Ren Yuanyang nodded slightly. "Indeed. But I believe humanity will always find a way."
Wang Jun nodded in deep agreement.
As the submarine continued its approach to the seafloor, Ren Yuanyang was surprised to find that some of the original terrestrial plants were still alive!
"How is that possible?" Ren Yuanyang’s eyes widened.
’Submerged under ten thousand meters of water, and those plants can still survive?’
"Could they have mutated?" Wang Jun said with a frown.
Ren Yuanyang ordered, "Get us a little closer!"
The submarine descended a bit more as instructed. Ren Yuanyang immediately extended his Mental Energy, and a system prompt appeared.
[Mutated willow tree discovered. Capable of growing underwater without light...]
"They really have mutated!" Ren Yuanyang nodded. "It seems it’s not just humans who can find a way—other life forms can, too!"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Scout the vicinity, pinpoint the locations of resources, and mark them. We’ll wait for the deep-sea Collectors to come down and gather them!" Ren Yuanyang continued to give orders.
"Yes, sir!" the captain responded at once, turning to leave and relay the command.
At this point, the captain no longer had any doubts about Ren Yuanyang’s orders.
"From now on, we won’t have to wait for the once-a-month undercurrent. We can come down and collect these resources whenever we want!" Wang Jun was exceptionally excited.
Ren Yuanyang nodded slightly. "This way, we can make full use of pre-flood resources and also carry out underwater mining operations."
This was precisely why he had asked Wang Jun to send the submarine over.
Initially, Wang Jun and his people had only requested reinforcements for their underwater mining equipment. It was Ren Yuanyang who had proactively asked them to send the submarine as well.
"I understand, Master!" Wang Jun replied. "I’ll be sure to arrange all this work. However, I’ll have to trouble you to strengthen the submarines and various collection tools for us!"
"That’s not a problem. But right now, I can only strengthen one submarine a day. The speed is a bit slow," Ren Yuanyang replied.
"One a day is already quite a lot! Given the speed of a strengthened submarine, two or three will be more than enough for reconnaissance!" Wang Jun seemed very satisfied.
"In that case, I’ll only strengthen three submarines," Ren Yuanyang said, his expression serious as he made his decision.
Wang Jun hurriedly replied, "Oh no, Master, when it comes to strengthening submarines, the more, the better, of course!"
Ren Yuanyang smiled. "I understand. There are still many other ships that need strengthening. I’ll strengthen three for you to use for now, and we’ll get to the rest slowly."
"Okay, thank you, Master!" Wang Jun breathed a slight sigh of relief.
The submarine made a pass through the area, marked the resource locations, and then began to surface.
All the crew members on the submarine were incredibly relaxed. At first, they thought this test would be a life-or-death situation, but they never expected it to be so easy.
"I have to say, Peach Blossom Base really knows its stuff. To think they could modify a submarine to be this powerful!"
"Knows its stuff? I’d say they’re masters of the craft!"
"Speaking of which, did they really modify our sub? Did you guys feel anything?"
"I think I felt a wave of mental energy, but that was it."
"Me too. Was this sub really modified with Mental Energy? That’s insane!"
"There’s no need to get hung up on it. The important thing is that our submarine can now dive freely!"
"Yeah! When we have a chance, we could go check out the Mariana Trench!"
"That’s way too deep, and there aren’t any resources there. If we have time, we should focus on finding more resources."
"Exactly. The Captain didn’t have someone modify the sub for us so we could go sightseeing!"
"I was just saying! Don’t take it so seriously!"
Just as the crew was chattering amongst themselves, a piercing alarm suddenly rang out!
Everyone tensed up immediately.
"All hands, be advised. Radar has detected a massive object approaching at high speed. Everyone, buckle your seatbelts. The submarine is ascending at full speed!"
The crew immediately returned to their stations and buckled their seatbelts.
BAM!
A violent collision echoed through the sub. It tumbled several times before stabilizing and then ascended rapidly.
Ren Yuanyang felt himself pinned to his seat. Fortunately, as an Evolver, his body could withstand such acceleration.
The other crew members on the submarine were, of course, also Evolvers. Although the acceleration was uncomfortable, they could all endure it.
The submarine rose quickly, soon shaking off the massive object that had entangled it.
After all, deep-sea creatures didn’t dare to surface so easily.
"Immediately inspect the point of impact!" The captain was still extremely tense.
The earlier impact had been incredibly powerful, and he was worried the sub had been damaged.
Soon, the engineer in charge of maintenance reported, "Report, Captain! All systems normal!"
The captain was stunned for a moment. "Are you sure all systems are normal?" he asked.
"Positive! I’ve examined it carefully with the submarine’s external cameras. I can’t even see a slight dent!" the engineer replied with absolute certainty.
The captain nodded slightly. "Alright, good work."
At the same time, he was utterly shocked. ’It withstood such a violent impact... The submarine’s structural integrity has definitely been enhanced!’
’With a submarine like this, we’re invincible on Blue Star!’
’Then again, Dragon Base is already invincible on Blue Star.’
’No matter how powerful the submarine is, its only purpose now is to scout for underwater resources.’
For a moment, the captain actually felt the loneliness of being unbeatable.
Soon, the submarine surfaced. Ren Yuanyang stepped out, breathing in the fresh air, feeling a little emotional.
’It feels so much better out here. The space inside the submarine is limited. While it’s not so cramped that you can’t turn around, it still feels a bit oppressive.’
"Captain Wang, you should improve the living conditions inside the submarines in the future. It’s too hard on them," Ren Yuanyang said to Wang Jun.
"It’s already much better, at least with the Dripping Lotuses you provided. They allow the crew to use fresh water without worry on the submarine!" Wang Jun replied. "In the past, on every mission dive, the amount of fresh water we could carry was limited. They couldn’t shower often, so you can imagine the smell of the entire sub!"
"It still needs further improvement," Ren Yuanyang said with a slight nod.
"Understood. I’ll have the design department continue their research and work on continuously improving the living conditions inside the submarines," Wang Jun responded.
"Alright, I’ll let you get back to it." Ren Yuanyang waved his hand, ending the call.
When Qin Haonan learned that Ren Yuanyang was off the submarine, he immediately ran over.
"Chief, how was it at the bottom of the sea? Was it fun?" Qin Haonan asked curiously.
Ren Yuanyang glanced at him and replied, "Not fun. It’s dead silent, with only the human architecture to attest to its former glory."
"They haven’t collapsed after being submerged for over four months?" Qin Haonan grew even more curious.
Ren Yuanyang shook his head. "Not yet, at least."
"I really want to see the old cities one more time!" Qin Haonan said, full of longing.
"Don’t drone on about it to me. If you want to go, go talk to the submarine captain," Ren Yuanyang retorted, then asked, "Have all our seed backups been transferred to the strengthened supply ship?"
"It’s done!" Qin Haonan replied immediately.
Those two cargo ships filled with seeds were too large for Ren Yuanyang to strengthen entirely at the moment, and leaving the seeds on them felt a bit unsafe.
So Ren Yuanyang had Qin Haonan back up the seeds onto the strengthened supply ship. Although the supply ship’s space was limited, they could still fit by keeping only five seeds of each type.
The prisoners who originally lived on the supply ship had all been moved to other frigates and destroyers.
These ships were all captured during the battle with Xi’an Base.
And those prisoners, being former members of Xi’an Base, were very familiar with these ships.
Meanwhile, James and his group, now freed from their prisoner status, had been permitted to live in the Banyan Forest.
The Banyan Forest was now large enough to accommodate them.
"I never thought we’d get the chance to live here in the Banyan Forest!" James said emotionally, looking at the newly built wooden house.
"Yeah!" Des nodded in agreement. "We finally don’t have to fall asleep to the rocking of the ship! This place is as steady as dry land!"
"I really didn’t expect a small piece of Duckweed to have so much buoyancy!" James replied. "If our Banyan Forest could spread across the globe, the entire Blue Star would belong to our Peach Blossom Base!"
Des frowned slightly, then shook his head. "I’m afraid that’s not possible. The waves in some sea regions are too rough. Our Banyan Forest probably couldn’t withstand that kind of storm."
James paused, then nodded. "That’s true. But the existing Low-level Wind Sea Region is already vast enough for our use."
"Exactly!" Des replied. "When that time comes, all the other countries will have to apply for permission just to set foot on our Duckweed Continent!"

Comments

Loading...