A tributor used a scabbard to nudge a corpse lying next to the ship's helm.
The corpse wore a tattered red-haired barbarian-style short shirt and breeches, but the exposed skin appeared eerily gray and withered, tightly clinging to the bones, as if sun-dried for months.
The eye sockets were sunken, the eyeballs missing, leaving only two pitch-black cavities, and the mouth gaped wide, revealing similarly shrunken, blackened gums.
The body was unusually "clean," devoid of signs of decay, as if all moisture had been drained out.
But here we are, at sea...
"Not just one!"
Long Yan'er suppressed her nausea and pointed towards the cabin entrance and the area near the fallen mast.
Everyone dispersed to check, their hearts growing heavier.
More than a dozen corpses lay sprawled around, all in the same shriveled, frightening state.
Their clothing and some remaining hair color unmistakably indicated that they were once red-haired pirate marauders sailing the seas.
