Chapter 744: Desperate Situation
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
People from the same trade were enemies. Once again, Li Du and his group encountered people from the same trade.
The father and son were rather quick to act. After the son had made a phone call, a speedboat from the department of fis.h.i.+ng and hunting hurried over. An enforcement officer asked Li Du, "Sir, I need to check your harvesting permit. Every new black gold abalone harvester on King Island needs to be checked."
As this was a legitimate rule, Li Du did not say anything and handed his harvesting permit over to the officer.
After briefly examining the permit, the enforcement officer handed it back to Li Du and told the father and son, "Cruz, like you guys, this gentleman is authorized to harvest here."
The father and son asked with angry looks on their faces, "Is his permit genuine? Could it be forged or stolen from somewhere?"
The enforcement officer shrugged his shoulders before driving away in his speedboat and continuing his patrol. As the enforcement officer had seen harvesters having disputes and being jealous of each other plenty of times, such disputes were not surprising to him.
While Li Du was putting away his permit, the son looked at him and asked, "Hey, are you planning to dive here?"
"Why? Can"t I dive here?"
"Of course you can"t," the son replied bitterly. "This is our territory. You guys better leave, or else this will be considered a provocation. Do you want to provoke us?"
Li Du responded in a puzzled manner, "Do you guys legally own this area of the sea? Your territory? What do you mean? Is this your family"s fish farm?"
Both father and son were rendered speechless. The son gave him an angry glare and said, "This is the rule, newbie. This is a black gold abalone harvesting rule. You have to follow the rules, right?"
Li Du asked, "Does the rule restrict people from harvesting in the area of the sea that you have laid your eyes on?"
The son replied, "Of course. First come, first served. Don"t you know that rule?"
Li Du burst into laughter. "You are right, I am indeed a newbie. However, I am not completely clueless. First come, first served? Sorry, there"s no such rule."
Unlike the individual pieces of land that gem hunters spent money renting to search for fire opals, harvesters did not have individual areas of the sea for harvesting black gold abalone. The father and son were just bullying him.
Despite that, they did not dare to openly bully him. Otherwise, they would not have spent the extra effort calling the department of fis.h.i.+ng and hunting.
Big Quinn and G.o.dzilla waited on the fis.h.i.+ng boat with their arms clearly in view. With such muscular physiques and fierce demeanors that even a blind person would be able to sense, normal people would not dare to bully them.
After arguing with the father and son, Li Du put on flippers and jumped into the water.
He did not need to be concerned with the father and son"s unreasonable request. Yesterday, when he pa.s.sed by the area on a boat, he discovered that there were quite a number of boats parked in the area and plenty of harvesters searching for black gold abalone there.
Even today, there were still other harvesters harvesting in this area, and both the father and son were just one of the many harvesters.
After Li Du entered the water, the son also put on flippers and entered the water.
Although the water there was more than ten meters deep, the area was relatively shallow compared to other black gold abalone-rich areas nearby.
As the little bug had already pinpointed the location of a black gold abalone, Li Du was trying to dive to it. Just when he was in close proximity to the reef where the black gold abalone was, he felt the speed of the water current suddenly increase, and he began to lose control over his movements.
Undercurrents!
At once, that thought came to his mind. He realized that he had encountered an undercurrent, which was a very common and dangerous occurrence when harvesting black gold abalone.
When sunlight shone on the atmosphere, the different layers of the atmosphere would receive different amounts of heat, so air currents formed. Likewise, when sunlight shone onto the sea, seawater at different depths would receive different amounts of heat and would clash with each other, forming undercurrents.
Even though undercurrents were usually not very strong, they were a huge annoyance for new divers, as they would cause divers to lose control of their movements and be at a loss for what to do.
A high level of mental strength was required when diving. Because trouble would arise once divers started panicking, divers needed to remain calm when diving in the sea.
At this moment, Li Du was a little panicky. Besides causing him to lose control of his movements, the undercurrent was carrying him towards a reef that had a lot of growing densely seagra.s.s nearby.
An area of seagra.s.s or seaweeds was commonly known as a "diver cemetery," and was another danger at the bottom of the sea. Once a diver became tangled in the seagra.s.s or seaweeds, their chance of survival was extremely low.
For the first time, Li Du felt frightened and lost all hope. In the past, when he was on land, he was able to remain calm regardless of what happened.
This was because he knew that the worst that could happen was losing some money in his business, which he did not need to be afraid of as there was still hope so long as he was alive.
However, right now, he could lose his life. With no control over his movements while being in the water, he was in an unprecedented crisis!
While he was struggling, the gold-haired youngster, who was searching for black gold abalone nearby, noticed the precarious situation he was in and swam over.
With that, Li Du became even more panicked. Because the youngster had kept trying to chase him out of this area, Li Du had had a dispute with him. Now that he was currently in danger, would the youngster send him to an early grave?
As the gold-haired youngster had superb snorkeling skills, he swam freely in the water as if he were a large fish. If he pushed Li Du into the seagra.s.s and swam around in the vicinity so that Li Du could not escape, Li Du"s chances of survival would go from low to zero!
While he was trying to force his way out of the undercurrent, the gold-haired youngster swam speedily next to him before staring at him from the side.
Both parties met each other"s eyes. As Li Du was worried that the boy would cause him harm, he tried to look fierce to intimidate him.
After looking coldly at Li Du, the gold-haired youngster began pointing at his own body from his shoulders to his stomach, before pulling at his own diving suit to show Li Du.
Although Li Du did not understand his meaning, he was able to sense that he harbored bad intentions. As such, while scolding the youngster in his mind, he struggled with all his might to escape the undercurrent. So long as he was in a normal area of the sea, he would be able to escape from the youngster.
However, he did not have any experience swimming in an undercurrent, which was required even more so now when he was snorkeling, as snorkeling tested one"s experience and mental strength.
The force of the undercurrent prevented him from maintaining his balance. As this was a problem he could not resolve, he began spinning slowly around like a top.
After struggling for a while, just as he was becoming more and more frightened, the most terrifying thing happened. After the sudden disappearance of the gold-haired youngster, Li Du noticed that someone had grabbed him from behind.
Li Du was shocked and hurriedly swung his elbow to attack the youngster so that he would release him. However, as the youngster was directly behind him, he was unable to strike him with his elbow. Although he wanted to turn around and attack him, he was unable to do so as the force of the undercurrent was causing him to lose his balance.
F*ck, I am finished! For a moment, Li Du lost hope!
He tried raising his head to look at the surface of the sea in hopes that Lu Guan, Big Quinn, or G.o.dzilla would realize that he was in danger and save him.
However, as he had gone pretty deep, the three of them would not be able to clearly see the predicament he was in. Furthermore, with Ah Meow and Crispy Noodles not wanting to enter the water and Ah Ow being unreliable, he started to regret not bringing Brother Wolf along. If Brother Wolf had been watching over him, he would definitely not be in danger.
While looking at the bright glow on the surface of the sea, he became more and more desperate. He was done for!