Anna tensed up at the quick death of the confident, brown-bearded man. She hurriedly pulled Gao Zhiming away from the chaotic deck.

"Let's not make a move just yet. Let's first figure out where the other party is from," Anna said to the masked Jackal and the others. She then vigilantly stared at the chaos on the deck through the bridge's glass.

The explosion was astonishingly powerful, but they weren't struck directly. Except for Li Lu's minor leg injury, the others suffered only temporary hearing loss.

However, the brown-bearded man's subordinates and those bodyguards weren't so lucky. There were scattered limbs within the huge crater that had formed on the deck.

Those unfortunate enough to survive the ambush were sprawled out, wailing in pain, creating a terrifying sight.

Shwooong!

Boom!

A deafening explosion echoed as the destroyer next to them erupted into flames. The explosion created powerful shock waves that shattered the windows all over the cruise ship.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The last remaining destroyer retaliated, firing at something in the air. Soon, debris from what looked like a plane came crashing down from the sky, leaving behind a trail of black smoke in their wake.

Anna finally saw what was going on. The explosion wasn't caused by any Anomalies. It was caused by an artillery shell.

How come the actions of this newcomer look so familiar? They're suppressing us with artillery before going all-out and closing in on us. Was I right? Could it be that the IMF had long known about their plans to take control of a nation?

Jackal seemed to have seen through Anna's thoughts and shouted, "No, this isn't how we do things! We always give a warning before making a move! This ambush is more like an assassination attempt!"

An assassination attempt using missles? Who has that kind of power to do something like that?

Anna pondered.

Just then, the attacker appeared on the horizon. The other party was a warship, but for some reason, there wasn't anything installed on it—no gun turrets or any offensive-type weapons except for a radar and utility equipment.

They also looked similar to the two old destroyers belonging to Anna's employer.

When the warship was close enough, Anna realized that Jackal was correct. The warship wasn't sporting the symbol of the IMF—a black circle with three arrows pointing inward. In other words, the other party wasn't a part of the IMF.

While Anna was busy observing the ongoing chaos, the door to the bridge was pushed open, and the beautiful interpreter walked in. Her makeup was all ruined from the crying.

"What are you guys doing here? Come outside and protect Mr. Raj! He's injured!"

That guy is still alive

? Anna pulled the female interpreter away and rushed out.

Anna quickly located her employer. He was sprawled out on the deck and was covering his bleeding wound while panting heavily. Compared to the brown-bearded man, his condition was much better.

"Who are they?" Anna asked. She presumed her employer had some information about their enemy, and Anna would never miss any intel about her enemies.

"They're probably assassins hired by my father to deal with me. He must have discovered that I'm attempting to overthrow his regime and decided to eliminate me as soon as possible!" the interpreter said.

The warship showed no signs of stopping and rammed the bow of the luxury cruise. The deck instantly tilted at a thirty-degree angle. Those caught off guard were swept to their feet and rolled away.

"Has your father made any contact with people from Subterranean London?" Anna asked, supporting herself with one hand on the ground.

Before she could receive any answer from her employer, the people jumping onto the luxury cruise ship told Anna that she had guessed correctly. After all, ordinary people couldn't possibly jump three meters high.

A square-faced white man sporting sunglasses landed on the deck. He scanned Anna and the others with clear arrogance in his eyes. "Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies, but you will not live to see another day.

"If you want to blame someone, then blame yourselves for following the wrong employer. Fret not, and feel honored. You are going to die at our hands. The world ruled by ordinary humans will soon end, and humanity will soon welcome their new gods!"

The square-faced man waved his hand, and the men in black behind him hopped onto the deck and proceeded to kill anyone. Their movements were precise and efficient; there weren't any wasted movements at all.

In addition to ordinary firearms, they wielded what seemed to be psychic abilities, but it was unknown whether their special ability was from an Anomaly or not.

Upon coming under heavy fire, the survivors on the brown-bearded man's side and the black-suited bodyguards of the chubby, tanned man stood up in defiance. They had no plans of sitting idly by and waiting for their demise.

"Kill them! Avenge our boss!"

"Team 3, protect the employer! Team 2 and Team 4, provide cover!"

The deck was plunged into chaos once more as a harsh discordant mixture of screams and gunfire pervaded the deck.

Anna instructed Li Lu to take Gao Zhiming to the cabin downstairs for his safety before bringing the others onto the deck.

"If the IMF's satellites are overlooking this place, then they'll soon notice such a big commotion. Let's end this quickly. They're probably on their way here," Anna said before melting slowly into the ground.

The others glanced at each other before charging into battle.

Regardless of the other party's origins, the fact that they had come with guns blazing meant that there wasn't any chance for negotiations. Moreover, they were surrounded by the sea, so they had no choice but to fight back.

Anna reached out with one hand and pulled a man into the floor.

The man struggled fiercely, and Anna kindly let him go, releasing him from the influence of her Anomaly. Unfortunately, the man was left stuck between the floors.

Anna proceeded to drag someone else into the floor. She repeated that many times until the deck looked like a crop field with "crops" sticking out of the floor.

However, the enemies weren't dumb enough to leave Anna unchecked, considering how efficient she was at killing their people. They dispatched a small team to handle her.

Anna grabbed someone's calf and was about to plant them into the floor when the latter's figure twisted sharply to look at the floor.

They pulled out a book that seemed to be made of human skin and flipped open the pages. The next moment, a bloody, gaping maw made out of paper rushed out of the book and descended toward Anna hidden beneath the floor.

Anna decisively let go and retreated, narrowly avoiding the bizarre maw.

Anna turned to look at her previous spot and was surprised to find that a huge chunk of the deck had disappeared. Anna glanced at the book and found the missing chunk in its pages.

Had she not retreated, she would have already become a part of that book.

However, the attacks weren't over yet.

A dark yellow fog appeared out of nowhere and engulfed the deck.

Anna held her breath to avoid breathing in the fog, but before she could do anything else, a group of people appeared to surround her.

Just then, a blurry figure flitted about the group of people and slipped behind Anna. The figure had taken advantage of Anna's blind spot, and the latter didn't notice them at all.

Just as the figure was about to pounce on Anna from behind, a mask flew over and latched onto their face. As soon as the mask landed on their face, they raised their right hand and rushed at their allies standing next to them.

A strong gust of wind blew, dispersing the fog.

The clown used his new body to jump around the crowd. His mask would sometimes latch onto the face of someone else, and he looked like he was having fun wreaking havoc on their enemies.

The others around Anna were about to attack her when they suddenly fell to the ground, convulsing with their heads tilted and eyes shut tightly.

The attacker was none other than Olivia.