Chapter 94: The Monster Beneath the Water

As Chang Yu was lost in a reverie, a vast black shape suddenly flashed beneath the river’s surface, rousing his suspicion.

He lunged to the edge of the speedboat and craned his neck to look down into the water outside the hull, but saw only the muddy current.

The river lay calm and still; the shadow from a moment ago had vanished without a trace, as though everything that had just happened were nothing but an illusion.

"What is it?" Catherine noticed his odd behavior.

"Nothing. Maybe I just imagined it." Chang Yu gave an awkward laugh, acutely aware that his startles and jumps before such a beauty were rather embarrassing.

He looked up at the sky. The pristine blue vault, once spotless, now bore several clouds, he did not know when they had appeared.

And those clouds happened, most inconveniently, to blot out part of the sun.

At the sight of this, Chang Yu became even more certain that the dark shape he had seen moments ago was merely a hallucination.

"Maybe the black shadow I saw in the river was just a shadow effect created when the clouds blocked the sun?"

Just as Chang Yu was secretly letting out a breath of relief, cries of alarm and waves of desperate calls for help suddenly rose from a sightseeing boat not far away.

He looked over and saw that the cruise ship, already nearing the center of the great river, was being pressed upward by something beneath it.

The vessel, which had been moving steadily, rocked and heaved under the impact, tilting again and again, as if it might capsize at any moment.

"What the hell? What is that thing?" he shouted, springing to his feet on the speedboat.

Only then did Chang Yu realize that the shadow he had seen earlier had not been his imagination after all.

From his angle, a huge cruise ship was being forced up out of the water by some unknown creature.

In that fleeting glimpse, Chang Yu caught sight of it: its back was black and slick, covered in scales, like the hide of some fishlike beast.

By then, the tourists on the shore had also noticed the anomaly in the river’s center.

"Look! What is that?"

"Do you see it? Why is the water bulging like that?"

"It looks like... like there’s a monster!"

Panic spread through the crowd. Some screamed at the top of their lungs, while others hurriedly fled from the riverbank.

Some fumbled for their phones to call the police; others simply raised their phones and filmed the astonishing scene before them.

Within seconds, the riverbank had descended into utter chaos.

Women’s shrieks, men’s shouts, security personnel’s curses, and the cries of children all tangled together, a panorama of human nature laid bare.

"Turn around!" Catherine decisively ordered the young man in uniform driving the speedboat. "We’re going to help by the cruise ship."

"This..." The young soldier hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and turned the boat around.

He knew full well that in a crisis like this, the wisest course would be to leave the scene as quickly as possible.

And yet he still chose, without hesitation, to obey Catherine’s command and steer toward the stricken vessel.

He did not know what the thing in the river was, nor why the man and woman seated behind him on the speedboat seemed so confident in facing such an unknown monstrosity.

He only knew that, before coming to pick them up, his superiors had told him that no matter what happened, he was to follow Catherine’s instructions.

From that moment on, he understood that this woman named Catherine held a very high priority.

He was a soldier, and a soldier’s duty was to obey orders.

Even if those orders might cost him his life, he still had to follow the command of his superiors.

"Is that an Abomination?" Chang Yu looked toward the shadow beneath the river, his expression grave.

"Probably." Catherine ground out the words through clenched teeth. Her mood could only be described as dreadful.

If this Abomination had appeared in a desert, or a forest, or even on an ice field, Catherine would not have been so furious.

But it had chosen to surface in broad daylight, before the eyes of countless tourists, and even in front of the cameras of the news media.

For so many years, the Disaster Control Bureau had worked tirelessly, all because they feared that one day creatures like Abominations would be exposed to the public eye.

To fulfill that hope, how many righteous and valiant people from the Bureau had thrown themselves into the front lines and died fighting Abominations, just as her own parents once had?

And now this accidental exposure of an Abomination could shatter that balance and undo all the Bureau’s years of effort. Was this not blatant troublemaking?

Once that balance was broken, normal social order would surely be thrown into disarray.

If ordinary people learned of the existence of nonnatural creatures like Abominations, they would live every day in fear and dread.

Many who dreamed of one day possessing extraordinary power would abandon everything they had without a second thought.

They would forsake their wives, their children, their careers, sell off their homes and property, and devote themselves wholly to pursuing that mysterious, transcendent power in hopes of fulfilling their desire.

To prevent such human tragedy from ever occurring, the Disaster Control Bureau had both the responsibility and the duty to conceal the existence of Abominations from the world.

Catherine quickly pulled a phone from her small handbag and dialed a number.

"Hello, is this the logistics team? An Abomination has appeared in the great river. Send people at once to clear the crowd along the bank for evacuation."

"Also, establish a cordon along the shore at the site of the incident. No unrelated personnel are to enter without permission."

"No media outlets or news stations are allowed to film anything happening here. If anything has already been recorded, seize their equipment immediately."

"Tell Zhen Youcai to hack into the internet at once. Nothing about what happened here today can appear online."

"Any video already posted must be erased immediately. Under no circumstances can we let more people see what happened by the river."

Catherine fired off her orders in a rapid, urgent stream, and Chang Yu truly worried whether the person on the other end had caught a single word.

Fortunately, Catherine soon hung up, and by then the speedboat had finally reached the vicinity of the cruise ship.

"Chief, we can’t get any closer!" The young man in uniform killed the engine. "We’re already very near the thing beneath the river."

Looking at the uneasy soldier before her, Catherine took a deep breath.

The young man before her was still very young. He was only an ordinary person, and this battlefield was never meant for him.

He could shoulder a rifle and defend his country; he could fight bravely on the front line to protect his homeland and his people.

But he could not be sent to die for nothing.

"Once we get into the water, you leave!" Catherine instructed him. "This is not where you should be."

"But it’s dangerous here. If I leave, what about you?" the young soldier asked, his face full of concern.

"Trust me, staying here will only hold us back. If you’re not here, we can move more freely." Chang Yu pressed a hand on the soldier’s shoulder and spoke with unmistakable authority.

"Also, take this child to safety while you’re at it." Chang Yu pointed to Yang Yang, who was still seated in the back and had only a hazy understanding of the situation.

"Yes, Chief!" The young soldier snapped a crisp salute. "Mission guaranteed to be completed."

"Um... can I ask something?" Yang Yang timidly raised a small hand. "What exactly is an Abomination? Can someone explain it to me?"

"That’s hard to explain." Chang Yu was instantly black-faced, the mournful atmosphere he had just managed to create vanishing without a trace.

"Just think of them as the little monsters from armored hero shows. From now on, just beat one whenever you see one, and if you see two, beat two. Simple enough."

"If that’s the case, then I’m not leaving." Yang Yang volunteered eagerly, a hint of excitement even flickering in his eyes. "I can fight monsters right now. No need to wait until later!"

"Go play somewhere else, kid." Chang Yu refused with a dark expression. "Be good and get moving. It’s dangerous here."

By now, the cruise ship in the center of the river had begun tilting to one side, on the verge of capsizing. A tragedy was about to unfold before their very eyes, and Catherine could no longer contain her anxiety. With a splash, she leaped into the water.

"Chang Yu, can you swim?" Her voice drifted faintly from beneath the surface, laced with urgency.

"Of course. The old dean taught me specially." Seeing that Catherine had already entered the water, Chang Yu naturally could not remain helpless on the speedboat.

He plunged in after her and, using both hands and feet, followed closely behind her as they swam toward the massive black shape beneath the river.

"I’ll figure out a way to draw it away," Catherine said hurriedly while swimming.

"You find a way to rescue the people on the boat and get them to shore. Save as many as you can."

"You should be the one rescuing people. I’ll draw it away." Chang Yu was worried for Catherine’s safety.

If anything happened to her, he feared he would regret it until his intestines turned green.

Close combat had never been Catherine’s strong suit, and fighting a river monster underwater would likely put her at a disadvantage.

Underwater, Catherine would have trouble finding leverage and moving would be difficult; she would not be able to fully display her strength.

The river monster, on the other hand, was in exactly the opposite situation. In its own territory, it could move with far greater ease.

"Don’t worry about me. I’ve spent all these years at the Disaster Control Bureau for nothing." Catherine said.

"I have a way to protect myself. You just do what you need to do."

"Fine!" Chang Yu gritted his teeth, veins bulging at his temples. "Protect yourself well, or I’ll regret it."

He made up his mind then and there: if Catherine suffered even the slightest injury today, he would carve the thing in the water into sashimi and wash it down with beer.

Seeing Chang Yu and Catherine swimming farther and farther away, the young man in uniform quickly turned the speedboat around and sped off in the opposite direction.

Only a string of childish cries drifted far across the river.

"Damn it! Can’t you go slower? I almost fell off just now, didn’t you know?"

The End

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