Shrouded Seascape

A giant cruise liner was moving across the azure sea. Its destination was none other than the Indian Ocean. The massive white ship resembled a moving mountain out at sea, and it was Anna's Narwhale.

Clad in pajamas, Roy strolled on the deck, smiling at every crew member he encountered. There was a popular saying about how one would not slap a smiling face, and it seemed to be true as the devotees returned Roy's goodwill in kind.

The traitor had been found, so everyone was no longer suspicious of Roy. With that, he became a formal devotee of the Fhtagn Covenant. Roy walked slowly along the deck, taking in everything that happened to him so far on the ship.

The devotees were now very amiable and all smiles. Whenever someone was having difficulties, they'd all lend that individual a helping hand. They were all polite and respectful to each other.

At a cursory glance, it seemed like the ship was a utopia, but Roy was aware of the truth. He knew that this was all a fake—a disguise.

The strange atmosphere all over the ship was the result of that woman's brainwashing. Anna was obviously skilled when it came to manipulating the minds of people.

A lie told a thousand times would become the truth, and it was particularly true on a ship where there was nowhere else to go.

At first, the people on the ship were reluctantly obeying her orders due to their own selfish desires, but now, the majority of them truly regarded Fhtagn as their god.

The congregation prior to this expedition was just a loose organization that Anna had hastily pieced together. Roy thought that it was still the case, but his mind changed when he saw people fighting fiercely over the assistant priest position.

It was then that Roy realized that the congregation had truly become a religion. In other words, even if Anna weren't around, the religion centered on Fhtagn would never disappear.

It's still too early to tell the headquarters to close the net. Their actions are still within the scope of what cults often do. I still need to take a deeper dive and extract more information, Roy mused to himself. He knew that there had to be a reason behind why Anna had chosen the Indian Ocean as their destination.

There had to be a goal behind it, and Roy's mission was to uncover her motive, secrets, and goals. Unfortunately, it was proving to be a difficult task. He managed to infiltrate her dreams using a Controllable Anomaly, but he found no clues and almost lost his life.

The disturbance had also led to his work coming to a standstill, and even now, he was still waiting for the golden opportunity to make another move.

"Why does she want to go to the Indian Ocean? Does she have any companions there, or perhaps her base is there?" Roy asked himself.

He tried to make a deduction based on Anna's previous actions, but he couldn't make any decent deductions at all. It made sense, as Anna had come out of nowhere and started bewitching others into believing her words using her bizarre, magical arrays.

Roy thought hard and long about her goal for this expedition, but he still couldn't find an answer to his question.

It's really difficult, but I like this kind of challenge. Roy's heart began to beat faster against his chest. He was the type of person to seek out challenges to overcome throughout his life. In other words, he was a challenger.

The bizarre scene he had witnessed inside Anna's dream told Roy that there was definitely something amiss with the former. It was likely that she was more dangerous than even a Level A Uncontrollable Anomaly.

"Brother Roy, the High Priestess is calling for you." A voice echoed from behind.

Roy turned around and bowed slightly. "All right, thank you for notifying me, brother."

With that, he turned and walked toward the cabin. His eyes shimmered in a hint of excitement as if he was looking forward to the task that the High Priestess would bestow upon him.

Roy couldn't wait to contribute to the congregation.

"How's your injury?" Anna asked with her left hand propping up her cheek. She was sitting in her armchair and was staring coldly at Roy, who was standing respectfully before her.

"It's great. It's almost healed. I think I can be useful now, so if you need me to do anything, please tell me," Roy said, sounding excited as he patted his chest.

Anna carefully sized up the man before her. Roy's behavior and body language were consistent and normal. The traitor had already been found, so Roy was supposed to be no longer suspicious in her eyes.

However, the paranoid Anna still had no trust in Roy. To be precise, Anna didn't trust anyone on the ship. In her eyes, these people were mere tools to achieve her goals.

"Have you heard of the woman that we locked up?" Anna asked.

"Yes, and she's the traitor who tried to destabilize our divine congregation. It does not matter who sent her here; she deserves to die!" Roy said fiercely with a zealous light in his eyes. ℞А𐌽ÒВЕS̩

"Great. The Great One needs more devout believers like you. His chances of awakening increases, the more devout believers are out there," Anna remarked.

Anna had no plans of awakening Fhtagn, but she was willing to do her own business beneath the slogan of awakening Him.

It would be problematic if the entrance of the Subterranean Sea was discovered, but Anna was not worried about that at all. The people of the Subterranean Sea would surely do something about it.

"I have something I want you to do," Anna said, enunciating her words clearly.

"Please tell me!" Roy exclaimed, standing up straight.

Anna flicked her hand and a bunch of keys that looked like hexagonal wrenches were thrown at Roy's chest.

"These are the keys down there. From now on, you're responsible for everything related to that woman," Anna explained, "She's very tight-lipped. We tried everything, but we couldn't pry her mouth open at all. How about you give it a try? If you can make her talk, you'll have earned a great merit for yourself."

Roy looked at the keys in his hand in astonishment. This was a bit unexpected. He had just been cleared of suspicion as a traitor, and now, he was being sent to interrogate and supervise the real traitor.

Roy snapped back to reality and stuffed the keys into his pocket. "Rest assured. I will do everything that I can."

With that, Roy turned around and walked out the door.

After a while, Li Long came in with a cup of tea in hand.

Anna sipped it and immediately hurled it at the ground. She glared at Li Long with a hint of disgust and asked, "What's the point of having you here when you're so useless? You can't even brew a decent cup of tea."

"I'm useful," Li Long retorted, looking aggrieved. "I'm the one who found the traitor."

Anna revealed an impatient look, and she couldn't be bothered to reply as she turned around, walking toward the monitoring room next door. Li Long had been reiterating the fact that he caught the traitor dozens of times over these past few days. He was desperate, afraid that Anna would forget him.

"Get out and clean the deck with the sailors!" Anna said sternly.

There were CCTV cameras all over the ship, allowing Anna to monitor the crucial areas of the ship. Of course, this included the room where Li Lu was being imprisoned.

Anna's decision to let Roy supervise and interrogate Li Lu wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. She wanted to see whether there were going to be any changes by making these two people come into contact with each other.

It was a two-way test—both for Li Lu and Roy.

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