FGCT CH21

It takes about half an hour to walk from the gymnasium to North Port in Nanhai City, but by car, it only takes about ten minutes.

On the water, the speed of a speed boat isn’t much different from that of a regular car. In any case, Gou Fugui and his group took just over ten minutes to reach the North Port in Nanhai City.

At this moment, it was 9:15 in the morning, leaving more than two hours until the three-hour deadline for the cruise ship’s arrival. Not many evacuees had reached the North Port yet—only those who were extremely close or had moved very quickly had arrived. Most people were still on their way.

By now, most of the buildings in the port had been submerged, and the ships originally docked there had either been overturned or destroyed by the tsunami “Queen.” The people who had arrived searched around but ultimately gathered on the roof of the tallest three-story building that had yet to be flooded, wearing raincoats, life jackets, or holding umbrellas as they waited for the cruise ship.

Gou Fugui and his group brought the now-awake young mother to this rooftop. As she continuously expressed her gratitude, Gou Fugui took a pack of cold medicine and several packets of Banlangen herbal tea from his backpack and handed them to her.

“Take some yourself, and if necessary, give a little to the baby. Everything will be fine once we board the ship.”

The young mother teared up instantly at the sight of the medicine. She nodded firmly and kept thanking him.

After giving her the medicine, Gou Fugui fell silent. He gazed at the floodwaters, which had merged seamlessly with the ocean, pondering whether he should go rescue more people.

One way to repair the “World Core” was to preserve as much life force as possible—whether human, animal, or plant. Only with enough life force could the world remain stable and avoid collapse. So, saving more people was likely a good thing.

But he was just one person, and without the necessary tools, the number of people he could save would be very limited. Was there a way to rescue more lives?

As Gou Fugui was deep in thought, Xie Tianlang and his three companions, who came from the same world as him, were also discussing.

“How much fuel is left in the engine? How many trips can we make?”

“If it’s between the gynmasium and here, we can easily make over ten trips.”

“Then let’s do it. The more people we can save, the better. This is the first world we’ve come to—everything is unfamiliar, so we should do our best in every way we can.”

Xie Tianlang made the decision: “Qin Feng, take the speed boat and go rescue people. Lu Hu, stay here to watch the luggage for now, then switch with Qin Feng later. San Chuan and I will go check out those overturned, damaged boats up ahead and see if we can collect any usable fuel.”

“If we can find extra fuel, the speedboat will be able to make more trips.”

Song Sanchuan and the others responded affirmatively. Xie Tianlang, his expression unchanged, finished assigning tasks before turning his gaze toward Gou Fugui. When his eyes met those striking phoenix eyes, he raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“We’re heading over to the port to check out the wrecked boats. Want to come? We might find something useful.”

Gou Fugui paused as he looked at Xie Tianlang, then glanced at Qin Feng, who was already steering the boat to rescue people. In the end, he shook his head. While he did enjoy a bit of underwater scavenging, he was, after all, the chosen one^[1] with a golden finger^[2].

“……I’m going to find Xiao Fugui-er. See if he needs any help and if he’s willing to come with me.”

Xie Tianlang’s eyes lit up instantly. “You’re going to find Yuan Yuan?”

Beauty Fugui watched as this guy forcibly swallowed down what was clearly an impulse to blurt out ‘I’ll go with you’ and instead dug into his pocket, pulling out a pack of Longlong Spicy Strips.

“I can’t go pick Yuan Yuan up myself. Give this to him for me, will you? And tell him—Daddy loves him!”

The human-shaped Yuan Yuan: “…”

He stared at the pack of spicy strips, completely unwilling to acknowledge this damn werewolf. If anything, he wanted to roll his eyes. Disgusting. Corny as hell. Who the hell needs your love?

But in the end, the Beauty Fugui snatched the spicy strips, stuffed them into his pocket, and walked away.

“Make sure to pass on the message! And don’t you dare keep my spicy strips for yourself.”

Gou Fugui finally lost his patience. “Got it! Shut up, you noisy bastard!”

Giving them to Yuan Yuan is the same as giving them to me—why the hell do you need to emphasize it?!

Then Gou Fugui quickly went into the water and swam away. He left his backpack and suitcase with Xie Tianlang and the others, where Lu Hu and Jin Mantang were watching over them, allowing him to move around without a burden.

Gou Fugui swam forward rapidly, but he didn’t head toward the gymnasium. The gymnasium wasn’t far from the north port— as long as they didn’t encounter any fatal danger along the way, those people would surely make it onto the ship.

However, in his recent thoughts, another possibility had come to mind—

Since the goal was to save lives, if humans can be saved, then what about the lives of animals and plants? Were they worth saving? Was it possible to save them?

Gou Fugui gave himself a firm answer: Yes.

The “World Core” wasn’t limited to humans; it could be any existence in the world.

So, the “life force” needed by the World Core naturally wasn’t limited to human life.

He might not be able to save many people, but he could try to save some small animals.

Who knows? Maybe one of them was the World Core.

So, after Gou Fugui swam a long distance away from the rest and finding a place where no one could see him. Then, without hesitation, he quickly stripped off his clothes and stuffed them into a backpack he had randomly picked up along the way.

Taking a deep breath, he dove underwater— and when he surfaced again, he was already a round, chubby little sea otter.

Otter Fugui twitched his diamond-shaped little nose diligently in the rain.

Even though the heavy rain and the overwhelming seawater made it hard to see his surroundings, it didn’t matter— otters have noses, and otters can smell!

As long as there were small animals within an eight-kilometer radius, they wouldn’t be able to escape Otter Fugui’s keen nose!

Sniffing here and there, Otter Fugui suddenly let out a tiny sneeze. Feeling a little frustrated, he rubbed his face vigorously.

Raindrops pelted his little nose, and it masked and diluted many scents—he couldn’t smell anything.

But that was okay! Otter never gives up! Otter keeps going!

So, Otter Fugui began patrolling the northern region of Nanhai City, his tiny nose working hard to pick up the scent of cats, dogs, or even mice.

However, he never expected that the first creature he would rescue wasn’t a cat, a dog, or even a mouse—but a parrot that was trapped in a cage, on the verge of losing its mind in frustration.

And he didn’t even find it with his nose—he found it with his ears.

“Release me! Release me now!!”

“You unfilial children are going to suffocate this poor bird—!”

“Help! Help! Someone, some brave prince, come rescue this beautiful princess!”

“I am a highly intelligent parrot that speaks five languages! I am an alien bird! Somebody, please hand me over to the government!”

“…Help… This bird is starving to death.”

From his initial shock—thinking someone was actually imprisoned—to his final expressionless silence, Otter Fugui only took about a minute to process the situation.

Floating on the water, he rubbed his tiny paws over his face several times, sighing inwardly.

Even pets are competing like this nowadays.

Being a parrot isn’t enough—you gotta speak five languages too.

So, Otter Fugui drifted over to the birdcage, which was stubbornly hanging off a sixth-floor balcony.

Inside the cage, a half-bald parrot met his gaze.

The parrot, which had looked utterly defeated just moments ago, suddenly burst to life. It flapped its wings frantically and shouted:

“Oh! Help, help! Somebody save me!”

“Open the cage! Let me out! I’ll give you everything in my house in exchange!!”

Hearing the parrot’s voice crack from excitement, Otter Fugui decided not to tease or stress it out any further.

After all, the birdcage was within paw’s reach, so opening it wasn’t impossible.

Or so he thought.

Otter Fugui reached out his little paws and struggled to open the cage door. His otter face gradually twisted into a grimace.

He had assumed the door would be easy to open—only to realize that, for some reason, it wouldn’t budge!

Maybe it was rusted, or maybe some latch wasn’t properly aligned.

Either way— trying to open it the normal way wasn’t working.

In the end, Otter Fugui used every ounce of strength he had and finally wrenched open the sturdy birdcage.

“Oh my!”

“You saved me! I shall now offer myself to you~”

“Oh, hero! Bird is hungry. Got food? Bird is hungry! Got food?”

Hearing the parrot’s dramatic, movie-like tone—especially the way it repeated itself at the end—Otter Fugui finally confirmed that this bird hadn’t gained supernatural intelligence.

It was probably just raised by an idiot and had watched way too many movies—but it was definitely smart.

In the end, Otter Fugui gave in and fed the parrot some millet he found in its house. The sixth-floor apartment was half-flooded, and all the electrical appliances were completely ruined. But there were still some dry rations and millet stored in high cabinets that hadn’t gone bad, so he made good use of them.

After being rescued, the parrot didn’t even ask for an invitation—it immediately perched itself on Otter Fugui’s back.

At first, it had wanted to proudly sit on his head, but after being firmly shooed away three times, it finally settled on his back, looking wronged.

But that wasn’t even the worst part.

The worst part was—this damn otter actually used its life-saving grace to blackmail the parrot into helping search for other survivors!

Didn’t he know how weak the bird was right now?!

The parrot really, really wanted to pretend it didn’t understand what he is saying.

However, he is a good bird who knows how to return favors.

Seeing on the fact that everyone are animals, he can only spread open his half-bald wings.

Then, through the thick of rain, it gazed down at the flooded city from above, its sharp eyes scanning for any signs of life still struggling to survive.

But of course that does not include humans.

****

Time ticked by, second by second.

Qin Feng and Lu Hu had taken turns, making nearly twenty trips back and forth on the speed boat, using every method they could to rescue almost a thousand people^[3].

They had done everything in their power—at least, as far as the eye could see, they had saved everyone they could reach.

But they also knew, with painful certainty, that not everyone had made it.

Some were still waiting at home, clinging to hope in despair. Others were struggling through the flooded streets, desperately trying to reach the port.

But there was no more time.

An hour ago, six cruise ships had docked at the northern port. They were scheduled to leave at exactly 12:00 PM^[4], and that schedule would not change.

It was the safest possible departure time, calculated carefully to avoid further danger.

No one, for any reason, would be waited for.

As the clock struck noon, the ships sounded their horns, signaling their imminent departure.

Xie Tianlang stood on the sixth cargo ship, his brows tightly furrowed.

Beside him, someone kept shouting at the captain, “Please wait a moment! My family will be here soon! They’re almost here! Please wait! Don’t leave!”

“My son and the others will be here any second now. They can definitely make it! Captain, please wait!”

However, the soon-to-retire, gray-haired captain let out a sigh.

He couldn’t risk the lives of everyone on board.

“Prepare to set sail.”

Jin Mantang couldn’t help but look at the captain. He was wondering—why hadn’t Gou Fugui arrived yet?!

At that moment, Xie Tianlang suddenly gripped the railing tightly, his entire aura turning ice-cold in an instant.

“Wait!”

“Captain, look! Someone’s coming!”

Suddenly, Jin Mantang pointed in a direction and shouted loudly.

Everyone waiting by the ship’s edge turned to look, and then—they saw…

A parrot?

“Oh, don’t leave! Darling, don’t leave! There’s still some precious life here!”

The half-bald parrot flapped its wings and shouted, and at that moment, everyone saw him—a long-haired young man swimming desperately at the front. On his back, he carried a wailing baby wrapped securely, and behind him trailed an entire squad of animals—five dogs, four cats, and two squirrels?!

Everyone: “……”

Xie Tianlang loosened his grip on the railing and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Author’s note

Werewolf Xie: This is the spicy strip of love I gave to Yuanyuan. Don’t be greedy.

Fugui AKA Yuanyuan: …Tch.

Parrot: Love me, don’t go!! Frantically making heart gestures!