Shrouded Seascape

The man was an old man with gray hair matted into clumps and bloodshot eyes. The foul juices from the barrels had completely soaked through his tattered clothes, so he had the same stench as the filthy contents of the barrels.

The most eye-catching feature of the old man was his head, which was significantly larger than his slender frame, making him appear like a large-headed doll.

"Is he really Nene's father? Daddy, are you sure about this?" Sparkle asked. She found it hard to believe that the old man was Nene's father. Nene was so young, so how could her father be an old man?

"He has been working day and night in a place like this for quite some time now, so it's already a miracle that he's still alive. It's not strange that he looks a bit older than expected," Charles said. He had just finished his words when a tall, thin, old man swaggered over with a crowd behind him.

The tall, thin, old man glared at Charles, but his fierce expression vanished as soon as he reached Charles. With reverence in his gaze, he looked down and knelt on one knee.

"What's happened to this guy's brain?" Charles asked.

Despite being questioned by a stranger, the tall, thin, old man answered with no reservations, revealing everything he knew. "Lord, the blood sac worms have already devoured almost his entire brain. We have to use those worms to ensure that slaves like him would not run away.

"We stripped them of everything except for their instincts to work, which we ingrained in them using the whip. My father accidentally discovered those worms while exploring an island, and they became the secret to our family's wealth.

"These slaves are the reason our pork is the cheapest out there. If it hadn't been for our cheap prices, our canned products wouldn't have become ubiquitous in the seascape."

Charles was not interested in how the sac worms made their way into the brains of these people. He wanted nothing but to resolve this matter right away and get back to his own business.

"Is there any way to cure them?"

"Sorry, there's no way at all. He is no longer capable of independent thoughts."

Charles stayed silent. The next moment, invisible tentacles sprang up, wrapping around the old man. The front end of one of the tentacles split open, revealing rows of sharp teeth.

The teeth cracked open the old man's scalp, which had become almost transparent due to the parasites beneath it. In an instant, the writhing white worms were exposed to the air.

The old man's brain had transformed into what looked like a yellowed, rotten piece of tofu. From its appearance alone, one could tell that the old man's brain was no longer functioning.

"Except for the brain stem, everything else has been devoured by these worms," Charles said. His tentacles moved gently, peeling away the piece of "rotten tofu."

Sparkle reached out to take it, and she examined it carefully. "It's such a mess inside. His fragmented memories are all jumbled together; it's like a dilapidated ruin."

The condition of Nene's father evoked a keen sense of regret in Sparkle. There was no way she could bring him home, as Nene would surely be more heartbroken if she were to see him in such a state.

"Don't lose heart. Let me think about it. I'm sure there's still a way to restore him to full health, and it is certainly easier and more straightforward than conjuring a copy of him out of thin air," Charles muttered.

A few seconds later, Charles looked up, and a man standing next to him lowered his head, presenting it to Charles.

Charles proceeded to peel the man's brain before turning to look at his daughter and saying, "Come here and help me. Help me clear out everything inside. This container has to be clean."

Sparkle hurriedly complied, organizing and repairing the fragmented memories in Nene's father's brain before transferring them over to this brand-new brain.

The thin black tentacles on Charles' head wriggled, crawling across the brain. A moment later, they bulged as if they had just grown muscles from out of nowhere.

Charles connected the brand-new brain to the old man's brain stem, and the black tentacles spread throughout the old man's body through his blood vessels.

Sparkle saw that and understood what her father was trying to do. She went over in a hurry and assisted him. The father and daughter pooled together their efforts on one task, creating a heartwarming scene.

It was like a father and daughter pair were working together to complete the latter's school handicraft projects. Thanks to their joint effort, the brain transplant succeeded, and the old man's fragmented memories were restored.

Some of those memories were the old man's original memories, but the majority of them were fabricated based on Donna's recollections.

Within a residential community somewhere on Hope Island, Donna was softly humming along with the music from the television.

"What's wrong, Nene? Why are you so quiet today? Did you get scolded by the teacher at school?" Donna asked.

The dejected-looking Nene sitting on the sofa sat up straight and smiled for her mother's sake. "No, I'm doing well with my studies, so the teacher loves me."

"Then, what's wrong? Why do I feel like you're different today compared to yesterday? Was dinner not delicious today?"

Just then, there was knocking on the door.

It had been a long time since Donna left the World's Crown, so she had already adapted to the safe life on Hope Island. In other words, knocking on the door at night could no longer make her feel nervous.

"Nene, open the door and see who's there."

"Okay," the little girl replied, walking to the door in her slippers. She grabbed the doorknob and turned it gently.

The bright light from inside the house illuminated the visitor's face—the face of an old man who looked to be at least seventy years old.

Hunched over, the old man's lips were trembling slightly, and his yellowed eyes were filled with hot tears.

"Nene, who is it?"

Nene seemed a bit shy in the face of a stranger. She leaned against the door and turned toward the kitchen, shouting, "It's an old man! I haven't seen him before, and he's not one of our neighbors."

Donna walked over in puzzlement, but she froze as if she had been struck by lightning as soon as she saw the visitor's face.

"I'm so sorry, Donna. I'm sorry… for coming back home late," the old man said. His hoarse, quavering voice was filled with indescribable emotions.

Donna completely lost her composure at that. She pounced on him and cried while pounding his shoulders with her hands.

Nene was terrified by the sight. "Mom, w-who is he?!"

"He... he's your father!"

Nene was startled, and she unconsciously retreated half a step backward. The word "father" was a word she rarely heard in this household, so she was at a loss for what to do

When her aged father with a bed of white hair extended his right hand toward her, however, the corners of Nene's mouth curved down, and she rushed forward, crying her heart out with her parents.

Unbeknownst to them, a certain father and daughter pair were sitting on a bench outside, quietly listening to their joyful sobs beneath a dim street light.

"Thank you, Daddy."

"Don't mention it. There's no need for thanks between family."

Sparkle tilted her head slightly and rested it on Charles' shoulder as she silently watched the heartwarming scene in the distance.

Thirty minutes later, the distant door was finally closed. Sparkle turned to Charles and asked, "Daddy, nothing's going to go wrong, right?"

On the surface, it appeared like they had repaired the old man's brain, but what they had done was create a parasitic monster that they had inserted into the fleshly body of Nene's father to think for the latter.

Strictly speaking, that fleshly body was being controlled not by its original owner but by that tentacled brain monster.

"Don't worry; an individual's conduct and behavior depends entirely on their environment. As long as he has a human body, a human thought process, and he's living among humans, he'll ultimately become human despite his true nature."

Upon hearing that, Sparkle's heart trembled slightly, and she almost blurted out her thoughts. Is that why you put Mommy in a human body and sent her to the surface world? Is that your goal?