Chapter 1427: You Lose

Ning brought their group of 4 now to the docks of the city. Even as they did, Tony started telling Ning how bad of an idea going into the reef was.

There was a reason why the Great Reef was uncharted. It was because one couldn't chart it at all.

"You must believe me when I say this is a death wish," Tony said. "I swear to you that we will die."

"And I swear to you that we will be fine," Ning said.

Tim and Jasmine had tried saying a few things, but they had long since become accustomed to Ning doing whatever he wanted to do and coming out correct.

They simply followed him to the docks, knowing there was no ship there waiting for them there. They were going to see what next thing Ning pulled out of nowhere for them to witness, quite literally in fact.

Tony tried to argue, walking around in his bulky clothes which made people look at him as though they were looking at a madman. However, it was the thing that saved Tony's life right now, so he had to continue wearing it no matter what.

"How about this?" Ning said. "Let us just go to the edge of the reef and we can decide whether it is a good idea to go in or not," Ning said. "Would that qualm your fears?"

The professor thought for a moment and finally calmed down. "If you can see to reason then, I agree."

"Great," Ning said. "We should be there soon."

They arrived onto the docks with many massive vessels tied around, and a few even being loaded and unloaded with massive wooden carts. These were all trading vessels as this was the main purpose of the port in most cases.

These ships also worked doubly as traveling ships, but they usually took fewer travelers than they did goods.

"Where is our ship? It can't be one of these larger ones, right?" Tony asked.

"Our ship is right over there," Ning said, pointing towards a boat in the distance that was the same as the many large ships that were around the docking areas.

In fact, that ship was unloading many of its cargo at the moment. Tim and Jasmine gave curious looks at each other, wondering when Ning had the time to buy himself a cargo ship.

"We're going on that massive ship?" Tony asked.

"What? No, not the ship. That, there," he pointed again.

This time, they tried to look closely, but there was nothing of note in that area aside from that cargo ship.

"What are you pointing at, sir Ning?" Tim asked.

Ning sighed and pointed at the location once again, and by the time the three could try and guess, they had already arrived at the location.

It was an empty spot.

Jasmine gave an angry look. "Are you trying to joke right now?" she asked.

"Joke? Of course not," Ning said.

"Then where is the ship?" she demanded.

Ning simply pointed at the empty location again.

The other three looked at each other, trying to see if they could tell what was happening.

"Hahaha!" Ning suddenly started laughing out loud and the other three looked at him as though he was mad. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was joking."

"What was funny about that joke?" Tony asked. "I thought jokes were supposed to be funny."

"It's funny to me," Ning said. "Never mind that. What I wanted to say is that this is where our ship will be in less than a minute. Right here."

"Right here?" Tony asked.

"Is the ship coming from somewhere?" Jasmine asked. "Or is it going to appear out of nowhere?" Ning thought for a moment and said, "What if I tell you that it will be here when you are not watching," he said.

"Is that a dare?" Jasmine asked.

"It can be," Ning said. "Should it be?"

"What do I get in return if I do see the ship arriving," Jasmine asked.

"Then I'll give you another Zurin treasure on top of the 3 I promised," Ning said.

Jasmine's eyes widened with glee. "Alright, I'll hold you up on it," she said.

Tim didn't know what was happening, but he did not want any part of this at all. "Can we just get onto our ship, please? I don't want to stay in this place for too long if possible. I can smell a faint smell of rotting fish in the air and it is nauseating."

"Same for me," Tony said as well. "And on top of that, I might die from this heat if we don't move too soon."

"I'm sorry, but I must watch this ship appear in front of me," Jasmine said. "If I see it, I will get another treasure."

"Will you even see it?" Tim asked. "He is going to do something and cover your eyes or something."

Jasmine got an alert. "Are you going to do that?" she asked without turning her head away.

"What?" Ning asked as if hurt by the assumption alone. "I would never do that."

He walked to the edge of the deck and said, "But I will do this." He leaned outwards and fell into the ocean with a large splash.

All three of them rushed to the edge to look below at the rippling water and couldn't see him at all.

"Wait, he jumped? Why?" Tony began worrying. "He'll die."

"Don't worry about him," Jasmine said. "The last thing that will happen here is his death. I'm more worried that he intends to splash water—"

A deafening explosion drowned Jasmine's words as the dockyard shook from the sound alone.

The entire world seemed to go silent for a bit as all heads turned toward the sky where the sound had originated from. Pink powder fell from the sky in every direction, and as it did, it momentarily spelled out a single word.

YOU LOSE.

Jasmine read the words and quickly turned her head downward to see Ning standing atop a ship with just a smile on his face.