They had already reported the essentials. The finer details would have to wait until they returned to a base to explain them clearly.
For now, their task was the same as before, to wait for the crazed teammates to come back to their senses.
Another day and night passed. By their estimate, it should be about time. They raised their binoculars toward the mountain again. The crazed teammates who had been wandering and hunting for sound no longer moved with manic energy. Their faces were blank, their eyes unfocused.
Captain Zhang had been through this stage himself. He knew they were close to waking.
"Bring the ship in and try it," Captain Zhang said. "If I remember right, once we get this close, sound won't set them off anymore."
Sure enough, the ship's engine thundered across the water, but no one on the mountain flew into a rage.
They eased the ship toward shore but did not hurry to disembark. They waited for the people to fully wake up.
Hours later, the teammates began to wake one by one. Captain Zhang finally exhaled. "Clean the blood off yourselves first. We'll go bring everyone else over."
The newly conscious men and women looked confused. Fresh from madness, their minds were still fogged, so they went to the shore and scrubbed the dried blood away.
Once some had cleaned up, their heads cleared too. "Right. We went mad after those plants injured us. I remember everyone got hurt. Does that mean…"
The two captains from the cockpit had stayed with the ship. They now told the shore party what had happened these last days.
"In short, everyone got injured. To avoid your attacks, we had to moor in the middle of the water. You've just woken up. If you're steady, join the search. Back then you were running all over the hills. No telling where you've ended up."
"Got it."
They didn't even finish washing. The teammates hurried into the hills to search. Not everyone who fell into madness survived, and not everyone who survived gained abilities. Some of those who realized they had awakened powers tested them on the spot.
There were many of them, with all kinds of powers, the common fire, water, wind, ice, space, mental power, and more. This time, the group even had a high-tier lightning wielder, and two types they had never seen before, Healing and Growth.
Healing was simple and direct, it could treat injuries. Growth could make any living thing grow, like flowers and grass, but never humans.
The lightning wielder's tier was high, but compared with Lan Jin, the difference was more than a little.
Lan Jin did not see it that way. She said, "When I first awakened, I wasn't this strong either. Abilities can be improved. You just have to find how. Yours can rise too."
And lightning was strong by nature. Maybe it could not take down huge mutant beasts yet, but it could still handle the smaller ones.
Most of the scattered teammates were found while trying their powers, alive or dead.
Captain Zhang counted heads on the spot. Captain Wang had brought back 112 people. Excluding the two captains, there had been 30 left behind. So 142 had gone mad in total.
Now, 56 were alive and 86 were dead. Of the 56 survivors, 34 had abilities and 22 were still ordinary.
The toll was brutal.
One person was still missing. Captain Zhang asked the group, "Where is Captain Wang? Has anyone seen Captain Wang?"
They had seen Captain Wang before the madness. After the madness, no one remembered much of anything.
No Captain Wang among the dead. No Captain Wang among the living.
Captain Zhang grew anxious. "If you're steady, head into the mountain and search now."
"Okay."
They scattered at once.
They searched the whole area and still found nothing. A living person couldn't just vanish. No body, no trace. Something was wrong.
In the growing worry, a teammate said, "Could Captain Wang be on a ship? Did we check the other two?"
"Checked," someone replied at once. "Even the cockpits. No one."
"Then where did Captain Wang go?"
Huang Jinghe said, "We're all recovered now. Use the loudspeaker. The mountain's big. Maybe Captain Wang ran too far and lost direction. If he hears us, he might come in."
As soon as Huang Jinghe spoke, the anxious teammates sprinted to the ship, cranked on the loudspeaker, and started calling.
"Captain Wang, Captain Wang, the teammates have recovered. Please come to the mooring shore at once. If you hear this, report to the shore immediately."
Afraid it wouldn't be enough, Captain Zhang said, "Captains, take the ship around the mountain. It's big, but by water it won't take long."
The two captains agreed at once.
The ship had barely started its circuit when a few teammates collapsed where they stood.
Zhou Zhiye rushed over. "Hunger. They haven't eaten properly in days. It's normal. Make a fire. We need food."
Captain Zhang had the exhausted people sit and rest. He led the others to cook.
Curry rice would take too long. Compressed biscuits were too hard to chew. They compromised by boiling a huge pot of biscuit porridge, ladling out big bowls for everyone to get something in their stomachs, then planned to make curry rice after a short rest.
Still, with Captain Wang missing, no one could truly calm down.
The ship circled the mountain once. There was still no sign of Captain Wang.
Lan Jin said, "Didn't you have visual drones? Use them. Don't tell me Captain Wang went into the dense forest looking for us."
She spoke without thinking, but every heart on deck tightened.
Captain Zhang said, "No way. Captain Wang wouldn't really go into the forest to look for us… would he?"
Lan Jin said, "I only meant it as a guess. When we came out of the forest, everyone was injured. It's impossible that everyone went mad except Captain Wang. I'm more worried Captain Wang was attacked by mutant creatures. If that's the case…"