286 Third Deck

Schmidt’s body was full of bite marks of different width and depth.

The biggest one was on his abdomen and it was the size of a knuckle, revealing the broken intestines inside. Even the smallest wound was as big as a coin, gushing out fresh blood.

When Schmidt saw Kieran approaching, his bloody face showed delight. He looked like the survivor of a disaster. However, the next moment, his expression became frightened.

[Arrogant Word] was slashed right down at him.

Kieran did not hold back against the imposter. The fake Schmidt did not get a chance to dodge the great sword. He was slashed in half at the chest.

His face still had an incredulous expression, but it quickly transformed into something else.

Together with his clothes and wounds, he transformed into a patient from the Gordon Recovery Center. His face did not remind Kieran of anyone he had seen on the beach though.

"They brought others onto the Sunshine Mary?"

Kieran was scanning the body, frowning hard.

Before this, the miasma maze had been used to stall him. Inside the Sunshine Mary was a more fight-worthy opponent though.

Kieran turned around and glanced over the spider’s carcass. A horrible feeling rose up in his heart.

The spiders were around the same size, but their number was huge. Still, no more manpower would be needed to deal with them.

All it would take was a small team equipped with flamethrowers. It shouldn’t be that hard for them to get a flamethrower if they could get their hands on explosives.

Their target was definitely not the spiders. It was something even more fearful.

"This place has really become a monster lair!" Kieran thought.

The very idea made him hasten his steps. He followed the traces, quickly disappearing into the cabins.

He knew that if Schmidt encountered that monster, he would be dead meat.

Actually, Schmidt would not even need to encounter the monster itself. If he came across a demon vessel, he would also be in big trouble.

The reason Kieran had slaughtered the imposter without hesitation was because he knew Schmidt only had a slightly better physique than the average officer. He would not have been able to ask for help after being bitten by venomous spiders, let alone if he was wounded all over.

If this had been the real Schmidt, Kieran would have seen his dead body instead.

In other words, the demon vessel had acted like him. Kieran was unsure whether Schmidt could differentiate between the imposters and real people though.

...

Schmidt was feeling terrible.

After he’d sprinted at full speed for five minutes, he had reached the stairs connecting the second and third deck, only to find that the stairs to the third deck had been blocked by a huge door plank.

Schmidt tried to push it, but the weight told him that there was also something else behind the door plank. It was not possible for him to move the plank with his strength.

Hundreds of spiders were closing in on him fast. He could even hear the terrifying noise of their spider legs colliding with the wooden floor.

It was light but concentrated, enough to numb Schmidt’s brain. He could imagine what would happen to him if the spiders caught up with him.

"I guess I’ll be eaten until there is nothing left of me anymore…" Schmidt was smiling bitterly. He did not sit there and wait for his demise though.

He dashed towards the dance floor, breaking down the decaying chair in the corner and pouring some liquid from his pot over it. Then he lit it up with his lighter.

The fire was burning hot around the wooden chair.

As Schmidt threw more pieces of wood into the fire, it turned into a giant bonfire.

Schmidt did not just stop there. All the flammable items around the dance floor were thrown into the fire, increasing its power. He also fixed carefully the space around the bonfire, forming a circular burning area around him and leaving only a gap in the middle of the circle. Schmidt had Boller to thank for giving him the magical combustion catalyst.

Holding a piece of arch from one of the couches, he lit it up as well. He was putting up a defensive stand at the gap, awaiting the black spiders that were charging at him.

"COME ON, YOU PESKY LITTLE F*CKERS!" he shouted.

The spiders were afraid of the fire, so they dared not approach.

Schmidt had bought himself some time with the fire.

However, if he did not add any more wood to it, it would not burn for much longer.

He needed to come up with another plan, but…

When Schmidt saw the faint green glow and hungry light in the spiders’ eyes, he was out of ideas.

All he could do was wait for help.

"Schmidt! Here!"

Kieran’s voice suddenly came from the dance floor corridor.

A couple of lit torches were thrown at the spiders.

As the torches fell on the group of insects, the spiders quickly dispersed, creating a small path for Schmidt to dash through.

Schmidt ran as fast as he could. When he dashed out of the dance floor, Kieran shut the door at the entrance of the corridor tight.

"I don’t think this will stop them for very long. It’ll just buy us enough time to leave! Come on, Schmidt, let’s get out of here!" Kieran said.

Schmidt nodded, agreeing with Kieran’s suggestion.

"Where’s your backpack and box?" Without enough pesticides, Schmidt dared not approach the place at all.

When he saw that Kieran had come empty-handed, he naturally had questions.

As far as Schmidt remembered, Kieran might sometimes leave his backpack behind, but the box with the two-handed great sword was always with him.

According to Kieran, it was his most powerful weapon.

"I’ve encountered some scary monsters! I could only run for it. Any extra weight would only have affected my speed, so…" Kieran shrugged righteously.

Schmidt felt even more doubtful at his answer.

What kind of monster would cause Kieran to leave his weapon behind, and if something had, why would Kieran look so healthy and free of wounds?

Schmidt knew Kieran very well. Kieran valued his life, but he was not someone who would give up easily. Even if he encountered a formidable monster, he would at least try to take it down before he truly gave up.

Such a feat would be dangerous though, so it seemed impossible that Kieran would be free of any visible wounds.

Something was wrong!

Schmidt grabbed his gun tightly. When he noticed that the Kieran beside him had purposely slowed down, he threw himself forward and fired his gun without hesitation.

Bang!

The shot landed in the middle of Kieran’s brow.

Half of his brain was blasted out as the sharp knife in his hand fell to the floor, making a clear noise.

Schmidt felt even more surprised when he saw the fake Kieran transform. Even his clothes changed.

"Goddamnit! F*ck!" Schmidt cursed angrily.

Although he had no idea how the patient before him had transformed into Kieran, he knew he had done so with malicious intent.

The person who controlled the patients and demons was harboring malicious intent after all.

The rattling noise behind Schmidt and the ever-shaking door forced him to run for his life again. He didn’t spare any more time to think.

...

"Consider yourselves lucky!"

An eerie groan came from the captain’s cabin on the third deck of the Sunshine Mary.

A man with a long scrawny face and an expression full of hatred had appeared in a long robe.

The death of his contact, Raising Dish, was enough to infuriate him.

Plus, the accident back at the Gordon Recovery Center had messed up his plans completely and forced him to take more risk with his moves, thus endangering his ultimate goal.

He would succeed soon. But until then…

"The Bird of Death? I will make you suffer until you can neither live nor die!" the man said in a dim tone before waving his hand.

Instantly, a big strong tentacle sprung up from the lower deck and tore the captain’s cabin in half.

An odd growling sound was heard.

When the man heard it, his long scrawny face lit up with uncontrollable delight.

He quickly squatted down and drew a special magic circle on the deck.

The growling was approaching quick.

Kieran and Schmidt, who were still running on the second deck, heard the noise at the same time.

[Fear: You are in Target’s Fear range, Your spirit has passed the authentication, No abnormalities will occur...]

A notification popped up in Kieran’s vision as Schmidt started to feel wobbly and dizzy. He suddenly fell to the floor.

The hundreds of spiders chasing Schmidt stopped their march, as if they had been ordered to retreat. Every single one of them turned around and headed towards the third upper deck.

On the third deck, four tentacles appeared and started smashing down the gathering spiders.

More spiders started to emerge from the ferry itself, but the tentacles did not let them get to the third deck.

The scrawny-faced man smiled. Everything was progressing as he’d expected.

However, the very next moment…

Bang!

The third upper deck, which was filled with the tentacles and the bodies of the raised demons, started to tremble.

A dark red sword burst through the lower deck and entered the scrawny man’s eyes.

The man’s expression instantly turned serious.

"STOP HIM!" he shouted.