Chapter 347: First Day At Sea, The Timeline Begins!
When considering a problem, one could not always consider every angle from a utilitarian point of view. One would be a machine instead of a human if one did so.
Although he had been lying in bed for almost twenty minutes, Su Mo was still unable to calm down even after a long time.
Unlike the large shelters, of the people that were currently on the rankings, apart from the last name on the list—a bronze sand s.h.i.+p that required forming a human pyramid before it could take more than 200 people on board—all the other s.h.i.+ps and refugees outwardly conveyed a unique quality that only humans had…
The ability to think!
The s.h.i.+ps of the foreign races were all copied from human s.h.i.+p designs!
They had copied the s.h.i.+ps that humans on Earth had invented—s.h.i.+ps that were used for survival, for making a living, and for eking out a better existence.
Su Mo could not detect any sparks of creativity in their plagiarism attempts, nor could he sense any originality from the foreign races.
They were like monkeys in the tourist destinations on Earth—they only knew that if they opened a packet of food, they would find delicious food.
They would not bother thinking about where the food had come from, why it would appear in the packet, or what the packet itself was made of.
For monkeys, as long as they could eat their fill, that was enough!
The foreign races were the same way!
As far as they were concerned, as long as a s.h.i.+p could function and sail on the sea, that was sufficient. There was completely no need to consider what the s.h.i.+p’s capabilities were, whether it was comfortable or not, or how to modify it to achieve even better properties.
However, humans were different!
Currently, the top 29 names in the rankings were all ordinary refugees who had displayed their own individual ideas on how to weather this disaster.
There was Sun Xian’s family vessel made from a wooden raft tied about with tires. There was also the dragon boat compet.i.tion team, who had displayed their abilities by constructing a human-powered great wing s.h.i.+p—a cla.s.s of wars.h.i.+p from the Wu Navy in the Zhou Dynasty—with a speed as high as 15 knots.
There were modified covered swoopers—leather-covered a.s.sault wars.h.i.+ps from ancient times—and there were also wooden barrel-style boats shaped like submarines.
All these different s.h.i.+ps represented the tenacious fight that the human race put up in face of such natural disasters, unwilling to submit to fate.
By looking at the big picture revealed by these small details, Su Mo had full reason to believe that the cause of mankind’s destruction would certainly not be these foolish foreign races!
Only natural disasters could destroy the human race!
Only natural disasters and nothing else!
“Ah, it’s no use thinking so much. However, going by the current rules, the airdrop rewards that humans will get this time ought to be quite significant.
“As for whether or not those rewards will be unlocked, that will depend on whether these people can be lucky enough to weather this disaster and get to the New World!”
With a touch of frustrated disappointment, Su Mo slowly covered himself with the blanket that still had that “new” feel about it after taking out a bottle of psychic energy water and drinking half of it. He put both hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling of the captain’s quarters in the bright, clear moonlight.
The night went on.
Hope One’s degree of comfort had already been thoroughly demonstrated by this point in time!
In other live broadcast streams, after two or three hours of rocking to and fro, a considerable number of people who had lived their entire lives on land had already vomited until they were dizzy, almost to the point where they were throwing up bile.
Since both wind and waves were mild, Hope One relied on its special abilities to cut through the water as easily as walking on land, and not a single jolt or tremor could be felt on board.
In such a calm and stable environment, if it were not for the OS occasionally echoing data transmissions in his Bluetooth earphones, as well as the sound of Hope One cutting through the sea that was coming through the slightly-ajar door of the captain’s quarters, Su Mo would have thought that he had merely gone to an unfamiliar shelter to sleep for a while.
Su Mo kept staring at the ceiling. At four o’clock, his eyes were still wide open; what was going on in his mind was anyone’s guess.
At five o’clock, even though his eyes were closed, his mind was still overwhelmed by all manner of thoughts.
Right before dawn in the wasteland, before the sun rose, even with the calming effect of the psychic energy water, Su Mo still found it hard to avoid…
Insomnia!
From Iron Rock Mountain’s future development, his thoughts went to the inhabitants of Hope Village and whether or not they had encountered any unforeseen circ.u.mstances now that he had left.
These thoughts of unseen circ.u.mstances connected with thoughts of his younger sister, who was currently onboard Tundra One. Was she like the other refugees, vomiting until they could barely function in daily life? Through thinking about his sister, his mind went to Tundra One and whether or not they would encounter crazed foreign races in their journey.
Su Mo’s thoughts churned rapidly; even though his physical body was exhausted, his brain did not feel tired in the least.
The birth of mankind was filled with chance encounters as if a formless “G.o.d” had left behind traces of their divinity.
However, the scientific viewpoint told mankind that G.o.ds did not exist in the world and that humans were not G.o.ds either.
It was impossible for such a being to exist, who could control new, intelligent lifeforms that were created out of thin air—lifeforms that also had collective quantum entangled souls.
When experiencing insomnia, even if one’s brain issued frantic orders to quickly fall asleep—otherwise one would not have energy the next day, and one’s work would be held up as a result—the human brain would not heed these orders and go to sleep.
In fact, it would become even more active and dispel sleepiness even further.
Su Mo was currently in this situation.
Since departure had been so hurried, the captain’s quarters had not been fully furnished yet.
Therefore, curtains had not been put up. Lying in bed, even though he had not opened his eyes, Su Mo could still sense that the darkness outside was rapidly fading, and a ray of light was beginning to rise from the end of the horizon.
It was six o’clock already?
When he heard the OS reporting the time in his earphones, Su Mo—whose brain still showed no signs of tiredness—had no choice but to sit up in resignation.
Mankind’s greatest suffering was not having no time to sleep.
It was having the time but being unable to sleep!
Even though he had slept very well the first night he arrived in the wasteland, Su Mo had stayed awake till dawn the very first night he had set sail on the sea!
Since he had not moved through the long hours of the night, his body felt a little chilled. Su Mo began moving his limbs and opened the main door of the captain’s quarters as he did so.
Sniff…
Since at present there were no microorganisms to cause fermentation, there was only a barely perceptible trace of salt tang in the sea breeze. There was none of the disgusting fishy smell like on Earth.
After taking three deep breaths of moisture-laden sea air, Su Mo slowly climbed up the ladder.
After pus.h.i.+ng open the watertight door of the c.o.c.kpit and seating himself grandly and expansively in the captain’s seat, Su Mo began checking Hope One’s current position in earnest, as well as the s.h.i.+p’s condition at present.
Last night, after two hours of traveling at top speed, Hope One had initially made around 180 kilometers of headway.
Between the hours of three to seven o’clock, Hope One had traveled a distance of 240 kilometers at cruising speed.
However, the s.h.i.+p had made a detour midway to avoid the first group of foreign races that was within 330 kilometers of their location. Therefore, Hope One’s current position was roughly around…
390 kilometers northeast of the basin!
There were still around 300 kilometers to go before the s.h.i.+p reached the first navigation point of their intended destination.
Since he had not actually personally ma.s.sacred these foreign races, the old mobile phone did not have any of their signals downloaded.
In fact, it was the fire-control radar that had picked up traces of this group of foreign races at 5.30.
On Hope One’s current map, an accurate target came up!
Taking out the old mobile phone and detecting that there were no humans within 300 kilometers for sure, Su Mo stood up, relieved, and exited the c.o.c.kpit.
“As expected, these ordinary foreign races are a motley rabble. Before they receive orders from the Five Royal Clans about what the next step is, they’re likely to stay where they are and wait for the signal.
“In fact, this just happens to be what I’m looking for!”
The more thoroughly these ordinary foreign races carried out the orders of the Five Royal Clans, the more beneficial it would be to the scheme that would be played out later to lure them forth.
After using his Bluetooth earphones and giving the OS orders to continue using evasive measures while cruising, Su Mo went below from the main deck and came to a washroom on the first lower deck.
There were many supplies on Hope One. From food and drink to utility and entertainment items as well as maintenance supplies, Hong Kangcheng had stocked up an abundance of them.
However, Su Mo had emphasized that freshwater resources were the top priority.
On the ocean, if there were many people, it was imperative to think of a way to come up with a seawater filtration system and keep the previously-stored fresh water for emergency supplies in case of unforeseen events.
However, for Hope One—this strange beast with incredible cargo capacity—Su Mo had had no qualms about directly ordering the villagers to collect almost 500 tons of freshwater!
Even if the two adults and the four small ones on board were to use it indiscriminately, all that water would still be able to last for over a year!
Therefore, when he turned on the showerhead positioned in midair, Su Mo took an “extravagant” cold shower and washed off much of the tiredness from staying up all night.
The villagers’ quarters had already been inhabited first by one adult and the four small ones.
Furthermore, because there were enough rooms, apart from Big Spark and Little Spark sharing one room, the others were able to have single-person accommodations.
At present, seeing that only Oreo had woken up and was lazily coming out to shake her head and clear her brain, Su Mo made a shus.h.i.+ng expression, signaling her not to wake the others.
Latest by tomorrow and earliest by tonight, once Connie’s scheme had been carried out successfully, Hope One would be able to display its combat capacity for carnage!
When that time came, Connie and Su Mo both had specific battle responsibilities.
As the main gunner, Su Mo, in particular, had the most important role!
Therefore, he could use “divine cultivation” to guarantee that his combat capabilities could still remain at peak level. However, as far as he and Connie were concerned, without enough sleep, their combat capabilities would definitely suffer a significant decline.
Seeing that the intelligent Oreo responded very rapidly by nodding her head and cleverly running up the stairs onto the main deck to keep watch, Su Mo did not stop but headed to the second lower deck to retrieve supplies.
After having eaten the meals prepared by the Hope Village cooks for a short month, Su Mo had not lost his touch at cookery when he suddenly had to switch to preparing his own meals again.
Collecting a few small steamed loaves of bread that had been prepared just yesterday by the village cooks, as well as a few vegetables in the cold storage area that were still considered fairly fresh, Su Mo went back to the kitchen and began getting busy.
Now that they were at sea, the psychic energy water would be used as battle supplies. Every liter used would be one liter less, so for this meal, Su Mo only added normal fresh water and seasonings.
However, the surprising thing was that both dishes—celery sauteed with garlic and red-braised eggplant—were quite delicious.
When combined with the soft, fragrant rice congee, even before Su Mo had called everyone to come to breakfast, the delicious aroma of the food wafted out from the kitchen and woke Moore up!
“Wow, Master, Moore enjoys eating Master’s meals!”
Seeing that Moore looking as if he could not wait, Connie, off to one side, seemed to have completely revised what she knew of Su Mo as well, her leonine eyes sparkling.
Once everyone sat down for breakfast, the meal was simple. However, since it was the first meal they had eaten after setting out to sea, it was also a very hearty one.
After they had finished eating, seeing that Moore was already earnestly doing his old job and tidying up the stove along with Connie, Su Mo went back up onto the main deck with a smile.
“Everything on Hope One is fine, it just feels slightly unreal!
“The bow is obviously swaying from the waves, but when you stand up here, you can’t feel it at all. It’s just like I’m standing on flat land.”
Hope One’s current speed was more or less around 65 kilometers an hour, but there were no landmarks on the sea anywhere. Furthermore, with the s.h.i.+p’s extreme length, it could not compare at all with steering 70 yards on land.
After observing for a while and finding that there were no problems at all with the OS-driven autopilot system, Su Mo slowly made his way to the Annihilator’s inner room.
Since departure had been so hasty, there had been no chance to add on the talisman’s simulation either, and Su Mo had had no time to test out the cannon.
If he really wanted to count, this cannon had never been fired even once.
After taking into consideration that there would be a big battle coming up and the Annihilator would be the most important weapon in combat, Su Mo rubbed his fists together, and his eyes lit up on this clear, sunny day in the wasteland!