Volume 13 - CH 4

Chapter 4: The Task on the Deck

Location: Taiwan Time: 10:13 AM

When I woke up in bed on New Year’s Day, the five-colored rooster head, who had come back at some point, was sleeping at the side having rolled over there. Thrown on the ground was a heap of glass soda bottles.

Clearly Senior and senior Gasai had run off to who knows where and didn’t return all night.

Lying in bed, I felt like I was spacing out for three seconds. New Year’s Day…Should I go with someone to pay a visit for the New Year?

Speaking of which, there probably isn’t anyone I could pay a visit to in this kind of place, right?

“Yang~” The person who had rolled to the side suddenly climbed up, hugging his pillow as he opened his eyes at me: “Head hurts…”

“…You drank soda yesterday, right?” Why are you telling me the symptoms of hangover?

“It’s not that. I didn’t get enough sleep plus I had too much water.” Tossing the pillow aside, the five-colored rooster head uttered a nonsensical conclusion, “It stopped hurting. Where do you want to go play today on the ship?”

Don’t you think you stopped hurting a bit too quickly!? An average person should first fall on the bed as if they’re close to death, then see if they should rest or wait for assistance, before finally recovering their life force slowly after tossing and turning for most of the day; that’s the way it should be!

“I don’t really want to play…” To be honest, hanging out with them for these past few days has made me a bit unwilling to leave the room, especially since I don’t like places with many people in the first place. So, in regard to a couple of clubs and activity centers, I’ll keep them at arm’s length.

Jumping off the bed and opening the refrigerator, the five-colored rooster head dragged out a bunch of snacks that he got from somewhere, and just like that, he began swallowing them into his stomach as he squatted in front of the fridge like an old lady. I also noticed that the refrigerator still had at least half a dozen of those glass bottles of soda thrown on the ground. On them were English logos. It seems like they might not be cheap.

“Then it just so happens, yesterday the chef asked me to help him find something. Yang~it so happens that you can come along.” Completely wording it as if he was forcing someone into winning a “prize,” the five-colored rooster head added me into his procession of people going without even asking me for my opinion.

“Can I not go.” With a face full of black lines, I got out of bed to pour hot water.

“You have to go. There’s a reward for this.”

With a big grin, the five-colored rooster head tossed a can of soda and a small packaged snack to me.

Catching the beverage, I guessed that it was probably grape soda and the like, because the brand on it was a grape. The snack was something like a sponge cake: “Then it’d be fine if you just go, since you and the chef are so close anyway.”

The five-colored rooster head leaned over with a cookie dangling from his mouth, one hand latching onto my shoulder: “Yang~but I’m close to you, and besides, *brothers belong to one land while people can be found in all four directions. We share our misfortunes and blessings together; if this uncle didn’t ask you today, that would be too disloyal of me. In the future, the brothers in the underworld would laugh at Ziray, me, for not knowing how to take care of a brother!”

[T/N: I think he’s referring to their common nationality so I kind of paraphrased it to “one land.” “四海” could mean the whole world or the whole country]

Did you watch some kind of mafia soap opera again?

Smacking off his hand on me, I took two steps back and opened my drink: “Don’t worry, even if I didn’t go, those brothers wouldn’t laugh at you.” And also, where did you get “underworld brothers” from!?

“Tut tut, this you wouldn’t understand. When a big brother has a big brother’s difficulties, all the arrangements are made for your own good.” He showed a very serious expression, then patted my shoulder hard, almost making me spit my soda on his face.

“Cough…you really don’t need to mind me. I think I’m still better off going to the Internet area.” It’s very safe there, suitable for me to stay for a day without any mortal danger.

“Yang~I know you really want to go, so let’s get ready!”

Not giving me the chance to refuse at all, the five-colored rooster head swallowed the cookie in one gulp. Nor caring that my hand was still holding the beverage can, he kicked the door open and dragged me into the bathroom, even using a tone that didn’t allow any refusal or communication to tell me: “Brush your teeth, wash your face and get dressed quickly. We have to head out to the deck!” Saying that, he also grabbed a set of my clothes on the way, throwing them into the bathroom and closing the door.

I was frozen inside the bathroom, blankly staring at the beverage can and clothes in my hands.

From start to finish, I didn’t agree at all…

“Yang~hurry.” Outside the guy who was still in an excited state started to issue the sound of nails scratching the door. Without even looking, I could instantly tell that he must be using that beast claw to scratch.

Don’t destroy public property, bastard!

Are you a dog jumping to get to the bathroom!?

After hurriedly washing up and getting dressed, it took approximately ten minutes or so. It was only after I rolled up my dirty clothes that I noticed the noises outside the door had suddenly stopped at some point.

Hesitantly opening the door, a scene that completely stunned me appeared in front–

I saw two beast claws just about to scratch my face: “What are you trying to do!?” Sometimes, I really admire my own calmness, for not screaming and running away.

The five-colored rooster head paused and also withdrew his hands that turned back to normal. Then he “hehe” laughed: “N-nothing.”

You were definitely trying to kill someone, right!?

If you continued like this, the door totally would’ve been broken into pieces by you!

I was already a bit unwilling to turn around and see what the bathroom door has turned into. It feels like we’ll have to pay a lot.

“Since Yang~you’re done preparing! Let’s head toward the deck!” Disregarding the ruined public property, the five-colored rooster head abruptly grabbed my hand, bouncing over to kick open the room’s electronic door and hotbloodedly shouting.

I didn’t nod or say I’m going!

On New Year’s Day, I was dragged up to the deck that was cold enough to kill someone.

Because it’s actually no longer that early, there were already a couple of people using the deck. A few kids wearing new clothes were bouncing around the already-closed swimming pool. Every three or five minutes, those happily chatting adults would even call out to them to be careful.

“What kind of task did the chef entrust you to do?”

Tightening the heavy coat on me, I felt like I should have wore a mask. Having just woken up and letting the sea breeze blow on my face, it felt like a layer of my skin was going to freeze off.

The five-colored rooster head turned around and stretched into a big smile: “Oh, he said yesterday morning when he was preparing for the party, a kid ran into the kitchen. Since everyone was busy at the time, he just gave the kid a snack to eat, but the kid took advantage of when no one was paying attention to take a very important seasoning jar of his. Later he asked that kid, and the other person said it fell on the deck, so he wanted to ask us to see if it’s there.”

Please correct this: he was only asking for you, not for “us.”

Speaking of which, why would a kid steal a seasoning jar?

A bunch of pepper, salt and other kitchen essentials surfaced in my mind. Could it be that he thought using it would make his food as tasty as the chef’s?

Looking around, I really wanted to tell the five-colored rooster head one thing: “This deck is so big, we’ll be searching until we die.” At first glance, it’s at least comparable to a small sports field.

I get it!

You simply think that we have too much time left, so you want us to keep searching like this until we land, right!?

The five-colored rooster head looked over: “How could we possibly die? You’re overthinking.” He even “haha” laughed at me.

No, I think you’re the one thinking too little.

Life should be filled with more thinking, do you understand!?

“Then okay, I’ll try using it.” Dragging the five-colored rooster head to a nearby place without people, I took out the illusionary soybean: [The one who signed a contract with me, please allow the seeker to witness your keenness.]

After saying that, Minas appeared in my hand. Firing a shot at the ground, blue specks of light scattered in an instant. I thought I could get this matter over with quickly, but I didn’t expect that when the blue specks ran back after a few seconds, they didn’t bring anything back and turned into Minas’ regular form instead: “There is no trace of the thing you want on this ship.”

“Ah?”

I immediately turned around to look at the five-colored rooster head.

“Hey! I didn’t lie to you!” He instantly retorted in less than a second: “It really is here. Your gun has a problem.”

Veins popped up on Minas’ forehead: “I…”

“Alright, then let’s split up and look.” Before he and Minas could argue, I hurriedly put the gun away first, “Since Minas couldn’t find it, I guess it’s probably in a weird place.” I have faith in the Illusionary Weapon’s ability. It’s just that there are too much random things on this ship.

“Then okay, let’s head forward in the direction of twelve o’clock!”

Looking over in the twelve o’clock direction he was pointing to, I saw something called a “wall.”

“You look in the front half, I’ll look in the back, and that’ll be it.” Patting the five-colored rooster head’s shoulder, I think sometimes it’s more practical to decide on my own.

“Okay!”

The five-colored rooster head ran off excitedly.

Looking at the rapidly disappearing figure, I suddenly felt that the deck was so cold…Why do I have to be here looking for some unknown seasoning jar?

Walking along the back deck, the back area was mainly the leisure area. Due to the cold wind, the front had a bit less people, but there were more obstacles.

Why wasn’t Minas able to find a seasoning jar that couldn’t be more ordinary?

Just when I started to slowly search, the phone rang. When I opened it, I saw Chifuyu’s name: “Hello?”

[Yang Yang, are you busy?] The background of the other end of the call was very quiet. It seems that he’s most likely in his room: [We’re probably finished preparing for the ceremonies.]

When he said that, I suddenly thought he might be annoyed by the fact that I asked him about village guardians a few days ago: “Uh, I’m currently looking for something, so I guess I have time.”

[What are you looking for?]

“A seasoning jar. At first I was going to say that just using Minas would do, but strangely enough, the Illusionary Weapon actually couldn’t find that seasoning jar, so now I’m slowly searching on the deck.” After looking through the first row of seats and still not seeing it, I continued to the next row.

[Oh, if even an Illusionary Weapon couldn’t find it, then there’s a possibility.] Pausing, Chifuyu seemed to be taking out something and let out a sound: [It’s probably been eaten.]

“Eaten?” Even the jar?

There shouldn’t be any humans on the ship that would even eat a jar, right!?

Wait a minute, in fact there is one: that five-colored rooster head who just walked off to the front half. I started to seriously consider whether or not to try smacking him until he threw up.

[It shouldn’t have been eaten by an average life-form, otherwise the Illusionary Weapon would have found it.]

The five-colored rooster head isn’t an average life-form.

[I’ll teach you a way to find it, but based on your current level, the range might not be very wide. It’s generally within 100 meters.]

“Ah, that should be enough.” At any rate, if it exceeds that, I can just use it a few more times.

[Okay, first you have to crouch down, then use a white crystal on the ground…A normal one will do, this is a small spell. Use the white crystal to draw the basic incantations for wind and water.]

White crystal…Do I have white crystals on me?

Patting myself down, I found a crystal in my pocket that even I didn’t remember having. It was what Senior and the others used to draw on my family’s door panel before we departed, and later got stuffed into my pocket and forgotten until now.

Taking out the crystal, I looked around and looked for a relatively remote area to begin drawing the totems. As soon as the crystal moved, a silver-white path immediately appeared too, floating above the ground. When the whole thing was drawn, it took on a shape.

[After you finish drawing the array, the activation incantation is as follows: the migrating atmospheric elves, the resting water elves, please find the lost object for me.]

This spell is pretty easy.

I immediately did as he said and after chanting the incantation, the array on the ground moved. All of a sudden, the entire silver path floated out and reassembled into a sparrow-sized bird, instantly flying away.

Not at all expecting it to rush off so quickly, I immediately chased after it.

Then, I heard a chirping noise from the other end of the deck’s rear half.

[Yang Yang, did you find it?]

Holding the phone, I suddenly had a helpless feeling: “Nn, I found it.” Appearing before me was that mutant white ballfish, and that sparrow-like thing was even pecking its white round belly. The ballfish rolled around and even kept issuing a chirping noise: “It seems to be in a ballfish’s stomach.”

[Pfft.]

Laughter came from the other side, [This is normal. Ballfish randomly pick up stuff to eat.]

…Doesn’t it only eat seston and rubber bands?

“Then how do I get it out?” If you want me to fish it out from inside with my hand, I would never dare to!

[Turn it upside down and shake it hard, then it’ll fall out.] Chifuyu gave me a method that sounded a lot like how you’d handle a garbage bin with garbage stuck inside.

Half believing and half doubting, I grabbed that white ballfish, and the moment the sparrow touched it, the whole thing vanished. Following Chifuyu’s method, I took the fish and shook it around, and sure enough, it took less than a few seconds before I heard a “kou dong” sound—-

A glass bottle fell out, landing on the deck and rolling a few rounds. It was a long transparent bottle, with several dry golden leaves inside.

This is a seasoning jar?

I thought it would be something powdery. Picking up that bottle, the golden leaves inside flashed slightly and looked quite pretty. I could sort of understand why that kid would want to steal this.

“Chifuyu, I found it.” Putting away the bottle, I picked up that white ballfish, which for some reason kept coming up to the deck, and tossed it out. After the emergence of a perfect arc, the ballfish fell into the sea and disappeared.

[That’s good then, I originally called to tell you…] As if about to tell me something, a sudden shout from Chifuyu’s side caused him to pause for a moment then answer the call again: [Tsk, I have to go, this will have to be it for now, goodbye.]

“Oh, okay, bye.” I hurriedly replied: “Thank you so much, Chifuyu.” No matter what aspect it is.

[…It’s nothing.]

Then the other end of the call hung up.

It looks they really are busy during the New Year. I suddenly felt that being too leisurely is a sin.

After putting away the phone, I walked toward the front with the seasoning jar, then saw that guy, who was supposed to be hard at work searching for the seasoning jar, leaning on the railings and looking at the scenery.

What now?

You couldn’t find it so you immediately gave up, huh!?

Stuffing the seasoning jar into the coat’s pocket, I slowly approached the five-colored rooster head: “Ziray, you couldn’t find the chef’s item?” I gave him a pat on his shoulder.

The five-colored rooster head turned to glance at me: “There’s no way this uncle wouldn’t do something he promised!”

“Aren’t you looking at the scenery?” Doubtfully looking below the ship too, besides the waves and seawater below, there was nothing else.

“No, I’m looking at something weird.” The five-colored rooster head rolled his eyes at me with an expression as if he was looking at an idiot: “Didn’t you notice it?”

Notice what?

There’s a floating wood or floating pirates in the sea?

“Did you really not notice anything?” The five-colored rooster head looked at me with a disbelieving expression.

Was I supposed to notice something?

Looking down again, it’s very clean, with nothing at all. It’s completely normal, just seawater and waves…Wait, there’s nothing at all?

“Why are the ballfish gone?” I remember I even saw a whole bunch of them moving near the ship from the deck two days ago. How come they’re all gone today? Could it be that they all came up like that white ballfish did?

“Don’t you think you realized it too slowly? How are you going to be this uncle’s underling like this!?” Smacking my shoulder hard, the five-colored rooster head who almost broke my shoulder spoke in a very annoying matter-of-course tone.

Speaking of which, how come I don’t remember being your exclusive underling!?

“I’ve only just seen the sea!” I was concentrated on helping you find the seasoning jar before, okay, “That said, is there going to be a problem if the ballfish disappear?” It can’t be that in a moment of impulse, they’re all going to go chase sea turtles.

“The problem’s big. If the ballfish are gone, that means there’s danger in the ocean.” The five-colored rooster head shrugged and told me this: “That’s why they ran off to hide.”

“Danger?” I suddenly felt a bit nervous, because yesterday Senior and senior Gasai were discussing this sort of problem too.

“Oh, it’s also possible that the cold currents came, so it got too cold and they ran to hide first.”

…Screw you.

“Oh right, Yang~did you find it?” Finally remembering that the goal here was to find the item and not to see if the ballfish disappeared, the five-colored rooster head opened his mouth to ask this.

“If I say I didn’t find it, what would you do?” Looking at the five-colored rooster head who didn’t find it at all, I suddenly felt curious about how he would answer.

“Nothing in particular, it means that the two of us don’t have any affinity for the front and back deck. Now we have to switch places; you look in the front and this uncle will look in the back. We’ll definitely find it this way!” The five-colored rooster head told me an extremely optimistic and unrealistically distorted conclusion.

“…” So if we still don’t find it, we have to switch again?

I felt that maybe…no, it’s bound to turn out like that for sure. Inferring based on the five-colored rooster head’s actions, he’ll definitely need to switch again! Then tell me something like how fengshui (luck) turns all the time so people have to turn with it!

“Yang~let’s switch places!” The cheerful five-colored rooster head once again patted my shoulder hard, even on the same spot as before, painful enough to make me almost tear up.

Don’t knock on my shoulder like it’s an assassination target! Don’t you know that ordinary people simply can’t endure your damn strength!

“I’m joking, take it.” In order to prevent him from knocking on my shoulder again, I put some distance between us before taking out the seasoning jar and throwing it to him. After a beautiful arc, the object was directly caught: “It should be this, right?”

The five-colored rooster head turned that glass jar around in the sun. The leaves in the jar very cooperatively issued a pretty glow. It was only after it seemed like he had his fill with looking that he directed a smile at me: “This is the one, Yang~maybe you really do have a talent for finding things! We can form a little treasure-hunting team! Specializing in opening up treasure that no one knows about!” The flaming blood in his eyes caused me to have a very bad feeling about the future.

If you really want us to go find them, we’ll only become bones decorating the side of the treasure!

“I think we should quickly take this to the chef. He might be anxiously waiting.” Before the five-colored rooster head could seriously consider searching for treasure, I immediately cut off his wishful thinking, pushing him along as I headed below the deck.

“Oh right, let’s hurry up.” Giving up and dragging me below by my shoulder, the five-colored rooster head, who was still thinking of treasure-hunting just now, ran down the whole way.

Almost slipping, I couldn’t help but catch up to his pace.

To be honest, this was my first time entering the ship’s kitchen.

It was even more fully equipped than I imagined. I originally thought I would see that very simplified type of equipment…After all, it’s not that convenient being onboard. I never thought I would be seeing the type of large scale kitchen like the ones on land.

The five-colored rooster head seems to have already gotten familiar with the people here. As soon as he opened the door, he readily greeted them before dragging me inside, completely disregarding the “no entry for non-affiliated people” sign on the door.

“Thomas!” Pulling me away from the other chefs who were busy preparing food, the five-colored rooster head very straightforwardly shouted to the person all the way in the back.

…Wait a minute, why do I feel like this name is familiar?

The one standing at the end was also a chef, completely dressed in white and even wearing a tall white hat. Turning around, it was a big-nosed Westerner, who even waved at the five-colored rooster head good-naturedly.

In addition to the familiar name, I found that I was also familiar with the person himself.

“I found it!” Directly dragging me over, the five-colored rooster head split into a wide grin and gave the seasoning jar to the Westerner.

“This is great, I can’t believe you actually found it.” The big-noses Westerner took the seasoning jar, revealing a joyful smile, then picked up a napkin nearby and wiped off the stains on the jar, putting it on the shelf lovingly: “This material is very difficult to find. I’ve gone to many places and spent a long time just to collect this little bit. I originally even thought it might’ve fallen into the sea.”

“Hehe, it was actually Yang~who found it.” Giving me a push, the five-colored rooster head pushed me to the front then pressed down on my right shoulder.

The big-nosed Westerner turned his gaze to me, and first froze slightly for a moment, then curved into a big smile: “Kid, we meet again.”

“Uh, hello, what a coincidence.” Sure enough, I didn’t mistake him for the wrong person. He was that uncle (not literally) I met as a child.

The five-colored rooster head looked at me, then looked at the Westerner: “You two know each other?”

“Uh…I can’t really say that we ‘know’ each other, in fact. We’ve met before.” I looked around. He didn’t have any reaction though.

Wait…If I remember correctly, this person…

“Oh, I thought you knew him from school. Thomas doesn’t seem to have returned to the sealed world in a long time, even working as a chef here. He’s a skill-based robe level.” The five-colored rooster head pointed at the Westerner and told me this.

“There’s less people with such big appetites here in the original world, so I thought a friend from the sealed world probably came, which is how I met Ziray.” The Westerner told me, also explaining the inside story behind why the kitchen wasn’t afraid of the five-colored rooster head eating them out of service and allowed him to eat as much as he wanted as well as take the leftovers. Turns out, after going around in circles, they were all from the same place!

I finally once again deeply experienced the terrifyingness of the Guild.

“But like I said before, Ming Yang really is a qualified person. You are welcome to join us in the future.” The Westerner stretched his hand out, and I hastily took it, shaking hands before letting go, “Since you two kids helped me find the item, I’ll let you try something that you won’t be able to eat easily, whether in the sealed world or the original world.”

He smilingly took down that seasoning jar that we returned.

“Oho! You’re going to use this!?” The five-colored rooster head’s eyes lit up completely. It seems like those leaves are very valuable, “Me and Yang~want to eat!”

“Then alright, please go to your seats first and wait.” Turning the jar, I saw two leaves pass through the glass bottle and slowly float out. The instant they were exposed to the air, the leaves turned into a slightly transparent color, then a very faint aroma scattered around. Catching the leaves and putting them in a small plate at the side, Thomas said with a smile: “Wilerdo’s leaves take a while to fully release their deliciousness.”

Staring at the leaves, I started to look forward to it too.

To be honest, the five-colored rooster head doesn’t always introduce weird things.

I should change how I treat him.