Communications

Translator: Cinder Translations

--------

"I think you all should have guessed it by now," the woman exhaled slowly and said, "This is not just a maritime accident, no, it's not just a simple maritime accident."

"The last document that man presented revealed the whole story behind this incident," the woman seemed to struggle with her emotions, her voice trembling, "We have already lost four ships there, one of which was the sister ship of the one we were on."

"That ship belonged to the same department as us and was docked at the same port."

"Half a month ago, I was sleeping soundly when I suddenly heard the emergency assembly bell ringing at the port. The next morning, that sister ship and its crew had completely disappeared."

"But at the time, none of us paid any attention to it. After all, emergency missions were quite common for us, and we've had experiences of being woken up in the middle of the night for missions."

"But gradually, people started to notice something was wrong. They had been gone for too long," the woman explained, "Due to the limitations of the equipment back then, ships were heavily dependent on sea conditions, and their self-sustainability was poor, so we rarely ventured far out to sea."

"Normally, we would return to port for supplies within a week or so, but they had been missing for half a month with no news."

"Then various rumors started circulating, claiming that they were probably in trouble."

"The security personnel on duty said they saw a black car secretly drive into our port base's headquarters building at night. It was a pure black car with no headlights, and it wasn't clear whether the plates were covered or not."

It seemed that the woman felt she had strayed too far from the topic, so she composed herself and continued with her earlier recount from the ship: "The origin of the incident is now lost to time. I think even that man back then didn't know. All we know is that something strange occurred in that sea area, and then they sent two ships to investigate."

"But what we didn't expect was that those two ships lost contact with headquarters shortly after entering the affected sea area."

"Then the higher-ups couldn't sit still anymore, so they immediately sent our sister ship to check, and they also deployed armed personnel. But to our surprise, they also ran into trouble."

"It was the second day after their arrival, late at night, when the originally normal communications suddenly became chaotic, as if we were encountering strong electromagnetic interference, and all we could hear was static on the channels."

Jiang Cheng frowned slightly upon hearing this. He had a vague sense that this situation seemed familiar.

"Then what happened?" someone urged.

The woman glanced at him, and the person immediately fell silent. She was simply anxious.

"Then our sister ship also disappeared in that water area, along with all the equipment and personnel on board, all gone."

Just when everyone thought this was yet another story with no end, the woman's face changed, and her entire demeanor seemed off. Her neck turned slightly red, and her breathing became more rapid.

The intense breathing made her lungs feel uncomfortable, emitting a wheezing sound like an old bellows.

"He…he played a recording for us, a recording," the woman struggled to speak, "It was the last communication they sent out before they disappeared."

"The content of the communication?" the motorcycle girl quickly asked.

"It's hard to hear clearly, it was all jumbled, very chaotic, with gunshots and screams," the woman's mental state was obviously off, but no one interrupted her at this moment.

"The last sound was made by the captain of that ship. I know him, I remember it very clearly. He screamed that it was hell, that the gates of hell had opened!"

"Don't come near! Ahh!!"

"What's even scarier is that after all the gunshots and screams stopped, we heard a terrifying sound."

"Crunch...creak."

"It was chewing sounds!"

The woman was fully immersed, even just mimicking the sound caused a chill to run down everyone's spine.

It's hard to imagine what the scene must have been like when these people first heard this recording.

The Fatty's face turned pale, as if all the blood had rushed to his neck. He didn't know what he had done wrong or what kind of fate he had to hear such a terrifying and bizarre story.

"Is it over?" the Fatty asked, trembling, hugging himself. He was so scared by the woman's story that he wanted to stand in the sunlight for warmth.

The woman ignored him and directly looked at Jiang Cheng, then shifted her gaze to the young master's face.

Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes slightly, inwardly admiring how extraordinary the woman was. She had a sharp eye for detail, and the young master beside him was clearly no simple character.

He even suspected that if the Fatty and the others had delayed opening the door, perhaps they would have only seen one of them—the young master.

The next moment, the woman slowly spoke. Her eyes were unfocused, her lips trembling for a long time before she spoke in a strange tone: "At the end of the recording, there was one more strange sound."

The woman seemed to be struggling to find words to describe the sound, but she failed.

She shook her head, speaking in a very certain tone: "In any case, that was not a sound that belongs in the natural world. It came from something, and that thing is alive, just like you and me, it's alive!"

After finishing what she said, the woman seemed to have lost all of her vitality. Her body wobbled backward, but Jiang Cheng was quick to react and grabbed her.

He helped her to a nearby stone pillar to rest.

The woman was getting on in years.

While waiting for the woman to calm down, the rest of the group split up and began to explore the only building in their sight.

The loli girl and the tall man behind her obviously knew each other. The two of them immediately chose a piece of ruins on the left side of the building and walked away hand-in-hand.

Everyone watched them leave.

Next, it was the motorcycle girl and the rock climber. They didn't seem to know each other, at least not from their behavior, both seemed very independent.

After a brief exchange, they chose to go in the opposite direction of the loli girl.

They explored the right side of the building.

The right side had a better view and was less complicated in terms of terrain.

After Jiang Cheng glanced back at the two women, he happened to meet the young master's gaze. It was coincidental, but the young master seemed to be waiting for this moment.

The young master smiled and nodded: "Then I'll trouble you, brother, and this fat brother," he turned to the Fatty and said warmly, "You two go around and look for clues."

Being in the same group as the doctor was exactly what the Fatty wanted. Just as he was about to agree, Jiang Cheng spoke first: "I don't like being with fat people. You go with him."

Jiang Cheng looked at the eyes hidden beneath the disheveled hair and continued: "I'll stay to take care of the elderly."

(End of the Chapter)

---

Read (NS) ahead on (pa treon . com / CinderTL) – Chapter 262.

Early access starts at $1. Your support keeps this going!

$1 for this novel, or two novels for just $5, RDC/FF/MF Tiers. ;)

Translated 4 Series, 1.5K+ Chapters and 1.78M+ Words.