"Which cabin are you in right now?"
The voice asked again.
It was cool and indifferent, carrying a hint of impatience at the tail end.
It was Shen Wu's voice.
More precisely, it was exactly like Shen Wu's.
Jiang Nuan's fingers holding the communicator tightened slightly.
Something was wrong.
Her mind, sharpened by extreme fear, had become strangely clear, and the fragments of information in her head automatically arranged themselves into a clean logical chain.
She had contacted Lu Shiyan's private channel.
The Zero Squad's communication system had two layers: the squad channel and the private channel. The private channel was a physical point-to-point encrypted line—no third party could tap in.
She had dialed Lu Shiyan.
Shen Wu had picked up.
There was only one possibility.
Shen Wu was holding Lu Shiyan's communication device.
Given Lu Shiyan's personality, he would never hand his private communicator to anyone.
Unless he was no longer capable of holding it himself.
That thought weighed heavily on her heart.
She forced herself to think through the second question.
Her report earlier had been clear enough: teammate severely injured, enemy unknown, temporarily safe.
Knowing Shen Wu's personality and duties, his first move should have been to calm the squad, confirm the wounded teammate's condition, and then formulate a rescue plan.
Not to repeat the same question over and over.
"Which cabin are you in right now?"
That didn't sound like confirming a location for rescue.
It sounded more like confirming the coordinates of prey.
The realization made her scalp prickle. She thought of Yin Hao back in cabin B-01.
That researcher had seemed perfectly "normal" too—anxious tone, exhausted expression, every word exactly what the real Yin Hao would have said.
But he wasn't human.
Beneath that skin, there was no brain, no organs—only a mass of controlled contamination mist and those disgusting tentacles.
If those things could flawlessly mimic a living person's appearance, voice, and behavior patterns...
Then what was so hard about mimicking a voice over comms?
Jiang Nuan pieced it all together in less than three seconds.
"We don't know either."
Her voice carried the relief and exhaustion of someone who'd just barely escaped death.
"We just ran into the first door we found. Every cabin here looks the same—I didn't pay attention to the number..."
The channel went quiet for a second.
"Come out, then."
Shen Wu's voice remained flat and unhurried.
"The captain and I will head to the rest area to meet you."
The hairs on the back of Jiang Nuan's neck stood straight up.
It was luring them out of the safe room.
Her finger pressed against her earpiece, ice cold.
"Alright, we'll rest a bit and then we'll come out."
As the words left her mouth, her finger had already pressed the disconnect button.
Click.
The signal cut off.
Jiang Nuan didn't pause for a heartbeat. She spun around and crouched in front of Qinian.
Qinian was curled up, forehead pressed against his knees, every muscle in his body pulled taut as a wire.
The shared sensory link forced him to bear the searing pain from Qi Sui's right arm in real time. His handsome face was twisted in agony.
Jiang Nuan reached out, quick and precise, and pulled the communicator earpiece from his ear.
"Hey—" Qinian glanced up instinctively.
Jiang Nuan ignored him, switched off the earpiece, and reached for Qi Sui's.
Qi Sui didn't dodge. In fact, he tilted his head slightly to make it easier for her to remove.
All three communicators were now off.
The cabin was left with only the dim glow of the nightlight and the heavy breathing of three people.
Through his pain-wracked expression, Qinian's upturned eyes were bloodshot, staring at Jiang Nuan in confusion.
"What are you doing?"
"That wasn't Shen Wu."
Jiang Nuan's voice was barely a whisper, racing through her chain of reasoning in one breath.
A beat of silence hung in the cabin.
Qinian gritted his molars and spat out one word: "Shit." His left fist pounded against the metal floor beside him, producing a dull thud.
"It's fishing for us."
"Smart girl, Nuannuan."
A barely audible voice came from beside her.
Qi Sui leaned against the cabin wall, his complexion so gray and pale he nearly blended into it.
His right arm hung limp at his side, the ashen black having already swallowed his elbow and creeping up toward his bicep. Where it passed, the flesh withered and shrank, as if every bit of vitality had been drained in an instant.
"Nuannuan, come... help me sort this out."
After he finished speaking, Qi Sui bit hard on his lower lip.
He raised his left hand, still functional, and gripped his right arm hard against the corruption consuming it, cold sweat dripping from his temples in large beads onto the floor.
Jiang Nuan's heart sank.
Qi Sui's condition was dire—at the breaking point. And beside him, Qinian was trembling uncontrollably from head to toe.
The shared sensory link made him feel the agony of that flesh being stripped of life, inch by inch, in tandem with his brother.
They couldn't wait any longer.
"Yin Hao and Liu Cheng weren't just empty shells possessed by the mist," Jiang Nuan said, her words tumbling out fast. "Their tone, their behavior—it's a perfect replica of the originals. Enough to fool any normal person."
She lifted her head, sweeping her glance across both of them.
"We can make a bold assumption: every crew member on this ship—all forty-seven of them—had probably already been turned into these things by the time we came aboard."
Qinian's pupils contracted sharply.
"There might be only one person still alive." Jiang Nuan's gaze drifted toward cabin B-01. "President Bai."
"Why?" Qinian forced the word out through clenched teeth.
"Maybe he witnessed the moment Yin Hao and Liu Cheng were infected. Maybe he sensed something was wrong ahead of time. He couldn't fight these monsters. The only way to survive was to lock himself inside that SS-grade medical pod."
Jiang Nuan's pace quickened, the logic racing toward closure.
"He activated the one-way locking mechanism himself, sealed the door, and waited for rescue."
"The pod has top-level shielding that blocks external contamination. Those things can't get in—at least, not for now."
Qinian gasped for air. "But... back in cabin B-01, why didn't those things attack us directly? Why did they play pretend?"
"Two reasons," Jiang Nuan said. "First, they either want President Bai inside the medical pod, or they want something in that pod. But they can't breach the pod's defenses from outside. They're trying to use us to find an external unlock method."
"Second..."
She looked at Qi Sui's mangled right arm, a cold sweat creeping across her back.
"They used the lie about a medical pod fluid leak to lure us into approaching, inspecting, and touching that pod proactively."
"This highly concentrated source of contamination likely requires our active contact to trigger infection."
Qi Sui leaned against the wall, finishing her analysis with a bitter laugh from the back of his throat.
"Beautiful... a trap that walks right into the open."
The puzzle clicked shut.
The cabin fell into a suffocating silence. The nightlight cast a dim halo across the wall, and three shadows huddled closely together.
"Hiss—"
A barely suppressed cry of pain suddenly shattered the silence.
Qi Sui's body arched suddenly. The gray-black discoloration on his right arm was about to crawl past his shoulder, his withered skin rapidly losing all vitality, even beginning to emit a faint stench of decay.
"Brother!" Qinian threw himself forward, hands hovering in midair, wanting to touch but not daring to, his face a mess of panic and helplessness.
"Brother... what do I do... what am I supposed to do..."
"We leave... we fight our way out!" Qinian suddenly straightened up, a ball of crimson flame erupting from his left palm with a roar. "I'll burn us a path! We'll find the captain!"
"Come back."
Qi Sui reached out his left hand and grabbed the hem of Qinian's clothes.
His grip was weak, but Qinian stopped in his tracks immediately, snuffing out the flame, and crouched back down beside him.
"Wait."
Qi Sui lifted his left hand with effort, pointing toward the bathroom at the far end of the rest cabin.
His breathing was shallow, every word seeming to cost him life itself.
"Qinian... get me a towel... wet it... I need something cold to press against it..."
Qinian froze, staring at his brother's right arm, which was already completely necrotic.
Cold compress? Against this level of contamination, what good would a cold compress do?
But he didn't argue.
His mind was a tangled mess right now. Whatever his brother said, he would do it.
"Alright, I'll find one. Wait for me."
Qinian stumbled to his feet and dashed toward the bathroom. The sound of frantic rummaging echoed from the darkness, followed by the squeak of a faucet being turned on.
The moment he was certain Qinian was out of earshot—
Qi Sui turned his head toward Jiang Nuan.
Those eyes, usually hidden behind gold-rimmed glasses with a gentle smile, were now shot through with blood vessels.
But they held a clarity and resolve that sent a chill down her spine.
He gave a slight tilt of his chin, signaling her to come closer.
Jiang Nuan felt a wave of dread wash over her.
Still, she leaned in.
"Nuannuan."
Qi Sui's voice dropped low enough for only the two of them to hear.
"Just now... when the ship shuddered violently... did you feel it?"
Jiang Nuan nodded. It had happened shortly after they entered cabin B-01.
"The source of the vibration was from below the hull."
Qi Sui's gaze darkened.
"Combined with the total radio silence across all channels... the worst-case scenario is... Ye Que and Jiang Ce, who went to check the cargo hold at the bottom of the ship... they may already be dead."
Jiang Nuan's breath caught.
Ye Que, the top-tier hunter who could blow a head off from a thousand meters away, who had pulled her out of the tunnel only to throw her into another cage.
Jiang Ce, the mountain of a man who always muttered that she was too skinny, yet had the softest heart of anyone she'd ever met.
Dead?
On this silent, lifeless White Whale?
"Captain Lu and Shen Wu... things don't look good for them either."
Qi Sui pressed on, his words coming faster and faster, as if racing against some invisible countdown.
"This fog... it's a contamination zone we've never seen before. Undetectable, and it can completely hijack a person's consciousness. It doesn't just mimic people — it can block perception, sever communication."
He lifted his head, staring hard into Jiang Nuan's eyes.
"In a moment... I'll find a way to hold off whatever's out there."
Jiang Nuan's heart felt like it was being squeezed in a fist.
"You take Qinian, get out of here. Run straight for the deck."
Qi Sui gasped for air, swallowing the metallic sweetness rising in his throat.
"The helicopter... it's hovering right above the deck... the pilot never came down. As long as you reach the deck and fire the flare... you'll live."
From the bathroom came Qinian's frantic voice: "Bro! There's no towel! Can I soak my shirt in water for you?!"
"Sure," Qi Sui called back.
He turned his gaze to Jiang Nuan once more.
He raised his left hand.
Long, clean fingers reached toward her face.
But two centimeters from her cheek, the hand stopped.
Then it curved past, landing gently on top of her head.
His palm was cold.
"I'm sorry, Nuannuan."
His voice was barely a whisper.
A pause.
The gentle curve finally vanished from the corner of his mouth, replaced by a serenity that bordered on acceptance.
"Qinian... he's a good kid."
"That sounds like you're entrusting him to me."
Jiang Nuan clenched her jaw.
"Don't say such unlucky things. The three of us are fighting our way out together."
Qi Sui looked at her — he didn't say yes, and he didn't say no.
Behind his glasses, his pupils reflected the dim glow of the night light.
So calm.
So calm that Jiang Nuan suddenly realized — he had already made up his mind.
"SHHH—"
The water stopped.
Qinian came rushing out of the bathroom, clutching a sopping wet piece of fabric. He had taken off his own jacket.
The moment the cloth touched the gray-black skin, a sharp "hiss" sounded.
Like ice water splashing onto red-hot iron.
Qinian's hand trembled, but he didn't stop.
"I'm gonna blow the door open," Qinian said through gritted teeth as he wrapped the wet cloth around, "you lean on me, bro, I'll carry you—"
"THUD."
The sound came from beyond the cabin door.
All three froze.
"THUD. THUD. THUD."
A rhythmic knocking. Not hurried, not aggressive — almost polite, in a way.
Then—
"Qi Sui. Jiang Nuan. Qinian."
Lu Shiyan's voice.
From outside the door.
Steady, low, indistinguishable from the voice in their memories.
"Open the door."
Jiang Nuan's blood turned to ice.
None of the three moved.
Silence from outside for a few seconds.
"CRASH!!"
The first impact.
The welded metal door buckled violently inward, Qinian's fire-wire seal across the frame snapping with a piercing screech.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
The second.
Then the impacts came faster and more frantic, as if a horde of beasts were throwing themselves at the door all at once. Gray-white fog came squeezing through the gaps in the frame, carrying that nauseating stench of seawater.
The door wasn't going to hold.
Qi Sui slowly pushed himself up against the wall.
His body swayed, the entire right half already numb and lifeless, the gray-black dead skin creeping up to his neck.
He looked at Qinian.
"Qinian." His voice suddenly turned harsh, stern in a way he had seldom used with his younger brother.
Qinian whipped around, staring at him. "Brother?"
"When the door breaks, you follow Nuannuan. Don't look back. Don't worry about me. Just keep running for the deck."
"What are you even saying?!" Qinian's voice cracked with desperation. He dropped the wet cloth, lunging toward Qi Sui. "There's no way I'm leaving you! My fire can still burn! I—"
"Listen to me." Qi Sui cut him off.
He looked at his brother, at the face that was almost a mirror of his own, those eyes that were always full of laughter now holding nothing but sheer panic.
"Brother..." Qinian's voice shook. He reached out to grab Qi Sui's left hand.
And at that moment—
Qi Sui's eyes slammed shut. His left hand twisted into a strange, violent gesture.
"HUMMM—"
Some invisible string in the air snapped, clean and sharp.
Qinian's outstretched hand froze mid-reach.
His body jolted violently. The searing pain that had been wracking his right hand from the shared senses—the agony of flesh being torn away—suddenly vanished. Completely. Cleanly.
What remained was a terrifying emptiness.
He couldn't feel his brother anymore.
The other half of his soul, the one bound to him through sensory sharing, had been severed. One-sidedly. Brutally.
"Brother…"
Qinian's face went deathly pale. He stared blankly at Qi Sui.
"What did you do… you cut the link?" Qinian's voice trembled uncontrollably. "Qi Sui! What the hell are you doing?!"
He lunged forward like a madman.
"Jiang Nuan! Get him out of here!" Qi Sui roared.
"BOOM—!!!"
A deafening explosion shook the hull. The metal hatch finally gave out completely—ripped apart by some monstrous force and hurled against the cabin wall like scrap metal.
Beyond the doorway, the corridor's lights had gone dark.
In their place, a tide of ash-gray fog came pouring in like a flood.
Within that fog, countless thick, pitch-black tentacles—coated in slime and suckers—whipped forward like a nest of frenzied serpents, claws bared, lunging straight at them.
And behind those tentacles, faint shapes could be made out: several human husks, their skin stretched and burst open, standing in grotesquely contorted poses.
"Go!"
Jiang Nuan grabbed Qinian by the scruff of his collar, summoning every ounce of strength she had, and hauled him backward.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
With one hand, she raised her gun and fired wildly at the first tentacles that surged in.
Explosive rounds detonated at the tips of the tentacles, sending chunks of flesh flying. Black ichor splattered against the bulkheads, hissing and corroding the metal.
But there were too many.
Cut down one tentacle, and three more poured in. The fog was nearly swallowing the entire cabin.
Qinian, dragged along by her, mechanically scorched every tentacle within reach with fire.
But his eyes never left Qi Sui, standing stock-still in the middle of the room.
Raw desperation pooled in his gaze. A silent plea.
"Brother… please… don't…"
Qi Sui didn't look at him.
He stood with his back to them, facing the tsunami of fog and monsters rushing in.
With his uninjured left hand, he pressed it hard against his own heart.
"Don't look back."
Qi Sui said it softly.
A heartbeat later.
A blinding, pure green light erupted from his chest!
It was Qi Sui burning every last shred of his life force, reversing all of his abilities to their absolute limit.
He took a single step forward—and threw himself into that swirling mass of gray fog and tentacles.
"BOOM—!!!"
A blaze of emerald light detonated in the corridor.
It was so bright that Jiang Nuan could see nothing at all. She could only feel the wave of heat searing her face, her eyelashes curling from the scorch, her vision burning white.
She heard the sound of the fog being vaporized. Like thousands of snakes hissing at once—sharp, shrill, filled with fury and agony.
Qi Sui disappeared into the heart of that white light.
The blast radius expanded, centered on Qi Sui's body, fueled by his very life.
Jiang Nuan's vision blurred completely, burned white. She couldn't see anything.
"BROTHER!!!"
Qinian let out a gut-wrenching scream and fought to break free, lunging forward.
Jiang Nuan held him fast.
With strength she didn't know she had, she dragged him back.
"Go! Your brother said to follow me! You listen to me!"
