His face was a mask of lingering fear as he began to recount the terrifying experience. "It was the seventh day of our voyage. During dinner, one of the crewn suddenly got a call.
"’Hello, I’m Miss Mary. I’m on the ship right now.’"
"The person on the other end hung up after just that one sentence. He thought it was strange and told us about it. Then the phone rang again."
"’Hello, I’m Miss Mary. I’m at the entrance to the dining hall now.’"
"We were eating in the dining hall at the ti, so we all looked at the entrance, thinking it was so kind of prank. A mont later, the phone rang again. The crewman had already put it on speakerphone, letting us all hear the voice on the other end."
"’Hello, I’m Miss Mary. I’m right behind you.’"
As if recalling the horrific scene, the hand Brother Du used to hold his cigarette trembled slightly.
"We turned around and saw a doll with a smiling face, wearing a red dress and holding a cleaver, erge from behind that crewman. It was completely without warning—the kind of thing that just appears out of nowhere."
"Before we could even scream, ’Miss Mary’ swung the cleaver and hacked the poor bastard to death. His blood sprayed all over the entire dining hall."
"Then, it ducked behind the corpse, out of our line of sight. When one of the Ascenders among us went over to check, he found that Miss Mary had already vanished. Next, another crewman’s phone began to ring. He didn’t press the answer button, but the call connected on its own."
"’Hello, I’m Miss Mary. I’m on the ship right now.’"
"That’s right. The sa line again."
Brother Du took a deep drag from his cigarette, his voice laced with fear. "After that, it was a complete and utter massacre. Whenever a phone rang, it ant soone was about to die. It moved too fast, picking us off one by one. By the ti we managed to gather everyone, there were only eighteen of us left."
"Even the Ascenders were helpless against it. Rocket launchers couldn’t even put a scratch on it. The ship was littered with corpses and blood... and no one knew if they’d be the next to die."
"Fortunately, we quickly figured out its killing chanism: it used phone calls to lock onto its targets. So we all threw our cell phones into the sea and shut down all the radios, speakers, and any other audio equipnt. As long as no ’phone’ rang, its killing chanism wouldn’t be triggered."
"So, we were stuck on that ship with Miss Mary for several days. Every night, we were terrified of waking up to find it standing right next to us. I don’t know how many people were driven mad by the imnse psychological stress..."
"The mont we docked, we reported it to the Star Association. They had to send a team of four Tier Three Ascenders just to contain Miss Mary."
Brother Du finished his cigarette and imdiately lit another, trying to calm the fear in his heart.
For a long ti after that, he developed a phobia of dolls and beca terrified of answering the phone. He eventually managed to overco it, only to relapse when he heard soone say ’hello’ on a call.
"The two things you must never smuggle at sea are Forbidden Objects and Abyssal Cursed Objects," Brother Du said earnestly. "You never know when they might spiral out of control. If sothing goes wrong out here, you’re completely on your own; no one can hear you scream."
"I get it," the young crewman nodded.
Suddenly, Brother Du’s cell phone rang. Its cheerful, lodic ringtone made the young crewman’s heart leap into his throat with terror.
"Haha, relax. It’s just Old Sun." Brother Du glanced at the caller ID and answered the phone.
"Hey, Old Sun, what’s up?"
"What? Ah Wei’s missing? Didn’t he go to check the cargo hold? You can’t reach him?"
Brother Du was stunned. He nodded quickly. "Okay, okay, I’ll get so people and go look for him right now."
After hanging up, he turned to the other crewn in the dining hall and said in a grim voice, "Ah Wei went missing while checking the cargo hold. Everyone, grab your tools and co with ."
"Shit, I haven’t even finished my food yet."
"Tch, that kid probably just found a corner to hide in and watch porn."
"..."
A little while later, Brother Du led a few crewn to the cargo hold. It was cramd with cargo slated for export.
"Ah Wei! Ah Wei, you in here?"
"Ah Wei, where are you?"
The n shouted his na throughout the cargo hold. Just then, one of them pricked up his ears, catching a faint noise in the distance.
"Shh. I think I hear sothing. It’s over here."
The crewn followed the sound and soon found a shipping container that had been opened. Its doors were ajar, revealing a pitch-black interior. Everyone frowned, sensing that sothing was very wrong.
In the silence, a faint sound echoed from the darkness within the container. If you listened closely, you could make out...
It sounded like a cry for help.
"Help ... Help ... It hurts so much..."
A few crewn with sharp hearing instinctively took a couple of steps back, their faces pale. "That sounds like Ah Wei’s voice. Is he asking for help?"
"What’s in there?" soone asked, their expression wary.
"Looks like it’s just lumber for export... Dammit, the captain isn’t smuggling sothing behind our backs, is he?"
BOOM!
The words had barely left his mouth when, before the horrified eyes of the crewn, the darkness inside the container swelled and erupted outward like a flood.
It was accompanied by the piercing shrieks of what sounded like Hellish Evil Ghosts breaking free.
—The Darkness had arrived.
The n scread and ran, but they were no match for the speed of the encroaching dark torrent. In the blink of an eye, they were swallowed by the gushing deluge.
A cold, viscous Darkness seeped into every inch of their bodies and Souls. The screams of the dead echoed in their ears, like talons scraping against sheet tal, torturing their eardrums and sanity.
Within the Darkness, everyone felt endless pain, cold, and despair.
One of the Ascenders used all his Power, trying to struggle free, but this solidified dark Curse was far beyond what he could fight.
"Save ... Don’t go... Don’t go... It’s so dark here... so cold..."
In the viscous, churning Darkness, the faces of his fellow crewn appeared, grabbing hold of the Ascender’s body.
More faces materialized in the Darkness, letting out mournful pleas for help.
"Don’t go, save us, save us..."
"Please, save ..."
"Don’t go... Don’t go... It’s so terrifying in here..."
"Get away! All of you, get away from !"
The Ascender’s eyes widened in terror as he struggled frantically, but it was all in vain.
Amid the pleas from countless faces, pulled down by innurable hands, and surrounded by a cacophony of whispers, he gradually sank into a bottomless mire of Darkness and an Abyss of despair.
Soon, the overwhelming torrent of Darkness gushed out from the cargo hold.
It swallowed everything on the ship.
·
·
"What’s going on?"
In the office, Zhou Chen, who had been keeping Jiang Che company while he pulled an all-nighter, shot up from the sofa and rushed to Jiang Che’s side. A piercing alarm was blaring from the computer.
"The system has detected a Level 5 Curse contamination source at sea."
Jiang Che’s brow furrowed. He imdiately dispatched an elite Ascender team, composed entirely of Tier Three mbers, to investigate.
A little over ten minutes later, a report ca back.
By the ti the elite team arrived, the source of the Curse contamination had already vanished. Only a cold, cursed aura lingered at the scene. All the crew mbers were dead, their bodies gone, and the origin of the contamination source remained undiscovered.
Back in the office, Jiang Che had already witnessed the entire event unfold on the sea’s surface via the detection system and satellite feeds.
One minute after the source erupted, a one-kiloter-diater Cursed Ocean appeared on the sea. The Cursed aura was practically off the charts.
At one minute and forty-six seconds, the Cursed Ocean began to dissipate for unknown reasons.
At two minutes and eleven seconds, the contamination source converged back onto the freighter.
At two minutes and nineteen seconds, the source vanished completely, leaving no detectable traces.
In less than two and a half minutes, a Level 5 contamination source capable of causing tens of thousands of casualties had vanished without a trace. Besides the residue left on the freighter, there was nothing left to track.
’This freighter belongs to Fu Qing, and it’s also connected to Birdman...’ Jiang Che mused, tapping his fingers on the desk. ’There’s reason to suspect Eternal Fire was trying to transport ’that thing’ and ran into an accident... But I can’t jump to conclusions. Maybe this is just a Blinding Technique. Sea freight isn’t the only way to move sothing...’
After a long mont of contemplation, Jiang Che gave the order to tighten controls and inspections on all modes of transport. At the sa ti, he prepared to use this incident as a pretext to launch an investigation into Fu Qing.
Then he looked at Zhou Chen. "Contact Birdman later today. Ask him if he knows anything about this. I want to see how he reacts."
"Got it."
Zhou Chen nodded. ’It’s highly likely Eternal Fire was behind this,’ he thought. ’Looks like I’ll have to speed up my infiltration into the enemy’s ranks.’
’If Jiang Che’s plan goes off without a hitch, then after I et Li Xiaoxiao for dinner today, I’ll be facing my final initiation test.’
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