Chapter 165 She Has No Choice
The tall supervisor threw bread into several cages, then turned toward the door and shouted, "Chase them down! Where could they possibly go? We're in the middle of the ocean—they must still be hiding somewhere on this ship!"
"Yes, sir!"
Several subordinates immediately rushed out the door in pursuit.
The supervisor frowned, standing in place as he studied the empty cage...
Just then, he felt a chill down his spine. Suddenly, a sharp wooden stake pierced straight through his chest.
The sudden, dull pain left him unable to react. Grace kicked him into the cage and quickly searched his body, finding his gun and decoder.
Without hesitation, she fired two shots into his wrists and legs.
The silenced gunshots barely made a sound.
The man collapsed completely in the cage, too weak to struggle.
Grace decided to keep him alive for now—she still had questions for him.
Everyone gasped in shock.
No one had expected Grace, so seemingly fragile, to be so decisive and lethal at this critical moment, giving the man no chance to react.
The supervisor himself hadn't expected to be ambushed by this delicate woman. He glared at her with gritted teeth and bulging eyes.
Lily retreated two steps, frightened by his menacing glare.
Grace tore a strip of fabric from her clothes and stuffed it firmly into the man's mouth, then said to Lily, "Go hide back where you were."
Lily nodded fearfully and returned to her dark corner.
Soon, the subordinates returned from their fruitless search.
The moment they entered, Grace, hiding behind the door, raised her gun and fired four shots at their necks.
Four men dropped to the ground, their necks and hearts pierced, instantly lifeless.
Grace lowered the pistol, her grip slick with sweat.
She had killed people.
This was her first time killing...
But she'd had no choice.
She knew that at this crucial moment, even a moment's hesitation would mean her death.
She didn't want to die...
Grace locked the door and confirmed once more that all four men had stopped breathing before returning to the cage.
She called out, "Lily, you can come out now!"
Lily emerged carrying the decoder.
Grace took it from her hands and opened the system.
The system required a password.
Grace looked at the supervisor locked in the cage, pulled the fabric from his mouth, and demanded, "What's the password?"
The man cursed, "You damned bitch!"
Grace drew her pistol and shoved it into his mouth with a metallic "click" as she chambered a round.
Grace's voice was ice-cold, "Are you going to tell me or not? If you don't, I'll pull the trigger!"
The man struggled briefly.
Grace withdrew the gun, but heard him say smugly, "You wouldn't dare... you wouldn't dare kill me!"
Grace frowned. "What makes you so confident?"
The man replied, "If you kill me, you can't unlock the decoder! You'll all die!"
Grace said, "So you're going to be stubborn?"
She didn't want to waste more time on him.
Grace stuffed the filthy fabric back into his mouth. She searched his body and quickly found a knife, then suddenly carved out a chunk of flesh from his chest.
The man's body jerked in agony, his legs and hands convulsing as veins bulged on his forehead.
Grace asked, "Will you talk now? If you don't, we'll all die anyway. But if we're going to die, we'll die together! However, I swear you'll die more painfully and miserably than me. If you talk, I might let you live."
The man glared at her hatefully, clearly not believing her words.
Grace carved another piece of flesh from his wound.
This brutal action made everyone around gasp again.
But there was also a sense of vengeful satisfaction!
After all, this man was utterly evil, having treated them like livestock before.
Grace's actions were somewhat cathartic revenge for all of them.
"Will you talk or not? If you're willing to speak, nod. If not, I'll continue!"
The man closed his eyes and nodded desperately.
Only then did Grace remove the fabric from his mouth.
The man mumbled incoherently, "6... 5... n... y..."
He recited a string of numbers and letters.
Grace entered the characters he provided, and soon the system unlocked.
Entering the main interface, a page appeared. She tried pressing "1," and a small window popped up.
Grace hit the delete key, walked to a cage, and tried entering someone's collar number. The system displayed "Command Error."
Grace asked the supervisor, "How do you unlock these collars?"
The man replied, "Red numbers: press # key plus the number. Blue numbers: press key plus the number."
Grace tried again.
With a "beep," that person's collar opened.
She memorized the command sequence, then returned to the supervisor and began searching his body for keys.
"Where are the cage keys?"
The man said, "The keys aren't on me."
Grace frowned. "Are you lying to me?"
The man replied, "I'm not lying! With so many cages and keys, I couldn't possibly carry them all the time!"
Grace stared at him intently, then suddenly pressed the knife to his throat. "Don't lie to me. Otherwise, I'll be even more ruthless than before."
She could tell he was lying.
After all, when she and Lily had staged their earlier performance, his subordinate had pulled out a key without even looking and opened the cage.
She guessed that with so many cages, they must carry master keys.
The supervisor panicked, with the gleaming blade pressed against his throat. He knew he couldn't fool this shrewd woman, so he said, "It's... on my subordinate's body... it's a... master key..."
Grace breathed a sigh of relief.
She had guessed correctly.
Grace flipped the supervisor over and tied his hands behind his back, then walked to his dead subordinates and found the master key.
With the key and decoder in hand, everything would be much easier from here!
Grace handed the key to Lily and asked, "Do you know how to unlock cages?"
Lily nodded obediently.
Grace first used the decoder to remove Lily's collar, then addressed everyone, "I'll have this little girl open your cage doors, then you can line up beside me in order, and I'll remove everyone's collars one by one."
Grace entered her own collar's serial number, but found that her collar didn't open successfully.
She frowned and tried again, but still failed.
Had the decoder stopped working?
By now, Lily had opened several cages, and several people approached Grace.
"Red, number 15."
"Blue, number 42."
Everyone orderly reported their collar colors and numbers.
Grace tested it on two people first—both collars opened smoothly.
Only hers...
She tried once more, but it still wouldn't open.
The decoder seemed ineffective only on her collar.