101: Deep-sea turtle breathing! Feigning death under the patrol boat's sonar!

"Beep."

As the final faint electronic prompt faded, the last remaining red emergency light in the Command cabin also went out.

Absolute darkness instantly swallowed everything.

"Reactor output power has dropped to 1%."

"Main circulation pump shut down.

Cooling system shut down. Life support system has entered minimum power consumption mode."

zero's voice was no longer played through the speakers, but instead resonated directly through the nerve interface in Jiang Ran's mind at an extremely low frequency:

"The entire ship's thermal radiation signal has returned to zero.

Current hull surface temperature: 4 degrees Celsius, equal to the surrounding water temperature."

At this moment, the black iron ghost was as if completely dead.

It lay quietly on the seabed a hundred meters deep, inside that abandoned subway tunnel.

Half of its massive body was already sunken into that thick layer of silt mixed with human remains.

The icy seawater carried away the last bit of residual warmth from the hull.

To match this extreme camouflage,

The newly repaired Biological Armor even actively stopped its micro-vibrations, becoming as stiff and rough as dead skin.

In this deep underground tomb, it looked no different from the surrounding subway cars that had rusted into scrap metal.

All were corpses.

But inside the Command cabin, the ordeal for the living had only just begun.

"Huff... huff..."

In the darkness, Old Chen's heavy breathing sounded exceptionally harsh.

Because the air circulation and dehumidification systems were turned off, the air in the cabin began to turn stale, humid, and thick.

The concentration of carbon dioxide was slowly rising.

It made one feel as if a large stone were pressing against their chest, every breath requiring effort to squeeze a trace of oxygen from the air.

Condensation slid down the cold metal cabin walls, falling to the floor with a "drip" that sounded soul-stirring.

"Control your breathing frequency."

Jiang Ran's voice sounded in the darkness, as light as a wisp of smoke, yet carrying an unquestionable command:

"A heart rate that is too fast will consume more oxygen.

Think of yourself as a stone.

Right now, we are a hibernating crocodile.

Before the prey puts its foot to our mouth, we must look more like a corpse than a dead person."

Su Qingyu sat in the corner, her hand tightly clutching a sweat-absorbent handkerchief.

She could feel sweat flowing down her back.

Her clothes clung to her body with a greasy dampness, and the oppression unique to claustrophobic spaces was trying to submerge her reason like a tide.

This was more tormenting than intense combat.

In battle, adrenaline makes you forget fear.

But in this dead silence where one can only wait, fear is infinitely magnified.

Every second was stretched out to be incredibly long.

"How much... longer do we have to wait?" Old Chen lowered his voice, which was terribly hoarse.

"Until the one above feels it is safe."

Jiang Ran closed his eyes, perceiving the outside world through the faint vibrations returned by the passive sonar.

Though he couldn't see, he could feel that above that thick layer of earth, the violent sea was brewing something.

The air pressure was dropping frantically.

It was that suffocating low pressure unique to the arrival of a storm.

Even down here at a hundred meters depth, it made one feel an instinctive sense of panic.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying thing was that in this deathly silence, a new sound suddenly intruded.

"Hum... hum... hum..."

Very distant, very faint, but very rhythmic.

It was the noise of propellers churning the seawater.

Death has come knocking... "Hum— hum— hum—"

At first, the sound was like a nuisance mosquito circling the ear.

But soon, it turned into the ear-piercing roar of countless saws cutting wood simultaneously.

It wasn't a single sound source.

It was high-frequency cavitation noise captured by passive sonar, still clearly distinguishable after being filtered through layers of seawater.

"It's the 'Hounds'."

Jiang Ran still had his eyes closed, engaging in silent communication with zero in his mind.

His face was calm, but his brow was slightly furrowed:

"This unique acoustic signature of high-speed propellers belongs to the light, high-speed patrol boats of the Ark's peripheral fleet.

Only those little things under five hundred tons

would scurry around like male dogs in heat under such severe sea conditions with a typhoon approaching."

The holographic screen had long been turned off; now he could only rely on hearing to construct the outside world.

In Jiang Ran's mental map, in that pitch-black sea area overhead,

Three fast attack boats arranged in a wedge formation were cutting through the waves, circling the perimeter of the 'ship' anchorage.

They were the watchdogs of the fleet.

Before their master's eyes were about to close, they had to sniff every blade of grass and every tree in the vicinity.

Ensuring no threat could approach that expensive flagship.

"Getting closer..."

Su Qingyu stared intently at the only remaining sonar waveform display, which was jumping like an electrocardiogram.

The green peaks representing noise intensity were becoming sharper, and every jump felt like an invisible hand was squeezing her heart.

"They're circling in this area."

Old Chen's voice was so low it was almost just a whisper of air.

He curled himself into a ball, as if that could reduce the probability of being discovered:

"Did they discover something? Why aren't they leaving?"

"They haven't discovered anything."

Jiang Ran judged coldly:

"If they had, the sound now wouldn't be the hum of propellers.

It would be the 'thump-thump' of active sonar hitting the hull, or the 'plop' of an anti-submarine torpedo entering the water.

They're just going through the motions."

Even so, the sense of oppression did not lessen in the slightest.

The sound overhead became louder and louder, even drowning out the distant, dull thunder.

The high-pressure bubbles generated by the high-speed rotating propeller blades shredding the seawater

burst near the tunnel entrance, making a "sizzle" sound.

It was as if the hound's nose had reached the front of the thief hiding under the bed, sniffing forcefully.

Even a trace of oil smell, or a bit of abnormal metal echo, would instantly bring about a fatal disaster.

Suddenly, the largest noise source paused at a distance less than three hundred meters from the tunnel entrance.

The engine sound changed from a high-pitched scream to a low, idling roar.

In that instant, the air in the Command cabin seemed to freeze.

"It stopped."

Old Chen's eyes widened, his eyeballs bloodshot, and he covered his mouth tightly with both hands, for fear that the sound of his violent heartbeat would escape.

"It's listening."

In the consciousness network, Jiang Ran instantly cut off all non-essential nerve connections, becoming like a statue:

"They are using dipping sonar to listen for movement on the seabed."

This moment was a game of absolute stillness.

Above was the hunter with modern detection methods; below was the prey hidden in a pile of bones.

The only barriers were the hundred-plus meters of seawater and this thick layer of earth mixed with reinforced concrete.

A few seconds of dead silence felt as long as a century.

Immediately after, an even more desperate sound broke the tranquility.

"Plop—"

It was the dull thud of a heavy object hitting the water.

Jiang Ran snapped his eyes open, his deep blue pupils contracting violently:

"Hold on!"

"BOOM—!!!"

After a few seconds of suffocating wait, an extremely dull, massive explosion sounded, as if a giant had violently struck a broken gong on the seabed.

It wasn't an explosion in the air.

It was the intense water pressure pulse generated when a depth charge detonated two hundred meters away above the seabed.

The terrifying shockwave didn't hit the ship's hull directly.

Instead, it first slammed hard onto the seabed.

Then, following the hard rock layers and concrete tunnel walls, it was instantly conducted to the feet of the black iron like an electric current.

"Clang— rustle rustle..."

The entire abandoned subway tunnel vibrated violently at that moment.

From the concrete vault overhead, which was already covered in cracks,

countless centuries of accumulated dust, gravel, and barnacle remains fell down like a rainstorm.

They hit the deck of the black iron, producing a series of heart-stopping clatters.

"It... it missed!"

Old Chen hugged the leg of the console tightly, his whole body bouncing an inch off the floor from the vibration, his teeth biting through his lip:

"They found us! They're bombing our vital spot!"

"No, they haven't found us."

Jiang Ran's hand pressed on the constantly vibrating armrest of the command chair, feeling the aftereffects of the shockwave.

His gaze remained calm, even coldly so:

"If they had locked onto a target, the attack now would be a dense salvo of torpedoes, turning this part of the seabed upside down.

But this was just a single shot, and the bearing was off by a full two hundred meters."

"That was...?" Su Qingyu wiped the dust off her face, her voice trembling slightly.

"That was a 'clearing'."

Jiang Ran looked up at the pitch-black overhead, as if he could see through the thick earth to that patrol boat showing off its power:

"Just like a farmer will habitually fire two shots into the bushes before sleeping to scare away any potential wild beasts.

They are conducting defensive blind firing.

They don't expect a hit; they just want to shock to death or scare away any frogmen or small submersibles that might be lurking."

"Blind... blind firing?"

After hearing this, Old Chen didn't breathe a sigh of relief; instead, the despair on his face deepened.

If it were a precision strike, perhaps it could be evaded with skill.

But blind firing... that was a game of pure luck.

"Plop—"

Another dull thud of a heavy object falling into the water came through.