For the other mermen, this crate was simply too dangerous and was something to be abandoned, but Rowland only considered for a moment before swimming toward the hard-won cargo box.

When he was halfway there, a figure in the water suddenly started waving. Judging by the shape, it was a guy named Danny. He waved while quickly surfacing, as if he wanted to say something.

The other four mermen, seeing his actions, also began to surface. One of them even gave up on a cargo box that was almost within reach.

But Rowland had already swum into the coral thicket. He was busy clearing the seaweed tangled around the box and didn’t notice this change.

On the surface, all five mermen had already emerged from the water. As soon as they surfaced, Danny said, “Get on the ship, quick! My calf got cut by a rock blade and it’s bleeding—a lot.”

The other mermen, hearing this, didn’t dare linger. They immediately climbed up the rope onto the Daisy with no hesitation. Sharks in the sea are extremely sensitive to the smell of blood—even a single drop in the water can attract ocean predators from kilometers away. Staying in the water at this moment was practically asking for death.

Soon, all five had climbed onto the deck. Gates’s voice rang out: “Where’s Rowland? Why hasn’t he come up?”

“…He seems to still be in the water.” Danny looked at the rope by the side of the ship.

“Damn it!” Gates cursed, then said to the first mate, “Calvin, have your sailors pull up the rope. It’s extremely dangerous in the water right now!”

He hoped this action would prompt Rowland at the bottom to surface, rather than keep searching for the box underwater.

“Understood.” The first mate nodded. The sailors had already started turning the winch, and the rope was quickly wound up onto the wooden drum.

“The rope is heavy, it seems to be tied to the box!”

“…He’s still down there looking for the box!”

“Oh God, this is a tragedy!”

“We have to go down and warn him!”

“Why don’t you go? I’m not taking that risk—my wife and kids are counting on me.”

The group argued back and forth, but no one moved from the deck.

On the seafloor, Rowland saw that the box was being pulled up, so he followed along, pushing the box as he went to adjust its ascent and prevent it from getting stuck in the coral.

When he swam out of the coral thicket, he was surprised to find that there wasn’t a single person left on the seafloor… the mermen had all disappeared.

“What’s going on? Did they all go up for air together?” Rowland felt something was wrong.

Just then, he suddenly saw the surrounding fish scatter in all directions, and immediately after, a huge creature burst in. That gray-blue skin, those blade-like teeth… it was a shark!

“Shit, no wonder they all surfaced!” Rowland was shocked. If his skinny arms and legs ended up in a shark’s mouth, would he even survive?

Luckily, this shark seemed focused on the fish and didn’t even glance at him. Rowland breathed a slight sigh of relief, pulled the dagger from his thigh holster, gripped it in his hand, and desperately swam upward.

As the surface drew closer, Rowland’s luck ran out. He saw another equally massive dark shadow appear—another shark.

This shark didn’t go after the fish. It clearly thought Rowland looked tastier and charged straight at him.

“…” Rowland was speechless. Other than using every ounce of strength to swim to the surface as fast as possible, there was nothing else he could do.

“Buddha, Three Pure Ones, God above, please bless me and let me survive this!” Rowland prayed over and over in his heart. He felt his arms and legs were about to cramp, but his speed was still despairingly slow, and the shark was closing in at an alarming rate.

On the deck of the Daisy, the experienced sailors were the first to spot the approaching shark.

“Look, a shark fin! There really is a shark.”

“Rowland is still in the water—did he drown?”

“He’s only been in the water ten minutes. With his swimming skills, how could he drown? Oh, look, it’s Rowland, he’s coming up! Quick, drop the rope, drop the rope, pull him up!”

“Ah, it’s too late! He’s at least twenty meters away from us!”

“Oh my God!”

The deck was in chaos, and the commotion reached the captain’s cabin. Daisy, who was reading, frowned slightly, closed her eyes to sense the situation, and then her expression changed in shock, as if she already knew what was happening outside. She stood up and strode quickly toward the deck.

On the surface, Rowland saw a pale blue shark dorsal fin speeding toward him, and beneath the water, a huge dark shadow.

He was still more than twenty meters from the Daisy, with no chance of grabbing the ropes hanging from the ship’s sides before the shark bit him.

In other words, he now had only two possible outcomes: either he’d be bitten to death by the shark and become its meal, or he’d have to kill it!

Rowland panicked for less than half a second before making his decision. Even if he was going to be bitten to death, he wouldn’t die like a coward with his back to the shark. He’d fight this thing head-on, and hopefully leave a few bloody holes in it.

With that thought, Rowland immediately gave up swimming toward the Daisy and instead dove back into the water.

This move left the sailors on deck completely baffled.