Chapter 164: Taming
Elijah arrived at the dock and indeed saw a yacht approaching from a distance. Near the yacht, a huge shark was swimming back and forth—none other than Whitey, under his control.
Whitey recognized Sophia's yacht and didn't attack, instead swimming nearby. As soon as Elijah appeared on the dock, Whitey abandoned the yacht and swam directly towards him.
Meanwhile, the yacht began to slow down, preparing to dock. Whitey reached Elijah first, opening its mouth wide, seemingly seeking food. Elijah scratched his head; through the Seed of Consciousness, he sensed Whitey wanted the same type of zombie flesh it had eaten last time. But first-tier zombies weren't something Whitey could easily find.
Ah, right!
He could cultivate them himself!
However, he hadn't prepared any mutant zombie flesh for Whitey this time. Elijah could only placate Whitey, promising to provide it next time. Reluctantly, Whitey submerged into the water, swishing its tail, and moved aside.
At this moment, Sophia, steering the yacht, slowly entered the dock. Before dropping anchor, Elijah jumped onto the yacht.
"What brings you here?" Hannah asked, surprised.
"I came to discuss some things with Sophia," Elijah replied, then curiously added, "How was your day? Any catches?"
"If you're asking about the Spirit fish, no luck there, but we had quite a few other good catches!" Hannah said, a hint of a smile appearing on her face.
Hmm, she's actually smiling. Must have caught something really good?! Elijah thought to himself.
"Elijah, Hannah sis was amazing today. She actually caught a huge wild yellowtail!" Sophia announced as she dropped the anchor and shut off the engines, stepping out.
"A wild yellowtail? That's really something! Let me see!" Elijah walked over to the fish tank and indeed saw a large golden-colored fish with red lips and fine scales.
"Wow, it's huge!" Elijah exclaimed. The fish was about a meter long and weighed at least eight pounds—an exceptionally large specimen among yellowtails.
"No wonder Hannah's usually cool face has a smile now," Elijah remarked.
"If it were before the apocalypse, it would fetch a good price!" Sophia added enthusiastically.
"Yeah, it's my first time seeing such a big yellowtail!" Hannah said with excitement.
"It's all thanks to the bait Sophia provided; otherwise, we wouldn't have caught so many fish!" After hearing Hannah's words, Elijah looked back at the fish tank and indeed found an unusually large number of fish inside. There were more than the three of them had caught together yesterday!
"Bait? What bait?" Elijah couldn't help but be curious.
"Oh, it's nothing. It's just that I ground up the innards of that Spirit fish from yesterday and mixed it into the bait. I wanted to see if this bait could attract Spirit fish..." Sophia admitted somewhat sheepishly.
"I didn't expect to catch Spirit fish, but it did attract many other fish to bite!" Hannah added.
"Well done!" Elijah praised them with a thumbs up. Meanwhile, he thought to himself that whether it was Spirit fish, spirit plants, or spirit beasts, any leftover bits and pieces from them were highly attractive to other animals.
As Elijah pondered, he watched the fish in the tank. "With all these fish, we won't have to worry about food for a long time." He couldn't help but praise the two again before turning to his own purpose for coming here.
"Oh right, Sophia, I came to find you because I wanted you to get acquainted with Whitey. Maybe you can try commanding it in the future!"
"Me? Command Whitey? Can I?" Sophia was surprised.
"It should be fine. Let's give it a try!" Elijah said, fishing out two fish from the tank and handing one to Sophia.
"Come on, feed Whitey some food and bond with it!" They all moved to the ship's railing. At Elijah's command, Whitey surfaced.
Nervously, Sophia threw the fish into Whitey's mouth and said, "Whitey, hello, I'm Sophia. Please teach me from now on!"
"Um... you don't have to be so formal..." Elijah couldn't help but laugh, simultaneously recording Sophia's voice in Whitey's Seed of Consciousness and instructing Whitey to obey Sophia's commands.
Unlike zombies that immediately lose control once they leave Elijah's control range, both Whitey and Yello were animals.
With the constraints of the Seed of Consciousness and the taming through feeding, Elijah believed Sophia could easily command Whitey even outside of his control range.
Even if she couldn't command it, at least she wouldn't be attacked by Whitey.
"Could you try making Whitey do something?" Elijah handed another fish to Sophia. Following Elijah's instructions, Sophia attempted to command Whitey.
Then came the scene that shocked her: Whitey actually responded to her commands.
"It really listens to me!" Sophia exclaimed in amazement, jumping with joy.
"Did you use some ability on Whitey?" Hannah, who was watching from the sidelines, asked.
"Exactly. I've advanced to Tier 3 today, so I can exert some influence over controlled zombies and animals, making them obey someone else other than myself."
"You've reached Tier 3?" Now Hannah was also surprised.
"Yes, just this morning!"
"That's great!" Sophia felt waves of joy, laughing from the bottom of her heart. Elijah briefly mentioned his Tier 3 advancement and then let Sophia practice training Whitey for a while.
As dusk approached, they didn't linger any longer, gathering the fish from the large tank and transferring them to the hotel's large fish pond before returning to the villa together.
Inside Elijah's villa, everyone was busy with their own tasks—some cooking, some discussing their experiences in zombie killing. When they saw Hannah walk in with a large yellowtail, everyone gathered around in surprise.
"Did you catch this?" Fiona asked in amazement.
"Yes!"
"It's huge!"
"This must be a yellowtail!"
Everyone chattered excitedly. Finally, Sophia offered to cook it for everyone, and only then did they disperse, all looking forward to the delicious meal Sophia would prepare.
Sophia didn't disappoint. When she brought out the cooked yellowtail, its aroma filled the air, and everyone enjoyed a satisfying meal.
After dinner, they gathered to chat for a while. Elijah and Fiona discussed their plans for future development. As the night grew late, everyone went their separate ways.
Watching Charlotte head upstairs with her long strides, Elijah thought about discussing tomorrow's combat training and any areas that needed improvement. So he followed her and entered her room.