“I believe you would have guessed by now that…” The woman sighed, “This was not a shipwreck incident. Or rather, it was not a simple shipwreck incident.
“The man took out the last document to explain the situation.” The woman failed to control her emotions, and her voice shook, “We lost four ships there. One of the ships was our current ship’s sister ship.
“That ship belonged to the same department as we did, and the ship was parked at the same port.
“The incident happened half a month ago. I was sleeping at the time. I was suddenly woken up by the siren asking us to gather. The next morning, the sister ship departed with the sailors on it. However, none of us paid much attention to it. After all, emergency missions were normal for us.
“But eventually, some of us noticed something was wrong. They were… gone for too long.” The woman explained, “However, due to the technological limitation at the time, we rarely ventured too far out into the sea.
“Normally, a ship would have to return to the port for resupply after a week, but they were gone for almost half a month. There was no news at all. Then, the rumours started to fly. They said that something had happened to them.
“The people at the guard station mentioned that some of them saw a car secretly enter the admin building of our port base at night. It was a pure black car, and the headlights were not switched on. It was clear that they were trying to be stealthy.” Realising that she had strayed from the topic, the woman cleared her mind and continued, “The source couldn’t be confirmed anymore. I believe even the man back then had no better idea. We only knew that there was something wrong with that particular part of the sea. The superior sent two more ships to the area to examine it.
“However, we instantly lost contact with those two ships the moment they entered that area of the sea.
“This time, even the superiors could sit idly by anymore. They instantly sent our sister ship for follow-up, and the ship was filled with armed members. However, things happened to them as well.
Jiang Cheng frowned slightly. He found this to be weirdly familiar.
“And then?” Someone urged. The woman glanced at her. The person instantly shut up.
“Then, our sister ship also disappeared in that zone. The ship and the people on it all disappeared.”
Just as everyone thought this was a story that was going nowhere, the woman baulked. She didn’t look fine. Her neck turned red, and her breathing became heavy. Her lungs sounded weirdly hollow.
“He… He broadcasted a recording.” The woman tried to speak, “It was the last recorded communication before they disappeared.”
“What was on it?” The biker woman asked.
“It couldn’t be heard clearly. It was too chaotic. There were gunshots and screams everywhere.” The woman’s mental condition was not right, but no one interrupted her.
“The last person who was recorded was the ship captain. I know him. I remember him screaming… It’s hell! The door of hell is opening!
“Do not come any closer!
“The scariest thing is… after all the screams and gunfires stopped, we heard a spine-chilling sound.
“It was… the sound of crunching!”
The woman was focused on the story. Her story caused everyone to shiver. It was hard to imagine how the group of people heard the recording live back then.
Fatty’s face was pale. He had no idea what he had done to deserve to hear such a horror story.
“Is… is it over?” Fatty hugged his body and trembled. He felt so chilly that he subconsciously moved towards the sun.
The woman ignored him. Instead, she looked at Jiang Cheng and then at the young master.
Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. He sighed internally that the woman was not simple. The young master beside him was not easy to deal with either. He even suspected that if Fatty’s group didn’t come at the time that they did, they might open the door only to see either him or the young master alone. The chance of it being the latter was higher.
The next second, the woman slowly opened her lips. She uttered in a strange tone, “At the very end of that recording, there was a strange sound.” The woman tried to find words to describe it, but she failed. She shook her head and said with confirmation, “In any case, it was not a sound from the natural world. It was made by something that was alive, just like you and me!”
After saying that, the woman was enervated. Her body tipped back. Thankfully, Jiang Cheng was quick enough to catch her. He then placed her against the stone pillar to rest.
After all, the woman was quite old already. While they waited for the woman to recover, the rest of them split up into groups to explore this sole building and its environs.
The Loli girl and the 2-metre-tall man clearly knew each other. They chose to explore the ruin on the left side of the building. Then, they left. The group watched them leave.
Then, it was the biker girl and the climbing girl. They probably didn’t know each other, or at least that was how it seemed on the surface. After a brief communication, they chose the opposite direction from the Loli girl. They chose the right side. The place had a better vantage point and less complicated geography.
After that, Jiang Cheng’s eyes met the young master’s gaze. The latter seemed to be waiting for him.
The young master nodded with a smile. “Then, I’ll have to trouble you to go along with that big brother.” He turned to Fatty and added, “Mind going as a group to take a look around?”
Fatty couldn’t be happier to be grouped with the Doctor. Just as he was about to say yes, Jiang Cheng cut in, “I don’t like him. You can go with him.” Jiang Cheng looked at the eyes hidden behind the bangs and continued, “I’ll stay to look after this lady.”