I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

Cheng Fei activated Time Zero, pulled out a Taser from his pocket, aimed it at Ding Sheng, and pulled the trigger, producing a loud bang.

Unlike the fictional stun guns in some games, the Taser gun works on a very simple principle: it uses compressed gas to launch two probes connected by wires. When these probes penetrate the body, they release a short-term high-voltage electric shock that renders the person incapacitated. It can only be fired once and has a range of several meters.

At time zero, Cheng Fei could clearly see the probe flying out with the gushing compressed gas, trailing a folded thin wire as it flew toward Ding Sheng's chest.

Ding Sheng squinted, raised his hand, and grabbed the wire at the end of the probe. He frowned as he examined the two probes, which drooped limply and crackled with electrical discharge when they came into contact in mid-air.

"No way?" Cheng Fei felt like he was seeing a ghost.

Ye Shuang's expression turned solemn, and she also drew her Taser and fired. This time, Ding Sheng didn't have time to react, or perhaps he deliberately didn't react.

The probe, which could have pierced through clothing and entered the skin, struck Ding Sheng's chest and bounced away with two crisp sounds.

Ding Sheng's facial muscles twitched, revealing a strange and unsettling expression that resembled a smile.

He casually tossed aside the probe and strode toward the two men.

Even when he activated Zero, Cheng Fei felt that his speed was outrageous, even surpassing Ye Shuang's previous punch.

Fortunately, Ye Shuang's limits were not limited to this. When Ding Sheng threw a punch, the girl nimbly dodged to the side and threw an uppercut at Ding Sheng's chin.

Ding Sheng dodged and threw a second punch, which Ye Shuang dodged again. The punch hit the cabin wall, leaving a noticeable dent, as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer.

Cheng Fei caught a glimpse of this scene, and his eyelids twitched.

Ding Sheng threw his third punch at the boy, seemingly realizing that Ye Shuang was not easy to deal with.

Cheng Fei caught his fist as if he had caught a cannonball. He barely managed to steady himself. Then, the boy grabbed the other's wrist and ripped off his glove.

A black mechanical hand with a metallic sheen was exposed to the air; its ingenious bionic structure was no less skillful than the hand designed by Isena.

"Holy crap! You're a cyborg?" The boy instantly understood everything.

He initially suspected that Ding Sheng also had extraordinary abilities, but after carefully observing various signs, he felt that it was not something that a patient with ALS could do using Time Zero.

Ding Sheng quickly withdrew his hand, putting distance between himself and the two, equally astonished and uncertain, "What kind of monsters are you?!"

"I was just about to ask you what kind of monster you are?!" Cheng Fei sized him up as well.

"Could he be a robot?" Ye Shuang stood side by side with the boy, her brows slightly furrowed.

The two sides were locked in a standoff at either end of the corridor.

"Master Ye, I wonder if you've ever played a game?" Cheng Fei suddenly asked.

"What?" Ye Shuang stared intently at Ding Sheng, tilting her head slightly.

"Cyberpunk".

493. Cheng Fei's jinx came true.

"I've only seen the animation. You mean he has a prosthetic body?" Ye Shuang stared intently at Ding Sheng.

“ALS usually spreads from the extremities to the trunk and head. His stiff expression indicates that the disease is in its later stages, and this loss of mobility can only be achieved by modifying the whole body.” Cheng Fei looked the man up and down, imagining a body under his clothes with mechanized hands, feet and torso.

Another question is, who helped him complete the modification? It couldn't have been him alone; Cheng Fei didn't have time to think about that.

“You know a lot.” Ding Sheng stared at the boy with a cold gaze, then shook his head after a moment of silence. “Never mind, it’s none of my business.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly took out a small bottle and sprayed a cloud of unidentified mist into the corridor.

Cheng Fei and Ye Shuang immediately retreated to the outside of the corridor, but they still smelled an extremely pungent spicy smell.

"Pepper spray? That's so despicable!" The boy sneezed.

"It seems he ran away." Ye Shuang covered her mouth and nose and looked inside.

Once the spray dissipated, the two men stepped over the unconscious Interpol officers and security guards and returned to the driver's cab, where they found the emergency escape door open, but Ding Sheng and the first mate were nowhere to be seen.

"Next time we meet, I'll definitely knock his jaw out of place." Ye Shuang gritted her teeth, her little fist hardening.

Cheng Fei suddenly turned around and looked directly at the bridge. His heart skipped a beat. "Master Ye, forget about his chin. We're really going to hit an iceberg!"

Ye Shuang looked in the direction of the sound, her small mouth slightly open.

Before we knew it, the cruise ship had sailed to a point where it was very close to the iceberg. The massive iceberg, like an island reef, lay across the way. We could clearly see that the surface of the iceberg was a pure blue-white color under the sunlight, sparkling like a work of art.

The crowd on the lower deck erupted into chaos, pointing at the iceberg and screaming.

Cheng Fei quickly summoned the unharmed Third Officer in.

The third mate stared wide-eyed at the iceberg, then looked down at the control panel in the bridge, muttering to himself, "It's not on the electronic chart, how could this be..."

"Never mind whether it's there or not, turn around quickly!" Cheng Fei shouted.

The third mate seemed to snap out of a daze and began to operate the system. When he pressed a button, the crew's private radio channel burst into a noisy mess, which, unsurprisingly, was blocked by the first mate and Ding Sheng.

The third officer, sweating profusely, performed the necessary maneuvers before turning with somewhat clumsy movements, while simultaneously announcing over the microphone, "This is the bridge. Attention all personnel. This ship has encountered an iceberg and is conducting an emergency avoidance maneuver. Please hold on tight. This is not a drill. Repeat..."

Cheng Fei and Ye Shuang silently grabbed onto a nearby fixed object.

With the three officers pushing the control sticks, the rudder at the stern deflected sharply, and the steel behemoth weighing tens of thousands of tons began to turn.

The floor gradually tilted, and the inertia acted on everyone, as if an invisible hand was about to sweep them all to one side.

Interpol agents and security guards on the floor of the driver's cab rolled towards the corner like trash, and an unsettling creaking sound came from somewhere.

Turning such a massive vessel as a cruise ship is not an easy task, and the slow course change still leaves it within the obstruction range of the iceberg.

"It's over, Master Ye, I think we should still crash it." Cheng Fei looked straight ahead at the bridge.

Ye Shuang stared intently at the iceberg, gripping the edge of the table tightly with her small hands, as if this could help the cruise ship turn.

The third mate, having completed all the necessary procedures, watched the iceberg draw ever closer with a tense expression. He switched to a new radio channel and made a call: "This is Aurora, ship identification code... We are about to collide with the iceberg... Current location..."

For the next few minutes, the entire ship became extremely quiet.

In the sub-Antarctic waters, above the deep trenches of the Macquarie Ridge, a large cruise ship stands like a bustling city, its stern trailing a long, arc-shaped wake, like a snow-white cloak fluttering behind it.

Directly in front of the cruise ship, a table-shaped iceberg hundreds of meters long stretched out, the hard blue ice frozen over countless years in the polar region like a stubborn rock, silently watching the steel creations of humankind approach it.

The two behemoths ultimately had no choice but to embrace.

Due to the emergency turn, the cruise ship tilted and collided with the iceberg on its side. Because the iceberg was much smaller than the cruise ship, no one could see the point of impact immediately.

The tremors were not as severe as expected. Only a few people fell because they lost their grip. If anyone was on the lower deck at the bow, they would have seen the sturdy hull, welded from high-strength steel, being torn apart by the iceberg like a clay sculpture under the terrifying kinetic energy. The icy seawater, mixed with ice shards, violently poured into the broken watertight compartments and surged along the open hatches.

Everyone on board heard eerie, chilling noises—deep, muffled sounds interspersed with sharp, explosive bursts. These sounds traveled along the hull to everyone, as if the cruise ship itself were wailing for help.

The impact lasted only a short time, and the cruise ship and the iceberg remained almost stationary relative to each other.

"Oh no, the watertight compartment is under maintenance today..." The third mate stared at the screen, gasped, and grabbed the microphone, "All area team leaders, report the damage!"

"Lookout on port side reports: The bow section of the ship has collided with an iceberg; the impact area is extremely large..."

"Damage control report: Water has entered the third to eighth watertight compartments on the port side, and the watertight doors cannot be closed properly..."

The constant cacophony of radio communications made the Third Officer's face grow paler and paler.

Cheng Fei and Ye Shuang exchanged a glance, deciding not to concern themselves with matters beyond their control. They turned and helped Fu Qian and Wan Haoran up, placing them on chairs. They first checked their breathing to confirm they hadn't been killed by a single punch, then pinched their philtrum to try and wake them, but failed.

During the journey, it was noticeable that the ship was tilting to the left, at a greater angle than during the previous emergency maneuver. This situation only eased after the third mate directed emergency operations such as flooding the watertight compartments on the lower deck.

The ship's alarm bells rang seven short and one long. The third mate spoke into the microphone in a deep voice, "Attention, this is the bridge. Due to the extensive damage from the iceberg collision, I am announcing that we must abandon ship. All personnel, proceed immediately to the lifeboat assembly point. Crew members, execute the emergency deployment plan. Repeat..."

He finished speaking in one breath, took a deep breath, and turned to look at Cheng Fei and Ye Shuang, "You two should leave quickly, someone will handle things here."

“We can help,” Ye Shuang said immediately.

“You are passengers and should not bear the responsibility of the crew. If you can, please help the other passengers.” The kind-looking man spoke firmly.

Cheng Fei thought for a moment, "Master Ye, I don't think Ding Sheng will let this go."

“Then let’s go find him.” Ye Shuang squinted her eyes.

After the two finished their discussion, they said goodbye to the third mate and left through the emergency escape door used by Ding Sheng and the first mate.

Following the two men, other senior crew members quickly arrived at the bridge with their men and began directing the abandonment operation.

494. Cheng Fei realized the problem.

When the alarm bells, signaling abandonment, rang with seven short and one long blasts, the cruise ship descended into chaos. Passengers poured out of the residential area and rushed to the escape deck in droves, while crew members stood at the intersections to guide them.

In the early morning, many people were wearing pajamas or even barely clothed. Under the oppressive feeling of the gradually tilting ship and the alarm bells, everyone's face was tense. The shouts were mixed with the screams and cries of children, like random strumming on everyone's nerves.

Ding Sheng and the first mate dragged the black nylon bags containing the bodies of the two mates to the upper deck. Behind them was the once bustling casino, but now, apart from the scattered chips, everything remained as it was.

Ding Sheng casually tossed the bag containing the counterweight out. The bag flashed past the window of the lower deck and fell into the sea with a splash. In the chaos, no one noticed this detail.

Standing in their positions, they could overlook the escape deck where lifeboats were suspended. Ten minutes after the third mate gave the order to abandon ship, the first wave of passengers lined up to board the ship under the guidance of the crew.

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, everyone will have time to evacuate." The first mate breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the passengers board the enclosed lifeboats one by one.

Ding Sheng shook his head expressionlessly, "Now that we've been exposed, we can't proceed as planned."

"What do you want?" the first mate asked, looking at him.

"Too many people know about this. If they manage to escape by blending in, we'll be in big trouble," Ding Sheng said softly, looking at the lifeboat.

"We're just doing this for the money, we can't just..."

"Given the situation, what can't be done?" Ding Sheng interrupted him, turning his head slightly, his tone nonchalant.

The tall white man suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, even more biting than the sea breeze in Antarctica, making him shiver.

Ding Sheng took out his satellite phone, dialed a number, took a deep breath, and said to the other end, "Could you please release 80% of the lifeboats on the port side of the Aurora?"

"Are you sure?" a muffled voice came from the other end.

"determine."

What about the starboard side?

"Open all the watertight compartments on the port side."

"What do you mean?"

“If the tilt is greater than 20 degrees, the gravity release of the lifeboat will fail. Forcing yourself to stay inside will only result in being swept into the whirlpool of the sinking ship, which is more like an accident.”

"Smart, the port lifeboat has been launched and the watertight compartment is being opened."

As if under a spell, twelve of the fifteen lifeboats hanging on the port side suddenly unlocked automatically while passengers were still boarding.

The orange-red lifeboat immediately plunged into the sea from a height of more than ten meters along the inclined rail. People inside, who had not yet fastened their seat belts, were caught off guard and experienced a brief moment of weightlessness before crashing heavily onto the floor. People who were about to crawl into the lifeboat screamed and fell into the sea, creating a few small waves in the cold water.

This scene caused a stir, and people on the ship's side threw swimming rings and inflatable life rafts into the sea.

Ding Sheng watched this scene calmly.

The first mate beside him looked reluctant to speak.

At the same time, the ship's tilting speed, which had just slowed down, suddenly increased, as if someone had given it a push. The massive cruise ship slowly tilted to the left, and the flat ground gradually turned into a slope, causing people evacuating from the ship to fall in droves.

"Also, please take care of the external communications, monitoring, and black box as well," Ding Sheng continued into the phone.

"No problem, Black Shark will proceed as planned, and remember to clean up properly."

"Understood. Also, I encountered two monsters."

"monster?"

"Take a look at the surveillance footage from the driver's cab corridor."

"understood."

After the other party finished speaking, Ding Sheng hung up the phone.

In a place unknown to anyone, the data is transmitted via satellite signals to a hidden device installed in the bridge, which infiltrates the cruise ship's internal network, extracts the latest surveillance footage, tampers with the data, erases records, and cuts off communications, turning the cruise ship floating at sea into an isolated island without anyone noticing.

Ding Sheng turned and walked toward the gangway.

"Where are you going?" the first mate asked quickly.

“Those two monsters should be gone. I’ll deal with the witnesses in the cockpit first.” Ding Sheng said without turning his head. “Go to the escape deck and notify me as soon as you find those two.”

"Understood." The first mate quickly ran in another direction.