116: Ark has been slapped in the face! Declaring war across all frequency bands, I reign supreme in the deep sea!

The gunpowder smoke finally dissipated.

As the final roar of the jet engines faded into the clouds,

this sea area, which had just undergone a hellish baptism, returned to an eerie silence.

Sunlight spilled down through the cracks in the clouds.

It no longer illuminated the magnificent blue waves, but a giant graveyard of steel and corpses floating on the sea.

"Gurgle... gurgle..."

That was the sound of the last bit of the "ship's" bow sinking into the water.

Following it was a giant vortex dozens of meters in diameter, like a greedy mouth.

It sucked the surrounding floating oil drums, life rafts, and those broken corpses into the bottomless darkness all at once.

On the edge of the vortex, a pitch-black vertical stabilizer bearing Ark's "Firmament" emblem bobbed lonely with the waves.

That was the relic left behind after the lead plane was blown out of the sky just now.

"This is Ark's 'face'."

Jiang Ran stood atop the bridge of the black iron, letting the salty sea breeze mess up his black hair.

Beneath his feet was this black warship, which, though covered in scars, still stood tall;

before his eyes was the expensive ruins of what was once an arrogant enemy.

"A twenty-thousand-ton class main destroyer, and two 'Thor' heavy attack aircraft costing hundreds of millions."

Su Qingyu walked up behind Jiang Ran, holding a tactical tablet.

There was a hint of unavoidable fatigue in her voice, but more so a nearly dreamlike sense of unreality:

"Plus those dozen expended missiles... Ark burned through at least tens of billions in military spending in this battle.

This might be the most painful defeat the Ark regular army has suffered on a non-core battlefield since the Cataclysm."

Tens of billions.

For survivors on the wasteland, this was an unimaginable concept.

But today,

these killing weapons, representing the highest crystallization of human industry, had simply become a pile of worthless scrap metal and sunk into the cold sea.

"This is also the lesson they deserve."

Jiang Ran looked down at the hideous scars on the deck carved by shrapnel; they were medals of victory:

"They are used to taking a superior stance, using missiles and warplanes to crush those wanderers who can only resist with crude guns and cannons.

They thought this was just an easy 'sweep,' just like countless times before."

Jiang Ran reached out as if to grab the last wisp of gunpowder smoke on the sea, then crushed it fiercely:

"But they forgot that even the most docile sheep will grow fangs when pushed too far. Moreover..."

A faint, cold blue light flashed in his eyes: "We were never sheep."

The black iron started up again.

Without the violent acceleration of combat,

this warship, which had just completed its evolution, was now like a satiated shark, cutting through the sea with steady and elegant steps.

As the course headed due east, the surrounding environment was undergoing a silent yet thrilling change.

"Boss, look at the sea surface."

Old Chen stood by the helm, pointing at the sea ahead, his voice trembling slightly: "We... have crossed the line."

In front of the black iron, a dividing line appeared on the sea, as clear as if it had been drawn with a knife.

On the side behind them, the seawater was affected by land runoff and years of industrial pollution.

It presented a murky yellow-green color, exuding a dead, stagnant breath of corruption.

But on the other side of that line,

the seawater suddenly turned into a sapphire blue so deep it was extreme.

That blue was pure, heavy, and carried a coldness that made the soul tremble.

When the sunlight hit it, it was no longer diffusely reflected, but seemed to be sucked in, leaving only a faint layer of phosphorescence.

"The Continental Slope Break."

Su Qingyu spoke softly as she looked at the depth readings on the sonar screen, which had suddenly dropped like a cliff:

"Once we cross this line, the seabed depth will drop from two hundred meters directly to two thousand meters, or even deeper.

That is the true deep sea, a land of eternal night where even sunlight cannot reach."

Jiang Ran walked to the ship's railing and looked down at the two distinctly different colors of water.

He glanced back.

At the edge of the horizon, the shadow of the giant floating city named "Ark" could still be vaguely seen.

It was like a dark cloud parasitic on the clouds, looming over the survivors struggling below in the ruins.

There was order there, there were laws, but there was also oppression and slavery.

Then, he turned his head and looked at the boundless deep blue ahead. There was nothing there.

No signals, no laws, no so-called moral bottom lines.

Only primitive killing, the most terrifying behemoths, and... infinite possibilities.

"This is the color of freedom."

Jiang Ran took a deep breath of the sea breeze, which had become exceptionally biting; his lungs were filled with a pure and wild air:

"Once we cross this line, Ark's radar can no longer control us.

In this deep blue, whoever has the sharpest teeth is the law."

"Su Qingyu."

Jiang Ran withdrew his gaze from the deep blue and suddenly spoke.

"Here."

"Open the all-frequency public broadcast. Unencrypted, maximum power."

Su Qingyu froze for a moment, her finger hovering over the keyboard: "Boss, open the all-frequency broadcast now?

Ark's signal monitoring stations will be able to lock onto our precise coordinates in minutes.

Even though they temporarily can't send out new planes, isn't this too arrogant?"

"I want them to lock on."

Jiang Ran turned and walked into the command cabin, sitting in the cold command chair, his expression as calm as if he were discussing today's weather:

"We're leaving anyway; we have to say goodbye to our old friends."

"If we don't say something, they'll think we're fleeing into the deep sea like stray dogs."

Su Qingyu looked into Jiang Ran's deep blue eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed the enter key heavily.

"Zzzt— Public channel activated.

Signal strength covers a radius of eight hundred kilometers."

At this moment, whether it was the nearby Ark patrol boats, the Ark Headquarters Monitoring Center hundreds of kilometers away,

or the Scavengers hiding in the ruins of various islands,

a young, cold voice that exuded a bone-chilling frost came through their radios simultaneously.

"This is the black iron."

Those five simple words made the hearts of countless people listening to the radio tremble.

On this ocean now, no one didn't know what that name meant.

That was the god of slaughter who had just massacred an Ark main fleet.

"I am Jiang Ran."

Jiang Ran spoke into the microphone, his tone steady, without any hysterical roaring.

There was no winner's wild laughter either, only a calmness as if stating a fact:

"The 'ship' that just sank, along with those two planes—I've taken them."

"But don't misunderstand, this debt isn't settled yet."

He paused, his gaze piercing through the porthole as if penetrating the clouds to look directly at that steel floating city hanging high in the sky:

"This is merely the interest."

"As for the principal... you'd better keep it well-hidden up there in the sky."

"Wait for the day I return from the deep sea."

Jiang Ran's voice suddenly turned cold, carrying an unquestionable resolve: "I will personally go to the sky and collect it all, with interest."

There was no excessive nonsense, no stirring declaration of war.

After saying those few sentences, Jiang Ran directly cut the communication.

Only a busy tone remained.

It echoed for a long time in that arrogant floating city, like a loud slap in the face, or a belated death notice.

"Seal all external hatches."

"Switch the circulation system to internal breathing mode."

As Jiang Ran's slender palm pressed down heavily on the console,

the black iron, the steel behemoth that was just showing off its power on the sea surface, began a breathtaking morphological reorganization.

"Clank, clank, clank—"

Atop the bridge, the "sea star" polyhedral radar, which had just performed meritorious service,

quickly retracted all its arrays like a mimosa plant sensing danger.

Immediately after, the black metal around the mast base flowed like liquid,

completely wrapping, swallowing, and pulling it under the safest armor layer inside the hull.

On the aft deck, those two rows of menacing vertical launch silo covers also began to close.

But this was not merely a mechanical closing.

Countless black biological tentacles grew from the gaps in the silo covers, intertwining and hardening.

Eventually, they formed a smooth, seamless cuticle.

This sealed the launch ports representing death airtight to withstand the impending high pressure of the deep sea.

The originally sharp-edged stealth facets designed to deflect radar waves

now became rounded and smooth under the writhing of fluid muscles.

Within just a few dozen seconds,

the black iron shed its aggressive "warrior's armor."

It changed into an "assassin's night-suit" with excellent streamlining, looking like a drop of black mercury.

It was no longer a warship.

It had become a ghost of the deep sea.

"Fill the ballast tanks."

"We're going down."

Accompanied by a loud hiss, like a whale surfacing for air,

large amounts of seawater were sucked into the ballast tanks in the hull's belly, squeezing out the air that originally filled the compartments.

The ship's hull suddenly sank.

Cold seawater washed over the deck, over the railings, and finally climbed up the command cabin's portholes.

"This feeling... no matter how many times I experience it, it still gives me the creeps..."

Old Chen watched the rising water level outside the window.

Watching the originally bright sunlight being swallowed bit by bit by the blue seawater, he subconsciously gripped the helm.

The world instantly went silent.

The sound of the wind disappeared, the sound of the waves disappeared, and even the cries of the circling seagulls were isolated in another world.

Only the monotonous "beep— beep—" of the sonar and the faint squeezing sounds of the hull during the deep-sea dive remained in their ears.

The bow of the black iron tilted slightly downward.

Like a black sharp sword thrust into the water, it slid silently toward that unknown and profound dark abyss.

On the sea surface, the giant vortex was slowly rotating.

The black warship that had made the entire sea area tremble just moments ago had now completely disappeared below the horizon.

The massive negative pressure generated by its dive acted like an invisible funnel.

It sucked in the surrounding fragments of the "ship," the burning oil slicks, and those corpses that hadn't had time to sink yet.

A few broken steel plates printed with Ark serial numbers spun in the vortex,

eventually dragged by that irresistible force,

following the footsteps of that black ghost, falling together into the bottomless abyss.

A moment later,

the bubbles dissipated, and the ripples smoothed out.

The sea surface regained that heart-palpitating calm.

Only the deep, nearly black azure seawater still shimmered with a chilly luster under the sun.

It was as if that earth-shaking war had never happened.

Two hundred meters below the surface,

the light was fading rapidly.

The originally clear azure gradually became murky and deep, finally turning into an ink-black color so thick it wouldn't disperse.

This was a forbidden zone for sunlight.

"Depth three hundred meters. External water pressure thirty atmospheres."

"Depth four hundred meters, light intensity zero."

With zero's emotionless voice calling out the numbers, the scenery outside the command cabin turned into absolute nothingness.

There was no direction, no reference points, and one couldn't even feel the passage of time.

Only the constantly rising pressure readings reminded everyone that they were entering a completely alien world.

"Are you afraid?"

Jiang Ran asked softly as he looked at the darkness outside the porthole that seemed capable of swallowing souls.

"I am."

Old Chen swallowed hard, his voice very low: "It feels like being locked in a coffin and buried in the ground... it's too quiet here, quiet enough to drive one mad."

"You'll get used to it."

Jiang Ran stood up from his chair and walked to the giant floor-to-ceiling porthole.

His silhouette was reflected on the glass, merging with the darkness outside.

"Those struggles in the near-shore waters are nothing more than children playing house."

"Here, in this place where even light cannot reach, is the true hunting ground."

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

"Snap."

In the next second, two deep blue biological searchlights suddenly lit up on both sides of the black iron's bow.

Those two beams of light, though seemingly insignificant in the vast deep sea,

were like a pair of beastly pupils suddenly opening in the night, carrying a terrifying aggressiveness.

They pierced through the darkness that had persisted for hundreds of millions of years.

Where the light reached, giant, bizarrely shaped shadows could be vaguely seen swimming slowly in the distance.

Those were the Deep-sea Beasts, ruins of the old era, and the new world waiting for the black iron to conquer.

"Let's go."

Jiang Ran looked at those existences peering at them from the darkness, his lips curling into a wild laugh full of savagery:

"Go and tell those monsters in the deep sea."

"Something more ferocious has arrived."

As the propellers turned silently,

the black ghost ship adjusted its posture and resolutely dived toward the deeper, darker depths of the trench.