102: Blind firing depth charges! Playing Russian roulette 100 meters underground!

This time, the sound seemed a bit closer than before.

It was Death spinning the cylinder of a revolver, pushing the next bullet into the firing position.

"Don't move."

Jiang Ran's voice was low and heavy as iron: "Nobody move."

In this cramped and narrow underground coffin, evasion was meaningless.

The sound of any engine starting would instantly reveal their position, inviting a truly devastating blow.

Their only choice was to gamble.

To gamble that the Depth charge slowly sinking in the dark deep sea wouldn't land right on top of them within this hundred-meter range.

This was a game of Russian roulette with absolutely no technical skill involved.

The dealer was the nonchalant Patrol boat overhead, and the stakes were the lives of everyone on this ship.

"Boom!!!"

The second explosion rang out.

Distance—one hundred and fifty meters.

The shockwave was more violent than before.

A rusted ventilation pipe at the top of the tunnel finally couldn't withstand the vibration and crashed down with a loud "clatter."

It landed right in the silt less than ten meters from the bow of the black iron.

Every explosion tested the limits of the tunnel's structure and the psychological defenses of the living.

The aftershocks finally subsided slowly, but the suffocating silence was even more terrifying than the sound of the explosions.

The darkness was like a thick layer of cement, sealing off everyone's mouth and nose without a single gap.

Inside this pitch-black iron can.

Senses were infinitely magnified, and every passing second became a form of mental "death by a thousand cuts."

In the corner, Old Chen was curled into a ball, squeezed tightly between two server cabinets.

This old Mechanic, who had spent most of his life at sea and seen countless storms, was now like a terrified child.

His upper and lower teeth were chattering uncontrollably, making a faint "clatter clatter clatter" sound.

To keep the sound from escaping, he bit down hard on a greasy gun-cleaning rag.

His cheeks were sore and cramped from the excessive force, and his bloodshot eyes bulged as he stared fixedly at the pitch-black ceiling.

That feeling of helplessness—only being able to wait for death with no way to resist—was snapping his nerve bit by bit.

"Twenty-three... twenty-four... twenty-five..."

Su Qingyu sat on the other side, her hands gripping the straps of the medical kit tightly, her knuckles pale from lack of blood.

She was counting silently.

As a doctor, this was her only way to combat fear—using rational numbers to fill her nearly collapsing mind.

"The reload time for a 'Hound' class Patrol boat's Depth charge launcher is about fifteen to twenty seconds..."

She calculated this death formula over and over in her mind.

Cold sweat dripped down her chin and onto the back of her hand, bone-chillingly cold.

Every time she counted down to twenty, her heart would jerk violently, waiting for the "plop" that would signal the end.

However, twenty seconds passed.

Thirty seconds passed.

Overhead, it was still deathly silent.

This agony of "waiting for the other shoe to drop" was a hundred times more painful than being stabbed directly.

You didn't know if the person holding the gun had already pulled the trigger, nor did you know if the next second would be eternal nothingness.

The air in the Command cabin seemed to have solidified into glue.

Everyone's breathing was deliberately lowered to the absolute limit.

Only the sound of hearts pounding wildly in chests—thump-thump, thump-thump—as if they were about to burst through ribs.

In this moment where everyone was about to suffocate, only Jiang Ran remained like an iron statue frozen in the darkness.

He didn't count seconds, nor did he tremble.

He just quietly placed his hand on the cold console, feeling even the slightest vibration coming from it.

This was a contest of willpower.

Those above were gambling with luck; those below were gambling with their lives.

Whoever lost their composure first, whoever made a sound first.

Even if just a single screw was knocked loose, this cat-and-mouse game would end instantly.

In this deep-sea grave, fear was a poison more lethal than water pressure... "Hum... hum..."

That nerve-wracking propeller noise finally began to change.

It didn't approach like the previous times.

Instead, it gradually became low and elusive.

Like a hound that hadn't caught the scent of blood, it finally lost patience and turned to swim toward the distant deep-water area.

The sound grew further and further away until it was finally swallowed completely by the background noise of the ocean tides.

"They're... gone?"

The gun-cleaning rag in Old Chen's mouth finally fell to the floor.

He looked as if his spine had been removed.

He slumped by the cabinet, gasping for breath, greedily inhaling the murky, oxygen-deprived air.

As if it were the sweetest nectar in the world.

"We... we survived..."

Su Qingyu let go of her tight grip on the medical kit, only to find her fingernails had dug deep into her flesh, and her palms were covered in cold sweat and bruises.

The sense of exhaustion after surviving a disaster left her without even the strength to stand up.

"They had to leave."

In the darkness, Jiang Ran's voice was still terrifyingly steady, as if the life-and-death gamble just now had been nothing more than a boring formality to him.

"Can you feel it?"

Jiang Ran looked up.

No sonar was needed; everyone could feel it.

Although the explosions of the Depth charges had stopped.

The vibrations in this undersea tunnel had not disappeared; instead, they became more continuous and more violent.

"Rumble—"

That dull roar was no longer intermittent.

It had become a continuous wall of sound.

It was as if a heavy steamroller with a billion tons of yield was frantically crushing the top of this crust.

The tunnel's concrete walls groaned under the strain, and fine cracks spread through the darkness.

"Atmospheric pressure is plummeting off a cliff."

zero's voice rang out in his mind:

"External sea conditions: Wave height exceeding 15 meters.

Wind speed exceeding level 12.

The main spiral rainband of Typhoon 'Poseidon' has made contact with the Magic City Dead Sea defense line."

"It's finally here."

Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes.

In that pitch-black Command cabin, two points of ghostly blue light suddenly lit up.

It was the bio-current surging in his eyes, and also the signal for this sleeping beast to awaken.

He glanced at the countdown on his retina that had finally reached zero.

"Those Patrol boats have returned to port to seek shelter from the wind."

"That ship must have also dropped anchor and secured itself, retracting all its claws.

Hiding in the eye of the storm like a shrinking turtle, trembling."

Jiang Ran stood up from the commander's chair.

That long-suppressed killing intent erupted along with the gale and rain between heaven and earth.

"Snap—"

With a snap of his fingers.

The red emergency lights in the Command cabin instantly switched to a cold tactical blue light.

The main screen lit up again, and countless data streams began to scroll frantically.

"Reactor ignition! Increase output power to 100%!"

"Bio-engine preheating! Weapon systems unlocked!"

That familiar, powerful low-frequency hum filled the entire warship once again.

This prehistoric crocodile, which had been lying in the silt for ten full hours, finally shook off the dust and bones from its body, revealing its hideous fangs.

"Old Chen, take the helm."

"Dr. Su, keep an eye on the sonar."

Jiang Ran looked at the massive red eye of the typhoon on the screen, which was swallowing everything, and a cruel, wild laugh curled at the corner of his mouth:

"The guests have all arrived; it's time for us to attend the banquet."

"This time, it's our turn to be the hunters."