There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Whether it was trying to kill Elliot just now, or trying to sow discord between us, it was all to force or even encourage Kay to continue down this path of no return.

The more Kay refuses to reveal anything, the narrower the foundation for our cooperation in escaping becomes. Without trust, we'll only end up distrusting each other, bound together with no chance of return...

It must be said that he did succeed to some extent in this matter.

Unfazed by the predicament, Gray asked bluntly, "Then tell me first, what are you trying to do here tonight? There are only a few of us left on the ship now, you're not trying to hide it from us, are you?"

We'd already noticed Kay's deliberate attempt to conceal the truth, but we didn't press him for details out of politeness. Now that our escape route is cut off, if he's still hiding it from us, it's clear he wants us to be classified as D-level personnel...

We are members of the prestigious O5 Council!

Before Kay could speak, "Stuart" began to speak to himself in a sinister tone.

"He won't tell... How can a sacrifice please some being in the deep sea if it can't remain ignorant and fearful... Heh heh, as long as he doesn't lie about his death, that's the greatest mercy..."

Kay couldn't help but protest, "That's not how it is! I... I really have a reason I can't say!"

"Stuart" scoffed, "That's right... preserving three minutes of ignorance for the sacrifice is your mercy, isn't it..."

I got more and more annoyed and snapped, "Shut up! You think three minutes is nothing, you bastard! Three minutes is enough time for Yellow Flash to fall into the water forty times over!"

Upon hearing this, "Stuart" was at a loss for words.

I seized the opportunity to reprimand you: "From now on, I'm making a pledge to you all: anyone who undermines morale will be executed, anyone who conceals military intelligence will be executed! I'm talking about you. If you dare to undermine morale again, I'll use you as a sacrifice to fulfill this pledge! Don't think I won't hit you just because I'm wearing a police badge!"

"Stuart" replied with a sinister grin, "Go ahead, come on... You probably guessed it, 'I'm not Stuart, right... What does it matter to me if you want to kill him? Hehehe..."

He smiled smugly, but I smiled slyly back at him.

"Of course I guessed. But you went through so much trouble to get on this ship. If I really kill Stuart, wouldn't all your efforts have been for nothing?"

Stuart paused for a moment upon hearing this, then laughed confidently and said, "You wouldn't dare!"

I scratched my head, looking somewhat troubled, and said, "I may not have told you, but my position as sheriff is temporary, and I'm only here because I framed the previous sheriff... Look, now my life is threatened, and everyone here is one of my men who can give false testimony... Give me a reason not to throw you into the sea, okay?"

The laughter emanating from Stuart's abdomen abruptly ceased, and it hung in the air as silent as a corpse.

Kay gave me a grateful look and said earnestly, "Don't worry, Marcus, Gray. I still have one last way to get you out of here..."

After saying that, Kai pulled out another batch of props from the hideout and placed them on the table.

"This is……"

Gray eagerly opened the sealed package and shook out a bodysuit from the middle.

Kai explained, "This is a specially designed extreme diving suit that can help people with no diving experience easily reach a depth of 60 meters. With the help of a circulating oxygen tank, you can stay underwater for half an hour without having to come up for air."

He said solemnly, "I had anticipated this situation, which is why I prepared this equipment. If things go wrong, I'll still have a fighting chance. The only way to escape this area is to dive underwater with me and find a dangerous escape route..."

Chapter 610 The Strange Tales of Mineral Town Harbor (Part Twelve)

To my surprise, "Stuart," who had been beaten so badly that he had broken bones all over his body, also volunteered to put on a diving suit and go into the water with us.

Such a suspicious person was naturally opposed by both Gray and me. But to my surprise, Kai surprisingly agreed to his request and, ignoring the sarcasm in his words, even helped him put on the extreme diving suit.

“Kay, this guy’s identity is still unknown. If he takes the opportunity to betray us, it could cause a big problem.”

"Stuart" probably sensed my ruthless attitude and didn't dare to provoke hatred from me, so he continued to pretend to be dead.

Although my claim that I wanted to take action was a lie, my motives were undeniable, and the murderous aura emanating from me was genuine. Not long ago, I was treating human life as worthless on a marginal planet, and my murderous aura didn't need to be emphasized; it was enough to make those around me feel like they had thorns in their backs.

...Not to mention Gray, who was also eager to do it, his eyes showing no pity whatsoever.

Gray, I never imagined you'd turn out like this! Who led you astray?

Oh, it's me.

Okay, then that's all.

Kay stopped him, saying, "Gray, please take Elliott into the water. Marcus will be fine, I'll take care of this guy..."

He gave a shy yet confident smile. "Don't worry, he's not in charge underwater!"

This strong confidence also infected us, so we quickly put on our extreme diving suits, put on our fins, attached underwater lights to our wrists, and stuffed rows of circulating oxygen generators into the regulators of our special masks.

These small white pills may look inconspicuous, but they can combine with trace amounts of water vapor and exhaled air to restore oxygen, ensuring breathing underwater.

Soon, with Elliot, who was still unconscious, strapped to Gray, and Stuart, who was paralyzed from the beating, strapped to Kai, we left the sinking Pegasus and dived into the dark, bottomless waters.

…………

The murky seawater was extremely quiet underwater. The increasingly heavy water pressure blocked my eardrums from receiving information, so that all I could hear was a long silence and the muffled sound of bone conduction, as if I were nailed into an iron coffin and buried in the dark earth, unable to utter a single cry.

Kay gestured for us to follow, and indicated that we shouldn't turn on our flashlights to avoid attracting underwater creatures and getting attacked.

As Kay explained beforehand, this diving suit is made of conductive carbon fiber material, which can block 95% of the transmission of electrical pulse signals from the human body, completely concealing the micro-electric field around the body. This is specifically designed for marine life with poor eyesight who rely on electrical pulse signals for perception, cleverly achieving a stealth effect.

Through the mask of my extreme diving suit, I couldn't see much scenery, only occasionally brushing past some ugly fish with huge mouths and fleshy fins.

The most amazing time was when a giant mantis shrimp with two antennae parted in the middle swam leisurely past me, seemingly taking me as a companion, and swam together for a long time before leaving on its own.

The scene was so heartwarming that I couldn't tell whether the creature he was wary of was the strange fish we were seeing in front of us or the deep-sea creatures that had just fled.

Compared to ocean depths that can easily reach thousands of meters, the shallowest point in the ocean is only sixty meters. I initially thought this swimming was just to avoid the waves, but before long, I discovered a dark shadow in my field of vision…

That's a coral reef?

Or is it a seaweed forest?

Or perhaps a group of marine creatures?

But soon, to my surprise, I was greeted by a huge rock!

My flippers were still swinging behind me, while my hands had already touched the hard rock below!

We suddenly shifted from swimming to standing, and beneath our feet was neither mud nor sand! Even the slippery feel of the algae and shells covering the ground couldn't hide the hard foundation beneath, allowing us to easily stand on this ground.

The darkness of the underwater swimming disoriented me, and it took me a while to regain my balance and reconfirm my sense of direction.

After managing to stand still, I finally saw a long-lost light in my field of vision.

It was Kay who turned on the searchlight.

Once the first beam of light appeared, a second beam followed immediately, and my light quickly joined them in illuminating the way.

The turbid seawater, stirred up by the current, obscured part of my vision, but I could still make out the surroundings. I was standing on a flat piece of seabed, looking around aimlessly for a moment before continuing to follow Kai's footsteps.

We moved forward slowly, at a slower pace than when we were swimming, but as long as we kept the light low and didn't move around too much, no marine life could spot us.

Or rather, under the severe Tyndall effect, all the light shining on the ground and scattered sea rocks can escape, and is completely absorbed by the dark rocks, as if falling into a bottomless black hole in the deep sea.

What's most mentally exhausting is that you don't know whether you're walking on a hill or a valley; it seems that your basic understanding of direction and shape completely fails here.

We have traveled for an unknown distance, yet we have not encountered a single crevice in the rocks, a single ravine, or a single sharp edge on the ground.

...There couldn't possibly be such a huge, naturally flat brick in the world, much less such a monolithically cast granite. Caught between the conclusion that the world has gone mad and that I have gone mad, I could only watch the scales sway uncertainly, hesitant to add any weight.

I tried to convince myself that it might just be an extremely gentle ravine, or an inconspicuous cliff, but one that was so vast that it terrified humankind...

Walking slowly on these dark rocks for a long time, I felt as if I were walking on an endless abyss.

The abyss was so vast and so hidden that even my probing gaze became hesitant, for fear that from the deep and ancient abyss, it might also, naturally and suddenly, cast a glance that would drive one to the brink of madness, a glance beyond human comprehension…

I forced myself to imagine other places, while ignoring the slightly bitter smell of oxygen in the extreme diving suit, and trying to look away from the eerie seabed beneath my feet.

I suddenly remembered that the sea was slowly rising under the storm tonight, gradually revealing its hidden magnificence.

Could this be a man-made ruin?

Aside from its enormous size, it is far too ordinary, like any ancient rock in the Earth's crust, its outline polished to an extremely rounded shape.

But who would go to such great lengths to carve an exceptionally smooth and extraordinarily large rock?!

Perhaps sensing the silent panic spreading within the group, Kai slowed his pace, stopped walking, drew his sailor's knife from his waist, and began scraping away the grime clinging to the floor, methodically cleaning something.

Gray and I stopped too, watching Kai's inexplicable behavior.

The initial cleanup operation did not go smoothly. Kai shook his head in obvious disappointment, dragged the "Stuart" strapped to his body a few steps forward, and continued to squat down to clean up.

I even started to suspect that Kai had gone mad even earlier than us, and had desperately started wasting oxygen, preparing to be euthanized in the deep sea.

But not long after, Kay cleared the first discovery from the rocks!

He waved his arm excitedly, but did not stop. Instead, he ran in a certain direction without hesitation and continued to repeat the work!

As I cleaned, I saw many incomprehensible markings on the ground, like marks carved at random. Kai found them easily, and the accuracy of his discovery increased as he went on!

I memorized each of the patterns that appeared, ?????????????????……

After the last symbol appeared, Kay looked up with a sigh of relief, waved to us, and made the pre-arranged success gesture.

But what I felt first was not relief, but an indescribable shock.

The place Kay led us to was a bottomless abyss hidden deep beneath the sea! Countless waves were rushing through it, only a step away from us, yet they did not disturb us in the slightest.

The whirlpool writhed and clawed at the bottom of the water, easily seizing passing marine life and swallowing them into the unfathomable abyss. From afar, the inverted whirlpool resembled a towering, monstrous tree, its chaotic branches stretching out, intimidating any ants that strayed into its depths…

Chapter 611 The Strange Tales of Mineral Town Harbor (Thirteen)

Logically speaking, such a large whirlpool underwater should be like a tornado of the same size or even larger than the one on land. Its violent swirling force should be incredibly destructive, easily turning anyone who gets close into a low-level employee like Alibaba.

But this body of water is too calm!

The underwater whirlpool was a raging torrent, spinning wildly with an all-consuming force, its branches twisting menacingly like tree branches; and just a hair's breadth away, a gigantic fish, its form blurred, was leisurely sliding its paddle fins, its massive mouth, lined with rows of sharp teeth, opening and closing as if oblivious...

Something just doesn't look right in this scene.

Only upon closer inspection did one discover that a ring of enormous, conical stone pillars stood at the edge of the collapsed rocks, densely surrounding the massive vortex that could spread at any moment.

As I approached the cone-shaped stone pillars that surrounded the abyss, I was surprised to find ring-shaped structures on the surface of the pillars that even the passage of time could not completely erase!

...Are the people underwater so idle? They even spend time carving evenly thick ring patterns on the pillars!

I thought to myself irresponsibly, "These people are so free, why don't they go and carve hollow flowers from lotus roots?"

As we ventured deeper, we gradually confirmed that the dark ocean floor we were walking on was likely the last remnant of some magnificent ancient architecture.

The cracks in the ground that occasionally surface at your feet reveal the internal structure of the building, which is neither made of brick nor tile, and was destroyed by the force of what appears to be a major disaster.

Undoubtedly, a great civilization once existed here, leaving behind an astonishing array of architecture. Sadly, even the greatest civilizations cannot withstand the passage of time, and ultimately, with their unspeakable glory, they were silently buried beneath the sea…

Due to the dim light and murky water, my view around me was very limited, yet I could still imagine how magnificent and vast this ruin must be in places I couldn't see.

I can't help but imagine what it would be like if some human being were fortunate enough to see it all...