Using the MC system to pretend spiritual revival

Chapter 233 Deep Sea Anomaly
"Ding...ding...ding—!"

The piercing alarm echoed in the command room, which was filled with screens and control buttons.

Screens of all sizes flashed red one after another, as if infected by a virus.

Aside from that, the room was filled with a heavy silence, except for the increasingly chaotic sound of hurried footsteps.

As the supreme commander of this mission, Zhou Wu, dressed in a crisp military uniform with graying temples, was summoned as soon as the anomaly occurred.

At this moment, he and several other senior executives were looking at the screen in front of them with serious expressions.

After a long while, a somewhat hoarse voice finally broke the deathly silence in the command room.

"What...what are these things?"

After he finished speaking, no one replied.

This question seemed to voice the doubts in everyone's hearts.

Standing in the center, Zhou Wu was also puzzled, his eyes fixed on the images on the screen in front of him, some blurry and some clear.

These images, taken from drone aerial photography or satellite footage, all coincidentally focus on the same environment—the coastline.

As a long and narrow island nation, Yeonghua has a large amount of flat coastline and beaches available for development.

At this moment, the scene projected on the screen, where the once golden, wave-swept coastline had transformed into a bizarre, hellish landscape.

The pale red and viscous seawater, carrying clumps of grayish-black matter, surged and crashed against the shore.

Between the beach and the water, a pale, dark-colored substance had been spread out, swaying with the current, like some kind of seaweed that had been swept ashore by ocean currents.

Zhou Wu, who witnessed the entire process, understood exactly what those things were.

They are "humans" who all look exactly alike, rushing out of the city.

Under his watchful eye, these people frantically ran to the shore and jumped into the sea without hesitation.

There were just too many, and the whole process lasted for more than half an hour.

Even now, the vast coastline of the Kingdom of Yinghua is piled high with corpses.

Fish and shrimp devoured the creatures, their blood staining the seawater red; the scene resembled hell.

If the people in front of the screen weren't also veterans who had survived the bloody war years, they probably wouldn't have been able to remain calm and analyze everything that was happening.

There were orders to stop the disaster and investigate the cause, but those seemingly insane humanoid individuals were unusually persistent.

It showed no reaction to interception or even attacks.

He was simply seeking death.

When trapped and unable to move, they will desperately pound their heads on the ground until they are bleeding and their brains are splattered.

The number of such individuals, as revealed by facial information collection, is far greater than imagined.

Even on their first day on the island, some exploration teams encountered such individuals, whose appearances were completely in line with human standards and could even be described as stunning.

Moreover, it possesses a certain level of intelligence and shows no aggressive tendencies. Many inexperienced teams have taken it back to their camps as a normal survivor.

Fortunately, he was identified by a supernatural cultivator with the ability to detect things and was imprisoned.

They offered no resistance throughout the entire process, which led them to initially label them as non-aggressive, neutral monsters.

Based on their ability to possess intelligence remarkably similar to that of humans, we were even able to glean a great deal of previously unknown information about the city from these monsters.

Zhou Wu, who received the relevant report at the time, did not care about it at all.

After all, there are quite a few demons in China that can communicate with humans. He even heard that some special operations bureau districts have recruited vengeful ghosts and mountain spirits that have developed their own consciousness.

They simply assumed that monsters they could interact with had appeared in the Kingdom of Yinghua.

But just as the exploration plan was proceeding as scheduled and making steady progress, the changeable weather at sea brought a sudden downpour to the island nation.

Dark clouds covered the sky, and the sun was also half-hidden, about to set.

Without warning, several individuals, identified as Tomie Kawakami, were imprisoned in a cabin on the ship and, upon questioning, began to scream incessantly.

Then, without giving anyone time to react, it began frantically ramming its body and head against the hard metal wall of Jianchuan.

Before long, several people had collapsed to the ground, no longer breathing.

Upon receiving the report, the investigators quickly entered the room, attempting to use interrogation equipment to restrain the other party's movements.

However, the humanoid individuals that originally appeared weak and non-aggressive actually possessed extraordinary strength in their struggles.

It wasn't until later, when the superhumans on board received the news and rushed down, that they were able to subdue the other party and handcuff them to the interrogation chair.

Even so, Kawakami Tomie, whose movements were restricted, showed no signs of stopping.

The immense force struggled, even causing the steel cables binding their hands and feet to dig into their flesh and scrape against their bones.

The large amount of blood flowing down triggered the monster's bizarre regeneration and splitting properties.

The reborn individuals also inherited that madness, constantly banging against the wall in an attempt to commit suicide.

It took a lot of effort to calm things down.

Moreover, at the same time this report was released, another urgent intelligence report concerning urban exploration also appeared on Zhou Wu's desk.

Initially, the "Tomie" group, whose characteristics, habits, and data records had been investigated, was tentatively classified as a neutral monster.

During the exploration process, a treatment approach of marking but not eradicating was adopted.

But these neutral monsters, which were originally just wandering around the city, suddenly went berserk and rushed frantically towards anything that could kill them.

This directly and indirectly triggered riots in several cities under exploration, and for the first time revealed its terrifying scale.

Zhou Wu also sensed that something was wrong and hurriedly stopped the exploration.

He then called up a group of his old friends and gathered them in front of the screen to discuss countermeasures.

However, more than ten minutes passed without any result.

As time went on, the situation became increasingly unpredictable.

Under Zhou Wu's watchful gaze, the clearer images show groups of bizarre, twisted fish swimming on the surface of the water, tangled and intertwined.

A bad feeling crept into my heart.

Clearly, we can no longer just stand by and watch the situation unfold.

He waved his hand, summoning the operator nearby and giving instructions:

"First, bring up the sonar images and investigate the surrounding seabed."

"Yes! Chief!"

The operator, having received the order, responded and hurried to retrieve the relevant information. Zhou Wu, his eyes fixed on the increasingly distorted and grotesque image before him, muttered worriedly to himself:
"...Hopefully these things will remain as gentle as they were at the beginning...otherwise, this quantity...will be troublesome~"

While saying this, her gaze shifted between the "Tragic Corpse Cycle" diary, which had been copied and circulated multiple times, and the screen on the table beside her.

The strange, contagious, and distorted feeling, and the chaos based on mental mutation, are quite similar between the two.

Although they didn't say it aloud, they all silently connected the two in their hearts, and each of them frowned and pondered.

Soon, while we were waiting, the secondary screen lit up, displaying a sonar reflection image combined with the monitoring data from the ship's hull.

This also made everyone standing in front of the screen turn their heads to look over.

After only a short while, they couldn't help but frown.

On the sonar chart, apart from the green seabed reefs on the outer perimeter, the seawater on both sides of the ship was covered with densely packed, pale blue, arc-shaped objects.

Having sailed at sea for a long time, the group naturally understood the principles of sonar detection.

These pale, arc-shaped creatures are marine life swimming in the water. They are commonly seen during normal navigation, but their current density…

"It looks like we're surrounded."

Beside Zhou Wu, a middle-aged official wearing glasses squinted and sighed, his tone somewhat heavy.

"Xiao Wang, zoom in on the underwater image at the bottom of the ship... We've probably been tricked."

As soon as the order was given, a response immediately came from one of the technicians nearby.

Soon, several blurry underwater images with bubbles sliding by quickly overlaid on the sonar images.

These are observation cameras located on both sides of the bottom of this huge warship.

When the image came into focus and became clear, it immediately drew gasps from the crowd.

"Hiss... What is this? A barnacle?"

"This isn't good..."

A series of low gasps filled with horror rang out.

On the smooth, semi-circular bottom of the ship, there was a raised area that looked like a pustules or ulcers.

The densely packed creatures swayed.

In fact, if a ship stays at sea long enough without proper protection, it is quite normal for barnacles to infest its hull.

This was not enough to surprise the old man who had spent most of his life adrift at sea.

What surprised them was not the barnacles, but their current form.

In the slightly murky seawater, close to the bottom of the ship's armor, clusters of pale white protrusions of varying sizes, ranging from the size of a human head to the size of a hand, were embedded.

In the surrounding seawater, there were also schools of fish of various sizes swimming around.

Just then, a colorful sea fish swam past the bottom of the boat, which was covered with barnacles.

Suddenly, he was bound by those dense, hard, white, blocky things that were protruding from the hole.

After struggling for a moment, it was quickly torn to pieces and dragged back into the barnacle pouch.

Flexible and powerful, unlike the soft tentacles of marine life, they were pairs of fair and slender arms.

As prey swam by, they emerged one by one from the pale, skeleton-like pouches to hunt.

Densely packed with creatures of varying sizes, they swayed in the sea with the current, resembling a cluster of human limbs growing from the bottom of a ship.

Just then, a sea turtle appeared out of nowhere and swam over, opening its mouth to bite the barnacle that reached out the human hand.

As some dark red blood splattered in the water, he tore off a piece and swallowed it.

Then, very quickly, under the wide-eyed gaze of the people in front of the screen, the sea turtle convulsed, vomiting clumps of flesh and blood from its beak, and then plummeted into the deep sea.

A moment later, the water stirred, and another "turtle" swam over, continuing to bite at the eerie barnacles resembling human hands at the bottom of the boat.

As the sea turtle flapped its body, a delicate human face appeared vividly on its brownish-green shell.

A pair of eyes rolled around, eventually meeting the gaze of the camera watching the group.

"We're in big trouble..."

In the midst of muttering to himself, in the deep, dark gloom where the ship's hull lights couldn't reach, one after another twisting "creatures" stirred the seawater and entered the frame.

You can vaguely make out the original species of these creatures, but their current jagged appearance only highlights one word: absurd.

distortion.

It's like the most primal malice from the deep sea.

Looking at those limbs growing in clusters, organs piled up, and bones turning.

Even the heads of some large fish have anemone-like arms and bones that bloom like flower stamens.

As he watched, Zhou Wu felt a sharp pain in his head, and he frowned and turned his gaze slightly away.

After a while, he turned to the liaison officer beside him and gave instructions.

"Mobilize the remaining Special Operations Bureau personnel and underwater drones on board to quickly clear out the fish near the ship's side and activate the fleet before they swell."

As he spoke, Zhou Wu's deeply lined, dark face turned toward the porthole that led out of the cabin, reflecting the shimmering sea under the night sky.

Looking at the calm, unperturbed sea, his tone was grave.

"The fleet must get away from this area. The cruisers have thick armor, and our supply ships may not be able to withstand it... Subsequent supply deliveries and personnel evacuations will be carried out via all-air routes."

He issued orders in a clear and organized manner.

After he finished speaking, the communications officer went to carry out the order, and then he and the group of officials behind him walked to a communication station that was empty, unlike the other places.

Zhou Wu, with a serious expression, entered a complex string of numbers on the combination lock on the screen.

Following a series of prompts and confirmation commands, the gleaming metallic workbench cracked open in the center, its edges extending outwards.

A red button without any markings slowly rises.

Seeing all this, the others standing behind him seemed to have anticipated what he was going to do, and they all remained silent with serious expressions.

After taking the button out and placing it beside him, Zhou Wu sat down in the chair and stopped moving.

Staring at the various data images displayed on the screen in front of him, he thought for a while before turning his head again to instruct the liaison officer beside him:

"Connect to the public channel and link up with the United States fleet."

"...I don't think their situation is good either. Nowadays, it's not a question of whether or not to compete."

(End of this chapter)