Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 832: Retrieving the Skull

Clad in a diving suit weighing over ninety kilograms, Charles treaded the icy cold waters while staring at the divers clearing the underwater ruins of SITE 6.

Smoke billowed out of the ships as they converged directly above SITE 6. They dropped their anchors and began using cranes to lift heavy debris and garbage out of SITE 6.

It had been a full month since SITE 6 sank to the bottom of the sea. The humanoid fissures were never seen again, but Charles' skull was still missing. Fortunately, Sottom was massive, so there were no major issues with supplies.

Did they take away my skull when they vanished? I don't think so. It's just an ordinary bone. What would they even do with my skull? Charles thought, staring at SITE 6 through its thick glass.

Just then, the searchlight that the members of the expedition team were using to communicate with each other flashed a few times, and a large concrete structure was dragged out of the ruins by three ship anchors.

When the swirling silt settled down, Charles saw a huge pitch-black mass being dragged out of the ruins as well.

That color... and that shape... Charles' heart quickened at the sight. He swung his heavy legs and charged forward as fast as he could, disregarding the silt that he was kicking up.

When Charles was close enough, he saw that the huge pitch-black solidified mass had wrapped around a hodgepodge of everything, including corpses, furniture, tablets, and damaged drones.

Charles became more and more excited as he stared at it. The next moment, he propped himself up with both hands, and his invisible tentacles sprang up from down below.

The nearby divers rushed to his side to help with anchors in their hands. Soon, the large pitch-black mass spanning hundreds of meters in size was hauled up onto Sottom's deck.

"Remove this black coating, and clean whatever is inside," Charles ordered.

The people on Sottom gathered around the pitch-black mass and used sharp tools to crack it open.

Charles was familiar with the pitch-black mass. He was in the middle of a so-called "interaction experiment" when the Foundation's alarms rang, and a viscous, cement-like liquid was poured into the room. The viscous, cement-like liquid submerged everything in that room, including his skull.

The viscous, cement-like liquid had solidified into a substance harder than steel, so everyone was having a hard time cracking it open with just their tools.

Fortunately, the explorers had plenty of relics at their disposal, and they had assault-type relics as well. Soon, the objects inside were dragged out. The corpses of the attendant of the gods, glass doors, and the operating table where Charles' skull was cut open.

Eventually, Charles' heart skipped a beat. A semicircular object with black hair was dragged out of the pitch-black mass.

The object was shriveled and tiny, looking like a child's cap, but Charles instantly identified it as his skull. He even picked it up and put it on his head, which matched perfectly.

A jar full of preservative liquid specially prepared by Linda was then brought out from the ship. Charles smiled in satisfaction when he saw his shriveled scalp stretching out slowly in the jar.

The second to last organ was found. Now, there was only one left. He just needed to find his left arm, and he'd be able to make use of his three wishes from 005.

Sottom's low horn pervaded the sea region. The lighthouse ships and salvage ships made their way to Sottom upon hearing the horn, as the horn signaled to everyone that their mission on SITE 6 was complete and that they had to return to begin their next task—the purging of the Foundation members' clones.

Sparkle returned as well and got ready to teleport Sottom to another island. The young girl's expression was a bit complicated as she stared at her father, who was staring at the two jars of organs beneath the desk lamp.

"How are things on your mom's side?" Charles asked without looking up.

"It's going fine."

Charles sensed his daughter's complicated emotions through her voice. He looked up and stared at her.

"What's wrong? Did the Fhtagn Covenant have another trump card that ended up complicating things there?

"That can't be the case. Every armed force in the Subterranean Sea has joined forces to corner them, so there is no way any of their cards can turn the tables around unless they can truly make use of Fhtagn's power. Unfortunately for them, Fhtagn isn't going to pay them any attention," Charles remarked.

Sparkle revealed a hesitant look. She looked like she wanted to say something but was hesitating to do so.

Charles put down the jar in his hand and walked up to the young girl.

"Tell me, what exactly is going on?" Charles asked, staring straight at Sparkle.

Sparkle remained silent and stewed in her own hesitation.

Just then, there was knocking on the cabin door next to them.

"Governor, are you available right now? There's a situation outside."

"Since you don't want to say it, then forget it. I can deduce from your face alone that Anna isn't in any danger. I'll just ask her when she comes back," Charles said, patting Sparkle's head lightly before walking toward the door.

Charles' steel hand gripped the door handle and turned it hard.

Aliya's stern face appeared before Charles, and her voice was equally stern as she said, "Captain, the salvage team has discovered something bizarre in the underwater ruins."

"Something bizarre? Are they talking about those humanoid fissures encased in ice? It doesn't matter even if they're back. We're about to leave, and we're not going back here anymore."

"I don't know how to describe it," Aliya said, shaking her head. "It's best if you go there and check it personally."

Charles was a bit surprised. Everything valuable had already been fished out; was there really something else of significance in the ruins of SITE 6?

Charles put on his heavy diving suit with an oxygen tank and dove into the icy cold water with a splash. Sparkle followed her father toward SITE 6, and they discovered an icy layer beneath the messy ruins.

"Governor, take a closer look at what's inside the icy layer," Aliya said, her voice echoing from the speaker inside Charles' diving suit.

The father and daughter pair slowly made their way to the icy layer. The bright searchlights from up above pierced the transparent ice layer, exposing everything inside.

The icy layer contained only frozen equipment and a variety of items. There weren't any monsters at all. The objects entombed by the ice seemed like they'd forever be encased in ice.

It was a normal sight, but Charles found it to be a bit jarring.

However, he couldn't say what was jarring about the sight.

"Governor, there's more here, too," Aliya said, swimming downward.

Sparkle moved nonstop, whisking away the debris, allowing Charles to dig deeper and deeper into the icy layer. The upper layer of ice that encased SITE 6 had been blown up, but the icy layer beneath SITE 6 remained untouched and was still covered in a thick sheet of ice.

Charles constantly looked around while swimming downward. At first, he couldn't see anything other than broken objects and debris, but as he swam deeper and deeper, he found fewer and fewer debris and broken objects.