“Damn it, this guy is such a scammer! I can't even control it! I’m dead again!” The boy angrily threw his phone onto the couch.

  The girl watching TV beside him scoffed, “You’re the one who’s a scammer, you noob.”

  Just then, the television showed a large gorilla pounding its chest, prompting the boy to pout at the screen. “Look, you’re on TV again.”

  The girl furiously grabbed a nearby cushion and hurled it at him. “Gao Zhiming!! Go die!!” The two siblings immediately began to wrestle.

  “Enough already! Come eat!” A woman’s voice from the adjacent room interrupted their playful brawl.

  At the dining table, the woman, wearing an apron, turned to her son and said, “You’re old enough now; can’t you give your sister a break?”

  “Why should I? When we were kids, she could beat me up. She didn’t give me a break!” Gao Zhiming retorted.

  The girl, infuriated, lifted her right foot and kicked toward him, and he quickly retaliated.

  Seeing the commotion under the table escalate, the woman shook her head and stopped trying to mediate. Her two children had been fighting since they were little; she was used to it.

  After taking a few bites, she addressed her son again, “Why did you insist on taking a boat to hang out with your classmates instead of the train? Boats are dangerous!”

  “Mom, what era are we in? Boats aren’t dangerous, especially since it’s Liu De’s dad’s boat. It’ll be fine.” Gao Zhiming said, shoveling food into his mouth.

  “Remember a few years ago when a ship sank in Korea? If it weren’t for the high-speed rail, it would have been a disaster.”

  “I already bought the tickets, so relax. Nothing’s going to happen,” he assured her confidently.

  At that moment, he suddenly felt a chill around his ankles. Looking down, he saw a layer of black water covering the floor, and it was rising rapidly.

  Just as Gao Zhiming panicked and started to stand up, the water quickly submerged him, going over his head. A single thought flashed through his mind: his sister couldn’t swim.

  He struggled to reach for his sister in the water, but she seemed to be pulled away by something, drifting further from him. He turned to look for his mother, only to find she had vanished.

  Desperately searching underwater, he found nothing. As the air in his lungs dwindled, the sensation of suffocation grew stronger. In his final moments, he saw a monstrous, toothy maw ready to swallow him whole.

  “Whew!” Charles jolted awake, gasping for air.

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  Hearing the sound of waves and feeling the rocking of the ship, he realized it had all been a dream.

  “Dude, did you have a nightmare? What was it about? Share it so I can get a laugh,” a voice teased from another persona.

  Ignoring the jibe, Charles looked around and found he wasn’t in the captain’s quarters but lying on the deck in shorts, holding a transparent cup, with sunglasses perched on his nose. He looked like he was on a beach vacation.

  “How did I end up here?” he muttered.

  “It’s my time now; I’m soaking up the sun,” the other persona replied.

  Charles rolled his eyes at the dark surroundings. “You’re crazy. Sunbathing here?”

  “You wouldn’t understand. As long as there’s sand in my heart, anywhere can be the Maldives. It’s a lifestyle choice.”

  “How’s the navigation?” Charles asked, regaining control of his body and standing up.

  “It’s the same as before. The island on the map is nowhere in sight. Before I started sunbathing, I checked the supplies. If we can’t find that island in ten days, we’ll have to turn back.”

  Charles leaned against the ship’s railing, staring at the pitch-black sea in silence. He was confident the map was correct, but during that crisis, he had relied solely on his memory. He couldn’t be sure there weren’t any errors.

  “Don’t be so gloomy. If we can’t find it this time, we can always come back later. You seem to live life so seriously. Want to hear a joke to lighten the mood?”

  As Charles walked back, raising his cup to drink, he suddenly noticed several distant white dots flickering in the sky.

  “Stars? Are there stars underground? Are we back on the surface?”

  Moments later, the stars flickered more frequently, then suddenly went dark again, plunging Charles into an even deeper darkness.

  “Thud!” A small rock struck his face from above without warning.

  With his night vision, Charles’s pupils contracted as he realized something. His expression turned grave as he shouted frantically to the second mate, Krona, behind the ship’s glass, “Second mate! Hard to starboard! Full throttle!!”

  As the **Unicorn** quickly turned, more small rocks began to rain down from the sky, as if a shower of stones had begun.

  With a rumble of thunder, a massive stalactite, the size of a mountain, plummeted from above, crashing down where the **Unicorn** had just been.

  The deafening roar of the impact sent tidal waves crashing against the ship, rocking it violently.

  On the deck, Charles secured himself with ropes to avoid being thrown overboard by the waves.

  “Seriously? Are the stars so temperamental now? Just a glance, and they come crashing down on us?” Richard exclaimed, bewildered.

  Spitting out the salty seawater, Charles replied, “Those aren’t stars. Whatever those things are, they must have seen us. They knocked those rocks down.”

  “Damn, there are more things above us? How are they not falling? Are they like geckos?”

  “That's not what we should be worrying about right now. Look! The stars lit up again!”

  Above them, the hazy white dots glimmered once more, only to extinguish shortly after, followed by another wave of stalactites descending. The **Unicorn** was in a frantic escape.

  Another massive wave crashed over, and Richard shouted, “This isn’t working! They’re chasing us!”

  Watching the stars flicker again, Charles quickly made a decision and ordered, “Turn off the lights!”

  In the darkness, the only sound was his own rapid breathing. Once he confirmed that no more rocks were falling, he released a heavy sigh.

  Whatever was up there was using the **Unicorn**’s lights to lock onto them. As long as they turned off the lights, they wouldn’t be able to track the ship's location.

  In the dark, Charles communicated with the crew. “Second mate, don’t stop. Keep moving. We’re not safe yet.”

  “Captain, I can’t see anything!”

  “I can see. I’ll guide you.”

  In the pitch black, the **Unicorn** continued its journey. Charles stood on the deck, anxiously studying the map to ensure they didn’t lose their way.

  After half an hour, when Charles lifted his head to check the sea again, he heard Richard’s excited shout.

  “Island! That’s an island! We found it!”