"Gurgle, gurgle..."
But just as the submersible operator was carefully observing the two blue light rings, countless bubbles suddenly erupted from the seabed, obscuring the submersible.
"Hmm?"
The operator gazed at these bubbles that completely obscured the submersible, his brows furrowed. He operated the submersible's searchlight to shine downwards, wanting to see what was producing so many bubbles.
The searchlight's beam slowly moved, illuminating a sunken oval giant pit. The searchlight continued to move, revealing many more oval giant pits behind it. And they were all neatly arranged, like artworks carved by humans.
"How can there be something like this on the seabed?"
The operator wondered inwardly. Just as he was about to press the flash button to continue taking photos...
"Swish!"
In the dark, deep sea, rows of crimson vertical pupils silently opened, staring with incomparable oppressive force at the glowing "little guy" before them.
"Hiss... hee-hee..."
The operator gazed at these crimson vertical pupils, each as large as his submersible, and was so frightened he couldn't speak for a moment.
On the other side, outside the central hatch of the nuclear submarine.
A special forces soldier inserted a device into a circular hole outside the hatch and slowly rotated it, quickly opening the tightly closed hatch.
"Sir, I have opened the central outer hatch."
"Excellent." Lieutenant Coffeen praised, "Deploy the remote reconnaissance vessel."
"Yes, sir."
In the second submersible, a worker deployed a small remote reconnaissance vessel into the seawater, then returned to the control cabin, picked up the remote control, and operated the reconnaissance vessel to enter the submarine. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Coffeen and his team continued towards the next hatch. Along the way, they saw several damaged missile launch tubes.
"These are missile launch tubes?"
"That's right, but they're all broken."
"And from the look of it, it seems something from the outside squeezed them into this state."
"It's hard to imagine what happened."
"Radiation levels are normal. The warheads in the submarine should be undamaged."
"How many missiles are there?" Morel asked through the communicator.
"There are twenty-four missiles, each containing eight warheads, for a total of 192 warheads."
"And the power?"
"Each warhead has a fifty-ton yield, enough to blow this place to smithereens."
Lieutenant Coffeen and three special forces soldiers continued to swim, finding a place where they could enter, and swam inside.
"Everyone, move slowly. Don't take risks."
Lieutenant Coffeen reminded, then took the lead, holding his diving flashlight, and entered the submarine.
"This looks like the forward compartment. Go this way."
Lieutenant Coffeen scanned the messy compartment. Papers and documents were "floating around" everywhere. He led the three soldiers and Morel towards the command module. They arrived at a hatch. Lieutenant Coffeen pulled on the hatch and found it was stuck.
"The hatch is stuck. Come help me."
Three special forces soldiers stepped forward. One pulled out a crowbar for knocking, and two grabbed Lieutenant Coffeen's arms, pulling hard outwards.
"Ugh, ugh..."
The four of them pulled together, but the hatch still didn't budge.
"I'll do it."
Morel watched the four of them pull for a long time and couldn't help but shake his head. He shifted his pipe to his left hand, extended his right hand to grab the hatch handle, and exerted force with his arm.
"Boom!"
A silent explosion erupted underwater. The hatch was directly ripped off by Morel, leaving the four stunned.
But as soon as the hatch was pulled open, pale, bloated, and incomplete corpses surged out, crashing against the four's diving suits. They shattered on impact, instantly disintegrating.
"My God!"
The four special forces soldiers were greatly startled, then immediately felt nauseous. Only Morel frowned, showing no discomfort.
"Hold on. We knew we would see this." Lieutenant Coffeen was the first to recover. He nudged the three soldiers, "Keep going."
Lieutenant Coffeen led them further in. His diving flashlight shone around. The command module was filled with incomplete corpses and fragments of damaged parts.
"Calm down, stay calm."
Lieutenant Coffeen's voice continued to echo in the communicator, stabilizing their composure.
"We can do nothing about this, but we can complete this mission."
"Since we're here, we must do things well."
Lieutenant Coffeen continued to lead the three soldiers deeper, but Morel stopped following. He saw a safe on the wall. The safe was damaged, and inside was a document sealed in a file bag, which caught Morel's attention.
"Morel, aren't you going?" Suddenly, Lieutenant Coffeen and his three men stopped in front, looking at Morel by the safe, and asked.
"You go ahead. I'll search on my own." Morel replied calmly.
"Suit yourself." Lieutenant Coffeen shone his diving flashlight on Morel, then turned and swam further inside. "But watch the time. We won't wait for you."
"I'm always on time. Don't worry." Morel said confidently.
"We will clear this area. Keep in contact."
Lieutenant Coffeen said one last thing, then led the four away from the command module.
Morel watched the four leave with a calm expression. It wasn't until he could no longer see even a flicker of their flashlights that he turned his head to look at the safe.
Morel shone his diving flashlight around, found a string of keys floating in the seawater, and inserted a key into the safe's keyhole. He twisted the key, but it wouldn't turn. It wasn't the safe's key.
Morel frowned. He simply grabbed the damaged part of the safe and forcibly pried it open. He took out a file bag from inside and flipped it over.
A line of red text was written on it.
CLASSIFIED
OZUMA FEDERATION NAVY
STEALTH ASSASSIN
741
Morel tore open the file bag and opened the documents inside. He slowly read through them, but the more he read, the more startled Morel became.
"So that's it."
Morel closed the documents. No wonder this strategic nuclear submarine came to such a place. It turned out that beneath this sea area, there existed a terrifying entity, something the Ozuma Federation considered a threat to human existence.
"Monster~! ! !"
Suddenly, a chilling scream erupted from the communicator, but instantly ceased.
"Unit One! What happened to you!?"
"What's going on!?"
Lieutenant Coffeen, searching inside the nuclear submarine, heard the scream and immediately called out. But no matter how he called, Unit One didn't respond.
"Quick, quick, go back!"
"Grab the warheads, we're going back immediately!"
Lieutenant Coffeen immediately realized something was wrong. He and the three soldiers quickly grabbed the largest warhead and swam towards the hatch.
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