She could hear the heavy, menacing footsteps rushing past on the stairs above her head, heading towards the deeper, darker cargo hold.
The footsteps gradually faded away below.
Jiang Chan slowly peeked out from the shadows and listened intently.
She only came out completely after confirming that the footsteps had faded away.
The look of terror on her face had vanished without a trace, replaced by an icy calm forged through countless cycles of death. She opened her hand, and the most important master key lay steadily in her cold palm.
She walked to the top of the stairs, her gaze falling on the darkness below, which resembled the esophagus of a giant beast—that was the direction of the cargo hold, and also the direction where the [Blood Slaughter] squad had disappeared.
A slight smile curved his cold lips.
Jiang Chan's voice was as soft as a sigh, echoing in the empty stairwell, "Very good..."
She slightly raised her chin, her eyes sharp as an owl about to pounce on its prey.
"This time, I've prepared a new way to play for you."
The cool inner wall of the ventilation duct pressed against her skin, and Jiang Chan was like a piece of paper, silently stuck to the duct wall.
The cramped space was filled with a heavy smell of dust and stale grease.
Below, the heavy iron doors of the cargo hold creaked open with a harsh sound that echoed through the empty lower level.
Her eyes were fixed on the ground below, peering through the gaps in the ventilation grilles.
The Blood Slaughter team came into view.
The scarred, burly man was like an iron tower, carrying a gleaming kukri in his hand.
Behind him were three people: a short-haired man with a fierce look, carrying a submachine gun; a woman wearing leather armor and throwing knives at her waist; and a short man carrying a large shotgun.
"Hurry up! Find that NPC!" Scarface's voice was deep and carried an unquestionable authority. "Get the key and leave. Something feels off here."
The crew-cut man warily held his gun, scanning the depths of the cargo hold filled with broken wooden crates, rusty iron barrels, and rotting cables. "Captain, where's the key? I haven't seen the maid."
"Idiots! The trail goes further in! Split up and search! Same old rules, kill them if you see them!" Scarface waved his hand impatiently.
The four men immediately spread out, working in pairs, and cautiously searched deeper into the cargo hold. They moved professionally, providing cover for each other, their flashlight beams flickering in the dim light of the hold.
Jiang Chan's heart pounded, not from fear, but from the chilling excitement before the hunt.
The prey is in the cage.
The time has come!
She acted immediately.
Its body, like a snake, silently retracted into the narrow pipe.
This pipe is a shortcut that the "original owner" discovered through countless deaths, leading to an inspection port on the outer corridor of the cargo hold.
Pushing aside the disguised maintenance cover, an even stronger stench of decay hits you – this is the corridor near the “drowning den”.
She rolled over and landed as lightly as a cat.
She ran to the end of the corridor, where there was a row of huge, rusted steam valves.
One of the valves had its pressure gauge needle constantly hovering near the edge of the dangerous red zone.
Jiang Chan grabbed a heavy crowbar leaning against the wall, took a deep breath, and with all her might, smashed it hard against the rusty valve fixing bolt!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A deafening metallic clang echoed through the enclosed corridor! The shockwave sent chills down everyone's spines! The valves rattled violently from the impact!
prick--!!!!
The next second, a burst of scalding white steam with a pungent, rusty smell suddenly erupted from the loose valve, emitting an extremely sharp hiss that could pierce eardrums and travel far through the empty cabin.
After making the noise, Jiang Chan didn't linger and immediately rushed to a corner where an inconspicuous broken wooden bucket sat.
She lifted the lid of the bucket, and a nauseating, stench of rotting fish and shrimp entrails suddenly erupted out!
This is a "stinky potion" made by boiling rotten fish and shrimp discarded from the ship's kitchen, along with some strange, slimy seaweed that was found, in an abandoned boiler room overnight—a "bait" specifically designed to attract water ghosts!
Jiang Chan held her breath, suppressing her intense nausea, picked up the foul-smelling wooden barrel with both hands, and rushed to the heavy iron door in the cargo hold that the [Blood Slaughter] team had opened.
Without hesitation, she splashed the thick, dark green, still writhing and churning mixture of rotten fish offal from the bucket onto the door frame and the ground at the cargo hold entrance with a loud "whoosh"!
A foul stench instantly filled the air!
After doing all this, Jiang Chan immediately turned around and ran wildly along the planned retreat route without looking back. She could even feel a heart-pounding commotion coming from behind the huge, water-soaked, rusty iron gate leading to the "drowning den" behind her.
The sound of countless wet, slippery hands pounding on the iron gate, along with the gurgling sound that seemed to come from the throat of a drowning person, was becoming clearer and more frequent!
She quickly slipped into the ventilation duct, closed the cover, and climbed back up to the observation port that overlooked the cargo hold.
Inside the cargo hold.
The sudden, loud noise and the terrifying stench that instantly filled the air froze everyone in the [Blood Slaughter] squad!
"What was that sound?!"
"Damn! What's that smell?! Ugh... What's rotten stuff?"
"Warning! Warning! Something's wrong!"
The captain, Scarface, paled visibly. Experience told him this was no coincidence! "Retreat! Retreat now!" he roared decisively.
But it was too late!
At the entrance to the cargo hold, the ground, which had been splattered with foul-smelling fish scraps, was now like boiling water, with thick, black sludge covered in moss and barnacles churning wildly upwards!
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