Those eyes opened, reflecting the light from the lantern on the nightstand beside him. He was lying on a single bed, covered with a white blanket, with several others arranged side by side. The room was quite spacious and much quieter than the one in the basement.

  But his attention was drawn back to the voice he had heard in his mind earlier. The Dart Poison Power—he still doubted its truth, even though he knew dreams sometimes could be real. After all, transmigrating into the world of Marravelle was already something that defied logic.

  “Oh, this is a surprise,” a woman dressed in leather entered the room. What set her apart from others was her hat, which looked larger, like something a wizard would wear. “I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon.”

  Xu Haoran tried to sit up, but his mind was still weighed down by the flood of information. “Am I still on the ship?”

  “Of course you are, addled!” she replied while busying herself at a table cluttered with ingredients. “No one questions the vice captain’s decisions. You two seemed to know each other.”

  Through faint memories, Xu Haoran, now as Sinbad, began to recall the connection between him and her—a relationship that had been severed due to his own foolishness.

  “We were friends back then,” he murmured, laden with regret. “That’s all.”

  “I figured. It’s a rare sight to see Miranda care about someone else besides Captain Silica,” the woman responded, though her attention remained focused on her craft. “She even convinced the rest of us that you’re not a treasure hunter, but rather, one of us.”

  She poured the bluish fluid into a tube. “I don’t know what happened between you and her, but I can tell she trusts you,” she said, rising from her chair and approaching Xu Haoran. “Given how much she asked me to heal you.”

  Xu Haoran furrowed his brows, confused. “Heal?”

  “You almost fell into the ocean if it weren’t because Miranda,” she stopped by the bedside, handing him the mixture. “As the alchemist of this crew, I did what I had to do to check your condition afterward.”

  The concoction’s smell was so foul that it made Xu Haoran nauseous before he even drank it. “What is this?”

  “It’s the Elixir of Poison Resistance,” she explained. “Our hypothesis is that you were poisoned while in the basement, so I had to heal you to cleanse it. Although it might require further treatment.”

  “I’ll take you to the captain after you feel better,” she smiled, her demeanor calm and comforting.

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  Xu Haoran felt flustered by her attractiveness, so he turned his attention to the drink. She had dark-toned skin that shimmered under the light, wearing a black fabric with a deep neckline that revealed her décolletage.

  Despite his doubts, he took a sip of the thick fluid, grimacing and coughing afterward. “The taste is awful!” he commented.

  Chuckling softly, the alchemist reassured him, “The taste is worth it for your health.”

  Xu Haoran didn’t want to trouble someone who was helping him, so he mustered the courage to finish the mixture in a few gulps. His tongue felt numb, and his stomach wasn’t faring much better.

  “Oh, you didn’t have to finish it all at once, but never mind,” she remarked, suddenly causing the man to freeze with wide eyes.

  “You could’ve said that earlier,” Xu Haoran murmured, still in shock.

  “Well, the concoction will take effect in about ten minutes, so get some rest,” she said, standing up to leave, but Xu Haoran’s voice halted her in her tracks.

  “Wait, can I know your name?” he asked, fixing his gaze on her hazel eyes.

  “Irene,” she introduced herself. “Hope we can collaborate, Sinbad.”

  He fell silent for a moment, realizing this was his new reality. Xu Haoran existed on Earth, but in the realm of Marravelle, there was Sinbad. The two were separate, and while he was here, Xu Haoran had to live as his new self—Sinbad. It was a new chapter, a clean slate.

  “Take me to the captain,” he uttered. “And I will tell her everything I know.”

  At the same time, shouts erupted from outside the room. The commotion sounded restless, prompting Irene and Sinbad to step out and investigate what was happening.

  The night made everything around the ship almost invisible, but the crew seemed to be preparing for defense. Some were already stationed behind cannons, while others drew their swords.

  “Shoot!” Brent commanded from above the sail after using a telescope, pointing toward the right side of the ship.

  Six cannons fired their payloads, targeting something in the darkness. When Sinbad took a closer look, he understood their unease. There was another ship in the mist with a bizarre design.

  Almost all the shots missed, but two cannons managed to strike their target with ease, engulfing it in blazing flames that consumed everything. The crew cheered, celebrating their victory, but it all felt too quick and effortless.

  Captain Silica, standing on the upper deck, scrutinized the situation. Something seemed suspicious as she noticed the waves—they were moving unusually fast toward the ship, and several more were following behind.

  “Look at the water, Brent!” Silica shouted, and the muscular man obeyed.

  To their shock, the waves turned out to be enemies swimming at an incredible speed. No human could move like that without equipment—they leaped like dolphins, eventually landing on the ship’s deck and attacking with their lethal iron-like claws.

  “Sea monsters!” the crew shrieked in panic as they realized their comrades were being killed.

  The monsters roared, their heads resembling catfish but with fins on the sides of their ears, slashing at any humans in sight. The crew didn’t stand idly by as they launched counterattacks, but their efforts had little effect. The monsters dodged them all.

  The agonized screams of the dying crew were torture to the ears. Then, one of the creatures turned its gaze toward Sinbad and Irene, its eyes filled with a predatory hunger. Sinbad didn’t know what to do and he couldn’t even move.

  Not wasting a moment, the beast leaped toward them with its mouth wide open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Sinbad had to act, and he didn’t have much time to think. Death was staring him right in the face.