Chapter 79 – Warning
TL: Milaryn
Edit: Fireclaws
In the hold of the ship, the atmosphere gradually froze in tension and under the yellow light and the rumble of the turbines, Natalie’s face showed a faint smile as she unhurriedly closed her eyes.
She was not going to advance, but she would also not retreat.
Her opponent had made a clear warning, which meant that he was not looking to start a fight. The reason why she came was because she felt a sense of danger and she was also not looking to start a conflict. However… no one was allowed to taunt her like this without some sort of penalty!
Her eyes closed and as she spread her senses outwards, shortly after, there was a loud ‘bang,’ and all the lights in the engine room suddenly turned off. In the darkness, the staff members all shouted in alarm and descended into chaos, but the machinery was still operating normally. The blinking red and green indicators were the only source of illumination left in the darkness. Unexpectedly, Natalie suddenly rushed forward.
The space around her seemingly rippled as she lashed out gracefully with her left and right palms, but it did not strike anyone. However, she distinctly felt a person slip by her the moment she attacked. In the darkness, the two of them criss-crossed as they flew past each other.
If their surroundings were illuminated, any observers would have been stunned silent by the scene in front of them. It had been a fierce attack, and it was also perfectly avoided as well. The two of them seemed to have crossed in a beautiful flawless dance in this limited space. Natalie’s attack had been decisive and smoothly executed. However the person that had been dodging was inhumanly agile, and one could not determine how he had predicted his opponent’s attack. From the beginning to the end, he was within the range of her attack, but not only did they not touch, but it also seemed like a well-rehearsed dance.
What followed was another short exchange, but Natalie was feeling quite apprehensive, as even though they were not fighting to the death, she was not using her full strength, but her opponent’s movements… were just too exaggerated. Another way to explain it was that her opponent knew her better than she knew herself! If the high-speed movements did not leave behind an impression, she would have thought that it was just a trick of her mind and that there was no enemy nearby.
At the same moment, her opponent made a move, and the tip of something sharp was aimed right in between her eyebrows.
Natalie’s body leaned back to avoid it, and her right hand subconsciously grabbed her opponent’s neck.
<i>This is bad…</i>
“Wha-…” In the darkness, that person said a word before he was viciously knocked out. Natalie realized that it was one of the staff working on the ship as she supported his fainted body and dropped him on the floor. The presence of her opponent had completely disappeared during that short moment and could no longer be found.
The Empress of Lyra Tenebris had never been toyed with so thoroughly. Natalie took a deep breath to calm her agitated mood, while her eyes revealed a sliver of excitement.
<i>This was a challenge! She was being unabashedly provoked! This matter… was just too interesting… </i>
Her figure melted back into the darkness and disappeared from the room.
A moment later, Cui Guohua and his team had arrived at the entrance of the engine room from the upper floor and questioned, “What happened?”
“We’re not sure. The machinery is still functioning properly, but the illumination system on the lower floor had completely crashed. It should be due to the computer system malfunctioning, so there are only emergency lights right now…”
The man was still in the middle of reporting when all the lights on the lower floor suddenly turned back on again. Cui Guohua adjusted his earpiece as Guolin’s excited voice could be heard, “Bro Guohua, I found it! I found the problem with the system, come over and take a look!”
“Ok, Guorui and I will come immediately. Guoping, Guoyi, we’ll leave this floor to you.” As the two of them rushed back to the control room, Guolin continued excitedly chattering away nonstop, “This is brilliant, incredible, and amazing, he is a genius! That person is definitely a genius…”
He knew that Guolin would become quite enthusiastic about matters related to computers, but he had seldom seen her that passionate. When they returned to the control room, he saw the flushed young woman pointing at something on the monitor and said excitedly, “I found it, I found it! It’s that right there! That code there caused the power to stop on the cruise ship…”
Cui Guohua and Qiao Guorui exchanged glances; Guorui was somewhat familiar with coding, but Guohua was a novice at it. Regardless, the two of them were not geniuses like Fang Guolin, so he said impatiently, “What is it? Guolin, could you please simply explain? Unless you’re saying that you caused the blackout?”
“Of course not,” Fang Guolin sat down in front of the control console, “I don’t know who did it, but he’s incredible. I don’t know when this code was inserted, but bro Guohua, I told you before that a true computer expert, even if they’re just using an old-fashioned phone, would be able to easily hack anything. The one that caused all the lights to turn off on the lower levels just now was that type of expert… If he were to become my teacher…”
“Ok, ok.” Qiao Guorui smiled as he interrupted, “Get to the main point.”
“Oh yes, because I discovered the short code, I was able to turn all the lights back on. Also, through that code, I discovered the main culprit that caused the power on the whole ship to stop. That piece of code was very well hidden though, it had certain conditions set on it, where once those were fulfilled, then someone could easily take control of the ship… I’m so lucky that I could see two amazing experts fight it out. Bro Guohua, you have to find the expert that’s helping us, hehe, I really want him to become my teacher…”
“Fine, if he can be found, then we’ll force him to be your husband.” Qiao Guorui smirked, then patted Fang Guolin on the head like a little girl. She swatted at him and said, “Don’t pet me! I’m not a child!”
“Hmm, little sis Guolin is a big girl now, huh. No wonder she’s looking for a… Oh?”
In the middle of his joke, a voice reported into their earpiece, “Boss, we discovered one of the staff members had been knocked out. Also, we found something interesting.”
“Knocked out? Where?”
“Engine Room #2.”
“Huh, the one that had all the lights turned off just now shouldn’t have been an enemy. We don’t need to start an official search, you…”
“Haha, we also know he’s not an enemy, but actually a very good friend. Even though his attitude isn’t great.” Lu Guoyi smiled briefly, “One of the lamp covers had been opened, and we discovered a bomb there. It seems like that friend had discovered it before us and left behind a screwdriver and a slip of paper. Ah, the tulip on the paper is quite beautiful…”
“Tulip?” Cui Guohua showed a surprised expression, “It should be that Mr. Tulip from Jianghai City. It’s great that he’s aboard this ship as well. What did he write on the piece of paper?”
“Boss, it’ll hurt our pride. He didn’t write anything important; it’s better you don’t know…”
“Just tell me,” Cui Guohua frowned, “Why are you being coy? Hurry and say it!”
“Uh, if you insist. He said…” Lu Guoyi paused briefly, “The note said, ‘You guys are such tools.’”