The alarm was no joke.
It was a piercing, brain-drilling shriek.
"Woooo—!!"
Not some electronic synthesized tone.
More like the death wail of some giant beast, amplified countless times through speakers.
On the other end of the deck.
Inside that newly transformed silver-white dormitory building.
Chaos erupted.
A group of women wearing only thin pajamas, some even wrapped in towels, rushed out.
Hair disheveled.
Eyes filled with the confusion of just waking up.
Before they could figure out what was happening.
A salty, fishy, even slightly rotten sea wind slapped them hard in the face.
Then.
They saw that thing on the horizon.
That thing still rising.
Like a green pillar trying to pierce a hole through the sky.
"What is that..."
One of the more timid ones, legs going weak, directly knelt on the ground.
No one laughed at her.
Because under the shadow of that thing, everyone felt like a joke.
"What are you all standing around for?!"
Qin Yu's voice exploded from the speakers.
Full of gunpowder.
"Think you're here to watch the sunrise?"
"That's your death warrant!"
He stood at the bow.
The "Kiss of Death" in his hand already shouldered.
The dark, gaping muzzle.
Wasn't aimed at the pillar on the horizon.
But at this group of women below who hadn't yet regained their senses.
"Three minutes."
Qin Yu held up three fingers.
His face colder than this sea wind.
"Change into your combat uniforms."
"Return to your posts."
"I want to see every anti-aircraft gun on deck rotating."
"Every ammo crate opened."
"If anyone is a second late."
"I'll throw her overboard to be fertilizer for that thing."
In the crowd.
Elena was the first to move.
She didn't even return to her comfortable single room.
Right there on the deck.
She tore off the spare shirt she was wearing, still carrying Qin Yu's body warmth.
Revealing a body of scars not yet fully healed.
Those were a warrior's medals.
And her only covering now.
"Move fast!!"
She roared.
Voice hoarse.
But effective.
The previously aimless girls seemed jolted awake by that shout.
"Group One to port side!"
"Group Two to starboard!"
"Group Three with me to the armory to move crates!"
"Don't just stand there! That's a direct order!"
No unnecessary words.
Even with a near-fanatical level of execution.
This was the "Valkyrie" trained by Odin.
Even without their armor.
That ingrained obedience remained.
Minutes ago, it was a chaotic bathhouse scene.
Instantly transformed into a battlefield.
Qin Yu watched this scene.
Flicked his cigarette butt into the sea.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"Not bad."
"Haven't raised a bunch of useless ones."
At that moment.
Qi Chun's voice came through.
"Yu... Yu-ge!"
"I saw it clearly!"
"I just saw it clearly with the drone!"
Fatty's face was deathly pale.
Like he'd just swallowed a pound of bitter gall.
"That's not a single tree!"
"That's a whole damn nest!"
Qi Chun pulled up the projection on his wrist.
The image was shaking violently.
Clearly, the drone was struggling desperately in that area.
On the screen.
Around that massive pillar.
The sea surface was boiling like a pot.
Countless densely packed black dots were squirming.
Zooming in for a closer look.
They weren't fish at all.
They were vines.
The kind covered in thorns, with buds at the tips that resembled human mouths.
They spread across the sea surface.
Like a giant net.
Expanding outward at a terrifying speed.
"Devouring…"
Qin Yu narrowed his eyes.
Watching on the screen.
A passing mutated shark.
Didn't even have time to struggle.
Before it was entangled by several vines.
Instantly.
Skin and flesh included.
It was sucked dry into a desiccated corpse.
Then.
The buds on the vines bloomed.
Releasing a cloud of green mist.
"Spores."
Qin Yu uttered the two words.
Li Ruobing had come out at some point.
Holding a tablet in her hands.
Her fingers tapped on it so fast they left afterimages.
"Wind direction is southeast."
"Wind speed, level three."
"At this rate of spread."
She looked up.
Her expression grim.
"At most two hours."
"Those spores will drift to us."
"By then…"
She didn't finish.
But everyone understood.
Inhaling that stuff.
Growing grass in your lungs would be the least of your worries.
You might just become fertilizer for those vines.
"Two hours?"
Qin Yu sneered.
"It seems this new version."
"Wasn't planning to leave us any way out."
He turned.
Looking at the pile of supplies brought from Odin's base.
Especially the 500 tons of S-Class Alloy.
And those S-Class Blueprints he hadn't even had time to warm up.
"Ruo Bing."
Qin Yu turned to Li Ruobing again.
"Activate the Energy Core at full power."
"Don't save fuel."
"Burn that High-energy Fuel like there's no tomorrow."
"Understood."
Li Ruobing wasted no words.
Turning and running toward the engine room.
After arranging these two core tasks.
Qin Yu finally turned.
Looking at the female warriors already in position.
Elena was standing in front of the control panel of a Twin-Linked Autocannon.
Gripping the joystick tightly.
She wasn't wearing an Exoskeleton.
The massive recoil.
Might shatter her arms.
But she didn't care.
"Know how to use it?"
Qin Yu walked over.
Stood behind her.
And spoke suddenly.
Elena's body stiffened.
She didn't turn around.
"This is the 'Viper' close-in defense gun."
"Firing rate of six thousand rounds per minute."
"Odin loved using this thing on live targets."
"I could operate it with my eyes closed."
"That's good."
Qin Yu reached out.
Pressed a button on the control panel.
"Beep."
"Permissions unlocked."
"Temporary authorization: Secondary Fire Control."
The previously locked targeting system.
Instantly lit up with a row of green lights.
Elena whipped her head around.
Staring at Qin Yu.
Her eyes filled with disbelief.
"You…"
"Aren't you afraid I'll turn the gun around?"
"And blast you to pieces?"
This was a close-in defense gun.
At this range.
Even Qin Yu.
Might not be able to withstand it.
Qin Yu smiled.
He leaned in a little closer.
Staring into Elena's sapphire-blue eyes.
"You can try."
"See if your gun is faster."
"Or my gun is faster."
As he spoke.
He patted the "Kiss of Death" on his back, which had been vibrating faintly all along.
Elena bit her lip.
That feeling of being seen through, of being controlled.
Washed over her again.
This man.
Was too confident.
Confident to the point of despair.
"Hmph."
She turned her head.
Regripped the control stick.
"I don't want to die."
"And I don't want my sisters to die either."
"As long as you can keep us alive."
"This gun barrel."
"Will only ever point outward."
"Smart."
Qin Yu patted her shoulder.
"Remember this feeling."
"This is what's called—"
"Being in the same boat."
Though the method of this "being together"
was a bit like a forced sale.
"They're coming!!"
From the watchtower.
A scream suddenly rang out.
"Underwater!!"
"Something's coming!!"
Before the words faded.
"Boom!!"
The hull jolted violently.
As if something enormous.
Had slammed hard into the ship's bottom.
"Warning! Warning!"
The system's cold, mechanical voice instantly echoed throughout the entire ship.
"Hull armor breached!"
"Intrusion detected!"
"Quantity: Unknown!"
"Type: Deep-Sea Parasite!"
Qin Yu's expression changed.
Before he could even give an order.
On the sea surface along both sides of the ship.
Countless splashes suddenly erupted.
"Splash—"
From within those splashes.
What leaped out weren't fish.
But clusters of black, fleshy spheres resembling sea urchins, yet sprouting tentacles and sharp teeth.
Each one the size of a basketball.
Using the force of the splash.
Like cannonballs.
They smashed directly onto the deck.
"Ah!!"
A female warrior standing near the edge couldn't dodge in time.
Was struck in the face by one of the spheres.
"Sizzle—"
The sphere instantly burst open.
Countless tiny tendrils.
Immediately burrowed into her skin.
She didn't even have time to scream.
Her entire face.
Turned pitch-black and withered at a visible rate.
"Open fire!!"
Elena's eyes turned red.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!!"
Her close-in weapon system was the first to roar.
Two streams of fire.
Wove a net of death in the air.
Those spheres still mid-air.
Were instantly blown apart.
Green fluid rained down like a downpour.
Falling onto the deck.
Emitted a "sizzling" corrosive sound.
"Don't let them get close!!"
Qin Yu wasn't idle either.
He didn't use the sniper rifle.
That kind of heavy weapon.
Was too wasteful for swatting these flies.
He swung his right hand.
"Rise!"
The Liquid Metal originally spread flat on the deck.
Instantly surged upward.
Transforming into countless sharp, earthen spikes.
"Thud thud thud thud!"
Those spheres that slipped through the net.
Had just landed on the deck.
Were precisely impaled through by the spikes.
Like strings of black candied haws.
Still writhing desperately.
"Disgusting things."
Qin Yu frowned.
These things.
Though not strong.
Made up for it in numbers.
And carried potent toxins.
Without preparation.
This wave of assault.
Could cripple a ship outright.
"Fatty!!"
Qin Yu roared into the communicator.
"How much longer for your turtle shell?!"
"Five minutes!!"
Qi Chun's voice carried a sob.
The background noise was full of machinery roaring.
"The furnace is about to blow!"
"Still needs five minutes to cool!"
"Screw waiting!"
Qin Yu glanced at the increasingly dense splashes.
In the distance.
On the sea surface.
A large dark mass was rapidly approaching.
Those were more, larger parasites.
Even including those weird fish half a person tall, with legs.
"Throw that pile of Mithril in too!"
Qin Yu's voice brooked no argument.
"Add the Catalyst!"
"I want it now! Immediately!"
On the other end of the communicator, Qi Chun was stunned for a moment.
Followed by a wail.
"Mithril?! But that's..."
"Throw it!!"
This one roared command.
With the imposing pressure of Qin Yu, an S-Class powerhouse.
It even crackled through the communicator.
"Throw, throw, throw! I'll throw it, alright! What a spendthrift!"
Qi Chun cried with a pained expression.
While directing the robots.
To dump that pile of Mithril, still warm from being freshly obtained.
All at once into the furnace.
"Boom—"
A blue flame.
Instantly shot skyward.
Immediately after.
The entire "President."
Began to tremble.
That kind of tremor.
Was not like an earthquake.
More like... evolution.
The originally silver-white hull surface.
Began to glow with a faint layer of blue light.
That was the Energy Field generated from forcibly fusing the Mithril.
"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"
Those strange fish and flesh balls still climbing onto the ship.
The moment they touched this blue light.
Were like butter meeting a hot iron.
Instantly melting into pools of black liquid.
Without even a chance to scream.
"Holy crap..."
Elena, who was ready to fight for her life.
Watching this scene.
Was dumbfounded.
What kind of black technology was this?
Was this the power of S-rank Material?
In this resource-scarce world.
Who would be willing to use S-rank Mithril as wall paint?
Only a madman like Qin Yu would do such a thing.
"Listen up, all of you!"
Qin Yu stood at a high point.
Looking at those monsters blocked outside by the Energy Field.
Not a hint of regret in his eyes.
Only ruthlessness.
"As long as we survive."
"No matter how expensive the material."
"It's just a rock."
"Keep fighting!"
"Blast to pieces!"
"All those who dare show their heads!"
"Yes!!"
This time.
The voices answering him.
Were unified and resolute.