When Colonel Handuya saw the gunboat gradually approaching his fleet, he naturally grew concerned.
From his perspective, the gunboat's approach might mean that the crew had discovered their formation. But what was strange was that they had yet to receive any warning from the gunboat.
At sea, if an enemy was spotted, ships would not continue closing in once they reached a certain distance. The closer they were on the open sea, the greater the chance of being hit.
Of course, modern naval warfare relied on beyond-visual-range strikes. As long as a ship could be detected, it could be attacked before the two sides ever met. Yet this tiny gunboat was actually charging straight at his fleet. How bold was that?
No matter how outdated his fleet was, even if the ships were nearing retirement, they were still Missile boats. Each one was far bigger than the little gunboat in front of them. It felt like a child charging at an adult, ready to fight.
That was why Colonel Handuya found it strange. Besides, he felt that his ships had already been spotted, but when he saw the Singapore City flag flying from the gunboat, he stopped caring.
Chen Mo looked at the gunboat and realized that it was heading toward an oil tanker behind the formation. In the gunboat captain's eyes, there was no missile boat formation ahead—only an oil tanker sailing in from afar.
The gunboat needed to approach and inspect the tanker because its captain had noticed something strange: its speed kept fluctuating between fast and slow.
In truth, it was caused by the formations' reflections and the movement of the seawater, which made the light bend slightly as it refracted. This could have been avoided, but Chen Mo had been stingy and used only the lowest-grade