This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 685: Fierce Battle Beneath the Deep Sea!

Chapter 685: Chapter 685: Fierce Battle Beneath the Deep Sea!

On the other side,

the moment Si Si’s submarine got whipped away by a tentacle as thick as a barrel, the frantic spotlights flickered out like broken matches, disappearing with the submarine into the silent depths of the distant sea.

"Si!"

Tail couldn’t help but cry out in shock, yet her voice could not penetrate the bulky diving helmet.

A minute later, a thunderous dull thud emanated from afar.

The submarine seemed to have collided with the support structure of a turbine generator, causing a localized collapse.

Watching the rolling murkiness in the darkness, Tail felt immensely anxious, but there was nothing she could do.

The communication channel was eerily silent, the murky mud obscuring the last glimmer of light.

It seemed the entire body of water had returned to a terrifying quietness.

There was no light here.

No air.

No sound.

Only endless silence and darkness, with occasional shudders and dull thuds as bubbles sporadically floated by, like the whispering murmurs of indescribable creatures from the abyss.

Controlling the rate of her breathing, Tail cautiously retreated next to the wreckage, hiding under an outwardly protruding metal support, trying to make herself seem smaller.

The spherical detector not far to her left was still silently working.

The cable connecting it to the submarine had drifted away with the ocean current.

Now Tail finally understood where the currents that had earlier skewed the detector were coming from.

It must be the "breath" of that monster!

Realizing the monster was not far beneath her, Tail felt her scalp tingle, her gaze repeatedly drifting to the spherical detector hugged onto the terminal.

"My gosh! How long does this thing take to finish collecting—huh? It’s let go?"

As she finished speaking, the spherical detector suddenly retracted the mechanical arm that was wrapped around the metal support.

Seeing the rising current about to sweep it away, Tail swiftly extended her arms and hugged it tightly to her chest, grasping the basketball-sized detector.

"Got it!"

Looking at the detector in her arms, Tail let out a breath, her face showing a triumphant smile.

However, her triumph froze on her face within two seconds.

Now the problem arose.

How was she supposed to bring this thing back?

The waters were situated in the middle of the Southern Sea area; even taking a speedboat would require three to four hours of travel.

With only this diving suit on her, she would probably die of exhaustion before making it back.

Not to mention, she might encounter creatures even more terrifying than the tentacle-waving sea monster along the way.

"My goodness... I’m screwed!"

She had indeed celebrated too soon.

As she was worrying, sudden crackling static came through the communication channel, followed by intermittent voices.

"Ah Wei, how are you doing?"

Hearing that familiar voice, Tail exclaimed softly in excitement.

"Si! Thank goodness, you’re still alive!"

Reassured that Tail was still alive, Si Si in the cockpit sighed in relief, and couldn’t help but curl her lips slightly upward.

"What are you saying, I’m not that easy to kill... But speaking of which, you still have the mood to joke, seems like you’re doing okay."

Tail grinned, full of spirit.

"Oh! Of course, Tail is doing great!"

Si Si, "That’s really good... By the way, Ah Wei, can you see the creature that knocked me away?"

"Uh... it’s a bit difficult," Tail cautiously poked her head out of a gap in the wreckage, looking into the darkness that felt like being submerged in pitch-black ink, "It’s pitch dark here, can’t see my hand in front of my face, can’t see anything."

Si Si sighed.

"I guess so..."

This was the deep sea.

Even if it were daytime outside, little light would reach this depth.

Listening to the silent rustling in the communication channel, Tail took a deep breath and mustered courage.

"Should I try to lure it out? I have a flashlight—"

"Don’t do that!" Si Si interrupted her immediately, continuing hurriedly, "The weapons we brought might not be effective against that creature, if possible we should avoid any confrontation... I’ll fire a few signal flares in your vicinity in a moment; they’ll mark the path for your escape. If possible, try to bring the detector with you, we need the data on it."

Tail, "Oh! Leave it to Tail!"

Hearing that enthusiastic response in the communication channel, Si Si couldn’t help but show a relieved smile.

"Okay! I’m counting on you!"

Although Ah Wei often seemed not too bright, she was reliable when it mattered most.

Pointing her index finger at the central control screen in the cockpit, she switched the ammo in the remote weapon station to signal flares, aimed approximately at the detector’s position, and pressed the launch switch.

With several brief dull thuds, streaks of fine milky bubbles shot forward and burst into lurid orange-red glows mid-flight.

The faint glow, like matches struck in the darkness, traced a zigzag path through the pitch-black ruins.

Using the light from the signal flares to confirm her escape route, Tail hugged the detector tightly, pushed off with her legs, and drifted slowly towards a half-visible metal blade illuminated by the signal flares some dozen meters away.

That tentacled sea monster was nearby.

She couldn’t stay too close to the signal flares to avoid being spotted, nor could she stray too far or she would see nothing.

Perhaps because the surroundings were too quiet, Tail could feel her heart pounding fiercely, almost hearing the rhythm of her pulse.

"Giao..."

This is freaking thrilling!

The encompassing darkness, like the gaping mouth of a monster, made it hard not to have your courage drained just by making eye contact with it.

Those caught within felt this way, and so did the observers from the outside.

Seated in the cockpit of the submarine, Si Si’s gaze was fixed on the blinking green dot on the central control screen, and she involuntarily held her breath.

"Way to go, Ah Wei!"

Only fifty meters left!

As the green dot grew closer, her lips slowly moved, and her clenched palm started to sweat.

Forty meters!

Thirty-five!

Thirty—

Just as the green dot was about to break free from the wreckage of the power plant, a sudden change occurred!

The blinking green dot on the screen seemed to have hit a wall, abruptly halting.

Staring at the central screen, Si Si was shocked and didn’t hesitate to turn on the submarine’s front searchlight.

A dazzling beam of light pierced through the thick darkness, shining directly beneath the struggling Ah Wei and the detector in her hand.

A thick tentacle, as big around as a bucket, extended from the wreckage nearby, firmly grasping the bulky deep-sea diving suit and wrapping around it.

Despite being equipment designed to withstand immense pressure, the thick tentacle did not instantly crush both the suit and Ah Wei inside, but listening to the sounds over the communication channel, one could guess that Ah Wei’s situation was far from optimistic.

"Gurgle..."

Seeing the tail caught by the sea creature’s tentacle, Si Si panicked and hurriedly operated the remote-controlled weapons station, aiming at the base of the tentacle.

"Hang in there! Ah Wei!"

As she shouted, she decisively pressed the launch button.

Two thick harpoons shot from the belly of the submarine, tracing two cotton-white tracks through the pitch-black deep sea; one burrowed deep into the wreckage, while the other hit the tentacle extending from the wreckage without fault.

The tip of the harpoon pierced the monster’s skin, followed by the explosive configured around the harpoon instantly detonating, creating a flare and a cloud of milky bubbles.

As the bubbles dissipated, a wash-basin-sized wound appeared at the base of the tentacle, with dark green fluid—seemingly its blood—oozing from the wound.

Even though these two harpoons weren’t professional underwater weapons, merely rigged together from a harpoon launcher and mixed explosives.

But the sheer power was enough to severely wound the variant.

However, surprisingly, it didn’t release the tentacle holding onto the tail despite the damage; the deep-sea diving suit already started emitting a distressing cry under the immense pressure.

In the light of the searchlight, Si Si was surprised to find thin filaments squirming around the basin-sized wound, healing at a visible rate.

That was an explosive force capable of overturning tanks!

What kind of monster is this?!

Si Si couldn’t wait any longer. She swiftly switched to the grenade launcher and unleashed a barrage of grenades at the healing wound.

Streams of dense bubbles shot out like arrows released from a bow, concentrating fire at the base of the tentacles.

Following a series of booming explosions, the wound, as large as a washbasin, was instantly buried by fine bubbles and mud.

However, the grenade wasn’t specialized for underwater attacks. Although it was unstoppable in the jungles of Baiyue Province, it proved somewhat inadequate in the depths of a hundred meters below sea.

The battered tentacle remained unmoved, the damage far less significant than the previous two "goblin harpoons."

A muted growl echoed through the deep sea, sounding like mockery from a sea monster.

"Si — I can’t hold on much longer!" At that moment, Ah Wei’s intermittent voice came over the communication channel, sounding as if it could break off at any moment.

"Hold on, Ah Wei!"

Trying to calm herself, Si Si ceased her pointless firing, maneuvering the searchlight around in search of the gigantic sea creature’s weak points.

The creature was extremely cunning, hiding behind a massive turbine engine wreck, using the metal supports and the engine casing as cover, protecting most of its body.

Si Si even felt that it exposed one of its tentacles not because it couldn’t retract it after the injury, but rather, it was using her as bait, waiting for her to approach!

Following the searchlight around, Si Si quickly spotted a porous reef and rows of bent metal supports directly beneath the circular turbine engine where the sea monster hid.

With a thought, she immediately adjusted the aim on the remote weapons station, targeting the bottom of the turbine generator and emptied her magazine.

One by one, the fragmentary grenades drilled into the narrow space like locusts, exploding quickly and shattering the reef and metal supports that supported the circular engine.

Amid a chorus of groaning metal, unable to bear the load, the slanted circular engine crashed down like a landslide, crushing the hiding sea monster beneath it.

The massive creature had no time to dodge, and the octopus-like giant was instantly flattened by the towering machinery, crashing into the billowing mud with a muffled cry of agony.

"Cough—!"

Over the communication channel, Ah Wei’s cough echoed as she, clutching the detector, was thrown out by the weakened tentacle, rolling and crashing into the nearby wreckage.

Si Si aimed at the signal emitted by the detector, pushed the power output to maximum, and chased after her in the submersible, opening the outer hatch as she drew close.

"Get in quick!"

Smashed against the wreckage, Ah Wei almost went offline, with red warning lights flashing on her diving suit’s helmet.

Luckily, the Awakener’s physical capabilities allowed her to hold on. She grabbed the open hatch and with a powerful effort, rolled into the vessel holding the round detector.

The hatch slammed shut.

The pressure indicator on the diving suit quickly decayed, followed by the seawater in the buffer compartment beginning to drain out.

As the darkness outside the hatch crevices and the green light inside the dim cabin lit up, Ah Wei sat slumped on the floor, breathing heavily several times before she could steady her breath, rolling her eyes and sticking out her tongue.

"Cough cough—giao! Ah Wei almost turned into ’Ah Wei sauce’!"

Unable to hold back a laugh, Si Si let out a dry cough through restrained laughter and asked with concern.

"Are you okay?"

"I am — "

Ah Wei was about to answer, but just as she opened her mouth, a massive impact struck the hatch nearby, sending her flying from the floor to the ceiling instantly.

With a "clang" sound echoing through her cranial vault, she felt her jaw might have dislocated. She reached up to correct it but was obstructed by the diving helmet’s face shield.

Before she could recover from the last onslaught, the second attack promptly followed.

The sea monster, seemingly infuriated, crawled out of the collapsed turbo generator and hammered wildly at the submersible that was hiding in the darkness.

On the brink of losing consciousness, Tail finally managed to reach the folding chair with its seatbelt inside the buffer chamber. Unable to unfold the chair, she used the nylon buckles on it to strap herself in.

Listening to the clanging sounds coming through the hull, Tail laboriously removed the helmet from her diving suit and fumbled under her chin. It took her quite a while to fix her dislocated jaw.

Lucky that pain perception was blocked beyond limits in this game, otherwise she would have passed out from the pain in reality.

The ringing in her ears gradually dissipated, and Si Si’s voice came through the communication channel.

"...that thing is not dead yet! Hold tight!"

Tail: "Giao! This boss’s health is way too high!"

Si Si: "It’s not just about the health bar. The healing rate of that wound doesn’t seem normal. It might be a genetically modified artificial variant!"

Tail: "Artificial variant?!"

Si Si: "Yes... Besides the Torch Church, I can’t think of any other possibility!"

Tail: "So what do we do now?!"

"There’s nothing we can do. The weapons on our submersible are practically ineffective against it. Now we can only pray it isn’t fast, as long as we can get away from this wreckage, we might manage to escape... Gosh!" Si Si, who was analyzing calmly a second before, suddenly exclaimed.

Hearing that exclamation, Tail was startled and quickly asked.

"What is it, Si?"

"The power system... that thing we just fixed seems to have broken down again!"

"Giao?!"

Watching the power failure alert flashing on the central control screen, Si Si, sweating profusely, furiously stabbed his finger on the screen.

However, the submersible, unresponsive to controls, drifted forward as it rolled with the ocean currents under the force of inertia.

Just then, the careening submersible suddenly jerked, and a series of squeaky friction noises came from the surrounding walls.

Through the side window of the cockpit, Si Si saw a giant tentacle wrap around the dome, snaking along the cylindrical exterior of the submersible, and securely entwined itself.

She could even see the barnacle-sized suction cups sticking on the exterior glass!

It seemed their luck had finally run out; the sea monster lurking in the darkness had eventually caught them.

"Gosh..."

The pressure sensors on all four sides of the screen spiked instantly, her heart jumped to her throat, and the memories of terror surfaced once again.

She didn’t have the time to react, as several g’s of acceleration pressed her firmly into the seat.

The tentacle, like a clenched lead ball in hand, lifted the submersible high up and got ready for a shot-put throw.

Just as the tentacle was about to smash them and the vessel against the rocks, a metal sphere shaped like a sea urchin suddenly fell into the silent deep sea with a trail of bubbles.

It was about half the height of a person, with conical spikes as long as a forearm.

The sea creature lying on the seabed rocks clearly noticed this uninvited guest, but did not seem to take it seriously.

However, the reckless creature soon paid a heavy price for its rash actions.

Just as the iron sphere neared its back, a blinding light instantly illuminated the silent deep sea.

A wine-red flame, wrapped in shattered iron pieces, exploded and instantly created a bubble cavity several meters wide in the depths of the sea, a hundred meters below!

The scorching temperature caused the tentacle-waving monster to let out a pained howl.

Massive bubbles burst from the rocks, shaking the entire sea area as if in response to its convulsions.

The gripped tentacle instinctively released, tossing the submersible out like a discarded can.

"Si—Si, we’re flying!"

Hearing the excited exclamation over the communications channel, Si Si felt as if a rocket was strapped underneath her seat and tensed up, peering into the dark through the window.

"We’d better be flying!"

In the lightless deep sea, she couldn’t tell north from south.

Given their speed, if they were to hit rocks or the seabed, their fate would be to become a pile of scrap metal—left for others to conduct archaeology on them—

—if the monsters in this area decided to leave their bodies intact.

Fortunately, the worst did not happen.

After flying for a while, the submersible slowed down due to water resistance and drifted quietly in the water like a jellyfish.

"...Si! What was that exploded just now?!"

Listening to the excited voice over the channel, Si Si leaned back in her seat and after catching her breath, slowly said,

"It must have been a bomb from the Federal patrol team... It looks like they finally took action."

Tail: "Eh!? Doesn’t that mean Tail owes them a favor now?"

Si Si: "Not exactly... As long as we can bring this detector back, they are the ones who owe us."

She had no doubt about this.

Although the research team had not yet analyzed the data, the sea monster lurking beneath the ruins already explained a great deal.

Its terrifying regenerative ability was strikingly similar to the work of the Torch Church, and its relentless attempts to block them from removing any clues from the ruins made it clear there was something here they needed to find!

At that moment, another muffled explosion came from nearby.

The Federal patrol team’s boat had dropped a second deepwater bomb on the sea monster, likely the last remaining on the boat.

This deepwater bomb, filled with bitter acids and potent explosives, was enough to take down a submarine displacing thousands of tons.

Even with its remarkable regenerative ability, the sea monster was no match for such specialized underwater weaponry.

Following two direct hits to its vitals, the tentacle-waving sea monster, after a cry of agony, finally swallowed its last breath in humiliation, collapsing heavily onto the ruins of the ocean current power station and shattered reefs.

A moment later, a noisy sound came through the communication channel.

"...How are you all doing?"

Adjusting her breathing, Si Si spoke.

"We’re managing, just the power system and pressure sensor are damaged... other than that, all’s well."

"That’s bad."

"What’s wrong?"

"The Federal Fleet is moving towards us... the noise you made just now was too loud!"

The voice carried a hint of annoyance and urgency.

Clearly,

this would be troublesome for him.

After calmly thinking for a few seconds, Si Si spoke.

"Can you lead them away?"

Muda: "Do you think they are idiots?!"

Si Si took a deep breath.

"Then there’s no way out... do us a favor."

Muda was stunned for a moment.

"What?"

Si Si: "Take the detector to Potato Harbor. I’ll share its coordinates with you soon... our researchers can analyze the data inside. Remember, it must reach Potato Harbor if you still want to uncover the truth."

Muda: "What about you?"

Si Si: "emmm... considering all the help you’ve given us, how about I reward you with a first-class merit?"

Muda: "What?"

Without waiting for a response, Si Si stretched out her index finger, pressed it on the control screen to end the communication, and then switched the communication to Tail, who was sitting in the decompression chamber.

"Ah Wei, toss the detector out."

"Eh?!" Tail, surprised, brought his face close to the small window of the decompression door and looked at Si Si in the cockpit, asking, "Throw it out?! Aren’t we taking it back?"

Si Si made a helpless expression.

"I’d like to, but unfortunately, this broken submarine is no longer operational, and the Federal Navy is on their way here... We’ll have to rely on that NPC called Muda to deliver this package for us."

"Oh! Got it!"

Tail nodded, put his helmet back on, and after the decompression chamber filled with seawater, manually opened the outer hatch and forcefully threw the spherical detector out.

The silver metallic sphere drifted into the sea and slowly started to float upwards.

It wouldn’t be long before it surfaced and was retrieved by the speedboat waiting there.

After completing all this, Tail closed the door of the decompression chamber and floated back to sit in his chair.

Without immediately draining the water from the decompression chamber, Tail asked over the communication channel.

"What about us? What’s next?"

Si Si leaned back in her chair, pinching the bridge of her weary nose with her index finger and thumb.

"Let me think..."

Firstly, this was a submarine from Shelter No. 70.

Although the two of them had shown their faces at Circular Island Port, not many people had seen them, so whether they were captured as Residents of Shelter No. 70 or openly declared themselves Residents of Shelter No. 404, both options were feasible.

Comparing the two options, she actually preferred the former.

That way, there would be a chance to contact the Federal high command, possibly clarifying what exactly that sea monster was, while also avoiding direct diplomatic conflicts between the Alliance and the Southern Islands Federation.

Of course, there was a third option.

That was to find a place to bury themselves.

In three days, they could resurrect in City of Dawn, and taking an airship, it would take no more than five days to return to Potato Harbor; it was the easiest method.

Just when Si Si was undecided, a light blue antenna icon suddenly appeared on the radar screen of the central control, followed by an automatic connection to a strange communication request.

"...This is the ’Dolphin’, we have received your distress signal and are heading towards you."

Not only Si Si heard that voice, but Tail, sitting in the decompression chamber, also heard it, immediately showing a surprised expression.

"What’s the situation?"

Si Si blankly stared at the central control screen, involuntarily swallowing.

"I don’t know... I guess some safety detection device on this submarine automatically sent a distress signal. Is that ’Dolphin’ possibly a submarine from Shelter No. 70 patrolling this area of the sea?"

Meanwhile, far away on the billowing sea surface, a towering ship shadow had appeared.

Unlike the Federal patrol team’s speedboat, that ship was a bona fide warship, equipped with thick, long gun barrels, as well as torpedo launchers and powerful close-in weapons systems.

It was a Federal destroyer.

Standing at the bow of the speedboat, Muda held a walkie-talkie, his gaze towards that flagship filled with complexity.

He was pondering how to explain to his superiors.

Of course, more than how to explain to his superiors, what made his feelings more complicated was the signal he had just caught through the mind interference device terminal.

The mind interference device was a gift from the Torch Church to the Southern Islands Federation, and the technology did not exist in Shelter No. 70.

Even if the Residents of the refuge understood the principle, their application was far less adept than the Federation’s.

There was only one explanation for the unusual signal showing up undetected in the waters controlled by the Southern Islands Federation and escaping search after search.

It certainly wasn’t something a Captain alone could achieve, it must be someone, or even a group of people, at least in the naval staff or even the authorities’ upper echelons!

The traitor, for some reason, had obstructed or even completely misled the Federal authorities’ investigation into the ruins of the ocean current power station.

If that were indeed the case—

Was it truly Shelter No. 70 that had destroyed the ocean current power station?

Looking at the military ship drawing closer, Muda’s brow slowly furrowed with gravity.

He had a feeling that things were increasingly becoming troublesome...

-

(I have diarrhea... never eating raw pickles again)