The Aquarius sailed along its planned route toward Indonesia. Its captain was in a fine mood after an unexpected windfall, lounging in the control room as he hummed a little tune and sipped tea.
Night gradually fell. The Aquarius entered international waters, and the number of nearby ships dwindled. The first mate was doing his duty, keeping a close eye on the radar.
With visibility close to zero, the ship's flashing lights were all they had to see by. They had to rely on sonar and radar to avoid other vessels, so he needed to stay fully alert.
"Beep! Beep!" The radar sounded an alert.
The first mate glanced at the screen. A ship was heading toward them from directly ahead, and their courses seemed to overlap!
As the two ships drew closer, the blips on the screen kept moving toward the center. The first mate frowned. The other ship showed no sign of changing course.
He immediately ordered the helmsman to turn left and avoid the oncoming vessel.
The Aquarius made a slight adjustment. A moment later, the first mate's heart skipped a beat when he saw the other ship change course on the radar, too. It was still stubbornly heading straight for them!
He told the helmsman to change course again, but the result was the same. The other ship seemed dead set on coming right at them!
"Captain! Something's wrong!" the first mate said decisively.
"Hm?" The captain, who had been relaxing, hurried to his feet and strode over to the control console.
"Captain, we've changed course several times, but the ship ahead is still closing in!" Sweat beaded on the first mate's forehead.
"What about wide-area communications?"
"We tried. There's been no response!"
"Hm?" The captain furrowed his brow. This didn't look good!
The two ships were drawing closer by the second. The captain gritted his teeth and was just about to sound the alarm when a thin mist suddenly rose over the calm sea, sharply reducing visibility.
"What's going on? Why did it suddenly get foggy?" No one understood. This weather was far too strange.
"Hey? Look! Is that a ship in the fog?" Several sailors on deck peered toward the center of the mist. In the beams of the navigation lights, a shadow loomed larger and larger, apparently drawing nearer.
Then the sailors watched in astonishment as a pointed bowsprit pierced the fog, followed by a medieval three-masted sailing ship that slowly emerged. Its hull was riddled with the decayed marks of time, its sails were tattered, and white mist poured from every part of it.
"A g-ghost ship!" a sailor cried in terror!
The people in the control room had come out onto the deck, too. They all witnessed the unbelievable sight.
"Hey, why does this fog smell so pungent? And kind of sweet!" Someone finally noticed something was wrong.
"I... I feel a little dizzy."
"Huh? Me too. What's... happening?"
Thump. Thump. One person after another collapsed. The captain's head spun, too. Just before he passed out, he thought he saw two ox-headed and horse-faced figures approaching him. Before he could even fear that he was dying for no apparent reason, he lost consciousness completely.
"Boss! So this is when the gas masks you prepared for us come in handy!" a muffled voice came from beneath a gas mask. It sounded like Lao San.
"The boss plans for everything. I told you those two items would definitely come in handy! See?" Lao Da said smugly.
"Heh-heh. If you take what's mine, you'll have to give it back sooner or later!" Lao Da chuckled, then looked at the captain lying on the ground and pulled several bundles of cash from his clothes—the very money he had used to bribe the captain earlier. He even took the wallet on the captain's person.
The captain of the Aquarius had really ended up worse off after trying to pull a fast one!
By then, the "ghost ship" had finally stopped releasing the strange white gas. The sea breeze was strong, and the mist soon blew away completely, revealing the two ships.
Only then did the brothers take off their gas masks. They hid behind cover and nervously watched the ghost ship.
A silver-white gangway extended from the "ghost ship," and Nie Yun walked down it with an air of ease. The Sea Wolf was only a thousand-ton vessel, after all, and sat much lower than a freighter of tens of thousands of tons.
"Hello, boss!" The brothers were delighted to see their own boss stepping off the ghost ship. They hurried over to greet him.
"Mm, you did well!" Nie Yun nodded in satisfaction, acknowledging their contribution. The two were so excited that they stood a little taller.
At last, Nie Yun's plan for revenge came to light: he would impose a trade blockade on the Riyao Group!
It was a grand claim. With just one ship, blockading such a vast stretch of sea would normally have been nothing but a pipe dream. But the frightening Internet of Everything and the Sea Wolf's bizarre combat capabilities had made the plan possible!
Of course, besides revenge, the thousands of tons of steel aboard the ship and the ship itself were also targets Nie Yun coveted.
Although the resources on the seabed were practically limitless, and deep-sea manganese-iron deposits could solve the problem of sourcing raw materials for steel, collecting and processing the ore would consume vast amounts of energy and time before he could finally devour the steel. How could that be more efficient than simply devouring finished steel?
And so, he had come up with this plan that served two purposes at once!
First, thanks to the progress of the Internet of Everything era, Nie Yun had used his godlike online search abilities to find information about the Aquarius, a ship belonging to Riyao Group, including its route and schedule.
Next, the human-shaped, self-propelled locator—"Desperate Erlang"—had been sent aboard to track it in person!
Finally, the Sea Wolf would disguise itself as a ghost ship and release a large amount of ether gas from upwind.
Mechanical Insects could easily produce large quantities of the gas by breaking it down. It evaporated readily, and at low concentrations, ether gas did not harm the human body, but it could cause temporary unconsciousness. It was said that the ancient knockout smoke had been based on it.
At the dosage Nie Yun had set, the people should remain unconscious for about an hour.
Although he was taking revenge on the Riyao Group, Nie Yun would rather not involve innocent people or hurt anyone if he could avoid it.
Now the Aquarius was entirely under Nie Yun's control. Countless Xiaolang Robots streamed aboard through the passageways, then spread out to efficiently carry out their cleanup tasks.
First, the Mechanical Insects devoured the central control computer and obtained the Aquarius's structural data. Then they destroyed the ship's GPS system.
The Xiaolang Robots carried all the unconscious crew members onto the two lifeboats, then left them to drift.
In just ten minutes, the Aquarius had been cleared. All the robots filed back aboard the Sea Wolf, leaving only a few robots to operate the ship, along with Nie Yun and the two brothers.
"Boss, are we heading back to base with you now?" Lao Da asked excitedly.
How could he not be excited? Before, the most they'd ever done was a little petty thievery. Now they'd hijacked a huge ship worth tens of thousands of tons!
This job was worth over a hundred million! It was enough to put them behind bars for the rest of their lives, so why were they this excited?
The brothers looked at Nie Yun with barely concealed admiration.
"Mm, but before we head back, you can collect your reward for this mission!"
"Boss, you mean the 'Heart of the Brave'?" The brothers grew excited at once. Could they really be about to become superheroes?
"Mm, come with me." Nie Yun turned around, the corner of his mouth lifting in an inscrutable smile.
Ten minutes later, Nie Yun's robots had already sailed the Aquarius toward the base. It disappeared into the darkness.
The Sea Wolf had returned to its original appearance. It hovered halfway above the sea, its streamlined outer hull looking elegant and already resembling a deep-sea warship.
The two brothers stood on its deck with a square silver metal case strapped to each of their backs. The cases were held firmly in place by cross-shaped harnesses, making them look a little like Saints carrying their Cloth Boxes.
"Boss, is the 'Heart of the Brave' inside this case?" Lao San asked Nie Yun, puzzled.
"Hm?" Nie Yun was taken aback. He hadn't had a chance to name the thing since inventing it.
"Mm, that's right. From now on, it's called the 'Heart of the Brave'!"
"T-this is it? What does it do?" Lao Da asked cautiously.
The two began to realize they might have misunderstood what the "Heart of the Brave" was.
Nie Yun took a few steps to the side, then smiled at them. "Only warriors are worthy of the Heart of the Brave! Now, I'm going to turn you into warriors!"
Before they could figure out what he meant, they heard a click as Nie Yun snapped his fingers!
The metal cases on their backs transformed in a dazzling blur, becoming black suits of single-soldier armor around them. Except for the full-face masks, which were made of black transparent material, the armor was entirely black metal, gleaming faintly in the moonlight.
The armor looked incredibly cool. Nie Yun had designed the experimental model with a few changes based on the suit from RoboCop.
"Whoa! Awesome! I love this armor!" Lao San exclaimed, raising a hand to admire his new look.
So the "Heart of the Brave" was actually a suit of single-soldier armor made with alien technology! This was unreal! Could he take on a mechanic now?
"Correction: it's battle armor, not armor. It has no powered assistance, so it's only personal protective gear."
"Uh... Boss, this battle armor feels pretty light. Is it protective enough?" Lao Da raised his hand a little and found that he could move freely. The armor wasn't thick—in fact, it was a little like metal leather armor. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to wear it; they would have been crushed by the weight.
Nie Yun didn't answer. Instead, a pistol suddenly appeared in his hand, and he fired several shots at Lao Da at close range.
Lao Da was startled, but he didn't have time to react. Several bullets hit him.
Yet aside from a few strange ripples around the bullet holes, the shots only felt like someone had shoved him. He staggered two steps, then quickly regained his balance.
"T-this thing really is bulletproof!" The brothers stared in disbelief.
"Boss, are you really giving us this battle armor?" Lao San's face flushed with excitement. With this, he'd be a human tank!
"Mm, of course. But first, I'll need you to help me test its performance." Nie Yun smiled.
"H-how are we testing it?" The brothers sensed that something was off.
"Ahhh..." Their piercing screams rang across the sea.
Anyone who had ever skipped stones would understand the tragedy unfolding for the two brothers.
Behind the speeding Sea Wolf, two suits of armor hung from chains. They bounced over and over, scraping across the surface of the sea.
"Bang!" The brothers slammed into the water, kicking up a spray like cannonballs hitting the sea. Then the Sea Wolf dragged them up again, sending them bouncing off the surface before they reached the top of the arc and cried, "Ahhh..." as the whole thing started again.
If not for the bizarre shock-absorbing properties of the "Heart of the Brave" armor, which was made of Mechanical Insects, their bones would have been broken by now!
Even so, they were dizzy and disoriented, throwing up spectacularly.
Only then did they finally understand what the second item in their packs was for. It wasn't equipment at all. It was motion sickness medicine...
Unfortunately, Lao Da had guessed the beginning but not the ending!
Sitting in the captain's quarters, Nie Yun listened to the screams coming from outside every so often and couldn't help shaking his head with a sigh.
"You know how it is with experimental models... They need to be tested again and again, like their impact resistance and shock absorption..."
What did it mean to be a warrior? The sages of old had told us: A true warrior dared to face a bleak life and dared to look unflinchingly at bloodshed...
That... was the true meaning of the Heart of the Brave!
Before you continue