Chapter 7: The Ominous Arrival

However, Lin Qiu also realized that as his progress advanced, every little improvement required devouring massive quantities of marine life. Frustrated, he muttered, “Will I be able to leave this cursed ocean once I reach Level 2?”

He had once been human, but now, reborn in the body of an orca, he faced the vast ocean and countless wondrous sea creatures day after day—he was utterly sick of it.

The system responded to his complaint with only four words: “No comment.”

Receiving no answer, Lin Qiu drifted away, his spirits dampened.

Little did he know, at that very moment, Xu Bing was piloting a drone swiftly above the sea, searching for any sign of him.

“Gone again!” Xu Bing muttered under her breath, maneuvering the drone to circle the island at low altitude, streaming the island's wildlife live and interacting with her viewers.

“Ding! Congratulations, you have successfully extracted crocodile bloodline. Bloodline fusion commencing.”

“What?!” Lin Qiu was startled, feeling a sudden heat flooding his body, and an itch spreading across his skin.

The maddening itch, as if crawling under his flesh, made him roar uncontrollably.

His roar was shrill and powerful, carrying a piercing force that instantly killed countless marine creatures nearby; their bellies turned upward, floating lifelessly on the water’s surface.

“It’s so itchy!” Lin Qiu thrashed in the sea, but the water offered only resistance, not the friction of solid ground.

No matter how he writhed, the itch remained relentless.

“System, what’s happening to me?” he demanded.

“Host, the crocodile is an ancient creature dating back to the Triassic period, one of the oldest species on earth,” the system replied in its unhurried manner.

“Crocodiles from the Triassic reached lengths of 14 meters and weighed up to 8 tons. They are cold-blooded, bloodthirsty, and possess explosive power.”

“By fusing with the crocodile bloodline, your muscles, bones, and skin will be strengthened. On land, a crocodile’s skin is a natural suit of armor, making it highly resistant to attack.”

“The orca, on the other hand, is the overlord of the ocean, apex of the food chain. It dwells in warm waters, ferocious and dominant, but its skin is smooth and lacks sufficient defense.”

“By merging with the crocodile bloodline, your genetic sequence changes. Your skin, like a crocodile’s, will become a natural armor, greatly enhancing your defense and allowing you to evade attacks from other sea creatures.”

“This way, you can infiltrate deeper waters and devour stronger beings of the deep to further your growth.”

Lin Qiu continued to thrash about. The itch that penetrated his very bones was the result of two bloodlines merging, altering his genes and triggering a new division of blood cells.

“Ding! Congratulations, host, bloodline fusion successful. Skin defense increased tenfold.”

But Lin Qiu could no longer hear the system’s words. By the time the itching finally subsided, he was utterly exhausted, floating belly-up on the surface, just like the dead fish around him.

The drone swooped low, capturing this scene and transmitting it back.

“Is that an orca?!” Xu Bing, who had just ended her livestream, was stunned at the image she received.

Orcas are large toothed whales, usually 8 to 10 meters long and weighing around 9 to 10 tons. The orca in the footage looked to be 30 meters at least, weighing no less than 30 tons.

At that moment, the orca’s tail was feebly slapping the water, sending ripples across the surface.

“What happened to it?” Xu Bing wondered aloud, guiding the drone down for a closer look.

“This woman is really annoying,” Lin Qiu, gradually regaining his strength, muttered impatiently at the incessant buzzing of the drone.

As the drone hovered two meters above him, his massive tail lashed out like a whip.

With a resounding crack, the orca’s tail shattered the drone in an instant.

“My drone!” Xu Bing shrieked aboard the cruise ship.

She had paid a fortune for that drone, only for this damned orca to destroy it so easily.

Now, without the drone, how was she supposed to continue her livestream in the endless expanse of the sea?

Seething with anger, she watched as the gigantic orca began to sink, vanishing into the depths.

As Lin Qiu slipped away, his eyes flashed with discontent. “Daring to livestream me? If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll never know your place.”

“System, lock onto the cruise ship and send out an electromagnetic pulse,” he commanded, flicking his tail and vanishing into the deep.

An invisible electromagnetic wave radiated from the depths, targeting the cruise ship.

“Something’s wrong!” Alarms blared urgently in the ship’s control center, red lights spinning wildly.

“Our radar has stopped working! There’s a strange magnetic interference. We’ve lost our bearings and are adrift at sea!” the captain cried out in panic.

Everyone knew that at sea, the radar was their eyes. Without it, they were not only helpless in the vast ocean, but could easily run aground and sink.

Hearing this, Xu Bing’s face went deathly pale.

She realized their equipment was no longer connected to the internet—they were completely cut off from the outside world.

“How could this happen?!” she screamed in despair.

In the next instant, the weather turned violently.

Moments ago, the sky had been clear, but now it was shrouded in dark clouds and raging winds.

The sea rose and fell, waves surging, and the cruise ship was tossed helplessly along.

Such abrupt changes in the weather were common at sea, and always a harbinger of storms.

But now, with no radar and adrift in the heart of the ocean, they had no idea how to navigate.

“The weather’s changed again!”

Deep beneath the waves, the orca opened its massive mouth and swallowed an octopus whole. Sensing the restless currents below, it looked up.

His vision pierced through the water, seeing the black clouds and flashes of silver lightning streaking across the sky. He muttered softly to himself.

A deafening thunderclap split the heavens, the world illuminated in white.

A torrential downpour followed, pelting the sea and sending it into a frenzy.

Countless marine creatures began to flee, swimming rapidly into the distance.

A sense of impending doom exploded within Lin Qiu’s heart.

He became alert.

Since becoming an orca, he had developed a sharp instinct for impending natural disasters, just like any sea creature.

Now, that instinct screamed in his mind—something terrible was about to happen.

“System, what’s going on?” Lin Qiu asked desperately as he swam for his life.

“Host, in ten minutes, a dormant volcano at a depth of 1,300 meters will erupt due to a seismic shift in the oceanic crust.”

“Coordinates: thirty degrees south, distance: 4,500 meters.”