146: A chain around his throat! Dragged into an 8,000-meter abyss!

Two thousand four hundred meters deep in the ocean.

Two Poseidon-class nuclear submarines, their crews scared out of their wits.

At this moment, they were like two drowned dogs with their tails between their legs.

They even risked reactor overload, pushing their propulsion power into the red line zone.

The propellers at the stern churned the seawater.

They pulled behind them two chaotic and massive turbulences, desperately trying to flee this sea area filled with the stench of death.

On their sonar screens...

The red devil marker representing the black iron stayed exactly where it was.

It seemed, just as it had behaved before...

It was focused on "enjoying" the wreckage of the flagship and couldn't be bothered with these two fish that had slipped through the net.

"Whew... whew... It's not following! It's not following!"

The Commander of Poseidon-02 watched as the distance readings continued to increase.

His heart, which had been stuck in his throat, finally settled back into his chest. He slumped into the command chair, utterly exhausted.

"Quick! Maintain full speed!

Once we surface to the shallow waters, we'll be safe!

We must bring word of what happened here back... That thing is a devil!

A true devil!"

However, just as they thought they had escaped death...

Inside the black iron ghost's Command cabin.

Old Chen watched the two light dots on the screen getting further away, nearly out of the fire-control radar's lock range.

He clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and moved his hand away from the launch button.

"We're letting those bastards off too easy.

If it were up to me, I'd blow their asses to pieces."

Although Jiang Ran had just said he wanted to play the long game to catch the big fish, using fear to spread despair...

Watching prey slip away from under his nose was unbearable for a warmonger like Old Chen.

It felt like a cat was scratching at his heart.

"Easy?"

Jiang Ran sat in the command chair, tossing the coin in his hand high into the air once more.

*Ding—*

The coin flipped in the air, glinting with a cold silver light, before he caught it with the back of his hand with a *snap*.

Jiang Ran looked down at the coin's face, and a mysterious smile suddenly appeared on his previously calm face.

That smile carried a childish fickleness, and even more so, the cruel playfulness of a predator.

"Old Chen, I said earlier that fear is the best messenger, right?"

"Huh?

Yeah, Boss, didn't you say you wanted to leave survivors to report back?" Old Chen was stunned.

"I suddenly feel that there's a loophole in that theory."

Jiang Ran slowly put away the coin, a cold light suddenly flashing in his deep blue pupils.

"Living people lie.

To cover up their own incompetence and cowardice...

...they might make up all sorts of excuses when they get back, even claiming they were ambushed or suffered equipment failure."

"In that case, the effect of the fear would be diminished."

He stood up abruptly and pointed his finger toward the bottomless darkness of the abyss below.

"Compared to talkative living people, I think... silent 'specimens' are more convincing."

"Keep them at the bottom of the sea forever, turned into two flattened iron discs."

"That is the ultimate aesthetic of violence, isn't it?"

"Hehe... I knew it!"

Old Chen instantly perked up, slapping his thigh. His eyes turned red with excitement. "Boss, you're just too soft-hearted (ruthless)! We should have done this long ago!"

The corners of Jiang Ran's mouth curled up slightly as he gave the order that would rewrite fate:

"zero, deactivate silent mode."

"Biological Muscle Fiber Engines, full power output."

"Chase them down."

*Rumble—!!!*

On the black iron, which had been hovering in a blind spot, a layer of vein-like patterns suddenly erupted across the hull's surface.

It was the sign of high-density biological muscle fibers gorging with blood and overloading.

In the next second, it tore through the seawater like a black arrow.

The terrifying acceleration even triggered a white underwater sonic boom cloud!

Since the devil had changed his mind, no one would leave the gates of hell alive... *Beep—! Beep—! Beep—!*

On the sonar screen of Poseidon-02...

The warning dot, which had gradually turned yellow as the distance increased...

...turned back into a heart-stopping blood-red in the blink of an eye!

Moreover, it was enlarging at a terrifying speed that defied the laws of physics!

"What... what kind of speed is that?!"

The sonar operator looked at the data on the screen, which was closing in as if teleporting.

His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and his voice became sharp and piercing due to extreme fear:

"Eighty knots?! No... ninety knots?!

It's accelerating! It's still accelerating!

This isn't a submarine!

This is an underwater rocket!!"

Ninety knots.

This was a limit speed that even the most advanced supercavitating torpedoes struggled to maintain.

Yet it was now appearing on a warship with a displacement of several thousand tons.

Before this terrifying kinetic energy, which even produced a sonic shockwave...

...these two nuclear submarines, desperately fleeing at thirty knots...

...were like two snails on a highway trying to outride a Ferrari on bicycles. It was laughably slow.

"It's caught up! It's right behind us!!"

"Launch decoys! Quick, launch decoys!!"

The Commander of Poseidon-02 roared in despair, his hands frantically pounding the console.

But it was all too late.

Behind the two submarines, the massive black iron ghost broke through the waves.

Like a black Leviathan emerging from the ancient abyss.

Carrying a suffocating pressure, it instantly closed to a "hand-to-hand" distance of two hundred meters.

"It's too close... the torpedo fuzes won't unlock!"

Old Chen looked at the two massive targets that nearly filled the screen, his palms sweating slightly.

"Who said anything about using torpedoes?"

Jiang Ran stood on the command platform.

Watching the two prey ahead twisting desperately, trying to evade capture through maneuvers, a cruel cold light flashed in his eyes:

"I don't want to blow them to bits."

"I want to catch them."

"Launch the Abyss Capture Anchors."

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The heavy armor plates on both sides of the black iron snapped open, revealing four thick launch ports.

Accompanied by the explosion of high-pressure gas...

...four dark-gold titanium alloy heavy anchor chains, each as thick as a man's thigh, hissed out like four venomous snakes with immense kinetic energy!

At the front of the anchor chains were four specially reinforced triangular barbed spearheads.

These were brutal tools originally designed to forcibly anchor to the seabed rock bed during storms, or even to hunt deep-sea behemoths.

At such close range, aiming wasn't even necessary.

*Clang—!!! Crack!!!*

A terrifying impact sound, like a giant bell being struck, echoed through the deep sea.

Two spearheads accurately pierced the stern propulsion armor of Poseidon-02.

The other two savagely stabbed into the side ballast tanks of 03.

The thick pressure hulls were torn as easily as thin tin plate before these molecularly reinforced spearheads.

*Puchi!*

The spearheads drilled deep into the submarines. Before the damage control systems could react, the mechanical structures inside the spearheads triggered instantly.

*Click!*

The barbs at the tips of the spearheads exploded outward like flowers of death, locking firmly onto the submarines' internal keel structures.

"Connection confirmed."

"Targets captured."

In this moment, the three steel behemoths were forcibly linked together in the deep sea by these four thick metal chains.

"This is..."

Feeling the violent vibrations from the hull...

...and the sudden jolt as if being yanked by some immense force, the face of the Poseidon-02 Captain turned white as a sheet.

He looked back in horror through the rear-view camera and saw a scene that made his soul flee—

The black ghost ship hadn't fired; instead, it had tied them up with several thick iron chains, like leashing dogs.

"What... what does it want to do?"

A fear deeper than death instantly crawled up everyone's spines.

"Damn it! It's hooked us!!"

"Cut it! Send someone to cut that chain, quick!"

The Commander of Poseidon-02 shouted madly as he looked at the red alert on the screen displaying "Hull Anchored."

But everyone knew that in the deep sea under hundreds of atmospheres of pressure...

...sending someone out of the hatch to cut a half-meter-thick titanium alloy anchor chain was nothing but a pipe dream.

"Full power! Emergency ascent! Blow all ballast tanks!"

"I don't believe its engines can pull two nuclear submarines running at full power! We'll have a tug-of-war! We'll drag it up!"

The instinct for survival caused these two Ark submarines to burst with unprecedented power.

The control rods of the nuclear reactors were pulled to the danger line, and the massive seven-bladed propellers churned the seawater frantically.

They even produced severe cavitation due to the high rotation speed, pulling behind them two turbid white wakes.

The two steel behemoths, each weighing thousands of tons...

...were like two enraged bulls, desperately trying to break their tethers, charging headlong toward the surface.

Tight!

The four heavy anchor chains connecting them to the black iron were instantly pulled taut, emitting a tooth-aching *creak*.

The massive pull even caused the black iron's enormous hull to tremble slightly.

"Boss, they've got some strength."

Old Chen grinned as he looked at the tension reading on the dashboard.

"They want to compare strength with us?"

"Compare strength?"

Jiang Ran sat in the command chair, feeling the tug from the rear of the ship, his eyes full of disdain.

"Two outdated steam turbines? Do they think they can match the torque of a Biological Muscle Engine?"

He tapped his finger lightly on the armrest, his voice cold as if pronouncing a death sentence:

"zero, show them what true power is."

"Target set: Directly below, the bottom of the trench."

"Full speed dive."

"Vroom—!!!"

This time, the engine sound of the black iron was no longer a mechanical roar.

Instead, it was a low, thick, terrifying thud, like the heartbeat of a giant deep-sea beast.

Inside the hull, the biological muscle fiber bundles that had evolved several times instantly tightened and contracted.

They erupted with an unbelievable, terrifying monstrous strength.

"Clack, clack, clack—"

The two Ark submarines, which were still struggling desperately to rise, suddenly felt an irresistible force coming from their sterns.

The feeling was like a child running at full speed suddenly being grabbed by the back collar by a grown man.

"It... it's not moving?!"

The Captain of No. 02 discovered in horror that no matter how much the thrusters roared,

The numbers on the Depth Gauge were stuck fast, not rising even a single meter.

The next second, the world spun.

The black iron's massive black bow suddenly plunged downward, performing a vertical 90-degree maneuver at that depth.

Like a giant piece of meteoric iron, it charged with an indomitable momentum, plunging straight into the bottomless dark abyss.

"Aaaaaah—"

A massive amount of inertia was instantly transmitted through the anchor chains.

The two nuclear submarines, still trying to head up, were flipped over by this unreasonable force!

Their propellers were still frantically pushing water backward, but it was meaningless.

In the face of the black iron's crushing power,

Their resistance was as comical and powerless as two puppies trying to pull back an elephant.

They could only be dragged by those four chains representing death.

Tumbling and wailing against their will, they were dragged headfirst toward the bottomless abyss named 'Destruction'.

"Alarm! Alarm! Depth has exceeded the safety red line!"

Inside the Command cabin of Poseidon-02, the shrill red alarm light blinked frantically like a madman.

All crew members were pinned to their seats by the massive gravitational acceleration,

Or they tumbled across the slanted floor.

They looked up in horror.

Watching the numbers on the massive Depth Gauge jump at a desperate speed.

2,400 meters.

This was the design limit depth of their submarine.

2,800 meters.

This was the theoretical yield limit of the Titanium Alloy Pressure Hull.

3,000 meters... this was the threshold of the Grim Reaper.

"Stop! Make it stop!!"

The Captain of No. 02 looked at the numbers that had turned crimson, his voice completely broken.

Like a drowning man, he clawed futilely at the console, his fingernails snapping off.

"Creak—screech—"

The response was the scream of the entire submarine, like a dying giant beast.

It was the sound of metal fatigue.

Thousands of tons of seawater pressure were like an invisible giant hand, squeezing this fragile tin can from all directions.

"Bang!"

A crisp explosion, like a gun firing next to one's ear.

A special rivet, unable to withstand the pressure, popped off the bulkhead.

Carrying kinetic energy greater than a bullet, it instantly pierced an operator's shoulder and then embedded itself into the opposite dashboard.

"Leak! There's a leak in Compartment Three!"

There was no gushing water column like in the movies.

Because under the pressure of three thousand meters of deep sea, seawater was no longer a liquid, but a high-pressure blade like a cutting machine.

A fine mist sprayed from the weld seams, instantly compressing the surrounding air until it was scorching hot.

Crew members wailed and screamed; some knelt on the floor to pray, while others tried to smash open the airlock to escape—even though outside was a certain deathly abyss.

And in front of these two submarines on the verge of collapse,

The black iron ghost remained like a black comet, trailing a long exhaust flame.

It continued to sprint toward the depths with an unstoppable posture.

3,500 meters... 4,000 meters... 5,000 meters!

For the black iron, which possessed Deep Abyss Biological Armor, this bit of pressure was like a gentle breeze on the face.

Its hull, covered in thick chitinous shell and biological muscle,

Even became tighter and tougher under the stimulation of the pressure, as if returning to its mother's embrace.

"Boss, those two guys in the back don't seem like they can make it."

Old Chen looked at the rear-view monitor, watching the two submarines that were already somewhat deformed and constantly spewing bubbles and parts, and marveled:

"I see those hulls are about to be flattened, yet they haven't exploded yet?

Ark's materials science really is something."

"Some things only reveal their true form under extreme conditions."

Jiang Ran looked at the Depth Gauge, where the number had already broken through '6,000', his expression as indifferent as if he were looking at experimental data:

"Right now, they are like two depth charges with their fuses already pulled."

"They just need one last straw."

He suddenly pushed the throttle lever to the bottom:

"Sprint. Target depth: 8,000 meters."

"Give them their final send-off."

Depth: 7,800 meters.

This was no longer the ocean, but a liquid steel hell.

Every square centimeter of surface area had to withstand nearly 800 kilograms of terrifying pressure.

The Poseidon-02 and No. 03, being dragged behind, had long since lost their original majestic and smooth cigar-shaped appearance.

In the footage from the black iron's rear-view camera, the hulls of those two submarines were undergoing hair-raising deformations.

The once-rounded Titanium Alloy Pressure Hulls

Were now like soda cans being slowly squeezed by an invisible giant hand.

The surfaces were covered with dents and folds caused by stress distortion.

"Creak... creak..."

The screams inside the submarines had stopped.

Because at this depth, the air was extremely compressed, and the pressure was so high that people couldn't make a sound at all.

Even their alveoli began to rupture under this pressure.

All the crew members who were still alive were now like insects trapped in amber, their eyes bulging and blood flowing from their facial orifices.

They could only watch helplessly as the metal bulkheads closed in on them, waiting for the final judgment.

"We're here."

Jiang Ran watched the numbers on the Depth Gauge skip past '8,000', his eyes indifferent.

This was the absolute limit of physics.

The next second.

Without any warning, and without any world-shaking fire,

"Bang—!!!"

Two extremely muffled, short thuds, which felt like a heavy hammer hitting the chest, exploded almost at the same instant.

It was something more terrifying than an explosion—an implosion.

Under the pressure of eight thousand meters of deep sea, the millisecond the structural strength of the pressure hulls finally yielded,

The surrounding seawater collapsed inward at a terrifying speed exceeding the speed of sound.

The massive hull of Poseidon-02 shrank inward within 0.1 seconds.

The air inside the submarine was compressed to the extreme in this instant, generating temperatures as high as the surface of the sun.

This triggered a violent adiabatic compression combustion—commonly known as the 'Diesel Effect'.

But before the flames could spread, they were instantly extinguished and crushed by the hundreds of millions of tons of seawater that followed.

On the black iron's screen, one could only see those two large red dots disappear instantly.

They were replaced by two clumps of metal scrap that had been instantly crumpled and twisted to the extreme.

The once hundred-meter-long nuclear submarines were now compressed into solid 'iron pancakes' only one-third of their original volume.

The reactors, missiles, and mechanical equipment inside,

As well as the more than two hundred crew members, were all crushed into an indistinguishable mixture of red and black flesh and metal in that instant.

Even the shockwave generated in that moment shook the black iron in front of them.

"This is... the power of the deep sea."

Old Chen looked at the two clumps of twisted wreckage slowly rotating and sinking on the screen, his throat as dry as if he had swallowed a handful of sand.

Although he had killed many people and seen countless brutal battlefields,

This kind of destruction brought purely by the laws of physics,

The absolute power that instantly crumpled complex industrial masterpieces and vibrant lives into a pile of scrap metal,

Still made him feel a shiver deep in his bones.

There was no possibility of survivors.

Under such an implosion, even bacteria would be crushed to death.

"Let go."

Jiang Ran waved his hand faintly.

"Click."

The anchor chain locks at the stern of the black iron automatically snapped open. The four anchor chains, covered with twisted metal fragments, were slowly retracted.

Without the traction, those two clumps of steel wreckage, whose original shapes were completely unrecognizable,

Fell like two heavy tombstones, carrying the two hundred-plus souls within them,

Continuing to sink toward the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, ten thousand meters below.

"It's over. Time to go recover our 'spoils of war'."