97: Kelvin's trail! Even invisibility leaves a trace? The despair of being locked onto by death!

"Crash—"

The rain poured down, but it wasn't clear and transparent; it carried a pungent smell of sulfur and a faint fluorescence.

The frontal cloud system of Typhoon "Poseidon" finally completely enveloped the Magic City Dead Sea.

The gale whipped up giant waves over ten meters high, crashing and squeezing across the sea like black city walls.

Chaos reigned between heaven and earth; besides the sound of thunder and waves, no other movement could be heard.

Amidst this apocalyptic chaos, a massive shadow was cautiously hugging the troughs of the waves, slowly moving toward the flank.

"Optical Camouflage activated."

"Surface color simulation: Dark Gray Wave Mode."

The rough, grayish-white "dead skin" that the black iron ghost had just grown rapidly changed color under the stimulation of bio-electricity.

Its previously conspicuous outline now became blurred, like a shadow melting into ink.

Perfectly merging with the surrounding churning black and gray seawater.

"Power output limited to 5%, propeller low-speed mode."

Jiang Ran's hand rested extremely lightly on the Helm.

Even amidst the gale and giant waves, he desperately controlled the ship's posture, avoiding excessive collision noise caused by violent turbulence.

He wanted to take a gamble.

He bet that in the eye of this storm, where the sky had changed color and the electromagnetic environment was extremely poor, the towering ship would also be rendered half-blind.

"They shouldn't... be able to see us, right?"

Old Chen huddled in front of the observation window.

Watching the layers of giant waves crashing down almost against the glass outside, he kept his voice very low, as if afraid of startling the gods in heaven:

"The rain is pouring down like a deluge, and the radar waves hitting the raindrops are all clutter.

Plus our 'Chameleon' skin, and these ten-meter-high waves blocking us... even an immortal would have a hard time finding a grain of rice in this messy pot of porridge, right?"

Su Qingyu looked at the messy background noise on the sonar screen and nodded slightly, but her brows remained tightly furrowed:

"Theoretically, yes.

The current sea conditions are extremely poor, and sea surface clutter will severely interfere with radar imaging.

As long as we don't emit high-frequency signals or turn on active radar.

It's not impossible to slip past them, even right under their noses."

This was a typical survivor bias mentality, and the only psychological comfort for the weak facing an invincible enemy—luck.

Jiang Ran didn't speak.

Although he also hoped this layer of natural cover would work, the unease in his heart grew wildly like weeds.

The warship that had just decisively shot down the drone left too deep an impression on him.

Would that cold, efficient killing machine, devoid of any unnecessary movement, really turn blind just because of the rain?

"Maintain silence."

Jiang Ran stared at the red marker representing the ship on the nautical chart.

The opponent was currently stopped about fifteen kilometers away in the core Blockade Zone, seemingly dealing with the storm, with no signs of movement.

"We'll go around it.

We'll pass through the shallow water area on the flank; once we get past this section, the Shipwreck Zone ahead will be the best cover."

The black iron moved like a thief lurking in the dark, holding its breath and stealthily probing the edge of this Deadly Sea Area.

One nautical mile.

Two nautical miles.

Only the roar of the storm remained all around.

No missiles struck, and no alarms sounded.

The extremely taut nerve seemed to relax just a little.

"It seems... they really didn't notice?"

Old Chen wiped the cold sweat from his palm, forcing a smile that was uglier than crying:

"It seems this high-tech stuff isn't omnipotent after all. When the heavens rage, everyone has to..."

His words were cut short by a sudden, sharp alarm that was loud enough to pierce the eardrums, forcibly jamming them back down his throat.

"Beep—!!!"

That shrill alarm was like a red-hot dagger, instantly piercing the sliver of luck that had just surfaced in the Command cabin.

"Warning! Warning!"

zero's voice was no longer steady, rapidly refreshing the red pop-up windows:

"X-Band Fire Control Radar continuous illumination detected!"

"Signal Source: 'ship'! Lock Intensity: 100%!"

"How is that possible?!"

Su Qingyu sprang up from her chair, her eyes, usually calm as water, now filled with disbelief:

"We activated Optical Camouflage! Engine noise has dropped below the background level!

With such heavy rain and high waves outside, the radar screen should be full of garbled code! How did they pick us out of this messy pot of porridge?"

Old Chen was frantic, his face flushed red as he fiercely slapped the dashboard in front of him:

"Is this damn equipment broken? Or are we leaking electricity?

How can they see us? Are they using Wallhacks?!"

"They didn't see our ship."

Jiang Ran stared intently at the radar wave analysis spectrum displayed on the screen, his face so grim it looked like it could drip water.

He pointed to a real-time sea surface ripple map on the screen, restored by an algorithm:

"What they saw was our 'footprint'."

"Footprint?" Both were stunned simultaneously.

"As long as it's a ship, and as long as it's moving, it will definitely leave a trace on the water surface."

Jiang Ran's finger traced the extremely faint, yet clearly discernible V-shaped ripple at the stern of the black iron, visible only to the computer:

"This is called the 'Kelvin Wake'.

Even if we paint the hull invisible, even if we don't make a single sound.

But the displacement of thousands of tons of mass.

The small disturbances and wake created on the sea surface are determined by the laws of physics and absolutely cannot be eliminated."

"To ordinary radar, this slight disturbance would be covered up by the giant waves."

Jiang Ran's voice held a deep sense of powerlessness:

"But to the 'Synthetic Aperture Radar' equipped on that ship... this wake is as conspicuous as a bloody footprint in the snow."

Su Qingyu looked at the highlighted wake and instantly felt a chill to the bone.

It turned out that in the eyes of true high-tech hunters, so-called "stealth" was nothing more than burying one's head in the sand.

As long as you were alive and moving, you had nowhere to hide.

"Beep—High-energy infrared reaction detected!"

zero's alarm suddenly rose an octave, this time carrying a death ultimatum:

"Enemy Vertical Launch System cover opened!"

"Missile ignition! Quantity: 2! Bearing: 030!"

Jiang Ran suddenly looked up through the porthole.

Even through the thick curtain of rain, he saw two dazzling flashes of fire rising from the distant warship.

The ship didn't even bother to adjust its heading or use its Main Guns for a test shot.

It just stood there indifferently, confirmed the moving "footprint," and then directly pressed the clear button.

"They're coming!"

"Boom—!!!"

Even across ten kilometers of wind and rain, the muffled roar when the two flashes of fire erupted still shook everyone's chest cavity.

That was not ordinary gunfire.

Against the backdrop of the pitch-black storm.

Two slender white cylinders were first ejected from the Vertical Launch Well by compressed air.

The moment they hovered in mid-air, the Solid Rocket Engines in their tails suddenly ignited.

"Zzzzt—"

Two dazzling orange-red tail flames instantly tore through the rain curtain.

They did not rush straight toward them.

Instead, like two angry fire dragons, they soared into the sky at a near-vertical angle, disappearing into the thick dark clouds in the blink of an eye.

"W-where did they go?" Old Chen craned his neck, trying to find the two flashes of fire in the clouds, his voice trembling.

"That's a Lofted Trajectory."

Jiang Ran stared intently at the two light spots on the radar screen that were rapidly ascending, instantly breaching three thousand meters in altitude, speaking quickly:

"They will first climb to the Stratosphere to accumulate potential energy, and then..."

Before he finished speaking, the two light spots on the radar suddenly turned back, diving down from high altitude at a despair-inducing, nearly ninety-degree angle!

"Dive initiated! Entering Sea-Skimming Flight Mode!"

zero's cold broadcast contained a hint of rare urgency:

"Speed surge: Mach 1.5... Mach 2.0... Mach 3.0!"

"Warning! These are 'eagle strike' series Supersonic Anti-Ship Missiles!"

"Impact countdown: 15 seconds!"