Oh no! I've been kept as a pet by a stray killer whale!

Boom—!

A pale bolt of lightning tore through the ink-black night sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder that crashed down like a ten-thousand-ton steel plate onto the turbulent sea.

Deep in the Pacific Ocean, an epic storm, undetected by weather satellites, is raging.

The gale whipped up giant waves tens of meters high, like sharp claws reaching out from the abyss, frantically tearing everything on the sea surface.

"Damn it... Hold on tight!"

The last image I remember is the research vessel "Exploration" breaking in two with a metallic twisting sound, its heavy, reinforced hull snapping in two, and the captain's desperate roar.

Immediately afterwards, cold, salty seawater rushed in, plunging the world into a deathly darkness and a chaotic spinning.

……

"Cough! Cough cough cough!"

Jiang Che choked on a mouthful of bitter seawater, his lungs burning with pain.

He coughed violently, his body swaying uncontrollably with the rise and fall of the waves.

The biting cold instantly seeped into his bones, forcibly reviving his previously hazy consciousness.

He is still alive.

Jiang Che instinctively tightened his arms.

He clutched a bright yellow hard plastic lifebuoy tightly in his arms—the only lifeline he grasped at the last moment before the ship capsized, relying on muscle memory from years of maritime scientific research.

He struggled to open his eyes, which were stinging from the seawater, trying to see his surroundings clearly.

But all that could be seen was a despairing grayness.

The storm has not completely subsided; although the most violent moment has passed, its lingering power remains.

The sky remained extremely low, with dark clouds like dirty rags blocking the overhead view. The waves were still two or three meters high, and each rise and fall felt like riding a roller coaster, tossing Jiang Che to the crest of a wave and then slamming him into the trough.

Is anyone there?!

Jiang Che shouted with all his might.

The sound was torn to shreds by the howling sea wind as soon as it left his mouth, and even he could hardly hear it.

No one responded.

Various kinds of debris floated on the sea: broken deck fragments, white styrofoam, a lone rubber slipper adrift, and...

Jiang Che's gaze lingered for a moment on a spot not far away, where an orange-red life jacket seemed to be floating, but it was empty.

A hollow chill, colder than seawater, instantly shot from the soles of my feet straight to the top of my head.

The entire scientific expedition team consisted of twenty-three people.

When they encountered that strange "killer wave," most people were still resting in their cabins and had no time to react.

"Calm down, Jiang Che, you need to calm down."

Jiang Che's teeth chattered, and he repeatedly forced himself to calm down.

As a senior researcher with a doctorate in marine biology, he knew very well that in a shipwreck, panic often leads to a faster death than hypothermia.

He began to examine his own condition.

Although his body was frozen stiff, his limbs could still move and there were no fractures.

I was wearing a windproof and waterproof jacket, which was already soaked through, but it provided a negligible amount of insulation.

Most importantly, there was the lifebuoy he was holding.

This is a high-end device with a GPS beacon, but unfortunately, the indicator light on the beacon went out completely during the chaotic impact, most likely because the circuit board was damaged.

"What bad luck..." Jiang Che gave a wry smile and licked the salt grains off his chapped lips.

Without fresh water, food, or communication equipment, they drifted in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.

This is not just a desperate situation; it's a death sentence.

The passage of time becomes blurred at sea.

After an unknown amount of time, the dark clouds on the horizon finally parted, and a ray of golden sunlight pierced through the gloom like a sharp sword, shining onto the undulating sea.

The wind stopped.

The once raging sea, like a wild beast that had vented its fury, began to slowly calm down, turning into a gentle yet even more deadly deep blue.

On any other day, Jiang Che would have marveled at the post-storm seascape—the sky was clear and blue, the sea and sky blended into one, and the waves shimmered. But now, this breathtaking beauty only conveyed a suffocating stillness to him.

Only when you are in the deep sea can you truly understand the overwhelming loneliness that engulfs everything.

There were no landmarks around, only an endless expanse of blue.

Looking at this blue for too long can cause a feeling of dizziness, as if the sky and the sea have been turned upside down, and the person is falling into an endless void.

Jiang Che felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier.

The symptoms of hypothermia began to appear.

At first, he felt a sharp chill, then his muscles stiffened, and now he began to feel a strange "warmth" and drowsiness.

The brain is releasing endorphins, trying to make him sleep comfortably.

"I can't sleep..."

Jiang Che bit his tongue hard, the taste of blood spreading in his mouth, and the intense pain brought him back to his senses slightly.

He struggled to raise his left hand and glanced at the mechanical diving watch on his wrist.

There are cracks on the watch face, but the hands are still moving.

10:20 AM.

About eight hours have passed since the shipwreck occurred.

"Eight hours is not enough time for the search and rescue team to locate this area of ​​the sea so quickly, even if they have set off." Jiang Che's brain was still mechanically analyzing: "The ocean current is flowing in a southeast direction. If we don't deviate from the course, we may be able to reach the island chain in a few days, but I may not be able to hold out until then."

Hunger began to gnaw at his stomach like a mouse.

But thirst is worse than hunger.

The sun overhead began to blaze fiercely; what had just been a chilly, hypothermic condition had now turned into a scorching, oppressive heat.

As the seawater evaporated, taking away the moisture from his body, Jiang Che felt like a salted fish being dried out.

He even started experiencing auditory hallucinations.

He seemed to hear the cafeteria bell ringing, his colleague Lao Wang calling him to go for a beer, and even a high-frequency whistle.

"Eek—"

"grumble--"

The sound was sharp, like a naughty child whistling, with a strong penetrating power, clearly audible even amidst the sound of waves.

Jiang Che suddenly opened his eyes, his previously unfocused pupils instantly becoming focused.

It's not a hallucination!

As a marine biologist, he was all too familiar with this sound.

This is a communication signal from marine mammals; it could be a dolphin, or it could be...

Whoosh—!

The once calm sea suddenly and without warning rose up with a huge bulge.

Immediately afterwards, less than twenty meters from Jiang Che, the water surface shattered instantly.

A massive, streamlined, black object burst from the water!

It was a towering dorsal fin, over a meter tall, resembling a halberd, shimmering with an obsidian-like luster in the sunlight.

As it surfaced, a mist of water with a salty smell gushed out from its vent, forming a brief rainbow on the sea surface.

Jiang Che's heart almost stopped beating for a moment.

That's a nightmare for all divers and those who fall into the water.

The ruler of the deep sea.

Top predator.

"Orca..."