"It’s pitch black." Li Cheng’s voice rose in the darkness, "Feels like my girlfriend’s parents went on a trip, and she invited me to her place to hide under the covers and look at the glow-in-the-dark toys."
"This is no time for jokes!" The Red Driver’s forehead broke out in a cold sweat, the volcanic rat beside him also let out a frightened squeak.
At this moment, the fire burning on the volcanic rat’s head and tail was clearly not extinguished and still radiated a warm heat, but the Driver could see not a trace of light.
The exploration ship, navigating on its own through the waves, scraped against the pipe wall, and the starboard bow smashed a huge hole, letting tons of sea water immediately rush in, gurgling loudly.
Zhao Zijing quickly released telekinesis, enveloping the ship’s bow, forcibly pushing the vessel away from the pipe wall.
In this pitch-black environment, telekinesis was somewhat like a bat’s sonar, crudely detecting the surroundings and forming a model in the mind.
She could feel that the tunnel ahead was becoming more winding, narrow, and cramped.
"Why can’t I see anything?!"
Inside the cabin, the young Filipino Mendoza and the black youth Miles screamed in terror, slipping and falling to the floor due to the complete darkness and the ship’s rocking motion, crying out in pain.
On the contrary, the man wrapped in bandages remained calm. Not only did he press close to the wall, but he also held onto Catherine from London, both hands firmly gripping the wall handles, lowering his center of gravity to prevent falling.
Zhao Zijing multitasked, using telekinesis to scoop out the water flooding into the hull, welding the ship with a steel plate welding torch, while shouting, "Little Love student, report the failure of the autonomous navigation system."
The ship’s master control system AI assistant, through the broadcast, said: "The ship is using Prometheus Company’s TZ300 autonomous navigation system. Currently, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) are still functioning normally.
However, the radar, echosounder, and cameras have failed for unknown reasons, resulting in the malfunction of dynamic path planning and obstacle detection and avoidance."
While the AI assistant reported, the drones that relied on various sensors to maintain flight attitude were crashing or forced to emergency land on the ship’s deck due to the narrow pipes and accelerated water flow.
The exploration ship nearly crashed headfirst into the pipe wall again due to the narrowness and acceleration of the water flow.
Zhao Zijing promptly released telekinesis, acting like an airbag to cushion the impact, forcibly twisting the ship around.
This move consumed about 30 points of Spiritual Power Value. If this continued, even if they didn’t drown, they would die of exhaustion.
Zhao Zijing asked in a deep voice, "Do you have any way to stop the ship? Like damaging the pipe wall or sticking the anchor in."
"I’ll give it a try. Blazing Monkey, release Cross Slash to the right."
The Red Driver threw out a Spirit Ball. The Fireball Rat he had previously obtained in a script task had evolved into a Volcanic Rat, and the ordinary Fighting System Pocket Monster Monkey Monster had evolved into a Blazing Monkey.
The tunnel had narrowed significantly; there was no need to aim. The Blazing Monkey swung its fists at the pipe wall with a Cross Slash. The source of thɪs content is Nove1Fire.net
The strike had the power comparable to a demolition blast, but in Zhao Zijing’s blurred Perception, the pipe wall remained completely unscathed.
The Red Driver said in astonishment, "What in the world are these walls made of, a material that absorbs light and becomes harder?!"
"It’s not absorbing light."
Li Cheng spoke leisurely, "These searchlights are still heating up and emitting light. It’s just that the path of light transmission has been erased."
He took out several different models of night vision goggles from the 3D warehouse and, using the Assembly Puppet ability, fitted them into his own eye sockets.
Low-light night vision devices, infrared night vision devices, and thermal imaging night vision devices each work on different principles.
Low-light amplifies the existing light in the environment. Infrared actively illuminates the target with an infrared spotlight and forms an image with the reflected infrared radiation. Thermal imaging passively receives infrared radiation.
No matter which night vision device he used, Li Cheng got no response after putting them on—he still couldn’t see anything.
That is to say, the concept of "light" itself has been stripped away.
"Stripping away light..."
Zhao Zijing’s mind raced, she pressed her palms together, and released a skill.
[Skill Name: Point Array Detection]
[Type: Spiritual Energy]
[Special Effect: Marked a point. Scans the surroundings, marking in a point array diagram all existences that fit the concept of life within a certain range. The more potent the life energy, the denser the dot matrix]
[Consumption: At least 100 Spiritual Power Value. Depends on the detection range]
[Cooling Time: 10 minutes]
[Note: Old Wang, don’t get ahead of yourself. With transparent cabinets and solid beds, let’s see where you could hide]
In public, Zhao Zijing is an official operative of the Global Supernatural Alliance GOC, but she was initially selected from within the Special Affairs Bureau to be stationed at the GOC. Her hometown is in Sichuan province.
Hence, she not only receives allowances from the GOC organization but also enjoys additional benefits from the Special Affairs Bureau. Her equipment and skills are much more luxurious than those of players of the same level.
This [Point Array Detection] skill is regarded as a divine reconnaissance skill, detecting ranges including existences that meet the concept of life, and can effectively discern the location and number of enemies, and even guard against invisibility abilities.
After using the skill, a dense array of white dots immediately appeared before Zhao Zijing’s eyes.
The weakest dots belonged to the four ordinary people, their brightness was about that of candles.
The Pocket Monsters around the Red Driver shone like lightbulbs, while he himself was somewhat dimmer—most likely, he couldn’t beat his own Pocket Monsters.
Zhao Zijing herself, and Midnight Howl were on par, equivalent to the brightness of a flashlight.
As for the Ant... the brightness of this fellow actually matched that of a street lamp?
Originally, Zhao Zijing thought he was a player type who cast spells by releasing toxic smoke, but she didn’t expect him to be so physically strong.
The brightness of the dots only represents the height of life energy, not the player’s strength (after all, skill items are not included).
Apart from humans, the massive number of minuscule bacteria on the ship’s surface also appeared as extremely weak dots, just outlining the ship’s contour.
No hostile targets found? Wait...
Zhao Zijing’s hands trembled. Indeed, she had not found a hostile presence on the ship because the entire ship was enveloped by a huge mass of chaotic matter.
The chaos, like a cloud, had no basic shape and tightly covered the entire exploration ship, traveling with the vessel as it sailed across the water.
As time passed, the chaotic matter displayed by the [Point Array Detection] skill grew brighter at a rate visible to the naked eye.
It was growing stronger.
Zhao Zijing joined her palms as if to make a blade and attempted to cut the space above her head with a telekinetic blade, feeling nothing as if not touching a solid object—leaving the chaos completely unharmed.
Not having time to think further, she called out on her tablet: "Xiao Ai classmate, open the GOC database, search for the keywords ’light’, ’concept deprivation’, ’cloud-like creature’."
The tablet issued by the GOC, like the exploration ship, uses the same voice assistant.
As for why it is Xiao Ai classmate...
Perhaps it’s because Xiao Ai classmate is from the Xiaomi company, and the high manager of the GOC—Blazing Angel Michael, has the character ’Mi’ in his name... probably.