Chapter 261: Heading Home (II)

The patrol boat sliced through the dark, churning waters of the channel, its old combustion engine vibrating rhythmically against the steel floorplates.

For nearly two days, the ocean had offered no warmth. The sky above was a bruised ceiling of rolling grey thunderheads that completely blotted out the sun, painting the open sea in an unbroken twilight. The wind blew bitter and cold, carrying the sharp tang of brine mixed with the persistent, rancid stench of sulfur drifting from distant continental battlefields.

Kiko stood at the wooden helm inside the small, enclosed pilot cabin, her knuckles white around the wheel.

The girl barely slept. Every few hours, her dark eyes would flick nervously through the cracked windshield toward the water ahead, then dart toward the stern where Hide sat. Even without his draconic scales, the pressure radiating from the silver-haired young man was anything but human.

The ocean was no longer a safe transit route.

Twice during the crossing, colossal aquatic Calamity beasts—leviathans covered in jagged bone armor with multiple glowing crimson eyes—had breached the dark waves a few hundred yards off their starboard side.

But each time the creatures turned their predatory gazes toward the lone boat, they would sense Hide’s presence because he has been keeping Abyssal will Active all the time. Now, Hide was a predator far higher on the food chain, so the massive beasts had immediately submerged, fleeing back into the deep trenches.

Though, if any of them tried to attack. It was the best time, because using the talent for so long pushed Hide to his limits. He sat there thinking of Doom Overseer and Drogon and the system.

On the morning of the third day, the low silhouette of a landmass finally pierced the sea fog.

The Southern Continent.

Kiko throttled the engine down, letting the patrol boat drift into the sheltered mouth of a secluded, rocky cove along the rocky southern coastline. She turned her head toward the cabin doorway, her voice hesitant.

“We’re nearing the outer coastal shelf of the southern continent,” Kiko said, wiping sweat from her face. “If we take the boat into the municipal harbor, the naval automated sensors will flag the hull before we can even drop anchor, if they are active of course. Might as well have been abandoned or destroyed. But our best course of action is to beach it here in the rocks.”

Hide stepped inside the cabin, his hands buried deep inside the pockets of his blue jacket. His eyes swept across the coastline. The harbor had people, and he also confirmed that the rocky beach was devoid of corporate patrols and surveillance cameras.

“Beach it,” Hide agreed.

Kiko steered the patrol boat into the shallows until the keel ground heavily against the gravel and wet sand, lodging the vessel securely between two sea stacks.

Before they stepped onto the deck, Kiko glanced at Hide’s face. Her brow furrowed, a trace of hesitation in her posture.

“Hide… you can’t walk into a populated area’s looking like that,” she warned softly. “Your face was broadcast across every network during the World Tournament. And after what happened in the Dead Zone… Walter has likely plastered your picture everywhere.”

Hide didn’t answer with words, but she was right. He didn’t want to stir unnecessary things.

He closed his eyes, thinking of something when he remembered that he could probably use the slime like that too.

The Abyssal Slime stirred beneath his collar. A thin, semi-liquid layer peeled away, creeping upward along his neck and spreading smoothly across his jaw, cheeks, and forehead like a membrane.

The slime subtly compressed and shifted. It flattened the high sharpness of his cheekbones, broadened the bridge of his nose by a fraction of an inch, and rounded the lethal contour of his jawline. The membrane extended upward into his scalp, coating his shining silver hair in a dull, matte ash-brown hue.

When Hide opened his eyes, he was no longer the striking, fearsome boy. He looked like a thoroughly plain, weathered refugee in his early twenties—tired, unremarkable, and completely forgettable in a crowd.

Kiko stared at him, her mouth parting slightly in awe. “That… that’s incredible. Even up close, the texture looks completely like real skin.”

Hide then ordered the slime to do the same to her face. She squeaked a little but, looked happy after it was done.

“Let’s move,” He said, his voice slightly muffled as he adjusted to the layer over his throat.

They vaulted over the railing into the knee-deep surf, trudging through the cold foam onto the rocky beach. Leaving the derelict patrol boat wedged among the sea stacks, they climbed the steep coastal bluffs, heading inland toward the regional transport arteries connecting the coast to the provincial sectors.

The closer they got to the mainland highway, the heavier the silence became.

The cracked asphalt of the coastal highway stretched endlessly into the northern horizon.

Weeds and mutated briars clawed through the fissures in the pavement, their blackened leaves shivering in the cold wind. Every few miles, burned-out civilian sedans and overturned military transports rusted in the ditches, stripped bare by looters weeks ago.

Hide walked with a complicated look on his face.

Half a step behind him, Kiko matched his stride. She kept her hood pulled low, shielding her cropped grey hair from the bitter gusts. Every few paces, her eyes darted sideways toward Hide’s profile. Whenever he shifted his weight or glanced toward the tree line, she would immediately flinch and avert her gaze, staring down at her boots as if terrified of stepping on a landmine.

“You’ve been staring at me for hours,” Hide said, his voice flat and calm. “If you have something to say, just say it.”

Kiko jumped slightly, her shoulders tensing. She bit her lip, wringing her hands inside her sleeves before finding the nerve to speak.

“Does it… feel strange?” she asked cautiously, her voice barely louder than the wind. “Coming back here?”

“Strange how?”

“Everything,” she murmured, gesturing vaguely toward the scarred plains. “Two months ago, you had your own agency. You were leading people. Now… you’re walking through the ruins of your own continent, and everyone thinks you’re a monster.”

Hide looked out over the desolate expanse.

“The world was already broken before they put a bounty on my head,” Hide answered quietly. “People just need a monster to point at so they don’t have to face who’s really pulling the strings.”

Kiko lowered her head. “I know how that feels. When Julian scouted me, he told me I should be grateful he pulled an orphan out of the slums. But whenever an operation went wrong, or whenever Anyone got injured… it was always my fault. Arius said I brought bad luck.”

Hide glanced down at her. “Why did you stay?”

“Where else could I go?” Kiko offered a fragile, self-deprecating smile. “If you’re an orphan with no talent, the streets swallow you whole. Even if they treated me like dirt, they gave me food and a cot. In a world like this, that was enough to keep your mouth shut.”

She hesitated, her fingers twisting into the hem of her jacket as she worked up the courage to ask the question that had clearly been haunting her.

“The girl… Risa,” Kiko whispered softly, watching his reaction with immense care. “You cared about her a lot, didn’t you?”