Lin Xian originally wanted to talk to Ding Junyi about the geothermal induction and the gamma ray problem he encountered. However, before he could speak, he was drawn in by Ding Junyi’s words. His expression trembled slightly, and he couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean by ‘not a three-dimensional existence’?”

“Don’t be nervous. This is just a hypothesis I developed while researching ability artifacts and the origin of dark energy. Honestly, from a scientific rigor standpoint, I probably shouldn’t even discuss such speculation, since you tend to accept what I say. Personally, I’m honored, but in reality, there is no proof for this guess yet. For higher-dimensional existence, all forms of power are unknown to us.”

Ding Junyi looked at Lin Xian seriously and said, “Since you are considering the various phenomena occurring after the Day of Apocalypse from the perspective of advanced civilizations, I’m also boldly pushing my research in that direction. At present, aside from survival, humanity faces one direct but unresolved question: What is the real purpose behind these abnormal entities attacking humans and the Star Abyss devouring Blue Star?”

Boom rumble.

Another underwater earthquake struck, the tunnel hummed, and the carriage trembled. Lin Xian grabbed Ding Junyi’s hand to steady himself. After a minute, the quake ceased. The intensity was greater than the previous one here, and the two quakes were less than half an hour apart.

“This submarine volcano looks like it could erupt at any moment.” Seeing the tremor stop, Lin Xian released Ding Junyi’s hand and said gravely.

Ding Junyi glanced around the carriage, still calm. “For ability users and those of us with heavy armored vehicles like the Infinite, natural disasters like undersea earthquakes and tsunamis shouldn’t pose a major threat. What you’re worried about is the abnormal entities hunting us, right?”

Lin Xian nodded. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

After speaking, he immediately told Ding Junyi about the discovery of the energy discharge outlet and his plan. Although they were dealing with abnormal entities, Lin Xian wanted to hear Ding Junyi’s biological expert opinion. But judging by the earthquake’s intensity, Lin Xian felt time might be too short. He might have to activate the energy discharge device before nightfall to stabilize the system.

Upon hearing this, Ding Junyi’s eyes brightened, and she nodded thoughtfully. “If this geothermal nuclear energy conversion device has a special attraction effect on the abnormal entities, then this plan should work... I’m only referring to the portion of abnormal groups attracted to Chatham Island, but the idea of increasing the discharge to lure the Oceanic Titan to shift its target to Mount Garland for an early hunt—that sounds...”

“I know.” Lin Xian sighed heavily, his expression solemn. “It’s just a hypothesis. Anyway, the energy discharge has to be done. I’m not holding out much hope, but at least we can monitor and observe. Maybe we’ll find something.”

Lin Xian rubbed his trigeminal nerve. Even with his eyes closed, he could still see that damned countdown. He was treating this plan as a last-ditch effort to survive.

Ding Junyi looked at Lin Xian with a hint of admiration. She greatly respected his never-give-up attitude and his constant preparation of contingencies. As a teammate and Ding Junyi’s object of affection, this gave her a special sense of security in this post-apocalyptic world. That’s why she could remain calm doing research in the carriage despite the raging storm outside.

“I’m concerned about three issues,” Ding Junyi said calmly. “First, what exactly about this geothermal nuclear energy attracts the abnormal entities, to bring so many large ones? Second, why does the Oceanic Titan hunt? Third—”

She looked at Lin Xian. “How can you be sure the Oceanic Titan will leave after completing its hunt?”

Lin Xian’s face stiffened. Ding Junyi had asked the key question. Yes, facing this siege, he truly had no solution. Isolated on the island, surrounded by secret abnormal entities above and below, one wrong move would mean total annihilation. The pressure from this world-class creature was like a giant boulder crushing his chest. Not to mention the strange countdown before his eyes and the various odd things he still couldn’t grasp.

“Not sure.” Lin Xian sighed. “These come from previous Foundation observation records, but no one really knows. Under these circumstances, what exactly ‘hunting’ means, we don’t know. Right now, we’re like trapped in a snake’s nest. All we can do is avoid getting marked by dark energy and avoid being detected.”

The Oceanic Titan, hands in pockets, spoke fervently, “Using the cold geothermal energy to attract and observe Ding Junyi’s hunting behavior—you know the Foundation’s real purpose. We did such things and built that tiny base, constructing the cold geothermal induction device. It must have been a purely speculative regression experiment, with no clear purpose. Such long-term observation shows we have reached or are reaching some expected goal. At first, the situations you encountered are the same we faced, but we all evacuated because it was dangerous. So yes, that operation is quite risky, at least inside that base.”

Lin Xian shook his head. “We didn’t expect Mount Garland to be activated, that’s why we evacuated. That place is dangerous. Once the volcano erupts, even you might not stop it...”

He bluntly expressed his opinion but suddenly stopped mid-sentence as his thoughts sharpened.

“Wait.” Lin Xian looked at Ni Shanli. “What was that first sentence he said?”

The Oceanic Titan raised his glasses. “You said your situations are the same as what we will face.”

Lin Xian’s expression suddenly changed sharply. He suddenly remembered something and said, “Then that means, Director Ding!”

After saying this, he dashed toward the carriage.

Looking at Ni Shan’s back, the Oceanic Titan inexplicably smiled, then followed and boarded the carriage, trailing Lin Xian toward the submarine base’s monitoring room.

Inside the monitoring room, KIKI and others had not yet fully deployed the surveillance on the energy discharge outlet. The ocean water was dim and white above, but on the biological radar screen, many small and large red dots moved.

“Lin Xian!”

Seeing him arrive, KIKI immediately called out. “The control valve for the energy discharge outlet is connected. We can start at any time.”

“The stability axis of the Deep 3 geothermal induction device is shifting. This is due to geothermal heat and magma exceeding dangerous levels. Judging by this, we don’t even have 12 hours left.” Laine stood in the monitoring hall with Vanessa by his side. Outside, other Falcon Sea Group core members were unloading supplies and the remaining weapons from the fleet.

The nuclear submarine base suddenly became much busier. Among the hundreds of Falcon Sea Group members were many women and children. There was even a mech squad built by Azrael and the team’s mechanical engineers. Many disabled disaster survivors had been equipped with mechanical prosthetics to improve mobility.

“We must activate the energy discharge outlet as soon as possible. Maybe it can ease the situation.”

Lin Xian nodded, seeing Qian Dele, Shu Qin, and others here. Without stopping, he said to KIKI, “Start immediately. KIKI, Laine, you two monitor it. I’m going down to check.”

Unexpectedly, Lin Xian didn’t seem concerned about activating the energy discharge. He hurried toward the lower level of the submarine deepwater port. KIKI looked puzzled and wanted to stop him but then saw Ding Junyi following and withdrew her words, sitting down to operate the system and begin the energy discharge.

“Lin?” Laine adjusted his sunglasses, puzzled.

“We’re starting directly;

he has other matters.” KIKI did not hesitate and remotely began opening the undersea energy discharge gate.

Empty!

As KIKI’s fingers swept across the control panel’s holographic interface, tens of kilometers away beneath the southeast sea area of Chatham Island near Haiyan Island, a mechanical hollow rumble suddenly sounded. Underneath the vortex creature’s corpse and the seabed, the dark energy discharge gate was being torn open by glowing orange cracks.

The several-meter-diameter alloy gate shattered under hydraulic screeches. The accumulated geothermal nuclear energy erupted as a molten golden torrent. The high temperature instantly vaporized surrounding seawater, and the expanding bubble clouds swept across the cliffs like a nuclear explosion. Radiation readings spiked as much of the vortex creature’s torso and many surrounding abnormal corpses were scorched, melted, and emitted gray-brown underwater smoke!

The nuclear energy flow slammed into the seabed, forming a radial dust storm. Orange light pierced the pitch-black water, illuminating thousands of sea worms in the vortex. Suddenly, along Chatham Island’s coast, a hundred-meter-high steam pillar rose. Boiling seawater washed the charred abnormal bodies onto the reefs. Those inside the submarine base could only see a bright flash on the monitors with no image signal.

“Look!”

Behind KIKI, Shu Qin pointed at the radar screen. The originally scattered red dots suddenly appeared attracted by something, rapidly clustering toward the radar center. The number of red dots on the detection screen grew. Everyone’s expressions changed drastically. Within less than a minute, the radar was covered with dense red light spots.

Shasha frowned, looking between the radar points and the washed-out monitor screen, about to speak. At that moment, a delayed image flickered on the screen—a terrifying giant eye suddenly appeared and flashed across the display, startling many present.

“Damn, such a huge eye! This has to be a special-level creature.” Lü Chang cursed loudly.

Laine and Vanessa exchanged glances, crossing their arms. “It’s exactly like the previous experiment scene. Once activated, the monsters get attracted here.”

Qian Dele frowned and came over. “Your bait agent, could it be based on this thing?”

“Something like that.” Vanessa nodded. “But it can’t be used directly. Before similar devices were invented, nuclear radiation and dark energy without specific materials were basically marking bombs.”

“No wonder.”

KIKI, monitoring the screen, tapped her fingers and sighed slightly. “Good news—it’s effective. The device’s stability is declining, albeit slowly, but at this rate of release, we might actually buy some time.”

“Tonight?” Vanessa asked.

KIKI shrugged. “Tonight’s worry isn’t the volcano.” She tapped the keyboard, mobilizing radar images around the base. Around the offshore island, an ominous scene of abnormal entities gathering was already evident.

“Let’s first think about how to deal with these. It’s still daylight;

there may be even scarier ones not out yet.”

Everyone saw the monitor images and gasped.

“God, so many—almost like the siege on Dawn City.” Shasha’s face turned grim.

“Dawn City doesn’t have this many special-level ones.”

Ning Jing had just stepped down from the vehicle and entered the monitoring hall. “One large abnormal entity after another, none easy to deal with. This sea area is like a concert—monsters everywhere.”

“Concert.” Qian Dele gave a wry smile and turned around. “Where’s our captain? With this brutal situation, is he sure he’s not coming to check?”

“He knew this would happen.” KIKI looked at the screen. “Now we’re trying to increase the discharge to attract more monsters here. It won’t reduce the pressure much, but who knows? Maybe the Oceanic Titan will get greedy seeing so many monsters together and start acting...”

KIKI’s words sent a chill down everyone’s neck. So many giant abnormal entities were just considered snacks by that monster. The terror was unimaginable.

Laine exhaled heavily and said gravely to Vanessa, “Vanessa, go check on the Neptune’s loading. Leave unnecessary things for now. No one can be left behind. No dawdling.”

Vanessa nodded. “Understood.”

She immediately walked outside.

At this moment, Lin Xian hurried through the corridor, down the stairs to the submarine base’s lower deepwater port. Upon entering, a salty undersea wind hit his face. The huge black water surface rippled slightly. The nuclear-powered submarine docked there bobbed gently.

Lin Xian knew this was caused by the underwater earthquake. This deepwater port connected directly to the offshore island’s underwater cliff. No one knew how many deep-sea monsters lurked below. But Lin Xian had no mind for that now. He leapt directly onto the submarine and entered through the watertight chamber.

The submarine interior was more spacious than expected. After all, it could hold 450 people. It was fully equipped and had powerful strategic weapons. But Lin Xian’s purpose wasn’t weapons. He went straight to the control room, connected to the computer, and began searching.

KIKI had already searched this information, so Lin Xian found nothing new. But he didn’t give up and activated the Mechanical Heart to scan the surrounding devices.

Ding Junyi followed Lin Xian in, watching silently as he searched diligently.

After a fruitless search, Lin Xian turned to Ding Junyi. “Director Ding, why did you come along?”

“What are you looking for?” Ding Junyi asked.

Lin Xian took a deep breath and speculated, “I once connected to a Foundation member’s mind and saw an image inside a submarine and deep sea. At the time, I just thought it was inside a submarine. But thinking back, these Sanctum people working with the Foundation can come and go here so smoothly, maybe the Foundation has a secure transfer plan.”

“Backup transfer route?” Ding Junyi said.

Lin Xian nodded. “Yes.”

“They definitely wouldn’t keep such information for you.” Ding Junyi said calmly.

“I guessed as much.” Lin Xian sighed. “Ning Jing and KIKI searched before, but we didn’t anticipate such a crisis. Maybe something was missed. They must have detailed deep-sea hydrological data. Otherwise, just relying on the bait torpedo, there’s no way to escape such dangerous waters.”

Ding Junyi’s eyes lit up when she heard this. She admired how Lin Xian sought life chances even in desperate straits. Smiling faintly, she held back her excitement, adjusted her glasses, and looked at him.

“What if we’re not inside the submarine?”

Lin Xian frowned. “What do you mean?”

Ding Junyi looked at Lin Xian, a slight smile on her lips.

“We are the torpedo.”