Chapter Ninety-Five: The Record-Breaking Giant Squid

He was flying through the sky, the storm and torrential rain at his side separated from him only by a thin veil of water two meters away, as though the world within could not be touched by what raged outside.

He took out his phone and checked the web, but there was still no signal.

Bored, he might as well go play in the water.

Below, the sea was in full uproar.

Driven by the storm, the surging waves rose as high as a dozen meters.

Looking closely, he saw two fishing boats caught in the wind and surf.

The names painted on their hulls were in English: Victoria One and Victoria Two.

Neither boat had any lights, and both were taking on water heavily. They looked as though they would capsize at any moment.

Wu You had no intention of saving anyone, because there was no one left to save.

On the two vessels that looked from the outside like fishing boats, there was not a single person to be seen, whether in the cabins or on deck.

He did not know whether they had been thrown overboard somewhere in the storm.

At a guess, the situation was grim. In such a marine tempest, once a person fell into the water, even a life jacket would not keep them alive for long.

More likely, they had already been smashed unconscious by the giant waves and would be game over within minutes.

But on the untended trawl net of one fishing boat, something caught Wu You’s interest.

It was a giant squid.

By rough estimate, with its long tentacles and body, it was at least nearly twenty meters long, its head like the spear point of a cold weapon.

Wasn’t this the giant squid?

It was one of the subjects Wu You had always wanted, but the one in the net was clearly dead beyond doubt.

This world’s second-largest invertebrate lived in the deep sea, and distinguishing it from the colossal squid was simple.

The latter was said to be the largest invertebrate, though its tentacles were relatively short.

Even if this one was dead, it meant there might be live ones nearby on the seabed.

He directly ordered Ao Guang to take him down. As a true dragon entered the water, Wu You and Ao Guang once again descended beneath the surface.

After descending several dozen meters, the sea grew very calm, and the storm above was almost imperceptible below.

They continued down toward the deep seabed.

When they reached a depth of at least six or seven hundred meters, the seafloor finally came into view.

At this point, Wu You was observing entirely through shared vision with Ao Guang; his own naked eyes could no longer make out the pitch-black surroundings.

There were also some luminous deep-sea fish nearby, and Wu You unceremoniously gathered them all up.

Ao Guang sent a surge of electricity through the water, and a great mass of large and small fish rolled belly-up.

But after searching for a long time, they found no sign of the giant squid. Instead, they discovered a deep trench in the seabed, so deep that its bottom could not be seen.

He had already stayed underwater long enough and was feeling a little stifled; better return to the surface.

He checked the mapped coordinates in the system, quietly marked the spot, and planned to come back to explore next time.

What a pity that in reality, entering the Beast Mountain could only be done from the same place one returned to; if only he could teleport to an exploration area as well.

Just as he was about to swim up, however, several tendrils wound up from the cliff wall in the distance beyond the trench.

A few giant squids sprang up from below and swam out.

One of them was especially striking. Its length was far removed from the world record, reaching a full forty meters.

"Shit!" Wu You could not help blurting out.

"Ao Guang, wreck it!"

...

When Yang Dawei received the news, he looked utterly dazed. The two ships, along with their crews, had just been released like that?

Although the two large tankers belonged to an ocean freight company, the hijacking had happened in the end because he had requested it.

So the ransom, aside from the portion covered by the insurance company, would mostly be paid by Yang Dawei.

The bargaining with the pirates was just about to begin.

Yang Dawei first finalized everything related to the purchase and receipt of the Saudi prince’s stockpile of fuel.

Only after paying the prince’s fuel deposit did he begin arranging loans and borrowing to cover the remaining cargo payment and ransom.

He was also quite surprised when he suddenly received a call from the ocean freight company.

The other side repeatedly asked on the phone whether he had privately paid the ransom already, and Yang Dawei naturally answered no.

But he also subconsciously recalled Wu You’s joking remark on the phone: why pay a ransom?

Still, it was only a passing thought. He did not connect Wu You with the pirates’ abnormal behavior at all.

No matter how great a man’s influence was, it could not surpass that of the heads of state.

Even Somalia’s own government could do nothing about that band of pirates, let alone Wu You.

What followed were interviews from news reporters.

These reporters asked the freight company, asked the government, and asked Yang Dawei.

The bolder ones even connected with certain institutions in Somalia.

They asked every kind of question imaginable.

Some asked whether anyone had paid the ransom, some whether the military had intervened jointly, and some, even more bizarrely, whether Yang Dawei or the freight company had struck some other private deal with the pirates.

The answers they got were, of course, no comment. At most, through satellite calls, they could learn a few speculative details from the crew.

But that was no obstacle to journalists, especially tabloid reporters.

As long as there was a news hook, that was enough.

Not enough content? They could help "enrich" it.

Thus, one article after another about Somali pirates releasing large numbers of hostages, as well as cargo and fishing vessels, appeared online in rapid succession.

Aside from the established fact that the ships and crew had been released, many of the lengthy pieces were filled with words like "possibly," "presumably," and "must have been."

Yet the articles were written as though they were reasoned and well-founded, with profound insight and a penetrating analysis of the Somali pirates’ inner struggle and external circumstances.

The headlines were all along the lines of: "Somali Pirates Release Hostages; You Would Never Guess Their Real Purpose," "Somali Pirate Situation in Turmoil; the Reason Behind It Is Jaw-Dropping," and "Two Chinese Cargo Ships Have Been Released — It Wasn’t an Internal Somali Conflict, Nor the Intervention of International Forces; The Outcome Was Actually This!" ...

Headline baiting had actually appeared on forums and message boards quite early.

But no one knew exactly when it became prevalent in news headlines; in any case, it had been the past few years.

At first, such headlines could still arouse a bit of curiosity and make people click to read them.

But everything has a limit. When most news pages did this, it only stirred up more and more resentment.

Watching these articles pop up now and then on his mobile browser, Wu You sneered.

He had only just returned home, yet the speed of the news was not any slower than his own.

...

His phone rang. It was Yang Dawei.

"Hello, Mr. Wu, are you at home?"

Yang Dawei sounded full of energy.

"I am. What can I do for you, Mr. Yang?"

"Oh, it’s like this: I’ve already arrived at Xiaoshan International Airport. If it’s convenient, I’d like to come visit you this afternoon."

Wu You teased him with a smile.

"And if it isn’t convenient, or I’m not home? Mr. Yang, you didn’t even give me a heads-up before coming to Qiantang?"

Yang Dawei laughed heartily.

"No problem, no problem. Even if it isn’t convenient for Mr. Wu, I can stay in Qiantang first. Whenever it’s convenient for you, I’ll come to pay a visit then."

"All right, no more teasing. Come this afternoon. I’ll be here."