Night fell like a giant black velvet curtain slowly descending, enveloping the West India Docks in tranquility.
The dayti bustle had long faded, leaving only the rhythmic lapping of the Thas against the stone embanknts and the occasional long, distant sound of ship horns.
Warehouse Number Three, the massive structure that had been filled with unknowns and fears over the past month, now silently awaited its nocturnal "visitors."
And deep within this behemoth's belly, Lin Jie was directing the setup of a silent battlefield.
His plan sounded laughably simple, yet every detail was infused with ingenuity that transcended the era.
He hadn't chosen to set up direct kill traps at the ventilation windows the enemies were certain to pass through—that approach would be too inefficient and risky when facing nurous, agile unknown creatures.
His goal wasn't a one-ti "capture," but an unavoidable "marking," a "dyeing experint" that would unveil the enemies' mysterious nature.
"Sergeant William, I need you to secure this rope to the central beam on the warehouse's highest level." Lin Jie handed William a coil of sturdy hemp rope found in the warehouse. "The rope's length needs to be precisely three ters above the ground."
William glanced at the do beam towering over ten ters high in the darkness, then looked at Lin Jie with questioning eyes.
Working at such heights required professional climbing equipnt even for a veteran like him.
Lin Jie saw through his doubts and pointed to the massive steam-powered crane in one corner of the warehouse, used for hoisting cargo.
"We can use that. With so minor modifications to its hook, we can safely transport soone up there."
William's eyes flashed with approval once more.
This young man always found the most direct and effective ways to utilize every available tool around him—a precious battlefield instinct.
With William's agile movents and basic chanical knowledge, the hemp rope was soon securely fastened at the designated position, hanging silently in the warehouse center like a spider's thread descending from heaven.
Next ca the trap's core component.
Lin Jie found several bags of white flour originally destined for bakeries.
He carefully tied one flour bag to the end of the rope, creating a simple "dust bomb."
"Is that it?" Marcus, who had been watching for so ti, finally couldn't hold back. His tone was full of disbelief. "You plan to use a hanging flour bag to deal with monsters that can bend iron bars? I thought you'd set up sothing... at least with spikes."
"Marcus, patience is a virtue." Lin Jie smiled without further explanation.
He turned to William and said, "Sergeant William, now for the final step. I need you to connect one end of this thin string to the flour bag's opening, and the other end needs to be laid out along the shelf tops where we predict those little things are most likely to pass. We need a tripwire that's sufficiently concealed and sensitive."
This was the essence of the entire trap.
It no longer tested the designer's ingenuity, but the executor's professionalism and experience.
How to lay a tripwire across dozens of ters of cluttered shelf tops that could be easily triggered yet not discovered prematurely—this was an art form in itself.
And William was undoubtedly a master of this art.
The silent veteran didn't utter a word, simply took the spool of thin fishing line and climbed the shelves with the agility of a wildcat.
He moved through the complex "steel jungle" where ordinary people could hardly gain footing, his figure appearing and disappearing intermittently.
Using crate corners and shelf columns, he cleverly arranged the fishing line's path, ultimately creating a flawless triggering chanism at an unavoidable passage closest to the ventilation window.
The entire trap was finally complete.
A massive flour bag hung high in the warehouse center, its opening connected to an almost invisible thin line dozens of ters away in the upper darkness.
Any target attempting to infiltrate through the ventilation window and move along the shelf tops would inevitably trigger this deadly tripwire.
The three n quietly retreated behind an ideal observation point ford by giant cargo crates, offering a complete view of the entire trap area.
Lin Jie set up his monocular telescope, William raised his long-barreled Colt revolver, while Marcus crossed his arms skeptically, preparing to watch the show.
Ti beca thick and drawn-out during the wait.
At midnight, when the world outside the warehouse had fallen asleep, tallic scraping sounds ca from the ventilation window on the warehouse's top level.
They're here!
The three n's nerves instantly tightened to their limits.
Using the faint moonlight filtering through the windows, Lin Jie finally saw the true forms of those "dock whisperers" through his telescope.
They were peculiar creatures with bodies resembling large macaques but completely different physical structures.
Their fur showed a dull, rust-like iron-gray color, giving them perfect camouflage in steel and shadow environnts.
Their limbs were extrely elongated, ending not in flesh hands but "chanical claws" composed of many brass-textured, clockwork-like tiny segnts.
These claws could easily grip any rough surface, granting them wall-scaling abilities.
But the most eerie aspect was their faces.
Their faces lacked mouths, instead featuring a single polished crystal-like lens.
When they approached each other, these crystals emitted different frequency "buzzing" sounds, seemingly their thod of communication.
They moved with clear purpose and efficiency.
One, two... a full dozen of these creatures filed silently through the ventilation window, then skillfully moved along the shelf tops toward their target deep in the warehouse—a crate of new tin blocks.
They completely failed to notice the deadly tripwire waiting for them in the darkness.
As the lead semi-chanical monkey approached its target, its tal-segnted foot lightly touched the taut fishing line.
"Snap!"
A faint breaking sound echoed.
Dozens of ters away in the warehouse center, the opening of the massive flour bag hanging mid-air was violently pulled open!
No explosion, no loud noise.
Only a dreamlike pure white avalanche.
A large amount of flour poured down like an inverted waterfall, imdiately forming an expanding white dust cloud that enveloped all dozen semi-chanical monkeys and their entire area!
"Bzzzt—!!!"
The previously quiet monkey group erupted in panicked, angry cries.
Their perfect stealth was broken, every monkey unavoidably coated with substantial white flour.
Their originally environnt-blending iron-gray fur beca patchy and conspicuous.
Wherever they fled, they left behind clearly visible white footprints on the ground and shelves.
They had been collectively "dyed"!
Through his telescope, Lin Jie clearly witnessed this spectacular yet comical scene.
His extrely simple trap, using the cheapest materials, had achieved more effective results than conventional kill traps.
It hadn't killed a single enemy, but had stripped them of their essential survival ability—stealth.
The enraged monkey group began scrambling aimlessly throughout the warehouse, trying to shake off the annoying white powder.
Their movent speed was astonishingly fast, leaping and climbing among the massive shelves like phantoms.
If they had remained in their stealth-camouflaged state, even a sharpshooter like William would have struggled to track them.
But now, they were just highly conspicuous white targets in the darkness.
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