There were 10 countries eligible to explore the three-star vestige in total according to the situation Tang Xiu was informed of, which was also the world"s strongest top ten countries. Therefore, the total number of people who could enter the vestige was 50 people, though Tang Xiu didn"t know exactly how many ability users and their abilities each country had sent.
"h.e.l.lo, I"m Gao Hongxing, the commander of China army in Haiben Island. Which of you is Captain Zhu Long, please?" a middle-aged man came out of the olive-green tent with two military officers and walked towards the group of five.
Zhu Long saluted and said, "I"m Zhu Long, the captain of the exploration team for this three-star vestige."
"You"re here, at last." Gao Hongxing smilingly said, "The three-star vestige will be jointly opened tomorrow, and the people from other countries have also arrived. Come with me! We have your equipment prepped, and I"ll send it to you later, so my mission is half done."
Zhu Long nodded. He didn"t introduce Tang Xiu and the rest, and directly followed Gao Hongxing into the military tent. The military tent was quite s.p.a.cious. There were 7 soldiers in duty uniforms sitting in front of a row of LCD screens to observe the pictures on them. On the other side of the tent, five military bags with bulging sacks were laying on the ground, and apparently contained many items.
Dismissing the civilities with Gao Hongxing, Zhu Long walked directly to the military bags. He quickly unzipped them, poured all the contents out, and carefully inspected them before he nodded with satisfaction, "Everything"s OK. Thanks for the hard work, Commander."
"The ceremony is not needed, Captain Zhu. I"m also acting on duty." Gao Hongxing shook his head and happily said, "Also, please do say if you have anything else you need before leaving. We"ll try our best to provide it."
"No…"
Just as Zhu Long spat out a word, Tang Xiu"s voice interrupted him. His face turned a bit ugly in that instant.
Tang Xiu completely ignored Zhu Long. He looked at Gao Hongxing and asked, "I have a request that I hope you can help with, Commander Gao."
Gao looked at Tang Xiu in surprise and nodded. "Please do say if you have something to ask."
"I didn"t see any s.h.i.+ps from the military when we arrived. Did you come here with air transport?" asked Tang Xiu. "Are you responsible for sending us back once we come out of the three-star vestige?"
"We did come here by helicopter and our mission is to be stationed here all year round, together with other countries" soldiers, to seal off this three-star vestige." Gao Hongxing shook his head. "But mobilizing helicopters are out of my jurisdiction, so I have no way to send you back."
"If so, I"d like to ask you to send your men to the coast and temporarily detain the fis.h.i.+ng boat"s owner who sent us here," said Tang Xiu. "Else, we won"t be able to go back once he and his crew leave. It will waste quite a lot of time by then if we go back and need to wait for people from the mainland to pick us up."
"That"s just a minor matter; leave it to me." Gao Hongxing smiled.
Zhu Long gazed at Tang Xiu with a sneer, and so did Firedevil, who looked to have some contempt. Even the Electrolady felt that Tang Xiu was fussing over nothing. Only Aquababe, whose brows slightly pressed together thoughtfully, gazed at Tang Xiu.
"You seem to care so much about going back early?" asked Aquababe suddenly.
"I am." Tang Xiu glanced at her and replied indifferently. "I wanna go back early from this place. I have other things to tend to."
Aquababe didn"t speak again and just nodded in response. Her eyes moved somewhere else, but Zhu Long, who knew her, looked surprised and slightly pressed his brows.
The atmosphere was somewhat odd and Gao Hongxing seemed to realize it. Whether it was Zhu Long and Firedevil, or Aquababe and Electrolady, there seemed to be something between them with Tang Xiu, yet couldn"t be explained with words. It was like… there was distance, in a sense. Nevertheless, he didn"t want to get involved much with this five-man team, and solemnly advised, "Everyone, you have a single tent for each of you nearby with your name on it. You can stay there first, and I"ll take you to the submarine location tomorrow morning."
Submarine?
Tang Xiu"s expression changed. Although he knew the three-star vestige was deep in the sea, he didn"t expect that they would be sent there by a submarine. He did have some interest in this big chunk of iron on the seabed. After all, it was a type of essential technological weapon in ocean warfare.
After everyone took their respective military bag out of the tent, Tang Xiu unleashed his perception and instantly covered a radius of 300-400 meters; he could clearly "see" all the scenes and people within this range. However, he couldn"t tell which people from other countries would go to the seabed to explore the three-vestige, though he easily found his own military tent.
"I"m afraid of sleeping alone at night, Tang Xiu. Can you…" Electrolady came to Tang Xiu"s side. Her waist was like a writhing water snake, and there was a particular kind of thirst in her eyes.
"Don"t play that little trick with me." Tang Xiu raised his hand, waved and said, "You"re obviously still a virgin, yet you act and show yourself like this. If I were to control and take your body, I"m sure you would be h.e.l.l-bent to kill me, wouldn"t you? Stop messing around with this boring game, Electrolady. We haven"t yet entered the three-star vestige, so you"d better recharge your batteries and adjust yourself to your best condition."
Electrolady"s face greatly changed and a look of fear suddenly appeared in her eyes when she looked at Tang Xiu. She had some contempt for Tang Xiu before this, but what he showcased just now was definitely not that of a fool who knew nothing whatsoever.
Tang Xiu ignored her and drilled straight into the military tent. Inside, he unzipped the military bag and inspected the things inside. A Mitsubis.h.i.+ army knife, mini binoculars, a lighter, a box of matches, diving suit, oxygen mask, compressed biscuits and water, and the last, which was unexpected: a mini pistol.
Does this gun have no clips at all?
Tang Xiu frowned as he slowly and carefully inspected it for a long time, only to find that the gun truly didn"t have a cartridge clip but something like a cell phone battery inside instead. Unable to figure out what the gun truly was, Tang Xiu had no intention of testing it either. He stored everything into his interspatial ring, but left the diving suit and oxygen mask in the military bag.
Shortly after, he sat cross-legged and began to adjust his condition.
Outside the tent. Aquababe silently came to Electrolady"s side. As she saw her ever-changing expression, she softly spoke to her in a low voice, "I don"t know what his true ability is, but he"s the only one who gave a threatening feeling. I dunno why I have this sensation, but there"s no way I can look down on him."
Electrolady frowned and glanced at Tang Xiu"s military tent before turning back and said indignantly, "Who knows if that bloke is just faking it? A threatening feeling? Why can"t I sense it then? I think Boss Zhu Long is right. He"s an arrogant p.r.i.c.k; one who knows nothing about the immensity of Heaven and Earth. Just wait and see later, Aquababe! He will weep when we enter the three-star vestige."
Aquababe"s face was a bit solemn, and her eyes swiftly swept from the surroundings, shaking her head and said, "That"s actually the second thing that makes me wary, Electrolady. Take a look around! Can"t you see there are none here from the other countries after we came? There used to be someone come to provoke us given their styles of action in the past, right?"
Electrolady"s heart sank. She looked around and didn"t find anyone from other countries who were going to enter three-star vestige either and immediately said, "You"re right. We must keep our vigilance."
The next day.
Tang Xiu came out of the military tent and saw Zhu Long and the rest were sitting together, chatting in whispers with hand-painted drawings laid out in the center. He approached them and the four people seemed to not mind him, so he joined the discussion.
"We don"t know what things, nor the kind of danger there will be beyond this steel door. So, look for any switch there as best you can, if any. Do remember, we must find the monitoring room fast. As long as we can find the control room, we can see the situation inside the vestige clearly, and it will be easier and more suitable for our actions later."
"There"s one more thing. Stay alert and guard against those from other countries. Regardless of any goodwill they show us, keep a distance from them. The dangers we"ll face once we enter the ruins are not the only dangers inside, but also from other countries" experts who enter with us."
Tang Xiu was sitting cross-legged between Firedevil and Aquababe. His eyes inspected the hand-painted map, and inquired, "Is this the map for the three-star vestige interior?"
Regardless of how much Zhu Long didn"t like Tang Xiu, Tang Xiu was still a Chinese national after all, so he still explained in order to let him survive longer, "This three-star vestige had once been opened and various countries sent a lot of people back then, but only one person came out alive. That man was our Chinese national, and a martial arts grandmaster. Unfortunately, his injuries were too severe when he escaped, and he only woke up for a short time on the third day before he pa.s.sed away. And this map is what he brought out."
"So, have you found out how big this three-star vestige is?" asked Tang Xiu.
"I dunno. It"s said that this map is only a small area of the vestige." Zhu Long shook his head. "Estimation is that it"s not even one-tenth, but even such a small area is more than a dozen football fields wide."
Tang Xiu"s expression changed. He glanced at the Northeast and slowly said, "Perhaps, we need to raise the degree of danger to double time when we enter this three-star vestige."
Firedevil raised his hand to caress the striking fiery hair on the lower back of his head and said disdainfully, "Don"t be an alarmist, will you? It may be dangerous for you, Tang Xiu, but it"s not worth mentioning for us. If you"re afraid, don"t act like a big shot, but has nothing to back yourself up, and just follow us. I"ll protect you nonetheless."
Tang Xiu pondered for a moment and nodded. "I"ll follow you in the early stage of entering three-star vestige, but I"ll go alone after solving some of the dangers."
"Whatever."
It was Zhu Long who answered Tang Xiu with a bad tone. He thought that Tang Xiu was afraid. When they entered the vestige and came across various dangers, he felt this guy wouldn"t dare to say anything about leaving the team anymore.