Chapter 300. 198
Charles stared deeply at the humanoid figure that seemed to be on the verge of death. The seawater churned just then, and the sea creature that had disappeared earlier reappeared with its maw wide open.
However, its target wasn't Charles. It engulfed the humanoid figure, and it slowly began to deflate.
Damn it! It's trying to escape! I can't let it get away! Charles instantly saw through the sea creature's intention. Lightning crackled as he made a beeline for the sea monster with the Lightning Rod in hand. He swung the Lightning Rod to its head.
It was super effective. The sea creature was interrupted, and it quivered as electricity coursed through its elongated body.
At the same time, the Narwhale fired four torpedoes, and a deafening explosion echoed as the sea creature's head exploded into a bloody mist.
The surrounding seawater was inundated by its purple blood, and the sea creature floated lifelessly in the water. Charles gasped for air as he stared at the motionless sea creature in front of him. This damned thing is finally dead!
Charles glanced at the Narwhale and realized that he had to make further improvements to it when they returned to Hope Island.
Charles looked around before ultimately deciding to go back to the Narwhale. He was worried that the loud commotion here would attract more sea creatures.
He turned around and was about to swim toward the Narwhale when a dark shadow flashed past him, swimming toward the sea creature's carcass.
He ran out again?! Charles was furious upon recognizing the familiar silhouette. It was Tobba, and he was swimming like a frog toward the carcass.
Charles rushed up to Tobba and grabbed him by the nape. He dragged Tobba toward the decompression chamber's hatch as if he were a little chick.
However, Tobba struggled desperately against him; he frantically waved his hand at Charles, seemingly trying to convey something through his body language.
Did he notice something? Charles hesitated. In the end, he allowed Tobba to continue swimming toward the carcass, and he watched as Tobba squeezed himself into the sea creature's wound.
Soon, Tobba emerged. His face was flushed red, and he was holding a rusty safe in his arms. Charles' expression changed upon seeing the rusty safe. The humanoid figure had been holding the same rusty box earlier.
Is the relic in that safe still alive? Is it 319? Charles stirred, and he swam over to Tobba to help the latter carry the rusty safe to the decompression chamber.
Once they were inside the decompression chamber, the water inside the chamber had yet to drain when Tobba snatched Charles' Dark Blade and started hacking away at the rusty safe.
Charles decided to ignore the lunatic in the meantime and turned toward the other divers.
He saw that all five sailors had returned without any major injuries, but Audric looked relatively better compared to the other four. The others had been scared witless, and Charles could see them trembling despite the heavy diving suit that they were wearing.
The sailors were fine, but Second Mate Feuerbach seemed to have suffered severe injuries. Out of the seven divers, he was the only one who had suffered a diving suit rupture while they were inside the sea creature's mouth.
He was riddled with gashes and lacerations, and he looked like he had taken a shower in his own blood. His lips were ghastly pale, and he trembled as if he were an aspen tree. He looked like he would pass out anytime soon.
The decompression chamber soon opened, and the sailors inside rushed to carry the injured Feuerbach to the infirmary.
The commotion eventually died down, and Charles finally had time to deal with Tobba. Tobba had been hacking away at the sturdy safe, but even though the safe now resembled a sieve, he still couldn't retrieve what was inside of it.
Charles grabbed the Dark Blade from Tobba's hand and thrust the blade into it before slowly cutting it open from the edges. The rusty safe was thick, but it was as good as styrofoam before the Dark Blade's sharpness.
The rusty safe was soon opened, and disappointment suffused Charles' face when he saw what it contained. It wasn't 319, but a thick black tablet that was strikingly similar to the tablets that the Foundation members were using to do their jobs.
Before Charles could wonder as to why a tablet was inside a safe, Tobba grabbed the tablet from the safe and powered it up.
The screen flashed green, and Tobba beamed like a child who had just gotten a new toy.
"Charles, look!" He waved the tablet at Charles, sounding excited as he said, "198 is still alive! It's not dead!"
Charles looked doubtful rather than delighted upon hearing that. He couldn't deduce if Tobba was having another manic episode or if the ordinary-looking tablet was really a relic.
He reached out and took 198 from Tobba's hands. He looked down at the screen and found nothing out of the ordinary. It looked no different from Laesto's tablet.
Charles was about to ask questions, but a line of Chinese characters abruptly appeared on the screen.
(Chinese) [Hello.]
Chinese? Charles rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He did a double take at it after rubbing his eyes and saw that the screen was indeed showing him Chinese characters.
Just as Charles was feeling puzzled, the tablet continued writing messages.
[Did I startle you? My database contains information about every single language in the world. Since you look Asian, I decided to take a guess and decided on the language with the highest probability, and surprise, surprise, I got it right! :-)]
Charles' expression grew strange upon seeing an emoticon on the screen. It had been a long time since he saw one.
"Who are you?"
[I've been designated the number 198, but I would like it if you call me Zeus. I gave that name to myself, by the way. :-)]
"Have you been in there the whole time?"
[That's right. I've remained behind my door since the islands sank and until a Whitebeast took me down just now. I'm quite curious about what happened up above. Care to fill me in on the details?]
"Since you've been staying here at the bottom, do you know where 319 is?" Charles asked, his heartbeat quickened ever so slightly at the thought that he would soon find 319.
Zeus didn't answer right away. It paused for a couple of moments before it sent another message.
[Of course, I know where it is, but if you want me to tell you, then you need to help me out with something first.]
Staring at the newly appeared line of Chinese characters, Charles brandished the Dark Blade and held it to the screen. "I'm not interested in helping you out with anything. Actually, I have a better idea. You better tell me where 319 is right now, or I'll take you apart right here."
[I am but a machine; I feel no fear, so threats are meaningless to me.]
Charles scratched the screen lightly with the Dark Blade, and Tobba grimaced next to him. 198 showed no reaction, so Charles decided to put more strength into the Dark Blade. Before he could scratch it with more strength, however, a line of characters popped up on the screen.
[:( All right, you win. I am afraid of disappearing, so I'll tell you 319's exact location, but you still have to help me later. I'm willing to trade extremely valuable data for your help. Quite a few key intelligence of the Foundation are stored in my drive.]
Charles put the Dark Blade away and said blandly, "I want 319's exact location first."
[Based on my calculations, 319 was likely taken away by the Whitebeasts to their nest. It's not just 319. Those Whitebeasts collected many projects from the main island's ruins and brought them to their nest in the depths below us. It appears that something down there is controlling the Whitebeasts and is making them collect the projects.]
Charles bit his lips. 198's words meant that they would encounter more of that humanoid monster in the depths. To make matters worse, something was apparently controlling those humanoid monsters, and the controller was bound to be more powerful than the humanoid monsters themselves.
"What is controlling them?" Charles asked.
[I don't know. They just snatched me there from above, and I was locked in a safe, so I don't really know. Oh, you still haven't decided on whether you're going to help me out or not. What about it? Will you help me out?]
"Not interested." Charles turned to Tobba and was about to toss 198 to the latter.
However, the following words on the screen forced Charles to come to a halt.
[Not even in the experimental data regarding the transplant of the projects' special abilities into humans?]
1. All the following messages sent by 198 are written in Chinese.
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