Chapter 16: Scraping Barnacles Off a Whale.

The commotion finally subsided, and the three of them continued to head toward Sun Island.

“Phew, at last we can set off in peace… pfft! Finally we can get moving,” Ning Jingjing said as she paddled and enjoyed the scenery.

They had now paddled to the middle of the sea, where the water deepened from a clear lake-blue to an inky dark blue, and looking down made them inexplicably afraid.

It felt like what people call thalassophobia!

After paddling for so long, Sun Island felt both close at hand and far away on the horizon.

A huge dark silhouette appeared beneath the raft, and Ning Jingjing screamed, “Ah! Look… what is that in the water?”

The three of them looked down and saw a black mass under the raft that was about 4 or 5 times the size of the little raft.

“This can’t be a huge shark, can it? It’ll eat us!” she cried.

“Ah! I don’t want to die yet!” someone shouted.

Such a large shadow also made Li Chenfeng break out in a cold sweat, and he forced himself to calm down and think.

“Don’t panic; sharks generally hunt in groups, and there’s only this one here, and we didn’t see any fins on the surface, so judging by the shadow’s size it doesn’t seem to be a shark,” he said.

Ning Jingjing patted her chest and said, “Oh! Thank goodness, it’s not a shark!”

Lu Xinyao also breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “Then what is that dark shape?”

“It should be a whale!” someone replied.

“What? A whale? Isn’t that even bigger than a shark?” Ning Jingjing exclaimed, and she pinched the spot above her upper lip to stop herself from fainting from surprise.

Lu Xinyao, who had just relaxed, felt her heart leap back up into her throat.

“If it opens its mouth, won’t the raft and the three of us go straight into its belly?” she asked.

“Although whales are huge, they generally do not attack humans, so let’s wait and see,” someone said calmly.

They said polite things outwardly, but inside they had already thought of retreat, since such a massive creature could kill the three of them with the flick of a tail.

At that moment the shadow was almost flush against the underside of the raft, and Li Chenfeng, with a try-it-and-see attitude, reached out and touched the whale’s skin.

『Please light a fire before sunset to ward off the cold. A 7-year-old juvenile sperm whale with a gentle, non-aggressive temperament; Task: Remove the barnacles parasitizing the whale’s body.』

What! Such a huge creature is still a juvenile, and even weirder, it seems to be asking us to scrape its barnacles!

“If I told you it’s still a juvenile, would you believe me?” someone asked.

“Huh? Then how big must its mother be?” came the reply.

“Would its mother eat us like a snack?” another asked.

“And if I told you it’s only asking us to help scrape its barnacles, would you believe that?” the first person said.

“Scrape what? Xinyao, what does he mean by ‘scrape’?” someone demanded.

“Barnacles, barnacles! Jingjing, are your ears not working?” another said.

“Oh, barnacles, barnacles… what are they, Xinyao?” Jingjing asked.

“Bar… barnacles, what are barnacles, Chenfeng?” someone stammered.

“Barnacles are calcified-shelled arthropods that attach to coastal rocks and are hermaphroditic with extremely rapid reproduction; they typically cling to piers, rocks, and ship bottoms and can even parasitize slow-moving, rough-skinned animals like whales,” someone explained.

“When present in excessive numbers they increase the host’s body burden, slow movement, and pose a serious threat to survival, and at the same time barnacles are a luxury ingredient said to be very tasty,” the explanation continued.

“I see! Isn’t that so pitiful?” one of them said.

“Yes, yes! Its mother isn’t around either; it’s such a poor little baby… we have to help it!” another added.

Li Chenfeng was deeply shaken; he had been worried about being eaten a moment ago and now found himself sympathizing with it and even calling it a little baby.

“I don’t understand! But I’m really shocked!” someone exclaimed.

Before long the whale swam to the front of the raft and surfaced, blocking their path.

Good grief… it had decided to cling to them!

“Don’t make any sudden moves; stay on the raft and keep it steady, leave the rest to me,” Li Chenfeng instructed.

“Okay! No problem!” they replied.

Li Chenfeng picked up a stone axe as a tool and began to inspect the whale’s body.

There were large numbers of gray-white barnacles on its head and back, so densely packed that Li Chenfeng felt his skin crawl.

It looked so unpleasant that if they weren’t scraped off he guessed he’d lose his appetite.

He worked along the raft to clear the barnacles from the head, pushing hard with the axe and knocking off a large pile, which he put onto the raft.

They could still be eaten, so they shouldn’t go to waste, and Li Chenfeng mainly worried that if the barnacles fell back into the sea some unlucky sap would have to deal with them.

Some stubborn ones required repeated scraping and some even tore the whale’s skin and caused it to bleed, but fortunately the whale seemed to know someone was helping it and lay perfectly still.

“Phew, the head’s done, now the back,” they said as they paddled the raft nearer to the whale’s back, where the barnacles were even more numerous than on the head.

Li Chenfeng’s obsessive streak flared and he privately vowed, (I will never stop fighting barnacles!).

After more than half an hour of scraping, the barnacles on the back were finally done, and the pile on the raft had formed a small mountain.

But the whale showed no sign of wanting to leave; had they not finished?

Li Chenfeng thought for a moment, took off his shirt, and prepared to go into the water to take a look.

“I’m going into the water to see how your baby is doing; stay on the raft and don’t move,” he said.

Having said that, he grabbed his axe and plunged into the sea.

Under the whale it was obvious that whales are the largest mammals in the world; at only 5 years old it was already this enormous.

Its chin was covered with a large number of barnacles, so he swam up for a plastic bag and then dove down to start work.

After a long time, Li Chenfeng still had not resurfaced for air, and the two girls were so frightened they were nearly in tears.

“Li Chenfeng! Can you hear me? Come up now!” they shouted.

“I can swim; I’m going down to check,” came the reply.

Ning Jingjing grabbed Lu Xinyao and said, “No, Li Chenfeng told us not to move.”

Just then the whale sprayed a huge spout of water from its blowhole and slowly began to move.

Li Chenfeng then poked his head up, holding high a large, full bag of spoils, and said, “Tonight we’re having a barnacle feast.”

“That’s great! He’s alright!” they cheered.

“Chenfeng, you really scared us; we thought something had happened to you,” someone scolded.

“Yeah, Xinyao was about to jump in to save you,” another added.

“Sorry for making you worry; I’ll be more careful next time!” Li Chenfeng said.

『Please light a fire before sunset to ward off the cold. Task complete! Stamina +10! Talent +10!』

Li Chenfeng checked the time; it was 12:30 p.m.

“Let’s eat some lunch first before setting off again,” he suggested.

The three of them ate cassava as they waved goodbye to the departing whale.

“Goodbye, baby whale! If you’re in trouble next time, remember to seek out humans!” they called.

“Jingjing, aside from us there’s probably no other humans here,” someone observed.

“Goodbye! Go home and find your mother!” they shouted.

Li Chenfeng watched the whale recede, and it had been a strange and wonderful experience that he had actually scraped barnacles off a whale with his own hands, which would give him an awesome story to brag about for years.

With their energy replenished, everyone had regained some strength.

“It’s getting late; let’s try to reach Sun Island as quickly as we can,” someone urged.

“Okay!” they answered.