Chapter 686: Fierce Battle Under the Deep Sea!

Chapter 686: The Fierce Battle Beneath the Deep Sea!

On the other side.

Just as the submersible piloted by Si Si was sent flying by a tentacle as thick as a bucket, the wildly dancing searchlight beam snapped like a broken match, vanishing along with the flung submersible into the distant, silent deep sea.

“Si!”

Tail couldn’t help but gasp, but through the bulky diving helmet, no sound could escape.

A full minute passed before a muffled thunderclap echoed from afar.

The submersible seemed to have crashed into the support of a turbine generator set, triggering a small-scale collapse.

Watching the murky turbulence roll in the darkness, Tail’s heart raced with panic, yet she was utterly helpless.

The communication channel was dead silent, the muddy sediment obscuring the last faint glimmer of light.

The entire stretch of water seemed to return to stillness—a terrifying stillness.

There was no light here.

No air.

No sound.

Only boundless silence and darkness, along with occasional tremors and muffled roars drifting with the bubbles, like the whispered murmurs of an unnameable thing in the abyss.

Controlling her breathing, Tail cautiously retreated to the edge of the wreckage, huddling under a protruding metal bracket, trying to make herself as inconspicuous as possible.

The spherical probe lay not far to her left, still quietly at work.

The cable connecting it to the submersible had drifted away with the ocean current.

Now Tail finally understood where the current that had blown the probe off course earlier came from.

It might well be the “breath” of that monster!

Realizing the monster was just below her, Tail felt a chill run down her spine, her eyes darting repeatedly to the spherical probe clinging to the terminal.

“Giao! Seriously, how do I know when this thing is done collecting—huh? It let go?”

As her words fell, the sleek spherical probe suddenly retracted the mechanical arms it had wrapped around the metal bracket.

Seeing the rising current about to sweep it away, Tail reacted swiftly, reaching out and hugging the basketball-sized probe tightly to her chest.

“Got it!”

Gazing at the probe in her arms, Tail let out a long breath, a smug expression spreading across her face.

But before she could savor it for two seconds, that smug look froze.

Here came the problem.

How was she supposed to bring this thing back?

This area was in the middle of the southern sea; even by speedboat, it would take three or four hours.

In just this diving suit, she’d be exhausted to death before swimming back.

Not to mention the possibility of encountering even more terrifying mutants than the tentacled sea monster along the way.

“Mom… I’m screwed!”

Sure enough, she’d celebrated too soon.

Just as she was panicking, the communication channel crackled with static, followed by a broken voice.

“Awei… how are you?”

Hearing that familiar voice, Tail gasped in excitement.

“Si! Great, you’re alive!”

Confirming Tail was alive, Si Si, sitting in the cockpit, breathed a sigh of relief, a faint smile curling at the corner of her lips.

“What kind of talk is that? I’m not that easy to kill… But speaking of which, you’re still in the mood to joke, so you must be fine.”

Tail chuckled, full of energy.

“Oh! Of course, Tail is doing great!”

Si Si: “That’s really good… By the way, Awei, can you see where that thing that knocked me away is?”

“Uh… a bit tough,” Tail cautiously poked her head out of the wreckage gap, peering around, feeling as if she were soaked in pitch-black ink, “It’s pitch black here, can’t see a thing, not even my hand in front of my face.”

Si Si sighed.

“Makes sense…”

This was the deep sea.

Not to mention it was night outside; even during the day, little light could reach such depths.

Listening to the silent static in the channel, Tail took a deep breath, gathering her courage.

“Should I try to lure it out? I have a flashlight—”

“Don’t you dare!” Hearing that dangerous idea, Si Si cut her off without a second thought, speaking hurriedly, “The weapons we have might not even work on that thing. If possible, we need to avoid a fight… I’ll fire a few flares near you; they’ll mark your escape route. If you can, try to bring the probe out too—we need its data.”

Tail: “Oh! Leave it to Tail!”

Hearing that spirited reply in the channel, Si Si couldn’t help but smile with relief.

“Yeah! It’s all yours!”

Though Awei usually seemed a bit dim, she was reliable when it counted.

Tapping the cockpit’s central screen with her index finger, she switched the remote weapon station’s ammunition to flares, aimed roughly at the probe’s location, and pressed the launch button.

With a few short, dull thuds, streaks of milky-white bubbles shot forward, bursting midway into eerie orange-red light.

Those faint glows, like matches struck in the dark, traced a crooked path through the black wreckage.

Using the flare light to confirm the escape route, Tail hugged the probe tightly, kicked off, and swiftly left the half-collapsed metal bracket, drifting toward the half-buried metal blade illuminated a dozen meters away.

The tentacled sea monster was nearby.

She couldn’t get too close to the flares, or she’d be spotted, nor too far, or she’d see nothing.

Maybe because of the silence, Tail felt her heart pounding wildly, even hearing her own pulse.

“Giao…”

This was way too thrilling!

The darkness closing in from all sides was like a monster’s open maw; just meeting its gaze could drain all your courage.

Those inside felt it, and those outside felt it too.

Sitting in the submersible’s cockpit, Si Si stared fixedly at the blinking green dot on the central screen, holding her breath involuntarily.

“Good job, Awei!”

Only fifty meters left!

Watching the green dot draw nearer, her lips moved silently, a bead of sweat forming in her clenched palm.

Forty meters!

Thirty-five!

Thirty—!

Just as the green dot was about to break free from the wreckage of the power station, a sudden anomaly occurred!

On the screen, the blinking green dot seemed to hit an invisible wall, its forward momentum abruptly halted.

Staring at the central control screen, Sisi was startled. Without hesitation, she immediately activated the searchlight at the front of the submersible.

A beam of dazzling light pierced through the layers of darkness, illuminating the struggling Awei and the detector she held directly below.

A tentacle as thick as a water barrel emerged from the ruins on one side, firmly gripping the bulky deep-sea diving suit and coiling around it once.

It was deep-sea equipment capable of withstanding millions of pascals of pressure, so the thick tentacle didn’t instantly crush it and Awei inside into a pulp. But just from the sounds in the communication channel, it was clear Awei’s situation was far from optimistic.

“Gurgle gurgle gurgle—”

Seeing Awei’s tail caught by the sea monster’s tentacle, Sisi panicked. She quickly operated the remote weapon station, aiming at the base of the tentacle.

“Hold on, Awei!”

Shouting loudly, she decisively pressed the launch button.

Two long, thick harpoons shot out from the submersible’s belly, leaving two cotton-white trails in the pitch-black deep sea. One burrowed deep into the ruins, while the other struck the tentacle emerging from the rubble with unerring accuracy.

The harpoon heads pierced the monster’s skin, and the explosives attached to them detonated instantly. Flames flickered as a cloud of milky-white bubbles erupted.

As the bubbles dissipated, a wound the size of a washbasin appeared at the base of the tentacle, dark green liquid oozing from the breach—seemingly its blood!

Even though these two harpoons were not professional underwater weapons, merely makeshift devices cobbled together from a harpoon launcher and mixed explosives, the sheer yield still inflicted considerable damage on the aberrant creature.

Yet surprisingly, it did not release the tentacle gripping Awei’s tail despite the injury. The deep-sea diving suit, under immense pressure, let out a strained groan of impending failure.

By the light of the searchlight, Sisi noticed with astonishment that the washbasin-sized wound was writhing with tiny cilia, healing at a visible rate.

That was enough yield to flip a tank!

What kind of monster was this?!

She couldn’t wait any longer. Making a snap decision, Sisi switched to the grenade launcher and fired a burst at the healing wound.

A stream of dense bubble trails shot out like arrows from a bow, concentrating their fire on the base of the tentacle.

With a series of muffled explosions, the washbasin-sized wound was instantly buried under a cloud of fine bubbles and mud.

But these grenades were hardly professional underwater assault weapons. Though they were unstoppable in the jungles of Baiyue Province, they proved inadequate in the deep sea hundreds of meters below.

The tentacle, having taken a full barrage, remained unmoved, its damage far less effective than the earlier “Goblin Harpoons.”

A deep, muffled roar echoed from the depths, like the sea monster’s mockery.

“Si—I can’t hold on much longer!” Awei’s intermittent voice came through the communication channel, sounding as if she might give out at any moment.

“Hold on, Awei!”

Forcing herself to stay calm, Sisi stopped the futile firing and maneuvered the searchlight around, searching for the giant sea monster’s weak point.

The creature was cunning, hiding behind a massive turbine engine wreck, using metal supports and the turbine casing as cover to shield most of its body.

Sisi even had the feeling that it had left one tentacle exposed—not to drag Awei back behind cover and devour her after being injured—but as bait to lure her in!

Her gaze followed the searchlight as it swept the surroundings. Soon, Sisi noticed that directly beneath the ring-shaped turbine where the monster hid lay a patch of porous reef and rows of bent metal brackets.

An idea struck her. She immediately adjusted the remote weapon station’s aim, targeting the base of the turbine generator and emptying the magazine.

One by one, fragmentation grenades flew like locusts into the narrow space, detonating rapidly and shattering the reef and metal brackets supporting the ring-shaped turbine.

Amid a cacophony of strained metallic groans, the already tilting ring-shaped turbine collapsed like an avalanche, crashing heavily onto the monster hiding behind it.

Too massive to dodge in time, the giant octopus-like sea monster was pinned directly under the ten-meter-tall turbine, letting out a muffled cry as it toppled into the rising clouds of mud.

“Cough—!”

Awei’s cough came through the communication channel. Clutching the detector, she was thrown free by the limp tentacle, tumbling through the current and slamming into the nearby ruins.

Locking onto the signal from the detector, Sisi pushed the throttle to maximum, driving the submersible toward her. As she closed in, she opened the external hatch.

“Get in quick!”

Awei, who had crashed into the ruins, nearly blacked out on the spot. The red warning light on her diving helmet was already flashing.

Fortunately, her awakened physique allowed her to barely hold on. She reached out, grabbed the open hatch, and with a sudden burst of strength, rolled sideways into the chamber, clutching the round detector.

The hatch slammed shut.

The pressure indicator on the diving suit dropped rapidly, and the water in the buffer chamber began to drain.

Watching the darkness disappear beyond the hatch gap and the green signal light flicker on in the dim chamber, Awei slumped to the floor, taking several deep breaths to steady herself before rolling her eyes and sticking out her tongue.

“Cough—Giao! Weiba almost went from tail to tail paste!”

A stifled snort came through the communication channel. Sisi, holding back laughter, coughed dryly and asked with concern.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m—”

Awei started to answer, but just as she opened her mouth, a massive impact slammed into the hatch inches away, sending her flying from the floor to the ceiling.

A dull “clang” reverberated through her skull. She felt her jaw might be dislocated. She tried to push it back in place, but her diving helmet’s visor blocked her hand.

Before she could recover from the first shock, a second impact followed swiftly.

The sea monster, enraged, had crawled out from under the collapsed turbine generator and was hammering wildly at the submersible as it dodged through the darkness.

On the verge of passing out, Awei finally managed to grab the folding chair with safety straps in the buffer chamber. Unable to unfold it, she fastened herself to it with the nylon buckles attached.

Listening to the clanging sounds through the hull, Awei struggled to remove her diving helmet, fumbled with both hands under her chin, and after a long effort, popped her dislocated jaw back into place.

Thank goodness the game’s extreme pain was suppressed; in reality, she’d probably have fainted from agony.

The ringing in her ears gradually faded, and Sisi’s voice came through the communication channel.

“…That thing’s not dead yet! Hold tight!”

Awei: “Giao! This boss has way too much HP!”

Sisi: “It’s not just the HP. The wound healing speed is nothing like a normal aberrant. Could be a genetically modified synthetic breed!”

Awei: “Synthetic breed?!”

Sisi: “Right… Besides the Torch Church, I can’t think of any other possibility!”

Awei: “So what do we do now?!”

“No choice. The weapons on our submersible are almost useless against it. We can only pray it’s slow. If we can get out of this wreckage, we might escape… Damn!” Sisi, who had been calmly analyzing a moment ago, suddenly cried out in alarm.

Hearing the shout, Awei was startled and quickly asked.

“What’s wrong, Si?!”

“The propulsion system… That thing we just fixed seems to be broken again!”

“Giao?!”

Staring at the flashing power failure alert on the central control screen, Sisi was drenched in sweat, frantically tapping the screen with her index finger.

Yet the submersible was utterly unresponsive, tumbling and drifting forward with the current under its own inertia.

Just then, the careening craft gave a sudden violent jerk, and a grating screech echoed through the hull.

Through the side window of the cockpit, Sisi saw a colossal tentacle coil around the dome, wrapping snugly along the barrel-shaped exterior, completing a full loop.

She could even see the barnacle-sized suckers plastered against the outer glass!

It seemed their luck had finally run out—the sea monster lurking in the darkness had caught them at last.

“Damn…”

The pressure sensors on all four sides of the screen maxed out instantly, her heart leaping into her throat as the memory of fear resurfaced.

Before she could react, several Gs of acceleration slammed her into her seat.

That tentacle, like a hand gripping a shot put, hoisted the submersible high into the air, assuming the starting stance for a throw.

Just as the tentacle was about to smash them—sub and all—against the reef, a metal sphere shaped like a sea urchin descended into the silent deep, trailing a string of bubbles.

It was about half a person in diameter, its conical spikes as long as a forearm.

The monster crouching on the seabed reef clearly noticed this uninvited guest, but paid it no mind.

Soon enough, though, it paid a heavy price for its recklessness.

The moment the iron ball neared its back, a blinding light suddenly ignited the silent depths.

Wine-red flames, mingling with shattered shrapnel, erupted in an instant, expanding into a bubble cavity several meters wide a hundred meters below the surface!

The searing heat drew a pained howl from the tentacle-wielding beast.

Great clouds of bubbles surged from the reef, as if the entire sea trembled under its writhing.

The tightly clenched tentacle instinctively loosened, flinging the submersible away like a discarded soda can.

“Sisi—we’re flying!”

Hearing the excited cry over the comm channel, Sisi felt as if a rocket had been strapped beneath her seat, her nerves taut as she stared into the pitch-black void outside.

“Let’s hope we’re flying!”

In this lightless deep, she couldn’t tell north from south.

At their current speed, if they crashed into a reef or the seabed, they’d end up a heap of scrap metal, waiting for someone to dig them up for archaeology—

Assuming the monsters in these waters left them intact enough for a burial.

Fortunately, the worst didn’t happen.

After a while, the submersible’s acceleration ceased under water resistance, and it drifted quietly like a jellyfish.

“…Sisi! What the hell was that explosion?!”

Hearing the excited voice over the comm, Sisi, slumped in her seat, caught her breath and spoke slowly.

“Must be a bomb from the Federal Patrol… Looks like they finally stepped in.”

Tail: “Huh? Then Tail owes them another favor?”

Sisi: “Not really… As long as we get this probe back, they’ll owe us one.”

She had no doubt about that.

Though the research team hadn’t analyzed the data yet, the sea monster lurking beneath the ruins already spoke volumes.

Its terrifying regenerative abilities bore the hallmark of the Torch Church, and its desperate attempts to stop them from taking any clues from the ruins proved there was something here they needed.

Just then, another dull boom echoed from nearby.

The Federal Patrol’s speedboat had dropped a second depth charge at the monster—likely the last one on board.

That charge, packed with picric acid and high explosives, could sink a ten-thousand-ton submarine.

Even with its incredible healing, the monster was outmatched by this professional underwater weapon.

Two direct hits to vital spots, and the tentacle-wielding beast, after a pained wail, finally gasped its last breath in disgrace, collapsing onto the ruins of the current power station and shattered reef.

A moment later, a cacophony of voices came over the comm.

“…How are you guys?”

After steadying her breath, Sisi replied.

“Barely holding up. Propulsion and pressure sensors are damaged… Otherwise, fine.”

“That’s bad.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The Federal fleet is heading our way… You made too much noise!”

The voice carried irritation and urgency.

Clearly.

This would be a headache for him.

After a few seconds of calm thought, Sisi spoke.

“Can you lure them away?”

Muda: “Do you think they’re idiots?!”

Sisi took a deep breath.

“Then there’s no choice… Do us a favor.”

Muda paused.

“What?”

Sisi: “Take the probe to Fries Harbor. I’ll share its coordinates with you in a moment… Our researchers can analyze the data inside. Remember, you must get it to Fries Harbor, if you still want to know the truth.”

Muda: “What about you?”

Sisi: “Hmm… Considering all the help you’ve given us, how about I gift you a first-class merit?”

Muda: “Huh?”

Before he could respond, Sisi reached out and tapped the central screen to end the call, then switched the comm to Tail, who was in the buffer chamber.

“Tail, toss the probe out.”

“Huh?!” Tail pressed her face against the small window of the buffer door, staring at Sisi in the cockpit. “Toss it out? We’re not taking it back?”

Sisi made a helpless face.

“I wish we could, but unfortunately this piece-of-junk sub is done for, and the Federal navy is on its way here… We’ll have to ask that NPC named Muda to deliver this package for us.”

“Oh! Got it!”

Tail nodded, put her helmet back on, waited for the buffer chamber to fill with water, manually opened the outer hatch, and then shoved the spherical probe out.

The silver metal sphere drifted into the sea, slowly rising upward.

Soon it would surface and be retrieved by the waiting speedboat.

After that, Tail closed the buffer chamber’s hatch and floated back to her seat.

Without immediately draining the water from the buffer chamber, Tail asked over the comm channel.

"What about us? What next?"

Si leaned back in her seat, pinching her weary brow between thumb and forefinger.

"Let me think..."

First, this was the submersible of Vault 70.

Though the two of them had shown their faces at Ring Island Port, not many had actually seen them; whether they were captured as residents of Vault 70 or directly revealed their identities as residents of Vault 404 were both viable options.

Comparing the two options, she actually preferred the former.

This way, she would have a chance to contact the Federation's high command, perhaps even figure out what was going on with that sea monster, while also avoiding direct diplomatic disputes between the Alliance and the South Islands Federation.

Of course, there was actually a third option.

That was to find a place to bury herself.

After three days, she could revive in Dawn City, and by airship it would take at most five days to return to Fries Port—this was the simplest approach.

Just as Si was wavering, the radar on the central control screen suddenly displayed a pale blue antenna icon, followed by an automatic connection to an unfamiliar communication request.

"...This is the 'Dolphin,' we have received your distress signal and are heading in your direction."

It wasn't just Si who heard the voice; Tail, sitting in the buffer chamber, heard it too, and a look of surprise immediately appeared on her face.

"What's going on?"

Si stared blankly at the central control screen, swallowing unconsciously.

"I don't know... I guess some safety detection device on this submersible automatically sent out a distress signal. That 'Dolphin' is probably a Vault 70 submarine patrolling these waters?"

Meanwhile, on the distant, turbulent sea surface, a towering ship silhouette had already emerged.

Completely different from the Federation patrol boats, that vessel was a genuine warship, its deck not only bearing two thick, long cannon barrels but also equipped with torpedo launchers and heavily armed close-in defense guns.

That was a Federation destroyer.

Standing at the bow of the speedboat, Muda held a walkie-talkie in his hand, a hint of complexity in his eyes as he gazed at the distant flagship.

He was thinking about how to explain things to his superiors later.

Of course, more than how to explain to his superiors, what made his mood even more complicated was the signal he had just captured through the mental interference device terminal.

The mental interference device was a gift from the Torch Church to the South Islands Federation; Vault 70 did not possess this technology.

Even if those vault residents understood the relevant principles, their application was far less proficient than the Federation's.

Only one explanation could account for why that signal, which should not have appeared, had stealthily emerged in the waters controlled by the South Islands Federation and evaded search after search.

This was definitely not something a mere captain could accomplish; it would have to be someone in the Naval Staff or even high-ranking officials, perhaps even a group!

That mole, for some reason, had obstructed or even completely misled the Federation authorities' investigation into the ruins of the ocean current power station.

If that were truly the case—

Was it really Vault 70 that blew up the ocean current power station?

Watching the warship approaching, a hint of gravity gradually crept into Muda's brow.

He felt that things were slowly becoming more troublesome...