novelraw Chapter 115 : Strange Sound
Chapter 115 : Strange Sound
Chapter 115: Strange Sound
When Levi arrived at the captain’s cabin again, he was completely speechless.
“What now? Don’t tell me someone died again.”
“I’m truly sorry to disturb you, Mr. Levi.”
Faced with Levi’s complaint, the captain could only respond with a bitter smile. He didn’t want anything to happen to his ship either, but the problem was… it no longer seemed to be a matter of what he wanted.
Fortunately, this incident shouldn’t be too serious…
“You said before that if anything strange happened again…”
“Ah, I did say that. I just didn’t expect it to be this soon. Go on, what happened this time?”
Levi now felt like a doctor—finishing surgery wasn’t the end; he still had to monitor the patient’s recovery. Worse still, there wasn’t even a nurse here, meaning he had to do everything himself… sigh, forget it. This was just his fate—working himself to the bone. For the sake of his own life, he had to push through.
Otherwise, in this vast ocean, if the ship really sank, he wouldn’t even have a place to cry.
“It’s actually not a big issue…”
The captain spoke cautiously.
“Previously, didn’t we collide with an iceberg, which caused flooding in the first and second compartments? So I ordered the boilers there to be shut down, repaired the cracks, and instructed the sailors to conduct 24-hour continuous inspections to prevent accidents.”
“Yes, I know about that.”
It had to be said—the sailors on this ship were quite capable. Of course, this matter was directly tied to their survival. If the ship sank, their chances of surviving were significantly lower than others.
“Then, since I said any abnormalities must be reported, the sailors reported something strange.”
At this point, the captain’s expression tightened.
“They said… they heard a strange sound.”
“A strange sound?”
“Yes. While inspecting the cracks, someone said they heard something like a cry coming from outside the ship…”
“………………”
Don’t mess with me. Seriously.
Levi fell silent, letting out a deep sigh internally.
“I read in the newspaper that this route was newly opened… Captain, what do you know about this route itself?”
“I don’t know much, but I heard this route had been planned by the Platinum Shipping Company for a long time, just never opened. It wasn’t until the Arctic Star was launched that they chose to take this route to the Melisia Region.”
“So this route has never been traveled before?”
“I asked the company. They obtained information about this route from a group of adventurers and conducted surveys.”
As an experienced captain, he had taken this voyage seriously and had investigated the route beforehand.
“However…”
“However?”
“I feel something isn’t right. Before this voyage, I investigated this sea area. According to records, there hasn’t been any sign of icebergs here for decades.”
Levi understood what the captain meant. The captain had conducted prior research, but the appearance of the iceberg proved that the information was useless. No matter what the data said, the Arctic Star had nearly collided with an iceberg—that was a fact. Under such circumstances, the current state of this sea area was even harder to predict.
For the captain, this was no different from navigating through a fog of war—no one knew what lurked here.
“Although I think it might just be the sound of waves or some kind of mechanical malfunction… but… if you could investigate it, Detective, I believe everyone would feel much more at ease.”
The captain was, after all, the captain. Especially after the iceberg incident, he now stayed on the bridge almost 24 hours a day, even canceling his previous habit of dining with guests. All so that he could respond immediately to any situation.
“The designer, Andrews, will go with you. If it’s a structural issue, he should be able to handle it.”
“Mm, that’s good.”
That at least gave Levi some reassurance.
“Alright, I’ll go take a look.”
After a brief conversation with the captain, Levi left the cabin with the First Mate. They arrived at the staff elevator and met Andrews, who was waiting there.
“Mr. Andrews, you don’t look very well.”
Levi examined him curiously. The only time they had met before was during lunch on the day of departure, when Andrews had looked energetic. Now, however, he had dark circles under his eyes, appeared weak, and looked like he hadn’t slept for days.
“Ah, Mr. Levi…”
Andrews greeted him in a feeble voice. Honestly, seeing his half-dead state, Levi even suspected he might collapse at any moment.
“Sorry, I’ve been reviewing and inspecting the entire ship’s structure to prevent another mechanical failure… but I still haven’t found the cause…”
“Ah…”
Levi suddenly understood. Levi had only told the captain about the ghost ship’s curse. The captain, for confidentiality, hadn’t told anyone else. As a result, Andrews had suffered—although they avoided the iceberg, the sudden mechanical failure had kept this chief designer awake at night.
Judging by the oil stains all over his expensive suit, he must have been running around the ship inspecting everything, trying to find the problem.
Unfortunately, the problem had already been solved by Levi. Andrews was simply doing useless work.
“Alright, Mr. Andrews, I don’t think this is your fault.”
Levi gently patted his shoulder—he didn’t dare use too much force, afraid he might knock him over.
“It was probably just an accident. Don’t dwell on it.”
“But all systems failing simultaneously isn’t an accident. I asked the chief engineer—he said the pressure valves couldn’t release pressure at all…”
“Things like that can happen occasionally, right? I heard this is a brand-new system?”
To change the subject, Levi casually brought up another topic. Andrews immediately became animated.
“That’s right! To power this giant ship, we didn’t use the conventional dual-propeller system. Instead, we chose a triple-propeller system. It provides stronger thrust and is the most efficient and ideal propulsion method. In theory, each propeller has its own independent engine—so even if one fails, it shouldn’t affect the other two…”
Muttering about the ship’s propulsion system, Andrews stepped into the elevator. Levi listened half-heartedly as the three descended to the power compartment at the bottom of the ship.
There was still standing water on the floor of the first power compartment. The boilers that should have been running were completely shut down. Workers were inspecting the walls, where several steel plates had been welded over the cracks like patches.
According to the captain, once the leak was discovered, the workers immediately shut down the steam boilers, used steel plates to seal the breach, welded them in place, and then pumped out the water.
“Hmm, it seems there’s no problem here.”
At the crack, Andrews carefully examined the surrounding steel plates with a magnifying glass and nodded in relief.
“But just to be safe, let me listen.”
As he spoke, Andrews opened his briefcase and took out…
A stethoscope?
Levi looked confused. Noticing his gaze, Andrews smiled awkwardly.
“It’s just a personal habit. Using a stethoscope, I can hear the sounds of the ship’s walls and water flow. If something sounds off, I can detect it… haha, of course, it’s not 100% accurate—just for peace of mind.”
He put on the stethoscope, pressed it against the steel plate, and listened with his eyes closed.
There’s actually such a method?
Levi shrugged and turned to the First Mate.
“Take me to the worker who reported the strange sound.”
“Yes, Detective.”
The First Mate left briefly and returned with a burly worker. The man was muscular, bald, with a fierce face and visible scars.
“This is Ryan, leader of the third repair team. He’s in charge of the inspections here.”
“Hello, Mr. Ryan.”
Levi shook his hand.
“I heard you detected a strange sound. Can you describe it in detail?”
“Of course.”
Ryan nodded.
“It’s not a big deal. After the repairs, we were ordered to inspect this place around the clock. Then… about five hours ago, during patrol, we heard a strange sound coming from outside the ship’s wall.”
“A strange sound?”
“Yes, like… the cry of some animal.”
“Could it be a whale?”
“My family hunts whales. Whale sounds are indeed strange—but this one was even stranger… I can’t describe it. It felt like it came from the depths of the sea…”
“………………”
At this moment, Levi’s mind was already playing scenes from a hundred and one deep-sea monster movies.
He even had the short-video narration ready.
“Hello everyone, this man is called Little Handsome…”
I don’t want to end up in a short video! And definitely not as the main character!
From a certain perspective, sea monsters were even more troublesome than ghost ships.
“How long did the sound last?”
“A few minutes… I thought it might be caused by the storm or something else, but everyone was nervous, so I reported it.”
“At least for now, the ship itself has no abnormalities, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Thank you.”
After the brief questioning, Levi nodded and stepped aside.
Then… very reluctantly, he activated the Puppet Bird hidden above the deck and controlled it to dive into the turbulent sea.
“Splash.”
A normal bird would drown, but the Puppet Bird was inorganic—so long as it could flap its wings, it could swim.
Levi fixed his perspective on the Puppet Bird and scanned the surroundings.
The sea surface was rough, but underwater it was much calmer. He guided the Puppet Bird around the Arctic Star, checking the cracks. Fortunately, although there were scratches, the damage wasn’t severe, nor was it expanding.
Next…
Levi shifted his view downward, toward the bottomless depths beneath the Arctic Star.
I have deep-sea phobia!!!
Levi screamed internally while keeping a calm exterior. Humanity’s fear of the ocean wasn’t baseless. Surrounded by water with zero visibility, you never knew what might be lurking nearby.
At this thought, Levi even felt like going to the bathroom.
Even in third-person perspective, deep-sea exploration was extremely unfriendly to humans.
He recalled horror videos—empty water one second, then suddenly a monster larger than a cruise ship rises and swallows it whole…
Or divers filming whales, only for an eye as large as a whale to emerge from the darkness…
“………………”
Maybe I should use the bathroom first.
Levi withdrew his thoughts and found the First Mate.
“Where is the restroom?”
At a time like this, being cautious didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Once everything was settled, Levi refocused on the Puppet Bird beneath the ship.
Then, let’s begin.
Levi took a deep breath.
Detecting whether a sea monster was following the Arctic Star was actually simple—just activate 【Soul Sight】.
His control range over the puppet was only 200 meters, but Soul Sight could extend indefinitely as long as there were no obstructions.
The problem was…
If there was nothing—great.
But if he saw something…
Levi felt he wouldn’t sleep tonight.
Forget it. Life or death—leave it to fate.
He made up his mind and activated—【Soul Sight】!
The world instantly changed.
First, he looked beneath the ship—fortunately, there wasn’t a massive field of soul light like he feared. There were some glowing souls swimming, but they were about the size of normal fish—not sea monsters.
Then he checked around.
Left—nothing. Right—nothing. Front—nothing.
Behind…
Levi looked back—
And his body froze.
Behind the passenger ship, a white, dazzling, enormous soul light lay silently beneath the sea.
Judging by perspective, it was still far from the Arctic Star—but its size was almost equal to the ship!
If it got closer…
Levi hesitated, then gritted his teeth and controlled the Puppet Bird to fly toward it.
Even if he died, at least he would know what killed him!