Chapter 55: Chapter 51: Out of Control

“I just found evidence in the control room that suggests a potential biological terror attack. For now, I’ve locked onto a suspect, and I hope you can continue to trust me. Only I can save this ship!”

Gu Ji crouched on the ground, holding his head in his hands, and shouted at the phone on speaker.

However, Tanamura Katsushin still refused to trust him: “Sorry, only when the investigation results come out can your suspicion be cleared.”

Seeing this, two police officers slowly approached, one of them pulling out handcuffs from behind his waist and moving behind Gu Ji.

He glanced at the policeman behind him:

“Trust me, from yesterday until now, have I done anything to harm the cruise?”

The officer was momentarily stunned, seemingly thinking Gu Ji made sense, but he dared not disobey orders from above. After some thought, he handcuffed him anyway.

Just as the handcuff clasped onto his left wrist.

The entire bottom of the cruise suddenly emitted a teeth-gritting “creak,” and in a flash, the ship twisted and accelerated rapidly to the right, as if a car taking a sharp turn at high speed!

The two staff members in the hallway immediately fell to the ground.

The two officers and Gu Ji were also flung hard against the left wall by the massive centrifugal force.

“Ah——!”

“Help!”

…

Inside the ship, various sounds of falls, collisions of tables and chairs, and people’s screams mixed together, resembling a violent symphony.

“Zz… This is the engine room. The anchor machine equipment issued a danger warning. Bridge, please respond. What’s happening… Bang! Bridge, please respond…”

Suddenly, Gu Ji’s walkie-talkie emitted the anxious call of the engine room technician.

But the ship’s turning speed increased, even the technician’s voice was cut off after being hit by something.

The bridge is in trouble!

Gu Ji’s heart skipped a beat. At this rate, the entire ship would soon lose control. Don’t forget, this Platinum Star Cruise weighs a total of 116,000 tons. If it capsizes uncontrollably, even deities couldn’t save it. All 3,000 plus aboard would drown!

“Damn, the key target for the virus release hasn’t been found!”

He gritted his teeth, his eyes quickly locked on the officer pinned in the corner by the wall. With a slap to the ground, he used inertia to roll over, pouncing swiftly onto him.

Before he could react, the officer felt a cold gun muzzle pressed to the back of his neck.

“What are you doing!!”

The other officer widened his eyes, wanting to raise his gun to aim, but the shaking of the ship made it difficult to aim. Shooting recklessly might hit his colleague.

“I just want to go to the bridge to save the cruise. Throw the gun over, or I can’t guarantee it won’t accidentally go off!”

Gu Ji’s tone was cold, his gaze glancing at the Sig Sauer P230 in his hand, full of threat.

If soft methods won’t work, then hard ones are necessary.

The officer, fearing he might act suddenly, had no choice but to comply and threw the gun. He tried smartly to toss it in front of his colleague, but due to the ship’s inertia, it accidentally rolled towards Gu Ji.

Almost simultaneously as the gun rolled over, Gu Ji kicked the officer away, swiftly picked it up from the ground, stood up with his legs supporting him, pressing against the wall to escape using the inertia.

“Stop! Stop!”

“Attention all personnel! Jian Na is suspected of a terror attack, assaulting police, and seizing two handguns. Extremely dangerous, currently escaping along the third-floor control room deck corridor towards the bow…”

…

During the escape, the walkie-talkie soon echoed the warning from the two officers.

But Gu Ji paid it no mind. After turning into a fire escape, he tucked one of the guns behind his waist, removed the other gun’s magazine, stuffed it in his pocket, skillfully pulled back the slide, ejected the chambered round, then casually tossed the empty gun into the fire hydrant box.

Luckily, he had memorized the cruise’s fire structure diagram in advance.

It took Gu Ji less than four minutes to reach the area near the bridge.

Unexpectedly, someone was quicker than him. Judging by the blue scarf around the person’s neck, they should be a sailor responsible for deck lookout.

The sailor was trying to open the door, but upon seeing Gu Ji, remembering the police warning over the walkie-talkie, he panicked.

“Don’t be afraid. I am also forced into this. Saving the ship is the priority now!”

Gu Ji spread his hands, indicating he meant no harm.

Possibly influenced by the latter sentence, the sailor continued twisting the key. At the moment of opening the door, he accidentally fell in, finding himself face-to-face with a blood-covered Japanese on the floor: “Ah——!”

He instinctively screamed, “Chief Officer… the Chief Officer…”

It turned out the Chief Officer had a sudden illness, passed out on the spot.

The Platinum Star Cruise’s bridge has four senior crew members: the Chief Captain, Chief Officer, Second Officer, and Third Officer. Captain Neil and the Second Officer were infected with the virus and being treated, while the Third Officer mainly handles the cruise’s lifesaving and firefighting equipment and is seldom on duty in the bridge.

“Don’t just stand there, get up and help! Engine room, this is Jian Na. The Chief Officer had an episode and passed out, stop the auxiliary engine immediately, Third Officer, hurry to the bridge! Quick!”

Gu Ji gripped the railing of the control panel with one hand and shouted into the walkie-talkie with the other.

Initially, he had chosen [Specialist Driving Mastery] just in case, not expecting it to truly come in handy at a crucial moment.

“Stop the auxiliary engine! Quick!”

Faced with a dizzying array of buttons and levers on the control panel, Gu Ji was momentarily overwhelmed.

The special equipment mantle only covered basic start-stop operations. He had no foundational knowledge of ship piloting and couldn’t truly command a luxury liner.

But don’t forget, Gu Ji had studied accident disaster emergency responses, which included classic incident cases, naturally covering maritime disasters!

Moreover, his mastery of high-speed driving reaction and judgment was indeed a talent boost, coupled with Gu Ji’s Central Nervous System rating of 14.1, it enabled him to quickly lock onto the ship movement path on the navigation screen.

The screen indicated the cruise was drawing an arch in the sea at high speed, seemingly about to complete a semicircle.

Gu Ji glanced at the ship’s steering wheel, finding it normal, so…

It’s the anchor machine!

Recalling the “anchor alarm” mentioned by the technician, Gu Ji suddenly had an idea: “It must be an anchor machine malfunction or accidental drop, snagging a seabed reef, forcibly diverting the ship leftward. Engine room, immediately activate the right-side thruster, reduce main engine speed, sailor…sailor!”

“Ah! I’m here!”

After calling out twice, the sailor finally came to his senses.

“When I tell you, retract the anchor immediately!”

“Okay!”

The engine room went silent for a while, finally followed by a loud shout from the technician: “Auxiliary engine stopped! Right-side thruster activated! Speed reduced by 8 knots!”

Everything was ready.

Gu Ji approached the helm, took a breath, forcefully turning the wheel slowly to the left: “Now! Retract the anchor!”

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