True Meaning

The Aquarius sailed along its predetermined route toward Indonesia. Its captain, having secured an unexpected windfall, was in a fantastic mood, sitting in the control room humming a little tune while sipping tea.

The night grew deeper as the Aquarius entered international waters. The number of nearby vessels dwindled, and the first mate on duty was diligently keeping his eyes glued to the radar.

In conditions where visibility was nearly zero, he had to rely entirely on sonar and radar to avoid other ships, aside from the vessel's own flashing navigation lights. He had to maintain the utmost vigilance.

"Beep! Beep!" The radar emitted a warning signal.

The first mate glanced at the screen; a ship was heading straight toward them from directly ahead, their paths overlapping!

As the two ships drew closer, the light spot on the screen continued to move toward the center. The first mate frowned immediately; the other party showed no intention of changing course.

He immediately ordered the helmsman to turn left to avoid the oncoming vessel.

The Aquarius adjusted its course slightly. A moment later, the first mate's heart skipped a beat, for he saw on the radar that the other ship had also changed its course, still stubbornly heading straight for them!

He had the helmsman change course again, but the result remained the same. The other ship seemed determined to collide with them!

"Captain! Something is wrong!" the first mate decisively alerted the captain.

"Hmm?" The captain, who had been relaxing, didn't dare to be slow. He stood up and walked quickly to the console.

"Captain, we've changed course multiple times, but the ship opposite is still closing in on us!" Sweat began to bead on the first mate's forehead.

"What about wide-area communication?"

"I've tried, but there's no response from them!"

"Hmm?" The captain frowned. It looked like they were dealing with someone malicious!

As the two ships drew closer, the captain gritted his teeth, just about to order the alarm to be sounded, when a thin mist suddenly rose over the calm sea, and visibility plummeted.

"What's going on? Why did it suddenly get foggy?" Everyone was confused; this weather was highly abnormal.

"Hey? Look, is there a ship in that fog?" Several sailors on the deck looked toward the center of the mist. Under the illumination of the navigation lights, a dark shadow grew larger and larger, seemingly approaching them.

Then, the sailors watched in astonishment as a sharp wooden bowsprit pierced through the fog, and a medieval three-masted sailing ship slowly emerged. The hull was covered in the decaying marks of time, the sails were tattered, and the entire vessel was shrouded in white mist.

"G... Ghost ship!" a sailor screamed in terror!

The people in the control room had also come out to the deck by now, and everyone witnessed this incredible scene.

"Hey, why does this fog have such a pungent smell? It even tastes a bit sweet!" Someone finally began to notice something was wrong.

"I... why do I feel a bit dizzy?"

"Hey, me too. What's... going on?"

"Thud! Thud!" The sound of people collapsing continued to ring out. The captain felt dizzy as well. Before he lost consciousness, he seemed to see two figures with the heads of an ox and a horse walking toward him. Before he could even feel fear at dying in such an inexplicable way, he lost consciousness entirely.

"Lao Da! So that's why the boss prepared gas masks for us!" A muffled voice came from behind a gas mask; it was clearly Lao San.

"The boss is unfailingly calculating. I told you those two things would definitely come in handy! See?" Lao Da said smugly.

"Hehe, if you eat what's mine, you'll have to spit it back out sooner or later!" Lao Da chuckled as he looked at the unconscious captain, then fished several stacks of cash from him—the very money he had used to bribe the captain earlier—and didn't even spare the wallet on his person.

The captain of the Aquarius had truly tried to be clever only to end up losing his own capital!

At this moment, the "ghost ship" finally stopped dispersing the strange white gas. The sea breeze was strong, and the fog was quickly blown away, revealing the silhouettes of the two ships.

The two brothers finally took off their gas masks and hid behind cover, nervously peeking at the ghost ship opposite them.

They saw a silver-white staircase automatically extend from the "ghost ship," and Nie Yun walked up it with an air of composure. After all, the Sea Wolf was only a thousand-ton vessel, much lower than the ten-thousand-ton freighter.

"Hello, Boss!" Seeing that the person coming off the ghost ship was their own boss, the two brothers were overjoyed and ran over to greet him.

"Hmm, you two did well!" Nie Yun nodded in satisfaction, acknowledging their contribution. This made the two brothers quite excited, and they stood a little straighter.

With this, Nie Yun's plan for revenge surfaced: a trade blockade against Riyao Group!

That was a bold claim. To blockade such a vast sea area with just one ship would normally be a pipe dream, but the terrifying Internet of Everything and the strange combat capabilities of the Sea Wolf made Nie Yun's plan feasible!

Of course, besides revenge, the thousands of tons of steel on the ship and the vessel itself were also targets of Nie Yun's covetousness.

Although the resources on the seabed were almost infinite, and deep-sea manganese-iron ore could solve the problem of steel raw materials, it would require a massive amount of energy and time to mine, decompose, and finally consume the ore. How could that compare to the efficiency of directly consuming finished steel?

Thus, this plan that served both purposes was born!

First, thanks to the progress of the era of the Internet of Everything, Nie Yun used his heaven-defying network search capabilities to directly find the information, route, and schedule of the Aquarius under Riyao Group.

Then, the human-shaped mobile locator—Desperate Erlang—was sent to the ship for manual tracking!

Finally, the Sea Wolf was disguised as a ghost ship to disperse a large amount of ether gas from the windward side.

This gas was easily produced in large quantities thanks to the decomposition capabilities of the Mechanical Insect. It was highly volatile; low concentrations of ether would not harm the human body, but would cause temporary unconsciousness. It was said that ancient "stupefying smoke" was based on this.

According to the dosage set by Nie Yun, the crew should remain unconscious for about an hour.

Although he wanted revenge on Riyao Group, Nie Yun preferred not to involve innocent people if he could avoid hurting them.

Now, the Aquarius was completely under Nie Yun's control. Countless Xiaolang Robots boarded the Aquarius along the passageways, and as soon as they were on board, they dispersed to efficiently carry out the cleanup mission.

First, he had the Mechanical Insect consume the central control computer to obtain the ship's data, then destroyed the GPS positioning system on board.

The Xiaolang Robots then moved all the unconscious crew members onto two lifeboats and set them adrift.

In just ten minutes, the cleanup of the Aquarius was complete. All the robots returned to the Sea Wolf in a line, leaving only a few robots to operate the ship along with Nie Yun and his two men.

"Boss, are we going back to the base with you now?" Lao Da asked excitedly.

It was impossible not to be excited! In the past, they had at most engaged in petty theft; how could that compare to now, where they had directly hijacked a ten-thousand-ton ship!

Damn it, this one job alone involved a sum reaching over a hundred million! This was the kind of crime that would land you in prison for life, so why were they so excited?

The two looked at Nie Yun with eyes full of hidden admiration.

"Well, before we head back, you can first collect the rewards for this mission!"

"Boss, are you talking about that Heart of the Brave?" The two brothers immediately grew excited. Could it be that they were really going to become supermen?

"Yes, follow me!" Nie Yun turned around, the corner of his mouth curling into an inscrutable smile.

Ten minutes later, the Aquarius had already been steered toward the base by Nie Yun's robots, disappearing into the darkness.

The Sea Wolf had now returned to its original appearance, semi-submerged on the sea surface. Its streamlined deck hull looked quite aesthetic, already possessing the rudimentary form of a deep-water warship.

At this moment, the two brothers were standing on the deck of the Sea Wolf with two square silver metal boxes strapped to their backs. The boxes were firmly secured to them by cross-straps, a look that was somewhat reminiscent of the Saints carrying their Cloths.

"Boss, is this what's inside the boxes—the Heart of the Brave?" Lao San asked Nie Yun, who stood before him, with a puzzled look.

"Hmm?" Nie Yun was taken aback upon hearing this; he hadn't even had time to name the thing since he invented it.

"Yes, that's right. From now on, it shall be called the Heart of the Brave!"

"This... this is it? Then what does it do?" Lao Da asked cautiously.

The two began to realize that their understanding of the "Heart of the Brave" might have been slightly off.

Nie Yun stepped back a few paces and looked at the two with a beaming smile, "Only a warrior is qualified to possess the Heart of the Brave! Now, I will turn you into warriors!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the two, still failing to grasp the meaning behind Nie Yun's words, heard a "Click!" as Nie Yun snapped his fingers!

Then, after a dazzling series of transformations, the metal boxes on their backs morphed into a set of black individual combat suits that encased their bodies. Aside from the full-face transparent black visor, the entire suit had a black metallic luster, shimmering with a ghostly glow under the moonlight.

The design of the combat suit was extremely cool; it was an experimental model Nie Yun had designed by referencing the suit from RoboCop with a few minor modifications.

"Wow! Cool! I love this armor!" Lao San raised his hands to look at his new appearance, saying excitedly.

So the "Heart of the Brave" was actually an alien-tech individual combat suit! This was a total game-changer! Could I take on a Mechanic now?

"Correction, this is a combat suit, not armor! It has no auxiliary power; it can only be considered a set of individual protective gear."

"Uh... Boss, this suit seems very light. Will the protection be enough?" Lao Da raised his arm slightly and found he could move freely. The suit wasn't thick, almost like a metal-plated leather armor; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to wear it at all, as 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 from close range.

Lao Da was startled, but he had no time to react and was hit by several bullets.

However, when the bullets struck the suit, aside from a few strange ripples appearing at the impact points, he only felt as if he had been pushed by someone, stumbling two steps before regaining his footing.

"This... it really is bulletproof!" The two were stunned.

"Boss, is this suit really ours now?" Lao San's face turned red with excitement. With this, he was a human tank!

"Yes, of course. But before that, I need you to cooperate and test the performance of the suit!" Nie Yun said with a beaming smile.

"Ho... how do we test it?" The two seemed to sense that the atmosphere was a bit off.

"Ah..." A shrill scream echoed across this stretch of the sea.

If anyone had ever played at skipping stones, they would understand the tragedy currently befalling the two.

One could see two "Mechanical Insects" hanging from chains behind the full-speed Sea Wolf, constantly bouncing and rubbing against the surface of the water.

"Bang!" The two slammed into the sea, splashing water like cannonballs, only to be pulled up from the surface by the Sea Wolf again, and from the highest point, they would continue the previous action with an "Ah..."

If it weren't for the strange shock-absorption capabilities of the Heart of the Brave suit constructed from Mechanical Insects, they would likely have had broken bones by now!

Even so, they were dizzy and nauseous, vomiting uncontrollably.

Only now did they finally understand the purpose of the second item in their backpacks; it wasn't equipment at all, but motion sickness pills...

Unfortunately, Lao Da had guessed the beginning, but he hadn't guessed the ending!

Nie Yun sat in the captain's cabin, listening to the screams drifting in from outside, and couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

"You know, it's an experimental model... it definitely needs constant testing, such as its impact resistance, shock absorption..."

What is a warrior? The sages once told us that a true warrior dares to face a bleak life and dares to look directly at dripping blood...

This... is the true essence of the Heart of the Brave!