True Apocalypse Game

"A ship! There's a ship in the Fog Sea!"

The lookout shouted.

But even without his warning, everyone on the deck of the Sail Warship had already seen the massive black ship emerging from the dense fog.

'What is that? Could it be a reflection, an image formed by the refraction of light?'

Shen Feng frowned, his gaze fixed on the massive black ship.

He quickly realized it wasn't a reflection at all. The great ship, gradually sailing out of the dense fog, was several times larger than their Sail Warship.

Furthermore, judging by the "great ship's" shape and structure, it was clearly an aircraft carrier!

Shen Feng snatched a pair of binoculars and looked toward the vessel. On the aircraft carrier's deck, he could see numerous fighter jets parked, and even the silhouettes of people moving about!

'What in the world is going on!?'

'Can there still be an active carrier fleet!?'

In the next instant, another warship emerged from the fog. This time, it was unmistakably a guided-missile destroyer. Even the hull number on the destroyer was perfectly clear.

The entire crew of the Sail Warship now witnessed this unbelievable sight. But just then, right before their eyes, the aircraft carrier and the destroyer beside it suddenly began to blur. Then, like a wisp of smoke, they rapidly dissipated over the sea, vanishing without a trace.

It was as if they had never been there at all.

The scene left Shen Feng dumbfounded, momentarily at a loss to explain the bizarre phenomenon.

'If it was a mirage caused by light refraction, that would mean an aircraft carrier and a destroyer like that, complete with crew, actually exist somewhere in the world right now.'

'But that's obviously impossible.'

'Besides, I clearly saw through my binoculars that the aircraft carrier and destroyer were cutting through the waves. Even now, there are still wakes from the two warships at the edge of the fog.'

'This is simply unbelievable!'

Shen Feng's shock was immense. Beside him, Witch Tower's eyes were glazed over as she murmured, "It's... the Mother of All Ships from the epics, the sailing iron island... To think the Mother of All Ships actually exists in this world... But why did it disappear?"

She directed the last sentence at Shen Feng.

In her eyes, only an Undersea Person as mysterious as Shen Feng could possibly understand all these mysteries.

Shen Feng looked at the fading wakes ahead and said:

"We'll know once we go in and see for ourselves... Reduce speed. Proceed with caution!"

After that eerie scene, the Sail Warship, which had been filled with laughter and cheers from tuna fishing just moments before, fell silent. The crew quickly reduced speed and slowly sailed toward the unknown, misty region ahead.

Shen Feng walked to the main mast and looked at Cherry, who was tied there. His eyes flickered slightly as his Silicon-Based Brain emitted hypnotic brainwaves. He spoke slowly and rhythmically, each word deliberate:

"We are about to enter the fog. Finding the Purification Church's sanctuary now depends entirely on you. I hope you can lead us to receive the final purification."

Cherry, still weak and under hypnosis, immediately perked up at his words and said to Shen Feng:

"Rest assured, I will definitely lead everyone to the sanctuary! The dense fog throughout the Fog Sea follows its own patterns. They are a series of circular cyclones. We must travel along the gaps between the cyclones. The smell of the seawater inside also differs. These scents are our guiding beacons... Please, could you untie my ropes."

Shen Feng casually untied the ropes binding Cherry. She immediately stumbled toward the bow of the ship.

Witch Tower moved to stop Cherry but was waved off by Shen Feng.

Cherry was isolated and helpless, and the environment was filled with the white noise of the waves and swirling fog. Shen Feng was confident she couldn't possibly break free from his hypnosis.

Otherwise, his reputation as the Commander of the Salvation Army would be for nothing.

Cherry had already reached the bow. She pulled a palm-sized black box from her somewhat tattered pocket, opened it, and after a glance, said:

"This is a treasure of the Purification Church. With this, we can find the location of the Fog Sea sanctuary. The closer we get to the sanctuary, the more precise it becomes."

Shen Feng looked up and saw that what Cherry held was, in fact, a simple Signal Tracker. It looked to be solar-powered, fitted with a waterproof casing, and capable of passively receiving a specific signal.

Apparently, finding this Fog Sea sanctuary required navigating using the spiral cyclones and scent identification within the fog, with final positioning done by the Signal Tracker.

'Can't kill this Cherry just yet.'

The Sail Warship had now reached the very edge of the Fog Sea. Its bow slammed into a fog wall that felt almost solid, and the ship plunged completely into the Fog Sea.

The thick fog rolled in, and the view, which had stretched to the horizon, instantly shrank to a mere few dozen meters.

Every sailor on board was on edge, warily watching the surrounding sea and fog.

The most loyal sailors, having been trained by Shen Feng over the past few days, now knew how to operate the ship's cannons and heavy machine guns. They stood at their posts, holding their breath, ready to attack any sudden danger.

Nothing happened.

Aside from the seawater and sea fog, there were no ghost ship apparitions or sea monsters. It seemed to be just an ordinary stretch of sea with a bit more fog.

After they had advanced for more than ten minutes with nothing changing, the crew's frayed nerves finally began to settle.

At Shen Feng's direction, Cherry had been given a bottle of fine wine and a feast of sashimi. Having quickly replenished her strength, she was in much higher spirits and began acting as the ship's temporary navigator.

The crew now discovered that the legendary Fog Sea—said to be a perilous labyrinth from which no one returned—actually had its own pattern to the dispersing fog.

Between bands of fog so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, there were corridors of thinner mist, ranging from tens to hundreds of meters wide, that a ship could pass through.

Shen Feng had encountered such pathways, which followed a Fibonacci curve, before in the Death Forest of the post-nuclear apocalyptic wasteland, so it was nothing new to him.

The Sail Warship navigated through the mist, aided by the light breeze in the foggy area, its auxiliary power system, and the sailors' oars.

The foggy region was astonishingly vast. They sailed for two full days, and the surrounding environment did not change in the slightest.

There was no light from the stars or moon here, and at night, it was utterly pitch-black.

Fortunately, the wind was extremely light and the current slow. With Cherry leading the way, there was no risk of waking up to find the ship had drifted off course.

On the evening of the third day, the Sail Warship entered a sea region with a strong odor. Cherry, sniffing the air excitedly, said to Shen Feng:

"Captain, we're approaching the area of the sanctuary! This is the unique smell!"

As she spoke, she glanced at the Signal Tracker in her hand. A small red light on it had begun to flash slowly, about once every ten seconds, clearly having detected a signal.

It was pitch-black all around. Shen Feng took a sniff and a puzzled expression crossed his face.

The surrounding air was filled with the cloying, sweet smell of blood, as well as the acrid stench of oil, like the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels such as diesel or gasoline.

And even... the scent of a World Beast!

Back when he fought the World Beast in San Francisco, the gale blowing from the sea had carried this same foul odor, like a mixture of ink and blood.

'Why would that smell be here?'

Just as Shen Feng was pondering this, a crimson light suddenly flared up in the dark Fog Sea, off the Sail Warship's starboard bow!

In the next instant, everything around them seemed to be bathed in a soft glow, revealing their surroundings with perfect clarity.

The fog that had been swirling around them seemed to vanish in a flash, leaving only a dusky sea surface, indistinct as if at twilight or dawn.

Then, with a deafening RUMBLE, a mountain-like monster erupted from the sea thousands of meters ahead, only to crash heavily back into the water!

It was a World Beast!

Below the World Beast was a crimson, squid-shaped War Armor thousands of meters tall. It extended hundreds of massive mechanical tentacles, locking them firmly onto the World Beast's body. Then, with a colossal drill mounted on its head—hundreds of meters in diameter—it began to bore into the creature's flesh!

Sparks flew like lightning as the World Beast let out a frenzied roar. Green blood gushed out like a fountain. Thick, black smoke, from the friction of overheating bearing lubricants, billowed from the crimson squid War Armor. On its back, a massive white numerical code and Chinese characters were exceptionally conspicuous:

Bloody Kraken 17.