Chapter 441 - Facing His Fears Directly, Traversing the Sea While Five Kilometers Under!
Chapter 441: Facing His Fears Directly, Traversing the Sea While Five Kilometers Under!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The world inside books was exceptionally wonderful.
These books were gifted to Su Mo by the leaders of the official shelters. The knowledge within had been painstakingly written and arranged carefully for him.
Thanks to the bonus that multiplied Su Mo’s attributes by twenty times, coupled with the special ability of the magic carpet that increased the recovery rate of his mind power, Su Mo was now frighteningly efficient when it came to studying and researching!
He was careful to keep his mind power above 60%.
At ten at night, Sun-chaser caught up with the Tundra fleet, who had set out earlier that day. Su Mo had also completely finished reading the first book, which was about introductory biology!
The Tundra Fleet had left at nine in the morning.
Su Mo had not departed until six in the evening.
There was a nine-hour difference between his and the Tundra Fleet departure times, but he managed to catch up to them within four hours.
This was despite the fact that the Tundra fleet still possessed the 60% attribute bonus from Hope One!
Su Mo did not choose to intrude on them. He stood at the bow of the boat and looked at the fleet from a distance. The ships in the fleet had already let their anchors down.
From where Su Mo was, thanks to his excellent eyesight, he could see that
Lu Yongyi was making his rounds among the survivors in the raft fleet below after the first day of their journey was over.
These survivors were like lion cubs that were no longer protected by a male lion. Their morale was slightly lower, but they were also uncontrollably excited about the journey ahead.
From time to time, a cheer could be heard from where the rafts were, after which silence would return.
“This is great! At this rate, one year or so, after the time given to us to rest and recuperate is used up, the combat power of the humans will be fully restored!”
Su Mo committed this peaceful image to memory and nodded, filled with emotions. He walked along the bow of the boat back to his bedroom to start studying again.
Under the control of the OS, Sun-chaser was like an assassin under the cover of the dark. It silently and stealthily left the area where the fleet was located.
No one knew that Su Mo had come, and no one knew where Su Mo’s destination was.
While the game was paused for the update, humankind was thrown back to the primitive era; they lost all means of communication with the outside world.
This also happened to be the perfect opportunity for them to improve themselves!
Su Mo read until three in the morning. It was only after the OS issued a prompt that Su Mo rubbed his eyes, turned the lights off, and quietly lay down on his simple bed.
Covered with the magic carpet, this bed was not too different from the one in Hope One’s captain’s quarters.
Thanks to the attribute bonus of the God of the Ocean title, he did not experience the effects of the Sun-chaser’s pitching and rolling.
The sea breeze gently blew past as the waves lapped lightly.
Gradually, Su Mo became sleepy, after which he fell asleep.
The night was a long one.
Since he had exerted himself greatly the previous day, Su Mo had a long night of rest and only woke up at ten in the morning.
Rays of light seeped through the curtains in the bedroom, illuminating the books on the table.
‘The sounds of sea waves constantly lapping outside could be heard.
Fumbling around, Su Mo took out a glass of psychic energy water as usual and drank it. After that, Su Mo slowly got up, pushed open the door and walked out.
The sound of the ocean breeze was very loud today.
After the game started updating, the weather on the wasteland no longer remained the same all day.
Large clouds floated around in the sky, and the whistling sea breeze made rattling noises as it passed through the gaps on the Sun-chaser’s deck.
At the edge of the horizon, a gloomy black storm cloud could be seen; wind and thunder seemed to be brewing within.
“Oh, this weather is quite realistic. Nice!”
‘The size of Sun-chaser’s deck, although incomparable to Hope One, was still sufficient.
Su Mo did dozens of push-ups easily, exercising his slightly stiff body.
After that, he went inside the cabin to check the remaining distance between the Sun-chaser and the designated location.
During the previous night, the OS executed the plan very well.
At this point in time, the Sun-chaser’s battery was at 100%. It could maintain cruising speed for 72 hours continuously.
As displayed on the screen, he was only 300 kilometers away from the ruins.
Given the boat’s current speed, he would arrive on time at two in the afternoon!
This was an hour slower than predicted, but it was still within an acceptable range, which was very pleasing.
After a few more clicks, Su Mo set his mind at ease.
He washed up, took out some rations, and cooked them over the fire.
This process was something Su Mo was very familiar with; he had lived alone for a long time after all.
After his meal, Su Mo found that he still had three hours left. He went back into his bedroom to continue reading, taking advantage of the remaining time to complete the book on introductory biology.
From the structure of the human body, to the function of each part; from detailed points such as certain surgeries, to how the potential of the human body could be unlocked… This introductory book covered a wide range of topics. It was written in a way to gradually guide its reader and help the reader
figure out their next step.
Su Mo, however, was clearly not an average reader.
It would be exceptionally difficult for the average person to thoroughly master a particular discipline, especially since they possessed no talent in studying and research, no magic carpet, and had no psychic energy water to nourish their mind power.
This also limited the rapid progress of humans in most disciplines.
‘They would already be in their forties or fifties after absorbing all the knowledge of previous generations; there would not be much time left for them to create or discover something new.
And even if they could create or discover something new, they could only advance the discipline by a miniscule amount; they would usually not be capable of bringing about significant change to the discipline.
Therefore, after realizing that his learning speed was frighteningly fast, Su Mo immediately determined the direction that he would take.
Everything!
He would study every discipline there was!
“Tsk. If adenosine triphosphate is the only direct source of energy that powers muscle activity, I’ll have to find a way to convert adenosine diphosphate into adenosine triphosphate so that energy can be provided consistently, after which the energy can be released through the hydrolysis of adenosine
triphosphate.”
“T wonder whether it’s possible to use or attach external apparatuses to the human body to replace or complement their weaker equivalent biological counterparts? One might not be able to fully replace all the components of the human body, but if 30% of the human body can be replaced and outfitted
with these, it can enhance a person’s performance in the battle by two, no, several times!”
Slowly turning the pages, whimsical ideas popped into Su Mo’s mind one after the other, which he then stored in his memory.
These ideas might contain elements that had yet to be proven scientifically, or might not even be feasible given the current levels of science and technology, but Su Mo paid no heed to such constraints.
Imagination had always been the driving force behind human progress.
If he did not dare to imagine or dream big, then he would have already stepped onto the path toward definite failure before even beginning.
{Captain Su Mo, the distance to the designated location is less than 30 kilometers. Estimated time of arrival is 22 minutes.]
By the time Su Mo came back to his senses, it was already half past one in the afternoon.
At this time, the operating system asked Su Mo.
[Turn on Active Scanning Mode?]
“Turn on Active Scanning Mode.”
“Prioritize avoiding all living creatures. Analyze the surroundings and detect any points of abnormality!”
[OS has received your command. Corresponding mode activated.]
The specific location of the ruins was marked on the map.
The building corresponding to that mark had already disappeared from the wasteland countless years ago.
During that period, the ruins were located in the mountains, not in the ocean.
Centuries had passed since then.
The mountains were gone and the land had also disappeared. Only the endless ocean remained.
This location was deduced by the operating system, which had analyzed the map itself.
The specific location was within a 30-kilometer radius of this point!
The ruins had been destroyed in an attack, which made its location even more difficult to find.
Su Mo sat on the stern of the boat, holding the map while carefully surveying the surrounding ocean. He was not anxious and waited patiently.
At two in the afternoon, the operating system arrived at the designated location.
At fifteen past two, the operating system had completed scanning nearly 20% of the ocean area within the perimeter.
At forty past two, about 40% of the terrain in the perimeter had been scanned.
At half past three, the operating system completed the scanning of 60% of the area!
‘The remaining area was getting smaller and smaller, but the operating system still had not found anything.
Just when Su Mo was about to go down into the ocean personally, Oreo, who had been lying at the bow of the boat, reacted!
“Woof! Woof!”
“Woooo00000!”
“Stop, stop here!”
Since becoming a deity, Oreo had become increasingly lazy. She had not moved an inch ever since she got on the boat.
Right now, observing Oreo’s reaction, Su Mo’s face instantly lit up in glee and stopped the boat.
“Here?”
“Woof!” Oreo nodded her head.
“Good! Operating system, activate Alert Mode and avoid all passing creatures in this area, and wait for me here!”
“Oreo, you can wait on the ship first. Wait until I go down and check things out before you dive in!”
Su Mo decisively dove into the ocean like a fish. After he entered the water, he glanced around with ease.
The effects that came with the God of the Ocean title were far more terrifying underwater than they were above the surface of the ocean.
It was as if Su Mo had arrived home. The ocean had now become the environment Su Mo was most comfortable with.
He could breathe freely underwater without any restrictions.
In other words, if the effects of the card persisted, he could stay underwater all day without any problem.
He would not be burdened by the water pressure even if he dove to a depth of a hundred meters underwater.
He exerted force from his legs and, in the blink of an eye, he dove a hundred meters into the ocean.
Here, the sunlight that shone down from the sky could barely be seen, and the ocean became slightly dark.
The sight of the dark depths further down was so terrifying that most people would feel dizzy simply by looking at it.
Even if Su Mo was much more courageous than before, he still felt his scalp turn numb.
“The tall mountains on the map are about a thousand meters in height, yet up till now, I still haven’t found them.”
“This means that I still have to continue going deeper. Ah, let’s do this!”
To overcome his fear, he would have to face it head-on.
Even though Su Mo was spooked by the dark depths, he still steeled himself and dove deeper.
In the blink of an eye, he had gone four hundred meters deeper.
Here, the light from above was now completely imperceptible. It was completely dark under the ocean!
The world record for the furthest depth covered by free divers was 116 meters.
The record was 332.35 meters with scuba diving gear.
Unaware that he had broken the world record by a large margin, Su Mo continued to dive down into the depths of the ocean.
He had already felt somewhat fearful when his surroundings were barely visible.
Now that he could not see anything, he could only feel himself swimming downward. If he closed his eyes, it was almost like he was swimming blindly in a pool.
Five minutes
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
‘As he dove further down, he gradually lost all concept of depth. Since his physical strength had not deteriorated, he could only judge the distance covered by counting the passing minutes.
According to his speed of two hundred and sixty meters per minute, he was.
5200 meters underwater!
The pressure here had reached a staggering five thousand tons per square meter!
Were it not for the powers supplied by the title of the God of the Ocean’s oracle, he would have been crushed to pieces within seconds.
When Su Mo reached this place, his heart leapt when he touched hard rock.
Even though he could not see what the object really was, he maneuvered around the surface of the object carefully, and constructed a mental image of the object and compared it to what was on the map.
‘That mental image told Su Mo that.
This was where the ruins were located!