This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 311 The Child

Chapter 311: Chapter 311 The Child

""Before we even went in, the bombers had turned that little city into medieval ruins. You wouldn’t want to see what it looked like—human entrails, severed limbs. After seeing all that, you wouldn’t feel any fascination for the human body anymore...," Hainerd said.

Chen Ke nodded. It was like photos from a car accident scene; sometimes you don’t realize how fragile people are until you see it firsthand. The sight of even gutted pets, let alone people, could make anyone feel sick.

Conrad must have seen plenty of that.

"We all thought it was going to be an easy war. We even went to Suss Bay with pity in our hearts, but what happened next far surpassed our imaginations," Conrad drank a sip of his drink and continued to recount.

The vanguard unit Conrad was a part of didn’t encounter much effective resistance. They advanced so far that when a Spiritual Ability User appeared behind their ranks, no one noticed.

"I heard Mike calling me. He was shouting, ’Get down! Get down!’ The others started firing. I was in the front row, and when I turned my head, the two comrades in front of me had been sliced open by a beam of red light," Conrad said.

That was a successful surviving test subject, a half Spiritual Ability User who had learned some Transcendent skills. Whatever the skill was, it effortlessly melted through military-grade ceramic body armor.

"We shot at that bastard. His hands started burning and then melted away. Next, his whole body turned red and he charged at us. I was dragging Mike back when a wave of heat lifted me more than five meters up," Conrad said, showing Chen Ke his right hand.

Only then did Chen Ke realize that Conrad’s right hand was severely burnt.

"When I got up, I learned that the thing had just exploded. His innards were spread everywhere. The other team members were scattered on the ground like blossoms. I tried to find Mike but only found a set of dentures on the ground," Conrad laughed.

Chen Ke guessed that it must have been the immature Spiritual Power Injection Skill that caused the man to lose control over his Spiritual Energy, coupled with the use of a secret skill that led to an overload-like phenomenon, although Chen Ke didn’t know why that guy self-destructed.

"After that incident, I thought you would distance yourself from anything to do with Spiritual Energy," Chen Ke said.

"Life is unpredictable, and I still need to live. Besides, that incident was only the appetizer for the war. There were even more brutal things to come. The war lasted half a year and, in the end, we had to send in Transcendents to deal with it," Conrad said.

"Transcendents..." Chen Ke paused.

There were Transcendents in this world.

Faster than bullets, stronger than trains, able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound... The man who ended WWII, the ultimate combat force in this world. Just how powerful were Transcendents? Chen Ke was very curious.

"Hainerd is lucky he didn’t have to go through what I did. But that old man is too indecisive, hehe..." Conrad opened another bottle of wine and filled Chen Ke’s glass.

"Conrad, what about your family?" Chen Ke suddenly asked.

"..." Conrad didn’t speak, his brows furrowed, as though he was recalling some painful memories.

"At least you didn’t get into coastal smuggling with your daughter like Hainerd did, right?" Chen Ke raised his glass and drank it all in one go.

"Chen Ke, I need some time alone. Could you leave me for a while?" Conrad said solemnly.

"Stay vigilant, Conrad." Chen Ke saw that Conrad was not in a good mood, so he didn’t linger, put down his glass, and left the captain’s quarters.

He descended to the deck, where the night sea breeze was strong, the air was moist, and the smell of the sea was pungent. Soon, his nose was covered in droplets of water. The moonlight was cold, and all that could be heard was the sound of the waves and the ship’s engines. As Chen Ke turned to go down to the crew’s rest area, he instinctively glanced at the aft deck.

And in that brief instant, he thought he saw a child, about seven or eight years old, moving from the left side of the ship to the right, hiding behind the crane.

Feeling goosebumps all over, Chen Ke immediately pulled out a silenced pistol, aimed behind the crane, and activated his Spiritual Vision with a sweep.

There was nothing there.

Spiritual Vision could reveal all humanoid figures, but now there was nothing to see. Chen Ke slowly lowered his gun. Either he had been mistaken just now, or that thing had jumped ship.

There were no children on the ship, Chen Ke was certain of that, because he had scanned every single person on the ship more than once.

No matter what, strange occurrences had started happening, and Chen Ke was not going to deceive himself with the dumb-ass excuse of "just seeing things wrong."

He would not see wrongly, nor would Lin Mo’s muscle memory and assassin instinct allow such a mistake, and with the experiences of these past two months, current Chen Ke was no rookie; he had seen it all.

Whatever it was that flashed by just now, it must have emerged from this sea.

"The ship is moving so fast, yet it can still cling on... pretty awesome..." Chen Ke exclaimed, feeling it was necessary to tell Conrad and Nathan about this.

So he immediately rushed up to the bridge, turned the captain’s cabin door handle, and found the door had been locked by Conrad.

"Conrad!" Chen Ke called out.

"Let me be alone!" Conrad yelled from inside.

"Be alone my ass! Open the door now, or I’ll kick it down," Chen Ke said.

Conrad opened the door; there were no signs of anger on his face, but instead some tension. Even he must have heard something in Chen Ke’s tone.

"Did you see something?" Conrad asked.

"There definitely aren’t children on this ship, right?" Chen Ke countered.

"Come in," Conrad said, and as soon as Chen Ke entered, he immediately closed the door.

He pushed his laptop toward Chen Ke; it had several small windows open, all showing surveillance footage.

"Did you see something strange on this just now?" Chen Ke asked.

"I’ve been watching all day, and there’s been nothing. Where did you... see a child? What did it look like?" Conrad asked.

"I didn’t see it clearly. I was just coming downstairs when I saw it near the stern crane. It disappeared after running to the back," Chen Ke said.

"Did you go... check it out? Like going around to the back to see?" Conrad asked cautiously.

"Why don’t you go and take a look?" Chen Ke smiled.

"Don’t joke with me. I can’t handle that kind of thing. We’re counting on you now, buddy!" Conrad’s tone had shifted.

"You’re calling me buddy now? When I first got on the ship, you arranged the shittiest place for me," Chen Ke snorted.

"I don’t mind you sleeping in the captain’s cabin, Chen Ke. You can lie wherever the fuck you want, as long as you can handle the current situation," Conrad stared at Chen Ke.

"Immediately declare martial law on the entire ship, tell everyone to arm themselves, don’t scatter, try to stay together to avoid going off alone, suppress your curiosity, and shoot at the first sign of anything unusual. Don’t investigate strange sounds; just do it quickly," Chen Ke said.

In many horror films, the protagonists get wiped out because of various stupid moves, and Chen Ke did not want to repeat such mistakes now.

Conrad nodded, took a shotgun from the cabinet, slung it over his back, and then went to the command center with Chen Ke, where only a helmsman and a navigator were present.

He picked up the broadcast intercom and began to address the entire ship, "Attention all hands... Attention all hands... This is Captain Conrad..."

Strange occurrences had started happening; whether this ship could make it out of these waters depended on the next few hours...