Prologue

  3:40

  The sea winds reached level 12, and Zhang Lao, who was guarding the aquaculture area, lowered his hat brim and was about to go get a thermos of hot wine when he suddenly caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. With the intuition of an old sailor, he immediately raised his binoculars to take a look, and it was an inconspicuous black dot.

  "What is it?"

  Old Zhang narrowed his eyes, hesitated for a moment, but still made the call to the Harbour Bureau's duty room.

  After investigation, it was found that all the ships with records on that day had already docked to avoid the wind, so this ship still at sea was in distress. Emergency rescue measures were immediately launched, and relevant departments repeatedly declared to subordinate rescue units: This is not a drill!

  At the same time, more than 200 migrant workers gathered in front of the Qifeng Entrepreneurship Building in the city center to demand payment of their wages. The project has been completed for three months, but they have not received a single penny yet. Their children need to go to school and patients need medicine, all of which are life-saving money.

  "Xu Ge, what's the point of talking to these peasants? Just drag those two ringleaders in and give them a beating. Why bother explaining reason to them? Are they people who listen to reason?"

  A security guard with yellow hair, smoking a cigarette, tilted his head and stared at the glass door outside. The man called Xu Ge's face was iron-green, he had just explained to the migrant workers for half a day, but no one listened, only shouting for money. More than 20 million, where did this small security team leader get the money? At this time, the mobile phone rang, and he hastily answered it, his face gradually becoming even greener. Huang Mao saw that things were going to be big and didn't say anything anymore.

  "Keep an eye on them all, if these bastards dare to come in, I'll beat them up!"

  Xu Ge closed his eyes, staring outside, his hand that had been chopped off before was shaking slightly. He made up his mind to make a big deal out of this. In Xu Peng's opinion, killing one or two people was no different from crushing an ant, but those were all done in secret, whereas now there were over 200 people in front of him, and whether one or two died, he would inevitably be the one to take the blame.

  "Go easy on him, don't kill the guy!"

  Xu Peng added.

  At sea, nearly 40 rescue personnel were dispatched and three professional salvage ships were deployed. After three hours of effort, they finally boarded the container ship.

  However, there was not a single person on the boat!

  "Lao Zhou, I think something's off! It doesn't look like a robbery, everything is still here! The coffee is even still hot!"

  Captain Zhou was flipping through the logbook in the captain's cabin of a Panamanian-registered freighter, whose captain, Jack, or Zhang Haiyang in Chinese, was an American-born ethnic Chinese.

  "Nonsense! And there's still a Desert Eagle with an extended barrel! Better upgrade to the long-slide version!"

  An old Yu with over thirty years of sailing experience stood in front of Captain Zhou, looking worried.

  "We won't have run into a ghost ship, will we?"

  Captain Zhou also looked worried, today brought all the people who followed him for more than a decade, in case something happens, it's hard to explain to anyone.

  "What's with all this nonsense..."

  "Hey, Captain! We've found a casualty in Quadrant 4!"

  The walkie-talkie made a timely sound, and Zhou's face relaxed. Since there was someone, it wasn't a ghost ship after all.

  The sky has darkened, but the migrant workers have yet to disperse.

  It was unclear who started it, but the glass doors of the Qifeng Entrepreneurship Building were smashed to pieces, and migrant workers wielding wooden boards and bricks surged in with the strong wind, like a flood.

  Xu Peng's eyes turned red, and according to Deputy General Manager Yang Ming's intention, he dragged the pregnant woman in and beat her up, killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, these migrant workers should have dispersed, but the result was just the opposite. Xu Peng turned around and picked up an iron rod, while other security guards also took out their tools.

  "Damn it! If you don't drink the toast, you'll be punished with a death blow, brothers, beat me to death!"

  In a sudden burst of noise, Xu Peng's mind flashed with something - why did this ordinary-looking pregnant woman seem so familiar? He stopped abruptly, remembering that she was Gao Qin, the general manager's mistress! Xu Peng knew he had been tricked by Yang Ming again. This trick of borrowing a knife to kill someone wasn't very clever, but for Xu Peng, who rarely saw Gao Qin, it was enough.

  The iron rod slipped from his hand and hit the ground, which finally brought Xu Peng back to his senses. He sat still with a gloomy face for a long time before turning his head to look at Gao Qin, who was still writhing in pain on the floor. Her eyes were full of resentment. Xu Peng shuddered and a cold glint flashed across his eyes.

  "In that case, let's do it thoroughly!"

  Xu Peng picked up the iron rod and walked over.

  They finally managed to safely transfer the survivors onto the rescue ships just before nightfall, but he was still unconscious.

  Captain Zhou ordered the entire team to evacuate the ship in distress, as long as they rescued the people back and towed the ship back to the port, today's mission would be considered a complete success. But for some reason, Captain Zhou always felt a little uneasy in his heart. Old Yu went to take care of the survivors and never came back, the walkie-talkie had problems, the transmitted voice was intermittent, and the person sent to ask about the situation hadn't returned yet, these short three minutes seemed like an eternity.

  The wind and waves on the sea are getting bigger and bigger, with 14 levels already.

  Inside the infirmary on the rescue ship, Lao Yu Zheng and several crew members struggled to hold down the survivor who wouldn't stop moving. His strength was so great that four people couldn't completely restrain his hands and feet.

  It was already the sixth sedative, and Dr. Zhang's nose tip had broken out in a cold sweat.

  "Is this still human?"

  Suddenly, the survivor's intense reaction disappeared, and he lay there calmly, as if what had just happened was an illusion. Lao Yu and the sailors didn't dare to let go, they all looked at Dr. Zhang inquiringly, but he also looked bewildered.

  At that moment, the survivor let out a breath and slowly opened his eyes. Everyone felt a tremble in their hearts, for they were a pair of inexplicably terrifying eyes, as black as stars.

  "Where is this?"

  The survivor gently broke free from his restraints and sat up, scanning the cabin with a look of confusion fading from his eyes.

  "So it's human society after all!"

  He smiled, while others screamed and rushed towards the exit.