Chapter 244. The Deep Sea
Charles couldn't hear anything aside from his own breathing. The darkness had surrounded him, and the sea got emptier and emptier as he dove deeper and deeper. Earlier, he could still see a few fish, but now, he couldn't see anything other than a stifling darkness.
The claustrophobia-inducing darkness was suffocating, and Charles felt lightheaded. He had enough air to breathe, but he felt as though his brain was running out of air.
Swoosh!
Charles heard the sloshing of water next to him, and a fuzzy glow pierced the darkness to reach the retina of his eyes. The light had come from Feuerbach's light source, and his arms and legs moved to gesture with flag semaphore.
"A hundred meters deep. Danger below. Keep diving?"
Charles shook his head and responded with flag semaphore. He had to continue—he had to go down there today, no matter what.
Feuerbach gulped nervously at Charles' insistence. He patted the shark beneath him, and it waved its crescent-shaped tail fin to propel the both of them downward. The shark carrying Charles followed closely behind him.
The pressure was starting to become too much, and Charles heard an audible crack from the glass lenses before his eyes. Charles' heart tightened; if the glass lenses were to break, the water would bury the glass fragments into his face.
Ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters... Charles could feel his outfit reaching the limits of its endurance. He was about to give the signal to go back to the surface when he finally caught a glimpse of the seafloor.
They were swimming above an airport, and it was tilted at an angle of thirty degrees. The sea had reclaimed the airport, covering the runway with coral and barnacles. If it hadn't been for the few broken airplanes, Charles wouldn't have recognized that he was staring at an airport.
Charles gestured at Feuerbach with flag semaphore just as the latter was about to swim toward the planes. Feuerbach came to a halt in response to Charles' gesture.
Charles looked around, but the airport didn't contain what he had been looking for. The airport neither had information about the exit to the surface world nor had traces of 319. Of course, Charles didn't really think that 319 would be here.
Similar to most airports on the surface world, the airport had an expressway next to it, and Charles found it rather quickly despite the fact that it had decayed beyond recognition and had been overrun by the sea.
Charles used his knowledge of the modern world and deduced that he would soon find himself in the center of the island so long as he followed the road. Naturally, what he had been looking for had to be there.
Under the lead of a few red sharks, Charles and Feuerbach swam swiftly, following the road that Charles had chosen. The two were swimming at depths that didn't allow them to relax at any moment; the pressure had also taken its toll on their bodies.
Charles' toes had gotten so numb from the cold that he couldn't feel them anymore, and he reckoned that the surrounding temperature had to be near zero degrees Celsius.
The silver lining was that the two hadn't encountered any dangerous creatures. The place seemed desolate, and Charles didn't see anything alive aside from the small group of sharks around them as well as Feuerbach.
The two continued on following the expressway to the center of the city, and they soon stumbled upon quite a few buildings. At first, they only saw tiny, single-story houses, similar to what one would see in a village.
However, it didn't take long for the buildings to grow in size and height. Eventually, the two found themselves staring at tall skyscrapers hundreds of meters in height.
The overpasses between the towering buildings gave the sunken island a touch of sci-fi, making it appear seemingly surreal.
The passage of time and the encroachment of the sea had weathered these buildings beyond recognition, but a glance was enough to make anyone acknowledge that the Foundation's technology was highly advanced and magnificent without a doubt.
Charles gestured with his hand, and Feuerbach came to a halt. Charles swam toward a rectangular sign next to an overpass and realized that the sign depicted the map of the main island.
The sign was filled with many lines, and it seemed to be depicting train stations. Charles scanned the station names, hoping to find where the Foundation had stored their relics.
I've found two places where they had stored their relics, and they were stored in Lab 3 and Lab 2. In that case, 319 must be stored in Lab 1.
Just then, Charles' heart inexplicably tightened. The eerie, surreptitious gaze had returned with vengeance, and the gaze seemed to be coming from one of the distant skyscrapers.
Charles didn't dare to be rash. He swam next to Feuerbach's shark and gestured with his hand, asking them to move forward. Once they had resumed swimming, Charles put his fingers to his left torso and brought his hand back instantly.
It was brief, but Feuerbach caught the gesture, and he nodded lightly. He opened his mouth and let out a soundless scream. The sharks dispersed, and the two continued their journey toward the center of the sunken island.
Soon, the surreptitious gaze returned, and Charles tapped the shark beneath him.
The sharks that had left previously suddenly emerged from the darkness and bared their massive mouths. They rushed toward the darkness on Charles and Feuerbach's left side. The two hurriedly chased after the sharks and turned to avoid a skyscraper, but the scene before them left them reeling in shock.
A gigantic twenty-meter emptiness filled with darkness had appeared right before their eyes. Charles shuddered uncontrollably as though a Divinity had laid eyes on him once again.
Charles resumed breathing three seconds later and found that he wasn't staring at the eyes of a Divinity. He was staring at the eye socket of some sea creature. The darkness within the emptiness was all because the eye socket had no eye.
The eye socket was not much smaller than the buildings around it. Staring at the skull, Charles couldn't fathom how large the sea creature was when it was alive. But one thing was for sure—it was a terrifying size capable of paralyzing anyone in fear.
The sloshing of water reverberated from the eye socket as a shark emerged from it with Feuerbach on its back. Feuerbach gestured with flag semaphore upon seeing Charles.
"Found nothing."
Irritation fleeted across Charles' eyes. The owner of the surreptitious gaze was clearly avoiding him; just what were they trying to do here?
Charles gestured at Feuerbach to continue their journey. The owner of the surreptitious gaze had tagged along, and since they clearly didn't want to be seen, Charles decided to just let them be.
He couldn't waste any more time here. He had to find 319 while he still had air.
Feuerbach chased after Charles, but unbeknownst to the two, seven or eight grotesque-looking tentacles covered in a black substance extended out of the eye socket upon their departure.
The grotesque tentacles propagated, and when they finally filled the cavity to the brim, the massive skeleton of the sea creature that towered several hundred meters seemed to tremble ever so slightly.
Charles soon found himself before a train station, but the transit map was so badly damaged that Charles could only make out a few words from them. In the end, he had to visit several train stations before he could create a complete map.
He skimmed the names of the train stations, and actively sifted out those that sounded like residential areas and soon found train stations dedicated to the two laboratories: D2 Laboratory and Project Laboratory. They were both located on the outskirts of the island. Charles immediately focused on Project Laboratory. He deduced that 319 was most likely in there.
Just as he was about to leave for his destination, Feuerbach swam over with a look of agitation on his countenance. He patted the shark beneath him and gestured with flag semaphore.
"One missing!"
Foll𝑜w current novels on fre(e)w𝒆bnovel