S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 72

Ghost Ship Murderer 36 – Protector

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Han Ling's arrival made the situation start to become clear.

Zhan Zhao had already deduced the facts of the case, the next step of its development, and the objectives of the group... but the truth of some of the events of that year, only the people involved could explain the painting.

So Zhan Zhao was eager to ask Han Ling about the ins and outs of the whole thing.

But Han Ling signalled to the crowd, "It's too late, we need to set sail!"

Zhan Zhao and the others looked at each other in dismay.

Bai Yutang was puzzled, "What boat is setting sail?"

"This boat is going out!" Han Ling said seriously, "We have to change course to reach the destination island."

The crowd didn't quite understand, but Zhan Zhao gently snapped his fingers, "Oh... I get it, it's the currents and sea conditions, PT1001 has become a patrol boat!"

Han Ling looked at Zhan Zhao with some surprise, and then turned back to look at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue spread his hands, indicating that Zhan Zhao didn't know the whole story.

Han Ling looked at Zhan Zhao with some admiration, "You really are exceptionally smart, you can even figure this out? Are you a test subject as well?"

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes – How should he answer? He also didn't know if he was any kind of test subject or not.

"Of course he's not a test subject." Zhao Jue interjected with a smile.

Zhan Zhao glanced at him.

Zhao Jue held his chin, his last finger hooked upwards along the curve of his chin, gently touching the indentation below his lips, and he whispered, "He's a miracle... god made a joke and created two miracles."

"Ahem."

From the other end of the phone, Bai Ye and Bao Zheng's coughs were heard, almost at the same time, and they were quite loud, carrying a hint of warning.

Zhao Jue flattened his mouth and leaned against the edge of the table to continue drawing, and Xiao Mi curiously came over to watch him draw.

"What's with the ocean currents?" Zhao Hu asked Zhan Zhao in confusion, "How did the ghost ship turn into a patrol ship?"

Zhan Zhao seemed to be organising how to use human language to make this group of idiots understand the meaning, when he heard Bai Yutang say, "The ships that crashed here back then, including PT1001 and Lin Ruo's sailboat, all did so because of the ocean currents. The reason why Bruce chose this island as an experimental base is probably because of the special sea conditions of this generation, there is no danger of any missteps… PT1001 mistakenly entered this place, and when the ship itself was unable to provide power, it could only follow the ocean currents and float along the periphery of this island. In the process of floating in the current, it encountered Lin Ruo and them... Lin Ruo, however, managed to sail his boat away... because of those coordinates! There is only one place where passage to the island is possible, while other places may have reefs that make it easy to run aground or get lost. The coordinates were the key to entry and exit, so they kidnapped Lin Ruo because he was the only one who could find the entrance to the island! And as for the patrol ship, the Emilia seems to guard the entrance and exit of the island. If you want to enter by mistake, there's only that one entrance, and those who enter by mistake, don't fare well."

After hearing this, the crowd rubbed their chins together, "Oh..."

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang – Stealing my thunder!

Bai Yutang looked at Han Ling with his arms crossed, "If you want to go to that island, you must pass by PT1001, right?"

Han Ling nodded.

"Wait wait wait!" Zhao Hu, as the representative of the ordinary people, with his IQ and comprehension, had already understood Bai Yutang's words, so he was curious, "You mean that PT1001 is still at sea? It's just circling around that island, and of the two Emilia on board before, one was struck to death by lightning, but no one knows which one died, and the one that was left behind, is still on that ship now? Their job is to guard the channel into the island and make sure no one gets to the island?"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao nodded, "Logical reasoning is reasonable!"

"Reasonable?!" Zhao Hu scratched his head and found it incomprehensible, "It's already unbelievable for a person to live for a year on a ship, how could they live for so many years?"

"What's the problem?" Zhao Jue asked rhetorically, while looking at Luo Tian, "How long did you live in the sewers?"

Luo Tian froze, and Zhan Zhao glared at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue reached out and gently tapped his lips, "Because of love... or familial affection!"

Luo Tian frowned – Indeed, if it was for Luo Yang, he could live in the sewers for the rest of his life. That Emilia, could it be that she preferred to live on the ship for the rest of her life for the sake of Bruce?

"No way..." Zhao Hu frowned, thinking that those test subjects might have originally been just small children from ordinary families, captured for various reasons, and some of them were born as test subjects. Small children of the same age grew up carefree under their parents' pampering, while others were enduring all sorts of hardships alone.

"The last time I saw the Doctor, he mentioned that he had to go back to the island, that there was something important on the island, and that he had to find Emilia as well." Han Ling frowned, "If Lin Ruo and the others approach the previous coordinates unknowingly and encounter Emilia... I can guarantee that everyone on board will die!"

"That powerful?" Bai Yutang didn't find it too believable.

"Emilia's fighting power evolves as she grows older!" Han Ling laughed bitterly, "Don't forget that back then, the two of them killed an entire ship full of pirates and crushed and deformed them to stuff them into the storage room, you guys should have heard Lin Ruo talk about it."

"Bruce is still alone on that island huh?" Zhao Jue stroked his chin, "Mm-hmm..."

Han Ling nodded, "I don't know exactly what he's doing, but he clearly has succeeded in his experiment, yet he wants to terminate the plan."

As he spoke, he walked outside.

Bai Yutang signalled for Luo Tian and Zhao Hu to help him out, to see how he was going to "set sail".

Han Ling was familiar with the way to the stern of the ship, opening several iron gates through the long passageway, and finally, opening the last gate...

It turned out that the construction of this ship was somewhat like a cargo ship, there was a large gate at the back, and after the gate was opened, this small boat could be unloaded directly from the stern.

"This ship is a little smaller than expected." Luo Tian looked out in all directions, and there was nothing but pitch-black sea out there.

Han Ling pressed a few buttons, the braking hooks released, and the small boat slid down the slope into the rough sea... At this time, the waves were crashing loudly throughout the sea, and the big ship was rapidly moving away... The small boat followed behind, almost noiselessly.

Luo Tian frowned and asked Han Ling, "Are you sure this won't be discovered?"

"It won't be anytime soon." Han Ling turned the rudder... and sailed the boat in another direction. Because there were no lights, no one could see anyone on this dark sea, and the hull of the boat, although it was pure white on the inside, the exterior was a dark grey and black, and it was almost invisible.

Luo Tian knew that driving a boat on the sea was no small task, and there was no light or navigation markers, so how could he be sure that there would be no problem?

He looked at Han Ling with his mouth wide open.

Han Ling smiled, "Don't worry, nothing will happen."

At this time, Zhan Zhao and the others also ascended to the deck of the boat and looked out.

"Wow…" Zhao Hu leaned over the railing and looked out into the distance, "It's really pitch black, this is my first time seeing such big waves and such a dark sea!"

"We're off course!" Qin Ou looked at the message returned by the positioning system, "That big ship is about to lose us, is it okay?"

On the other end, Bao Zheng sent a question, "What the hell are you guys up to?"

"Finding Emilia and Doctor Bruce before that group of elites." Han Ling said.

The crowd didn't quite understand, and Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, "Stephen and the others will have to circle around more than us, won't they?"

Han Ling smiled and nodded, "Clever!"

"What was your original plan?" Zhan Zhao asked Han Ling, "Want to see Stephen and the others fight to the death with Emilia and then reap the benefits?"

Han Ling nodded, "But I didn't expect another couple of people to be killed halfway, this turn of events was really unexpected!"

"Right." Han Ling asked Bai Yutang, "Do you guys have guns?"

Bai Yutang nodded.

"But with so few people, it doesn't seem like it's enough..." Han Ling frowned, "I heard Xiao Wei say that Emilia's mental condition didn't seem too stable back then, and she should have changed even more in the past few years, so I don't know if our combat power is enough."

Zhan Zhao frowned after hearing this, he was no longer dwelling on the process in this case, as he had figured it all out, what he was more curious about at this point was what exactly was Bruce doing on the island?

"What level is that Emilia?" Zhao Jue reached out, took the Bluetooth headset that Bai Yutang had hung on his ear down, looked at the rough sea, and asked Bai Ye on the other end.

Bai Ye was silent for a moment before answering, "It's probably around level seven, very lethal."

"That powerful?" Zhao Jue was a bit surprised, "Then she should have a short life, are you sure she's still alive now?"

"Maybe Bruce is secretly doing research on this." Bai Ye hesitated for a moment, "I'm still not too sure, ask Han Ling to give me the coordinates, I'll go on board and rescue Lin Ruo, you guys stay away from that ship."

Zhao Jue took off the headset and handed it to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang was a bit puzzled, taking the headset, and Bai Ye repeated it.

Bai Yutang frowned, "You're not a cop..."

"That one is a monster, wait until you grow up a little more." The tone of Bai Ye's speech made Bai Yutang mistakenly think for a moment that it was his old man Bai Yunwen lecturing him... Instinctively, he stopped talking.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and examined Bai Yutang from the side – Aiya! Is it a self-awareness of status that belongs to big dogs and small dogs?

Bai Yutang glared at Zhan Zhao – Stop doing psychoanalysis!

Han Ling told Bai Ye the precise numbers, and at that moment, he saw that Xiao Mi was already walking up with an axe.

Zhao Jue took away her axe, "You don't need to do anything this time." Xiao Mi blinked and looked at Han Ling.

Han Ling was relieved, "Even with all of us there, there's no certainty that we can deal with Emilia, I was going to wait for them to kill each other."

"Dolphin."

At this time, Zhao Jue suddenly reached out and pointed at the dark sea.

Zhan Zhao glanced at it and asked, "You can still see dolphins in the dark?"

"What about the…ship?" Zhao Jue reached forward and pointed.

The crowd followed the direction of his finger to look over. Through the faint starlight, in a very distant place, there seems to be a dark outline. Looking at it, it should be an island, right? Due to the lack of reference, it was difficult to form an accurate sense of distance, but in front of that dark island, there was a straight white ship.

"That's..." Zhan Zhao took out the photo and looked at it, "PT1001?"

"Wow, the real Emilia!" Zhao Hu took out his night vision binoculars to look...

Everyone else also took out binoculars to look... Just to see that indeed, there was a large white ship slowly sailing into the distance.

"The hull is so broken." Bai Yutang frowned. "There's someone!"

"Really?" Zhan Zhao moved over to look.

Bai Yutang gave him the binoculars.

Zhan Zhao looked for a while and really saw that there was someone standing at the bow of the boat. He couldn't see their features clearly, but it should be a woman. She had her back to the crowd, and was looking into the distance in an unknown direction. Her long black hair, which floated in the night wind... had a special, ghostly and lonely feeling.

"Look over there!" Ma Han swept over something with his binoculars and pointed to Bai Yutang, "Three o'clock."

Bai Yutang looked over... in the direction that the woman on the bow of the ship was gazing, and saw that there was another boat sailing by.

"Is that the boat that kidnapped Lin Ruo?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"It should be..." Bai Yutang frowned, and saw that boat slowly approaching that ferry... Compared to it, PT1001 was a bit larger in size.

At that moment, he saw that woman in white suddenly stand at the bow of the ship.

"How did she just jump onto the railing just now?" Zhan Zhao didn't see clearly and blinked.

"What fast movements!" Bai Yutang also couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. At this time, they could clearly see the woman's back... with black hair, a white skirt, bare feet, and as thin as a bone, standing on the thin railing, and in her hand, she was dragging a long axe.

Suddenly, she jumped out of the ship. It is not known whether she jumped into the sea, or somewhere else, but in any case… she disappeared.

Everyone was searching for that back, when from the side of their boat, a police speedboat flew by, moving at a very high speed... towards the two vessels in the distance that were encountering each other.

Bai Yutang then saw two marine police officers piloting the police speedboat, and on the boat, standing alone, was Bai Ye.

Bai Ye was wearing all black, and behind his back, he was carrying something, a long box, or a cylindrical zippered bag?

"What is he carrying?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang in confusion.

Bai Yutang shook his head – Never seen it.

Zhao Jue let out a laugh and muttered, "Savage."

When everyone was puzzled, they saw Bai Ye reach out, bring the long zip-lock bag from his back forward, and take something out.

"A long knife?" Bai Yutang was surprised, "A sword, a command sword?"

"How could he use something so tasteless?" Zhao Jue rested his chin on his hands and leaned against the railing, "That violent man made his own sword."

"How?" The crowd looked at him together and asked in unison, "Did Bai Ye used to work in a steel mill?"

Zhao Jue blinked, before letting out a 'pfft!', "Steel cockroach!"

......

In the cabin, the original tranquillity was broken by a violent shaking.

Lin Ruo had been fast asleep, but the shaking woke him up. He opened his eyes in some confusion – Had the ship docked or run aground?

When he opened his eyes, he saw Aria's obsessed face...

Aria had been resting her face to admire Lin Ruo's sleeping posture, and the way he lazily woke up made her look as if she was mesmerised. Seeing that Lin Ruo had woken up, she was just about to open her mouth to speak, when suddenly... a miserable scream came from outside.

That scream was extremely miserable, Jiang Nan sat up in shock... and saw that something rolled in.

That thing rolled into the room from the outside of the door and rolled all the way to Aria's feet.

Lin Ruo looked down and gasped.

"Ah!" No matter how calm Jiang Nan was, she couldn't help but cry out in shock, as she saw that what rolled in was a bloody human head... It was her driver, Xiao Gu, who was in charge of guarding the door just now.

She wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but Jiang Nan felt that Xiao Gu's eyes hadn't died, as if he was still alive. Perhaps it was too sudden, and he opened his eyes wide in horror, looking at nothingness in despair.

Jiang Nan covered her mouth with both hands, and Lin Ruo stood up.

Aria suddenly pounced over and closed the door, and at the same time, there was a loud bang... There was an opening in the iron door, and half an axe was shoved in. It was right next to Aria's face.

Aria moved away a little, but pressed firmly against the door.

In the doorway, the axe was pulled out, and in the gap, an eye appeared, looking in.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 22, 2023 by Angel

Edited: July 24, 2023 by Angel