Shrouded Seascape

The clean white door opened, and an average-sized studio apartment was revealed before Charles. Deya walked into the apartment and tapped something on the wall.

"Alright, the house is set to offline mode. You can come out now."

Charles jumped out of Deya's eye socket. "Where is A2 being held? Do you have any way to contact them?"

Deya pressed on his wounds with his hand.

"Give me a moment," he said before heading toward the bathroom on the side. The bathtub was swiftly filled with a transparent liquid that resembled fresh water, and a blue holographic light pervaded the water.

[Healing mode activated.]

Deya removed his shirt and lay down in the bathtub, submerging his wounds in the transparent liquid. Moments later, his injuries healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

This wasn't the power of a healing-type relic but the power of science. The sight before Charles was so incongruous that he fell into a daze. He found it hard to imagine that Deya was actually living in the same place as the denizens of the Subterranean Sea.

Deya scooped up water from the bathtub with his hands and washed his face vigorously. Then, he looked at Charles standing outside and said, "Dr. A2 is most likely being held in Restricted Zone 19. Unfortunately, there's no reason for me to go there, given my clearance level."

Deya wasted no words and simply lifted his finger. He swiped gently in the air, and a holographic projection of the upside-down city appeared before them.

A certain area was marked with a flashing red light.

Deya poked the virtual map and drew a winding line inside of it. "The closest I can get to Restricted Zone 19 is Second Street. The remaining two kilometers until Restricted Zone 19 will all be up to you."

"Can't A2 receive information from the outside? Wouldn't it be more convenient for them to come out and meet us?" Charles asked.

Deya was taken aback. "That should be possible. I heard A2 isn't being detained."

Charles stared at the winding line in the air, seemingly engrossed in his own thoughts.

All of a sudden, a violent shaking pulled Charles' attention back to Hope Island.

Sparkle had grabbed his shoulders and was shaking him vigorously.

"What? Is something wrong?" Charles asked.

Sparkle stepped aside, revealing the sand figures of the Subterranean Sea Council members. Their expressions were solemn as they stared at Charles.

"Charles, I learned from your daughter that you seem to have discovered something about the Foundation. Can you share it with us?" asked Jax while adjusting his monocle.

Charles swept his gaze across the others and saw their fiery gazes. Clearly, they were also interested in the news that Charles had with him.

Charles decided to tell them his discovery. Once he was done recounting, he said, "This isn't the time for us to talk about it. Contacting A2 is more important than anything right now. This might be our only chance to turn the tables."

Everyone fell into contemplation. Now, they all shared Charles' conundrum.

Eventually, the ice was shattered by Elder Octett of the Fhtagn Covenant. "If A2 has truly become a follower of Fhtagn, then I think I have a way of contacting them."

Charles looked at him. "What do you plan to do?"

"Do you still remember how the Deep Dwellers attempted to corrupt your boatswain? We can take advantage of the power of dreams and let them talk to A2 in their dreams," Octett suggested.

"But there is a prerequisite before it can be done; Governor Charles, you need to throw one of our covenant's sacred relics near that so-called restricted zone. The power of our Lord will then spread throughout the Sea of Mist through that relic."

Charles stared at Octett for a long time before finally nodding. "Let's try it."

The next day, Deya was clad in a trench coat as he walked down slowly on SITE 2's Second Street. Second Street was a rather lively commercial street with a massive number of people going to and fro. Many of the people were clones, so they had identical appearances and were distinguished by the cards on their chests.

When Deya turned a corner, he lowered his head slightly, allowing the hat on his head to obscure his eyes. Moments later, a spider crawled out of his sleeve.

Charles followed the plan and quickly crawled along the wall. There were drones and automation machines everywhere, making Charles feel extremely nervous.

Charles tried his best to make the spider reach the periphery of Restricted Zone 19 through the cover of the shadows cast by the nearby buildings, but its peculiar appearance still ended up attracting attention.

Two drones rushed toward the eyeball spider, and a red laser landed on its figure.

Bang!

Before the drones flying side-by-side could do anything, a bullet pierced both of them at once. They fell to the ground instantly, leaving behind a trail of black smoke in the air.

The bullet had definitely come from Deya; this was Deya's handiwork.

The immediate crisis was averted, but Charles' situation was becoming increasingly dire. In no time, drones glowing with red light rushed to the scene like a flock of birds blotting out the sky.

There were so many of them that Charles could barely see the ocean up above.

At this point, Charles no longer cared about the drones. He moved at top speed, making a beeline for the restricted zone.

The drones that had just arrived spotted the eyeball spider through thermal imaging, and they locked onto Charles' figure before charging at him at breakneck speed.

Charles ignored them and continued his mad dash toward his destination until he stumbled upon a towering gray wall.

Charles came to a screeching halt and exclaimed, "We're here!"

The eyeball spider spat white silk threads that quickly drew Sparkle's portrait on the wall. Charles' dire situation and desperation allowed him to make a breakthrough as an artist as he drew Sparkle in a mere five seconds.

As soon as the portrait was complete, a golden short staff wrapped with golden tentacles appeared before him. The instant it touched the ground, an imperceptible dark wave that humans couldn't perceive burst out of it.

Everyone nearby trembled involuntarily upon getting hit by the dark wave.

The next second, a sizzling noise echoed, and an extremely bright white light streaked across the air, hitting the eyeball spider.

Charles instantly lost connection to the spider.

However, Charles had a contingency plan, and it was finally coming into play. When the countdown of the bomb inside the eyeball spider's stomach reached zero, the eyeball spider exploded into a cloud of mist.

At the same time, a sharp pain radiated from Charles' eye socket. It felt as if someone had stabbed his eye with a needle. Ignoring the pain, Charles stood up with a hand over his eye socket before turning to Octett in front of him.

"How is it?" Charles asked.

The grotesque octopus-headed monster nodded.

Charles sighed in relief at the sight. "So it wasn't in vain..."

Just then, Anna extended her hand and handed over another black and red spider to Charles.

"Don't move. I need another fragment of your soul to bind to this new spider."

"Where did you even get this?"

"Where else can I even get this? Of course, I stole it from that giantess of yours. In fact, I have her entire inventory of this kind of spider now," Anna said. She then quickly bound the new spider to Charles.

Having obtained another eye, Charles asked Sparkle to teleport the spider to Deya's apartment.

Charles knew that there was a high chance that the spider wouldn't be able to come back to him, so he decided to prepare a contingency plan.

As soon as he appeared in Deya's apartment, the loud noises outside attracted his attention. Of course, he was the perpetrator behind the commotion. Charles presumed that SITE 2 had to be under high alert for a moment.

Fortunately, his mission was already complete, and all he had to do was wait until night.

Soon, night fell, but Charles was a bit too excited to sleep and had to rely on Linda's medicine to sleep.

Amidst a sea of chaos, Charles saw A2. She seemed to be a woman in her thirties, and she was sporting round-frame glasses that made her look like an ordinary schoolteacher.

"Hello, I'm A2. The fact that you're here to meet me at a time like this means that you must be on the side of the Subterranean Sea's humans, isn't that right?" A2 smiled and extended her right hand to Charles.

Charles shook hands with her using his steel prosthetic hand. "I must admit—I'm quite surprised by your appearance. I thought the GK Council no longer has anyone who looks just like an ordinary person. Anyway, name's Charles."

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