Surviving as the Captain of a Mad Cthulhu Deep Sea - Chapter 15

chapter 15

Chapter 15: 1068

Chapter 15. 1068

In the darkness, Charles muttered to himself, “This place is for studying relics, so there must be plenty of them here. Haha~ Now I’m going to hit the jackpot!”

Humming a faint melody from his memory, Charles walked back to the same spot as before.

This time, he pushed open each door one by one. The ones that wouldn’t budge were immediately blown apart with explosives.

Behind the first door, he found a medieval-style oil lamp. Just as he picked it up to leave, his sharp eyes caught a record notebook hanging on the wall.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, these guys are really thoughtful. They even left instructions,” Charles said, tearing off the notebook and rushing into the next room.

“Hahaha, what a windfall! I’ve hit the jackpot!”

Charles strutted through the rooms, a pile of relics clutched in his coat, looking like a triumphant farmer after a harvest.

Just as he was about to slip the Silver Tentacle Ring onto his ring finger, a sudden red light flared at the doorway.

“Ugh, those Snot Worms still dare to show their faces! They’ll learn their lesson today!”

With his bundle of loot tucked under one arm, Charles swaggered toward the door.

He leaned out of the room, and his body froze instantly. The monster before him wasn’t a single creature, but a massive, densely packed swarm.

The intertwined monsters spilled from every surface: some half-emerged from the ceiling, others erupting from the floor. In the distance, the flickering red lights resembled a wall covered in neon signs.

The moment Charles saw them, the monsters saw him too. All the Flying Leeches twisted their bodies, and the red light vanished quickly.

Darkness once again enveloped the empty corridor. Staring into the void, Charles could already picture the now-invisible leeches hurtling toward him at full speed.

Without hesitation, he spun around and began to run. But before he could take two steps, a horrific, gaping maw materialized in the air before him.

Charles couldn’t stop in time, and half his body was already inside the mouth.

He twisted violently, summoning every muscle in his body, and finally wrenched himself free just as the maw snapped shut. He had narrowly escaped, but his clothes were torn to shreds by the sharp teeth, reduced to mere rags.

“Phew, that was a close call.”

Startled, Charles clung to the leech’s slippery body and slid out before it could react.

But this single leech was just the beginning. The invisible leeches were faster than Charles, who was running at full speed, and more and more flying leeches emerged, swarming him.

At that moment, Charles looked like an acrobat. He narrowly dodged every attack, his unnaturally agile movements making him sway wildly on the edge of life and death like a dancer on a blade.

Just as he dodged a blob of liquid spat by a leech, a massive maw appeared to his right. Charles kicked off the ground with all his might and barely escaped.

Before Charles could even land, another massive maw opened again. With no solid ground to stand on in mid-air, Charles was completely helpless as he watched himself being sucked into the creature’s mouth.

Seeing the long, sharp teeth closing in on his head, Charles frantically swung the large bundle in his hand with all his might. Using the recoil, he managed to escape the immediate danger.

But as he yanked himself free, the sharp teeth caught on his clothes, tearing them with a soft shhh and scattering the numerous relics across the floor with a clatter.

Among them, an ancient oil lamp trembled slightly, then suddenly emitted a blinding light that illuminated the entire corridor as brightly as midday.

The Flying Leech twitched as if electrocuted, as if some stimulus had jolted it.

Charles wouldn’t let such a perfect escape opportunity pass him by. Clutching the remaining small bundle, he fled desperately.

He ran at his human limit for nearly five minutes. When he realized no one was chasing him anymore, he stopped, gasping for breath.

His heart ached as he looked at the few remaining relics in his arms. Only four relics remained within his tattered clothes.

“Damn it! You Snot Worms, just wait! I’ll remember this grudge! When I succeed, I’ll come back and boil you all in a pot!!”

After venting his frustration, Charles straightened up and surveyed his surroundings.

If the previous place had felt like a hospital, this was clearly a military base. The walls were no longer bright white tiles but thick steel plates.

He had never been here before. He must have stumbled in while fleeing in a panic.

“Hello? Anyone here?”

Charles’s voice echoed in the air.

He walked along the wall and soon came face to face with a circular steel door nearly five meters tall.

The door, nearly half a meter thick, was damaged, with a crack running almost halfway across it.

Charles cautiously poked his head in and peered inside, discovering the space was surprisingly vast.

Suddenly, a cough echoed from deep within, momentarily stunning Charles.

“Huh? Could there actually be someone alive in here?”

After glancing back, Charles quietly crossed the threshold and stepped inside.

The moment he entered, Charles was shocked by the sight before him. The interior was a long tunnel, like a bomb shelter. Every hundred meters stood a steel door. The nearest door had already been dislodged and was embedded in the ceiling.

“Cough… Cough-cough!”

The cough sounded again from a distance, and the voice seemed to belong to an old man.

Charles slowed his pace and cautiously approached the source of the sound.

Soon, Charles saw the source of the coughing sound. Broken intestines, coagulated blood, vacant eyes, shriveled limbs, and a mangled brain.

A massive gate of flesh and blood, piled high with these materials, stood at the center of the Fourth Door. Inside the frame, a writhing purple liquid churned.

And embedded in the lower left corner of the gate was a bloody corpse, its upper body intact. The coughing sound had come from him.

The bloody figure’s eyes opened, and it stared at Charles standing before the gate.

“Ah~ 096, finally found another host? Come here, come here. I haven’t seen you since I arrived in this hellhole. Let’s talk.”

He knows me? No, he knows the mask on my face.

Charles’s gaze swept over the record notebook hanging on the wall. Project Number: 1068.

“Haha, so it’s 1068. Long time no see, my good friend. That’s right, that’s right, I’m 096.”

Charles approached the door made of flesh and blood, feigning familiarity.

The corpse hanging above the door stared at him for a few seconds before shaking its head slightly.

“No, you’re not 096. You failed to become it.”

Realizing he couldn’t deceive this creature, Charles dropped the act and asked, “Hey, do you know the way out of this place?”

“Asking a motionless old man for directions seems a bit unrealistic, doesn’t it? Surely humans haven’t all become fools after all this time?”

All this time? Is this creature ancient? If so, it might know something about the surface.

After a moment of thought, Charles asked it about the surface.

“Ah~ the sun, of course I know it. It’s that thing hanging in the sky. I haven’t felt its warmth in ages. Could you move me outside so I can bask in the sunlight?”

Hearing this encouraging news, Charles suddenly jumped up like a monkey, grabbed the corpse’s hair, and shouted excitedly.

“When did you see it? How long ago was that?”

“Damn it! Stop pulling my hair! I still have some feeling left!”

Clang! Charles pulled the Black Saber from 1068’s calf and pressed it against the creature’s face, threatening in a stern voice.

“Stop spouting nonsense! Tell me now!”

1068’s blood-soaked face twisted with fury.

“The door that passes through my body… after passing through the door that passes through my body, you can see the sun.”

“The door?”

Charles’s eyes lit up with realization. He strode toward the door and examined the record notebook hanging on the wall.

A few seconds later, he charged back, stabbing the saber down at the creature’s neck.

“How dare you deceive me! It’s clearly written here—beyond your door lies another world! No one who entered has ever returned!”

As 1068 screamed, the flesh door itself convulsed violently, as if sharing the creature’s agony.

“You damn piece of shit! You’re just good for wiping my ass! I’ll curse you!”

1068 ripped off his disguise and unleashed a torrent of abuse at Charles.

“Speak quickly! If you spout nonsense, I’ll cut off your head!”

Faced with the blade pressed against his face, 1068 finally relented.

With a defeated expression, he said, “I don’t remember exactly how long it’s been, but I think it was the last time I saw the sun, when they put me on the ship. I sailed on that ship for a long time.”

“Hahaha!”

Charles, driven mad, spun wildly in mid-air, laughing hysterically.

“I knew someone had come down from the surface! I knew it! If they could come down, I can definitely go back up!”

Charles continued to question 1068. Although 1068’s answers were vague, the casual mention of the Statue of Liberty proved that this was indeed the surface he had been searching for—the world he had come from in the past!

Though he hadn’t found an exit, the news from 1068 only strengthened Charles’ resolve to return home.

But Charles’ joy was short-lived. A familiar red light appeared outside the door.

“Oh no! The Snot Worms are back again!”

Charles scrambled for cover, scanning the room for a hiding place, but soon realized there was nothing to conceal him except the fleshy door.

Charles’s mind raced, and suddenly a clever idea struck him. He immediately darted to a corner of the room and, like a lizard, shot up to the top left corner.

Clinging tightly to the walls with all four limbs, Charles used his formidable physical control to wedge himself into the corner.

The moment he stabilized himself, three Flying Leeches, their red eyes flashing, swarmed into the room.

Unaware of Charles, the leeches flew straight toward the 1068 and began vomiting onto the black door. Half-rotted rats poured endlessly into it.

Are they… feeding the 1068? Why?

As Charles pondered this, the 1068 began to speak.

“Dr. Tina, you are as beautiful as ever.”

Who is he talking to? Another question popped into Charles’s mind.

Just then, he saw 1068 lift its head and look at him. A triumphant smile spread across its blood-soaked face, and Charles’s heart sank.

“Dr. Tina! 096 has escaped! It’s clinging to the upper left corner of the room! Isolate it quickly!”