Chapter 3 – The Mist

Thump!

Moving smoothly just a moment ago, the Cruise Ship suddenly lurched violently as if it had slammed into something.

Screams instantly erupted across the vessel. In the reception room, while the quick-reacting Su Lifeng and Jiang Yushi-whom he had pulled close-remained upright, everyone else lost their balance and tumbled to the floor.

However, the room was filled with fixtures that could serve as handholds. The others quickly followed their instincts, grabbing onto anything they could reach.

“What happened? Did we hit a reef?” someone shouted in terror.

Jiang Yushi clung tightly to Su Lifeng’s arm, her face pale with shock as she muttered subconsciously, “That’s impossible. This is a fixed route. This Cruise Ship has traveled this path thousands of times. How could it hit a reef…” Even so, she couldn’t explain why this was happening.

“It’s not over yet.” Su Lifeng frowned, suddenly turning around to pull Jiang Yushi into his protective embrace.

Creeeeeak…

No sooner had he spoken than a piercing sound of crushing and grinding metal echoed from all parts of the ship. With a muffled “thud”, the floor-to-ceiling windows shattered inward.

“Aaaaah!!!”

The startled cries of the passengers turned into a chorus of agonizing screams. Su Lifeng lowered his head, listening to the sound of glass shards raining down behind him. His face had turned completely white.

“Su… Su Lifeng, did you know this would happen?” Jiang Yushi asked, her voice trembling as she shook with fear.

“I didn’t! Just hold onto me and don’t move!” Su Lifeng replied.

In any known maritime disaster, a massive Cruise Ship on a calm sea would never be tossed around and crushed out of thin air like this!

Even after the glass shattered, the sensation of being squeezed continued to penetrate deep into the ship’s interior. The Cruise Ship lurched forward, as if it were being dragged through a narrow gap between two invisible walls… yet looking outside, everything appeared normal. There was nothing there.

Forget knowing how to deal with such a disaster; it was impossible to even comprehend.

Perhaps this wasn’t a maritime disaster at all…

Su Lifeng had done everything he could to prepare. Now, he could only trust in the images he had seen in his earlier Precognitive Vision.

In this disaster, he would not die!

And Jiang Yushi, who was closest to him, would also remain unharmed!

Two positives added together… should result in a positive outcome!

“What’s going on?!”

“Help… help me!”

“Oh god… the ship is going to capsize!”

“What is happening?!… Sob…”

Amidst a series of muffled thuds and the screams of passengers, Su Lifeng felt the strength being drained from his body bit by bit.

In his arms, Jiang Yushi was shaking uncontrollably.

Su Lifeng forced out a shout, “Don’t be afraid! Stay right here, we won’t die!”

Boom!

With one final thunderous roar, Su Lifeng’s vision suddenly went black. His hand, which had been gripping the railing with all his might, involuntarily let go. He lost consciousness…

Cold, silence…

After a long period of unconsciousness, Su Lifeng bolted upright the moment he woke, scanning his surroundings.

A few seconds later, he was fully alert.

The Cruise Ship seemed to have come to a halt after he fainted. He was lying not far from that same railing.

But how had he suddenly passed out without taking a heavy blow?

He checked his body; he wasn’t injured, just exhausted.

Su Lifeng looked to his side and saw that Jiang Yushi had also fainted, her hand still clutching his arm.

As he moved, she let out a soft groan and began to wake up.

“Are you okay?” Su Lifeng asked, shaking his head to clear the fog.

“I’m… I’m fine… I just don’t know why I blacked out…” Jiang Yushi replied, struggling to sit up. She asked weakly, “Is everyone else okay?”

The sky outside didn’t seem completely dark yet, but it was shrouded in a thick, hazy mist. It seemed they hadn’t been unconscious for very long.

By the dim light, they could see glass shards covering the floor along with various splatters of blood.

Several figures lay scattered across the floor. Hearing Jiang Yushi’s voice, they began to stir.

“I’m okay…”

“I’m alright too. I just bumped my head, luckily it’s not bleeding.”

“Someone help me up, my legs are like jelly.”

“Oh my god! What Su said was true!” A girl stood up, still shaken. she stared blankly at her surroundings before bursting into tears.

Jiang Yushi walked over and hugged her, comforting her softly, “It’s okay, it’s okay, Cheng Xiaomei. You’re safe now…”

Cheng Xiaomei nodded, finally calming down a little.

The way she looked at Su Lifeng now was completely different. This male student from her school-someone she wasn’t familiar with and who wasn’t even in the same department-now seemed incredibly reliable.

“Go help the others,” Jiang Yushi said.

Cheng Xiaomei nodded quickly. “O-okay.”

Meanwhile, Su Lifeng suddenly froze as he surveyed the room…

These scenes were identical to the images from his Precognitive Vision, but there was one glaring discrepancy.

“Where did Yu Yihang go?” Su Lifeng asked, staring at a pool of blood on the floor.

The blood was still fresh. Based on the amount of blood he saw and the outcome from his Precognitive Vision, Yu Yihang should have been severely injured.

Where could someone that badly hurt have gone?

“Gone? That’s impossible… Huh, Chen Haifa is gone too…”

“And He Yao! She’s missing as well!”

As the other students regained their senses, they cried out in confusion and alarm.

The names they called out were all people Su Lifeng had seen getting injured in his Precognitive Vision.

Su Lifeng had originally been dreading the sight of the many injured people and corpses he expected to find, but to his utter shock, they had all vanished.

“There’s so much blood here… Look, isn’t this He Yao’s phone? It’s covered in blood!” Cheng Xiaomei suddenly shrieked. She picked up a blood-stained phone, her face turning deathly pale. “Could it be… that the emergency responders took them away?”

This theory was immediately embraced by the others. One boy even managed a relieved, albeit strained, smile. “It has to be. Thank goodness. Everyone is fine, and we’re still alive.”

“Yeah, it’s all thanks to Su. But what was that just now? Su, you must know something, right?”

“The weather looks terrible out there. It’s so dark and heavy.”

Others pressed him with impatient questions.

Su Lifeng, however, remained focused on the bloodstains. He frowned. “There’s only one medical clinic on this Cruise Ship. How could rescue have arrived so quickly? Even if they did, why wouldn’t they have woken us up too?”

These people were clearly panicking. Faced with such a situation, their first instinct was actually to believe that everyone had been rescued…

Jiang Yushi clearly sensed that something was wrong as well, but she still said, “Lifeng, don’t be too tense. It’s over now. The ship is only so big; where could they have gone? Let’s go look for them. We should check on the other students while we’re at it…”

“Yeah, it’s over now,” Cheng Xiaomei nodded, as if trying to convince herself.

Su Lifeng waved a hand to silence them. After two seconds of silence, he suddenly asked, “It’s over? Then let me ask you this-do any of you hear the sound of the waves?”

As he spoke, his expression turned extremely grim, and his voice trembled slightly.

Everyone froze. Jiang Yushi immediately tilted her head to listen.

Outside, it was terrifyingly silent…

Jiang Yushi’s expression shifted. She stood up and ran outside.

Before long, she let out a startled cry. “Heavens… where are we?”

The others exchanged looks, a nameless dread suddenly welling up within them.

Amidst a dense, oppressive fog, the severely deformed Cruise Ship sat motionless on the sea.

Within their range of visibility, all they could see was dark, deep water-as still as a stagnant pond.

Further out, everything was shrouded in an endless mist that seemed to have no end.

Everyone was struck speechless by the sight. As Su Lifeng stared into the fog, a much more ominous feeling suddenly surged in his heart.

He couldn’t see anything yet, but he was certain that the disaster was far from over.

“I’m going to the deck to look around.” Su Lifeng suddenly turned and left.

He had a strong feeling that he had only seen the first half of the event in his earlier vision.

The reality now was that the injured were gone.

Jiang Yushi followed him immediately. Cheng Xiaomei also scrambled to keep up, and after a moment of hesitation, the others did the same.

On the vast ocean, the unknown and the lack of help represented the ultimate terror… and Su Lifeng clearly knew more than they did.

Along the way, Su Lifeng observed every detail he could. Looking at the ship’s hull, the entire Cruise Ship looked as if it had been violently scraped by giant sandpaper.

He couldn’t imagine any natural disaster that could cause such a phenomenon.

The people on the deck also seemed to have fallen unconscious and were now waking up intermittently.

The sound of soft sobbing could be heard everywhere. Su Lifeng moved quickly through the crowd, his eyes scanning the area.

He was looking for the injured people he had seen in his earlier vision…

Nothing. Nothing at all…

Even that crew member was gone…

Just then, someone on the ship finally screamed in terror, “My girlfriend is gone! Has anyone seen her? There’s so much blood here… she must be hurt!”

“My friend is missing too! I was hiding right here with him!”

“Sister! Has anyone seen my sister?”

Amidst the chorus of panicked cries, Su Lifeng stopped outside the cafe.

Where the couple from his Precognitive Vision should have been lying, there was now only a pool of blood and a scrap of fabric from the girl’s clothes.

He immediately thought of the scene where the girl had screamed at the top of her lungs…

Looking at the reactions of the people around him, it was clear that no one had heard a thing.

While she was screaming for help, everyone had been unconscious, except for…

“The injured!”

The moment the thought surfaced in his mind, afterimages suddenly flashed before Su Lifeng’s eyes.

The Girl and her boyfriend were among them. The girl was still crying out in panic, “Save me… save me!”

Yu Yihang’s figure also flashed by. His eyes were tightly shut, and his entire body was trembling violently…

Right then, a Shadowy Figure suddenly darted through the mist…

Su Lifeng felt as if his heart had been seized. An unspeakable sense of dread instantly enveloped his mind.

“Ah!”

With a low growl, the Precognitive Vision abruptly vanished.

Su Lifeng gasped for air, taking a long moment to regain the sensation of standing on the ship.

“I… I’m going to die?”

He stood dazed for two seconds before suddenly running toward the railing.

“Su, what’s wrong?” Cheng Xiaomei asked nervously.

But they didn’t need Su Lifeng to answer; they could see it for themselves.

In the thick fog in the distance, a Black Thread loomed indistinctly…

“That’s… an island…” Jiang Yushi’s eyes widened in disbelief.