Chapter 476: Undying
To see a fellow crew mate, presumably dead, yet being able to feel hunger and casually walk into the mess hall to grab a meal as if nothing had happened was beyond eerie.
Realizing that Norton was not a monstrous creature from the sea but himself, the crew abandoned their meals and swiftly surrounded him. They held Norton down to his seat and urged Linda to give him a full examination.
A minute later, Linda lifted her gaze. Her usually expressionless face displayed a hint of astonishment as she reported, "Captain, Norton's brain is still functioning, and so are his bodily functions. He really came back to life."
"But how?" Charles' brows furrowed in thought. He then pulled up Norton's shirt to inspect the wound.
On Norton's well-defined chest, the ghastly wound from where the bone spur had pierced through remained and was still oozing blood.
No matter how they looked at it, it ought to be a fatal wound, but yet Norton sat here perfectly normal as though he hadn't been wounded.
Charles prodded the wound with his finger, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from Norton.
"Does it hurt?" Charles asked as he looked Norton in the eyes.
Trying to endure the pain, Norton clenched his fists and replied through gritted teeth, "It hurts, but it's bearable!"
Charles' tension was slightly eased by Norton's human-like response. At the very least, Norton still retained human perception and wasn't some walking zombie.
Charles pushed his finger deeper into the hole. He first brushed against the ribcage before coming into contact with the heart.
To his surprise, Norton's heart was still beating vigorously, despite the walnut-sized hole in it.
"Argh!" Norton's facial features twisted in agony from the intense pain.
Charles cast a glance at Norton and retracted his finger. He then turned to Linda and said, "There's still a hole in his heart. Can you stitch it up for him?"
A hint of excitement flickered across her eyes. "I'll take him to the infirmary for surgery right away. I will also do a more thorough examination. This is truly a medical miracle."
With that, she couldn't even bother about her meal anymore and immediately pulled Norton with her toward the infirmary.
Charles turned to Dipp seated next to him. The Deep Dweller nodded in understanding. Grabbing the last piece of bread from the table, Dipp stuffed it into his mouth and brought two sailors with him to follow Linda.
Audric seemed somewhat worried as well and swiftly tagged along.
"Stop looking. Everyone else, continue eating. You need energy to work. Don't forget where we are; we have no time to lose."
Hearing Charles' words, the other crew members tried to suppress their shock as they continued their meal and whispered in hushed tones.
Amidst the bizarre atmosphere, the crew soon hastily finished their meals. They also took a brief moment to attend to their personal needs. No matter what would be happening next, there was probably no chance for bathroom breaks.
After the crew had switched shifts, Linda entered the bridge. Her fingers were stained with blood as she approached Charles.
"Captain, I've stitched up all his damaged heart cavities. His injuries are healing. Given enough time, his heart will be as good as new."
"Are there any other physical anomalies with Norton? Like mutations?" Charles asked, his voice laced with incredulity.
Truth be told, if Anna hadn't been here to keep everyone's sanity in check, he would have thought that all of them were under some form of mind control, what with the dead walking again.
Hearing Charles' words, Linda's brows furrowed slightly under her white triangle tattoo. "Mutation might be too strong a word, but there have indeed been changes to his body. He has become undying in every sense of the word.
"I injected sea serpent venom directly into his blood and his blood coagulated rapidly. Yet, even when his blood ceased to flow, he didn't die. I suspect that even if his head is chopped off now, it would have the same result."
Linda then took a fugitive glance at Conor manning the helm before pulling Charles out of the bridge.
She then leaned in toward Charles' ear and whispered, "Captain, we might have a problem. It's not just Norton. I suspect everyone on board is in the same condition."
"What? Everyone?" Charles' eyes widened in shock.
Linda nodded before pulling up her right sleeve with her left hand to reveal her pale arm. Charles immediately spotted a small blood dot near her elbow.
"To test my hypothesis, I injected myself with a lethal dose of the same venom. But just like Norton, I didn't die.
"Captain, I have yet to identify what's causing this symptom but it seems like the line between life and death of living beings is starting to blur in this place."
Charles reached out a finger and pressed down on Linda's blood spot, his expression turning grave.
He had encountered his fair share of anomalies in the Subterranean Sea, but this was unprecedented and bizarre beyond his imagination.
It seemed like good news that his crew could survive any injury and only required their wounds to be stitched together to bounce right back up.
Yet, Charles' heart was sounding the alarm over the ominous sense of foreboding in the face of such a phenomenon.
He knew that the Subterranean Sea never yielded any good news, and especially so now that they were in the depths of the deep sea. No one could pinpoint the root of this bizarre influence.
Moreover, the undying anomaly appeared alongside the formidable mental corruption. There was definitely something amiss here.
"Does anyone else know about this other than you?" Charles asked Linda.
"I haven't told anyone else. It's your call whether we should tell the crew," Linda replied.
Charles pondered for a few seconds before coming to a decision. "Let's keep this to ourselves for now so as to not distract others. Focus on healing Norton as much as you can. I suspect that this undying anomaly is confined to the trench and things will revert to normal logic once we leave.
"If Norton's injuries are still fatal by the time we leave the trench, he might just drop dead instantly."
With that, Charles then turned to head back to the cabin. But then, he caught a glimpse of Linda's hesitance from the corner of his eye and turned around once more.
"What's the matter? Is there something else?" Charles asked.
Linda remained silent. Instead, she headed toward the staircase that led to the infirmary, leaving Charles with a view of her bald silhouette.
"I'll go re-examine Norton now. His injuries shouldn't be a problem."
True to Linda's words, Norton soon appeared on the deck again. He moved carefreely as though he had never experienced death.
The crew's curiosity was stirred and they bombarded him with questions on how he managed to become undying and if he had a life-saving relic just like the second mate.
Not the best at expressing himself, Norton found himself at a loss for words in the face of the series of questions.
Meanwhile, Dipp loitered nearby with vigilance and subtly kept an eye on Norton for any signs of anomaly.
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