James and Frey exchanged strange glances, their expressions reflecting disbelief. This was the first time they had encountered a captain with such a tone.

  The dim corridor began to quiet down, and under the threat of the invisible leeches, the air around them seemed to freeze.

  Suddenly, Charles started to shake with laughter, first low, then growing louder.

  Lily timidly poked her head out from the pile of mice, “Mr. Charles, what’s wrong with you?”

  Charles struggled to contain his laughter, turning to Lily, “Pfft, little mouse, I thought of a joke! Let me tell you. Once upon a time, there was a—”

  Almost as he turned, a flying leech suddenly appeared on the wall to his left, opening its grotesque jaws and lunging at the back of Charles’s head.

  Everyone’s eyes widened in shock, but it was too late to warn him.

  What happened next was beyond anyone’s expectations. Charles’s body seemed to fold without bones, and he dodged the monster’s bite just in time.

  His right hand, gripping the knife, suddenly exerted force, and the sharp blade plunged directly into the leech’s abdomen. “Haha! Finally caught you! You can even pass through walls!”

  With a spring-like bounce, Charles leaped onto the leech's back, stabbing fiercely with the black knife.

  The leech writhed violently, but Charles seemed to have an internal gyroscope, unable to be thrown off.

  “Think you can shake me off? No way!”

  Wounded, the leech quickly retracted its head and turned to spit a yellowish pus at the human who had hurt it.

  “I’ve had enough; goodbye, big bug!”

  Charles gripped the knife handle embedded in the leech and twisted it with force, the sound of tearing leather echoing as he sliced from the leech's back down to its abdomen.

  The knife cut across half of its body, nearly slicing the leech in two.

  The leech let out a tremendous roar, its damaged body beginning to turn transparent as it attempted to flee.

  But with a surge of strength, Charles drove the knife deeper into the leech, and the bloated creature fell to the ground.

  As the leech hit the ground, Charles pushed off its skin, flipping in the air before landing gracefully in a victorious pose. “How cool am I! Impressive, right? Where’s my applause!!”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  After striking a pose for a few seconds and realizing no one was paying attention, Charles turned around to find his crew staring at him with wide eyes, looking like they had seen a ghost.

  “Hey, you guys really have no sense of teamwork. What are you standing there for? Hurry up and go!”

  Only then did the crowd react and start running, with Charles bringing up the rear.

  As they neared the exit, the crew occasionally glanced back at their captain.

  Deep looked down at the laughing captain, who was humming a tune, and whispered to the second mate, Knona, “Should we take the mask off the captain? He seems a bit off.”

  Charles suddenly slid the white mask right up to Deep’s face. “Hey! What did you say? I can hear you! If I take off the mask, who will protect you?”

  Deep gritted his teeth, reaching for the grinning mask, but Charles slipped away like an eel.

  Then he stretched out his hand, shoving a flask into Deep’s hands and pushing him forward. “You all go first; wait for me on the ship.”

  Before anyone could respond, Charles fell backward into the darkness.

  “Captain!! Captain! Come back!!”

  “Mr. Charles, where are you going?”

  As the others shouted, Charles, wearing the clown mask, walked further into the darkness.

  In the shadows, Charles began to talk to himself. “Since this place is researching artifacts, there must be a lot of them here. Haha, I’m going to make a fortune!”

  Humming a vaguely remembered tune, Charles once again entered the previous area.

  This time, he crashed through door after door, not hesitating to blow them open with explosives.

  Behind the first door was a medieval-style oil lamp. Just as Charles picked it up and started to leave, his keen vision caught sight of a record book hanging on the wall.

  “Tsk tsk tsk, these guys are really thoughtful; they even prepared a manual.”

  Charles grabbed the record book and rushed into the next room.

  “Haha, I’m going to get rich!”

  With his clothes stuffed full of artifacts, Charles joyfully darted between rooms, looking like a farmer harvesting crops.

  Just as he put a silver tentacle ring on his ring finger, a red glow suddenly appeared at the door.

  “Oh no, the snot worms dare to come again? If I don’t show you some power today, you won’t know how many eyes the King of Horses has!” With one hand clutching his loot, Charles swaggered toward the door.

  However, when he peeked out of the room, he froze in place. In front of him was not one monster, but a swarm.

  They were crammed together, some half-buried in the ceiling, others half-submerged in the floor. In the distance, a group of red lights flickered, resembling a wall adorned with neon lights.

  As Charles saw them, the monsters also spotted him, and all the flying leeches twisted their bodies, their red glow quickly vanishing.

  Darkness once again enveloped the empty corridor. Staring into the void, Charles could almost visualize the invisible leeches soaring toward him.

  Without a second thought, he turned and ran. But just as he took a few steps, a gaping maw appeared in front of him.

  Charles couldn’t stop in time, and half of his body was already caught in the creature's mouth.

  Summoning all his strength, he twisted his body and managed to escape just before the jaws closed, though his clothes were torn to shreds by the sharp teeth.

  “That was close!” Still shaken, Charles didn’t dare linger. Taking advantage of the leech’s momentary surprise, he slipped past its slick body.

  But this was just the beginning; the invisible leeches were faster than Charles, and more and more of them revealed themselves to attack him.

  At that moment, Charles became like an acrobat, narrowly dodging each attack with incredible agility, dancing on the edge of life and death.

  Just as he evaded a spray of liquid from a leech, another massive mouth emerged to his right. Charles pushed off the ground, barely escaping.

  But before he could land, another gaping maw appeared. This time, with no leverage in mid-air, Charles could only watch helplessly as he was drawn into the creature's mouth.