Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

A short while later, two people in diving suits came down and carried the fuel rods back.

A few minutes later, the voice coming from the radio suddenly softened considerably:

"Thank you so much, Nautilus... But how did you detect the problem with our propulsion system?"

Luo Tianming certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to tell them: Our hackers have broken into your system and hijacked a report on the ship's system.

He could only speculate: "Generally speaking, the first reaction when encountering an unidentified submarine approaching in the ocean is to move away, but your ship is not moving, which means that your engine is likely to have a problem."

"..."

"By the way, you guys..." Luo Tianming only realized now that encountering the Frozen Tilapia in this place was probably no coincidence.

"Could it be that you are the ones who took on the 'Giant Beast Hunting Grounds' mission before us?!"

"..."

After considering all the possibilities, he concluded that this was probably the only explanation for the presence of a submarine belonging to the Jupiter separatist movement in the area.

"!!"

The captain of the Frozen Tilapia couldn't hold back his voice any longer: "What are you doing?! Wait... are you here for that mission too? Are you here to find us who have lost contact?"

Luo Tianming: "More or less... but what do you mean by 'missing contact'? There doesn't seem to be any news about you missing."

Frozen Tilapia: "Stop chatting... Captain Luo, hurry up and get ready to leave this area. Now that you're one of us, you should know that this is the hunting grounds of the 'Crimson Queen'!"

Luo Tianming: "Didn't the hunting grounds cross the boundary 5 hours ago?"

Frozen Tilapia: "No! 'Crimson Queen' has now left its original area. It has gone in a big circle—the hunting grounds have now expanded to four times their original size, and are quite close to several nearby stations."

"I was attacked by it while on my way to warn nearby stations, which caused my ship to malfunction. Now we are right on the edge of the 'New Hunting Ground'!"

Luo Tianming listened to her advice, but instead of showing any fear, he felt excited that he was finally going to complete the mission.

He said to the Frozen Tilapia, "Then you can leave after you regain power. I will take over your mission. Good luck."

"Wait……!"

Before the other party could speak again, Luo Tianming turned off the radio channel.

The Nautilus's engine began to hum, and within minutes of acceleration, it had left the Frozen Tilapia far behind.

"..."

After entering the 'new hunting ground', there was obviously a lot more activity here... the sonar system beeped from time to time!

To immediately make one's presence known.

But what appeared on it were all 'small shrimp', mostly small algae crawling... Often, before the Nautilus's cannons were even aimed, they would have already fled at top speed.

"..."

The atmosphere in this hunting ground was like a giant shark stirring up a school of sardines... except that the monsters that once threatened humanity were now the ones frantically fleeing for their lives.

With the Nautilus's engines at maximum output and the sonar almost ineffective, Luo Tianming deployed all of his shuttle drones to scout ahead.

As he cautiously explored, eight small drones suddenly lost signal... Luo Tianming realized that it was turbulence; the sudden appearance of turbulent whirlpools in the deep sea caused the small drones to lose signal.

He hurriedly retrieved all the drones—accompanying the turbulence was a dense barrage of alarms from the sonar system!

"—!"

Suddenly, a group of more than forty 'algae crawlers' appeared directly in front of them and attacked.

Almost at the same time she saw the alarm, Levi maneuvered the rapid-fire cannon to aim at them.

But these algae crawlers seemed to have completely lost interest in them at this moment, and they all fled around the sides of the Nautilus.

Then, a medium-sized spot of light appeared on the radar—the Mother of Creepers.

However, this creature, which poses a great threat to ordinary ships, has no interest in the Nautilus at this moment.

"..."

As it moved further away from the Nautilus's sonar range, the Nautilus seemed to fall into the calm before the storm.

These frantically fleeing creatures resembled the 'Queen's' ceremonial guard.

Then, accompanied by a sharp, almost ear-piercing screech, the Nautilus immediately went on full red alert.

In the distance—the first thing that catches the Nautilus's eye is a huge, towering, deformed head crown that is at least 3 meters high. Then, six predatory red eyes look down at the 'petite' Nautilus, their gazes cold, or perhaps driven by a hunting instinct fueled by hunger.

The Scarlet Queen... arrives amidst a raging storm of underwater currents.

-

Chapter 58 Naval Battle

Its body is enormous—judging from the light spots displayed on the sonar system, the Scarlet Queen's body is close to 110 meters... In terms of size, it is in no way inferior to the large monsters of the deep sea, such as the 'Banshee' and 'Morok'.

What's even more amazing is that this behemoth, far from becoming clumsy due to its massive size, actually detected the Nautilus's presence with remarkable acuity.

at the same time:

The people on the Nautilus were brought back to their senses by the suffocating red alert. Everyone—including Luo Tianming—was nearly knocked over by the shockwave caused by the turbulence.

The impact of turbulence on a submarine is comparable to the tremors caused by a magnitude 6 earthquake.

"Check yourselves, everyone...!" Even in the midst of the chaos, Luo Tianming didn't forget to remind them to check for any injuries.

"Power station... OK." Lucy sent a message from the stern.

"The infirmary... is in a bad state. A lot of medicine has been broken... but the person is alright." Wu Jianmiao's voice sounded clearly distressed.

Finally, it's Levi:

"Bridge...I'm going to rip a hole through that bastard's body!"

With her roar, the two pulsed lasers on the Nautilus charged up for a brief 1.25 seconds.

Boom—Two thick red lasers illuminated the dark ocean, followed by a sound like muffled thunder.

The brief flash of light allowed Luo Tianming to see the true form of the 'Crimson Queen' on the surveillance screen. Apart from its hideous head, its body was basically no different from that of the 'Algae Mane Crawler', with a pair of webbed limbs, a bloated abdomen, and a fish-tail-like structure in the rear half.

But those terrifying laser beams, when they hit the Scarlet Queen, felt like two bamboo skewers...

Hissing sound—the laser burned through the skin and flesh, causing serious damage to the internal fat and muscle.

"!"

This clearly stung it; its six scarlet eyes locked onto the Nautilus, and with a powerful slide of its limbs and a serpentine sway of its body, it swiftly charged towards it.

Luo Tianming dared not be negligent and adjusted the engine output to 'overload state', maneuvering the submarine to evade its approaching attack.

But simply dodging the attack was useless. The wounded Scarlet Queen was clearly furious. She swung her back—and countless holes appeared on her back, from which she sprayed out something that looked like eggs!

"Rapid-fire cannon!"

Luo Tianming's roar prompted Levi to urgently maneuver the rapid-fire cannons to turn their muzzles, unleashing a continuous and dense barrage that formed a fire net... but some 'fish' still slipped through the net and broke through the first line of defense, crashing heavily onto the Nautilus's lower cargo hold.

Lucy immediately became alert. She switched the reactor back to automatic mode and shouted into the channel, "I'm going to check it out!"

"Don't go!" Luo Tianming urgently stopped her. "I've already sealed the hatch to the lower cargo hold. We don't have time to deal with that right now."

"..."

He knew that those were not 'eggs' at all, but some kind of projectile-like object filled with extremely high concentrations of sulfuric acid. Any contact with it would cause corrosion to the ship's hull, and in severe cases, it could even corrode through the hull.

Lucy could only find a welding torch, ready to deal with any leaks in the hull at any time.

Luo Tianming continued, "Then use pulsed lasers on it, don't stop—try to reduce the frequency of attacks. Every time it gets injured, it will launch those eggs, and I will try to avoid those things."

Levi nodded and manipulated the cooled laser to fire another shot!

This time, the damned beast seemed to have foreseen it, and it swayed its body to dodge a laser beam.

Damn it!

Levi cursed as she watched the laser cool down again.

Luo Tianming knew that this was not her responsibility, but rather that the 'Crimson Queen' had taken refuge in the blind spot of the cannon, which allowed it to avoid a laser beam—in deep-sea combat, the captain and the gunner must work together to achieve the greatest effect.

Luo Tianming: "I'll keep adjusting the angle, Levi, you just need to weave in the gaps and fire..."

The tanned dual-wielder clicked his tongue in annoyance: "Tsk, handling this kind of 'big guy' isn't my forte. I still prefer to feel the resonance of the gun with my body!"

As he spoke, the fully charged lasers fired again—the lasers penetrated the highly vulnerable head, causing considerable damage this time.

A hole was cut in the cheekbone on the side of the Scarlet Queen's head, where two large mouths were visible, and precious alien blood flowed out, making Luo Tianming feel a little heartache.

"..."

This attack, however, thoroughly enraged the Scarlet Queen. She flailed wildly, while her two sharp teeth, capable of crushing the Nautilus's hull, clashed together...

Suddenly, its huge, bloated abdomen shrank, and from its cloaca beneath its tail, the broken eggshell burst forth, from which emerged several medium-sized, scarlet monsters with underdeveloped skin, still covered in blood and the sticky egg white of the shell.

These newly born 'creep pups' instantly rushed towards the Nautilus, and four of them seemed to have blocked all escape routes for the ship.

"!"

Luo Tianming immediately started the water pump, causing the Nautilus to drain water and rise instantly.

Meanwhile, Levi manipulated the rapid-fire cannon to continuously shoot at the larvae that were chasing after her.

They haven't yet developed effective skin, so the bullets from the rapid-fire cannon can easily tear through flesh and cause considerable damage.

Revy: "Die, die, die!"

Although she enjoyed firing, the cannon went into an overload and shut down after only ten seconds of continuous fire; this is a common problem with high-rate-of-fire weapons.

Levi immediately abandoned the rapid-fire cannon and returned to the laser cannon, firing a powerful laser beam down to the last spot she had detected.

The crimson laser, like lightning piercing the night, instantly evaporated a large amount of seawater with its intense heat, striking the Scarlet Queen and causing a severe injury that almost pierced through her back.

However, this thoroughly enraged it. As a behemoth with a massive and invincible body, even if the Scarlet Queen suffered fatal injuries, she could quickly mobilize the muscles and nutrients in her body to repair these wounds.

Her stomach, which had just been emptied, felt a sudden hunger. Just then, Levi shot down some young offspring above her. The Queen opened her blood-red maw and mercilessly tore off and swallowed these falling prey.

At the same time, her pierced wound began to heal rapidly.

It seems that it also has the ability to quickly recover by cannibalism, just like algae crawling.

This scene sent chills down the spines of Levi and Luo Tianming on the bridge...

"brute."

Levi cursed under her breath.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, she quickly reloaded the empty weapons and ammunition.

On the other side, after enjoying her offspring, the Scarlet Queen charged back up towards the rising Nautilus.

It began to glide quickly using its webbed tail.

Seeing this, Luo Tianming prepared to dodge again—but no matter how he tried to escape this time, it would be difficult to get out of the Scarlet Queen's attack range. Her appendages, which were half the length of her body, would likely hit the Nautilus.

He immediately told Levi, "Attack its head as much as possible to force it to turn!"

Revy: "I'll do my best!"

The adjusted rapid-fire cannons unleashed a continuous barrage of shells, their thunderous roars transmitting the shockwaves far into the ocean.

Even with the intense barrage of artillery fire, the Scarlet Queen was not forced to change direction this time.

It seems it's determined to tear the Nautilus to pieces.

"..."

At this critical moment, Luo Tianming glanced at a safety switch that had never been turned on beside Levi's elbow and shouted at her, "Anti-ship missile! Quickly!"

"..."

Levi took half a second to think before realizing that it was the 'secret weapon' that Luo Tianming had told her about sometime ago. He wouldn't even let her touch it normally, and he even had a glass cover made specifically for it.

She immediately released the safety... The glass cover popped open automatically, revealing a small metal lever, which Levi easily activated with her thumb using no more force than pulling the trigger.

Subsequently, a metal plate was ejected at both the bow and stern of the Nautilus, revealing a dense array of launch bays resembling a honeycomb.

The ignition system was activated, and these anti-ship missiles with needle-like tips were immediately launched, each missile leaving curved trajectories in the ocean with its miniature rocket booster.

From a distance, the entire Nautilus looks like a hedgehog at this moment.

Eighty anti-ship missiles, the Stinger, spiraled forward at an extremely high speed, approaching the Scarlet Queen... After confirming the target, they quickly changed direction, piercing deep into its flesh like hard thorns.

"..."

Then came an unbearable silence.