Chapter 228: The Hunt for the Lanternfish: Traces in the North Blue

The Fishman stared in despair, holding up his tracker, his voice trembling with fear and helplessness: “It’s gone! The signal from the tracking harpoon just vanished!”

This was a chance won with his brother’s life. He never imagined it would slip away so easily.

When the tracking harpoon was swallowed by the Lanternfish, its stomach acids had already corroded it beyond recognition. The fact it lasted this long was a miracle.

But now that it was gone, the harpoon was useless. It could no longer guide the Fishmen or help in any way.

“My condolences.” Ledfield offered a few gentle words. He didn’t know which Fishman had risked his life to get the harpoon into the Lanternfish, but the octopus Fishman’s grief told him they must have been close friends.

Ledfield watched as the Lanternfish disappeared into the depths, feeling a wave of frustration and regret.

“Hard to believe that Lanternfish is so resilient. Even after such wounds, it still dived straight into the deep sea,” Ledfield muttered.

“Yeah, another failed attempt,” the octopus Fishman replied.

Ledfield sighed. “Let Krell know about this, right away.”

The octopus Fishman steadied himself, nodded, and took out a Den Den Mushi to call Krell, passing on the news that the injured Lanternfish had slipped into the depths.

Once Krell received the update, he hurried to inform Charlotte Linlin.

“What? Even Ledfield couldn’t catch the Lanternfish?” Charlotte Linlin said, disappointment clear in her voice.

“Yes, Lady Charlotte Linlin,” Krell answered.

Charlotte Linlin waved a hand. “This isn’t the first time we’ve tried to catch that Lanternfish. Honestly, I’ve lost count of the failures.”

“But… even Ledfield couldn’t pull it off this time. That Lanternfish really is something else,” Krell admitted.

Charlotte Linlin fell silent for a moment, then finally said, “Looks like we’ll have to count on Karl.” A touch of resignation crept into her voice.

“Mamamama!” An impatient growl bubbled from Charlotte Linlin, betraying her anxiety. “Karl, when are you coming back?”

At the same time, Charlotte Linlin issued orders: even more Fishmen were to monitor North Blue. She knew the Lanternfish, wounded as it was, wouldn’t stray far and would be hiding somewhere in the North Blue to recover.

So she told Krell to make sure more tracking harpoons were attached to the Lanternfish’s skin. That way, they wouldn’t get digested.

“Understood, Lady Charlotte Linlin.” With her command, Krell dispatched more Fishmen, sending a huge force streaming toward the North Blue.

Armed with tracking harpoons, the Fishmen moved like a well-drilled army, swift and determined.

The move was like dropping a boulder into a placid lake. Suddenly, Navy Headquarters was on high alert.

Marshal Kong of Navy Headquarters instantly sensed something was off. With his keen intuition, he suspected Karl’s crew had some greater scheme brewing in the North Blue. He wasted no time calling an emergency meeting.

The meeting room was tense. Marshal Kong’s face hardened as he handed out the intelligence reports. “Take a look. Why are so many Fishmen gathering in North Blue? What’s behind this?”

There was worry in his voice, as if he could already see a storm looming on the horizon.

Kong knew better than anyone—if Karl’s crew was stirring up trouble in North Blue, the Navy would have to act fast to uphold justice.

Otherwise, if things spun out of control, it would be a massive setback for everything they stood for.

Kong looked around the table, eyes searching each face, waiting for their ideas. Right now, they needed everyone to step up and face this challenge together.

Vice Admiral Tsuru spoke up, calm and clear: “From what Karl’s doing, it looks like he’s aiming to grow his family’s influence. He’s already set up in the other Four Seas.”

“If he wants to get even stronger, he’ll have to team up with the likes of Newgate or the Golden Lion—or else find a new power. But honestly, North Blue doesn’t have any real heavyweights.”

“So I think the situation won’t spiral into chaos. The real objective is to locate Karl. Only then will we know what he’s really after.”

Kong nodded repeatedly in agreement. “Vice Admiral Tsuru is right. Still, let’s send some Navy Vice Admirals to North Blue, just in case. If anything happens, they can step in right away.”

Everyone else nodded as well. No one had any objections.

The meeting wrapped up fast. Kong dispatched four Vice Admirals still stationed at Navy Headquarters to North Blue.

None of them knew that sending so many Fishmen was just about catching the Lanternfish.

But just in case, the Navy sent plenty of Vice Admirals to patrol North Blue. Not that they found any trouble—the Fishmen were always underwater, so their movements went unseen.

Half a month slipped by like this. The Vice Admirals couldn’t find anyone causing trouble and had to head back empty-handed. Meanwhile, the Fishmen located the Lanternfish several times, but just couldn’t manage to tag it with a tracking harpoon.

“I’ve got an idea,” Fishman Apache said to the squad leader.

“If you have something, let’s hear it.”

At this point, nobody knew how else to hit the Lanternfish with a harpoon. If someone had a better plan, maybe they could drop this endless chase.

“Captain, we could just tie the tracker to the Lanternfish’s fins or tail.”

“As long as we use enough, we can pretty much keep track of it that way.”

The captain nodded, thinking it was a solid idea, and immediately ordered the others to disassemble the old harpoons for parts.

They gathered lengths of string and started attaching tracking markers to them.

Working in pairs, they fastened dozens of tracking markers to the Lanternfish—its tail, fins, even its scales.

They trailed the Lanternfish for several days, but none of the trackers fell off.

“Nice work, Apache. We’ll make sure you get some credit for this when we get back,” the captain said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Apache scratched his head, grinning awkwardly. “It was a team effort, really.”

“Stop being modest! All right, time to report this to Lord Krell.”

With that, the captain headed for the surface to call Krell without delay.

As soon as he left, the other Fishmen crowded around Apache.

“Way to go, Apache!”

“Seriously, who else would have thought of that?”

“You really outdid yourself this time.”

“Haha, it was a group effort! There’s no way I could’ve pulled it off alone,” Apache said with a sheepish laugh.

Apache scratched his head, keeping humble.

When they had caught up to the Lanternfish, its wounds were almost completely healed. There was no chance of tagging it through the old injury.

Soon, the captain surfaced again. “Message from Lord Krell: our squad’s in charge of keeping an eye on the Lanternfish now. The others are standing down.”

“Alright, just make sure you don’t lose it.” With that, the captain led the way, swimming hard after the distant Lanternfish.