Shrouded Seascape

Hearing his second self's nonchalant tone, Charles struggled to suppress the boiling annoyance within him. With his patience wearing out, Charles picked up his revolver and fired a shot at the window.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Calling the doctor over. Maybe he will have a way to deal with this."

Hearing Charles' words, his second self was immediately tensed up.

"I'm warning you! Don't try to erase me, Your memories are mine too! If you try any tricks, I'll take you with me."

Suddenly, Charles' hand that was holding the gun moved and the barrel of the gun was pressed against his chin. It was at this moment that Laesto entered the room.

Despite the sight of the captain contemplating suicide, Laesto appeared indifferent.

"If you want to die, sure. But tell me what you have promised first before you die."

"Later. I have a bigger problem right now." Charles then let Laesto in on the details of the new personality within him.

"To think that there's a relic that can induce split personalities ...Interesting," Laesto remarked as he scrutinized Charles like he was an intriguing specimen.

"Do you have a solution?"

"Doctor, I think I'm fine being like this. You may leave."

The two personalities had two different pleas.

A few seconds later, the visibly intrigued Laesto pulled out the Clown Mask from a coat hung at the side of the room.

"Is this that relic?"

Charles nodded. Without another word, Laesto turned and left the room with the mask in his eyes.

As soon as the door closed, Charles' second self interjected, "Forget it. That old man doesn't seem reliable. I guess it'll be you and me from now on."

Charles took a deep breath. At this point, there was no other thing that could be done. Since he couldn't get rid of this alter ego for now, the best would be to come to a mutual consensus.

"Firstly, we have the same goal, and that is to return home to the surface. At crucial moments, I have the last say. Don't be a burden."

"Why should you be in charge? I'm Gao Zhiming too!"

"Because you are too impulsive. We almost died in Laboratory Three because of you."

"Hey, wasn't it because of me that we seized so many relics and managed to significantly increase our combat power in such a short time? That was my achievement!"

"You were created by 096! I am the original!"

"Nonsense! Your memories are mine too! You are just a twin who appeared a few seconds earlier!"

The two personalities started another round of heated argument that even came close to having a physical confrontation. However, a resolution had to be reached. And after a long negotiation, the two finally reached the consensus to live peacefully with each other.

They decide the shifts where each personality had control over the body. Not only that, they even decided on the rules for other matters such that they could avoid a crisis if they had conflicting opinions during a crucial moment.

Staring at the diary filled with their densely written agreement, Charles, under the control of his alter ego, pursed his lips.

"All these pointless rules that don't even address the most important issue. What if Anna changes her mind and comes back one day? Do we make her wear a mask to create another alter ego for her? Does the mask even work on her?"

"Don't bring her up. She won't be coming back." Charles closed the diary and began to remove the bandages from his face.

"Tsk. What's the point of lying to yourself?"

"It's my time now, shut up."

"Hold on, we haven't decided on how we should address each other. We can't both be Charles. I'm saying this first, I won't be called Number 2."

"I'm One. You're Two."

"How boring. Hold on... let me come up with a cool name. Hmm... How about Richard?"

Charles couldn't be bothered to reply. Picking the diary up, he casually tossed it at the table beside him. To his surprise, the notebook landed upright on the table.

Charles stared at his hands in surprise. How had he done that?

A sudden thought flashed across Charles' mind. Removing a metal rivet from his flesh, Charles flung it at the wall and accurately hit and pinned a tiny bug to the surface.

He swiftly extinguished the oil lamp on the table and realized that he could see perfectly in the pitch-black darkness. He was certain about the situation now.

Charles was in a dilemma if this was a blessing or a curse. Due to the new alter ego created, he could now maintain the enhanced capabilities granted when wearing 096 around the clock, even when he was not wearing the mask.

"OMG! It's a blessing of course, bro! We are the shit now!"

Hearing the voice in his head again, Charles felt that if he were given a choice, he would rather not have such a "blessing".

Bang!

The door was pushed open with a loud bang. Laesto had returned after a not-too-long moment. He replaced the emptied IV bag with a new one.

"Lie down, take the drip," Laesto instructed.

"Where's my relic?"

"Don't worry. Let me do some experiments in the meantime. Psychology is a complex field, but I might be able to find a solution."

"When will my injuries be completely healed?"

"Two months."

"Can't it be faster?" Charles tried to bargain.

"No! Do you have any idea how gravely injured you were? Two months is already the earliest you can fully recover. Just to let you know, I had to use some potent medicine to pull you back from Hell. Because of their side effects, you might not live past forty."

The shocking news was so alarming that Richard immediately seized control of Charles' body and questioned, "Are you nuts? You halved my life just to treat some mere injuries?"

"Halving your life? If I didn't save you, you wouldn't have half to even speak of. If it were another doctor on board, you would be dead by now!"

Charles accepted the news more readily than his alter ego. He wrestled back control from Richard and asked, "Doctor, how long has it been since we left Sottom?"

"About two weeks. In order to avoid the pirates, they plan to take a detour back to the Coral Archipelago," Laesto answered and turned to leave.

Feeling the throbbing pain from the wounds on his body, Charles knew he needed immediate rest. However, there was still one thing he needed to sort out.

Shakily, he jumped off his bed. and flipped open his diary to the page where he had drawn the nautical chart. He then compared it to the other one he had in his possession.

"Here's Albion, and this is Whereto. The bearing defined by the angle between these two islands leads straight to the waters with sunlight. So that old sea shanty was wrong all along. The Land of Light is not in the north; it's actually to the south," Charles' voice was filled with determination.

On the nautical chart, the darkened regions in the south had been marked out by Charles. Various pins that resembled islands were marked out accurately on the map.

In the newly charted sea region, islands were scattered like stars in the sky. There was a large distance from one island to another.

"Bro, this is gonna be tricky. Look at how far that unexplored farthest island is from an existing human habitat. Given the capacity of the Narwhale, we'll be out of fuel halfway."

"If the Sottom pirates can get there, so can we. There must be resupply points between these islands. We just need to find them to explore the further islands."

"Alright! We can finally go back now! When we are out of this place, I'll publish a book. I even thought of the title already: Twenty Thousand Miles in the Subterranean Sea. It's sure to become a top seller!"

Charles laid back on the bed. He hardly moved much, but blood was seeping from his wounds again.

"All of that doesn't matter. I just want to go home."

"Yeah... Home... It's been eight long years. I bet our sister is all grown up now, huh?"

As Richard chattered away, Charles slowly closed his eyes.