Without a doubt, the monster possessed intelligence.
It had suffered at Jian Jing's hands before, so given a choice, it would not confront her directly, preferring instead to hunt other players.
Having been burned by fire and oil several times, it naturally learned its lesson.
As soon as flames appeared, its tentacles sprang into action. The burned tentacles were instantly severed and discarded, while the intact ones swayed back and forth, piling up objects in the room to serve as shields.
However, its survival instincts were still too limited, or perhaps it lacked experience dealing with fire, not realizing that more fuel would only make the flames burn more fiercely.
The bed, table, chairs, cabinets, and other furniture were mostly wooden. Throwing them into the fire not only failed to extinguish it but caused it to burn even more intensely.
Numerous tentacles were charred by the raging fire.
The monster awakened.
Its movements became swifter and more decisive: resolutely abandoning useless tentacles, contracting its body, and merging the split tentacles into a single, more powerful limb.
The cruise ship swayed again with its movements.
From the distant liferaft, Jian Jing used the telescope function to clearly observe the monster's response.
It seemed to have discovered that water could extinguish fire, so it retracted its entire body to one side. The ship's center of gravity shifted, and with the lower decks already flooded, it began to sink faster than before.
In the blink of an eye, seawater engulfed the areas below the fourth floor, advancing towards the upper levels.
The broken windows became the greatest accomplice, as seawater rushed in, sweeping through rooms, expanding into corridors, and carrying away everything that wasn't securely fastened.
The Titanic took 3 hours from hitting the iceberg to sinking into the Atlantic. This cruise ship was much smaller, and it was sinking even faster.
Soon, seawater flooded the sixth floor, extinguishing the flames on that level.
"How is it?" Wu Lie asked Andrei, "Is the fire out?"
"No," Jian Jing increased the magnification of the telescope, seeing orange flames flickering in the seventh-floor rooms. "It's burning on the seventh floor now."
There was oil on the seventh floor as well. Despite the extreme humidity, it burned fiercely. Moreover, fire naturally tends to spread upwards, finding any available opening. Originally, the ceiling was reinforced concrete, difficult to penetrate, but the monster had created numerous holes for its predatory activities. Now it was paying the price, losing ground rapidly.
The onlookers seemed to be watching an intense competition.
Seawater continued to pour in, submerging the flames, while the fire burned on relentlessly, desperately seizing the monster's territory upwards.
Water and fire fought to a standstill, with no one able to predict the outcome.
Jian Jing turned her head: "Row further away."
Everyone paddled with all their might once more.
By now, the cruise ship had completely capsized, its hull gradually sinking below the sea's surface, and the burning flames were no longer visible.
The monster, like a giant starfish, clung to the part of the ship still above water, its tentacles hanging naturally, its flexible tail searching for any remaining food.
They couldn't wait any longer.
Jian Jing took a deep breath and detonated the bomb hidden in the fuel compartment.
[Name: Item Card - Bomb (1/1)]
[Description: A bomb of tremendous power, remotely controlled, for use only within the scenario]
[Note: This item is extremely dangerous, please use with caution]
"Bang!"
A massive explosion echoed, accompanied by a blinding, scorching light. Waves of intense flames rolled out, disintegrating the monster's extended tentacles into dust.
Simultaneously, the cruise ship shattered into pieces, sinking at a visibly rapid pace.
The monster frantically tried to escape, desperately clinging to fragments of the ship to prevent itself from sinking, its size drastically reduced to only about the size of a basketball court.
A whirlpool formed, its immense suction pulling in all surrounding life forms, dragging them to the ocean floor.
Jian Jing and the others' liferaft had already moved over a hundred meters away, but they had still underestimated the power of nature. The waves, like the hands of a giant, mercilessly pushed the raft towards the whirlpool in the sea.
The world spun, and in the vast ocean, humans were utterly powerless.
Even Jian Jing, whose physical abilities had been enhanced and who was among the most elite of humans, was equally helpless, only able to cling to the liferaft.
"Help!" She heard someone cry out.
Turning her head with difficulty, she saw that the neighboring liferaft had broken, taking on water and capsizing. Wataru Kojima had fallen into the sea.
The otaku just couldn't handle it.
Jian Jing seized the opportunity, grabbed his collar, and pulled the struggling otaku over. "Don't move, relax," she said.
"I-I can't swim," Wataru Kojima's face was paler than a ghost's.
"You're wearing a life jacket," Jian Jing wiped the rain from her face. "Stay calm, don't choke on water."
Kumiko Terauchi also reached out, grabbing his belt.
With the added weight on their side, when the next wave came, Ran-er Kim on the other end couldn't withstand the powerful force and was thrown off.
"Save me!" She reached out her hand.
Jiang BaiYan and Connor Lee tried to reach her, but the waves piled up, increasing the distance between them. Instead, another liferaft was closer.
Ran-er Kim, wearing a life jacket, choked on a few mouthfuls of water but didn't sink. She called out to the familiar Liu Sau-chi for help: "Sau-chi, help me!"
Liu Sau-chi hesitated for a moment, then extended his arm towards her.
A faint low voice reached his ears: "Our liferaft is leaking, we can't take on any more people."
He turned his head, but in the howling wind and rain, some were wiping their faces, others looking down. It was impossible to tell who had spoken, or perhaps everyone shared the same thought.
The liferaft spun with the waves, moving Liu Sau-chi further away.
He took the opportunity to lower his hand.
Ran-er Kim looked at him in disbelief, trying to speak, but her mouth filled with salty, bitter seawater. Then, she found herself pushed far away.
Wave after wave crashed over her. Without the weight of others and the protection of the liferaft, she was utterly defenseless, swept into the whirlpool in the blink of an eye.
Her body was torn at by the currents, and she instinctively struggled against them. The icy seawater numbed her limbs.
The life jacket tried to keep her afloat, but she would sink again shortly after.
"Help me..." she cried out, a string of bubbles escaping from her nose.
Someone save me!
Ran-er Kim fought desperately, her flailing hands grasping onto something. She kicked her legs with all her might, finally managing to surface with great difficulty. As fresh air rushed in, she gasped for breath.
"Ran-er Kim?" Someone called her name.
She turned her head to see Jian Jing swimming towards her.
"Save me," she said.
"Are you fully conscious?" Jian Jing asked.
Ran-er Kim nodded.
"Let go," she said.
Ran-er Kim looked down and realized she wasn't holding Jian Jing's hand, but Andrei's bow. She released her frozen fingers and floated on the surface.
Jian Jing swam over, draped Ran-er Kim's arm over her body, and slowly swam towards the liferaft.
The people on the raft pulled her up.
"Jing?" Jiang BaiYan tried to pull Jian Jing up, but she refused.
"The liferaft is overloaded with 8 people," Jian Jing said. "If I get on, it will capsize."
With fifteen guests plus the scriptwriter, there were exactly 16 people, barely fitting into two lifeboats. But when Wataru Kojima fell into the water and boarded Jian Jing's raft, they now had 9 people.
If one more person got on, everyone would end up in the water.
Jiang BaiYan didn't hesitate: "I'll get in the water and swap with you."
"Not necessary for now," Jian Jing looked towards the center of the whirlpool, her expression uncertain. "I'm going to take a closer look."
The turbulence from the explosion was gradually subsiding. By now, most of the cruise ship had sunk, with only a portion of the bow still visible above the water.
The monster had vanished from sight. She wanted to get closer to see if she could catch its main body and finish it off with one strike to be sure.
She let go and dove underwater, approaching the site.
The sun was slow to rise, and in the gloomy pre-dawn darkness, visibility underwater was terrible.
Jian Jing activated her x-ray vision, searching for traces of the sunken ship in the green world.
A distinct dark shadow was rapidly sinking.
She held her breath and swam desperately towards the cruise ship.
The monster seemed to sense something, and a large number of its remaining tentacles swam towards her, looking like a group of sea snakes moving in unison.
Jian Jing felt a chill run down her spine and quickly swung her blade.
The knife cut through the water, with less force than on land, but still successfully severed the approaching tentacles.
They weren't exactly in their element, their movements not particularly agile, but they weren't significantly weakened either. They still retained a certain degree of flexibility, working together to surround Jian Jing.
Although Jian Jing didn't think the tentacles resembled mutated mollusks, she dared not pit human physiology against them. She would cut through a batch and then quickly surface to catch her breath before diving again.
The tentacles struggled desperately, nearly capsizing the lifeboat. Everyone struggled to keep it steady, but some people still fell overboard, disappearing in an instant.
No one could afford to save them, as they frantically paddled the boat, trying to get as far away from the struggling tentacles as possible.
Jian Jing had no idea how many times she had slashed with her knife. Countless black tentacles sank to the bottom of the sea, like a tangled mass of hair.
Moments later, it slowly sank to the bottom, and Jian Jing was too exhausted to pursue it further.
Her strength was depleted, and she dared not risk anymore.
Just then, someone shouted loudly. She surfaced, tapped her ears to hear more clearly: "A ship!"
"A ship is coming!" Someone on this side also spotted the bright beam of light and shouted excitedly, "The people who left first called for a rescue team!"
Jian Jing looked in the direction they were pointing. In the distance, a bright light gradually approached, faintly outlining the silhouette of a ship with a red and blue national flag hanging from its mast.
It was indeed a ship.
She asked, "Who called for rescue?"
"The group that left first. I saw them take a satellite phone, so they must have gotten through."
"It's the production team," Connor Lee said. "The captain is with them too."
"No wonder."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the tense atmosphere from earlier vanished. People's morality and kindness suddenly returned. Seeing someone clinging to a wooden board in the distance, they paddled over to pull them up.
This unfortunate soul was the screenwriter, clutching a metal box and gasping for air.
Raj asked, "Why did you keep that thing?"
"This box is worth over 3 million," the screenwriter said. "Borrowed it from the insurance company."
Raj immediately fell silent.
The ship slowly approached. Several crew members pointed from the deck, and soon after, one of them threw down a rope ladder, tossing it to the nearest lifeboat.
People from the lifeboat climbed up one by one.
After they were aboard, more crew members lowered lifeboats to pull in those in the water, then sent them up the rope ladder, with crew members above responsible for pulling people up.
Jian Jing and her group's life raft was the farthest away. Although everyone knew that since the fishing boat had started rescuing people, they couldn't possibly miss them, they couldn't help but worry about being overlooked.
This anxiety, though unspoken, lingered in their minds, impossible to shake off.
They could only make small talk to distract themselves.
"We're lucky there was a ship nearby."
"The fishing ban period is over, so there are many fishing boats at sea now."
"I was terrified. Thankfully the police didn't arrive at the very end."
"Movies are movies, reality is reality. With modern technology so advanced, it's impossible not to contact rescue."
"It's been decades since the Titanic, there must have been some progress."
"It's truly fortunate."
While reassuring each other, they waved their rescue sticks, afraid of being missed.
Half an hour later, those furthest away had been rescued. The fishing boat headed in their direction, similarly dropping a rope ladder for them to climb aboard.
"Ladies first," Hiroto Ishikawa made way.
Ran-er Kim sarcastically remarked, "It's ladies first when there's no danger, but equality when there is."
The gentlemen pretended not to hear.
Ran-er Kim didn't hold back, pushing past them to climb up. The moment her feet touched the deck, she felt her limbs go weak, almost collapsing to the ground.
"Have some hot water," crew members distributed blankets and hot water. "Are any of you injured?"
"My face is cut," Liu Sau-chi said.
A crew member gave him a bandage.
Others were also numb with cold, hanging on by their last bit of strength to climb aboard, collapsing on the deck, unable to get up.
Jian Jing was the last to be rescued.
As she boarded, she looked back at the sea. The cruise ship had completely sunk, the severed tentacles had vanished without a trace, as if nothing had ever happened.
The sun was slowly rising on the horizon.
The view brightened, and the undulating sea didn't seem as treacherous anymore.
"Rest for a while, we'll return to shore soon," the crew members escorted the shivering survivors to the cabins, constantly reassuring them, "You'll be on land after a short nap."
Having survived a disaster, everyone was exhausted beyond words, not wanting to speak, only nodding briefly.
Seeing this, the crew members didn't say much more, arranging for them to rest before leaving.
The fishing boat had limited rooms, with three or four people squeezed into one. But at this moment, even the pickiest person wouldn't complain about the conditions, with people of the same gender huddling together to sleep.
Jian Jing turned off the lights and lay down on the sofa.
Heavy breathing could be heard from Zhang Xue'er and Ran-er Kim on the bed. They were exhausted and terrified. Who could have imagined that participating in a reality show would lead to a scene straight out of a disaster movie?
They had come so close to death.
So close to starring in their own horror film.
Fortunately, it was all over now. All horror movies have survivors in the end, with the main characters usually safe and sound, and if lucky, even some supporting characters manage to escape with their lives.
As Jian Jing pondered this, she heard a soft sound by her ear.
The door was pushed open a crack, letting in a salty sea breeze that caressed her face, refreshingly cool.
"Click," in less than 3 seconds it closed again, and the room returned to its stuffy heat.
Jian Jing opened her eyes and slowly sat up.
