Five hundred meters away from the "President," twenty specially modified assault boats glided across the sea like ghosts.
These were no ordinary rafts.
They were the "Suicide Squad Camp" that Zhang Nanhai had spent a fortune to build.
The hulls were painted matte black, the oars wrapped in thick cotton cloth, and each boat carried six robust men.
They didn't speak.
They even kept their breathing low.
Leading them was a man called "One-Eye."
He was Zhang Nanhai's trusted confidant, a former smuggler who knew these nighttime sea routes better than anyone.
One-Eye squinted his remaining right eye, fixed intently on the massive dark shape in the distance.
That was the "President."
It lay on the sea like a silent mountain of steel.
No lights.
No movement.
"Hmph."
One-Eye sneered inwardly.
So what if it's an S-class battleship?
The finest ship is only as good as its crew.
Once the crew is asleep, it's just an iron coffin.
He made a hand signal.
His men immediately understood, synchronizing their rowing to increase the pace.
Silent.
Swift.
Like a school of deep-sea piranhas baring their fangs.
At three hundred meters, One-Eye could even see the water droplets clinging to the towering hull.
"What a bunch of pigs," the deputy behind him whispered, his tone full of scorn.
"Such a huge ship, and not even a night watch posted?"
"That Qin Yu is just lucky."
"If he'd met our Dragon King earlier, there'd be nothing left of him but bone fragments."
One-Eye shot him a glare, signaling him to shut up.
But the contemptuous smirk on his lips was impossible to suppress.
It was all going too smoothly.
So smoothly that he began to think the so-called top-ranked player was just a lucky upstart.
Robots?
Armed helicopters?
Against real night assault tactics, those metal contraptions were blind!
At one hundred meters, One-Eye could even smell the lingering aroma of roasted meat from the ship.
"Smells good," One-Eye swallowed, a flicker of greed in his eyes.
"Get ready, men."
He drew a hooked flying tiger claw from his waist.
"Once we're on board, kill all the men, keep the women."
"Especially the one in black stockings—the Dragon King wants her alive."
"The rest of the supplies, we're taking everything tonight!"
The twenty assault boats fanned out.
Like a large net closing in on an unsuspecting prey.
Eighty meters.
Fifty meters.
Thirty meters.
Even the best marksman would only need to raise his gun at this distance.
One-Eye stood up.
He began swinging the flying tiger claw in a wide arc.
At that very moment—
"Bzzzt—"
A faint electric hum abruptly shattered the silence of the night.
Then—
"Snap!"
A blinding white light shot down without warning from the bridge of the "President."
It was no ordinary searchlight.
It was the artificial sun.
In that instant—
Night turned to day.
Twenty black assault boats, over a hundred armed suicide squad members—all exposed.
Like cockroaches suddenly exposed on the kitchen floor when the lights flick on.
Nowhere to hide.
One-Eye was momentarily blinded by the glare, tears streaming down his face.
He instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes.
His heart sank.
It's over.
We've been discovered.
But he was, after all, a ruthless man, and his reactions were swift.
"Forget the lights! Charge! Close-quarters combat!"
"As long as we get close, their cannons are useless!"
"Throw the Molotovs! Now!"
However.
Before his shouts could even fade.
A cold voice, amplified by speakers, laced with a hint of laziness and mockery, exploded above them.
"We've been waiting for you."
"Since you're here."
"Don't bother leaving."
It was Qin Yu's voice.
The next second.
On the bridge.
Qin Yu, holding his half-finished glass of red wine, snapped his fingers lightly.
"Yao Xue, light them up."
On the second deck.
Yao Xue, clad in a form-fitting black combat uniform that accentuated her perfect curves, pushed her gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose. In her usually icy eyes, two flickering flames of madness now danced.
Before her.
Two heavy-duty industrial flamethrowers, originally designed for clearing ocean debris, were mounted.
But these.
Qin Yu had modified them.
The fuel wasn't ordinary oil; it was "High-energy napalm" drawn from the system.
"Understood."
Yao Xue's red lips parted.
Her pale finger pressed down hard on the red ignition button.
"BOOM——!!!"
Two fifty-meter-long fire dragons roared forth.
That wasn't fire.
It was flowing magma.
It was the breath of hell.
The orange-red flames instantly engulfed the five leading assault boats.
Intense heat.
Extreme heat.
There wasn't even time for screams.
The wooden boats carbonized instantly, turning into black powder.
And the thirty-plus people on board.
Were like ants dropped into a vat of boiling oil.
"AHHHHH!!!"
"Water! Jump into the water!"
Those behind were terrified out of their minds, leaping into the sea one after another like dumplings dropped into a pot.
But they forgot.
This was napalm.
The stuff had extreme adhesion, and...
Water couldn't extinguish it!
The sea surface instantly became a blazing inferno.
Those who jumped into the water discovered in horror that the flames were still burning on their bodies, and even the surrounding seawater seemed to be on fire.
This wasn't seawater.
This was a boiling cauldron of oil!
"Retreat! Fall back now!"
One-Eye, witnessing the hellscape before him, felt his courage shatter.
What fearless warriors?
What well-trained elites?
In the face of such absolute destructive power, it was all a joke.
He desperately rowed his boat, trying to escape the sea of fire.
"Trying to run?"
Li Ruobing stood on the deck on the other side.
She was trembling with excitement, not holding a gun, but gripping a tablet Terminal.
It was the control panel for the "Black Ant" robots.
"The boss's feast has only just begun!"
"Be good and leave your lives behind!"
She swiped fiercely across the screen.
"BUZZZZZ——"
Along both sides of the ship.
The ten "Black Ant" robots, which had been silently on standby, simultaneously lit up with red electronic eyes.
They had long since adjusted their firing angles.
The armor on their backs slid open.
Revealing the menacing six-barreled Gatling cannons.
Ten Gatling cannons.
What did that mean?
It was equivalent to the firepower of an entire reinforced company, all concentrated on a single ship.
"DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA——!!!"
Metal Storm.
A true Metal Storm.
Muzzle flashes merged into a continuous blaze, illuminating the night as bright as day.
Dense bullets swept across the sea like invisible scythes of death.
Wood splinters flew everywhere.
Blood and flesh scattered in all directions.
The assault boats attempting to turn around were instantly riddled with holes.
One-Eye watched helplessly as his deputy's upper body kept speaking while his lower half was blown apart.
Blood splattered across his face.
Hot.
Metallic.
"These are devils... devils!"
One-Eye broke down completely.
He threw away the oar, knelt in the boat cabin, and desperately kowtowed toward the President.
"Stop killing! Stop killing!"
"I surrender! I know the Dragon King's location! I..."
"Bang!"
A large-caliber bullet blew off the top of his skull.
It was Yao Xue.
She had unknowingly set aside the flamethrower and was now holding the S-Class Barrett.
Smoke curled from the muzzle.
"Qin Yu's orders."
"No prisoners tonight."
The screams on the sea gradually thinned out.
Twenty assault boats turned into floating debris on the water in less than three minutes.
But it wasn't over yet.
In the distance.
Hundreds of small rafts that had been following behind Zhang Nanhai's death squad, hoping to take advantage of the chaos, now froze in place.
What were they witnessing?
A sea of fire.
A slaughterhouse.
"Run... run away!"
Someone shouted desperately.
Hundreds of small boats began frantically trying to escape.
Qin Yu stood at the high point, watching the panicked crowd scrambling like flies.
His eyes remained indifferent.
"Since you're here, you should at least watch the grand fireworks before leaving."
He spoke calmly into his comms.
"Activate the Deep-sea Guardian."
"Show them what S-class foundation truly means."
The plasma pulse cannon.
The deck at the bow slowly split open.
A sci-fi styled silver-white cannon barrel gradually rose.
At the muzzle.
Blue light began gathering.
The energy fluctuations distorted the surrounding air.
"Bzzzzzt—"
The charging sound resembled countless birds screeching.
In the distance.
The fleeing survivors glanced back.
That single glance.
Became their final memory.
They saw a blue sun ignite at the bow of the steel behemoth.
"Fire."
Qin Yu whispered.
"BOOM!!!"
A blue beam over two meters in diameter tore through the night.
It made no sound.
Or rather, its speed surpassed sound itself.
The beam instantly pierced through the sea surface a kilometer away.
Wherever it passed.
Seawater directly vaporized, creating a vacuum channel.
The dozen or so rafts along its path.
Vanished without a trace.
Instantly vaporized.
The beam continued unabated, slamming violently into a nameless reef in the far distance.
"KABOOOM—"
The massive explosion sound finally reached them.
The reef was completely obliterated.
The shockwave created tsunami-like waves over ten meters high, capsizing all nearby small boats.
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Only the crackling of flames still burning on the sea surface remained.
All survivors were stunned senseless.
They watched the gradually dissipating blue light.
Was this power humans could wield?
This must be divine punishment.
"Skyhawk Guard, ascend."
"Clean up the battlefield."
Qin Yu gave them no chance to recover.
"Whoosh!"
The silver fighter jet shot into the sky like an unsheathed sword.
It dove into a steep descent.
All missile pods beneath its wings deployed.
This night.
Was destined to be sleepless.
...
Thirty nautical miles away.
Zhang Nanhai stood on his flagship.
The two iron balls he'd been holding had long since vanished from his grasp.
His mouth hung open as he stared blankly at the distant, illuminated sky.
Even from this distance.
He could see that blue light.
He could hear the thunderous roar of cannons.
His hands trembled.
His legs trembled.
His heart trembled.
Just moments before, through the still-active communication channel.
He had heard the sounds from the frontline.
One-Eye's dying scream.
The Gatling's furious roar.
The agonized wails of those burned alive.
"It's over..."
Zhang Nanhai collapsed onto the tiger-skin chair.
His face turned deathly pale.
"All gone..."
His elite forces.
His death squad.
The trump cards he had spent vast resources to cultivate.
Just like that...
Gone?
Without even making a sound?
No.
There was sound.
A sound that shook heaven and earth.
Was this what Qin Yu meant by "fireworks"?
Was this that man's true power?
Zhang Nanhai suddenly felt cold.
A chill that seeped from the very marrow of his bones.
He had always believed this was a Survival Game.
Everyone was just players.
Even if there were gaps, they were merely in equipment.
As long as one was willing to fight desperately, as long as one had brains, victory was always possible.
But now he understood.
Qin Yu wasn't playing a Survival Game.
He was playing a grass-cutting massacre.
"D-Dragon King..."
Scarface beside him had wet his pants in terror, the stench of urine filling the air.
"Should... should we still charge?"
"Charge your mother!"
Zhang Nanhai leaped up and kicked Scarface in the face.
"Run!"
"Get the hell out of here!"
"Head in the opposite direction!"
"From now on, no one mentions the word 'President'!"
"Anyone who says it dies!"
Zhang Nanhai had gone mad.
He stormed into the pilot house and took the helm himself.
The ship flying the dragon-head flag fled like a stray dog into the night.
He didn't even care about the smaller support boats that hadn't returned yet.
...
Aboard the President.
Smoke still hung in the air.
The scent of burning and gunpowder permeated the atmosphere.
But to Qin Yu.
This was the smell of victory.
He stood at the bow, watching the gradually calming sea in the distance.
This battle.
Had established their might.
Had demonstrated their dominance.
From this day forward.
Only one voice would be heard in these waters.
His voice.
"How was it, Yu-ge?"
Li Ruobing ran over holding a tablet, smoke stains still visible on her face, her eyes shining brightly.
"That wave took out at least three hundred of them."
"The rest are completely terrified."
"Probably will scatter at the sight of our flag from now on."
Yao Xue approached as well, cleaning the dust from her glasses with a white silk handkerchief.
"That Zhang Nanhai escaped."
"Radar shows his ship fleeing east at full speed."
"Should we pursue?"
"The Sky Eagle could catch him in two minutes."
Qin Yu shook his head.
He finished the last sip of red wine in his glass.
"Don't pursue a desperate enemy."
"Let him live."
"He's ranked second, his influence isn't small."
"Let him live to spread the fear of today."
"Sometimes."
"A living coward is more useful than a dead enemy."
Qin Yu turned around.
Looking at the three women before him.
Looking at this invincible warship.
A wild, arrogant smile curled at the corner of his lips.
"Turn off the lights."
"Time to sleep."