The sailors' lounge door was locked, but that wasn't a problem for Chen Xiao. He kicked it open with a loud bang, sending the cabin door flying.
Chen Xiao then strode inside, but before he had taken a step, he felt two gusts of wind rushing towards him from both sides. He immediately dodged backward, grabbed the wrist of one fist, and simultaneously used his telekinesis to deflect the attack from the other side.
Bang!
But then he saw a sailor next to him, holding a frying pan, cry out in pain and stagger backward; the pan had shattered into three pieces. The other man, whose wrist Chen Xiao was holding, was a burly white man dressed in crew clothes.
"Stop! It's me!"
Nie Feng strode in.
There were more than a dozen crew members and sailors in the lounge, a number that exceeded Nie Feng's estimate, which made him secretly delighted.
"captain!"
The crew members were overjoyed, but Nie Feng asked in a deep voice, "What exactly happened?"
The white crew member whose wrist Chen Xiao had gripped immediately shouted in dissatisfaction, "Captain! The first mate has mutinied! The first mate has colluded with the pirates and locked us up here!"
The other sailors around them started to clamor. Nie Feng's face darkened, and he shouted, "Quiet down! No noise! Where did these pirates come from?!"
The white crew member had already been released by Chen Xiao, but his wrist was bruised. He grunted and said angrily, "They are pirates! More than a hundred of them! They boarded the ship! The first mate personally led a group here an hour ago and brought us all under control."
"More than a hundred people? How did more than a hundred people manage to sneak onto the ship!" Nie Feng's face turned even uglier.
However, the details of the situation were unknown to the detained crew members.
Nie Feng sighed, then mustered his courage and roared, "Alright! Stop arguing! Come with me and get your weapons and let's fucking get to work! This is my ship! I won't let anyone else take it! And what about the other brothers on board? Are they all being held hostage? What about the engine room crew?"
"I heard they've been locked up in the cargo hold," a sailor in the crowd said.
"How did you know?" Nie Feng stared at the sailor.
"I... I just heard people talking at the door. They seemed to be saying something like those guys locked in the cargo hold are probably the ones who will die the fastest..." The sailor's face looked rather grim.
"The cargo hold at the bottom of the ship? Tell me its location," Chen Xiao suddenly asked.
"What?" Nie Feng looked at Chen Xiao.
“We don’t have enough time,” Chen Xiao said quickly. “You take these men to get the weapons, then go to the cockpit and take control of the ship’s brain. Also, take back the communications room and send signals out! I’ll go to the bottom of the ship to stop those guys from flooding and sinking it! See if we can rescue the people trapped in the cargo hold.”
“That’s right. We don’t have enough time or manpower, so we have to split up.” Li Wenjing said quickly, then did some quick calculations: “We must take back the main control room! Once those guys release the water, only the main control room can operate the valves in the drainage tanks! Also, the ship’s emergency drainage system can only be operated from the main control room! We must be prepared for both scenarios!”
"But...you're all alone?" Nie Feng looked at Chen Xiao.
"Just tell me the location," Chen Xiao said calmly. "I can't guarantee success, but I can at least stall them for a while. You'd better regain control of the ship as soon as possible."
Nie Feng wasn't one to dwell on things. He'd been furious when the kid kicked him to distract the guards, but then the kid vanished like a ghost, reappearing behind the two guards! Even though it was brightly lit, Nie Feng, sprawled on the ground, was still terrified!
This kid... could he be an evil spirit?!
Nie Feng quickly described the location of the cargo holds at the bottom of the ship. Fortunately, he had just roughly drawn the location of several cargo holds at the bottom of the ship and explained it to Chen Xiao, so Chen Xiao had a general idea.
"You guys go to the main control room in the cockpit... I'll go to the bottom of the ship." Chen Xiao said without hesitation, "You'd better hurry up, so that if things get out of control, you can still direct the evacuation." With that, Chen Xiao strode out.
"you……"
Li Wenjing suddenly caught up with Chen Xiao and grabbed his arm. A strange glint flashed in his eyes: "Young man, why won't you let us go to the bottom of the ship? Why don't you go to the bridge with the captain?"
"Those guys in the bilge compartments... you can't handle them." Chen Xiao gave a wry smile and casually adjusted his glasses.
The radar detectors have detected approximately four individuals with superpowers near the drainage tanks in the bow of the ship. Now that they've been confirmed as having superpowers, sending a group of sailors who only know how to fight is pointless. Ordinary people are powerless against those with superpowers.
Although Chen Xiao's detector is powerful, it is ultimately designed for users with superpowers. The radar detection device can only detect users with superpowers and cannot detect ordinary people. Moreover, even the infrared vision function and thermal imaging function have distance limitations.
Chen Xiao glanced at Li Wenjing, sighed, and said in a low voice, "I'll give it a try... but I'm not sure I can stop them. You... if you really can't, make sure to take Miss Sato with you when you organize the evacuation of the people on the ship! If she dies, I'll be in big trouble."
He paused, then added, "And my translator, Ms. Zhang Xiaotao, is Chinese and also my friend. Please make sure you bring her along!"
Damn it, five B-level ability users! Chen Xiao wasn't confident he could handle them!
If the other side is determined to sink this ship… five B-level ability users are more than enough! Chen Xiao was so audacious as to think he could take on five B-level ability users single-handedly, but he was confident he could cause some trouble and buy some time. Let these guys regain control of the ship and activate the drainage system… even if sinking is unavoidable, at least it will buy some time to evacuate the passengers.
There were seven or eight hundred people on board, after all. Chen Xiao didn't care how many Japanese died, except for Sato. However, many of the passengers were Chinese.
Regardless of how Li Wenjing and Captain Nie Feng led their crew to reclaim the bridge... at least Chen Xiao's detector showed that all the superhumans on board were in the drainage tanks at the bow. There shouldn't be any superhumans in the main bridge at the stern.
Li Wenjing seems quite capable, and Nie Feng is on this ship; with his men, they should be able to accomplish something.
We followed the route Nie Feng had indicated and descended to the bottom of the ship. Passing through the engine room, we were again greeted by that strong, unpleasant smell of engine oil.
The bottom of the ship was exceptionally damp, carrying a smell reminiscent of salted fish. Chen Xiao quickly jogged through the passageways between the cabins. He was quite decisive; when he encountered a locked cabin door, he simply kicked it open.
They slowed down when they reached almost the bow of the ship and saw through their glasses that several superhumans were very close ahead.
Chen Xiao wasn't worried that the other party would detect him... The detector Phoenix gave him had a shielding function, and it was said to be a very new model with powerful functions.
The buoyancy tanks at the bottom of the ship were designed and built during the ship's initial construction to prevent accidents at sea. If the hull were to crack and leak, water could seep into the buoyancy tanks, which could remain sealed by simply closing the hatches.
However, the capacity to withstand water is ultimately limited. There are a total of twelve drainage tanks on the ship. If more than nine drainage tanks are filled with water, it will exceed the limit that the ship can withstand.
Generally speaking, unless there is another war or something similar, this fully modern ship would not be afraid of even hitting an iceberg like the Titanic.
Chen Xiao quietly approached the bow of the boat and could faintly hear the sound of rushing water from afar.
His heart sank: were these guys already in a wrecked ship?
As he cautiously approached from behind, hiding behind rows of oil-filled pipes, he spotted four figures standing outside the massive hatch beneath the No. 1 bleaching tank at the bow.