Chapter 1398 - 453: Pitch-Black Sea Region (3)

Chapter 1398: Chapter 453: Pitch-Black Sea Region (3)

Sensory Reef and Phoenix subconsciously wanted to kick their legs to swim and balance themselves, but their bodies uncontrollably started to sink towards the bottomless seabed.

The hundreds of kilograms of weight not clearly felt on land became so heavy in the water that the buoyancy provided by the sea couldn’t support their floatation.

This was the result of switching to lightweight plastic prosthetics; otherwise, they would sink even faster.

Sensory Reef curiously observed the surrounding seawater, which seemed slightly more turbid than reality and a deeper color.

Not seeing fish was normal. The ocean is actually more spacious than humans imagine. In deep-sea areas, you basically don’t see fish because the lack of seabed and plankton fails to provide the basic nutrients, so lots of fish actually inhabit the shallow sea areas.

But the feeling this sea area gave Sensory Reef was not of a lack of fish, but of pure deathly silence.

He had only seen this situation in some dangerous stagnant water areas.

[Sonar is activated, pay attention to your surroundings, there might be intelligent mines.]

Cybercles’ voice came through the channel, bringing the two’s attention back to the mission.

If the sonar detects any mines, they would need to deploy airbags to maintain altitude and then proceed in that direction.

The invisible sound waves drifted through the water, traveling much faster than in the air.

When encountering obstacles, the sound waves would quickly return, forming an image on the radar.

So, before long, the seabed appeared on the mini-map, a full 2,500 meters deep.

When below 50 meters of the sea surface, you can’t see the sun, and at depths beyond 100 meters, you can only see a faint blue light. If you go further, even the light would get swallowed by the ocean.

All you’ll hear is the water flowing by your ears and your breathing and heartbeat, with nothing else left but the endless darkness that seems ready to engulf you.

Even for strategic submarines, deep diving usually doesn’t exceed 600 meters, where intelligent mines should be deployed above this zone.

As the depth reached 100 meters, the surrounding light started to get dimmer.

Those with deep-sea phobia would dare not step forward just by looking at that endless dark abyss.

"Damn it..."

This was also Phoenix’s first time venturing into such deep waters, feeling immense psychological pressure.

He couldn’t help but ask,

"Is there any sonar response?"

Sensory Reef glanced over and shook his head.

"No."

With trepidation, Phoenix asked again,

"Is it broken?"

[Cybercles: It might be that the mines have stealth coatings, or there could simply be no mines in this area. Let me disperse some robots for a check; there should be a reaction.]

The two transport platforms equipped with sonar released white rubber airbags on both sides with a puff, maintaining their depth, and swam toward the east and west driven by the turbines behind them.

The doorframe constantly hovered protectively beside them as they tensely floated in the water.

Even knowing that no creatures would burst out from the already deathly silent sea, looking at the bottomless blackness, humans would instinctively fear, worrying that two Leviathan might suddenly come out.

The only way to alleviate the pressure was through idle chatter.

No one knew how long it had been before the radar alarm suddenly rang.

[Beep——]

A red dot began flashing simultaneously on the mini-map, about 30 to 40 kilometers away from their position.

The transport platform immediately shut down on the spot, fearing activation by the intelligent mine’s sensor and then a sudden explosion.

"Take us there."

The logistics team promptly controlled the landing craft to slowly lift the two out of the water.

Sensory Reef felt a tug coming from his body, pulling him uncontrollably in a particular direction.

Without gravity’s influence underwater, he couldn’t even distinguish up from down, left from right.

He suddenly got an illusion, feeling less like a person and more like a... bait.

In marine life, there’s a certain fish that wiggles its tongue to mimic bait, luring little fish in before devouring them.

Five kilometers was a short distance, but considering their underwater situation, they moved slowly, taking over ten minutes to cover that distance.

Once directly above the red dot, they were submerged back into the water and continued descending.

The mine was located over 270 meters below the sea surface, quite deep, yet its position was very conspicuous.

A faint red dot in the pitch-black waters pulsed like some creature lurking there, eyeing them, eerily strange.

With a brave effort, they initiated the propulsion turbines, slowly closing in until reaching nearly in-the-face proximity, only then did the diving helmet lights illuminate it.

It was a cylindrical shape about as thick as an oil drum, over three meters long, looking almost like the torpedoes in movies.

If not for their small size, the intelligent mine might have already activated and exploded.

Even so, the blinking rate of the mine’s red light noticeably quickened.

[Cybercles: Find the external panel, access the data connection before the sensor reacts, and do it quickly.]

The two stabilized themselves, beginning to search around the mine for that so-called panel.

[Phoenix: Found it, over here.]

Fortunately, even AI must adhere to original design principles, avoiding fancy new interfaces; otherwise, they would be helpless.

As they focused on prying open the panel to connect to the data, a slight shift in the flow of the surrounding seawater was detectable.

In the endless darkness looming around them, points of red light flickered.

One.

Two.

Three...

Up, down, left, right, front, back... increasingly more.

But neither Phoenix nor Sensory Reef noticed the changes around them.

The sonar radar had been turned off earlier to avoid alarming the intelligent mines, so no one noticed.

It wasn’t until they finally cut open the panel with a laser, exhaling deeply as they thought the mission was nearing completion,

that Sensory Reef suddenly realized they were surrounded by a dense mass of red lights.