Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

"The radicals need no explanation..."

Luo Tianming: "Then the independence movement seems pretty good."

Catherine: "Wrong. The Independents are actually the most anti-Europa Alliance of all factions. They advocate a full-scale war with the Alliance, and are willing to mobilize generations of effort to completely ignite Europa's oceans."

Luo Tianming: "..."

He inwardly grumbled: Unfortunately, the very people the alliance wants to eliminate are the 'moderates' most likely to cooperate with them.

However, this matter had nothing to do with him... He was just a lowly lieutenant and couldn't influence the thoughts of the Alliance's higher-ups.

He sighed and said, "When I came here last time, the attitude here didn't look like 'nonviolent non-cooperation' at all."

Catherine: "Who told your alliance to send people here who were trying to cause trouble? We're just moderates, not surrenderers!"

"Hmm, let's not talk about this anymore~"

She casually picked up a document and said, "Alliance Level 3 Captain Luo Tianming... Officer Rank: Lieutenant?"

Catherine looked at him suspiciously: "You don't have a father or uncle who's high up in the Alliance, do you?"

Luo Tianming: "Do you think I look like it? If I had those resources, would I need to go to sea and become a submarine captain?"

"Catherine, right? You're still using a T1 reconnaissance submarine, and your experience—you actually escaped from an abandoned outpost, and the rest of your experience is all encrypted? What exactly did you do?!"

At this moment, Luo Tianming finally realized: "Wait, you're holding my resume? Where did you get this? Do you have a mole in the Europa Alliance?"

Catherine rolled her eyes at him: "This is not information you should know..."

"Your resume is fine, but it feels a bit strange that you switched to our side. A lieutenant in his twenties... why would a captain with such a promising future come to our side?"

Luo Tianming: "..."

Oh no, he got promoted too fast and now people are starting to suspect him.

Luo Tianming could only say with a heavy heart, "It has nothing to do with official position. I simply hate the oppressive superior-subordinate relationship and hypocritical bureaucracy of the Alliance. Do you know how my superior asked me to do favors for him to embezzle and accept bribes? You have no idea how dark the Alliance is."

"..."

Anyway, he was telling the 'truth' and didn't care whether Catherine could see through his lies.

Catherine nodded and said, "You've basically passed the test... From now on, you and your ship can freely dock at JPM stations."

"Considering your background as the captain of the Europa Alliance, I suggest you don't reveal your identity... By the way, would you be interested in voluntarily returning to the Alliance to become our undercover agent?"

On the surface, Luo Tianming remained calm, but inwardly he thought: It's here, it's finally here... the mission of a double agent.

A hint of 'disgust' flashed across his face: 'You guys can get hold of the resumes of Alliance officers, what do you need me to do undercover?'

Catherine: "One thing at a time, getting a resume isn't very useful to us. Those Allied officers who don't want to contact us will never come near our station."

“But you’re different… If you’re a high-ranking officer like yourself, you have access to a lot of information. For example, which station has recently been abandoned, which station has an overstock of goods… These are all kinds of information that we urgently need to know.”

She rested her chin on her interlaced fingers: "And we'll pay well-deserved fees for every valuable piece of intelligence you provide. How about it, interested?"

Luo Tianming cautiously probed, "Anything is fine?"

"Any intelligence is acceptable, even the slightest market fluctuation is crucial information for us in the free market."

"Of course, we also have a lot of information we want to know. If you can get your hands on that information, there will be an even better reward."

Luo Tianming: "For example."

Catherine: "According to our sources, the Alliance seems to be testing a new weapon that can unleash massive EMP attacks."

Luo Tianming: "..."

"But this seems to be a very high-level secret of the Alliance. Our informant made the judgment based on the traces left behind at the shipyard. Can you find a way to get the truth of this matter?"

At this point, Luo Tianming was no longer listening to what was going on. He pretended to take notes and pulled out his journal.

A line of text appeared prominently above:

"..."

Chapter 55 Giant Beast

"I'll go to **!"

Suddenly, Luo Tianming blurted out this swear word, which startled Catherine in the chair so much that she jumped up like a rabbit.

"...You, you!"

Luo Tianming then realized that he had just spoken to Catherine. The red-haired girl was startled and her eyes welled up with tears, as if she was hesitating whether to call the guards.

He pinched his brow, a slight headache on his face, and said, "No, what I just said wasn't directed at you, but rather... never mind, I'll just tell you directly!"

Luo Tianming: "The EMP weapon you're talking about is actually a new alien artifact that the Alliance acquired. It's called the 'Faraday Artifact,' and it has the dual ability to release EMP attacks within an eight-meter radius and to discharge electricity in the air."

Catherine had just recovered from the shock when she heard more shocking news.

"What did you say?!" She immediately noticed Luo Tianming's words. "Is it true? How did you know?"

Luo Tianming: "That artifact was personally handed over to the Alliance's superiors by me. Currently, scientists should be working overtime to study and analyze it."

Catherine: "..."

She still couldn't quite believe it... To increase his credibility, Luo Tianming said, "If you don't believe me, you can investigate the Alliance's recent fund transfers. They should have an unusually high expenditure specifically for acquiring alien relics."

This time she shook her head: "No, I believe you... If that's the case, then why is the Alliance blocking this news? Is it to use it as a weapon... or is it to conceal the existence of the artifact?"

“No,” Catherine suddenly realized.

"They deliberately blocked the news and left some traces in an attempt to find our moles in the alliance. Anyone who tried to find out about this would be detained and interrogated!"

“It’s over…” she covered her head in frustration. “No wonder the two informants we sent out lost contact once they got their hands on the information. It was a trap.”

It seems that not only JPM suspects the Alliance's agent, but the Europa Alliance itself has also started hunting down spies.

"..."

At this moment, Catherine said very solemnly, "The information you provided was very valuable, and we will not forget your contribution."

Luo Tianming pretended to be diligently recording information in the logbook, but in reality, he simply drew a checkmark for 'mission completed' on the navigation log.

[Inventory Recruitment Voucher: 1]

Seeing that the task was completed, he nodded in satisfaction, and then asked, "Is there any other information you need me to gather?"

Catherine snapped out of her reverie, her face showing difficulty, and said, "The most troublesome thing right now is that mission, but I didn't expect you to solve it so easily..."

"It would be a waste of your talent to do the other tasks."

"Hmm... why don't you take a look and see if there are any suitable tasks for yourself?"

She took out a stack of mission briefings from the drawer and laid them out in front of Luo Tianming.

"..."

Catherine was like an NPC issuing quests. Luo Tianming arranged the quests according to their rewards from highest to lowest, only wanting the ones with the highest potential returns.

After looking around for a while, he still didn't accept any tasks.

Because—none of these tasks resonated with the captain's log... Just as he was about to give up, a task he inadvertently glanced at triggered the log's response.

He picked up the quest and read it aloud: 'Giant Beast Hunting Grounds'?

Catherine took the task and glanced at it: "This task has already been accepted. Although there is no limit to the number of people who can take it, the reward will be much lower if you take it later, less than 2000 marks. Are you willing to go?"

Luo Tianming glanced at the location—2000 marks wouldn't even cover the round-trip fuel costs, and a normal person would definitely not accept it, but his 'survival system' reacted.

He said, "No problem. I'm more curious about what a 'giant beast' is than the mission."

Catherine's face clearly showed a troubled expression: "To be honest, basically no one can give an answer as to the existence of Europa."

"Where did they come from? Were they produced by natural selection or by environmental mutations? Are they living fossils left over from Europa's evolutionary history?"

"The so-called 'giant beasts' are creatures that appear in people's rumors, such as the 'Loch Ness Monster' that was once widely rumored on Earth. There is very little information to prove their existence."

"However, one thing is certain: behemoths are undoubtedly a huge threat to humans. They appear only to mark their own 'hunting grounds'. Apart from those damned 'behemoth hunters,' no one wants to see them."

Luo Tianming: "Beast Hunters? You mean those wanderers who are covered in all sorts of monster loot and use melee weapons?!"

"You ran into them?!" Catherine exclaimed, as if trying to avoid them at all costs. "Those guys are jinxes! Never go to any of the stations they arrive at. They're like the vanguard before the giant beasts set out; some even say that the giant beasts were attracted by them."

"But all you need to know is this: if they show up near a certain place, that place is very likely to be designated as a 'hunting ground' for the giants. They will roam around, cut off all trade, and attack the sites to kill everyone."

"Once a behemoth hunting ground is encountered, the nearby stations are either abandoned or sunk... There are very few records of submarine captains winning against behemoths."

“Oh, right,” Catherine said as if she had just remembered, “at which station did you encounter those giant beast hunters?”

Luo Tianming: "...Red Star Station."

Catherine: "..."

She suddenly stopped breathing, and her lips trembled uncontrollably.

Red Star Station is less than a day's journey from Chongshan Station, and if the giant beast attacks there, Chongshan Station will also be within its hunting grounds.

——!

When Catherine could breathe again, she slumped weakly in her office chair and said to Luo Tianming with a hopeful look, "This is a joke, right?"

Luo Tianming shook his head: "Now, can you tell me what kind of behemoth this mission is investigating?"

Catherine: "..."

Her face was deathly pale; for a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child, it was already a good thing she didn't cry on the spot.

Finally, Catherine, tugging at her red hair in frustration, said, "You should know about the monster 'Mother of the Creepers,' right?"

It was the female of a species of algae-mane reptile; Luo Tianming had encountered one before at the Red Star Station.

Catherine: "The average 'Mother of the Crawlers' is only the size of a medium-sized monster, a dozen meters or so... but the 'Beast' is different."

"They are the product of some kind of mutation, radiation, evolution, toxins, ancient species... anything is possible."

"The behemoth lurking nearby is a variant modeled after the Mother of Reptiles; we call it the 'Scarlet Queen'."

"According to the submarine captain who encountered it: the creature that appeared on the sonar radar was at least 100 meters long! Its mutated crown not only curved upwards, but also formed a crown-like shape, which is different from other crown-shaped deformities."

Luo Tianming: "..."

The mother of a 100-meter crawler, that scene must be spectacular.

However, as far as he knew, the monsters that appeared in Europa's ocean were generally larger the deeper they were.

It's highly unlikely that a monster of this size could exist within a depth of 1000 meters underwater.

"Would that kind of monster really come to the area of ​​the cold cave? There's nothing around here for it to hunt, right?"

Catherine: "No, the giants are basically territorial, so they don't follow the traditional Europa ocean laws—as for food, they will eat their own kind."

"Moreover, the giant beasts have a habit of 'migrating' regularly. They will designate a 'hunting ground' to attack all the creatures in it, and even the giant beasts will attack each other."

Luo Tianming: "..."

He said it looked so familiar:

Now that we have the 'Arch-Tempered King' and the 'Territory Conquest'... it seems like the Beast Hunter is '999 Heavenly Venerable', and all that's missing is giving myself a Greatsword so I can play like Monster Hunter.

Of course, Catherine had no idea what absurd things Luo Tianming was thinking. She was still praying that the giant beast hunters had gone to the wrong place.

Meanwhile, Luo Tianming quietly left and said something to the communication system.

Luo: So, did you all hear that...? This mission might be very dangerous.

Levi, the warmonger, said nonchalantly in the channel: "It doesn't matter, I don't care if it's an empress or a queen, I'll smash its head in."

Lucy: "I support the captain's decision... The ship is always ready."

Wu Jianmiao: "The mutated behemoth, could you cut off a piece of its tissue for me? Maybe I can figure out why it changed..."

"..."

It seems they don't object to taking on this mission.

Chapter 56 Old Friends

Back on the Nautilus, Lucy had already adjusted the nuclear reactor to its optimal power level, and the submarine's supercapacitor was continuously replenishing its power.

Levi had already loaded ammunition into each weapon magazine, and Takemi distributed the necessary medicines to everyone...

Next, as long as Luo Tianming gives the order, the Nautilus can be deployed at any time.

However, Luo Tianming did not set off immediately—because Fang Cen came to his door before he left.

……