With just a single fra, Lin Xian and KIKI imdiately felt an overwhelming pressure emanating from the colossal monster. Beneath the abyss, a giant eyeball covered the entire screen.
Seeing this, KIKI couldn’t help but hold her breath. That enormous pupil seed to be directly facing the energy discharge outlet’s surveillance, or perhaps staring at the silhouette of that triangular-headed monster.
However, this image lasted only half a second before the surveillance screen froze completely and lost signal.
At this mont, the mobile terminal screen in KIKI’s hand still displayed a faint, dim yellowish pupil like a sea lantern. Even a single fra emitted a chilling sense of oppressive pressure that made one’s skin crawl.
Lin Xian and KIKI exchanged glances. Around them, the tremors and the distant sounds of battle from the upper levels of the passage suddenly quieted down.
“Lin Xian, the passages on the upper laboratory and living area floors have largely collapsed. We took down one monster and temporarily suppressed the mark, but... we probably can’t get out from here,” Chen Sixuan’s voice ca through the earpiece.
On the upper levels of the base, whole buildings had turned into ruins. Smoke and dust filled the passages. Flickering electrical sparks ca from half-hanging ceiling lamps. The main passage to the lower base was blocked by a mass of bizarre entities shrouded in black smoke. Chen Sixuan, Qian Dele, and the others tasked with sealing the area watched the jamd passage intensely, holding their breath in unison.
“That black bug retracted again. Should we pursue it?” Shu Qin’s face showed worry. “I think this thing isn’t simple, and it keeps hiding in the flood discharge channel. It’s definitely a threat to us.”
“We can’t chase it,” Qian Dele shook his head gravely while looking at the battlefield. “It’s already hard enough not to be detected. We can’t afford to provoke those monsters. If we get marked again, we won’t be able to hold our defense at all.”
“Sorry.”
At this mont, Laine from the Falcon Sea Group stepped forward, kicked away a severed limb of one of the bizarre entities blocking the path, then turned back to address Chen Sixuan and the others: “We can’t activate crystal lattice power, so our combat strength will have a huge gap.”
“Activating it wouldn’t make much sense anyway,” Monica said calmly. “Our real problem now isn’t imdiate combat power, but how to hide.”
“That’s right,” Chen Sixuan nodded. She was ready to clean up the aftermath and once again asked Lin Xian through the communication channel, “Lin Xian, how’s your side?”
“No issues for now,” Lin Xian’s voice responded. “Teacher Chen, get everyone to seal off all the upper-level passages, then have everyone move down to the lower level.”
“Understood.”
After telling Chen Sixuan, Lin Xian imdiately contacted Viola.
[Recon drones have detected a large number of bizarre entities entering the offshore island’s radar range.]
The Sea Rock Prison above was now crawling with indescribable bizarre entities searching everywhere. Many hovering drones had stopped attacking under Viola’s control. Viola was hiding behind a broken wall in the ruins, manipulating the high-altitude drones to scan all directions of the island.
It was still not dark, but the entire offshore island already felt like an on of apocalypse. Heavy storm clouds hung above, thick and foul, choking the whole island. The sunlight seed completely sucked away by so monstrous force, leaving nothing behind. The dead sea water looked as black and viscous as ink, thick and sluggish, stirring up massive waves and ripples.
A torrential downpour fell, the rain like a curtain, and countless black shadows erged from the sea surface, tearing it apart. They were huge arthropods covered in slippery, sticky sli. In the gaps between their joints sat constantly opening and closing, pupil-less swollen eyeballs. They were writhing, enormous tentacle clusters covered with suction cups and fangs, as if the innards of a deep-sea grave.
These bizarre creatures were beyond human imagination but seed to combine so characteristics of deep-sea lifeforms, rged, sewn, mutated, and split.
At this mont, the entire island trembled. The beach was crushed and churned by the giant creatures, covered in thick, stinking sludge. Forests, trees, and mountains beneath the island were overturned and torn apart. On the monitoring screens of manned aircraft, only blurry white shadows could be seen urgently approaching through the rain from all directions.
“Viola.”
[Here.]
“Everyone pull back to the ground. Give up resistance.”
[Viola understands.]
In the passage, Sea Rock Prison assessed the situation at the energy discharge outlet and prison, as well as the battle status on Chen Sixuan’s side. It concluded that the Oceanic Titan had yet to appear in the southeastern sea area. The monsters in the seven sea regions were still operating normally amidst the storm, further indicating the situation had not reached an extre crisis.
Perhaps, the hunt was about to end!
Under such circumstances, any remaining resistance was aningless. All we could do was to avoid reckless risk and lie low in the submarine shelter on the ground.
At this ti, in the middle level of the underground base, over six hundred mbers of the Falcon Sea Group and the Infinite were gathered—though most were from the Falcon Sea Group.
Offices and forr resting areas were crowded. Large amounts of supplies and various equipnt were transported down by a chanical team led by Azrael from the Falcon Sea Group, filling nearly all the laboratories.
The basent echoed with heavy breathing. Compared to ordinary survivor organizations, these sea group mbers were more organized, ard, and divided clearly into logistics, dical, engineering, and even intelligence reconnaissance teams. Despite the large numbers, order remained intact after Laine’s command, with no signs of chaos.
In the monitoring hall, core mbers of Infinite and the Falcon Sea Group—Laine, Vanessa, Geddy, Erica, and others—were discussing counterasures. With all plans collapsing, it seed no one had any other way out.
“The good news is, whether or not it’s due to the energy discharge from Chatham Island, that evil god has appeared again.”
Lin Xian stood behind KIKI, who was operating the computer, crossing his arms and looking at Cai En. “Cai En, during your ti working with the Foundation, how many hunts have you experienced in total?”
“Three,” Cai En raised his sunglasses. “The timing and process aren’t under our control. I only know the intervals between these hunts were about 2,040 days. Also, for safety, the base goes silent for twelve hours when a hunt begins.”
“Twelve hours?” Monica asked. “Don’t we monitor anything during that ti?”
Cai En shook his head. “No monitoring is possible. Like now, all surveillance devices go offline, and most get destroyed. After each hunt ends, the engineering departnt arranges repairs and replacents.”
“So, the bad news is we have no idea what’s going to happen next,” Lin Xian said.
After speaking, he turned his gaze to Viola and asked, “Viola, have you finished the calculations?”
[Calculations complete. Based on existing conditions, preliminary success rate estimate is 13.67%.]
“What success rate?” Vanessa asked curiously.
“Escaping Sea Rock Island.”
Lin Xian took a deep breath and looked at everyone, then directly shared his thoughts.
“I found, by combining the submarine data from the Sanctum’s sub and Phoenix Society’s oceanographic information in this sea area, a passage that was likely previously used by the Foundation for ergency evacuation from the island. I think maybe we can use this passage to leave.”
“A passage?” Geddy looked confused. “This... here is the Pacific Ocean. The passage you an is... a route?”
“It’s an underwater passage, right?” Cai En looked at Lin Xian. “More precisely, the Foundation’s submarine underwater route?”
“Exactly.”
At these words, everyone’s expressions changed. Chen Sixuan furrowed her brow. “We’re going underwater?”
“Using that submarine?” Erica from the Falcon Sea Group also expressed doubt. “How is that possible? The seas around are full of dense bizarre entities. How could there be a safe underwater passage for us to escape?”
“Yeah, logically, underwater should be even more dangerous than the ocean orbit or the sky,” Ning Jing said gravely.
“Not necessarily.”
KIKI’s fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, quickly pulling up a blue holographic ocean map projected before everyone’s eyes. It clearly outlined Sea Rock Island and several nearby islands’ underwater terrain and oceanographic data.
Then, KIKI pointed to a continuous underwater ridge southeast of the island. “This is the firing depth and central path inferred by Viola by combining all preset paths of the decoy torpedoes. Coincidentally, this path lies exactly on the main fault zone of Mount Garland.”
“What?!” Qian Dele’s face paled, his voice shrill. “You an this evacuation passage not only runs underwater through monster-infested waters but also passes through that already erupting underwater volcano area?”
Lin Xian nodded with a complicated expression. “That’s right.”
Everyone’s faces twisted oddly. Many glanced at Lin Xian, wondering why he would co up with such an idea.
Lin Xian’s eyes flickered. He called out to Viola: “Viola, sync the analysis process as well.”
[Understood.]
Viola stepped forward with her chanical fingers raised. A holographic beam shone on the oceanographic map, and she began to explain the path along the route.
[Combining Federation oceanographic data from 2035 to 2065 in the Sea Rock sea area of the Pacific, I discovered this path highly overlaps with a silent abyss whirlpool first identified by the Federation’s UNESCO oceanographic organization in 2029. This strong deep-sea current flows along the continental slope, reaching speeds of 30–40 centiters per second, far higher than ordinary deep-sea currents. The reason for this strong deep-sea circulation is due to subduction zones like the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, where massive geothermal anomalies exist. Hydrothermal vents release extre heat, and the northern Pacific polar basins (such as the Bering Sea and Okhotsk Sea) experience surface cooling...]
“Viola, just give the conclusion. No need to lecture us on geography or oceanography,” Lin Xian interrupted with a dry cough.
[Understood.] Viola continued, [Mount Garland lies on the western Pacific ridge fault zone, with cliff depths reaching 6,000 to 8,000 ters. The nearest cliff zone is only 96 nautical miles from the island. Beneath this sea area, there may be a massive vortex array driven by intense thermal flux and water pressure differentials. This whirlpool spans tens of kiloters in diater. It is not an ordinary eddy but a resonant, stable super vortex ford due to continuous geothermal energy injection and unique terrain restrictions.]
[If a subrsible can enter this giant vortex array, and its pressure-resistant hull can withstand the extre pressure, it can achieve extrely high speeds of 50 to 100 knots through the abyssal whirlpool passage. At this speed, it would take only two to three hours to escape the danger zone of the bizarre entity hunt around Sea Rock Island.]
After Viola finished, the monitoring hall fell into a brief silence.
Shasha looked grim. Seeing no one spoke, she was the first to break the silence: “Brother Lin, does this plan really work? How can those underwater cliffs, super whirlpools, and silent abyss whirlpools sound so terrifying one after another...”
“Well, now besides sea monsters and volcanoes, there’s a super whirlpool too,” Qian Dele pinched his brow, looking utterly headache-stricken.
“The success rate Viola ntioned, 13.67%, isn’t that for this plan?” Luo Yang nervously swallowed his saliva.
At these words, all eyes turned to Lin Xian.
“Yes,” Lin Xian answered calmly. “This success rate is very high, far beyond my expectations!”
Hearing this, Vanessa, Geddy, and others behind Laine were stunned. Their leader, Laine, often ca up with crazy plans, but no one imagined this Sword Bearer would describe a 13.67% success rate as “very high” and “exceeding expectations.” His ntal state at that mont was hard to imagine.
“Hey, savior, 13% is not 30%. How can you think this success rate is high?” Vanessa couldn’t help but speak up.
“Isn’t it high enough?” KIKI spun around in her chair, levitating her telekinesis, arms crossed. “A survival rate over one in ten is much better than a one-in-nine chance of death.”
Everyone from the Falcon Sea Group: ….
“Madman...” Erica’s eyes widened as she stared at Lin Xian as if he were a monster.
Laine was comparatively calm. He stared at Lin Xian and the underwater holographic map, then looked at most mbers of Infinite. Except for a few, the majority seed to show no strong reactions.
Chen Sixuan remained composed. Ding Junyi had her hands in her pockets. Lu Xingchen was leaning back in his chair asleep. Daluo stood quietly. Monica smiled. Shu Qin, Lü Chang, and others looked tense. Takahashi Ryunosuke’s face was covered by a mask, and Shiori was a little nervous.
“Sounds like a good idea. Although I haven’t encountered this plan before, the Foundation does have ergency evacuation plans,” Laine finally spoke. “Such a high-speed current is like an underwater tunnel. Coupled with depth, we can leave quickly. If I’m right, there should be fewer bizarre entities along this current?”
“Not fewer, none at all,” Lin Xian said.
“None?”
“How is that possible?” Everyone was puzzled.
Lin Xian’s expression turned serious. “Not none exactly. Strictly speaking, there is one.”
He looked at Laine. “Cai En, do you rember how Mount Garland went from extinct to active?”
At this, Cai En’s brow suddenly furrowed, and others imdiately realized.
“Lin Xian, you an...” Chen Sixuan asked.
“That’s right,” Lin Xian said solemnly.
“This fault abyss is the Oceanic Titan’s territory!”
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