Ch.8181. Ghost Ship of the East Sea (3)

To determine the identity of the ghost ship that appeared in the sea, Baek Seol-hwa dispatched a coastal patrol boat docked in Pohang.

The coastal patrol boat carried marines loyal to the Balhut Cult, and Baek Seol-hwa and Kim Tae-sik boarded the patrol ship that would accompany it, making it the fleet command ship.

Of course, it was actually Captain Kim Tae-sik who commanded the fleet, not Baek Seol-hwa, but no one questioned the fact that Baek Seol-hwa was the commander-in-chief.

“Hehe. It’s a reassuring sight. Though modest compared to before.”

“Because the great Dragon God’s blessing is with us. If necessary, Lord Bahamut himself will grace the East Sea with his presence.”

They felt reassured simply by the fact that they were with the Dragon Priestess.

The marines and Kim Tae-sik believed that as long as they were with Baek Seol-hwa, they would surely have the blessing of the Dragon God Bahamut.

That’s what it meant to have the Dragon God Bahamut with them.

“Well then. I’ll leave it to you, Division Commander Kim Tae-sik.”

“Of course. All fleet units. Move out!”

With that, the coastal patrol boat and the patrol ship began cutting through the sea, heading out to the East Sea, and before long…

“There really seems to be an unidentified vessel at sea.”

“A ghost ship?”

“I’m not sure. However, most of the vessels detected on radar appear to be unidentified fishing boats that haven’t been granted departure permission from Pohang.”

Pohang, which had entered reconstruction, was managing departure permits and port entries for registered vessels to avoid maritime accidents.

Naturally, fishing boats departing from Pohang were managed under Pohang’s administrative network, and through that management network, they kept track of vessels entering and leaving Pohang.

Baek Seol-hwa had received a report on the vessels entering and departing today before setting sail, and the patrol ship seemed to have discovered unidentified fishing boats not listed in that report.

“Is that the ghost ship Lord Bahamut mentioned?”

“I don’t know if that’s the ghost ship the Dragon God mentioned. But we came with the intention of searching all ghost ships in our waters, so let’s have the patrol boat investigate the interior. Oh, and it would be good to warn the marines that there might be zombies inside.”

“Understood. Patrol boat. The patrol ship has spotted a suspected ghost ship nearby. Marines on the patrol boat, prepare to approach the unidentified fishing vessel and board!”

“Roger.”

When the unidentified fishing boat appeared, Kim Tae-sik first asked Seol-hwa, the highest authority, if that was the ghost ship the Dragon God had mentioned, to which Baek Seol-hwa replied that she didn’t know.

However, she answered that they had set out to identify all ghost ships in the East Sea anyway, and Baek Seol-hwa unhesitatingly ordered the ghost ship to be secured.

Hearing that order, Kim Tae-sik connected communications with the coastal patrol boat made for coastal patrols and ordered it to approach the unidentified fishing vessel.

“Closer! Get closer!”

“Board!”

The patrol boat faithfully carried out Kim Tae-sik’s orders, smoothly approaching the unidentified fishing vessel drifting at sea, and the marines aboard the patrol boat boarded the drifting ship with nimble movements.

As if they had mastered the know-how, the marines showed no fear in boarding the drifting vessel.

‘Hehe. I was right to gather personnel from the maritime guard for this.’

For this operation, Kim Tae-sik had used his pre-apocalypse connections to recruit people who had originally worked in the Coast Guard to join the marines participating in this operation, and he had passed on the Coast Guard’s know-how to the marines under his command. Thanks to this, they were able to smoothly board the drifting fishing vessel despite being on a fast-moving patrol boat.

After confirming that all marines had safely boarded the unidentified fishing vessel without any accidents, Kim Tae-sik breathed a sigh of relief that there were no problems with the operation.

“Boarding complete! We’ll check the interior of the cabin!”

‘So far I haven’t disappointed the Dragon Priestess.’

He secretly glanced at Dragon Priestess Baek Seol-hwa, who was calmly sitting in her chair.

The marines who had safely boarded the ghost ship grabbed their weapons and immediately entered the interior cabin.

“Grrrr.”

“Zombies! There are zombies inside the fishing boat!”

“Take them all out!”

After confirming that there were zombies in the cabin and navigation room, they began suppressing them with rifles.

Although they had brought Bahamut Bullets for this operation, after confirming that the zombies on the fishing boat were ordinary zombies, they shot them with rifles and quickly suppressed them.

Unlike in the city, the captain and crew on the fishing boat couldn’t mount a mass offensive, so when the Awakened marines fired their bullets precisely, they were able to subdue them quickly.

The marines blew off their heads one by one to immobilize them and began thoroughly searching the navigation room and cabin to find zombies hiding inside the fishing boat.

“We’ve successfully secured the fishing vessel.”

“Are there any notable findings inside the ghost ship?”

The marine who had subdued the fishing vessel sent a communication to the patrol ship reporting the suppression, and Kim Tae-sik asked if there were any notable findings inside the ghost ship.

At that command, the marine checked the scene inside the cabin and navigation room once more.

“The captain and crew who were aboard the fishing vessel were all in a zombified state. Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be anything special. We’ll check the boarding records and navigation logs on the vessel.”

“Search thoroughly.”

“Roger.”

He reported that apart from the captain and crew turning into zombies, there was nothing unusual inside the fishing vessel, and said they would check the boarding records and navigation logs that might be inside.

Considering that the deck was full of zombies, it was an action taken with the certainty that there would be no survivors inside the vessel either.

“Then have the other patrol boats search for other ghost ships. Once you’ve secured the boarding records and navigation logs that might be inside the vessel, return to where the main force is.”

“Roger.”

Having confirmed the capture of one ghost ship, Kim Tae-sik immediately decided to search for other ghost ships.

Using the patrol ship’s radar network, they identified about 10 drifting ghost ships at sea, including the one they had just secured, and through the patrol boats, they quickly subdued the interiors of the ghost ships and secured the boarding records and navigation logs from the navigation rooms.

And after checking the boarding records and navigation logs secured from the ghost ships:

“Nine of the fishing vessels we’ve secured departed from port five months ago, that is, before the apocalypse, for fishing operations. The remaining one appears to be an illegal fishing vessel from another country.”

After checking the boarding records and navigation logs in the navigation rooms, they found that nine were fishing vessels that had departed from Pohang, and just one was an illegal fishing vessel that had intruded into Korean territorial waters.

With the exception of just one vessel, all were fishing boats that had departed from Pohang.

“What about the remaining one?”

“It seems to have come from China. Well, it’s rare in the East Sea, but wasn’t it something that happened occasionally?”

“Ah, I see.”

When Seol-hwa asked which country the remaining vessel was from, Kim Tae-sik replied that it was from China.

Despite no additional explanation, Baek Seol-hwa naturally understood.

Chinese illegal fishing vessels were information that Seol-hwa, who had lived in Pohang, was familiar with, and she had also heard that Chinese vessels engaged in illegal fishing in the East Sea, though rarely.

In reality, fleets of illegal fishing vessels from China mainly appeared in the West Sea and South Sea, but occasionally Chinese fishing vessels would appear in the East Sea as well.

“It seems there were many crew members who became zombies on fishing vessels that went out for fishing operations, more than we expected.”

“Unlike us who had places to escape to on land, those on fishing vessels had limited places to flee, so they couldn’t escape from zombies. It’s a tragic situation.”

However, most were fishermen who had departed from Pohang for fishing operations, and it seemed they had been killed by being bitten by zombified crew members they couldn’t escape from, or had become zombies themselves.

If it had been in a city, they could have fled from zombies, but on a fishing vessel surrounded by sea on all sides, there was no way to escape from zombies.

Moreover, when the zombie outbreak first occurred, they likely fell victim to zombies due to panic from the sudden situation.

Seol-hwa expressed sadness about the fate of the fishing vessels discovered at sea, and Kim Tae-sik described it as a tragic situation.

“But what we’ve found so far are just ghost ships drifting at sea. We haven’t discovered a proper ghost ship actually operated by zombies.”

“Haha. Don’t worry. We’ll soon find it with this patrol ship.”

However, they hadn’t yet discovered a real ghost ship operated by zombies.

What was on the fishing vessels were just ordinary zombies without intelligence, and the vessels were merely drifting at sea.

Baek Seol-hwa seemed to feel impatient as she sighed, and seeing her, Kim Tae-sik said with a confident expression, almost flatteringly, that they would find it soon.

“Division Commander.”

“What is it?”

“It seems we’ve found the ghost ship you mentioned.”

And then came the report of the discovery of the awaited ghost ship.

Kim Tae-sik, while inwardly thinking this was an excellent chance to make achievements, maintained a solemn expression as best he could and addressed the crew member who had made the report.

“Then report immediately. Why are you hesitating?”

“W-well…”

However, the crew member’s expression was not good.

Only after seeing the crew member trembling as if having discovered something impossible did Kim Tae-sik realize that something had gone wrong.

“It’s a fleet! The ghost ship isn’t just one, but a fleet composed of multiple vessels approaching our patrol ship!”

“Contact the patrol boats. Tell them to retreat from that area immediately!”

As his ominous premonition suggested, the crew member’s scream echoed inside the cabin.

The ghost ship had appeared, but the crew member screamed that it wasn’t just one ship but a ghost fleet composed of multiple vessels.

Upon hearing the report of a ghost fleet appearing, Kim Tae-sik, seemingly feeling a sense of crisis, ordered the patrol boats to retreat.

“Patrol boats! Abandon the boarded fishing vessels and leave that area immediately! Over!”

“R-roger!”

The patrol boat side also seemed to have discovered the ghost fleet, as the marines retrieved only the boarding records and navigation logs before boarding the patrol boats.

It was clearly visible to the marines’ eyes as well.

“W-what is that?”

“Looks like ghosts.”

Ghosts with semi-transparent forms.

Those ghosts were flying through the air, displaying the intimidating presence of the ghost ships and instilling fear in the marines who had boarded the fishing vessels.

What made the marines on the scene even more fearful was that the ghost ships before their eyes weren’t fantasy-like ghost ships but modern fishing vessels with advanced technology and…

“There are also military ships we had lost.”

It was a ghost fleet that included South Korean warships.

After confirming that numerous ships were forming a formation and approaching the patrol ship, Kim Tae-sik uttered despairing words that the ghost fleet included warships that had been in Pohang.

“To think zombies would actually be operating a fleet. What do you think, Division Commander Kim Tae-sik?”

“I can’t believe it.”

He couldn’t believe it.

As a marine division commander who had commanded numerous warships, this shocking sight was even more unbelievable.

“Even if mutant zombies have intelligence, it’s not possible for just one person to operate such a large-scale fleet!”

After all, ships weren’t easy to operate, and crew members or technicians were absolutely necessary to control ships.

Moreover, to form such a large-scale fleet, education and a command system would be needed, and it was nothing short of a miracle that mutant zombies could create a fleet and advance with it.

“Yet they can operate it so efficiently?”

“If you ask me that, I can only answer that I don’t know.”

Kim Tae-sik screamed in disbelief at the incredible sight, shouting how it was possible for mutant zombies to do this.

To that, Seol-hwa maintained a calm appearance and said she couldn’t answer, but…

“The Dragon God says that it’s now more fitting to call them undead rather than zombies.”

“Undead…!”

She calmed the captain and crew by mentioning the words left by the great Dragon God.

Indeed, since zombies are also a type of undead, if they’ve transcended the limitations of zombies, it’s not strange to call them undead.