The sea breeze, carrying the chill of broken ice, blew across the massive deck floating on the sea of ice fragments.
Lorne's small boat had long since disappeared into the horizon where the sea met the sky, leaving only chaos behind.
The surviving Marines huddled on the wooden planks, their bodies trembling incessantly from cold and fear.
They gazed blankly at the endless expanse of floating ice all around them, then looked at each other's pale faces, feeling a sense of relief at having survived.
After an unknown amount of time, a young Marine finally could not bear the oppressive atmosphere any longer and let out a stifled sob.
This sob was like a switch, instantly igniting everyone's emotions.
"Bastard… it's all Mouse's fault…"
A Marine growled through gritted teeth, smashing his fist hard against the deck beneath him; the back of his hand was instantly sliced open by rough wooden splinters, blood seeping out.
"He deserved to die! If he hadn't taken the initiative to provoke that monster, we wouldn't have ended up in this state!"
Another voice filled with resentment chimed in.
"Monster? That was practically a devil… fortunately, he didn't spare us another glance…"
The atmosphere on the deck became complicated.
No one felt any sadness over Colonel Mouse's death; there was only disdain, relief, and deep lingering fear.
That despicable superior officer had wanted to use their lives to satisfy his own greed, and in the end, had even tried to use their flesh and blood to pave his own path to escape; his death was, in everyone's eyes, truly gratifying.
But what about after the relief?
They had been abandoned on this frozen sea, their food and fresh water had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and it seemed their fate would just have to depend on luck!
Just as everyone was falling into despair, the young Marine who had once been used as a human shield by Mouse struggled to stand up.
His legs were still shaking, but his spine was straight.
"Don't just sit there waiting to die!" he shouted hoarsely, "We can't just give up like this!"
His words were not loud, but they struck a heavy blow to everyone's heart.
A Marine petty officer with a slightly higher rank also stood up. He patted the young Marine's shoulder and then turned to the others:
"Collect all the usable wooden planks and make them into oars! We'll eventually run into a shipping route or an island!"
The desire to survive finally overcame the fear. The Marines began to take action, attempting to fight for a chance at survival in this sea of broken ice.
Meanwhile, Lorne's small boat was sailing steadily on the blue sea, riding the wind.
The surrounding floating ice had long since vanished, and the warm sunlight shining upon him dispelled the lingering chill brought by the ice field from before.
He took a piece of dried food from the cabin and chewed it unhurriedly, but his thoughts drifted back to that sea of broken ice he had created with his own hands.
For those trapped Marines, Lorne did not feel much guilt.
He was not a bloodthirsty person; those low-level soldiers had never truly attacked him from start to finish, and one had even tried to speak up for him.
He couldn't bring himself to implicate everyone because of the sins of Mouse alone.
Besides, Lorne had left them a way to survive.
If they were lucky, they could be rescued after drifting for two or three days and encountering passing merchant ships or Marine patrol vessels.
If they were less lucky, drifting for five or six days, with the physique of Marine soldiers, they should be able to hold on as long as they didn't encounter extreme weather.
As for whether they would be unlucky enough to be treated as snacks by large Sea Kings… that would just have to depend on their own fate.
There was another purpose for Lorne doing this, which was to buy time.
By the time they were rescued and reported the news to the 16th Branch, for the Branch to organize the intelligence and report it to Marine Headquarters, for those people at Marine Headquarters to hold meetings and discuss, determine his danger level, set a bounty amount, and finally distribute the bounty order to Marine branches and bounty hunters all over the world…
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