Hearing this, Tang Ling and Shen Manyun felt their scalps tingle.
"Taotao, you... you can sense it?"
Tang Ling stared incredulously at the girl dressed like a harmless loli.
Bai Taotao nodded, an innocent smile spreading across her face.
"Mm."
"I can feel its emotions."
"It’s greedy, and very hungry."
"Its target... is them."
Shen Manyun’s expression softened slightly at these words, but the shock in her eyes was impossible to hide.
Sensing a Sea Monster’s emotions?
And pinpointing its location?
Is this... the true use of the E-grade talent [Affinity]?
Tang Ling swallowed hard, gazing toward the dark expanse of sea in the distance.
A hint of schadenfreude unexpectedly stirred within her.
"Hmph, serves them right!"
"Let them scare us earlier!"
"This is karma!"
Though she said this, her grip on the Mechanical Crossbow never loosened for a moment.
"Wait..."
Unlike Tang Ling, Shen Manyun didn’t indulge in schadenfreude. She had keenly detected something unusual.
She adjusted her glasses, looked at Bai Taotao beside her, and her tone grew serious.
"Taotao, why is that big thing... suddenly so interested in them?"
"Just now, it was clearly drawn by our commotion."
"And although Lin Ji turned on his flashlight, he switched it off almost instantly. That shouldn’t be enough to make the Sea Monster so persistently fixated on them, right?"
At Shen Manyun’s question, Bai Taotao lowered her head even further.
Her small hands, clutching the lace hem of her skirt, were now tightly twisted together, her knuckles turning pale.
"Um..."
Her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s hum, trembling noticeably.
"It... it was me."
"What?" Tang Ling and Shen Manyun were both stunned.
Bai Taotao sniffled and timidly raised her head.
Her large eyes were brimming with tears, making her look pitiful and vulnerable.
"I... I was too scared."
"That monster was so fierce. It wanted to eat us."
"So... so I used my talent to tell it..."
"Over there... there’s more meat, and it’s tastier..."
"I redirected all its greed... toward that bad guy."
By the end, Bai Taotao’s voice was almost inaudible.
She knew it was wrong.
This was harming others.
But... she had been truly terrified.
And that bad guy was so mean, bullying Sister Manyun and Sister Tang Ling.
Hiss...
After hearing Bai Taotao’s explanation, Shen Manyun and Tang Ling both drew sharp breaths.
They exchanged a glance, seeing profound horror mirrored in each other’s eyes.
Guiding emotions?
Diverting disaster onto others?
What kind of [Affinity] talent was this?
This was clearly a method of killing without leaving a trace—using another’s blade!
With just a thought, she could make a ferocious Sea Monster turn its spearhead and attack a designated enemy.
This ability... was simply heaven-defying!
"Teacher Shen... did I do something wrong?"
Bai Taotao looked at the silent pair, tears falling plip-plop.
"I’m a bad person..."
"No! Taotao isn’t a bad person."
Shen Manyun snapped back to reality and quickly pulled Bai Taotao into her arms, gently stroking her hair.
Her gaze was complex yet tender.
"You were protecting us, you’re a good girl."
In this cruel world, kindness sometimes equates to weakness.
Bai Taotao’s prank, though somewhat cruel, had genuinely saved their lives.
"But..."
Shen Manyun looked toward the distant sailboat, solitary in the darkness, a flicker of pity in her eyes.
"Lin Ji and the others... are probably in grave danger."
"Even though that guy is annoying, he’s still our schoolmate, and..."
"Compared to those men who get handsy at first sight, he at least has some principles."
"And Qingyue and Yihan, they’re both good girls. If they just die like this..."
Shen Manyun sighed, her inner sense of compassion making her feel a pang of sorrow.
"Enough, Manyun."
Tang Ling rolled her eyes beside her, her tone somewhat stiff.
"You’re just too soft-hearted."
"In this damned place, the law of the jungle is the rule."
"We can barely take care of ourselves right now, how can we spare the energy to worry about others?"
"Besides..."
Tang Ling snorted coldly, looking in the direction of the boat.
"He was too arrogant himself, rejecting our request to team up."
"If he had accepted us back then, Taotao would be helping him now!"
"That’s fate!"
"That’s the price of his arrogance!"
Shen Manyun opened her mouth to retort but found she had nothing to say.
Yes.
That’s fate.
She could only silently pray in her heart, hoping that Lin Ji, who seemed unfathomable, truly had some life-saving trump card.
...
Inside Lin Ji’s cabin.
The atmosphere was stifling to the extreme.
"Thump... thump... thump..."
Lin Ji could clearly hear the sound of his own heartbeat, fast as if it were about to leap out of his throat.
That sense of imminent danger made every hair on his body stand on end.
[Eye of Insight] triggered passively.
At the edge of his vision, red warning lights flashed frantically.
[Warning! Extremely dangerous creature approaching!]
[Warning! Locked on!]
"Damn it..."
Lin Ji gritted his teeth, fine beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
He never imagined that simply turning on a flashlight would attract such a huge trouble.
And... this Sea Monster seemed to have fixed on them.
It kept lingering beneath the boat.
"Lin Ji..."
Gu Yihan in his arms suddenly tightened her grip on his arm, her nails digging into his flesh.
"It’s below... right below us."
"Less than two meters away."
"I can hear... the sound of its scales scraping against the hull..."
Gu Yihan’s voice trembled violently.
As a Wind Talent User, her perception was far more acute than an ordinary person’s.
That near-tangible aura of death was almost enough to break her.
Inside the cabin.
Su Qingyue, who had been lying on the bed, now sat up.
Hugging her knees, she huddled in the corner of the bed, her face pale as paper.
Her beautiful eyes stared fearfully at Lin Ji and Gu Yihan.
At a time like this, even thoughts of jealousy were gone.
Only fear remained.
"Are we... are we going to die?"
Su Qingyue asked, her voice choked with tears.
Lin Ji took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
Panic wouldn’t solve anything.
The more critical the moment, the calmer he needed to be.
"We won’t die."
Lin Ji released Gu Yihan, his voice low and firm.
"As long as I’m here, we won’t die."
He turned around and looked at Su Qingyue, who was huddled in the corner of the bed.
By the faint moonlight, he could see her delicate body trembling.
Lin Ji’s mind stirred.
With a flick of his wrist, something appeared in his palm.
It was a silk glove that emitted a silvery-white glow.
In the darkness, the cold air it radiated seemed capable of freezing even the air itself.
[Frostglove (Red Quality)]
This was one of his strongest trump cards.
It was also the bargaining chip he had originally intended to use to control Su Qingyue.
But now...
There was no time to worry about that.