21: Ghost frequency from the museum

After a full week of torrential rain, there was finally a brief respite.

The pitch-black clouds still hung low, like an old quilt saturated with ink.

The air was thick with an unshakeable, heavy scent of fishy water and ozone.

The Lv3 form of the "black iron ghost."

Like a massive, precisely carved piece of black obsidian, it floated quietly on the water beside the ruins of the Twin Towers.

The brand-new Bio-active Metal hull absorbed almost all light.

It was no longer a crude industrial assembly; its surface had a microscopic texture similar to shark skin.

This made it difficult for the naked eye to discern its silhouette against the pitch-black water, even at close range.

It blended perfectly into the deathly silent night, living up to its name—"Ghost."

"Swarm recovery complete."

Inside the cockpit, zero's calm synthetic voice rang out, carrying the sense of order unique to a Lv3 intelligent core:

"This cruise covered a 5-kilometer radius, neutralizing 3 potential threats.

All drones have returned to base; the inductive charging array is activated."

Jiang Ran leaned back in the ergonomic Commander's seat, watching the red dots on the holographic screen extinguish one by one, and let out a soft breath.

This was the dominance of Lv3.

He didn't need to be out in the rain himself, didn't need to get blood on his hands, and didn't even need to leave the comfort of the cockpit.

Within a radius of several kilometers, who lived and who died was decided by his mere whim.

"Dr. Su, stop staring."

Jiang Ran turned his head to look at the co-pilot's seat. Su Qingyu was not resting.

She was leaning against the porthole, holding a simple test tube, staring blankly at the pitch-black water outside with a deep frown.

It was as if she saw some unspeakable horror in that darkness.

"Jiang Ran, don't you feel like... the water has changed?" Su Qingyu suddenly spoke, her voice trembling slightly.

"Changed?"

"Yes. Starting half an hour ago, the viscosity of the water has been increasing." Su Qingyu held up the test tube and shook it gently.

Under the faint light of the instruments, the liquid inside clung heavily to the walls, unexpectedly emitting an almost imperceptible faint blue fluorescence.

It looked like a tube of diluted luminous engine oil.

"Moreover, I just took a look under the microscope; the activity of the microorganisms in the water is ten times higher than usual.

They are..."

[Warning!]

Before Su Qingyu could finish her sentence, the zero cursor in the center of the console suddenly burst into a red alert state.

A piercing buzz instantly shattered the silence within the cabin.

[Abnormal signal beam detected!]

[Type: Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) high-energy pulse.]

[Penetration depth: 2,000 meters below the surface.]

Jiang Ran's gaze instantly became sharp as he leaned forward, his hunter's instincts activating immediately:

"Is it a distress signal from survivors? Or an official submarine?"

"Negative."

zero's voice echoed rapidly through the cabin, its speaking speed 30% faster than usual:

"This signal does not match any human communication protocol.

Its frequency is extremely low, and its wavelength is extremely long, giving it immense penetrating power. Furthermore..."

"It is causing resonance in the surrounding water molecules."

"Zzz... hum... hum..."

A second later, zero played the captured signal through the speakers.

That was absolutely not a sound a human could make.

It was a low, ethereal, yet metallic-textured roar.

It sounded like a massive whale wailing in the deep sea.

Or like the grinding of gears when some ancient giant machine restarts deep underground.

The sound seemed to possess magic; it wasn't just a sound on an auditory level, but a vibration on a physical level.

It penetrated the black iron ghost's Lv3 Biological Armor, acting directly on the eardrums, bones, and hearts of those inside.

"Ugh..."

Su Qingyu's face instantly turned pale, and the test tube in her hand fell to the floor with a "snap," shattering into pieces.

She clutched her chest in pain and bent over: "Turn it off! This sound... it's causing heart palpitations!"

"Mute!"

Jiang Ran growled.

The sound stopped abruptly.

But his own heart was also beating violently, and cold sweat instantly drenched his back.

In that moment just now, he felt as if the blood in his entire body was flowing backward along with that sound. This was definitely not a natural phenomenon.

"Trace the source."

Jiang Ran's voice was as cold as ice, his fingers gripping the armrests tightly.

The holographic map expanded instantly, with countless red lines weaving through the 3D model of the ruined city to pinpoint the location.

Three seconds later, the red lines converged.

"Targeting complete."

zero reported: "Signal source coordinates: Jiangcheng City Museum (Former Site)."

"Depth: 65 meters underwater (the crustal fracture zone directly beneath the original underground warehouse)."

"The museum?"

Jiang Ran looked at the coordinates, his brow furrowed. That was a low-lying area of the old city and had long since been submerged.

How could a place that stored antiques emit such a "ghost frequency" capable of causing biological resonance?

Furthermore, combined with the "water abnormality" Su Qingyu just mentioned... "Commander, the signal contains a looped mathematical code."

zero added: "Decryption progress 15%... preliminary assessment is that it's some kind of guidance beacon."

Guidance?

Guiding who?

Was it guiding survivors to their deaths, or was it calling something in the deep sea... to come and feed?

Jiang Ran looked out the window.

The originally calm water surface.

As those invisible sound waves spread, it actually began to vibrate slightly, giving rise to circles of fine ripples.

Intuition told him that this signal might be more dangerous than all the pirates and monsters he had encountered before combined.

But it might also hide the true secret behind this global flood.

"It seems we have to take a trip to the museum."

Jiang Ran tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest, making his decision.

"But before we go down, we have to figure out exactly what Dr. Su meant when she said 'the water has changed.'"

He turned his head to look at the pale Su Qingyu: "What were you trying to say just now?

What are the microorganisms in the water doing?"

As night fell completely, the last sliver of light between heaven and earth was swallowed by darkness.

However, a hair-raising scene appeared.

The floodwaters, originally pitch-black and lifeless, did not blend into the night this time.

Instead, centered around the black iron ghost, the surrounding waters actually emitted an eerie layer of ghostly blue fluorescence.

This glow did not come from a reflection of the sky, but originated from deep within the water. It was like countless shattered galaxies had been spilled into the water.

With the rise and fall of the waves, the entire body of water flickered with a demonic blue light, as if it were breathing.

It was breathtakingly beautiful, yet so beautiful it made one's skin crawl.

"This is the 'change' I was talking about."

Su Qingyu stood before the porthole, that ghostly blue light reflecting on her face, making her look like a phantom watching the end of the world.

She turned and walked to the lab bench, placing the backup test tube she had just collected into the Spectrometer.

"Normal water eutrophication or red tides might glow, but it's never this color, and certainly not this... density."

Su Qingyu's fingers moved quickly across the holographic screen, and a few seconds later, a set of red warning data was projected.

"Look at this, Jiang Ran."

She pointed to one of the abnormally spiking values: [Deuterium Abundance: 0.8%]

"What does this mean?"

Jiang Ran looked at the red numbers, his brow furrowed.

Although he had a Lv3 battleship and AI, he was still a layman in the field of chemistry.

"It means we're finished."

Su Qingyu took off her glasses and rubbed her brow, her tone laced with a deep sense of helplessness:

"The deuterium content in ordinary seawater is extremely low.

But now, the deuterium content in this body of water has spiked fifty-fold in just a few hours."

"This is no longer ordinary water; it's a Heavy Water mixture."

She looked up at Jiang Ran, her gaze solemn: "Do you know what this means?

High concentrations of Heavy Water are toxic to mammals.

It inhibits cell division and disrupts metabolic functions.

If we drink this water for long, or even if we're just exposed to this water-vapor-filled air for a long time...

Our bodily functions will fail, we'll become sterile, and we'll even die." "We are being... slowly pickled by this sea."