Next, all there was to do was wait. Wait for the fish to bite, wait for the water to distill, and wait for the wooden planks to wash ashore.
Zhang Da Ye sometimes pondered how the 3% on the back of his hand could increase, and sometimes chatted with Tom, asking him if he could directly fly him into the sky.
Unfortunately, even if Tom wanted to fly, he would need various tools. For example, if given a wooden plank, he could try to glide; if given a special suit, he could imitate a bird flapping its wings; or if given a broom, he could ride it to fly.
However, the first two options were unlikely to carry a person, and Tom himself wasn't even sure if the flying method he learned from the witch in his dreams would work for the last one.
While chatting about this and that, Tom suddenly tripped, landing flat on the wooden plank, his upper body stretching out and hanging suspended over the sea—a fish had bitten!
Zhang Da Ye immediately grabbed Tom's tail, and the next moment Tom's hind legs also lifted into the air. A perfectly normal cat was stretched to ten meters long.
At this point, Zhang Da Ye didn't care if Tom was in pain; he just knew he couldn't let go. He struggled to retreat, allowing Tom's hind legs to step back onto the wooden plank.
Then Tom also began to pull, his body gradually returning to normal. But the problem was they weren't retreating; instead, the wooden plank beneath their feet was rapidly approaching the fish!
How big of a fish could have this much strength?!
And were those two shoelaces and the key ring I fashioned into a fishhook really that strong?!
Tom pulled hard on the fishing rod, and Zhang Da Ye watched with his own eyes as the hard wooden stick bent into an abnormally exaggerated arc.
But he couldn't worry about that now; he had to catch the fish first.
His hands, which were originally holding Tom's tail, began to alternate upwards, passing Tom's waist, chest, and arms, eventually gripping the fishing rod alongside Tom.
The fish clearly had no intention of stopping, dragging Zhang Da Ye and Tom for over a thousand meters before slowly losing strength.
Zhang Da Ye and Tom exchanged a look and nodded, then began to reel in the line. Since there was no reel, they had to pull the line in by hand. A half-meter-long fish was yanked onto the wooden plank, thrashing and jumping with its mouth agape.
Tom casually pulled out a mallet and knocked the fish unconscious with two thuds.
Looking at the poor, unknown fish, sympathetic tears flowed from the corners of Zhang Da Ye's mouth.
He didn't even have the presence of mind to consider if the fish's strength and size were reasonable.
When it came to processing a fish, Tom was a professional, skillfully removing the internal organs and scales, then slicing it into sashimi.
Under current conditions, starting a fire was definitely out of the question. As for the issue of parasites, they'd worry about that after surviving.
It was good enough to have something to eat.
By evening, the glass bottle had accumulated about half a bottle of water. Zhang Da Ye and Tom split it evenly, at least enough to moisten their throats.
Although Zhang Da Ye felt that the crude distillation device shouldn't be so efficient, it was a good thing nonetheless.
Zhang Da Ye pulled open his collar, letting Tom burrow into his clothes—Tom was actually quite sensitive to cold.
One man and one cat thus embraced each other and slept, spending their first day of acquaintance.
And Zhang Da Ye, finally, with Tom's company, survived the second day after his transmigration... This was Zhang Da Ye's fifth morning drifting at sea.
Tom crawled out of Zhang Da Ye's collar and stretched.
These past few days, they had been living a life where they had food, but only enough not to starve. Both of them had become much gaunter, their cheeks dramatically sunken in.
But Tom had no complaints about the current situation; at least he could feel his new master's care for him.
Although he seemed not very smart, had poor practical skills, and couldn't even clean a fish properly, Tom didn't dislike him. A master, well, as long as he treats me well, doesn't abandon me, especially if I can't catch mice later, just don't scold me.
Tom's demands were humbly low. As a cat, being driven out of the house for not being able to catch mice was his eternal pain.
Fortunately, his new master, even after knowing the reason for his expulsion, still happily accepted him.
Tom was already used to his new master's current appearance, with his eyes tightly shut and his features almost crumpled together. He must have had another nightmare; it had been like this every morning these past few days.
After waking up, he would probably tell him about strange dreams like 'suppressing the Five Finger Mountain' or 'a fat orange cat squatting on his chest,' right?
"Morning, Tom."
The first thing Zhang Da Ye did after opening his eyes was to look at the back of his left hand. The number inside the circle had changed to 7%. He had no idea how this happened.
It had inexplicably increased by 1% these past few days, even though he hadn't done anything special. Was it solar charging?
Yawning, Zhang Da Ye began to tell Tom about his nightmare: "Let me tell you, last night I dreamt I turned into a scorpion demon, and then I was crushed under a seven-colored mountain by the Calabash Brothers. That broken mountain was too heavy, it made it impossible to breathe..."
Tom was usually quite interested in the stories Zhang Da Ye told, but today, uncharacteristically, he wasn't paying attention to what he was saying.
Tom rubbed his eyes, then blinked hard, his mouth gradually widening.
"What's wrong, Tom?"
"Ya-oh~~~~"
Tom cheered, started doing back handsprings in place, flipping all the way around the edge of the wooden plank, then excitedly jumped onto Zhang Da Ye.
He tugged at his clothes, pointing in a certain direction.
Zhang Da Ye followed Tom's gaze, and a patch of green appeared on the blue sea!
It was a tree canopy! Which meant there was land!
A look of joy immediately appeared on Zhang Da Ye's face. The drifting was finally coming to an end!
Zhang Da Ye immediately let out a cheer, picking up Tom and holding him high: "Let's go! We'll paddle over!"
Tom and Zhang Da Ye lay on opposite sides of the wooden plank, happily paddling the water with their hands.
Logically, Tom's short paws should have been very inefficient at paddling, but Tom almost spun his arms into a propeller.
As they got closer to the small island, Zhang Da Ye noticed something was off, because he saw a tall mountain wall further beyond the island.
This mountain wall was entirely red, towering into the clouds, its peak completely obscured, and horizontally, it stretched as far as the eye could see.
"No way?" Zhang Da Ye thought of something terrible.
Because Zhang Da Ye was lost in thought, his paddling slowed down, but Tom's movements didn't stop, so the wooden plank spun in a circle.
Tom, who had just been excited, gradually calmed down. He looked at Zhang Da Ye, his expression clearly saying: 'You're slacking off while paddling!'
"Ah, sorry Tom, I zoned out," Zhang Da Ye said. "We might have arrived at an extraordinary place. Let's be careful from now on, approach slowly, and if there's any danger later, remember to be ready to draw your gun at any time."
Tom blinked, seemingly realizing the seriousness of the situation, and nodded thoughtfully.
The man and the cat continued to approach the small island.
Perhaps this was what they called 'running a horse to death looking at a mountain.' It wasn't until noon that they gradually made out the scenery on the small island.
All they could see were tall trees, with white numbers marked on their trunks. What was magical was that bubbles of all sizes constantly emerged from the ground, floating upwards, iridescent and beautiful in the sunlight.
In Tom's eyes, this was simply an island as beautiful as a fairy tale.
But not in Zhang Da Ye's eyes. Such a scene reminded him of a place in his memory called Sabaody Archipelago, and that giant mountain wall in the distance was probably the Red Line.
This was... the world of the anime Pirate King!
Please collect, please recommend, all sorts of requests.