144: Hive array activated! Three thousand six hundred mechanical piranhas!

Two thousand four hundred meters deep in the ocean, the trench fracture zone.

The intense exchange of torpedo fire just now had disturbed these once deathly silent waters.

Millions of vacuum bubbles created by the explosions were slowly bursting, forming a thick "acoustic barrier."

This caused the sonar imaging in the area to look like an old television with a snowy screen.

The black iron ghost used the cover of the chaotic currents.

Like a wounded giant whale, it silently slid into the depths of a V-shaped rocky crevice.

This was a natural whispering gallery formed by geological activity.

The towering magnetite rock walls on both sides could greatly absorb and refract active sonar waves.

"The position is perfect."

Jiang Ran looked at the hull signal on the holographic sea chart, which almost merged with the rocks, and lightly tapped his fingers on the armrest.

"zero, cut off the main power output."

"The entire ship is entering 'near-death' camouflage mode."

"Dr. Su, manually open the Emergency heat dissipation valves No. 3 and No. 4 on the belly."

"Warning."

Su Qingyu's finger hovered over the red valve switch as she looked back at Jiang Ran with a solemn expression.

"If we open the Emergency heat dissipation valves, the high-temperature waste heat from the reactor will be discharged directly into the seawater."

"On infrared thermal imagers, we'll be as dazzling as a lit magnesium strip."

"In this pitch-black deep sea, it's basically telling them, 'I'm right here'."

"Not only that."

A cold arc curled at the corner of Jiang Ran's mouth, an expression unique to a hunter setting a trap.

"Not only do I want them to see us, I want them to think... I'm dying."

"Shut down half of the reactor coolant circulation pumps and trigger the core temperature alarm."

"Discharge 15% of the waste heat fluid with residual radiation."

"In this freezing abyss, heat is blood."

Jiang Ran's voice was low, carrying a chilling, seductive quality.

"An undamaged opponent would make them cautious, keeping their distance and kiting with torpedoes."

"But a prey with its legs blown off, 'bleeding' profusely, and unable to move..."

"...will make them forget their fear, leaving only greed."

"Execute it."

As the command was issued.

"Pshhh—glug glug—"

From beneath the armor plates on the belly of the black iron, two scalding jets erupted.

It was reactor cooling water as hot as eighty degrees Celsius, mixed with trace amounts of radioactive isotopes.

They quickly diffused in the cold, dark seawater.

Forming a clearly visible "blood trail" that emitted a lethal thermal energy signal.

Even the lights inside the hull began to flicker in coordination.

As if the power system was on the verge of collapse.

"This move... is quite sinister."

Old Chen looked at the monitor screen and couldn't help but shrink his neck. He knew that feeling all too well.

It was like deliberately slitting one's wrist in a pool full of sharks.

This kind of bloody bait.

To the Ark Commanders who were eager to distinguish themselves but had suffered greatly in the previous exchange of fire, it had a lethal attraction.

Jiang Ran leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and crossed his hands over his chest.

"Now, we just need to wait quietly."

"Wait for the greedy sharks to swim into the cage."

...Ark flagship, the "poseidon-01" Command cabin.

"Report! High-energy heat source reaction detected deep in the fracture zone at nine o'clock!"

The Sonar Chief's voice broke the silence. This time, his tone was no longer one of terror, but of irrepressible ecstasy.

"Thermal imaging comparison complete... that's reactor coolant!"

"The target's hull temperature is rising abnormally, and radiation levels exceed the limit. Confirmed! It's that ghost ship!"

"It's stopped there and isn't moving!"

Colonel Recker lunged toward the tactical console.

On the deep blue deep-sea background map, a glaring red spot looked like a festering wound.

It flickered in the pitch-black rocky crevice.

It represented a massive amount of thermal energy leaking uncontrollably.

"Ha... haha!"

Recker stared intently at the red dot. His tense facial muscles finally relaxed, revealing a sinister smile.

"I knew it! It's not invincible!"

"That round of blind fire earlier actually hit!"

"The shockwave must have cracked its cooling pipes, and might have even damaged the core reactor."

"Sir, the weapons group requests to fire heavy torpedoes to finish it off!"

The First Mate's finger was already on the launch button. "A three-round volley will definitely blow it to pieces!"

"Stop! You idiot!" Recker slapped the First Mate's hand away and roared.

"Blow it to pieces? Can you afford to pay for it?!"

"The higher-ups want a live specimen!"

"And the data from that damn 'Prototype'!"

"Now it's just a bleeding dead fish waiting to die."

"And you want to use torpedoes costing millions to blow up a pile of scrap metal?"

He took a deep breath, straightened his collar, and the anger in his eyes quickly transformed into a greedy light.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

If he could tow this mysterious warship back intact... no, even if he only towed back half a wreck and that corpse, it would be a massive achievement.

Enough to wash away the shame of being humiliated with jazz music by that bastard earlier.

"Order the entire fleet."

Recker's voice became cold and certain.

"Cease long-range attacks."

"Switch to a 'triangular' encirclement formation and advance silently."

"Prepare the Electromagnetic Paralysis Pulse and the Boarding Party."

"We're going to capture this injured little mouse... alive."

As the orders were issued.

The three massive black nuclear submarines that had been searching everywhere quickly adjusted their positions.

Like three megalodons that had caught the scent of blood, they turned off their active sonar.

Keeping only passive monitoring, they lowered their propeller speeds.

Forming a pincer movement, they approached the rocky crevice emitting the tempting heat.

Three thousand meters... two thousand meters... one thousand meters.

The distance was constantly shrinking.

In that blind spot, the black warship remained motionless, still spewing "lethal" heat currents.

As if it had truly lost all ability to resist and could only wait despairingly for the hunter's butcher knife.

"Entering visual range."

"Distance to target... 800 meters."

Recker looked at the increasingly clear silhouette on the screen, a victor's smile curling at his lips.

"It's over, Ghost."

..."800 meters to contact."

"Enemy fire control radar has locked onto our ship. Electromagnetic pulse charging reaction detected."

zero's cold announcement echoed in the Command cabin, forming a sharp contrast with the deathly silence outside.

On the screen, the massive hulls of the three "Poseidon"-class nuclear submarines were clearly visible.

They still maintained a tight tactical formation.

Their gun ports and torpedo tubes were all aimed at the seemingly paralyzed black iron, like three gun barrels pressed against its forehead.

"800 meters... that's practically point-blank range."

Jiang Ran looked at the three huge light spots, and his half-closed eyes suddenly snapped open.

In those deep blue vertical pupils, the original stillness vanished instantly, replaced by a heart-pounding brutality and excitement.

It was the look of a hunter a second before tightening the noose.

He no longer hid or feigned.

"Close the heat dissipation valves. Restart the reactor." Jiang Ran's fingers clenched hard in the air, as if crushing something.

"Since the guests have all arrived, then... let's serve the meal."

"zero, open the belly Hive Array."

"Release the [Deep Sea Hunter] swarm. All units, launch!"

"Rumble—"

As the command was issued, the black iron ghost lurking in the darkness suddenly emitted a dull mechanical roar.

The hull lights that had been extinguished due to "malfunctions."

All lit up at this instant.

Deep blue light flowed wildly along the patterns of the Biological Armor, like an abyssal behemoth awakening from suspended animation.

On its broad belly.

The heavy armor plates, which had been tightly sealed, slowly slid open to both sides accompanied by the hiss of hydraulic rods.

But this did not reveal large missile silos or terrifying heavy torpedo tubes.

What was revealed was a dense, grid-like launch array that made one's scalp tingle, resembling a giant beehive.

Thousands of fist-sized black launch tubes were exuding the chill of death.

"Tha... That's wha—"

In the distance, the observer of poseidon-01 hadn't even had time to cry out in alarm.

"Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!"

It wasn't a massive explosion, but a series of muffled thuds, as dense as heavy rain drumming on banana leaves.

Countless tiny black shadows were instantly ejected by high-pressure gas.

There were simply too many of them, too dense.

Under the beams of the deep-sea searchlights, they didn't look like weapons at all.

Instead, they looked like a sudden spray of black ink, or a school of deep-sea fish scattering in panic.

In the blink of an eye.

Thousands of miniature units converged beneath the belly of the black iron, forming a massive, writhing, and expanding black "cloud."

This cloud did not disperse; instead, it paused eerily in the seawater for a tenth of a second.

Immediately following that, thousands of pairs of crimson electronic compound eyes lit up simultaneously in the darkness.

In that instant, it was as if a red galaxy had lit up across the entire deep sea.

"That's..."

Colonel Recker stared at the exploding red dots of light on the screen.

A massive fear rooted in biological instinct instantly seized his heart, making him forget to even breathe:

"What... what the hell is that?!"

..."zero, take over swarm control."

Jiang Ran looked at the shimmering red sea on the screen, his voice as calm as if he were conducting a symphony:

"Make them move."

"Command confirmed. Swarm Mind Network constructed."

"Hunting Algorithm... initiated."

"Buzz—!!!"

In the next second, the black cloud that had been writhing aimlessly underwent a sudden qualitative change.

Under zero's terrifying micro-management of billions of calculations per second, three thousand six hundred Deep Sea Hunters adjusted their postures at the same instant.

Beneath their originally pitch-black coating, silver-white light shimmered, like three thousand six hundred blades unsheathed at once.

No run-up, no preheating.

This massive silver storm instantly accelerated to a staggering 60 knots in the deep sea!

The sight was breathtakingly spectacular—

Like a galaxy formed from liquid silver.

Rushing and roaring through the pitch-black abyss, carrying an aura of total destruction.

At the most frantic speed imaginable, it lunged toward the lead poseidon-01 eight hundred meters away.

"Fire! Open fire! It's a drone swarm!"

The Weapons Officer on the Poseidon screamed shrilly, his finger locked onto the trigger.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—"

The Close-In Weapon System turret on the submarine's back spun frantically, 30mm supercavitating armor-piercing rounds carving trails of fire through the water.

The interception lasers were also at full power, slicing boiling trajectories through the silver storm.

Any ordinary torpedo or large vehicle would have been blown apart under such dense intercepting fire.

But this school of "piranhas" was too agile.

Under zero's command, they displayed a terrifying maneuverability that defied fluid dynamics.

They gathered into shields one moment and scattered like sand the next, weaving effortlessly through the gaps in the hail of bullets.

Even if dozens were shattered by the gunfire, for a massive swarm numbering in the thousands, it was but a drop in the ocean.

"We can't... we can't stop them! They're too fast!"

"Collision! We're going to collide!!!"

In Colonel Recker's despairingly dilated pupils.

The silver metal storm ignored all intercepting fire,

Like a massive net blotting out the sun, it slammed down and "shrouded" the massive hull of poseidon-01.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only countless dense sounds of metal clashing that made one's scalp tingle.

"Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang—"

In that instant, the entire nuclear submarine was covered by countless silver ants.

The layer of anechoic tiles and the high-strength pressure hull that the Ark was so proud of,

Now became the most delicious serving plate for these hungry beasts.

For the crew inside poseidon-01, the world did not end in a roar.

Instead, they faced a horror more nerve-wracking than death itself.

"Zzzzzz—!!!"

In that instant, everyone's eardrums in the Command cabin were filled with a high-frequency, sharp, and omnipresent grinding sound.

It sounded as if thousands of madmen with electric drills were clinging to the submarine's hull, drilling frantically;

Or like countless giant rats gnawing at the walls of this steel coffin with their iron teeth.

"Eyes! My eyes, I can't see!"

The Sonar Chief suddenly clutched his headset and screamed, slamming it onto the floor.

On the screens, all external views instantly went black.

All sonar data dropped to zero.

Because in just the last second, all the optical probes and sonar array antennas on the submarine's exterior,

Even the communication antennas, had been devoured by the Mechanical Piranha clinging to the hull!

They were like a swarm of locusts.

Tungsten alloy serrated mouthparts spun frantically; any precision equipment protruding from the hull's surface was their first appetizer.

"Propulsion efficiency dropping!

...Propellers jammed!

The main shaft... the main shaft is broken!!"

The Chief Engineer's terrified roar followed immediately.

At the submarine's stern, hundreds of Deep Sea Hunters were clustering together,

Using their Plasma-cutting Claws, which reached temperatures of thousands of degrees, to grip the massive seven-bladed skewed propeller.

In just a few seconds, the hard alloy blades were heated to a red glow, melted through, and turned into twisted scrap metal.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying part was the hull, which was steadily thinning.

Colonel Recker slumped in his command chair, his face as pale as paper.

He could clearly hear the "creaking" coming from the ceiling above.

That titanium alloy pressure hull, dozens of millimeters thick and capable of withstanding the crushing weight of the deep sea,

Was now groaning under the strain of being gnawed by thousands of mechanical maws.

"Warning! Pressure hull integrity dropped to 70%..."

"Warning! Dropped to 60%..."

Red alarm lights flashed frantically, each blink like a countdown for the ship's life.

"They're eating the ship... they're eating my ship!!!"

Recker hysterically drew his pistol and pulled the trigger frantically at the ceiling, but it was meaningless.

Bullets sparked against the titanium plates, unable to stop the hungry mechanical beasts outside.

And on the outside.

Illuminated by the searchlights of the other two wing-ships, poseidon-01 had become a terrifying silver cocoon.

Its massive black hull was completely covered by dense silver mechanical insects,

Its original appearance was completely obscured.

Only countless flying metal shards and red sparks flickered within that writhing mass of silver.

It was a silent death by a thousand cuts.

A ten-thousand-ton nuclear submarine representing the pinnacle of human technology.

Was being "skinned and de-boned" alive by these tiny mechanical monsters in plain sight.

Becoming an immobile wreck in the deep sea, left only to wait for suffocation.

"It seems they have quite an appetite."

Inside the black iron Command cabin, Jiang Ran looked at the flagship on the screen, now riddled with holes and completely stripped of its combat capability.

He snapped his fingers lightly.

The Mechanical Piranha, still gnawing frantically, seemed to receive a unified command and instantly ceased their actions.

They did not disperse.

Instead, they remained firmly attached to the submarine's surface, their serrated mouthparts idling at low speed, emitting a chilling "buzzing" sound.

Ready at any moment to deliver the final, fatal blow.

Jiang Ran turned his head to look at the other two Ark submarines, which were already too terrified to move, a hint of playfulness in his deep blue pupils:

"The biggest fish has been hooked."

"As for the rest..."

"If they don't surrender, treat them as dessert."