Chapter 188
Wang Scarface's military boots splashed through the puddles on the deck of the wrecked ship, sending up muddy water droplets.
He clutched a rusty steel pipe in his hand, staring at the mountain of grain sacks piled up in the hold—
Most of it was stolen from three refugee rafts this morning. There were compressed biscuits, dehydrated vegetables, and two unopened bags of rice. He had bitten open the seal on the bags with his teeth and was stuffing raw rice into his mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.
"Boss, that old man was just crying, saying he has a grandson with a fever and begging us for some biscuits."
The skinny monkey sidled up, fiddling with the communicator he'd stolen from the refugees. The screen was still lit, displaying an unsuccessfully sent plea for help.
"Should we beat him up again? It'll stop him from hanging around the boat all the time, he's so annoying."
Wang the Scarface spat out the rice crumbs in his mouth, slammed the steel pipe against the cabin wall, and the dull thud made the two refugees huddled in the corner of the cabin tremble: "Beat them! Why don't we beat them? They dare to ask me for grain? When we seized this ship, what did I do with those who resisted? I threw them into the water to feed the fish! Let him remember clearly that this ship is mine now, and the grain is mine too. If he dares to utter another word, I'll throw his grandson in with him!"
Skinny Monkey chuckled and turned around. Just as he reached the gunwale, he saw a familiar figure floating on the water in the distance—
It was Old Zhang, whose grain had been stolen earlier, hiding behind a piece of driftwood, secretly sending a message using a communicator. The light from the screen reflected a faint blue shadow in the water.
Skinny Monkey immediately pointed his gun at Old Zhang: "Old man! Who are you messaging? Are you calling for people to rob our grain?"
Old Zhang's hand trembled, and the communicator almost fell into the water. He quickly hid the device behind his back, muttering, "I...I didn't send a message to anyone, I was just checking the water level..."
But Skinny Monkey had already jumped onto the small raft, paddled over, and snatched the communicator. The screen was still showing the chat interface with "I am the God of Wealth," and the latest message was: "The bandits in the wrecked ship stole our food and beat people up. Can you come and save us?"
"Well, well! You dare to call the 'God of Wealth'!" Skinny Monkey threw the communicator into the water, and the steel pipe slammed down hard on Old Zhang's back. Old Zhang groaned and lay on the driftwood, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Skinny Monkey wanted to hit her again, but Scarface Wang stopped him: "Don't kill her! Keep him as bait. If the 'God of Wealth' really comes, we can capture her and take over her space!"
Old Zhang was dragged back to the wrecked ship and thrown next to the grain sacks. Looking at the murky water outside the cabin, he felt a mixture of fear and hope.
When I sent the message, "I am the God of Wealth" read it, so it might arrive soon.
But just as a glimmer of hope flickered in his mind, he saw Wang Scarface order his men to tie the stolen rafts around the wrecked ship and attach several sharpened steel pipes to the gunwale: "Keep an eye on her! If you see the flying car, throw explosives into the water and don't let her get close!"
Half an hour later, the skinny monkey suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted, "Boss! Look! It's a flying car!"
Wang Scarface immediately ran to the ship's side and saw a silver-gray flying car hovering in the air above the water, about two hundred meters away from the wrecked ship. The mechanical arm under the car was putting something into the water, which was dark and looked like a series of round barrels. It disappeared into the water.
"What's that? A sea mine?"
Scarface Wang panicked, but forced a defiant arrogance: "What's there to be afraid of! They're just some broken barrels! Skinny Monkey, you take two men and row over in a small raft, scoop those things up, maybe they're the 'God of Wealth's' hidden grain!"
Skinny Monkey and his two companions jumped onto the small raft. They had only paddled fifty meters when they heard a soft "plop" sound—it came from underwater. Immediately afterward, a splash erupted beneath the raft.
The deafening roar shook the wrecked boat, and the small raft was instantly blown to pieces. Skinny Monkey and his accomplices didn't even have time to scream before they sank into the water, leaving only a layer of blood foam on the surface.
"Damn! It really is a sea mine!" Scarface Wang was so frightened that he took two steps back and bumped into a grain sack, scattering rice all over the ground.
He quickly shouted, "Quick! Get the boat out of here! Get out of this water!"
But just as his men reached the helm, they heard another loud bang from the stern—another mine had been triggered, blasting a large hole in the stern deck, and water rushed in, causing the ship to list.
"Boss! The ship's sinking! Run!" The men panicked and jumped onto the small raft. Wang Scarface wanted to jump too, but then he heard a voice coming from the flying car's loudspeaker: "Don't move if you don't want to die! The mines only hit the pirate ship, not the refugees!"
Scarface Wang couldn't believe it and climbed back onto the raft, but just as he grabbed the rope, a third explosion came from underwater—
The small raft was too close to the wrecked ship and was capsized by the shockwave of a mine. He fell into the water and struggled to grab onto some driftwood, but felt something entangle his leg. Looking down, he saw the corpse of the refugee he had thrown into the water to feed the fish. He screamed in fright and was swept away by the current within seconds.
Hearing the sound, Old Zhang in the cabin slowly got up and saw the flying car hovering above the wrecked ship. Su Jing was activating her flying ability, hovering on the water, and her mechanical arm was putting life rings into the water. She shouted to the refugees around her, "Don't go near the wrecked ship, come over here, I'll give you food!"
Old Zhang quickly climbed off the wrecked ship and swam with the other refugees toward the lifebuoy. Su Jing's robot was distributing compressed biscuits taken from her space to everyone. Old Zhang took the biscuits, tears welling up in his eyes: "Thank you, 'God of Wealth'... If it weren't for you, we would have starved to death or been killed by bandits long ago."
Su Jing nodded, her gaze falling on the tilting wrecked ship—the hull was still slowly sinking, and half of the grain sacks had fallen into the water. She instructed Robot No. 1 to retrieve the dry grain, while Robot No. 2 cleaned up the underwater mine wreckage: "These mines are made with explosives and manganese crystals from space. The triggering device only reacts to the metal hull of the bandit ship and will not harm the refugees."
After salvaging the grain, Su Jing looked at the receding floodwaters in the distance—the water level was half a meter lower than before, revealing some underwater ruins, including abandoned metal frames, broken pipes, and several pieces of machinery that had been submerged in water.
She gave the order into the communicator: "Number 1, record the location of the ruins. After the flood recedes, these machines might be able to be repaired and reused."
Old Zhang munched on a biscuit, watching Su Jing's busy figure, and felt much more at ease—the bandit ship had been bombed, the grain had been returned, and the flood seemed to be receding; things should get better from now on.
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