Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

September 9th, 10:15 PM.

Sea fog blanketed the area, reducing visibility to less than twenty meters.

Inside the bridge of the "Sea Eagle" destroyer, a destroyer from an island chain nation, the atmosphere was somber, making one's chest feel heavy.

The middle-aged captain, Kawaguchi Yu, stared intently at the chaotic signals on the sonar screen with a cold and sharp gaze.

"Captain, sonar echo analysis failed. All signals are small metallic reflections. We cannot identify the primary target."

"What about infrared thermal imaging?"

"The humidity of the fog is too high, which severely attenuates the infrared signal, and only a blurry heat source can be detected within a range of 100 meters."

Kawaguchi Yu's knuckles tapped repeatedly on the control panel, the muffled thuds echoing throughout the cabin. Unlike the reckless "Black Octopus," he was a firm believer in discipline and tactics.

"He's still in that area, slippery as an eel," Kawaguchi Yu said coldly. "Since we can't find him by calling out, we'll force him to move on his own."

He turned to the communications officer: "Order the 'Black Octopus' patrol boats to cease their search and remain in place as fixed outposts."

Then, he picked up the walkie-talkie: "Sniper team, positions one and two, prepare to execute the noise detection plan."

"receive!"

"Use the destroyer as the center and conduct indiscriminate long-range sniping towards the northern sector. Fire every thirty seconds, covering all possible hiding places. I want to hear what the bullets hit."

This is the dumbest, yet most effective, method.

In the silent fog, the sound of a bullet hitting the water, wood, or metal hull can be captured by a high-precision microphone, thus revealing the location.

"yes!"

On either side of the towering bridge of the "Sea Eagle," two snipers set up anti-materiel sniper rifles equipped with long silencers.

---

On the "Breaking Waves"

Su Ming stood quietly in the cockpit. He didn't look at the compass or the instruments; he just closed his eyes and listened intently.

The sound of seawater propelling the ship, the sound of mist condensing and dripping, the low-frequency resonance of the engines of a large ship in the distance... all of these flowed into his mind, forming a three-dimensional sound map.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes.

"Xiao Qi." He picked up the satellite phone.

"I'm here! How is it?" Xiaoqi's voice was filled with anxiety.

"Please pull up the structural diagram of the island chain nation's 'Sea Eagle' destroyer, the most detailed one possible."

"What are you trying to do?!"

"They're about to start target practice," Su Ming said calmly. "I want to know where the bullseye is."

Xiao Qi paused for half a second, then immediately reacted, and the keyboard clicked loudly again: "The high ground of a destroyer is usually the observation posts on the top of the bridge and on both sides. The structural diagram and the standard deployment positions of snipers have been sent to your terminal."

Su Ming hung up the phone and opened the terminal screen.

A detailed 3D model of the destroyer pops up.

His finger swiped across the screen, finally stopping on the platforms extending outwards on either side of the bridge.

"It really is here."

Almost simultaneously.

"Whoosh—Pfft!"

A soft whooshing sound pierced the air as a bullet swiftly struck the sea twenty meters to the left of the "Breaking Waves," creating an almost invisible splash.

But the sound was crystal clear to Su Ming.

He didn't dodge, he didn't even move.

He was calculating.

Wind speed, humidity, sound propagation delay, and ballistics...

"Whoosh—Pfft!"

The second bullet landed thirty meters to the right.

"Crossfire, fan-shaped sweep." Su Ming chuckled, "Looks like this captain is smarter than that bald guy."

He turned and went into the cabin, opening the old wooden box his grandfather had left behind.

At the bottom of all the strange tools, he pulled out a metal contraption slightly shorter than his arm—an old-fashioned signal gun, its brass barrel gleaming faintly in the dim light.

Beside it, three red flares lay quietly.

"Grandpa said that this thing is sometimes even more useful than a cannon."

Su Ming picked up the signal gun and a flare and returned to the cockpit.

He did not act immediately, but waited quietly.

He was waiting for the other person to make their move.

One shot every thirty seconds, with unparalleled precision.

As the fifth bullet whistled through the air, Su Ming abruptly raised his signal pistol, aiming it at the direction from which the sound came, at an angle of elevation he had meticulously calculated in his mind.

Without aiming, it relied entirely on muscle memory and absolute hearing.

"Bang!"

A muffled thud, quite different from that of a sniper rifle.

A blinding red beam of light, trailing a fiery tail, pierced through the thick fog and shot straight toward the enormous creature in the darkness.

---

"Haiying" is on the left side of the bridge.

Sniper "Sea Serpent" has just finished a shot and is preparing to adjust his angle to find the next target.

Suddenly, a rapidly enlarging red dot filled his entire field of vision through his night vision goggles.

"What is that?!"

Before he could react, the red light seemed to teleport, slamming hard into the railing of his observation post.

"boom!"

The flare exploded instantly, bursting forth with blinding light and terrifying heat.

"ah--!"

A piercing scream rang out. The "Sea Serpent's" eyes were instantly burned by the intense light, and its expensive night vision goggles were destroyed in a second. The force of the impact threw it over, and its clothes were instantly set ablaze, turning it into a human torch.

The entire left side of the bridge was bathed in a blood-red light.

"Attacked on port! Sniper number one is out of action!"

"Medic! Quick!"

Inside the bridge, Yu Kawaguchi stared at the raging flames on the monitor screen, his face ashen.

"He fought back..."

He wasn't shocked, he was furious.

The rabbit, surrounded by hunting dogs, not only didn't escape, but instead turned around and bit one of the dogs.

"Reporting, Captain!" The communications officer's voice trembled slightly. "The sonar system has... detected the launch point! 1750 meters away, bearing 271!"

"Lock on him!" Kawaguchi roared. "Missile preparation!"

"But Captain, the fog is too thick, the radar can't lock onto the target, and the fire control system..."

"Then use torpedoes!" Kawaguchi Yu's eyes were bloodshot. "Blow that coordinate area flat!"

He no longer cared about hard drives; all he wanted was to send that damned wrecked ship and the damned devil on it to hell.

However, he had barely finished speaking.

"Warning! Warning!" A piercing alarm sounded across the bridge.

"Captain! Weather radar indicates that a super typhoon is rapidly forming and is expected to reach this area in ten minutes! Wind speeds will exceed Category 12!"

Kawaguchi Yu turned sharply and looked out the porthole.

The once calm sea began to stir with ominous undercurrents.

The fog is being torn apart by an invisible force.

Where the sky meets the sea in the distance, it looks as if an ancient behemoth is slowly awakening.