Chapter 186 Fat Catfish and Jinx
"Lina! Lina?!" Jinx shook Lina's body hard and finally woke her up from her confusion.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked worriedly.
"What's wrong..." Lina seemed to have no impression of what had just happened: "Is there something wrong with me?"
"Of course I did! Lina, you were just talking to the air!"
This made Jinx very worried.
She reached out and touched Lina's forehead, took the temperature, and then said, "No fever... Oops—"
"I'll call the ship's doctor!" said Jinx.
Lina was speechless.
Why should I see a doctor if I don’t have a fever?
“Forget it, forget it…” Lina was afraid of trouble, so she hurriedly stopped him: “I feel fine now, it should be fine…”
But Jinx's expression was extremely serious: "Lina, did you hear someone talking to you? Or, the person talking to you was not a person at all, but a corpse or an animal?"
"Hmm...it seems so." Lina nodded dazedly.
She vaguely remembered...the "person" who was talking to her seemed to be a fat catfish?
No... I can't remember it at all. It's like a dream.
"After he finished speaking, did that guy disappear out of thin air?"
"Yeah." Lina nodded stupidly .
"Oh!" It's over now!
Jinx hugged her distressedly: "Sister Lina, why are you also schizophrenic?"
Lina: “…”
"No, I'm not crazy..."
"A madman never says he is crazy. I know that."
She hurriedly wanted to find a doctor for Lina, but Lina stopped her helplessly: "Don't... I'm fine. Maybe I was just sitting on the boat for too long and I was seasick and had hallucinations..."
As she spoke, Lina rubbed her eyes vigorously to dispel the memory that was quickly becoming blurred: "Don't bother the ship's doctor."
"Let's go ashore and find a hotel to rest and take a hot bath. We should feel better."
Lina is feeling fine now, so she doesn't care about her mental health at all.
Jinx was anxious: "It's already this late! Still staying in a hotel? Still taking a shower? I... uh..."
"Shall we take a shower together?" The little girl suddenly blushed a little.
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Lina looked at her sister in confusion: "If we don't take a shower together, do we need to book two rooms? That would be such a waste of the organization's funds!"
“Yeah…” Jinx nodded vigorously: “Then let’s stay at the hotel at the pier.”
Lina didn't suspect anything, so she and Jinx walked down the gangway and onto the Slaughterhouse Dock in Bilgewater.
Anyway, Sarah gave them all a short vacation, and they had nothing to do now. Going to the pier to have a meal, take a bath, and then stroll around the neighborhood was all within the scope of their actions.
And this slaughter dock... is too disgusting to bear even for the people of Zaun who are used to feeding the animals with only the leftovers.
The corpses of sea beasts piled up like mountains, the internal organs of sea beasts scattered all over the ground, the blood of sea beasts dyed half of the harbor red, and the sea rats and scavenging seagulls that were unique to the harbor, writhing in the rotting flesh and blood...
If Zaun's sewers are simple chemical weapons, then the seawater here is a more powerful version of biological weapons.
This scene is enough to make you vomit out last night's dinner.
But Lina didn't vomit.
She just stood there at the dock, staring at the fishermen, or rather, fishermen, from Bilgewater.
"The mainstay industry in Bilgewater that employs the largest number of people is not actually the pirate industry, but the fishing industry."
Lina thought of the social survey report on Bilgewater that she had studied before coming here, which was written based on the memories of Sarah and others:
“From the perspective of the employed population alone, Bilgewater is actually a fishing port city that mainly relies on fishing.”
"But unlike other cities with similar positioning, there are almost no small family producers here."
Because the fishing industry in Bilgewater doesn’t catch fish, but sea beasts.
Hunting sea beasts requires a large ship, at least dozens of boatmen and sailors, and powerful weapons.
If anyone takes a small boat out to sea to fish, let alone catch any fish, he would be lucky if he was not eaten by the sea monsters near the port.
The high costs of personnel, weapons and vessels mean that those poor fishermen who have nothing are destined to be unable to engage in fishery production independently as individuals or families.
Here, if the poor want to survive, they must sell themselves to large fishing boats and work as bonded laborers at the bow of the boat.
"Once the ship is out at sea, it is isolated from the rest of the world and becomes the captain's independent kingdom..."
"Even if we return to the port, in this lawless place of Bilgewater, the captain still has absolute power over the life and death of his fishermen..."
Lina recalled these and looked at the scene in front of her:
In the pile of sea beast carcasses that others avoid, Bilgewater's fishermen are working hard as they have been doing for thousands of years.
They used a knife to cut open the belly of the huge sea monster, then crawled in and cut out the internal organs of the sea monster bit by bit, dissecting the sea monster's body.
Blood, rotten meat, cockroaches, rats, and even the excrement of sea beasts...
The fishermen were completely immersed in the thick soup made from these disgusting things and could not rest for even a moment.
If they stop for even a moment, the overseers, who have tattoos of ferocious sea beasts on their sides, revealing their identities as pirates and gangsters, will whip them mercilessly.
"Ah..." Lina sighed deeply.
This is basically another Zaun.
There are almost no individual fishermen who are small private owners here, only penniless fishermen who are enslaved by gangs and fleets.
It is also a city of workers, a city of the destitute.
"No wonder our leader's theory became popular here so quickly."
"No wonder Planck reacted so strongly and started to ban the Leader's propaganda before we even sent anyone here ..."
As she spoke, Lina sighed to Jinx:
"Jinx, what do you think?"
"I think that hotel is good. It's close to the pier. We can take a bath early." Jinx answered subconsciously.
Lina: “???”
She was a little dissatisfied: "Jinx, you are a leader after all."
"After seeing this scene, why do you only think about taking a bath yourself?"
“Well…” Jinx was a little embarrassed at first, but soon answered confidently: “The leader is also a human being!”
"Lina, we haven't taken a shower in over a week."
As she spoke, she even put her nose close to the back of Lina's neck and sniffed it without asking.
Although Jinx didn't comment on the taste, it still made Lina blush with embarrassment: "I, I know..."
"Let's go, let's take a shower first..."
"Okay!" Jinx nodded excitedly... and tried to restrain herself.
She had no intention of caring about the enslaved fishermen on the dock, and just ran towards the hotel holding Lina's hand.
It's like traveling on a date.
"Hehehe." From the darkness, a strange laugh like that of an elder from the Soul Palace was heard.
"Tsk tsk, another pure soul that has been tempted~"
“Two extremely delicious delicacies, unexpectedly put together ~ slurp ~”
The big tongue rolled up the rich smell left by Lina and Jinx and greedily sent it into the open bloody mouth.
The fat catfish appeared again.
It "swam" in the soil in an extremely strange posture, and soon caught up with the two people who were leaving hand in hand silently.
But this time, it didn't target Lina, but Jinx.
Jinx was excitedly squeezing Lina's hand just a second ago.
The next second, she felt like she had come to a deserted foggy world. There was only her and a...
"Toad? Or catfish?"
Jinx was stunned for a moment, then immediately asked.
"Hey! Are you a toad or a catfish?!"
Fat Catfish: “???”
It was the first time it saw someone being pulled into a fantasy world, reacting so quickly, looking so natural, and speaking so... arrogantly.
"Aren't you afraid and confused?"
"What are you afraid of?" Jinx wondered, "It's just an illusion. I'm used to it."
"I know. You're going to say a lot of nonsense to me again, saying that I'm a burden and a nuisance, and that I killed Milo, killed Craig, and harmed Wei and Fandel... Hey, I know everything."
"I could listen to you nagging a little more before, but can you hurry up this time?"
"I'm in a hurry to take a bath with Sister Lina!"
Fat catfish: “…”
"No, sister, I'm not your fantasy."
Jinx: "Ah yes, yes..."
Fat catfish: “…”
Then, Jinx even walked up to him and pinched his fat face hard: "If you have something to say, say it quickly! Otherwise, let me go back to take a shower with Sister Lina!"
"Asshole, stop pulling my beard!" The fat catfish was angry.
"Then hurry up and tell me!" Jinx was not afraid at all. She even used her hands to open its mouth, curiously poked her head in, and looked inside hard:
"Hey, old friend, you really acted like the real thing this time~"
“……” The fat catfish was so angry that he almost swallowed her in one gulp.
But swallowing delicious food without cultivation is really not in line with the gourmet principles.
You have to arouse the girl's desire, lure her into magnifying her desire step by step, and fall into endless desires. Finally, the small dough must be fermented and baked into a delicious big cake to satisfy her picky taste.
So the fat catfish tried to calm his tone and said in a gentle and persuasive way:
"Girl, do you have a wish?"
"Yes." Jinx replied, "I want to take a bath with Sister Lina."
Fat catfish: “…”
Unlike the previous one, this one actually has personal desires. Not only that, but they are also quite strong.
but……
"Don't you have any bigger wishes?"
"I mean, what you want most in life. Your ultimate goal in life. Ask yourself, what are you living for?"
"To take a bath with Sister Lina." Jinx said.
There was silence.
“Hello?” Jinx patted its big face hard.
"Toad, are you done? Can you let me go back and take a bath with Sister Lina?"
Fat catfish: “…”
"Get out! Get out of here!"
