The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

The piercing ringing in his ears still raged in his mind, and the air was filled with the acrid white smoke and burnt smell of the stun grenade explosion. The once magnificent auction hall had instantly become a blood-soaked slaughterhouse.

The moment the white light exploded, Li Haotian closed his eyes and, relying on muscle memory, rolled to the side, hiding behind a thick, load-bearing pillar. Just as he landed, several beams of eerie blue light tore through the white smoke, grazing his clothes and striking the priceless mahogany table in front of him.

There were no gunshots, no ricochets, only a chilling hissing sound and an instant surge of intense heat. The wooden table, as hard as iron, instantly carbonized and disintegrated where the beam struck, turning into a pool of black ash that fell onto the expensive carpet, emitting acrid white smoke.

"Energy weapon..." Li Haotian's pupils shrank sharply, and his eyes instantly turned icy cold.

This is no ordinary gang fight, nor is it a typical security operation. Even regular armies rarely use this level of individual equipment. Just how much has the Divine Grace Trust hidden behind this so-called "auction"?

"Boss, these bastards' firepower is insane!" Liu Hu's voice boomed through the headset, accompanied by heavy breathing and the roar of automatic rifle fire. "That damn beam can burn through body armor! My arm guards were almost ruined!"

"Don't linger, the target is that girl!" Li Haotian shouted, his fingers reaching for his waist. He gripped the tactical knife, reforged from a special alloy, and the cold metallic touch quickly brought him back to focus on the battle.

He leaped from behind the pillar like a cheetah. In the center of the hall, security personnel in black tactical uniforms were rapidly establishing a defensive line. They were expressionless, their helmets unmarked, and the guns in their hands emitted a chilling, deathly gleam—a cold light born from the fusion of technology and violence.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several blue beams of light intertwined to form a deadly net, blocking Li Haotian's path. Instead of taking the hit head-on, Li Haotian used the wall paintings as footholds to forcefully change direction, his body tracing a strange arc in mid-air to avoid the deadly crossfire. At the same time, a black bolt of lightning silently shot out from the shadows beneath his collar.

Little Black!

This normally languid creature now displayed the ferocity of a apex predator. It transformed into a blur, instantly lunging at the security guard on the far left. The gunman didn't even have time to turn his weapon before the little black creature's sharp claws tore through the tactical neck brace.

Blood gushed out, and the gunman staggered and fell to the ground.

"Awooo—!" Little Black let out a low roar, using the recoil to tumble in the air before disappearing into the chaotic shadows, reaping the lone enemies like a ghost.

The security team's formation stirred slightly. Li Haotian seized this fleeting opportunity, pushing off with his feet, causing the marble floor tiles to crack instantly. He shot through the blockade like an arrow, heading straight for the vacuum cabinet on the auction stage.

That was the only focus of attention, and also the source of all the chaos.

"Boom!"

Just as Li Haotian was only a dozen meters away from the vacuum chamber, a violent tremor suddenly came from the deck beneath his feet. This tremor did not come from an explosion, but rather from some kind of colossal object from the deep sea slamming into the hull. The entire cruise ship emitted a teeth-grinding metallic twisting sound, and the crystal chandeliers overhead swayed wildly, scattering countless tiny specks of light.

The crowd in the hall screamed in terror, and the security personnel who lost their balance fell to the ground. Li Haotian used the momentum to duck, brace himself with one hand on the ground, and slid away, dodging several stray energy blasts, until he reached the vacuum cabinet.

The liquid in the cabinet was shaking violently from the earlier tremor, and the girl bound inside was also awakened. She slowly raised her head, her pale face pressed against the specially made glass wall. Her unusual silver eyes did not show any relief at surviving the ordeal, but were instead filled with a despair that had seen through life and death.

Without uttering a single word, Li Haotian's alloy blade emitted a faint, dark red light, a sign that the built-in high-energy vibration device was activating.

"Snap!"

This single strike was enough to cut through gold and jade. The seemingly indestructible bulletproof glass was instantly cracked by the vibrations of the blade, and then shattered with a deafening roar.

A large amount of blue preservative liquid gushed out like a burst dam, carrying a pungent chemical smell. The girl, losing the buoyancy of the liquid, collapsed limply. Li Haotian reached out his left hand, ready to pull her up and carry her away from this horrible place.

However, the moment his fingertips touched the girl's arm, she suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Her hands were as cold as a corpse pulled from the deep sea, yet her strength was astonishing. She slowly raised her head, and something seemed to come alive deep within her silver pupils, countless fine black lines darting wildly across the whites of her eyes.

"Don't come any closer..."

The girl opened her mouth, her voice dry and hoarse. But it wasn't just her voice.

Li Haotian froze, an unprecedented chill instantly creeping up his spine and onto his scalp. What he heard was a cacophony of whispers—the roars of men, the weeping of women, the lamentations of the elderly, and the wailing of infants. Thousands upon thousands of voices burst from the throat of this seemingly frail young girl, converging into a terrifying sonic wave capable of shaking the very soul.

"Don't come any closer... I'm the key."

The girl's words echoed in his mind, like a thunderclap exploding deep within his consciousness.

Li Haotian felt a violent dizziness, and the scene before his eyes began to distort. The surrounding noise of gunfire and screams seemed to fade away at this moment, leaving only this eerie and solemn whisper.

"Thump!!!"

Before Li Haotian could react, another dull thud came from the deck beneath his feet. This time, the tremor was even more violent than before, and even the keel of the cruise ship groaned under the strain.

A section of the floor in the center of the hall suddenly collapsed, revealing a complex network of pipes and an even deeper darkness beneath. Immediately afterward, a thick, black aura surged out from the crack, instantly engulfing several of the nearest security personnel. The moment they came into contact with the black aura, their bodies rapidly withered without even a scream, as if some unseen force had drained their life force.

"Li Haotian! Something's wrong with this ship's structure!" Qin Yue's anxious voice rang out in the headset, accompanied by the rapid clatter of keyboard keystrokes. "I've detected energy reactions... the ship's internal structure, its resonant frequency, the layout of its energy channels... this isn't a cruise ship at all!"

Despite the excruciating pain in his head, Li Haotian scooped up the girl in his arms and tried to pull her away from the collapsed area. The girl's body was as light as a withered leaf, as if she might vanish in the wind at any moment.

"What is that?" Li Haotian asked through gritted teeth, while simultaneously using his backhand to parry the incoming energy blast, sparks flying from the blade.

"This is an altar!" Qin Yue's voice trembled, filled with disbelief and terror. "This entire 'Poseidon' is a gigantic altar floating on the sea! They engraved the altar's patterns onto the keel and fused energy circuits into the steel plates... That girl wasn't an auction item at all; she was a sacrifice used to activate this altar!"

Before Qin Yue could finish speaking, another tremor came from deep within the ship's hull. This time, it wasn't an impact, but the pulsation of something awakening.

It was a heavy, sticky, and malicious rhythm, as if this steel behemoth had finally grown a heart.

"Boom!"

The entire cruise ship began to rock violently, the lights in the hall flickered on and off, and finally went out completely, leaving only the emergency lights emitting a pale red glow, illuminating the entire space as if it were hell.

Amidst the chaotic interplay of red light and black mist, the girl in his arms suddenly stopped struggling. She slowly turned her face, looking at the collapsed abyss behind her, and two lines of bloody tears flowed from her eyes, which had echoed with the voices of countless people.

"It's hungry."

The girl said softly.

The next second, from the depths of the abyss, countless black shadows resembling tentacles surged forth with the roar of some indescribable behemoth, instantly engulfing everyone still fighting nearby—whether security personnel or panicked guests.

The gates of true hell are wide open.