Metal Evolution - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Cave Submarine, Seawater Pouring Down

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

His body began to fall uncontrollably and Xue Yue was in a panic. At this critical moment, his hands were crazily flinging around in hopes of grabbing onto something that could stop his descent. However, there was only sand and stone.

Bang!

The uncontrollable descent of his body, the feeling of lightness and weightlessness was so strong that Xue Yue’s heart began to beat violently. Two to three seconds later, he heard a dull sound of a bang and he crashed against a hard object heavily. The huge impact forced him dizzy and he nearly lost consciousness.

But it was not over yet. Before Xue Yue managed to stop, his body suddenly turned around and the weightless feeling came again and he continued to fall. After a while, it was only when he fell against a piece of wetland did his descent finally stop.

“Ahh…”

“Shii–”

The two consecutive hits caused him to grimace with pain and his body curled together. He touched his back while feeling worried and depressed. He merely came out to pick some fish and was unfortunate enough to have encountered such a situation. He must have super sh*t bad luck.

“The fortunate thing is that I’m not dead and my limbs are all intact. Thank god!”

After a short rest, he felt slightly better and supported his body with his hands to adopt a seated position. He then checked out the unfamiliar environment. It was a place where darkness enveloped the surroundings and he could not see clearly. However, a glimmer of light shone down from the top of his head and it barely brought about some light, where he could at least see where his fingers were!

His eyes gradually adapted to the light here and he could also gradually see his surroundings. When he saw the large hole, he could not help but gasp.

It was a huge and deep underground cave. At a glance, he could not see the end as darkness had enveloped the depths. Beneath his feet was soft mud and the cave was oddly humid, filled with a strong scent of rust, diesel, and rotten mildew.

Next to him was a wall of at least ten meters high which spanned across the whole cave, from the position he was at stretching towards the other end of the darkness. From the top that was of unknown height, there was a small hole where traces of light shone down.

“There’s light shining down from the top and I most probably fell from there before hitting this high wall before rolling down from it shortly after. As a result, I suffered two hits…”

Xue Yue kicked the high wall with his feet and a dull sound of metal impact sounded. “F*ck, why is this so hard? No wonder my fall hurt so much. But then again, this sound… is somewhat odd and it does not sound like soil, cave walls or rocks. It sounds like metal!”

He felt curious and could not help but investigate the high wall. The underground cave was unusually wide and tall. After he had gone one round around the whole cave, Xue Yue discovered an astonishing fact.

The tall wall before him was no ordinary wall. Based on its shape, it was a huge cylindrical metal object of ten meters tall, and fifty plus meters long.

“From the appearance of it… why does it look so similar to a submarine?”

Wasn’t it so? One end of it was rounded, and the other end looked like the tail of a missile. It also had stabilizing wings, propellers and fans. The more he looked at it, the more similar it was to a submarine. Xue Yue had seen pictures of it before and the object before him was extremely similar to one!

Even though it also looked like a missle, how could there be a missile ten meters tall and fifty to sixty meters wide?

“Rust, smell of diesel… Sh*t— this might very well be a submarine!” Xue Yue was startled and quickly retreated several steps. Previously, his right hand had absorbed the water melon knife and he no longer wanted to experience the feeling that was worse than death.

In the event where he were to absorb such a large submarine similarly to the watermelon knife, then… Xue Yue shivered and no longer dared to continue his imagination.

“I can’t stay here for long! I have to make my way out quickly! There’s no food or drink here and I’ll be trapped!”

Xue Yue began to feel anxious and started searching around carefully to see if he could find another exit. After a round of careful examination, he did not find an exit but instead, he found traces left by humans.

At a corner, Xue Yue found a rusty shovel, several pieces of cloth that were almost rotten along with some messy articles such as newspapers, cans and so on.

“It seems like this submarine has been buried here by someone. But I wonder which country’s submarine is this? Moreover, why did they bury a submarine here? Exactly what secrets are hidden here…”

Submarines have been widely used since the First World War and have yielded brilliant results under German hands during the Second World War. From then on, submarines were widely used for military purposes and they are publicly recognized strategic weapons. The R&D and manufacture require high and comprehensive industrial capacity. At present, only a few countries could design and produce them on their own.

It was not hard to imagine how expensive it was to manufacture a submarine. In that case, why did someone deliberately bury one here?”

Xue Yue felt strangely confused, but he did not have the spare energy to care about this. The reason for that was because he discovered something that caused him extreme despair, and that was the shape of this cave.

Instead of calling it a cave, it would be more fitting to describe it as a tall underground tunnel that was specially used to bury this submarine. This tunnel was minimally twenty to thirty meters high and even if Xue Yue could climb up the ten meters tall submarine, he was still ten over meters away from the exit!

He was helpless with the height of this tunnel. How was he supposed to escape?

“Don’t tell me I’m trapped and will die here!” Xue Yue’s expression was ugly as his heart sank. It was getting darker outside and the light shining in from the top was also getting dimmer.

Whoosh—

Just then, a burst of water sounded and Xue Yue looked up to vaguely see a stream of water flowing down from the hole at the top. The stream was not big, and was also intermittent. However, a big stream of water flowed down shortly after and the amount of water flowed down gradually increased.

Looking at the sea water flowing down, a flash of insight surfaced in his head and Xue Yue’s eyes gradually brightened up.

“Seawater? Perhaps…. There’s hope of getting out!”

Xue Yue could not help but feel happy as he thought about the possibility of getting out. As long as there was a continuous stream of seawater flowing down and filling up the cave, wouldn’t he be able to escape?

Based on his estimation, the hole at the top was located at the cost. As long as a slightly bigger wave approached, the seawater could overflow the hole and this way, it would flow into the cave.

“Right now, my best hope is for the tide to rise. If the tide rises, my chances of getting out will greatly increase!”

His eyes were fixed on the hole and Xue Yue clenched his fists tightly as he had an expression of expectation. This cave was too long and wide, so it was impossible for ordinary waves to fill it up.

Only with a high tide, could it bring enough sea water. Generally speaking, a high tide would last for six hours before retreating!

6 hours was sufficient to fill up this cave!

“A high tide! Please, let there be a high tide!”

Boom—

Perhaps the heavens heard Xue Yue’s prayers. Around five minutes later, ocean waves that sounded similar to ten thousand horses galloping could be heard and the waves carried the power of the heavens and earth. The sound was as loud as rolling thunder. Even when he was standing at the bottom of the cave, he could feel the roar of thunder continuously sounding from the top.

Following the sound of waves, large amounts of sea water poured down from the hole and splashed on the submarine, causing a ‘gushing’ sound. One could imagine how much kinetic energy the sea water crashing down from twenty to thirty meters contained!

Xue Yue did not dare to linger for much longer as he hastily ran to the tail of the submarine. The hole was more or less at the head of the submarine and the force of impact there was the greatest; whereas the tail received the least impact.

Boom, boom!

A thick stream of seawater poured down from the top and as time passed, the hole increased in size. From the beginning it was around one to two meters wide and merely after two minutes, it became a five to six meter-wide hole.

For a five to six meter-wide hole, there was large amounts of seawater pouring down every second and the water level of the cave was also gradually increasing!

“F*ck, the water level has gone past my chest. I have to persist! I will be able to get out as long as I persist!”

“I will get out alive!”

Xue Yue clenched his teeth and his fingers tightly grabbed the wall as he resisted the impact of the seawater. However, as the water level increased, the more buoyant force came from the bottom. His feet would leave the surface at any moment and he would start to float.

“It would be good if I could hug onto something…” Xue Yue said to himself. When he thought of that, his gaze unconsciously moved towards the submarine’s tail, which was equipped with horizontal and vertical stabilizer wings that formed a cross shape.

A horizontal stabilizing wing was attached on the left and right sides, while a vertical stabilizing wing was attached on the upper and lower sides. Every stabilizing wing was equipped with a rudder plate, and there was a propeller installed at the rearmost end of the tail.

“If I can hold onto the blade of the propeller, not only can I stabilize myself, but I can also hide there to avoid the impact of the current… but what if something similar happens again?”

Xue Yue’s thoughts ran wild and unconsciously, the water level had already exceeded his chest and started to increase above his neck.

“Ahhh!”

“Ah—”

As the water level rose, his buoyancy became greater and for a moment where his thoughts had wandered, his body started floating and was washed away by the current, hitting against the wall of the cave.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

He drank several mouthfuls of seawater which choked him, turning his face red. Fortunately, he was pretty good at swimming and managed to react fast as he hastily started moving, allowing his body to come out of the water. However, in the face of the seawater impact, he was still subjected to getting washed away, regardless of how good his swimming skills were.

“Ahhh—”

His back smashed against the submarine and his eyes went black as he nearly fainted. This was merely the beginning. The hole was increasing in size and the seawater poured down per second was also larger. The higher the water level, the greater the movement.

Xue Yue was just like a goldfish in a fish tank. As the owner adds water into the tank, he could go with the flow, move up and down, or smash into his surroundings. Even if he stood at the edge and was fifty meters away from the hole, the impact he received was still substantial.

Moreover, the seawater would alternate between hitting the cave wall and the submarine. After several repetitions, it caused him to have a dizzy spell where stars appeared before his eyes and his head started to bleed. His internal organs also felt so uncomfortable as if they were shifting around!