Then, a ghastly pale hand slowly emerged from the pool of blood, followed by the head of a disheveled woman, dripping water and rolling her eyes as she surfaced.

Even knowing it was a prop, a chill crawled up my spine, and I cursed the bizarre tastes of those Japanese.

After witnessing this, my suspicion regarding Xie Yuting dissolved, though I still hadn't expected the Xie family to engage in this kind of business.

Xie Yuting maintained his smile and remarked, "There are quite a few interesting things on this vessel. I hope you all enjoy your time."

I knew his definition of 'interesting' referred to the spectacle I’d just seen in the pool, and a pang of regret surfaced for boarding the ship. If one stumbled upon such a display in the dead of night, it could easily be mistaken for reality. A timid person might even suffer a breakdown from the shock.

With that, Xie Yuting stretched languidly and said, "The key cards for the Presidential Suites are all at the front desk in the first-floor lobby. Feel free to take them."

He glanced at his watch again. "Dinner is at six. You are free to arrange yourselves until then. Enjoy your stay."

We exchanged glances. Though masked by resignation, we had no other choice, and we headed toward the first-floor lobby.

But just as we were about to step through the doors into the lobby, a terrified shriek echoed down from the third-floor restaurant: "Ghost! There's a ghost!"

I had a rough idea of what had happened to Da Xiong, and I looked over at Nie Chuan.

Nie Chuan offered me a slight smile. "Don't mind him. It's his own fault for being so greedy. Letting him have a little scare is good for him."

Everyone present nodded in agreement; not a single person seemed concerned by Da Xiong's cries.

After collecting the keys at the first-floor reception, we selected four adjacent rooms.

Upon opening my door, I was stunned by the sight before me.

A massive picture window overlooking the view, a 56-inch LCD television, a colossal 2.5-meter double bed, genuine leather oversized sofas, and even a wireless internet router.

Considering how difficult it was to get online aboard a ship—wireless network cards being rare enough—having a router in every room was astonishing.

I set down my luggage and collapsed onto the soft mattress for a moment, feeling instantly transported from the primitive age back to modern society.

After watching some satellite TV, I noticed from a commercial that the Brazil World Cup was less than two months away. If I hadn't seen the ad, I would have completely forgotten about it this year.

After some time watching TV, Da Xiong’s screams were still faintly audible.

With a sigh, I finally decided to go see what was going on.

As I opened my door, I ran right into Nie Chuan and Liang Qian emerging from their respective rooms.

We shared a knowing look and headed toward the stairs.

Passing through the lounge on the second floor, we arrived at the third-floor restaurant.

It was a surrealist nightmare of a dining area; every chair and table was uniquely shaped, some tall, some low, resembling wine glasses, others like leaves.

Surrounding the eclectic seating arrangement, the center was dominated by a bar stocked with various fine liquors, warmly illuminated by pendant lamps that cast an intoxicating glow.

Beyond the bar was a passageway leading to the opposite wall, lined with vending machines and refrigerated display cases stocked with everything from frozen seafood to ice cream and fruit.

Da Xiong was sprawled on the floor in front of one freezer, looking dazed, muttering, "Ghost, there's a ghost!"

I sighed, walked over first, and hauled the limp Da Xiong to his feet, asking, "Where is the ghost?"

Da Xiong looked at me, immediately grabbed my collar, and stammered, "The fridge, there’s a ghost in the fridge!"

We all turned toward the freezer he indicated. Inside, nestled among packages of pre-cooked frozen seafood, lay a woman's severed head, its eyes still rolling back, blood trickling from its mouth.

Being the bolder one, I snatched the head out, held it up in front of Da Xiong, and stated, "Look, it’s plastic."

Unexpectedly, seeing my action, Da Xiong rolled his eyes back and promptly fainted.

The rest of us burst out laughing, declaring that Da Xiong deserved it.

After carrying Da Xiong back to his room, we all realized we were hungry and grabbed some drinks and snacks from the restaurant to tide us over.

We drank and chatted about trivial things. After finishing six bottles of Remy Martin, we all felt a bit tipsy and dispersed to rest in our rooms.

We hadn't seen Xie Yuting at all during this time; we had no idea where he’d gone.

Even stranger, since we boarded, we hadn't encountered a single one of Xie Yuting’s crew. It seemed he was the only other person on the ship besides us.

However, it wasn't our place to pry into his affairs. Sated and somewhat intoxicated, we retired to our rooms to sleep.

The plush bed ensured an incredibly comfortable sleep. I had intended to shower before lying down, but eventually, I forgot all about bathing and simply drifted off.

Though the sleep was deep, it was broken in the latter half of the night by a violent shudder that woke me abruptly.

The intense shaking nearly threw me off the bed. I assumed we had either hit a tsunami or were caught in a massive storm.

However, when I looked out the picture window, the sea was perfectly calm, without any sign of rough waves.

As I puzzled over this, the ship lurched violently again.

At that moment, I saw a very bright spotlight flash across the water on the opposite side of our vessel and speed past.

Confused, I wondered if the ship that just sped by had collided with us.

But that didn't seem right, because ships aren't cars; a rear-end shunt between cars isn't a major incident, but even a glancing blow between two vessels of this tonnage should have resulted in one being severely damaged, possibly sinking.

The ship that passed might have simply gone by at very close range, but the wake it generated was enough to rock our ship violently.

Clearly, the maneuver was intentional, because on a dark sea, an opposing vessel's spotlight is visible from far away, and ships must sound warning horns when they are one nautical mile apart.

Crucially, this vibration hadn't happened just once; this was the second time.

I realized we might be under attack by another vessel.

But we weren't smugglers, nor were we running contraband; who would target us?

Driven by curiosity, I threw on a robe and rushed up to the deck.

When I reached the deck, I saw everyone else was already there.

Under the harsh glare of the deck lights, I noticed everyone’s expression was grim.

Scanning the surrounding waters, I understood the reason for their somber faces.

We were now completely surrounded by over a dozen unidentified vessels.

These boats were taking turns approaching us, trying to force our ship to halt.

Encountering this situation at sea, if the approaching party wasn't the coast guard, it could only be pirates.

Although I’d never heard of pirates operating near Russian or Japanese waters, that didn't mean they weren't present.

Their goal in boxing us in was undoubtedly to board the ship and strip us bare.

Therefore, under no circumstances could our ship stop moving; otherwise, the few of us wouldn't stand a chance against them.

The helmsman under Boss Wu was no amateur; when a boat charged toward us head-on, he showed no sign of panic.

Each time, he managed to narrowly avoid a direct impact.

Three or four more rounds of aggressive maneuvers followed, and we still hadn't been forced to stop.

Yet, this didn't ease my mind; instead, my anxiety grew.

Sure enough, just as I was contemplating their next move—an attempt at forced boarding—several massive, rope-attached harpoons shot whistling toward us from a few of the surrounding ships.

These fishing spears, barbed and vicious, utilized our ship's forward momentum to snag firmly onto the gunwales, rendering us immobile.

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