Chapter 2: First Devouring: An Enemy Hulk

Lin Wan wiped the sea spray from her face. Her fingertips touched the metal deck, the bone-chilling cold instantly piercing down to her marrow. Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs, the frantic thudding drowning out the waves slamming against the hull. The roar from the abyss still echoed in her ears like a heavy hammer striking her nerves, a stark warning that beneath this calm surface lay a crushing, omnipotent force.

"Stop daydreaming." Mozi's chilling voice echoed directly inside her mind, laced with teeth-gritting disgust. "The hull has already developed micro-cracks. If we don't move now, we'll both become brand-new exhibits in an oceanic scrapyard, serving as a playground for mutant fish."

Lin Wan took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the urge to vomit, and compelled herself to calm down. In the distance, the originally azure sky was rapidly swallowed by dark clouds, casting an oppressive gloom. Undercurrents surged beneath the surface, where black whirlpools spun in the deep. Qin Luo stood on the opposite side of the deck with his arms crossed, his black tactical gear snapping sharply in the marine gale. His gaze swept the surroundings like a hawk, and the short blade at his waist twitched restlessly, its edge slicing through the air with a faint whistling sound as it sensed the pervasive danger.

"Bearing southeast, three nautical miles out," Qin Luo spoke abruptly, his voice low yet exceptionally clear, cutting straight through the roar of the wind. "It's a patrol boat from the Red Tide Gang. They've smelled the metal corrosion and the scent of blood."

Lin Wan's heart tightened. The churning in her stomach had barely subsided when a fresh wave of chill washed over her. The Red Tide Gang was a notorious pirate syndicate in the Wasteland Sea, renowned for their cruelty and greed, leaving behind nothing but ruins and white bones in their wake. Steward Zhao had exiled her, but he would never allow her to survive in the Wasteland Sea for long—especially since the family secrets tied to this vessel were enough to collapse the entire corporate conglomerate system.

"Mozi," Lin Wan asked in her consciousness, keeping her voice as steady as possible. "How long can the space folding last? Where do we need to hide?"

"As long as we don't launch an attack or generate violent energy fluctuations, I can fold the hull into the 'Imaginary Space.' To the outside world, it will look like nothing more than a piece of sunken scrap metal," Mozi gave a haughty huff, dripping with superiority. "But watch out—veteran pirates can sense spatial distortion. Give me ten minutes to adjust the folding frequency."

Lin Wan issued commands swiftly. Her fingertips danced across the console, and the engine roar cut off abruptly. The warship seemed to lose its life, plunging into dead silence. She pressed a red button, and an invisible ripple expanded at the speed of light.

The sea surface turned eerie in an instant. The rolling ripples suddenly froze, and that battered destroyer seemed as though it had been half-erased by an eraser, leaving only a few twisted masts exposed above the water while the rest submerged, appearing to have completely sunk and become a part of the seabed.

In the distance, three pirate speedboats daubed with blood-red stripes split the waves as they closed in rapidly, kicking up thousands of whitecaps at their sterns. The lead captain was a one-eyed man whose face was marred by scars winding like centipedes. He tilted his head, his single remaining turbid eyeball staring fixedly at the masts while his throat emitted a hissing laugh like a wheezing old bellows.

"We've got cargo," the one-eyed man barked coarsely, his spittle clearly visible beneath the gloomy sky. "Nobody make a move until I haul that piece of junk up and see what kind of treasure is hidden inside."

Lin Wan held her breath, staring fixedly at the energy readings on the console. The space folding barrier flickered slightly, like a venomous spider lurking in the shadows waiting for its prey to approach. Qin Luo stood in the shadows, his finger lightly tapping the trigger, his knuckles turning white, his gaze as cold and sharp as ice, ready to deal with any emergency at a moment's notice.

"They're coming," Qin Luo muttered, his voice dropped extremely low.

"Wait two more seconds," Mozi's voice carried a trace of hard-to-detect excitement, the delight of a predator watching its prey step into a trap. "I want to make their collision even sweeter. This reef here... hmm, the position is just right."

The one-eyed man ordered the speedboat to charge forward at full throttle. Just as the bow was about to touch the "wreckage," an invisible vortex suddenly surged from beneath the surface. It wasn't water flow, but a gravity trap brought on by the space folding, swallowing all kinetic energy around it.

"Something's wrong! Brake!" the one-eyed man screamed in terror, the muscles on his face twitching violently.

But it was too late. The three pirate boats were caught by an invisible giant hand, violently knocked off course, and sent crashing straight toward an unmarked reef area ahead. The reefs towered, their surfaces covered in black seaweed and hard as iron, flashing with an eerie green light in the dim illumination.

Boom!

A violent explosion rocked the surface of the sea, sparks flying everywhere as debris streaked across the night sky like shooting stars. Two of the speedboats disintegrated on the spot, the screech of twisting metal terribly harsh as fragments scattered in the air. The third barely maintained its integrity, but its bow was severely deformed, its engine spewing billowing black smoke while it lay skewed and stranded among the reefs, emitting a teeth-setting grinding sound.

"The good show is beginning," Mozi said coldly. "Devouring protocol initiated."

Lin Wan felt a massive suction force pull from the bottom of the ship, and the entire vessel trembled slightly. Those shattered metals, burning wreckage, and even residual fuel were drawn by the traction of the Imaginary Space into streams of light that poured directly into the interior of the warship.

"Ding! High-energy matter detected: reinforced steel, corrosion-resistant alloy, partial spirit slag. Parsing... Evolution conditions met."

Following the system prompt, the scene before Lin Wan's eyes underwent a radical transformation. The surface of the originally rusted hull peeled away, replaced by a novel material emitting a pale blue sheen. The gloss was profound and mysterious, seemingly capable of swallowing light, making the entire ship look as though it had been condensed from the dead of night.

"Spirit Alloy..." Lin Wan murmured, her fingertips brushing against the railing as she felt a warm, powerful force pulsing within the hull, steady as a heartbeat.

"This is the first-stage ascension," Mozi explained, satisfaction dripping from its tone. "Having devoured the enemy ship's wreckage, the hull hardness has increased by thirty percent, and the internal storage space has expanded tenfold. More importantly..."

"More importantly?" Lin Wan prompted.

"Weapon derivation," Mozi paused, seemingly weighing its phrasing. "An ancient spark remnant was detected within the devoured material. Randomly generated: 'Flame Magma Cannon,' one unit. Mount position: Starboard side."

Lin Wan watched the rapidly bulging area on the deck as the originally flat metal plates began to reorganize, complex mechanical structures extending layer by layer with the crisp and pleasant sound of gears locking together. Ultimately, these structures converged into a menacing giant ship-cannon with a red-glowing muzzle. Heat waves visible to the naked eye coiled around the barrel, the air twisting and deforming under the intense heat and radiating a scorching aura.

"This cannon," Mozi's tone carried a hint of smugness, "is enough to blast a cruiser to the bottom."

Just then, that surviving pirate boat had not yet been completely devoured. The one-eyed man sprawled over the deformed bow, staring in utter despair at the giant muzzle gradually closing in on him. He raised his hands in an attempt to beg for mercy, but his voice was drowned out by terror, leaving only a faint whimper in his throat.

Lin Wan ignored his pleas for mercy. She stared coldly at the target-locking system on the console as a red frame precisely bracketed the pirate boat, the lock-on signal flashing across the screen.

"Qin Luo," she said, her voice calm to the point of ruthlessness. "Take over fire control."

Qin Luo stepped onto the deck, his movements fluid and his footsteps landing with such lightness that they made not the slightest sound. He uttered no extra words, his fingers flying across the keyboard to adjust the firing angle. His gaze was focused and cool, as if he were facing not an enemy, but a complex mathematical model where every parameter meant life or death.

"Distance eight hundred meters, wind speed minus two knots," Qin Luo reeled off the data at a steady pace. "Recommend a lead of thirty yards."

"Your call," Lin Wan transferred the control authority entirely, leaning back slightly as she trusted her partner's judgment.

Qin Luo pressed the launch key.

Boom!

A deafening roar shook the sea surface, the shockwave rippling outward and pressing the surrounding water downward into a depression. An eye-piercing beam of red light shot forth from the Flame Magma Cannon, instantly tearing through the air accompanied by the crackle of electricity. The beam struck the center of the surviving pirate boat with pinpoint accuracy, the intense heat instantly melting the hull structure.

There was no explosion, only the shrill shriek of metal being abraded by extreme heat. That boat twisted and melted in the blue light, ultimately turning into molten iron and sinking into the sea. The entire process took less than three seconds—clean and decisive.

The sea surface returned to calm, leaving only the warship undergoing self-repair and the cooling giant cannon on the deck, its muzzle still trailing wisps of blue smoke.

Lin Wan let out a long breath, looking at Qin Luo. He stood with his back to her, his shoulder lines tense as he seemingly digested the shock brought by that single strike, his fingers still trembling slightly—the physiological reaction following extreme focus.

"Not bad," Qin Luo turned around, his gaze holding a fraction less coldness and a fraction more appraisal. "This cannon has even more firepower than I imagined."

"Thanks for the praise," Lin Wan's lips curled into a faint smile, but her internal alarm bells were ringing wildly. As satisfying as that strike was, the commotion had simply been too massive; in the Wasteland Sea, silence was the primary rule of survival.

"Mozi," she asked in her consciousness, "how far will the radar waves from that artillery strike spread?"

"Hmph, don't get cocky," Mozi retorted with a tongue-lashing. "The energy fluctuations of a spirit cannon are very difficult to completely mask in the deep sea, especially under that kind of high-intensity firing. I estimate that within a fifty-nautical-mile radius, any vessel equipped with high-energy detectors will have caught the peak."

Lin Wan's expression shifted slightly. Fifty nautical miles meant that aside from pirates, other factions would take notice.

"Such as?"

"Such as those eyes lurking in the shadows," Mozi pointed toward the distance, its tone turning serious. "Such as the Navy."

The very instant Mozi's words fell, a long, piercing steam horn sounded from the horizon. The horn pierced through the sea fog, carrying an unquestionable majesty as it rolled in from the northeast, sounding like a warning from the future.

Immediately following that, three massive grey silhouettes loomed on the horizon. The hulls were immaculate, flashing with a cold glint in the sunlight—none other than a Grand Federation Navy patrol fleet. The colossal silhouettes cast their shadows over the area, bringing a crushing sense of oppression.

Qin Luo's brows locked tight as he walked to the porthole, watching the approaching fleet in the distance. He said in a low voice, "It's the 'Thunder'-class destroyer. They won't let this slide."

Lin Wan clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white. She glanced at the forged document Steward Zhao had left behind, then looked back at the command authority in her hands that was gradually solidifying. Fleeing might no longer be as simple as just staying alive; it was about proving, in plain sight of everyone, what kind of razor-sharp edge this belittled wreck truly harbored.

"Get ready to welcome our 'guests,'" Lin Wan said calmly, not a shred of panic in her voice. "Mozi, engage full-band acoustic silence. Qin Luo, retract the ship-cannon and disguise it as combat damage. We're going to make that fleet think we're nothing more than a bunch of helpless refugees."

She needed to buy time, needed to exploit the rules, and above all, needed to make those high-and-mighty navy forces understand that some things, once they swallowed the stars, could no longer be easily controlled.