Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 67: Test Diving
VIP Room No. 1 on the first floor of the Pioneer's bridge.
Seeing Ke Lan and the other two pushing the door open, the hound who was drinking tea immediately jumped up from the sofa, not even caring about the precious tea leaves and hot tea in the bone china cup spilling all over the floor, and hurried over to greet them -
"How is it, did you find anything?"
"No." Ke Lan shook her head, "And things have become even more complicated."
Then he recounted what happened in cargo hold No. 9 and threw two magnetic cards onto the coffee table.
"This is what the captain insisted on giving me. Each anonymous savings card contains 5 million credit points. Take it, old dog. It will be used as compensation for your equipment purchase."
"Let's not talk about money for now," Hound waved his hand. "Our problem right now is not money, nor that black skeleton, nor that weird warning. I just want to know one thing, is the 'container' in the video what we want... If not, I think we have to re-evaluate the risks and benefits of this operation."
The hound paused, looked directly into Ke Lan's eyes and said, "You are the only one who saw that thing coming out of a person's stomach. If even you are not sure..."
"I'm not sure, but judging from the description of the witnesses, the 'container' in the diving chamber and the 'container' in the settlement have exactly the same characteristics." Ke Lan hesitated for a moment, then replied.
"But no one can guarantee that what we want is inside... In fact, what the woman named Caroline said is very right. The danger level of this sea area is far beyond our expectations. By the time we want to regret it, it may be too late." The Hound sat back on the sofa and glanced at the silent Natasha with the corner of his eye. "On one side is Ivan's life, and on the other side are your, my, Liao Zilang, Layton, Asano Akira, Zhuo Ligetu and Natasha's seven lives. I really want to save Ivan, but I can't let others die to save one person."
"Old dog, failure in the operation does not necessarily mean death. We may still have a chance to retreat..." Layton had just said halfway when he was glared at by the hound.
"There are dozens of people who have gone into the water. Did they have a chance to retreat?" The Hound shouted coldly, "We can continue the operation, but we must make sure whether there is what we want under the water... and whether we can come back alive after we go down."
"The information about that thing has been completely blocked by the Security Bureau." Ke Lan turned around and closed the door of the VIP room. "But they did leave any clues..."
"You mean the black skeleton you encountered?"
"Yes." Ke Lan nodded. "The stuff has been taken back by the Soma Group . The analysis report will be out the day after tomorrow. I think it is very likely to be related to our goal. In addition, the previous dive sites, hydrological data, and sea beast activity patterns are all recorded on the ship. I have asked Caroline to make a copy of all of them for me."
Ke Lan took out a fingernail-sized memory card from his pocket and inserted it into the holographic projector under the coffee table.
"The sacrifices of those people were not completely in vain. With the intelligence they gained at the cost of their lives, the risk of this operation is not that exaggerated."
A seabed formed by a three-dimensional holographic projection appeared in front of everyone, densely marked with a large amount of data and notes. This information was accumulated bit by bit during the previous explorations. In addition to the sacrifice of dozens of people, the Pioneer also launched hundreds of unmanned probes. Although only one in ten of these probes could be successfully recovered, they still brought back a large amount of data .
"These black areas are all unexplored areas. In our next actions, we must avoid them as much as possible. The areas marked in red are areas where high-threat sea beasts are found to be active. If we rush in rashly, we are likely to encounter powerful monsters—"
"What about the blue area?" the hound asked.
"'Relatively safe area'. At least none of the previous groups of people who went into the water had any accidents in the blue zone."
"I still don't think it's possible." The Hound shook his head. "The samples are too few, the data is unreliable, and the seabed environment is so complex that we can't guarantee that the previously safe areas will always be safe... As for sea beasts, let alone the giant deep-sea eels, we can't compete with them with the weapons we have, let alone those stronger beings."
"There are still more than 120 hours left," Ke Lan glanced at the watch on his wrist, "At least we can give it a try."
"You mean... start with a small-scale reconnaissance, and then gradually expand the search area?"
"Yes, anyway, we are not sure whether the deep sea really has what we want. There is no need to bet everything on a single dive. Even if we just swim a few laps at a depth of about 100 meters to look for some clues, it is better than wasting time in the cabin." Ke Lan nodded.
"What you said makes sense, but even at a depth of 100 meters, there are still considerable risks... Who will go for the first test dive?" The Hound asked seriously.
"I'll go." Ke Lan said immediately, "Since I came up with the plan, I should be the one to carry it out."
It was not until he arrived at Zhonghai that Ke Lan realized that this operation was far more difficult than he had imagined, otherwise Hound's opposition would not have been so obvious. But since he chose to insist, he would naturally have to bear the brunt of the risk himself.
"Negative." Hound rapped the table with his knuckles. "You have no diving experience, your physical fitness ranks below average among the rest of us, you have not undergone any physical enhancement or transformation, and you don't have any hard means to save your life... Why are you the first to dive? Are you going to die?"
"The test dive is not that dangerous. I won't be too far away from the Frontier Explorer. If anything happens, you will have enough time to support me." Ke Lan took a breath and continued, "Besides, among the few of us, I am the most familiar with the target. I have even touched it myself... If it were someone else, what would they do if they missed any clues?"
At first, the Hound wanted to refute Ke Lan, but when Ke Lan gave the last reason, even the Hound fell silent.
Indeed, no matter from which aspect, he is not the most suitable candidate, but from this point of view alone, he is the only optimal solution.
The hound gritted his teeth and lowered his head to think for two minutes. He then exhaled forcefully and raised his head and said, "Okay, I'll let you go on the first dive, but... you have to bring Liao Zilang with you."
In terms of physical resistance alone, Liao Zilang is the strongest among the team members, and he is also the only one among them who has multiple diving experiences in the Central Sea. If that point is excluded, he is actually the best candidate for the vanguard.
"Yes, sir!"
