Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 838: Survival from Despair
"I don't know." Zhuoligetu shook his head. "The searchlights are broken, and the detection equipment is also damaged... But even if they are not damaged, these devices can't detect the whereabouts of that thing."
"Don't worry about that thing for now... It'd be best if it's dead. If it's still alive, we can't do anything to it... Hiss..." The hound said as he grinned and applied ointment to the burned areas on his face. As a result, the wound was affected by talking, and he gasped several times.
Chi Hanfeng's injuries were the lightest, with only some scratches and bruises, plus a little soft tissue contusion on his right wrist. Since he was sitting near the air outlet of the temperature-controlled equipment, he was the only one among the four who did not have any burns.
While the other three were treating their injuries, Chi Hanfeng checked the submersible inside and out, then shook his head at the hound: "One good news, one bad news, which one do you want to hear first?"
"Haha, this scene, these lines, why do I have a déjà vu feeling? Hiss..." The hound grinned somewhat reluctantly, but ended up making another painful "hiss" sound.
"When we first met Ke Lan, the plane crashed into the glacial ruins. This was the first question you asked him when he woke up." Zhuo Ligetu showed a somewhat ugly smile, which seemed to be a bit of trying to make the best of a bad situation.
"Time has changed, and now I'm the one making the choice." The Hound waved his hand. "There's a saying on the Internet that only children make choices. We're adults, and we want them all. Let's just say it all at once to save time."
"The good news is that the sealing of the submersible is intact, and our lives are not in danger for the time being." Chi Hanfeng sighed and continued, "The bad news is that the power module of the submersible, including the thrusters and robotic arms, has been completely scrapped, and we have completely lost our ability to move."
The Hound, Zhuo Ligetu and the Ghost Owl looked at each other. Compared with the "bad news", this "good news" was simply not worth mentioning.
If the submersible had lost its sealing, the four people would have been crushed by now. This "good news" is the same as if it had not been said, but the "bad news" is a bit uncomfortable.
If this were a car and its engine was broken, at least they could abandon the car and walk; if this were an airplane and its fuel tank was leaking or its propeller was shut down, at least they could parachute to escape and land safely on the ground even at an altitude of ten thousand meters...but this happened to be a submersible, a submersible located three thousand meters below the sea.
Not to mention leaving the submersible, under such tremendous water pressure, they couldn't even open the hatch.
Of course, it doesn't mean that it is impossible to open the hatch. As long as a hole is drilled in the submersible and seawater is let in to achieve internal and external pressure balance, the hatch can be opened. However, doing so is no different from suicide.
The rushing seawater would cut the four people in half like a water jet, and the cabin, which had lost its airtightness, would be squeezed and severely deformed in just a few seconds, just like an empty can that had been stepped on by someone.
Even if they could open the hatch safely, with the Ark's existing technology, they could not produce a single-person diving suit that would allow a person to move freely at a depth of three thousand meters.
"So, we're in jail again?" The Hound let out a long sigh. "Damn it, we were moved from the big prison in Yagunakotor to a single cell, and it's a single cell that squeezes four people in. Damn it."
The sentence started with cursing and ended with cursing, which showed that the hound was extremely depressed at the moment.
"Where is the communication equipment? Is it damaged?" Ghost Owl asked, "Can we contact Yaguna Kator now?"
"I've checked. There's no signal here at all." The Hound said, pouting at a series of "no signal" icons on the screen.
"The communication equipment is not damaged, but we are currently experiencing very strong interference at our location, plus we are blocked by the sea water..." Chi Hanfeng said with difficulty.
"We seem to have crashed into the interior of a building." All the searchlights on the outside of the submersible were destroyed. Zhuo Ligetu could only take out a tactical flashlight he carried with him and shine it out of the porthole - this tactical flashlight has a maximum brightness of 26,000 lumens, and can even be used as a flash bomb in strobe mode. However, in this area of water, even if the output power is adjusted to the maximum and the lighting angle is adjusted to the minimum, it can only illuminate areas less than half a meter away.
(Regarding the unit of brightness, I would like to say that the unit used to indicate light intensity should be "candela", and lumen is more accurately the unit of luminous flux. Lumen is equal to light intensity multiplied by the solid angle of light. The relationship between the three is similar to that between pressure, pressure and force area. At the same lumen, the smaller the angle of light, the higher the brightness.)
The beam of light emitted by the tactical flashlight was constrained into a beam with a diameter similar to that of a one-yuan coin from the old era. With this little light, one could vaguely see that the ground where the submersible was located was made of metal. This showed that the main structure of the building they crashed into was made of a large amount of metal, so it was no surprise that there was such strong interference.
Moreover, due to the obstruction of the building wreckage, neither laser communication nor sound wave communication could be used to contact Yaguna Kotor.
"Actually, what good will it do to contact Yaguna Tor? There's only one submersible on the ship. Even if they know we're trapped, they can't come to rescue us." The Hound said in a muffled voice.
Apart from this submersible, Yagunakotor's only two underwater vehicles are four "Zokok" underwater multi-purpose mechas that are used in case of emergency. However, the maximum depth of the "Zokok" is only 800 meters. If the depth exceeds this, the body will be crushed by the sea water.
"Is this thing really going to become our iron coffin..." Zhuoligetu glanced at the hound , "Old dog, your crow mouth is as powerful as that guy Layton."
"Don't talk nonsense. Aren't the four of us still alive and well? Iron coffins are bullshit..." The Hound threw the empty ointment tube to the ground. "I don't believe that four living people can be trapped to death here."
"Let alone four living people, even four hundred living people would be useless." Ghost Owl shook his head. "The water pressure outside is enough to crush us into thinner than a pancake. Even a steamroller can't produce such an effect."
"If there are 400 people, they will die even faster." Chi Hanfeng glanced at the screen and said, "The oxygen generator is sufficient. The biggest problem is food and water."
"How much is left?" the Hound asked, glancing at him .
It would have been fine if Chi Hanfeng hadn't mentioned it. As soon as he mentioned it, the hound suddenly felt his lips and throat become very dry, and his stomach started to feel hungry. The food on the Ark was already in short supply, and he had only eaten one-third of the normal amount in the meal before departure. At this time, the little stock in his stomach had already been digested. If he didn't eat something to fill his stomach, the stomach acid would probably start to reflux.
"Food can definitely last longer than drinking water..." Chi Hanfeng said, "There is no water purification device on this submersible. Even if we make a simple filter with the materials at hand and filter the urine before drinking it, it can only last for two days at most."
"There's water all around, but they're dying of thirst." Ghost Owl sighed, "I can understand the despair of the sailors on the lost ships in the old era."
"Can this thing be pushed from the inside?" said the Hound, and he hit the inner wall of the submersible with his shoulder, trying to make it move in this way. However, he hit it seven or eight times in a row, and except for his shoulder becoming red and painful, the submersible did not shake at all and was as stable as a rock.
"Damn it, it was just pushed away by the shock wave, how come it's so fucking stable now?" The hound raised his fist in annoyance, but before he hit the inner wall of the submersible, his stomach started to growl.
"In fact, the situation on Yagunakotor is not much better than ours. There are nearly 80,000 mouths to feed..." Chi Hanfeng said as he took out a piece of compressed biscuit, broke off half, and handed it to the hound.
If we ignore these 80,000 people, the supplies on Yaguna Tor are actually enough for the core members of the God Hunters to last for several years. But if the Hounds are asked to do this, they would rather choose to surrender to the Undead Crew.
But now... there is no chance to surrender.
"Is there any water? I'm so thirsty... This damn biscuit is so greasy and dry, it's stuck in my throat." The hound chewed up half a piece of compressed biscuit and swallowed it in two or three bites, then showed an expression as if he was choking.
"There's not much water. If you don't want to start drinking your own urine so early, it's best to drink it sparingly." Chi Hanfeng poured a little into the lid of the kettle and handed it over.
The hound drank it all in one gulp, then pinched his throat and swallowed the paste with great effort, panting heavily and saying, "This little bit of water is not enough to moisten my lips... Fortunately, I chewed it well enough, otherwise I would have choked to death."
"It's not bad to choke to death, it's better than watching death approaching little by little but being unable to do anything." Chi Hanfeng's ten fingers tapped on the screen in vain. "To be honest, I have been wondering all these years why I didn't die in that operation. If I died, maybe..."
"Don't say such depressing words. If you died, Valentina would not be alive today... You have more than just your own life on your shoulders." The Hound stretched out his hand and patted Chi Hanfeng's shoulder heavily. The latter was fine, but he himself could not help grinning because of a cut on his arm.
At this moment, a muffled "bang" sound suddenly came from outside the submersible, as if something hit the outer shell of the submersible, causing the cabin to shake.
"What is that?!" The Hound was so startled that he jumped up from his seat and hit the ceiling of the cabin. The wound that had just been bandaged immediately oozed blood again.
"Could it be that monster? Is it still alive?" The corners of Ghost Owl's eyes twitched a few times. He held the gun with his injured elbow, and then used his other hand to pull the bolt to load the gun, while his eyes were fixed on the porthole on his side.
"It doesn't feel like it... Although the sound just now was very dull, I felt that it seemed to be the collision between metal and metal..." Zhuo Ligetu said in a low voice, but even so, he lowered his body, turned on the tactical flashlight again, and shone it out the window.
The light was still only half a meter away, but this time, they saw something other than the inky black water.
It is a rusty metal object, but on its surface, there are precise lines like blood vessels - these lines are not decorations, but there is really something like blood flowing in it.
Although the illuminated area was only the size of a one-yuan coin, just like "seeing a leopard through a tube and only seeing a small part", Chi Hanfeng still recognized the true identity of the thing outside at the first time - "It's the 'Blasphemer' mecha!" he exclaimed.
"Blasphemer?" The Hound, who was covering the wound on his forehead, was slightly startled. "Could they be members of the Undead Crew? They have already escaped here. Can they catch up with us?"
Layton and Chi Hanfeng had done experiments before and found that the Blasphemer mecha manufactured by the Alpha civilization could withstand the water pressure at a depth of 3,000 meters underwater, but it was unknown whether the "Fallen Angel mass-produced model" that the undead crew would imitate could do the same.
"It doesn't look like a fake that the crew would make." Chi Hanfeng shook his head, "It looks... like the real thing."
"The Undead Crew has given us a Blasphemer. It's possible that they still have a few real ones in their hands. It's normal to have Unit 2 and Unit 3..." said the Hound.
"Old dog, you have to know that the Blasphemer mecha was not made by us humans... It was originally a weapon of the Alpha people. So, the person sitting in this Blasphemer is not necessarily a human being." Chi Hanfeng said in a low voice.
"Could it be an Alpha?!"
As soon as the hound finished speaking, a voice that was extremely familiar to Chi Hanfeng rang out in the submersible: "Are there any living people inside?"
“Valentina?!” This time it was Chi Hanfeng who jumped up and slammed his head against the ceiling of the cabin. “You, you you you… why are you here?!”
"What? It's Valentina?!" The level of surprise of Hound and Zhuo Ligetu was no less than that of Chi Hanfeng. At this time, they could not care about keeping the secret from Ghost Owl and asked immediately, "Didn't you go to the Gray Mist Forest with Ke Lan and the others? How come you are here?"
"Major Chi? Uncle Nick?" From the tone of their voices, it can be determined that Valentina was just as surprised as they were.
"Why are you here?" Chi Hanfeng repeated the question.
"We got separated in the forest... I was wandering around in the forest by myself and finally found an empty square. Before I had time to explore, I was teleported to a place full of water by a glowing stone tablet... It's here," Valentina replied.
“Hiss…” The hound suddenly gave Chi Hanfeng a strange look and said, “Haha… It’s a good thing you didn’t die in that operation back then, otherwise, no one would come to rescue us now! This is called—a damn good escape from despair! Hahahahaha!”
