95: Shift the blame eastward! Use a 60-meter-long whale as a human shield! Break through amidst that carnage!

Following zero's cold response, the massive hull of the black iron ghost suddenly trembled violently.

It was not the roar of the power system.

Instead, it was a high-frequency electromagnetic pulse that was inaudible to the human ear but capable of instantly overloading all precision instruments.

Centered on the warship, it burst out frantically in all directions.

In that instant, this dead deep sea seemed to transform into a massive holographic projection stage.

In the sensing radar of those Smart Mines.

The dark waters, which originally contained only one huge magnetic field source, suddenly had hundreds and thousands of "black iron" ships appear out of thin air.

"Buzz—?!"

The swarm of black mines that were rushing forward hungrily froze in unison.

Their simple yet effective logic circuits were instantly overwhelmed by the massive influx of false signals.

There were high-intensity magnetic reactions on the left, on the right, and even overhead!

Prey was everywhere!

"They've scattered! They've scattered!"

Old Chen lay prone against the porthole, watching the absurd and spectacular scene unfold, excitedly waving his fists.

The mines that had originally clung tightly to the black iron.

Were like a swarm of headless flies with disrupted navigation systems, releasing their adhesive tentacles or halting their charge.

Their scarlet indicator lights flashed wildly in the water, showing indecision.

Following this, induced by the false signals.

These deadly "piranhas" began frantically rushing toward the empty waters around them.

Some were bombing a patch of silt, some were circling a rotten utility pole, and even more were chasing and colliding with each other in the open water.

From a distance, it looked as if countless red fireflies were performing a chaotic and frantic dance in the deep sea.

The sure-kill trap had been forcibly disrupted by this trick of "Electronic Misdirection."

"Well done, Little Jiang!"

Old Chen let out a long breath and slumped into his chair: "This 'Clone Technique' is miraculous! We should hurry up while we still can..."

"Don't celebrate too soon."

Jiang Ran interrupted Old Chen's cheer. His gaze was still fixed on the chaotic light dots on the radar screen, and his brow furrowed even deeper:

"These are Ark's latest War Machines; they aren't fools.

Simple signal deception won't fool them for long."

Before his voice faded, as if to confirm his prediction.

"Beep—Warning."

"Enemy algorithm is undergoing adaptive upgrade."

"Performing multi-source data comparison... Eliminating false signals... Camouflage failure countdown: 10 seconds."

Sure enough.

The chaotic scene outside the window lasted less than half a minute.

The mines that had rushed into the empty water soon "realized" something was wrong—

The phantoms only had magnetic field signals, but lacked corresponding gravitational mass and metal echoes.

They were fake.

"Sizzle—"

As if enraged by embarrassment.

The scattered red dots suddenly stopped simultaneously.

Subsequently, thousands of red sensing probes all turned back at once.

Those cold Electronic Eyes.

Pierced through countless false phantoms and precisely relocked onto the stationary main body of the black iron ghost.

This time, their indicator lights no longer flashed, but became a constant, deadly glow.

"Damn it! They recognized us!"

Old Chen watched the regrouping swarm of mines, which was even fiercer than before, his voice trembling in despair:

"Electronic jamming is useless! They've shielded against the clutter!"

"It was only meant to buy time anyway."

Jiang Ran watched the Metallic Storm surge back like a tide, his face showing no panic, only a nearly cold-blooded rationality.

He turned his head and looked at Su Qingyu, who had been operating the Sonar Station beside him:

"Dr. Su, have you found the 'Sacrificial Lamb'?

Su Qingyu's fingers tapped the final command on the keyboard, and she looked up, a trace of cold light flashing in her clear eyes:

"Found it."

"Since false phantoms can't fool them..."

She projected a massive biological coordinate onto the main screen:

"Then let's give them a... real Flesh and Blood Bait."

At the edge of the holographic screen.

In the shadow of the area originally believed to be a dead ruin.

A massive low-frequency signal, which had been ignored by everyone, was highlighted by Su Qingyu with a red circle.

It was a living creature.

And it was a ridiculously large living creature.

"It's 1,500 meters away, right inside the ruins of that collapsed stadium."

Su Qingyu's voice was as calm as if she were reading an Autopsy Report:

"It's a Deep Sea Gray Whale severely mutated by radiation.

It was likely trapped in this 'Dead Sea' for a long time, unable to find a way out.

Its body tissues are highly diseased.

It has accumulated large amounts of Heavy Metal Elements, and on the Magnetometer, its signal strength is even brighter than ours."

As the searchlight swept across the far distance, everyone vaguely saw the miserable creature hiding in the concrete ruins.

It could no longer be called a whale.

Its sixty-meter long body was bloated, and its skin was covered in tumors of various sizes and glowing pustules.

More horrifyingly, under the ravages of radiation and Chemical Toxins.

Its neck had undergone Malformation Split and grown three heads of varying sizes, which were painfully gulping the toxic water around it.

This was a monster destined to rot away in this hell.

"Very good."

Jiang Ran looked at the massive creature struggling to breathe, his eyes devoid of pity, holding only the cold calculation unique to life-or-death situations:

"Since it's going to die anyway, let's make its death worthwhile."

"Load the 'Acoustic Magnetic Decoy Torpedo'."

Jiang Ran's finger hovered over the launch button, his speed of speech rapid:

"Maximize the magnetic field simulation frequency, simulate a reactor overload signal!

I want to make it look ten times more 'delicious' than the black iron!"

"Decoy torpedo ready."

Although Old Chen felt reluctant, his hands didn't stop moving: "This is giving it a quick end, I suppose."

"Launch!"

"Pfft—!!!"

Accompanied by the muffled sound of compressed air release, a bright red, torpedo-shaped object shot out from the launch tube in the black iron's belly.

It did not engage silent mode; instead, the moment it left the tube, it activated its high-power Electromagnetic Generator and Noise Simulator.

"Buzz buzz buzz—!!!"

The decoy torpedo was like a frenzied drunkard.

It emitted loud noise simulating a reactor roar while releasing a blinding, strong magnetic field signal.

It cut an extremely arrogant white bubble trail through the water, heading straight for the Three-Headed Mutated Whale hiding in the ruins.

This move of "Diverting Disaster" had an immediate effect.

The swarm of Smart Mines that had been closing in on the black iron, preparing for a final suicide collision, all stopped their movements simultaneously.

In their simple logic circuits, a new "Super Target" appeared—one that was bigger, more unstable, and had a much stronger magnetic reaction.

And that target was moving at high speed!

"Sizzle sizzle..."

Like a school of sharks that smelled blood suddenly discovering much fatter prey.

Thousands of black mines flashing red light reversed direction almost simultaneously.

They abandoned the black iron before them, which was large but "lifeless."

Instead, they trailed the decoy torpedo, transforming into a surging Black Metallic Torrent, rushing frantically toward the Stadium Ruins.

"They took the bait."

Su Qingyu looked at the large patch of turning red dots on the screen and sighed softly.

Meanwhile, in the distance.

The Mutated Giant Whale, unaware of any of this and still struggling to survive in the ruins, suddenly felt a sense of crisis that made its soul tremble.

Its three pairs of murky eyes had just opened.

When it saw the whistling red decoy torpedo, which "thunked" and pinned itself tightly onto its swollen back.

What followed immediately.

Was a sky-filling swarm of black mines, like a plague of locusts.

It was an extremely tragic, yet cruelly beautiful Deep-Sea Slaughter.

"Buzz—Click! Click! Click!"

Dense metallic impacts exploded in the distance.

The massive Mutated Giant Whale was completely engulfed by the Black Metallic Torrent before it could react.

Hundreds of Smart Mines, like a swarm of piranhas smelling blood.

Scrambled to impact its swollen, festering skin.

Powerful Magnetic Adsorption Devices activated, embedding deeply into its flesh, even adhering to its exposed spinal column.

In the blink of an eye, the grayish-white giant beast was encased in a layer of black "Iron Armor."

"Oooongh—!!!"

The three deformed heads simultaneously let out an utterly mournful cry.

The sound pierced through the seawater, causing a sharp pain in the eardrums of everyone in the Command cabin.

However, this mournful cry lasted only half a second before being completely swallowed by the ensuing destructive roar.

"Boom—!!!"

The first mine detonated.

Followed by the second, the hundredth, the thousandth... a chain of sympathetic detonations occurred instantly, illuminating the dark ruins on the seabed as if it were daylight.

But the light was not pure fire; it was a dark red light burst mixed with vast amounts of flesh, shattered bone, and organ fragments.

The sixty-meter long deep-sea giant beast.

Along with the half-ruined stadium it was in, it was instantly shredded by countless Shaped Charges.

A massive shockwave, carrying billions of tons of seawater and thick blood plasma.

Spread frantically in all directions, like a Flower of Flesh and Blood blooming in the abyssal hell.

"Hold tight! The shockwave is coming!"

Even separated by over a thousand meters, the black iron was still violently shaken by this terrifying undercurrent, its hull groaning "creak, creak."

Old Chen gripped the Control Panel tightly.

He looked at the rapidly spreading scarlet mist on the screen, which occupied the entire detection range, his throat dry:

"This noise... the 'ship' above must have heard it."

"So what if they heard?"

Jiang Ran stabilized himself, looking at the chaotic sea area that was now completely murky, filled with countless biological debris and metal fragments:

"Now this water is full of flesh, bone fragments, and magnetic shrapnel.

Whether it's sonar or a Magnetometer, they are all blind here."

Sure enough, zero's monitoring showed.

The radar scanning beam of the Frigate overhead became extremely chaotic, clearly confused by the sudden massive underwater explosion.

"This is the Smokescreen we needed."

Jiang Ran's hand tightened on the Power Throttle once more, a cold, spectral light flickering in his eyes:

"Go."

The black iron moved like a ruthless assassin who had just completed a kill and was preparing to leave.

It did not turn on any lights, relying on its grayish-white "dead skin" camouflage to silently slip into the lingering blood-red mist.

The surrounding seawater turned a sickening dark red, and countless pieces of shredded flesh struck the porthole, leaving shocking bloody streaks.

Su Qingyu looked at the hellish scene outside the window, then at the slowly sinking whale wreckage in the distance, and said softly:

"It died horribly."

"In this world, being able to die quickly is already a luxury."

Jiang Ran looked straight ahead, maneuvering the warship through the Flesh and Blood Barrier, leaving the detonated minefield far behind:

"For it, not having to suffer in that rotting body anymore is perhaps a form of release."

He glanced back at the gradually calming center of the explosion, his tone flat, yet revealing an indifference born of seeing through life and death:

"Don't pity the dead, Dr. Su."

"To live, that is the greatest mercy to life."

The black iron ghost broke through the blood mist, like a phantom returning from hell, silently breaching Ark's proud first Blockade Line.

And what awaited them ahead was a far more dangerous, True Battlefield.