Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

He cautiously observed whether anyone was following him, like a secret agent, before stepping into the Nautilus's airlock.

As soon as he entered, the researcher got straight to the point: "So? Have you gained her trust yet?"

Luo Tianming naturally knew he was referring to the matter of 'spies,' and he replied:

"Don't worry, Catherine already trusts me... As long as I give her a few more intelligence reports, the Jupiter separatists won't suspect me."

Fang Cen asked with some concern, "Only Catherine's trust... Do you know that she is actually the weakest of all the factions, the 'moderate' faction?"

Luo Tianming: "Are there any connections between these factions?"

Fang Cen: "Generally speaking, there is no such thing, especially since the [radicals] and [moderates] were at odds recently, and there is unlikely to be any further information exchange in the future."

“I originally hoped you would use her as a stepping stone to get into the sights of the conservatives… but too many people saw you entering parliament with her, and now everyone says you’re a moderate.”

Luo Tianming: "Let it be mild then..."

Fang Cen said somewhat anxiously, "You don't understand, once you're labeled as belonging to a faction, it's very difficult to extricate yourself from it. There are many factions and cliques within separatism, and you'll suffer in the future if you don't choose a good superior!"

Luo Tianming disagreed, saying, "I don't think Catherine is a bad leader... She's young, but she has power she can't even imagine. Just being the daughter of the former founder is enough to make her invincible in Chongshan."

"Besides—don't you think someone who lacks assertiveness, has limited power, and is eager to prove themselves is easier to manipulate?"

Fang Cen: "!"

"You...you want to use Catherine to bring the entire Chongshan Station under your control?!"

Luo Tianming revealed a sinister expression that was out of character for him: "What, is that not allowed?"

Fang Cen: "..."

Luo Tianming suddenly placed his hand on Fang Cen's shoulder and pressed down hard, saying, "You're my contact, right? We need to work together."

"I happen to be going out on a mission, and you need to help me create some scandals involving our competitors to bring power back into our hands as much as possible."

"But wouldn't that be like..."

Fang Cen hesitated for a moment, almost blurting out, "This is exactly the same thing the Europa Alliance did."

Luo Tianming stepped forward and said, "For our 'great cause,' these are just some necessary sacrifices."

Fang Cen: "..."

He knew he was being hypocritical, but politics is a dirty game, and those who are too clean are not fit to sit at the table.

Luo Tianming himself has long been a 'moral vacuum'.

---

With the vibrations of the seawater caused by the engines, the Nautilus propelled itself at full speed toward the mission target area.

Once the navigation switched to autopilot, Luo Tianming finally had time to take out his log and check the tasks listed.

[Mission: Behemoth Hunting Grounds (Find traces of the Crimson Queen and notify nearby stations of this information) Reward: Recruitment Tickets x5.]

【Quest: Crimson Queen (Defeat the behemoths surrounding this area and restore peace to the surroundings) Reward: Recruitment Tickets x8】

"..."

Both were good missions that could earn a large number of recruitment vouchers at once, so Luo Tianming accepted them without hesitation.

After half a day's sailing, the Nautilus was quite close to the patrol area designated for its mission.

Catherine's task was to mark and record as many changes as possible at the edge of the giant beast's hunting grounds; finding any of its leftover carcasses as research data would be even better.

But their purpose was not limited to that, so they easily crossed the originally planned warning line and headed deeper into what might be a giant beast hunting ground.

……

Once you leave the area colonized by humans, the dark and boundless ocean around Europa becomes eerily quiet—primarily through radio channels, filled with a deathly silence.

At this moment, even the buzzing sound that usually seemed noisy sounded much more pleasant. Compared to the others, it was like heavenly music, especially the sonar system, whose constant beeping sound was as annoying as the echoing of instruments in the intensive care unit.

Inside the bridge, Luo Tianming didn't dare to breathe. Although he was used to sailing, this unknown fear was something he was facing for the first time.

Suddenly, Revy brought him a glass of chilled beer and slapped it on his face, startling him!

"...!"

Just as Luo Tianming was about to lose his temper, a lit cigarette was shoved into his mouth from Lucy's hand behind him.

Lucy: "Alright, Captain... I don't know what you're so nervous about, but calm down first—you're the most trustworthy person on the whole ship. If even you're this nervous, everyone else will be on edge."

Levi pretended not to care and clinked glasses with him, downing a full 400ml of beer in one gulp, saying, "All I can hear in my headphones is your panting, it's terrifying."

Luo Tianming: "..."

He didn't know what was wrong with him. Was it because something he didn't know about appeared in the game, causing him to lose that confidence in controlling everything?

He took a big gulp, just like Levi did... The effects of the cigarette and alcohol quickly eased his tense nerves, which, although not good for sailing, at least calmed his palpitations.

He had been staring at the sonar system for so long that he didn't even realize they had been beyond the hunting grounds' warning line for five hours.

Revy: "What? There's nothing here at all."

Luo Tianming: "..."

Unfortunately, he felt the same way—five hours was enough for them to travel the distance of two stations.

But nothing was found in this vast sea.

Aside from the consumed electricity, there was nothing else.

"..."

Just as everyone relaxed, an unusual sonar signal immediately made Luo Tianming's nerves, which had just relaxed, tense up!

Beep—!

He immediately saw something appear on the sonar panel, but it was just a fleeting illusion!

Then, the strange noise seemed to disappear.

"...!"

He immediately switched the propulsion system, and the entire Nautilus was like it had come to an abrupt stop in the sea!

The others immediately went into battle mode...

"..."

No matter how Luo Tianming activated the active sonar, the signal never appeared on the panel again.

For a moment, he even thought he was hallucinating.

Fortunately—his cautious nature and keen intuition told him that what he had just heard was definitely not a hallucination; something must have been detected by the sonar and then very cautiously hid itself.

Luo Tianming immediately turned on an LCD screen on the bridge and launched the [Shuttle-type Drone], which he hadn't really tested since it was installed.

He was always worried that if he lost a few of these things while they were out, he would suffer a huge loss.

But now they are roaming freely in the 'Giant Beast Hunting Grounds', and no matter how much they feel sorry for each other, they can't risk their lives.

He dispatched 32 drones, and the images of the surrounding 200-meter radius were compiled and displayed on the LCD screen, which also included information such as seawater flow speed, thermal imaging, and terrain.

Luo Tianming had them explore the surroundings inch by inch... When a regular cylinder appeared on the topographical survey map, he immediately shouted, "Go back, right here!"

These tiny drones hovered near the cylinder and transmitted live footage to the bridge.

"This is……?"

He looked at the trace that clearly resembled a submarine, and then at the sonar, which showed absolutely no signal about it.

Has the sonar system malfunctioned?

wrong!

Luo Tianming immediately zoomed in on the drone's monitoring footage and discovered a layer of matte black paint on the surface of the submarine. The submarine's hull must have been made of very expensive synthetic rubber, which could fully absorb the sound waves emitted by the sonar, thus causing the sonar system to misjudge that there was nothing there.

In other words, it has a near 'invisibility' effect!

The signal on the sonar just now was definitely not his imagination. Under intense concentration, those people sensed Luo Tianming's active sonar immediately and quickly switched to 'stealth mode'.

He immediately switched to a public radio channel to issue a warning:

"Stop hiding, I've found you! Report your affiliation immediately, or we will launch an indiscriminate attack!"

As the radio crackled to life, he was unaware that the crew of the submarine were thrown into a panic.

They didn't know how their 'perfect invisibility' had been discovered, and some even thought Luo Tianming was bluffing them.

But the ship's captain, looking at the recorded frequency on the radio channel, fell silent... About a minute later, the submarine responded via a public radio channel:

"Are you—the Nautilus?"

Luo Tianming: "..."

He saw a special mark pop up on the frequency band, a symbol that only appeared when the two sides had exchanged special codes.

That is--

"The Frozen Tilapia?"

Chapter 57 Frozen Tilapia

The Frozen Tilapia was the same 'good guy' who had offered to deliver fuel to Luo Tianming when he first arrived at Chongshan Station.

They also specifically explained to Luo Tianming the origin of 'Chongshan Station'.

When the two submarines parted ways, they each noted down the other's radio channel code so that they could recognize each other immediately if they met again.

I never expected to encounter this ship here, especially when it was 'invisible'.

Luo Tianming said with a touch of nostalgia on the public radio channel:

"Hello, Frozen Tilapia, we meet again."

"..."

However, when this sentence is heard on the Frozen Tilapia channel, it doesn't sound so heartwarming.

They all knew that the Nautilus was a ship of the Europa Alliance, and their own ship was now stuck in a situation where it couldn't move...

Their current situation is one of being at the mercy of others.

Although they did not yet know what Luo Tianming was planning, it is generally difficult for anyone to resist the desire to plunder a submarine that has lost power.

Even if Luo Tianming rescues them on a 'humanitarian' basis, they must still give the Nautilus a certain reward afterward; otherwise, they will be collectively condemned by the other submarine captains for this heartless behavior.

But the Frozen Tilapia was clearly not keen on accepting this help, so its captain said:

"Long time no see... Actually, not that long, Nautilus."

"As you can see, we are resting. How did you end up in such a remote sea area?"

Meanwhile, Lucy, out of curiosity, hacked into the radio channel in the engine room and used an electronic warfare chip to copy the ship information of the 'Frozen Tilapia', sending the information over in a covert manner.

She quickly noticed something was wrong after a cursory inspection and said on the communication channel:

"Captain, something's wrong... Their nuclear reactor output is only a little over 1500 watts, which is far from enough to power the entire ship, and the power output is constantly decreasing."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Luo Tianming immediately guessed that the 'frozen tilapia' was likely caused by a nuclear leak due to damage to the nuclear reactor. They dared not increase the fission rate to the maximum and could only maintain low-power operation... However, such a deteriorating reaction would accelerate the decommissioning of fuel.

To put it simply: they must replace the leaking fuel rods immediately, or they can only hope that the reactor, which is deteriorating too quickly due to the leak and contact with air, will not shut down.

The reason they were unwilling to say this was probably because they were worried that Luo Tianming would ask for an exorbitant price and take advantage of their misfortune... (In their eyes, Luo Tianming had been frank about lying about 'lacking fuel' and trying to sneak into Chongshan Station last time, so there was no need to have high expectations of his morality.)

They might be able to fix the nuclear reactor, but nobody knows how long it will take.

Therefore, Luo Tianming directly pointed this out in the channel:

"Are you in trouble?"

"..."

On the other side, the crew of the Frozen Tilapia frantically urged the captain not to speak.

Luo Tianming: "Okay, I understand... I won't ask to board your ship. I have thorium fuel rods here. I'll leave them near your ship and let your people come and get them themselves."

"..."

On the other side, the Frozen Tilapia never imagined that a small act of kindness they had shown in front of Chongshan Station would actually save their own lives.

Of course, what surprised them even more was that the Nautilus had actually spotted the ship, instead of just bluffing.

Luo Tianming threw a thorium fuel rod out through the projection pod, and under the dark ocean, the orange tracer bullet and the fuel rod slowly fell together.