[On a commercial cargo ship in the middle of the sea → In the main kitchen]
The head chef spoke loudly to one of the assistant chefs:
"Take the food to the cart. Someone will come soon to take it to the captain."
Two assistants began loading various dishes, and after a few minutes, Zeus entered wearing the uniform of one of the crew members to pick up the cart.
One of the assistant chefs turned to his partner, who was helping him arrange the food:
"A new face? Usually, that skinny guy is the one who takes the food to the captain."
---
[A few minutes later]
Zeus arrived at the captain's quarters and began laying the dishes on a small table in the command room.
The captain was busy with his aides, discussing what had happened at the port. One of them was complaining about the sudden trip, despite their ship having only arrived a day ago, and the cargo not being fully unloaded yet.
Zeus slowed down as he served the food, trying to eavesdrop, but the captain noticed him and asked in surprise:
"Where's that young man? You're really slow compared to him."
Zeus chuckled lightly and responded with a smile:
"Apologies, sir. I work in the kitchen. My friend got a call from his mother and asked me to bring the cart instead."
"Whatever. Just tell him this shouldn't happen again."
"Yes, sir."
Zeus left, and the only useful information he had gathered was that the ship was heading to the nearest coastal city to unload the rest of its cargo—about 70 kilometers in a straight line from Zeus's city.
As Zeus exited, pulling the cart through the hallways, he was surprised to see a man in a formal black suit emerge from a side corridor and pass him.
Luckily for Zeus, the man was in a hurry, and Zeus's cap was low, his head down the whole time—otherwise, the man would have recognized him as the person he had tried to kill just an hour ago.
After killing this man's partner and following the truck's path, Zeus had arrived just before the boat departed. He had tried chasing it, but with his depleted energy and the boat's speed, he couldn't catch up.
At one point, he even lost sight of it, but when he spotted this suspicious ship floating nearby, it was his only option.
So he dived into the sea, using the energy runes on his feet to swim at high speed, eventually sneaking aboard.
Now, seeing this man confirmed he was in the right place.
"Two tasks remain... First, I need to send a message to my brother. Second, I need to locate the children."
Zeus returned the cart to the kitchen and asked one of the assistant chefs if he could borrow his ring to send a message.
The man didn't find anything strange and handed it over:
"Just leave it on the table when you're done."
Then he left to put the vegetables he had been chopping into the soup.
Zeus sent a message to his brother, informing him that he was currently aboard the ship C56, belonging to SAT Seafood Trading Co., and that one of the kidnappers and the children were here.
"Bro, smile for the camera!"
He attached a selfie of himself in sailor clothes, with a confused, dumbfounded chef staring at the camera beside him.
"Are you sending that to your family?" asked the chef.
"Yeah, this one's for my little sister. She always says she wants to become a captain."
"Good luck to her—and to you in your work. I also have a little sister, but like most kids these days, she wants to become a gene fighter... It's nice to know some kids still want to be sailors."
"Anyway, thank you. Please give the ring back to its owner when he returns."
"Don't worry, just leave it on the table here."
Zeus set down the ring and kept chatting with the chef, gradually gathering info about the ship's layout and storage rooms under the pretense of being new and getting lost. Of course, he never asked anything directly.
Zeus hadn't realized just how good he was at acting until now.
---
[About 15 minutes later]
Outside, a white mecha was tailing the cargo ship from a safe distance, cautious of any advanced detection systems aboard.
At the same time, 8 members of the special covert force unit 300, based in the coastal city the ship was heading to, were dispatched to the port. The unit consisted of 21 members in total.
Along with Zeus aboard the ship and the white mecha tailing them, a tight ambush was prepared to raid the ship the moment it docked.
Zeus's mission was to locate the kidnapped children and coordinate with command and the white mecha to extract them in case a battle broke out.
---
Another hour passed, and the ship reached the port, beginning to dock beside the main pier. This followed coordination between the captain and a small guiding vessel leading the way.
Ten minutes later, workers began prepping to unload the cargo.
During this time, Zeus was in a hallway leading to a room in the ship's lower decks, where food, materials, and drinks were stored.
What caught his attention about the room—seen through a reflection on the edge of his spinning disc—was the presence of a guard outside it.
Definitely unusual.
Zeus rolled the disc toward the room, pretending it had fallen off a shelf.
When the guard noticed it and picked it up, inspecting it curiously, the disc suddenly spun and pierced the man's body.
In the hallway, Zeus had closed his eyes to sense the disc's movements through the rune engravings on it, which were connected to his mind. As soon as he felt the disc's position change and rise, he made it strike its surroundings.
Zeus quickly peeked down the hallway, confirmed the guard's death by making the disc cut off his head, then moved toward the room.
He knocked on the door. There was some movement inside, but no response.
The disc rose into the air and sliced through the metal lock, and Zeus cautiously opened the door.
Using the same mirror trick, he took a quick peek inside through the disc's reflection and, upon confirming there were no guards inside, entered.
Inside were around 50 children, their mouths gagged and their hands tied behind their backs with a series of white threads—all connected to each other.