Two days later, Huai Shi staggered out of the cabin, doubled over the rail, and heaved a mighty "BLAH" into the sea below.
He felt like he was going to die.
Why in the world could someone steer such a lousy steamer so wildly?
That self-proclaimed Kate Peterman looked strangely familiar, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember where he had seen him; was it because he'd seen too many people deserving a beating, which gave rise to the illusion?
Something just didn't seem right.
Last night, Huai Shi had personally witnessed this fellow in the captain's room, eating hot pot, singing songs, and sipping alcohol, all while one hand held the steering wheel, performing a live demonstration of drifting on wave crests and cornering through sea trenches...
At the most dangerous moment, the whole ship almost took off, flying dozens of meters above the waves.
Frightened out of his wits, Huai Shi had nightmares all night, dreaming that he and the ship were sinking into the deep sea, seeing a bizarre and terrifying city... and then Kate Peterman, leading him on, steered the ship head-on into a huge and terrifying figure.
When he woke up, Huai Shi felt utterly ruined.
Although the steamer was piloted too wildly, captained by someone too frivolous, too talkative, annoying, and very punchable, yet he was... pretty decent, wasn't he?
Huai Shi was starting to become uncertain about that.
While he wasn't sure whether to praise or curse the person's boating skills, at least he made sure Huai Shi ate well and had plenty to drink over the past two days, and even chatted with him to pass the time.
It was just that for some reason, the captain was always concerned about personal relationships.
Questions like how many girlfriends Huai Shi had, if he had kids out there, which one he was planning to marry, or if he had ever thought about polygamy, and other such nonsense.
It was as if he (Kate) pegged me as some sort of playboy, always conjuring up some messed-up scenarios about me.
Remembering my own emotionally barren first seventeen years of life, I increasingly felt that something was seriously off with the world.
I used to struggle just to find food, spending all day trying to figure out my next meal—where was the time to think about all this?
After becoming a Sublimator, I became even more detached.
All I did was temper my body, practice my qin skills, and come up with ways to hide money from the prying eyes of Raven, without paying much attention to the allure of women...
Spending time on that was wasted compared to worrying about my career direction!
I had planned to slack off in the Astronomical Society, swindle some money, pretend to be a salary thief, occasionally act the part of a tool person, and once I saved up enough money, I'd wield my now LV9 copywriting skills to write a flawless resignation letter and contentedly become a salted fish...
How on earth did I unwittingly become an S-level internal evaluation, the future Gold Medal fighter?
"Ah, the worries of young people these days are truly interesting."
After learning of Huai Shi's confusion, Captain Kate stroked his chin, his eyes lighting up with a mischievous enthusiasm, "If you ask me... why not become an archaeologist?"
"Huh?"
Huai Shi was puzzled.
The answer seemed fine, but he felt there was a subtle malice to it.
"Just think, unearthing those insane dark histories in the wilderness, battling the colossal shadows between the stars—doesn't that sound quite romantic?"
With a bottle of strong liquor in one hand, and deftly steering the ship through cresting waves with the other, Captain Kate, in a whirl of disorientation, somehow managed to engage Huai Shi in somewhat cryptic tipsy banter.
"If not an archaeologist, what about a folklorist, or how about a detective?"
He egged him on with great fervor, "A religious figure? An artist? A writer? An astronomer?"
For some reason, although these were all common and prestigious jobs, every time they came out of his mouth, they seemed to carry a certain ease of meeting a bad end...
"Young man, you worry too soon, too soon, Huai Shi," said Captain Kate, discarding the empty bottle in his hand. "Why ponder on such distant matters? Why not enjoy the present, focus on what's in front of you?"
"Damn, damn, damn..."
Huai Shi's face turned green as he instinctively clung to the nearby post, "Then would you please focus on what's in front of us first!"
Under a cloud-covered sky, a giant wave, some seventy to eighty meters high, rose up in front of their bow. Amidst a deafening roar, it loomed like a collapsing skyscraper, ready to crash down upon them.
"That's what I mean, youngsters always make a fuss over nothing. It's just a little bit of a commotion, what's there to be afraid of?" Kate Peterman whistled nonchalantly, "Isn't the promenade spacious? Head that way!"
Find me a damn promenade on the high seas, would you!
Huai Shi's vision went dark, and in the next instant, the entire steamer was engulfed by thousands of tons of seawater.
Amidst the booming sounds and violent shaking, the captain sang a rousing sea shanty, navigating the improbably resilient steamer through the waves, bounding and sprinting among the gigantic swells, headlong into the deepest part of the storm.
In the midst of thunderclaps and lightning, the raging waves swept towards them.
By the time Huai Shi came to his senses, he didn't know how long had passed.
He felt as if he had been tossed into a washing machine, spinning madly until he'd thrown up the last bit of moisture and became a wrung-out rag, then passing out.
And when he opened his eyes, the overcast sky was gone, replaced by the clear blue heavens and the violent sun pouring down its scorching rays.
The captain, lounging on a deck chair with sunglasses on, looked up at him.
"You're awake?"
He whistled, pointing towards the faint coastline in the distance, "We're about to arrive in Australia."
It took Huai Shi quite a while to realize what he was saying.
Arrived?
He gazed incredulously at the outline of Australia, completely baffled.