49: Chapter 49 Venomous Snakes in the Rear Cabin

"Right pressure!"

Captain Chen Shuo slammed the control stick.

Flight 10086 plummeted half a meter to the lower left, the whole plane banking sharply. The giant crossbow bolt missed the middle of the right wing but grazed the outer edge, slamming into the patch plate.

"Boom—"

The sound of metal tearing drowned out all wind noise.

The reinforcement plate just added to the edge of the right wing exploded. Shards of metal were swept away by the airflow. The entire airliner was jerked from the side, the fuselage tilting sharply to the right. Outside the porthole, a flash of white light was followed by a screeching, teeth-grinding sound of tearing, as if the entire wing were wailing.

[Durability: 57/100]

A red alarm blared.

[Warning: Right wing edge damaged!]

[Warning: Center of gravity shifted!]

[Warning: Temporary patch plate detached!]

Blinding red light swept across the cabin again and again. The girls, who had only just recovered from the monster tide, could no longer hold back their fear.

"Ahhh!"

"The wing! The wing is shattered!"

"We're going to crash!"

The tilt was too violent. Several empty boxes in the rear cabin broke free from their securing slots, slamming into the cabin walls with a thud. Several girls who hadn't fastened their shoulder straps were thrown against the seats on the right, their arms hitting the backrests with dull thuds. The Life Committee Member threw themselves over the duty roster, their pen flying far away, yet they still pressed their arms firmly against the register.

In the cockpit, Captain Chen Shuo pressed both hands onto the control stick, the veins on the back of his hands bulging one by one. The deflection force caused by the damaged right wing surged along the stick. The dilapidated airliner felt like a beast with half its wing torn off, struggling desperately to nosedive to the lower right.

Shen Man grabbed the cockpit door frame with one hand while quickly adjusting the trim with the other.

"Right wing lift dropped! Yaw angle expanding! If we drop another twenty meters, we'll enter the dense black hail layer!"

Meng Qinghe nearly slid off her auxiliary seat, her safety belt digging into her shoulders. She endured the dizziness and shouted, "There's an updraft turbulence to the front left, we only have five seconds!"

Captain Chen Shuo bit down on his molars, pulling the control stick back bit by bit.

The fuselage didn't immediately obey.

Continuous vibrations came from the torn area on the outer edge of the right wing. The remnants of the temporary patch were still shaking, and airflow poured into the wing structure through the breach, making the balance of the entire plane extremely unstable.

The red durability alarm sounded one after another, like blades scraping against everyone's nerves.

[Durability: 56/100]

Dropped another point.

In the rear cabin, Su Luoluo's knees buckled from the inertia, and she pressed her hand guards firmly against the golden fruit box. The heaviest box, carrying the weight of all the Golden Fruit, slid to the right. She carved two deep grooves into the floor with her feet, her shoulders trembling with strain.

"Don't let go of the ropes!" She shouted with a voice that was nearly breaking, "Hold the right side! Hurry, hold it!"

The transport team girls rushed over, crying, their fingers bleeding from the rope buckles, but they didn't dare to let go.

Yet the entire fuselage was still tilting.

The iron frame used to ballast the left breach creaked under the tension. A nail from the edge of the securing net burst off, whizzing past the Ponytail Girl's ear and embedding itself into a seat. She turned pale, but immediately lunged forward to press down on the corner of the net with a short spear shaft.

"Qin Zhixia! It's about to break here!"

Qin Zhixia stumbled out of the Manufacturing Cabin doorway, grabbed a handrail to steady herself, and shouted coldly, "Don't let the net spring up! If it springs up, the left breach will tear a second time!"

Gu Chenzhou's flagship didn't continue to broadcast.

It fully emerged from behind the clouds, its shadow covering the right porthole. The massive hull slowly adjusted its angle, and a second crossbow bolt was being advanced in the winch. That silence was more suffocating than all of Luo Kui's threats combined.

"Submit, and stay."

"Resist, and be crushed."

"That was Gu Chenzhou's rule."

Captain Chen Shuo finally caught the updraft turbulence Meng Qinghe had mentioned. He pressed the control stick to the front left, the nose lifted slightly, and 10086 managed to force back some angle amidst the nearly uncontrollable tilt. The fuselage jolted violently, and the damaged right wing emitted a shriller metallic groan, but the downward trend was halted halfway.

Shen Man immediately adjusted the trim: "Yaw decreasing! Still tilting right, the heavy objects in the rear cabin must be stabilized!"

The broadcast was turned on by Captain Chen Shuo, his cold, hard voice cutting through the entire cabin.

"Rear cabin, report status."

Su Luoluo bit her lower lip, blood already seeping from the corners of her mouth. She pressed her palms onto the golden fruit box, the edges of her hand guards scraping against old wounds on her palms, and blood slowly soaked through the bandages.

"golden fruit box... I've got it held down."

Her voice trembled violently, but she didn't let go.

Just as everyone was struggling to hold on, an extremely abnormal snapping sound suddenly came from deep within the rear cabin.

"Snap."

It wasn't the impact of black hail, nor the tearing of the airframe.

It was the sound of a securing rope being cut.

Su Luoluo was the first to hear the sound of the rope snapping.

She was using her shoulder to brace against the golden fruit box, her body almost pressed into the edge of the wooden box by the tilting fuselage. Her arms beneath the hand guards were shaking uncontrollably. But when that "snap" entered her ears, the hair on the back of her neck stood up, and even her heartbeat skipped a beat.

One of the securing ropes had snapped.

She had personally double-checked all the ropes in the heavy cargo area of the rear cabin, every single one fastened to the securing pillars with double knots and temporarily wrapped with copper wire. Black hail couldn't hit the rear cabin, and turbulence couldn't have cut the main rope with such a clean sound.

She turned her head abruptly.

The main securing rope on the far right, which was holding down the waste box and the second golden fruit box, had snapped in the middle, the break frighteningly clean. After losing that rope, the waste box slid wildly along the tilt of the fuselage, hitting the spare water bladder slot nearby, and the entire row of supplies began to shift along with it.

"The right-side rope snapped!"

As she shouted, she had already lunged forward. Her left hand was still pressing firmly against the largest golden fruit box, her right foot braced horizontally against the edge of the sliding waste box, her hand guards scraping against the wooden box with a harsh sound. She wanted to pin both sides down at once, but no matter how much Giant Strength she possessed, she couldn't stop the chain reaction of slipping caused by the entire plane tilting.

A box of Golden Fruit moved.

The bottom of the box ground over the red line on the floor, the heavy inertia pulling the securing net outward. Two transport team girls nearby turned pale, hugging the rope buckles and pulling back, but they were dragged along, stumbling.

"Luoluo, I can't hold it!"

"It's loose on my side too!"

Su Luoluo gritted her teeth, her cheeks flushed red from the effort, tears welling in her eyes but not falling. She jammed her instep against the waste box, her right hand thrusting fiercely against the cabin wall, her entire body wedged hard between the two heavy boxes.

"Don't let go! Brother Captain Chen Shuo said the rear cabin must not flip!"

The edge of her hand guard cut her thumb web, and blood flowed down her wrist, dripping onto the edge of the wooden box. She couldn't care about the pain, only feeling like her entire right shoulder was about to be torn apart. The fuselage was still tilting to the right, all the heavy objects wanting to slide in one direction. The red line under her feet was scratched by the bottom of the box, and the securing pillars emitted a groan of unbearable strain.

Just then, a shrill laugh came from the shadows.

"Keep pushing."

The voice was as light as if it were squeezed through teeth, yet it carried an unconcealable malice.

Su Luoluo felt a shock in her heart.

Beside the innermost seat in the back row, Zhang Jiayi was half-kneeling on the ground, the stinky cloth strip on her head hanging askew, revealing a blackened wound on her forehead.