CHAPTER 884: CHAPTER 129: THE BEGINNING

"History is truly fascinating. It always changes us in ways that are difficult to understand," Xiang Shan sighed, "Xiang Shan could never have predicted that Ola Freeman would say such words to him one day."

"Are you mocking me?" Ola Freeman gave a bitter smile.

"No, just simply expressing emotion," Xiang Shan replied.

Freeman was silent for a moment, "But Xiang Shan... still failed."

Xiang Shan nodded.

"Why?"

"Asking a historical figure ’why did you make that foolish decision’ isn’t very meaningful. After all, none of us have a God’s perspective," Xiang Shan said, "Many people merely made the best decision they thought possible based on the information they could access at the time, and their own standpoint. Whether this decision was correct or would steer events in the hoped-for direction... no one can be sure."

"Do you feel Xiang Shan has already made the best response he could?"

"He thought so at the time," Xiang Shan said, then quickly added, "So, in some sense, he deserved it."

After hearing this, Freeman shook his head and pushed open the door.

This factory built in the air wasn’t constructed for humans, but for machines. Precision instruments do not align well with seawater. This warehouse was created to isolate the environment from external seawater. Before entering the workshop, Xiang Shan and Freeman passed through a big gate first. A series of low-power ultrasonic waves directly evaporated the moisture on their skin. Then the vacuum pumps above them would draw out the air filled with water vapor.

After their surface dried, they successfully entered the factory and saw several precision instruments.

Xiang Shan quickly checked, "Hmm, classic design. My handiwork. Additionally, some later technology should have been incorporated—are they from the human refugees you took in?"

"Hero Yuan," Freeman said, "Not everyone is like you, able to... able to continue fighting for two hundred years."

Xiang Shan shook his head, "Not much continued, really. It might be better to say, hardly anything continued."

As he spoke, he extracted data from the instruments, checking parameters and materials.

At this moment, dolphin cries sounded from outside.

Freeman immediately went to check. Then, he returned and said to Xiang Shan, "Um... some... bad news."

"Oh?"

"You previously asked the dolphins to help locate your companions," Freeman said, "Some dolphins have found a wreckage at the position described. It’s a small to medium-sized vehicle, quite square-looking, not designed for underwater use."

Xiang Shan pondered for a moment before asking, "A ’wreckage’? How large?"

"Uh, it seems like the cabin flooded. The good news is there were no bodies found..."

Xiang Shan nodded, "Not hard to guess. With the strength of that vehicle, directly contacting that sort of torpedo would not leave wreckage but debris. Looks like it mostly avoided a direct hit from the torpedo, perhaps triggering an explosion with close-in weapons but, unfortunately, was affected by it."

It’s uncertain whether it was Yuki or Liu Ri—there’s no need to worry too much about Yuan Wenren. That girl can take care of herself.

The dolphins had actually detected all this long ago, but due to the super high delay of the whale soundwave communication network, this news was only transmitted here now.

Freeman didn’t say much. He’s simply a non-combatant who has been surviving and hiding for two hundred years. In matters like this, his judgment is far inferior to Xiang Shan’s.

Xiang Shan quietly watched as the parts of his weapon gradually took shape.

Freeman sat beside him. He suddenly asked, "How are you so certain this mechanical... model will have immense potential?"

"Hmm?"

"Thinking back, you’ve continually invested a lot of resources into this peculiar... peculiar production method’s supporting technologies from a very early stage," Freeman said, "Looking back, you seemed to have determined its feasibility quite early on."

"Oh, that," Xiang Shan said, "Just copying work."

"What?"

"These data, by the end of the old era, should not have been confidential anymore," Xiang Shan said, "There was a group of aliens whose technological level was just slightly above humanity—higher than humans at the time but far lower than today’s humans, using this peculiar form to send some things to Earth."

..................

The Shooter stopped.

Behind him hung a dozen squids, three of which had grown pale due to excessively large cuts on their bodies, long since dead.

The Shooter gently pulled these already dead squids from himself, letting them drift away with the ocean current.

"Yes, it’s this route; I remember the feeling of this current," the Soul weakly changed colors, "Following this current... one can find a wreckage atop an underwater mountain range..."

"That was originally a small organization’s lair. Humans controlling us sank it. The saw used to cut the chain earlier was scavenged from that battlefield. My teacher’s teacher found weapons there, preserved until my generation."

The ancestors of these Benchmark Squids, the Spear Squids in their natural state, had a lifespan of only one year. Through Benchmark transformations and other genetic adjustments, the lifespan of these Spear Squids greatly improved but still did not reach ten years.

As externally fertilizing intelligent creatures, these Spear Squids struggled to understand the concept of "family." The characteristic of Squids "dying after spawning" meant they’re destined not to form parent-child social relationships like those between fathers and children or mothers and children.

Their understanding of social relationships related to "reproduction" and "species" formed a culture akin to "group-based marriage." For these squids, the role occupying a similar social status to "parents" is "Teacher."

This was hope passed down through three generations.

The Shooter Xiang Shan continued forward.

Soon, he saw the place the Soul mentioned.

A sunken submarine.

Here, there was still a functioning maintenance unit.

Of course, some feral Benchmark Squids lived here too.

But the living conditions for these feral groups were very poor.

Similar to the false baleen of toothed whales, the barbs on the squids’ tentacles were also prosthetic bodies made of biological material.

These feral squids couldn’t even reliably obtain food. They relied entirely on some squids fleeing here to survive by filtering plankton.

Arriving here, the Soul finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He asked, "What’s your plan next?"

"I will take you to meet someone," the Shooter Xiang Shan said.

The Soul asked, "Where?"

"To the place we humans call Southeast Asia. The place where everything began."