Chapter 74: Planting Flags
After handing the camera over to Pidgeotto, the next problem was how to actually get onto the ship.
Compared to the luxurious cruise liner before them, Arthur's small private sailboat looked pitifully tiny.
Standing on the sailboat's deck and looking up, the cruise ship's main deck was at least six or seven stories high.
Even the nearest row of portholes was several meters above them in vertical distance.
"How do we get up there?"
Just as Justin finished asking this question, he saw Arthur had already taken many steps back, creating distance for a running start.
"Wait, that's way too high, you're not actually planning to—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Arthur had already started accelerating.
As he neared the edge of the cruise ship, he jumped powerfully; the bow of the sailboat seemed to dip slightly under the force of his foot.
While leaping, he commanded aloud, "Throw the harpoon."
Froakie, perfectly synchronized, immediately threw the prepared harpoon with force. It flew over Arthur's head and embedded itself deeply into the side of the cruise ship's hull.
A harpoon enchanted by a skill was different; it lodged firmly into the metal plating on the ship's side without falling out.
Arthur, now soaring high into the air, kicked off the ship's side twice in quick succession, propelling his body upward another short distance. His hands finally managed to grasp the handle of the harpoon stuck in the ship's hull.
Following this, he performed a smooth pull-up, effortlessly raising his body until his feet were planted on the harpoon shaft.
Reaching out again, he successfully touched the lowest row of portholes on the cruise ship.
Watching this sequence of actions, Justin was left completely dumbfounded, momentarily swallowing any further words he might have had.
Okay, my perspective was too limited...
Standing on the harpoon shaft, Arthur reached out and knocked on the nearest porthole.
"Is anyone there? Anyone inside? Can you help open the window? It's an emergency."
Unfortunately, there was no response.
However, this didn't come as a surprise to Arthur.
When the Dragonite and the sailboat had arrived moments earlier like a whirlwind, not a single porthole facing their direction on the cruise ship had opened out of curiosity. Arthur had already realized something was abnormal back then.
So, the lack of response now didn't surprise him in the slightest.
He snapped his fingers with one hand behind his back.
Swish!
Froakie, perfectly understanding his intent, immediately threw another "treasure" over, accurately shattering the porthole window.
Relying on oneself is better than asking others; if no one opens the window, break it yourself.
The next moment, Arthur agilely climbed into the room. Simultaneously, he recalled Froakie from the distant sailboat using its Poké Ball, then released it again inside the ship's room.
Pidgeotto, capable of flight, held onto the camera, flapped its wings, and easily followed, entering through the broken porthole.
Before long, only Justin remained below, standing on the sailboat, looking up at the massive cruise ship, feeling utterly lost in the wind for a moment.
Wait, I haven't boarded yet.jpg...
After a little while, Arthur found a rope inside the cruise ship cabin and threw it down from the porthole, finally hauling Justin up.
Climbing through the porthole, Justin immediately gasped, his legs feeling weak and unsteady.
These rooms in the lower hull were accommodations for the ship's crew, located below the main deck level, with confined interior spaces. The luxurious suites occupied by the wealthy patrons were all located in the upper superstructure, representing a completely separate world from down here.
Therefore, up until this moment, not a single passenger above seemed to have noticed: the lower hull of this cruise ship had already suffered a bloodbath!
On the bed in the very room they had entered lay a corpse with a bluish-purple face, presumably the room's original occupant.
No wonder Arthur's knocking had yielded no response earlier.
"This... this..."
Suddenly confronted with such a scene upon entering, Justin was momentarily unable to speak clearly.
Conversely, Arthur was as calm as ever, having even performed an initial examination of the body.
"Cause of death is suffocation, but there are no obvious ligature marks on the neck. It might have been the work of a Ghost-type Pokémon, or possibly some other method. Estimated time of death is likely within the last two hours."
Arthur stated calmly.
His composure, to some extent, alleviated Justin's fear, yet Justin remained perplexed.
"How can you be so calm?"
Arthur looked up at him.
"It's nothing significant. I already asked the viewers in the stream chat to call the police. This footage should suffice as evidence. With that, we don't need to feel too much pressure going forward."
"..."
Justin strongly felt that they were discussing things on completely different wavelengths.
Arthur had asked the chat to call the police because their cell phones had no signal out at sea.
The live stream signal relied on the antenna and transmitter on the sailboat, but that equipment didn't provide mobile phone service.
Having found this evidence, their task could already be considered mostly complete: at the very least, they had successfully drawn external attention to the situation here and provided a substantial amount of visual evidence to support their claims.
This prevented everything from merely resting on Arthur's unsubstantiated premonitions.
Consequently, that's why he said they didn't need too much pressure moving forward.
But the "pressure" Justin was referring to had absolutely nothing to do with that!
What he found difficult to comprehend was how someone could board a ship, see a dead body lying there as the first sight, and still manage to exhibit absolutely no emotional fluctuation.
He would even dare to assert that the viewers watching the live stream through a screen were undoubtedly reacting more strongly than Arthur right now!
And indeed, that was the truth...
However, regarding this point, Arthur found it difficult to explain to him.
"Let's go. We'll do a quick check of the cabins, see if we find anything else. It would be best if we can stop the conflict between the people on board and the Dragonite. If not, we'll just jump ship later. There's no need to push ourselves too hard from now on."
Justin looked at him with a strange expression.
Hearing the phrase "no need to push ourselves too hard" coming from your mouth feels so out of character.
Does this mean that everything that happened before was just basic operation in your eyes and didn't count as pushing hard?
Arthur took the lead, carefully pushing open the room door.
The corridor outside was empty.
They cautiously stepped out of the room and proceeded down the corridor, tiptoeing.
As they passed several rooms, they knocked softly and inquired.
"Anyone there?"
But, without exception, none of the rooms yielded a response.
Upon reaching the end of the corridor, they finally encountered a room that wasn't locked from the inside. However, upon entering, they found the room empty; the crew member was already gone.
"The most probable conclusion at present is that every crew member on this entire level has been dealt with. No one was spared."
Arthur continued to state chilling facts in a calm tone, causing another wave of tingling numbness to crawl up Justin's scalp.
Just then, a broadcast announcement sounded from outside the corridor, nearly startling the already shocked Justin.
The content of the broadcast was the same as before, persistently claiming that nothing had happened, advising the passengers on board not to leave their rooms, not to go onto the decks, and not to approach the windows.
Hearing this broadcast immediately made Arthur feel that something was wrong.
The Dragonite are already attacking the deck, and they're still saying nothing has happened? What's next? Will they say perhaps something did happen but we shouldn't take action, and finally, after the ship explodes, say perhaps we should have taken action back then, but now it's too late?
Do you think you're a British minister?
"There's something wrong with this captain. Let's go check the captain's quarters."
Justin swallowed hard.
"Didn't you just say we don't need to push too hard anymore?"
Arthur replied, "We're just going to take a look. Once we confirm this last location, we'll head back."
Perhaps it was just Justin's imagination.
But at this moment, he couldn't shake the feeling that Arthur's back seemed to be bristling with countless flags of various colors.
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BONUS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that helps the story a lot. Thank you.