"Don't speak nonsense, the flight attendant already explained…"
"Don't listen to their nonsense, they're just pretending to be calm to reassure the passengers. Do you think I can't see through that?"
The others around him fell silent after being challenged by this guy, but the silence lasted less than a minute before the plane began to shake violently from the rear.
The creaking sounds seemed to make one's scalp tingle, and the cabin temperature rose considerably, with wisps of thick smoke filling the air.
Many people began to cough, and the flight attendant's voice rang out again, "Everyone, please take down your oxygen masks. The aircraft is now entering a state of emergency…"
The people in the cabin activated their survival buttons. Soon, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. They each began to breathe in the supplementary oxygen for dear life, but they all knew that this oxygen wouldn't last long. Moreover, the aircraft's engine room was clearly on fire, and the situation was beyond control. At that moment, a man suddenly stood up. As if nothing were happening, he walked towards the camera!
We were all a bit taken aback, thinking we had seen wrong, but the man before us was none other than Yu Guo'an!
He squatted on the ground, his expression stern as he stared at a certain spot. He seemed to know the location of the black box. He then fully exposed his face to the camera – a face devoid of blood, his features drooping. Amidst the plane's trembling, he placed his hands on the backs of the seats on either side and said coldly, "The day of the world's destruction is imminent. I'll go first. The Sky Punisher will watch all you foolish humans perish, hahaha! My creation will be the first witness. The Sky Punisher has opened its massive divine eyes, gazing down from the abyss of the heavens upon this humble mortal realm. Cough, cough, I've said too much; this is beyond my script. Oh, and so it ends…"
As Yu Guo'an finished speaking, his voice devoid of life like a dead fish, the screen went completely black. It was presumed that the plane had begun to plummet. Under the immense impact, the black box might have been affected, but regardless, nothing could be seen now.
The subsequent footage was completely dark. Yuan Hezhe stopped playback, but after a long time, we hadn't recovered from the near-death experience. It was Liu Yuning who broke the silence first, "Yu Guo'an is connected to this case, but he crashed with the plane and his remains were never found."
"Exactly. But that was 10 years ago. He already uttered the words 'Sky Punisher' back then. What does that mean?" I said.
Xia Xiaoling replied, "The Sky Punisher is the leader of the criminal alliance, but they aren't as ancient as Polaris. They're likely a product of the new era. However, this organization seems much more mysterious than Polaris. Perhaps they provided all that high-tech equipment earlier. Everyone, pull yourselves together. I have a feeling that the crash of Donghang HU7325 is more complex than just the missing persons cases we've uncovered. The Sky Punisher might have been planning this for 10 years. This is a fallback for Polaris. The Sky Punisher might know that Polaris will eventually be destroyed, so they started laying the groundwork 10 years ago."
"Xiaoling, I'm reminded of a saying now: the most formidable aren't the most capable individuals, but the one orchestrating from behind the scenes. If they've been planning for 10 years, then everything we've encountered will only be more severe than before!" Liu Yuning said.
"Wasn't it almost world-ending before? What more do they want this time?" Xie Chuchu exclaimed.
"More world-ending than world-ending. 'Sky Punisher,' an interesting name," Xiao Yuande mused.
"That name is a bit much, but it fits the character of a criminal alliance," I replied.
Zhang Keying also offered her opinion, "That scene just now, alas, reminded me of the movie 'Ghost Plane'."
"Uh, it does bear some resemblance, but most plane crashes are like that. However, what we saw was definitely footage from the black box, not movie special effects."
As soon as I finished speaking, Yuan Hezhe shook his head, "We still have two more black boxes to try!"
Everyone's attention shifted back. He Xin immediately got to work, and to speed things up, Yuan Hezhe also connected another black box.
As both began to be decrypted, we waited anxiously. We all knew that decrypting these things was truly difficult, especially since they were damaged and needed to be restored.
Given the impact of the crash, it was a miracle these weren't pulverized. We speculated that the actual black boxes weren't these three; these were likely replicas, but they appeared damaged. The Sky Punisher's deception was almost too realistic.
However, the forensic analysis showed that the damage to these black boxes was inflicted by tools like hammers and wrenches. I had initially thought they would collect black boxes from different plane crashes, but I had overestimated them.
But what was the point of them producing so many fake black boxes? It was to show us such terrifying footage. One would have been enough. They actually left one with each of the victims before they disappeared?
I couldn't quite grasp the question at the time, so I decided to put it aside. I ordered takeout and everyone ate together while waiting for the decryption. It took a while, but the data eventually came out.
What was bizarre was that the subsequent footage was all different, yet they shared a common trait: before the incident, the husbands of the missing persons would approach the black box just before their deaths, speaking to us.
The husband of the second victim, Ni Xuelei, knelt on the ground at the last moment and said, "Goodbye to this boring world. The Sky Punisher awaits my return in the heavens. I'm going to a perfect era without war, without disease, only peace. Oh hahaha! Aow, I see someone tapping outside the window. Hmm, there's a face there, do you see it?"
We replayed the footage back and forth, but we hadn't noticed the face mentioned by Ni Xuelei's husband. Xia Xiaoling analyzed, "He was probably influenced by anxiety before his death and had hallucinations."
"Are you analyzing this from a psychological perspective?"
"Yes, I'm an expert in that field."
I wouldn't question this. Besides, Xiaoling was right. Now, let's look at the footage remaining in the third black box…