strong residual bl**d smell using the Trace-Sensing Sigil. Having experienced similar situations, Dorothy instantly concluded that someone had bled heavily in this bathroom not long ago…
Perhaps… someone was killed here…
