Survivors

The boat sailed to a spot guided by radar, surrounded by identical stretches of water. Other squads wouldn't even know where to enter.

Cang Ning was in charge of anchoring, and the boat came to a stop over a pitch-black expanse of water.

Apart from the faint glow of the lighthouse in the distance, there was endless darkness all around. Without a moon, it was impossible to tell where the sky ended and the sea began.

The boat's front lights illuminated the black water. No fish were visible on the surface; the sea was calm and still.

The entire Suo Harbor bay area was shallow sea. Past the bottle gourd mouth, it extended dozens of nautical miles before reaching deep water.

The Trailblazer Squad had excellent equipment, outfitting everyone with three oxygen tanks each.

However, these would be deducted from their wages. Song Weishi had come on this trip entirely for the Points.

She put on her wetsuit. She had known how to swim before, but had never dived. The water pressure here was low, so diving down wasn't a problem.

The five of them took turns going underwater, with one person always staying up top to catch their breath and keep watch on the surface.

A few nights ago, a shipwreck had occurred in these waters. A passenger-cargo vessel carrying forty people seemed to have been attacked by an unknown creature from the deep and sank near the harbor.

All forty people on board, plus five crew members and one captain, had perished without exception.

The Vanguard Squad had conducted an investigation. After hauling up the cargo, they outsourced the remaining work to monster-hunting squads.

The Trailblazer Squad was the first to arrive to clear the area, meaning they'd get the richest haul of monster corpses—but also face the greatest danger.

Song Weishi went down with the first batch of the squad. Cang Ning was uneasy and went over the diving essentials with her one more time.

Song Weishi wetted herself down, letting her body acclimate to the sea temperature.

In the sweltering summer heat, the surface water wasn't too cold—like the unheated water at home.

The cool sensation against her skin was pleasant. Biting down on her regulator, Song Weishi jumped into the sea with the squad.

She wore headlamps on her forehead and lights on her hands, giving her a clear view of the water ahead. The flashlight beams were swallowed by the deep sea, and the group moved like anglerfish crawling along the seabed, glowing orbs atop their heads, swimming side by side.

Everyone was tethered by ropes so they wouldn't lose their way while diving. Dense seaweed and coral mixed together, with small fish darting between them—a colorful, vibrant scene.

If one came to see the coral in daylight, it would surely be beautiful.

Song Weishi hugged a dive weight and slowly descended. The buoyancy of the seawater was strong, and for a novice like her who had never dived before, it was easy to float back up.

It was like how some people couldn't sink while swimming—without mastering the technique, it was hard to move like a pro.

But Song Weishi was pragmatic. She simply hugged a rock. The others in the squad didn't notice anything off; they just felt everyone was moving in sync.

Once they got deeper, the water, already dim at the surface, turned black. Aside from the flashlight beams, everything else looked swallowed by ink.

She couldn't help but recall those bloggers who livestreamed foraging along the shore. Back in the day, she'd watch those streams with great interest, but now she couldn't help sensing something wrong.

Only in very shallow waters could there be signal. In a place like this, with no signal and no light, it was nothing like the bright scenes in those livestreams.

Who knew where those people were actually foraging, with all those countless seafood treasures everywhere?

The place she was in only had small fish. As far as the eye could see, all was serene. A muffled gurgle of water pounded against her ears, and she had to watch her step—if she made any sudden moves, the water around her would cloud up, murky and impossible to see through.

According to the radar, the ship was in this area.

Cang Ning led the group searching for a while, then switched on a high-powered flashlight, startling a school of silver fish. Only then did she spot the shadow of a massive object in the darkness.

The group kicked their fins and swiftly swam over. The ship was tilted, lodged into the seabed, the lower half of its hull buried in the sand.

Had they come down sooner, before the seabed sediment had resettled, the water here would still be churning with silt.

This was originally a sightseeing yacht. When the extreme heat hit, it happened to be out at sea. When it returned, the world had completely changed, and yacht tourism was no longer a viable livelihood.

Left with no choice, the owner stripped most of the deck equipment and refitted it into a semi-cargo ship.

It was easier to dock than a regular cargo ship, but could carry far less cargo, leaving it in an awkward position among the many freighters and fishing boats.

Most of the time, it stayed docked to reduce consumption, hoping for a day to turn things around—never expecting its final fate to be sinking into the sea.

The blue-and-white hull was quite beautiful. If you ignored the canvas flapping in the water, the ship looked as if it had been sealed inside a message in a bottle, just like it had been on the surface. Song Weishi even spotted the sun umbrellas that hadn't been dismantled yet on the deck, along with some amusement park fixtures bolted to the deck. Countless traces of human use all attested to how popular it had once been.

Cang Ning swam a full circle around the hull and found nothing unusual.

However, the seaweed around it was unusually dense, making the yacht, which looked no different from before, seem as if it had been sleeping here for decades.

Song Weishi swam to the bottom. According to what they knew, the ship hadn't capsized on its side; it had been attacked from below, causing the cabin to flood and sink.

But they circled the entire bottom and saw no sign of a breach.

Perhaps the hole was beneath the tilted hull, pressed tightly against the seabed, which was why they hadn't seen it.

Cang Ning made a hand gesture for the team to follow.

They couldn't get in from below, so she was going to head inside for a look. The group anchored themselves on the deck, grabbed the ropes on the deck, and followed the stairs along the side of the ship to the entrance.

The entrance door was open, and the lifeboats on both sides of the ship were still in place. Yet when the accident happened, no one had even managed to wait for rescue. What exactly had happened?

The group entered the ship smoothly. After passing several cabin doors, they stopped before one that was still shut. The seawater outside was pressing the folding door shut with immense force.

Song Weishi found it strange. Hadn't the Vanguard Squad come down and checked this area when they were here?

Everyone exchanged puzzled glances. Cang Ning swam over and shut the three outer cabin doors. That way, even if there were still air inside, only the water leaking through this one door would fill in, and they could rest up a bit.

This door was sealed tight. Cang Ning brought out a crowbar, and with the help of two team members, they pried it open with great effort. Song Weishi pulled the cabin door up, and in an instant, seawater was "sucked" inside.

The current, like an enormous hand, shoved her through the cabin doorway. A murky flow of water tumbled and rolled her around. The beam of her headlamp swept across the ceiling and the floor. Song Weishi was spun in a circle, slammed into something soft, and bounced off.

The air in her lungs was screaming. She flailed her arms, trying to distinguish up from down. Finally, she landed hard on her rear, seeing stars.

Without the water's buoyancy, her body felt heavy. She hadn't swum in a long time, and for a moment, her mind went blank—she almost couldn't adapt.

After a moment of seeing stars, she released the mouthpiece of her oxygen tank and finally caught her breath. Her vision slowly cleared.

Song Weishi pushed herself up with both hands on a slick, wet floor. The headlamp on her forehead was still on, illuminating a crystal chandelier overhead.

The world was swaying. Song Weishi blinked hard, hearing the sound of water, coughing, and even the curses of her teammates.

Cang Ning was lying flat on an overturned sofa, flippers still on her feet, like a beached walrus.

She propped herself up and stumbled to her feet. Zhu Gaoge was less fortunate—she'd crashed into a piano and was clutching her lower back, hollering in pain.

Xing Chun was sprawled on a few steps, half in the water, struggling to get up.

"Everyone okay?"

"Fine! Captain, you good?"

"Damn it, why am I the only one soaked? Someone give me a hand, it's slippery in here!"

Everyone was moving; everyone was alive. Good.

Song Weishi let out a long breath. The oxygen levels here were not low, no stuffy feeling. She took a few breaths, and after confirming there was no problem, she stowed her oxygen tank. Bracing her knees, she stood up and, using the light from her headlamp, began to explore the space.

This was a grand hall, the kind that had once been luxurious. The ceiling was vaulted, with a three-story spiral gallery visible above. Song Weishi had thought the outside was just for show, all for appearances, but it turned out the inside was truly this opulent.

The crystal chandelier in the center had fallen and smashed onto the marble floor, only a small piece still hanging. The shattered fragments formed a shimmering sea of stars, reflecting the beams from her headlamp and the teammates behind her, scattering tiny points of light everywhere.

The walls were covered in gilded wallpaper, now swollen and blistered from the seawater like pustules on skin. What kind of wealthy person's decorating style was this? Even going for a foreign aesthetic.

The floor, once so polished you could see your reflection, was laid with intricate geometric marble patterns.

Now it was covered in a layer of silt, mixed with broken porcelain, scattered papers, toppled tables and chairs, and unrecognizable remnants wrapped in silk and foam—probably sofas or loungers.

Song Weishi figured these had been swept in from outside. In here, it was relatively clean.

The tables and chairs on the hall were toppled, leaving a large empty space in the middle. Half-burnt candles stood in gilded holders, their wax dripping down and solidifying on the tilted tabletop into shapes like stalactites.

This was a ballroom frozen in time, except all the dancers were dead or had fled. Strangely, they didn't notice any strong odor inside. It was a bit musty, but there didn't seem to be a smell of corpses.

The group stood together, not bothering to remove their flippers, and walked around, making slapping sounds on the floor tiles.

Song Weishi heard a faint rustling sound and gestured for the others, who were still talking, to quiet down. She slowly walked toward the source of the noise.

At the other end of the hall, beneath a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor, several dark shadows were huddled together, like frightened rabbits, trembling in a tight cluster.

Her headlamp swept over them, revealing several pale faces.

Three women and one man, their wrinkled clothes damp and clinging to their bodies. They shielded their eyes from the light, squinting, wearing expressions of terror and daze—the kind that comes from being in darkness for so long and suddenly struck by a bright light.

"Who! Don't... don't come closer!"

The man spoke, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping across iron. His lips were cracked, with faint traces of blood.

Cang Ning warily raised her hand, signaling the team to lower their weapons and angle their headlamps down so the light wasn't pointing directly at them.

She stepped forward, each footstep making a squelching sound in the water: "Don't be afraid. We're from the rescue team, here to search for survivors." She tried to keep her voice steady. "How... did you get here?"

The people didn't answer, just stared at her. Their eyes glinted strangely in the dim light, as if they were filled with tears. Crying in a situation like this wouldn't be surprising.

Honestly, everyone was shocked to find living people down here. Song Weishi had even prepared herself mentally—if she had to collect bodies, she'd accept it.

After all, collecting monster bodies was the same as collecting human remains; hadn't she seen plenty of both by now? As long as there was pay.

But now, what was the deal with these living people? How were they supposed to get them up top? This was beyond her scope of duties.

She glanced at Cang Ning and the others. They were frowning in thought, clearly thinking the same thing.

"This ship sank a few days ago," Song Weishi continued, her gaze sweeping across their faces. "You've been here the whole time?"

The younger girl standing in front, brown hair plastered to her cheeks, gave a faint nod, so slight it seemed she was afraid of disturbing something.

"Did you see anyone else? A squad that should have come in before us," Song Weishi asked.

The group exchanged glances. It was the man who spoke again, his voice even raspier: "No. No one has ever come in. You're the first."

Song Weishi was taken aback.

She looked back toward the entrance, at the cabin door that had been forced open. The murky seawater had stopped flooding in; the door was shut tight. Perhaps that was why these people had survived for so long.

The Vanguard Squad had gone down yesterday. According to the plan, they should have already searched this sunken ship. How could they not have come in?

She shifted her gaze back to these people, studying them carefully.

The fear in the young woman's eyes was genuine. Her whole body was in a defensive posture, lips tight—that couldn't be faked.

She was clutching a pillow to her chest, already misshapen from her grip. Her fingers were twisted, yet she still hadn't let go.

The older woman beside her, with gray hair and purple lips, leaned against the stair railing as if she didn't even have the strength to sit up straight. But her eyes kept staring at the people behind Song Weishi, at their diving gear, at their headlamps.

There was something in that gaze that Song Weishi couldn't quite name, something that made her back prickle.

It was like someone who had stared into darkness for so long that when they suddenly saw light, there wasn't just longing, but also a faint, hidden malice—a desire to drag you down into the dark with them.

After the group identified themselves, these people showed no signs of excitement, didn't even speak, didn't beg for rescue.

The team members also sensed something was wrong, quietly stepping back two paces.

Song Weishi scanned the area.

No food, no drinking water. Everything looked like a pile of garbage with no signs of being searched. These three people's hands were clean.

Although the hall wasn't flooded, the temperature was near freezing. And the clothes these people were wearing—they were all summer short-sleeves, completely useless against the cold.

According to known information, the ship had sunk at least three days ago.

And these four people had been here, in this dark, damp, cold place, without food or water, for three days?

What were they surviving on?

The thought sent a chill down Song Weishi's spine.

She exchanged a glance with Cang Ning, who clearly felt the same.

She opened her mouth, wanting to ask, but the words that came out instead were: "Are any of you hurt?"

The young woman shook her head. The old woman also shook her head, but her eyes remained fixed on someone behind Song Weishi, unblinking.

Song Weishi didn't turn around. She only felt the beams from the two people behind her flicker slightly in the darkness.

She looked down and saw four shadows.

Four people had come down together. With one person standing at the back, only three were in front. So why were there four shadows?

Who was the extra one?

Song Weishi glanced at Cang Ning. She was staring tensely ahead—first rule her out. The sound of heavy breathing came from behind; she slowly turned her head toward the two people behind her.

Xing Chun gave her a cold look and shifted closer to Cang Ning. That left only one possibility—on her left side.

"Zhu Gaoge, your flipper fell off."

Song Weishi shook the flashlight in her hand. Zhu Gaoge instinctively looked down. In that split second, Song Weishi drew her knife, shoved Zhu Gaoge down, and swung the blade backward in a swift, vicious arc. A dull thud followed.

The knife felt like it had embedded into a chunk of raw meat, heavy and resistant. Zhu Gaoge yelped in alarm: "Damn, Song Yi! It's me, don't attack!"

Song Weishi whipped around immediately. Where she had just struck, there was nothing there—absolutely nothing.

Her eyes darted to the ground. A patch of some unknown viscous substance covered the path they had just walked on.

"Careful! The monster appeared!"

Song Weishi shouted. The others tensed up.

This was definitely some kind of marine creature, but Song Weishi couldn't immediately think of what it was.

The Vanguard Squad definitely hadn't come down and recovered these people. So how could they have concluded it was a Devil Fish?

After all, that fish couldn't survive both in water and on land—it could only live in the sea.

Song Weishi turned back to look at the four people in front of her. They were still in the same positions as before, the girl hidden behind the man not making a sound, maintaining the same pose, holding onto the hands of the two adults beside her.

She was short, only a white floral dress visible behind the man.

Song Weishi found their posture extremely strange. They had been in this exact position, motionless, for a long time.

The man stood at the front, one woman on either side, with the girl at the back, completely obscured.

Song Weishi wondered why they were arranged like that. Was it to protect the little girl behind them?

The group retreated to a safe distance and stopped questioning these people.

"Captain, I think there's something wrong with them."

Xing Chun said, raising the fishing tool she had prepared earlier.

Since they were underwater, ordinary tools were useless; bullets could accidentally hurt teammates.

So she had brought a heavy, three-pronged fishing spear.

Now she raised it, ready to go take a closer look.

Cang Ning saw her eagerness and quickly stopped her.

"I know something's off with them, but they're clearly alive. Don't act rashly, you'll cause bigger trouble."

Song Weishi stared at the spear in her hand, lost in thought. If these people were monsters but hadn't attacked them...

Based on her experience, these people weren't afraid of them at all—they were waiting for something.

The moment she realized this, she didn't care about alarming them. She bolted.

Her flippers slapped against the floor with a loud clapping sound. Her teammates hadn't even reacted before she yelled at them to follow.

They belatedly caught on that something was wrong, but Song Weishi's reaction speed was just too fast—all this happened in a matter of seconds, and she'd already figured it out.

The moment their footsteps fell, behind them, the spot where Xing Chun had tripped on the steps began to bubble and froth.

Without a second thought, the group ran. Song Weishi glanced back while running and saw thin white edges emerging from the staircase where Xing Chun had fallen. Then, one after another, flat Devil Fish crawled out from below, whipping their thick tails, swiftly slithering across the wet floor toward them.

One after another, they kept pouring out of that stairwell.

"Captain! Monsters!"

"Zhu Gaoge, are you insane?! This isn't the time to fight, run!"

If they had run any slower, the Devil Fish would have whipped their tails across them.

Cang Ning ran at the back, teeth gritted, skewering two with her spear and flinging them off. The gray Devil Fish spread their "wings" and charged at them at terrifying speed. Soon, the entire open space of the hall was crawling with those freakish fish. They raised their heads, and the gills and mouths on their undersides, which resembled human facial features, curled into a smile.

The group scrambled, nearly stepping on each other's flippers. Song Weishi grabbed one here, pulled another there, barely managing to keep them upright.

Xing Chun's perpetually sour face was now pale as a sheet. She muttered a "thanks" to Song Weishi, then, copying Cang Ning's move, skewered two Devil Fish that were about to leap at the back of Zhu Gaoge's head.

Zhu Gaoge, quick of hand and eye, yanked open a door on the second floor.

The group tumbled into the room in an instant. The floor inside was covered with a relatively dry red carpet. The room was small, with a small table and a few chairs—it was a staff break room.

Song Weishi caught her breath, shone her light around the room, then reached up and locked the door handle.

The sea was calm, without a ripple. Ren Tong stood on the deck, peering down. Nearly an hour had passed—it was time for their shift change—but for some reason, no one had come up, and the ropes hadn't moved either.

Ren Tong was getting worried, just thinking about whether to go down, when the water surface suddenly bubbled up. A head in a diving suit popped out of the sea.

Ren Tong looked and saw it was Zhu Gaoge. She quickly threw down the rope ladder, intending to pull her up. Zhu Gaoge shook her head, took off her diving mask, and waved her hand, shouting, "Your turn to go down."

"How's it down there?"

"Not bad. We found the sunken ship. The captain and the others told me to come up for air. You go down and take my shift."

Ren Tong acknowledged, grabbed the ropes beside the others, bit down on her oxygen tank, and began to dive.

Behind her, the shadow of Zhu Gaoge diving dissolved into a massive, flat silhouette. It pushed aside the mooring ropes tied to the ship's side, transformed into a shadow, and vanished into the black water.