Surviving as the Captain of a Mad Cthulhu Deep Sea - Chapter 8

chapter 8

Everything Is a Lie

Chapter 8: All Lies

Chapter 8: All Lies

Stumbling, Charles immediately assessed the situation. The sudden lurch of the ship clearly indicated a problem with the Helmsman. Using his hands and feet, he scrambled to the communication pipe and shouted into it.

“Bandages! Answer if you hear me!”

From inside came the sickening sound of flesh being torn and Bandages’ pained groans.

“Damn it!”

Charles drew the revolver from his waist and, bracing against the swaying deck, scrambled quickly toward the stairs.

“You two, follow me! There’s an accident in the wheelhouse!”

As Charles rushed onto the deck, Anna, her eyes welling with tears, ran to him and clung to his chest.

“That Mummy… that Mummy!”

The four of them rushed to the wheelhouse. Dark red blood had splattered everywhere, turning the room into a chaotic mess.

The bandage, which should have been holding the rudder, lay on the floor in a pathetic heap, like a rag doll torn apart by a rabid dog. In addition to the numerous wounds covering his body, his right leg had been severed at the root and vanished without a trace.

Charles rushed to the blood-soaked bandage, but for a moment, he didn’t know what to do with his hands. After two seconds, he tore the bandage from the figure’s face and brought his fingers close to the figure’s nose.

Feeling the faint breath, Charles felt a flicker of relief. He quickly drew the Black Saber he had tucked into his boot and pressed it into the bandage’s hand, hoping to prolong its life with the saber’s healing power.

“Anna! Stop staring blankly and stop the bleeding, now!”

Charles’s cry jolted Ship Doctor Anna from her dazed state. Her eyes turned crimson as she nodded frantically and rushed out the door.

“I… I’ll go get the hemostatic forceps!”

“Don’t give up, friend. You’ll be alright. Never give up.”

Charles, his voice urgent, whispered to Bandages, trying to bolster his courage.

A moment later, Anna ran back, shouting in panic, “Charles, my first aid kit is gone!”

Charles stared blankly at Anna for a second before quickly saying, “Go to the Captain’s Cabin! I’ve stockpiled some medicine in the bottom drawer! Dip, quickly gather everyone! Hurry!”

After a flurry of activity, six people stood around the unconscious Bandages in the disheveled helm. All eyes turned to Charles, seeking reassurance. The weight of their gazes pressed down on him, but he knew he had to remain steady. A captain was needed now more than ever. He couldn’t falter.

“Anna, did you see anything attacking the bandages?”

“No. The ship suddenly tilted, and I fell to the floor.”

“Then the attacker is still on board and will definitely strike again.”

“But Captain, we’ve searched everywhere and found nothing. Could it have invisibility?” Dip asked dejectedly.

The monsters of the Subterranean Sea came in all shapes and sizes, and one with invisibility wasn’t particularly remarkable.

“Unlikely. If it had invisibility, it wouldn’t have waited this long to attack.”

Charles knew he had to do something. He couldn’t let his crew be attacked any longer. If things continued like this, the entire Old Rat would become a steel coffin, burying them all completely.

But what could he do in such a state of ignorance?

After a moment’s thought, Charles bit his lip and said, “First Assistant Engineer, max out the turbines! If we can reach the Coral Archipelago at full speed, I don’t care if the Old Rat sinks. Dip, lock down all the hatches with the First Deckhand. Fred, move all the perishable food from the galley to the Turbine Room and the wheelhouse. Everyone else, stay in those two areas.”

If they couldn’t find the culprit anyway, they might as well stay together until they reached the port.

“What about the toilets?” Anna asked in a small voice.

Charles tapped the transparent window in front of him with his finger. “Over the side.”

As people began to gather in two locations, the atmosphere throughout the Old Rat grew increasingly oppressive.

In the wheelhouse, Dip was at the helm, while Anna lay in her hammock tending to the Bandages. Charles sat at a chair, his diary in hand, and continued to write.

Inside the cabin, the only sound was the scratching of his pen against paper.

My First Mate has been attacked by some entity and is in a coma. The situation is not optimistic. It’s a miracle he’s alive at all, given the injuries all over his body. I’m not sure if he’ll ever wake up.

Click. Charles closed his fountain pen and tucked it into his pocket. He sighed, as if resigned to his fate, and began leafing through his diary haphazardly. The moment he saw a particular page, his breathing quickened, and he instantly regretted having looked at it.

He slammed the diary shut, gave a nervous, forced smile, and shook his head.

“What’s got you so amused?” Anna asked from across the room, her voice full of curiosity.

Charles stared at her for a few seconds. He walked over to the Bandages, pulled the Black Saber from his hand, pressed it against his arm for a moment, then pointed to the door and signaled for Anna to come out.

“You told me to stay with the Bandages for safety. Why are you telling me to go outside again?”

Anna stepped out of the cabin and asked, “What is this?”

Charles cupped her pale, delicate face in both hands and lightly kissed her. Anna opened her eyes slightly, looking somewhat surprised.

When Charles pulled away, Anna, her cheeks flushed pink, lightly hit his chest. “What’s with this sudden behavior?”

“My love, we’ve been childhood sweethearts since we were little. All this time, have you really only loved me?” Charles leaned against the ship’s hull, his expression calm, and asked.

“What nonsense is that? Of course. I fell for you the moment you handed me a shovel in the kindergarten sandbox.” Anna clung to him affectionately.

Charles held her lightly and gazed into the distant darkness. “My love, what a perfect lover you’d make. Beautiful, sophisticated, and devoted.”

Anna, who had been smiling, wrapped her arms around Charles’s neck.

“I love this cheesy love confession. Don’t stop, keep going.”

“Do you remember the brands of lipstick you used?”

“Why would I remember that? It was so long ago.”

“Right, of course you wouldn’t. Because I’m such a man, my mind doesn’t clutter itself with such trivialities.”

Charles’s lips twitched slightly, and suddenly tears streamed down his face. As his left hand moved, a revolver materialized in his grasp, its pitch-black barrel aimed at Anna’s flat abdomen.

“Go Ji-myeong, what are you doing?” Anna’s face twisted in displeasure.

“You know my real name! Why are you the only one who’s fake?! Why?!”

Charles’s face contorted in a terrifying grimace as he pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The recoil of the rapid-fire shots sent Anna staggering backward, dark blue blood splattering in all directions.

Her eyes widened, filled with disbelief.

Anna slowly lowered her head, her body trembling faintly. As she saw tentacles writhing and crawling out of her abdomen, she collapsed, clawing at her hair as if unable to accept the reality.

“What is this? Why is this inside me? Ji-myeong, save me!”

Before she could finish speaking, her once-perfect face melted like a candle. A twisted, grotesque Flesh Monster, its body covered in yellowish-green slime, materialized on the deck of the Old Rat.

Like the island’s kin, it was twisted and horrifying, its eight or so tentacles flailing wildly in all directions, resembling a grotesque octopus that had crawled out of the water.

Seeing the monster before him, Charles’s gun-wielding hand trembled, tears streaming down his face. It was a lie. Every memory he had of Anna in his mind was a lie.

The next moment, the creature opened its hideous maw, roared, and charged at Charles.

Charles rolled to the side, evading the attack. His gaze hardened instantly, and his hands nimbly reloaded.

Bang-bang-bang!

Green blood splattered across the monster’s body, but the wounds were too shallow to stop it. With a deafening roar, a beard-like tentacle whipped out and struck Charles’s hand, forcing him to drop his gun.

“Damn it!”

Gritting his teeth, Charles immediately drew his Black Saber and swung it. A severed tentacle writhed endlessly on the deck.

The Flesh Monster howled and recoiled, but Charles charged forward, his blade raised.

As the man and the monster raced toward the bow, thin, hair-like black tentacles erupted from the creature in an instant. Like a living net, the monster counterattacked, enveloping Charles completely.

The tentacles tightened relentlessly, and Charles could even hear his bones screaming.

Crack!

His ribs began to splinter. One by one. The agonizing pain forced a choked cry from him.

At that critical moment, the glass of the wheelhouse shattered, and a bullet struck the monster’s massive yellow eye. The eyeball burst like a watermelon.

The screaming monster immediately released Charles and tried to flee toward the ship’s railing.

The gunfire intensified, and others from the engine room rushed out, weapons in hand.

No matter how strong the Flesh Monster was, its body was still made of flesh and blood. Under the barrage of bullets, its grotesque form tore apart like a tattered sack.

When the shooting stopped, the monster that had been so fearsome moments before lay collapsed in its own pool of foul-smelling blood, its tentacles twitching weakly.

Charles, clutching his throbbing abdomen, approached the creature.

As he aimed his revolver at the monster’s bestial maw, the flesh at its front twisted and coalesced into the face of Ship Doctor Anna.

Anna laughed wretchedly, dark blue blood trickling from the corners of her eyes.

“Go Ji-myeong, I’m sorry… I didn’t know I was a fake either…”

Those words struck Charles’s heart like a dagger. A pained expression twisted his face. He would have preferred the monster to curse him directly.

The others gathered around, their faces grim, and stood behind Charles.

“I can’t control this thing. I’m just a lure created by this monster. I’m buying time. Shoot it in the lower eye. That’s its weak spot.”

Looking at the lover who had always been by his side in his memories, Charles felt the revolver in his hand weigh a ton.

“Go Ji-myeong! Hurry! Its regenerative ability is too strong!”

As Charles hesitated, Anna turned to Dip beside her.

“Kid, you do it.”

The moment Dip wavered, Charles gritted his teeth, raised the gun, and pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Watching the bullets pierce her flesh, Anna wore a wistful smile.

“Thank you… I really wanted to go home with you too…”

Before she could finish, her face began to melt away, merging completely with the motionless Flesh Monster.

“Ha… ha… Hahaha!!”

Charles suddenly burst into maniacal laughter. He grabbed the monster’s corpse and hurled it with all his might toward the sea.

“Never try to fool me again! I won’t be fooled again! You memory-manipulating Flesh Monsters! All of you are frauds! All of you are fake! Fakes!”

James watched Charles, who seemed slightly unhinged, with concern. He spoke cautiously,

“Captain, are you alright?”

“I’m fine! Hahaha, why wouldn’t I be? The crisis is over, and the man-eating monster is dead! Isn’t that cause for celebration? Cook! Make us a delicious feast later to celebrate properly. Dip, take the deckhands to clean up this mess, and I’ll go take the helm!”

For the rest of the day, the crew of the Old Rat moved cautiously, afraid to provoke their captain.

But Charles seemed perfectly normal. He steered the ship as usual and ate his meals without incident. Only his behavior was completely different from his usual self—he was excessively energetic.

After the meal, Charles returned to his quarters. In the pitch-black cabin, he lit no lamp and, with a bitter expression, retrieved a bottle of liquor he’d hidden in the lowest bunk. He sat on the bed and took slow, deliberate sips.

“Anna, why did you try to eat people?

If you hadn’t eaten my crew… I could have pretended not to see…”