Chapter 99 - 97: Forgiveness

Alarm flashed across Dr. Shire’s face, and he was just about to demand what Lis was doing.

But Lis, quick as a flash, clapped a hand over his mouth and hustled him inside.

Lis threatened, "Dr. Shire, we’re taking back our Icebreaker. I trust you don’t have a problem with that?"

Once Lis let go of his mouth, Dr. Shire immediately snapped, "You’ll provoke them!"

They were still hundreds of miles from the coast. If the Icebreaker was destroyed, none of them would make it back in one piece.

Lis’s eyes narrowed. "Provoke them? They’re the ones who provoked us! That ship was ours in the first place. Those Yellow Monkeys dared to fire on us. The only way to eliminate the threat is to kill them."

Shire shook his head. "They saved our lives, at the very least. Besides, if they really wanted us dead, they could have just blown us up. They aren’t bad people."

Lis had no interest in hearing any of it. Only by seizing the Icebreaker and putting Tom back in charge would he regain his own status and finally be able to order these people around, making them serve him.

He was sick and tired of this life, listening to these high-and-mighty scientists drone on and on.

"You’re not some esteemed Antarctic Doctor anymore, old man Shire. Get a grip on the situation. At your age, just being alive is a waste of food. If you dare disobey me, I’ll throw you outside right now. With all your ’extraordinary’ experience, you can take a guess how many days you’d last. Oh, but wait—maybe with God’s blessing, you’ll turn into a polar bear and manage to tough it out here."

Lis was despicable, but the raw violence in his eyes still made Shire back down.

’He still wanted to see his family again.’

Shire fell silent. Lis let out a cold sneer, ordered his men to tie him up, and tossed him into a corner.

’He couldn’t afford any slip-ups.’

Soon, fireworks shot toward the heavens, bursting suddenly in the vast, empty sky.

But many of the fireworks in this batch had frozen over.

Few of them would light. Everyone grew anxious, wondering if this would be enough to draw out the Yellow Monkeys.

Suddenly, an exceptionally beautiful firework made its grand debut, bursting like a celestial maiden scattering blossoms.

The spectacle was breathtaking, its scale immense.

It was so magnificent that even Jack and his wife came out of their cabin and held each other, witnessing the beautiful moment together.

’Such beautiful fireworks. This might be the last time in our lives we ever see them.’

As the fireworks continued, people began to trickle out onto the deck.

And yet, no one from the opposite Icebreaker appeared.

’You have to be outside to truly appreciate fireworks like these.’

Just as Lis was growing frantic, Jiang Si suddenly appeared in his sights.

Lis was ecstatic. He scrambled onto the upper deck of the yacht, found Rossi, and exclaimed, "She’s out! She’s out!"

Rossi nodded. "Watch this."

He aimed at Jiang Si, held his breath, and calmly fired. CRACK—

The sound of the sniper rifle was lost in the boom of the fireworks. Jiang Si was hit. She collapsed to the ground, her blood instantly staining the snow crimson.

Rossi exhaled. "Target eliminated."

Jiang Si had been strapped with explosives, making her the biggest threat. With that threat now neutralized, Lis immediately ordered his men to charge the Icebreaker.

’No matter how good a fighter Qin Shen is, he can’t possibly take on this many people at once.’

’The other Yellow Monkeys—a mix of old men and kids—are even less of a concern.’

Lis watched the fireworks light up the sky, feeling on top of the world. All that was left was to pop the champagne and celebrate.

The other people on the yacht were instantly filled with terror the moment they saw the men holding guns.

It didn’t matter who was holding the guns; at a time like this, it stripped them of any sense of security.

The few women on board, in particular, felt that the real disaster was only just beginning.

Jack held his wife close, ducking back into their cabin and praying for everything to be alright.

Rossi, sniper rifle in hand, kept watch for his next target.

CRACK—

A bullet struck him between the eyes before he knew what was happening. Rossi collapsed, his eyes wide in disbelief. A panicked Lis had only turned to run and taken two steps when—CRACK!—Qin Shen, hidden in the darkness, shot him effortlessly through the neck.

Blood splattered across the ground. On the other side, the men who had just scrambled aboard the Icebreaker were met by Jiang Si, who had suddenly risen to her feet. Holding an automatic rifle, she mowed them all down.

The sound of gunfire began to drown out the fireworks, and everyone on the yacht was scared witless.

Lis had sent out twenty of his "brothers" in total. In a matter of moments, Jiang Si had killed more than a dozen of them. When the last three tried to run, Lu Zhifeng and Jiang Linhai emerged from their hiding spots, taking each one down with a single shot.

Listening to the gunfire outside, Tom felt a pang of unease, but he still held out hope that Lis would return with good news.

However, when the door opened, it was Jiang Si who stood there, holding a gun.

’Her again.’

Tom snatched the gun from his bedside, ready to put a bullet in Jiang Si.

CRACK—

Jiang Si shot and killed him without a moment’s hesitation.

In total, the counterattack had claimed twenty-three lives.

A dozen or so of Tom’s men remained. They hadn’t directly participated in the plot, being too cowardly. When Jiang Si emerged from Tom’s room, they were all huddled in a corner of the yacht, trembling in fear.

Jiang Si met up with Qin Shen. He had already found the cache of guns and ammunition Lis had stashed away. Jiang Si collected it all into her storage space, then freed Dr. Shire, who was tied up in a wardrobe.

The moment Dr. Shire saw Jiang Si and Qin Shen, he knew Tom and his crew had reaped what they sowed.

But he was also afraid that Jiang Si would now refuse to take the rest of them ashore.

He rushed to plead with her. "Miss Jiang, the rest of us are innocent! Please, I’m begging you, don’t abandon us. We’ll make sure to keep them under control."

Jiang Si stared at them, her face cold and unreadable, as if contemplating how to dispose of them.

With every second that Jiang Si remained silent, the hearts of Dr. Shire and the others sank a little deeper.

Unable to bear the thought of not making it ashore to find his son, Jack actually dropped to his knees before Jiang Si. "Miss Jiang, I know where they’re hiding. If you don’t trust them, you can take them all away! I’m begging you, please don’t abandon us. We have families! We have children! We have to get back!"

The dozen or so men hiding in the cabins were the ones Lis had never fully trusted, which was why they were unarmed. Hearing Jack’s betrayal, they rushed out in a fury and one of them slugged him hard.

"We never wanted to kill anyone! It was all Tom’s fault! We were just scared, we didn’t dare warn you! Miss Jiang, please, give us another chance. We swear to God, nothing like this will ever happen again. Please, let us live! We’re truly innocent!"

Jack wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and threw a punch right back at the man who’d hit him. "You’re the ones who dragged us all down with you! You should be the ones to die!"

’It had only been a few days since the apocalypse began, and these people had already shown their true colors.’

Jiang Si glanced at Jack’s blood-red eyes, then turned to Qin Shen. "Let’s go."

"Right."

Jiang Si hadn’t said whether she would take them. Jack’s wife moved to stop her, but Dr. Shire grabbed her arm. "Don’t go. As long as they don’t pull up the gangway, it means they’ve spared us."