Chapter 685: The Truth Sunk Beneath the Sea

Chapter 685: The Truth Sunk to the Ocean Floor

The night was deep, and the sea was a chaotic expanse of surging waves.

Standing at the bow of the speedboat, Muda stared unblinkingly at the red and green pinpricks of light that rose and fell with the swell in the distance, his eyes involuntarily reflecting the colors of reminiscence.

A little over two months ago, that place had been a picture of peace and tranquility, where orange-yellow drums bobbed alongside the shifting ocean currents, casting a shimmering gleam under the sunlight like a field of wheat growing upon the surface of the sea, the rising and falling tides its swaying gold.

Now, that magnificent gold had become history, vanishing just like Shulong City itself.

Scattered metallic components and ruptured pipelines had sunk into the great deep together, and the generator units, like wild horses broken from their reins, had been torn apart by the furious waves and scattered across this endless ocean.

Sometimes, Muda could not help but wonder.

Perhaps humans were simply incorrigible creatures, bound to repeat the errors they had committed time and again, iterating the cycle of destruction and rebirth until everything was beyond salvation, only then to yearn for the beautiful days of the past.

Perhaps—

The doctrine of the Church of the Torch was not entirely mistaken.

To eradicate the deep-seated malice within human nature, one had to purge those base traits from the very genome, ascending to become a higher form of life altogether.

His thoughts drifted away with the sea breeze, and estimating that the time was near, Muda retrieved his walkie-talkie and pressed the button.

"This is the sea patrol, we are about to cross the blockaded zone... requesting clearance."

A burst of static crackled from the device, followed by a gruff voice accompanied by a prolonged yawn.

"Patrol? What are you guys doing out here?"

Muda spoke concisely.

"We picked up an abnormal sonar signal. Just checking it out to be safe."

"Alright, do you need reinforcements?"

"No need for now."

"Fine, keep in touch. If you need backup, we'll be there shortly."

The voice echoing from the communication channel sounded relaxed and carefree, even crunching on potato chips, harboring no suspicion toward his explanation.

It seemed that after more than two months, the brothers patrolling this area had grown slack after all.

Yet it was hardly surprising.

The ocean current power station had already been destroyed, and there was no reason for the submarines of Vault 70 to launch another assault on a facility that was already in ruins.

The brief exchange concluded, and a relieved Muda cut the connection, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He then switched the walkie-talkie's channel, lowering his voice.

"The target is directly beneath the buoy ahead. This is all the help I can give you. You'd better not linger too long; I can only wait fifteen minutes at most."

A moment later, a reply came through the speaker.

"Received, thank you."

"Don't mention it. Good luck."

With that, Muda waved his hand, signaling the pilot in the cabin to continue moving northwest, circling the buoy not far away.

Standing behind Muda, a marine carrying a rifle hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up.

"Why are we helping them?"

An undertaking like this was not without risk.

If the Federal Navy discovered that they were covering for a submersible modeled after Vault 70 to enter the ruins of the power station, no amount of explanation would clear their names.

Gazing into the pitch-black rise and fall of the tide, Muda did not truly understand why he had agreed to help either.

The Federation had long since defined the nature of that attack, and the animosity between the island survivors and Vault 70 extended far beyond a single power station.

Even if those fellows from the Alliance found some new clue, he did not believe it could alter anything.

It was merely a fuse.

However—

He still wanted to know what the truth was.

Perhaps there remained a one-in-a-tenth-thousand alternative.

After a long silence amidst the clamorous sea wind, he spoke slowly.

"This isn't just helping them."

"It's also helping ourselves."

The marine stared blankly at his commander's back, at a loss for words for a long time...

...

At that very moment, directly beneath the speedboat, a drum-shaped submersible spun its propellers, advancing slowly toward the facility submerged on the seabed.

This submersible was the exact one that Huang Guangwei had previously run aground on the beach.

The researchers of the scientific expedition had not only helped repair the damaged propulsion system and simplified the control modules, but had also, at Sisi's request, equipped it with harpoon launchers and underwater grenade launchers—underwater weapon systems flown in from Shuguang City to Chips Port.

As they had not been tested in actual combat, even the researchers who installed them did not know whether these weapons would prove effective.

But considering the possibility of encountering attacks from aquatic mutants lurking beneath the surface during this mission, Sisi chose to bring them along anyway.

At the same time, she silently prayed in her heart—

Hoping there would be no need to use these things.

"To be honest, this place is truly spectacular..."

Sitting inside the cockpit, Sisi turned on the submersible's searchlights, her gaze following the camera's movement to carefully inspect the metallic wreckage looming close at hand.

A ring measuring over ten meters in diameter was deeply embedded in the seabed, a massive metallic impeller at its center. Currently, these impellers, like the outer metal support frames, were tangled in severed cables that had whipped out of control, resembling a sunken ship caught in the grip of sea kelp.

This should be the underwater turbine generator of the ocean current power station, which likely belonged to a different power system than the floating generators that had bobbed on the surface and were now washed away to parts unknown.

There were over a dozen similar turbine generators nearby, and this was merely the portion visible to her at the moment.

Countless metallic fragments were scattered across the rugged, boulder-strewn seabed, with colorful fish occasionally darting through the ink-black shadows.

This place looked less like the wreckage of a power station and more like a submerged city that had sunk into the ocean depths.

Beholding the area illuminated by the searchlights, Weiba sat in the co-pilot's seat with her mouth agape, letting out occasional gasps of disbelief.

"Holy crap..."

Such realistic lighting and shadow effects!

Such fluid texture details!

And this scene modeling, which could easily rival a cinematic CG!

It was simply mind-blowing!

It was a pity the VM had no signal, otherwise she would have loved to immediately share the scenery here with Zhimahu and Rourou back on the shore, as well as with everyone on the forums.

"The exterior sensors of the submersible are detecting a faint electrical current. It seems a few generator units are still functioning... No wonder we haven't seen any mutated creatures here."

Glancing at the warning flashing on the central control screen, Sisi maneuvered the searchlight and camera to the left of the submersible, quickly locking onto a zone devoid of fish activity.

That was likely the source of the electrical leak.

She marked that area on the map, and while cross-referencing the machine-translated manual, Sisi tapped the screen with her index finger, resetting a safe course. She guided the submersible carefully around the zone, continuing toward the target.

According to the intelligence provided by that resident of Vault 70, the NPCs from the scientific expedition team had not only helped draw a three-dimensional model of the tidal power station wreckage but had also prepared an exploration route and data collection plan in advance, greatly reducing the amount of manual work.

Once she reached the target area, all she needed to do was make some on-the-spot adjustments to the course as the situation demanded.

This mission was actually quite easy.

So much so that she was already thinking, after exploring this ruin, she might as well swing by the coordinates where the research vessel "Golden Coast" had sunk.

Unlike Sisi, who always had something to do, Tail, sitting in the co-pilot seat, stared out the cockpit window with an excited expression, as if she wanted to weld her face and nose to the glass.

She looked nothing like an investigator on a covert mission, lacking any sense of tension—more like a tourist out sightseeing.

It wasn't until the submersible drove beneath a turbine generator set that she suddenly remembered the ongoing mission and turned eagerly to Sisi.

"Hey, Si! What's our next move for the investigation?"

Keeping her eyes fixed on the three-dimensional map on the central console and the green dot representing the submersible's current position, Sisi took a deep breath and said.

"Simple: reach the designated area on the map, release the probe, wait for data collection, then retrieve the probe."

"Huh?!" Tail looked at Sisi in surprise. "That's it?"

"It's not exactly simple—there are plenty of dangers here... But isn't simplicity a good thing? Why do you look so disappointed?"

Sisi glanced briefly at Tail, seeing the regretful expression on her face, and couldn't help but make a helpless face.

Meeting that helpless gaze, Tail scratched the back of her head and let out an embarrassed chuckle.

"No way! Simplicity is definitely a good thing, but if that's the case... then we won't even need to go outside the submersible."

Sisi thought for a moment and said.

"Probably not."

"Mmph!"

Tail's face showed a look of utter devastation. She looked at Sisi pitifully and asked repeatedly, "But... is it really okay not to check carefully? What if there's some clue left behind in a fish's belly or behind a reef—"

"How could there be something like that?" Sisi couldn't help but tease this fanciful friend. "Do you think this is the crime scene of some detective novel?"

In nearly two and a half months, the South Archipelago Federation must have thoroughly investigated and searched this sea area.

Under these circumstances, hoping to find some new clue overlooked by the Federation Navy was unrealistic. The most promising leads were actually those seemingly ordinary ones.

For example, the power station's operational data.

The Alliance's scientific expedition team was best at digging out traces from massive amounts of data. If there were any suspicious clues, they would spot them at a glance.

Upon learning that she wouldn't need to go outside for the investigation, Tail instantly deflated like a punctured balloon, slumping listlessly into the co-pilot seat.

Sisi glanced at her from the corner of her eye and couldn't help asking.

"...By the way, this is at least over a hundred meters deep underwater. Aren't you scared at all?"

Tail looked at her strangely and tilted her head.

"Scared?"

"Like... thalassophobia or something."

Watching Sisi, who was staring intently at the central console, Tail seemed to guess something. A mischievous smile gradually curled at the corner of her mouth.

"Oh! Tail gets it! Sisi's weakness is the deep sea!"

"What kind of weakness is that? And how could it be... What's there to be afraid of?"

Sisi was taken aback, and the rebuttal almost slipped out, but her gaze, glued to the central screen, lacked any conviction.

Seeing her good friend so embarrassed for once, Tail's teasing grin grew more obvious, and the corners of her mouth lifted without restraint.

"Then take a look out the window!"

Sisi refused without a second thought.

"I don't want to. The screen is the same."

"Just one look!"

"Alright, alright... Stop messing around, Tail. We've arrived. Time to get down to business!"

As she spoke, Sisi glanced at the parameters in the upper left corner of the central console and hastily pressed the button to launch the probe.

A metal sphere the size of a basketball shot out from the submersible's belly, trailing a wire as it flew toward a metal wreckage a dozen meters away.

The metal sphere got closer and closer to the interface, seemingly about to connect.

But then, an awkward thing happened.

The metal sphere, drifting forward, suddenly jerked to a stop, held back by the taut wire.

Sisi's expression froze. She quickly looked at the parameters on the central console and muttered a curse in her heart.

Still a bit short...

Just as she was about to maneuver the submersible a little closer, a sudden surge of current blew the probe, trailing its data cable, upward, where it got caught on a propeller blade tilted at an angle on the metal wreckage.

The probe, dragging its wire, swung like a pendulum, wrapping around the blade a few times until the trailing wire was completely tangled.

Now it was off by more than just a little.

Noticing the growing seriousness on Sisi's face, Tail dropped her joking expression and asked cautiously.

"Si, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a small problem. I made a mistake just now—the probe got stuck on the blade. Someone needs to go and take it off... Tail, wait for me here."

In the end, she had to clean up her own mess.

Glancing at the deep darkness outside the cockpit, Sisi swallowed hard and reluctantly reached for her seatbelt.

It's not that scary...

She repeated to herself, trying to convince herself that everything around her was just game models, nothing to be afraid of.

Just as she finally made up her mind to unbuckle the seatbelt, she saw Tail already standing up from her seat, opening the metal cabinet in the cockpit, and pulling out the fully enclosed deep-sea diving suit stored inside.

In less than a minute, she had put on the suit. Tail gave Sisi a thumbs-up, full of energy.

"Just need to take that probe off the blade, right? Leave it to Tail!"

She looked like someone eager to go swimming—if she swapped the decompression suit for a lifebuoy, it would be perfectly natural.

Sisi stared at her blankly for a long moment before whispering.

"...Are you sure you're okay?"

Tail grinned.

"Piece of cake!"

With that, she backed into the buffer chamber, gave a playful salute, and cleanly closed the buffer chamber's hatch.

Seawater rushed in, filling the chamber, and then the outer door slowly opened outward.

Releasing a long string of bubbles, Tail, wearing the thick diving suit, stood by the hatch, pushed off with her legs, and drifted slowly out of the submersible, heading toward the probe tangled on the turbine blade.

This task was hardly difficult.

One could even say it's as simple as having hands.

Yet Sisi, seated in the cockpit, couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat for Awei.

That profound darkness was like the gaping maw of a monster, and she had no idea why that oblivious fellow wasn't afraid at all.

Just as she was thinking this, a vigorous voice came through the communication channel.

“Whoa! It's already unlocked... Si! What's next?”

Snapping out of her daze, Sisi quickly extended her index finger and tapped the central control screen.

“Ah, just move the probe to the interface—I've sent you the location.”

“Roger!”

Through the visor's visualization window, Tail confirmed the interface's position, tucked the probe under her elbow, and with a heave, activated the small propeller mounted on the back of her diving suit, swimming toward the marked spot.

It was a terminal welded onto a metal bracket.

The screen was dead, but the connection port was still intact.

Tail brought the probe close, and soon two mechanical arms extended from the sides of the metal sphere, grabbing the terminal and anchoring themselves to it like a spider.

Now all that remained was to let it finish on its own.

Tail let go, drifting back a short distance, watching the little device attached to the terminal as it worked, connecting the wires originally linked to the terminal's screen to its own round body.

Sisi, sitting in the cockpit, breathed a sigh of relief and said, watching the progress bar on the central screen.

“Data transfer in progress... about five minutes. Awei, how's it going over there?”

Tail, floating beside the probe, waved her arm vigorously toward the bright searchlight, and then a muffled voice came through the comm channel.

“Whoa! Everything's normal. Man, it's so quiet here!”

Feeling that something ominous lurked in the pitch-black waters, Sisi said worriedly.

“The probe is connected... Awei, maybe you should come back first.”

“No rush, I'll wait for the data transfer to finish. What if something goes wrong?”

“It shouldn't... come to that.” As she spoke, Sisi unconsciously swallowed.

Yet that barely perceptible pause was caught by someone on the other end of the comm channel.

A mischievous smile immediately spread across Tail's face as she said teasingly.

“Eh? Could it be that Sisi is scared?”

Sisi froze for a moment, then flushed bright red as she realized.

“What are you talking about? Me, what do I have to be afraid of!”

Tail, leaning against the metal bracket, raised her right hand under her heavy decompression helmet and made a gesture of rubbing her chin with her index finger.

“How odd—Sisi, who works in the morgue, actually has something she's afraid of!”

“What morgue! That's the pathology department!”

Listening to the voice over the comm, Sisi explained with a mix of laughter and exasperation, but before she could finish, she was cut off by a sudden, alert shout.

“Si! There's something below you!”

Sisi was taken aback and quickly sat up straight in her chair.

“Are you kidding? Don't joke at a time like this!”

“No, I'm serious. There really seems to be something there... Also, point your searchlight around, don't keep it on me!”

Almost the moment Awei's words fell, a faint tremor traveled through the submersible's hull, creeping up from afar to her ankles.

Sisi's heart jolted as she realized her unforgivable mistake, and she quickly tilted the searchlight downward, shining it directly beneath the submersible.

That beam of light, like a sword piercing the darkness, stabbed into an abyss of pitch black.

And in the instant she illuminated that abyss, she discovered an amber pupil hidden within a massive rocky basin, staring fixedly at her.

That eye was as large as a truck.

Thick, barrel-sized gray-black tentacles drifted behind it, like vines clinging to a wall, covering the jagged seabed.

When did this thing move here?!

Or had it...

Been here all along!

A bone-deep chill crawled up Sisi's spine.

The fear of the deep sea and tentacles combined, causing her heart to stop for a moment.

The tremors transmitted through the hull grew stronger, and the seawater around the submersible seemed to boil.

She knew—

That was the silent roar of this deep-sea leviathan!

“Holy crap! A tentacle monster?!”

Tail's voice snapped Sisi awake, and she shouted almost reflexively.

“Awei! Protect the probe!”

As she spoke, ignoring the progress bar that was only halfway done, she decisively cut the tether between the submersible and the probe.

Her judgment proved correct.

Almost the moment she cut the tether, a howling black shadow lashed against the side of the submersible.

The submersible, hovering beside the wreckage, was instantly sent tumbling like a golf ball struck by a club, until it slammed heavily into a metal bracket and stopped.

That metal bracket bent under the impact, and a groaning sound of strain came through the submersible's hull, along with a dull thud on its roof.

Shaking her groggy head, Sisi barely regained consciousness from the daze, and with the last of her awareness, she maxed out the propulsion system's output, steering the submersible away from the danger zone just before the alloy structure above collapsed.

Almost as soon as she had moved less than ten meters, billowing mud clouds erupted behind the submersible, and the collapsing metal debris slowly but surely buried the reef below.

If not for her quick reaction, she would likely have been in grave danger.

“Phew...”

Sisi leaned back in her seat, gasping for breath, her chest heaving violently.

Without time to hesitate, she stared intently at the central screen with its wildly flashing signal lights, manipulating the searchlight and cameras to quickly scan the seabed below, circling toward the northern side of the ruins while frantically searching for any trace of the sea monster.

That creature seemed to have vanished without a trace.

But Sisi knew very well that it was definitely still nearby, hiding somewhere around the power plant ruins!

“...Tail! Are you okay?”

There was no answer on the comm channel.

Scattered metal debris was everywhere, along with cables floating around the turbine generators, forming a natural shielding field.

“Tch...”

Gritting her teeth, Sisi punched the armrest of her chair, then tapped her finger on the screen a few times, resetting the course to return to the center of the ruins.

The data transfer was not yet complete; the raw data remained stored in the probe.

If it were to be moved bit by bit through the narrow pipe of wireless transmission, that colossal data would take until the Year of the Monkey and the Month of the Horse to finish.

Not to mention the possible packet loss!

The only way now was to retrieve the probe.

As if sensing the movement on the seabed, at the very moment she rushed back to the center of the ruins, that NPC named Muda sent a communication request.

While warily watching the pitch-black seafloor, Sisi reached out and pressed the connect button.

The communication had barely connected when a blaring roar burst into her ears.

"What the hell are you doing?! Testing nuclear weapons?!"

No time to waste on this guy. Sisi took a deep breath and cut to the chase.

"A monster! There's a... a sea monster with many tentacles! Somewhere beneath the ruins of the ocean current power station!"

The other end of the channel paused for half a second.

"A sea monster?! How is that possible! Large aberrations never come near that area—there are still turbines running—"

Sisi: "That's the problem! Because of the current, normal fish don't enter the ruins, but something forced that big guy to stay inside. I suspect it's nearly starved... I think it's psychic interference. What do you think?"

Muda exclaimed.

"Psychic interference?! How is that possible!"

Sisi: "No time to explain... The thing controlling it should be nearby. Can you locate other psychic interference devices? If so, that would be a huge help!"

Muda roared back: "Forget the psychic interference device! Get the hell up here!"

Hearing the NPC's anxious voice, Sisi said calmly.

"My teammate is still down there. I will never abandon her. And the probe... I must get it back. Even if I die, I must get it back!"

"Are you people insane?! This is our war! Ours! You don't have to risk your lives for it!"

Standing on the speedboat, Muda's eyes widened. His right hand gripped the walkie-talkie tightly as he roared with all his strength.

But the communication channel had no echo left—only a dead silence.

The roaring waves, like urgent drumbeats, drowned the white foam that kept surging from the sea.

He couldn't understand.

What were these people fighting for, to the point of risking everything?

They had known each other for less than half a month in total!

And those brief two weeks had hardly been pleasant.

Countless people were waiting to see them make fools of themselves, countless others wished they would just get the hell out of here and go back to their wasteland.

Muda gritted his teeth, clutching the silent walkie-talkie tightly in his hand.

Talking about ending the wasteland...

Who the hell cares about that!

At least here, no one gives a damn!

Taking a deep breath, Muda suddenly seemed to make up his mind. He turned and shouted toward the cockpit.

"Shut down the psychic interference device!"

The sailor inside the cockpit froze.

The psychic interference device was their tool for driving away aberrations.

If they turned it off, they risked being capsized at any moment.

"But—"

The sailor tried to protest, but as soon as he spoke, he was cut off by the officer's roar.

"I said shut it down! Now!"

"Yes!" Meeting the officer's murderous glare, the sailor dared not hesitate. He hastily shut down the psychic interference device, silently praying that no aberration would target them.

Muda strode into the cabin, shoved him aside, and fixed his eyes on the terminal screen.

After the psychic interference device was turned off, the screen was silent, as if broken.

Muda held his breath, waiting anxiously.

Just then, a barely perceptible ripple appeared on the calm, mirror-like screen—like a dragonfly skimming the water's surface.

The moment he saw that ripple, his heart leaped into his throat.

It was the signal of the psychic interference device—

Could it really be?!

Muda wasn't the only one shocked; the sailor beside him was equally stunned, his face filled with disbelief.

The only psychic interference device for dozens of miles around was on their speedboat.

Where was the signal coming from?!

"Lock onto its position!"

With those words, Muda pushed open the door, left the cockpit, and shouted to another sailor on the speedboat.

"Prepare depth charges!"

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the sailor swallowed hard and nodded quickly.

"Yes!"