The city-state floats on the boundless sea, and under the 850-meter-thick base is a seemingly endless dark and deep water, and the deeper you dive into the deep sea, the more you hear incomprehensible noises and see incomprehensible light and shadow, and the first explorer who crosses the thousand-meter depth of water falls into madness after rushing madly to the sea, and the only words left to the world are-

"We all died there."

This is what happened to the Frost City-State's "Abyss Project" from the beginning to the beginning when it gradually became wrong.

Duncan fell into a short period of thought, he suddenly realized that even if he did not go deep into the spiritual world and the darkness, only in the "real dimension" of this world, there were many dangers and strangeness hidden in the boundless sea, and after a short thought, he suddenly asked:

"What happened to the explorer?"

"He died soon - the rapid ascent and decompression killed him, and he died of a vascular embolism after screaming for a while, at least on a practical level."

"Only one crew member in a submersible?" Duncan asked again.

"Only one person can be accommodated, of course, this will magnify the mental pressure on the explorer, but this is also a helpless move, on the one hand, because the technology of the year was limited, and on the other hand, because this kind of exploration is not suitable for many people to travel together - under the deep sea, it is difficult for you to determine what your companions will be replaced by the next second, and it is difficult to determine whether the sound you hear is real, so it is better to simply dive alone, so at least you don't have to suspect that there are others in the submersible."

"The depths of the sea, the darkness, the loneliness, the strange and unknown waters of the world away from civilization, these could all be the reasons for that explorer's madness," Duncan shook his head slowly, "but it doesn't matter, what matters...... This is still not enough to explain why the Abyss Project later became an extremely taboo subject. ”

He looked into Tirion's eyes and continued, "So far, what you're talking about is nothing more than an expedition that went unexpected, and similar expeditions happen every year, and the Academy of Truth even actively invests in and encourages scholars and explorers to do these things, which is not taboo, and should not be associated with the Lost Country. ”

“…… yes, if the project had been halted at a thousand meters, it wouldn't have happened," Tirion shook his head, sighing in his memory, "After the accident at Submersible No. 3, Her Majesty Ray Nora ordered the exploration to be halted for a while, but a few days later an incident happened that made the situation ...... It's getting weird. ”

Duncan frowned: "One thing? ”

"At the edge of the test area, which was temporarily blocked, the No. 3 submersible washed to the surface."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, and then reacted: "The second No. 3 submersible?!" ”

"Yes, the second," Tirion nodded, "it rushed up in front of the Marine, and began to signal the need for assistance in opening the hatch, and the trained soldiers, though confused for a moment, quickly dragged the submersible to the working platform according to standard procedures, and aimed it at its hatch with twenty-seven rifles, two rapid-fire guns, and a flamethrower, before a brave priest stepped forward and unlocked the door after splashing holy water. ”

Tirien paused, then spoke slowly, "The hatch is open, a...... A human who looks like an explorer has come out of it. ”

Duncan's face sank: "It's similar? ”

"The contours of the face are similar, but there are differences in height and weight, and they are wearing the uniform of the Frost Navy, but there are many problems with the details of the clothes, and more importantly...... The man who emerged from the submersible only lived on land for a short time before he died, and before he could even say a word, the soldiers untied 'his' clothes and found that his flesh and blood seemed to be 'long' together, and there were incomprehensible wounds on his body.

"After that, doctors and church scholars examined the body, and the Queen of Frost appeared to have visited the autopsy herself, but the results of the examination were not made public—or rather, before they could do anything, a third 'Submersible Three' appeared."

At this time, even Alice, who had not spoken next to her but was fascinated by it, couldn't help but speak: "There is a third one?!" ”

Tirion subconsciously glanced at Alice, the expression on his face seemed to be a little strange, he seemed to be very unaccustomed to a person who looked exactly like the Frost Queen standing here and shouting in surprise, but he quickly adjusted his expression and nodded slightly: "The third, and more than three - after that, every twenty-four or forty-eight hours, a 'No. 3 submersible' will pop up from there......"

Alice listened to this strange and bizarre "story" in surprise, she thought for a while, and suddenly said: "So, you just have to wait there, and you can have a steady stream of submersibles?" Isn't that thing called a 'submersible' also valuable? Is it worth more than a cultist? ”

Tirian was still immersed in the memories of the past a second ago, but at this time, the puppet lady suddenly broke off her train of thought, and she didn't mobilize her emotions back with her mouth open for a long time: "This...... We didn't think about it at all......"

"Ignore her, she's thinking differently," Duncan said to Tyrion with a serious expression, glancing at Alice, "You go on, what happened next?" ”

Tirion came back to his senses, sorted out his thoughts for a while, and then continued to speak: "After the third submersible came up, it also sent out a light signal to open the cabin, this time the soldiers had some experience, they dragged the submersible to a more tightly guarded area, and the priest set up a lot of protection for the transcendent realm in advance before opening the hatch, and this time, it ...... What came out of it was a swollen and deformed humanoid monster that could no longer be seen as an 'explorer'.

"The monster also didn't survive in the air for more than three minutes.

"What crawled out of the fourth submersible was a wriggling mass of flesh, and this time even the silhouette of a human could not be seen.

"When the hatch of the fifth submersible opened, nothing came out of it - the soldiers on the scene stepped forward to check and saw only a suspicious puddle of dark red mud in the cockpit, which carried a faint life reaction.

"The sixth submersible contains only a small amount of black, fibrous dry matter, which looks like an unformed nerve structure, or a dried blood vessel specimen......"

As Tirion continued to speak, the expression on Duncan's face became more and more serious, and even Alice, who was next to her, seemed to notice the change in atmosphere and sat upright.

And in this increasingly serious and deep atmosphere, Tirion said slowly-

"The seventh, and the last one I know, is empty inside."

"Empty?" Duncan raised his eyebrows slightly, then shook his head, "Then this is even more disturbing." ”

"Yes, it's empty, so it's all the more unsettling, this thing is completely out of control, and a way must be found to put an end to it," Tirion said in a deep voice, "but fortunately, the 'Submersible No. 4' was finally completed - it was originally the successor to Submersible No. 3, and after the 'One Thousand Meter' incident, the plan was suspended and its construction was suspended, but as one after another Submersible No. 3 surfaced, the Queen ordered it to be completed as quickly as possible." Submersible No. 4' and decided to use it to figure out what was going on underwater at a depth of 1,000 meters. ”

Tirian paused, as if there was a slight gap in his memory, he organized his words for a moment before continuing to speak slowly: "I can't remember the details of Submersible Four, it was completed in a hurry, and the Frost Navy was only responsible for some of it, I only know that it is larger than Three, it can hold three people, and there is a sample bin - the scholars originally planned to use it to collect specimens from the deep sea, if there are specimens to collect.

"The day after the appearance of the seventh 'Submersible No. 3', the No. 4 submersible built by the Frost City-State was thrown into the sea, and inside it sat a scholar, an officer, and a powerful priest - at this time, we could no longer consider the hidden dangers of 'multi-person exploration', and it was the most important thing to do everything possible to avoid the appearance of the eighth 'Submersible No. 3'.

"Submersible No. 4 dived all the way, and soon reached a depth of a thousand meters, and the priest in the submersible relied on psychic power to maintain contact with the sea, probably because the new submersible was more powerful, they went smoothly all the way, and also confirmed the scene of the city-state's 'base' that the previous explorers had observed, but soon, the communication began to become intermittent, and after reaching a depth of a thousand meters, the chapel on the sea platform could hardly hear the sound from the deep sea.

"But fifteen minutes after the contact was lost, the priest on duty in the chapel suddenly heard voices from the deep sea again, and they heard a scream from the pastor, who was screaming in a very frightened tone to warn the others, saying, 'Don't look! Don't think! Then came the officer's voice, which was a roar, and then a deafening roar. ”

Tirion looked up and looked Duncan in the eye.

"Submersible No. 4 detonated the explosives," the pirate said slowly, "and they filled the sample chamber with high-energy explosives for the 'eventual danger scenario.'"

"Then, it was all over, and the No. 4 submersible never surfaced again, and there were no more 'No. 3 submersibles' in the eyes of everyone."

(End of chapter)