Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 75: Acceleration
“…Fuck…”
Although he cursed in his heart, Ke Lan did not take any action. He knew that the more critical the moment , the more he should not act rashly.
He must not show any sign of abnormality, otherwise, this game of "cat and mouse" would probably end immediately... This place is too far from the exit. Even if he pulls all the power of the thrusters to the point of overload, he will not have the slightest chance of getting out.
There is only one chance, and you must act when you are sure enough...
…
During these long ten minutes, the tentacles of the fusion body had been living in peace with Ke Lan, and Ke Lan pretended not to notice these tentacles... but the distance between the two sides had never been widened, and Ke Lan had always been within the attack range of these tentacles.
Judging from the speed and time of ascent, the exit of the abyss should be less than a hundred meters above. These last hundred meters are the key to life and death.
These tentacles would never let him swim out like this. At the last moment, they would definitely drag him into the abyss again - making the prey feel extremely desperate just when they thought they were about to be safe. This was the evil taste of the monster.
If the Alpha alien wasn't lying, this fusion creature dormant in the deepest part of the hatchery could be considered an intelligent creature. It seemed that the biology textbooks on the Ark would have to undergo a large-scale revision and modification...
Besides humans, there is the second intelligent creature on this planet... No matter from which angle you look at it, it is not good news for humans.
This is especially true for Ke Lan.
If the opponent was a wild beast driven entirely by biological instinct, Ke Lan's escape rate might be even higher, but if it were an intelligent creature with sound thinking ability, the difficulty would be completely different.
Ke Lan calculated that if he opened the thrusters to the maximum without worrying about damaging the motors, he should be able to rush out a distance of about twenty meters in two to three seconds - compared with the speed of the fusion body, this was far from enough. He had to at least increase the speed by more than three times before he could rush out of this cage made of tentacles.
We have to find another way...
The closer he was to the exit, the more likely it was that the fusion would attack. Ke Lan couldn't be sure of what it was thinking ... But in other words, the closer he was to the exit, the greater his chance of breaking out of the abyss...
This is a game with increasing risks and winning rates, just like a card game called "Black Jack". If you want to win, you must make the points on your hand as close to twenty-one as possible, but not exceed twenty-one - once it exceeds twenty-one, it will be judged as a "Burst" and you will lose the game directly.
Just as Ke Lan must get as close to the exit as possible but cannot break the bottom line of the fusion body's desire to attack, he must seize that fleeting opportunity and place all his bets!
"Keep calm, you must keep calm..." Ke Lan kept saying to himself in his heart. The safety lock of the thruster has been released. He only needs to press that button and the converter will inject the energy in the crystal into the motor at the maximum rate, causing the speed of the blades to rise to the limit.
"It's not time yet ..."
Although it was still pitch black all around, Ke Lan knew that the exit of the abyss was less than thirty meters above him...
But the distance is not enough...
Moreover, it would probably be impossible to increase the speed to that level relying solely on the power of the thrusters - for the fusion body, the resistance of the water in the deep sea seems to be completely non-existent, and its tentacles can grab Ke Lan in just one second.
"There are still the last twenty meters."
Ke Lan held his breath. The tentacles that were so close to him could attack from the darkness at any time, and by then it would be too late.
"Nineteen meters... eighteen meters..."
"Fifteen meters..."
Ke Lan felt as if she was trekking through a minefield. Every meter she ascended was equivalent to taking a step forward. The further she went, the closer she got to the safe zone, and the denser the mines became...
But he couldn't stop, he couldn't stop...
"Fourteen meters... thirteen meters..."
That's enough, now!!
Ke Lan pressed the button, and after a moment's pause, the paddles began to spin wildly at several times the speed, carrying Ke Lan straight to the exit!
The motor made a buzzing sound as if it was overloaded. This level of overload would cause irreversible damage, but for now, it was enough to at least last until he could escape from here.
The tentacles of the fusion body also moved. They chased towards Ke Lan at a faster speed. The front end of each tentacle split apart, and thousands of tentacles shot out like arrows!
"No! Not fast enough!" Almost in a moment, Ke Lan realized that he would be caught by the tentacles before rushing out of the abyss. The opponent's speed was too fast. Even if all the thrusters on his body were in perfect condition, he would not be able to get rid of it.
But Ke Lan still has one last trump card!
He pulled the trigger, and the "Vortex Type I" torpedo in the barrel was immediately fired out - but the torpedo's target was not the fusion tentacles below, but the exit above Ke Lan's head!
The moment the torpedo left the barrel, the metal claws on the hands of the diving suit clasped it tightly. The "Vortex Type I" torpedo used a jet-type crystal engine, and it only took 0.06 seconds to complete the acceleration process. Ke Lan only felt a pulling force coming from the torpedo that was enough to tear his arms off. The next second, he had rushed out of the abyss!
“Bang!!”
A dull collision sound came from behind. The tentacles of the fusion body had already broken through the metal net that sealed above the abyss and continued to chase closely. The distance between the two sides was gradually closing!
"It will be troublesome if we catch him..."
Ke Lan originally thought that this fusion was "trapped" in the abyss hatchery , but now it seems that the hatchery is just a place for it to stay.
Perhaps it was because of the mutated larvae in the eggshells that the fusion body did not leave the nest, but if it was provoked, then everything would be hard to say...
The energy consumption of the jet engine was very high, and the crystal energy inside the torpedo soon ran out. Ke Lan had no choice but to launch a second torpedo, but still failed to shake off the tentacles that were chasing after her...
"This thing is too persistent..." Ke Lan held the torpedo with one hand and threw a series of special incendiary bombs to the back with the other hand. A second later, a wall of fire several meters wide exploded behind him, blocking the tentacles.
Incendiary bombs are ineffective against the main body of the fusion, but they are still very effective against the derived tentacles. This has been confirmed under the abyss.
The firewall helped Ke Lan buy nearly ten seconds. Following the beam of light from the searchlight, Ke Lan had already seen the edge of the underwater plateau.
Just a little bit more!
