Chapter 248: Chapter 252: Deep Sea Silence
City-State floated rootlessly on the Endless Sea. Beneath the 850-ter “thick” base lay seemingly endless dark waters that grew only noisier and more visually incomprehensible the deeper one went. The first explorer to cross a thousand-ter depth in the sea went mad after rushing to the surface, leaving only one sentence for posterity—
“We all died there.”
This is what happened during the Frost City-State’s “Abyssal Expedition” as things gradually started to go awry.
Duncan fell into a mont of brief contemplation. He suddenly realized that even without delving deep into the Spirit Realm or the profound depths, just within this “real dinsion” of the world, the dangers lurking in the Endless Sea were not few. After his brief contemplation, he then suddenly asked,
“What beca of that explorer later?”
“He died quickly—rapid ascent and decompression took his life. He scread and shouted for a while before dying from an embolism, at least that’s the cause on a realistic level.”
...
“A submarine with only one crew mber?” Duncan asked again.
“It could only fit one person. Of course, this would amplify the explorer’s ntal stress, but it was a necessary evil. On one hand, technology back then was limited, and on the other, such explorations were not suited for more people—beneath the deep sea, you can hardly be sure what might replace your companion next mont or if the noises you hear are real. So it might as well be better to dive alone, so you don’t have to doubt if there’s soone else in the submarine.”
“The deep sea, darkness, solitude, facing the bizarre unknown waters far from the civilized world—these could all be reasons for the explorer’s madness,” Duncan slowly shook his head. “But that’s not important. What’s important is … it still doesn’t explain why the Abyssal Expedition later turned into an extrely taboo topic.”
He stared into Tyrion’s eyes and continued, “So far, what you have described is just an exploratory mission gone wrong, and such missions happen every year. The Academy of Truth even actively invests in and encourages scholars and explorers to embark on these missions. There’s nothing taboo about it, nor should it be tied with ‘Holoss.'”
“… Yes, if the plan had stopped at a thousand ters, then those incidents wouldn’t have occurred,” Tyrion shook his head, sighing in reminiscence. “After an accident with the third submarine, Her Majesty Lei Nora once ordered a temporary halt to the exploration. But a few days later, sothing happened that … gradually made the situation eerie.”
Duncan frowned, “An incident?”
“At the edge of the temporarily sealed test area, the third submarine suddenly surfaced.”
Duncan was stunned for a mont, then realized, “The second third submarine?!”
“Yes, the second,” Tyrion nodded. “It surfaced right before the Frost Navy soldiers and started flashing signals that it needed assistance with the hatch. The well-trained soldiers were confused at first, but quickly followed standard procedures to secure the submarine onto the platform. They then aid twenty-seven rifles, two rapid-fire cannons, and a flathrower at its hatch before a brave priest stepped forward, sprinkled Holy Water, and unlocked the hatch.”
Tyrion paused, then slowly said, “The hatch opened, and an individual… very similar to the explorer, ca out.”
Duncan’s expression grew dark: “Very similar?”
“The facial features were close, but there were discrepancies in height and weight. He wore the uniform of the Frost Navy, but there were many issues with the details of the clothes. More importantly… the person who erged from the submarine only remained alive for a short while on land before dying, without even managing to say a word. When the soldiers removed ‘his’ clothes, they found his flesh and the clothes seed to be ‘grown’ together, with various incomprehensible wounds all over his body.
“After that, doctors and scholars from the church jointly examined the body; the Frost Queen also appeared to personally inspect the autopsy site. However, the conclusions of the examination were never disclosed—or rather, before they could disclose anything, the third ‘third submarine’ appeared.”
At this point, even Alice beside him, who had been quietly engrossed in the conversation, couldn’t help but speak out, “There’s a third one?!”
Tyrion glanced at Alice unconsciously, his expression a bit strange. He seed uncomfortable with soone who looked exactly like the Frost Queen ranting and raving, but he quickly adjusted his expression, nodding lightly, “The third one, and not just three—after that, every twenty-four or forty-eight hours, another ‘Subrsible Three’ would pop out from there…”
Alice listened in surprise to this bizarre “story.” After pondering for a mont, she suddenly blurted out, “So, you just needed to wait there, and you could have an endless supply of subrsibles? And isn’t that thing called a ‘subrsible’ also very valuable? More valuable than the Heretics?”
Tyrion had been imrsed in his mories just a mont ago, but Miss Doll’s questioning had abruptly broken his train of thought, leaving him with his mouth open, struggling to gather his emotions back up, “That…we never considered that…”
“Don’t mind her, her way of thinking is unusual,” Duncan glanced at Alice and said seriously to Tyrion, “Continue, what happened next?”
Tyrion regained his composure, organized his thoughts, and continued, “After the third subrsible surfaced, it also sent out a signal requesting to open the hatch. This ti, the soldiers had so experience, they dragged the subrsible to a more tightly secured area, and after the priests had set up a large amount of Transcendent protection, they finally opened the hatch. And this ti… what ca out was a grotesquely swollen, deford humanoid monster that barely resembled an ‘explorer.’
“That monster also didn’t survive in the air for more than three minutes.
“The fourth subrsible brought forth a constantly wriggling mass of flesh, this ti not even a human outline was discernible.
“When the hatch of the fifth subrsible was opened, nothing erged—soldiers at the site went forward to check and saw only a suspicious dark-red sludge in the cockpit, which had a faint life response.
“The sixth subrsible contained just a small amount of black fibrous dry matter, resembling an incomplete neural structure or a dried blood vessel specin…”
As Tyrion continued to recount, Duncan’s expression grew increasingly serious, and even Alice beside him seed to sense the change in atmosphere, becoming solemn and alert.
In this increasingly solemn and somber atmosphere, Tyrion slowly said—
“The seventh subrsible, which to my knowledge was the last, was empty.”
“Empty?” Duncan raised his eyebrows slightly, then shook his head, “That makes it even more disturbing.”
“Yes, empty, which makes it even more disturbing. It’s completely out of control now; we must find a way to end it,” Tyrion said gravely, “but fortunately, ‘Subrsible Four’ was finally completed. It was originally the successor model to Subrsible Three, but the construction was halted after the ‘One Kiloter Incident’. However, as one Subrsible Three after another surfaced, the Queen ordered the rapid assembly of ‘Subrsible Four’ to use it to find out what exactly was happening in the waters at one thousand ters deep.”
Tyrion paused, as if so details were missing from his mory, he organized his words before slowly continuing, “I don’t rember the specifics of Subrsible Four; it was hastily completed, and the Frost Navy was only responsible for part of it. I know it was bigger than Three, could accommodate three people, and had a sample chamber—scholars originally planned to use it to collect specins from the deep sea, if there were any specins to be collected.
“The day after the seventh ‘Subrsible Three’ appeared, the Frost City-State’s constructed Subrsible Four was launched into the sea. It carried a scholar, a military officer, and a powerful priest—we could no longer worry about the risks of ‘multi-person exploration’ at that point. Avoiding the appearance of an eighth ‘Subrsible Three’ was paramount.
“Subrsible Four descended smoothly toward one thousand ters deep. The priest inside used Spiritual Energy to maintain contact with the surface. Perhaps because the new subrsible was more robust, their journey went smoothly, and they confird the sight of the ‘base’ of the City-State observed by previous explorers. But soon, the communication beca intermittent, and after reaching a depth of one thousand ters, barely any sounds from the deep sea could be heard in the small church on the platform.
“However, fifteen minutes after losing contact, the priest on watch in the small church suddenly heard sounds from the deep sea again. They first heard a scream, which was emitted by the priest, yelling in a terrified tone to warn others, saying, ‘Don’t look! Don’t think!’ followed by the officer’s voice, which was a roar, and then, a deafening explosion.”
Tyrion raised his head, looking into Duncan’s eyes.
“Subrsible Four had detonated the explosives,” the pirate stated slowly, “They had packed the sample chamber with high-energy explosives to handle ‘the ultimate dangerous situation.’
“Then, everything was over, Subrsible Four never resurfaced, and no more ‘Subrsible Threes’ appeared before anyone’s eyes again.”
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