Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

Levi was also quite frightened; she remembered how badly these guys had tricked her at the outpost last time.

"Are these things even available here?"

Luo Tianming shook his head and explained, "Once someone is parasitized by the Painted Skin, they gain water pressure resistance and the ability to breathe underwater. Look at their clothes—they're from a mining team!"

The last time the mining team entered this area, they lost a lot of men—it seems that a significant portion of them were driven to the brink of death by the clay golem velociraptors and then parasitized by these painted-skin parasites.

The tremor just now clearly startled them.

"Levy...!"

Luo Tianming was about to let Levi aim when he suddenly noticed Levi's injured hand.

Tsk, that hit from the Veteran Velociraptor was pretty serious. Even if you didn't see it, you could guess that Revy had to curl up her injured hand because of the pain.

It's impossible for someone like her to aim.

However, the two of them still had to free up one hand to grab the harpoon fixed to the cave wall.

"...I'll do it."

He took a pistol from Levi's waist, raised it with one hand, and aimed it at the head of the parasite.

boom--!

After firing the first shot, his arm went numb.

But the bullet didn't go as he hoped; it only barely hit the painted skin's left shoulder... Even at such close range, his marksmanship was still incredibly bad.

But you can't really blame him. Arrow-shaped bullets are inherently inaccurate, and it took Levi a while to get used to them after switching to them.

The wound on his left shoulder did not affect the speed of the parasites at all. After parasitizing their host, they would bring about the effect of rapid physical regeneration.

(Europa Superman) Novice captains often encounter attacks from the painted skin outside the ship. Due to the skin's troublesome regeneration ability and lack of firepower, they are often unable to deal with it, which eventually leads to the destruction of the entire team.

Suddenly, Revy, who was standing nearby, couldn't stand it anymore and shouted at Luo Tianming:

"Alo, catch me!"

"!"

In an instant, Luo Tianming understood what she meant.

Levi released her free hand and jumped toward Luo Tianming.

Then, Luo Tianming promptly freed his hand and wrapped it around Levi's waist, securing her to his body.

This way she can free up her healthy hand.

Revy: "Come on, you bastard...can you waltz?"

"..."

When someone else wields the gun, the aura instantly changes completely.

Even underwater, the sound of a 9mm caliber gun can be transmitted to produce a dull, explosive sound.

Levi precisely used a Beretta 92 to send bullets into the head of the parasite, severing all the tentacles that were extending from its oxygen mask.

"..."

Only after watching the guy sink to the bottom of the sea did Levi say smugly, "Phew, you still have to rely on me at the crucial moment."

Now she felt needed again, and was no longer the self-destructive person she had been before.

But at this moment, Luo Tianming's voice unexpectedly trembled:

"Levi, look down."

"..."

When Levi followed Luo Tianming's gaze downwards, she felt a chill run down her spine.

Beneath the corpse of the painted skin that had just sunk, a dozen or so painted skin parasites began to float upwards.

They arrive riding on the seabed mist, looking like astronauts lost in space, their interiors already occupied by non-human creatures, forcing them to attack their own kind.

Not only below, but also above—the tremor just now awakened these parasitic beings, who should be the mining team members who all went missing in the previous incidents.

This scene looks incredibly sanity-draining.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Levi kept shooting with one hand, but the number of the painted skins below didn't decrease at all; there were just too many of them.

In a state of near despair, Luo Tianming was ready to pull out the only alloy harpoon in his pocket and fight these guys to the death.

Suddenly, a sound entered their ears, which was like a welcome rain.

"Captain, can you hear me? Prepare for impact..."

Luo Tianming: "Lucy?!"

Although he was also very curious about what Lucy had been doing during this time.

What method is she planning to use to save herself?

And why should we resist the impact?

"...!"

When he recalled the tremor he had just experienced... everything made sense.

Lucy is planning to break through the cave...

"Levi, hold me tight!!"

He immediately gave orders to Levy.

She stopped aiming and shooting, and instead clung to Luo Tianming like a monkey climbing a tree.

Her legs were locked tightly around his waist... making Luo Tianming almost think his back was broken.

Almost simultaneously, the entire cave experienced an even more violent tremor.

The cavern opposite Luo Tianming and the others was instantly torn open by the combined firepower of two laser beams and rapid-fire cannons.

The Nautilus passed through the cave and arrived in front of Luo Tianming and Levi.

The two of them: "Lucy!"

Lucy: "Hostile creature detected, threatening the captain's life. Lock on—fire at will!"

As her voice fell, the Nautilus opened fire from both of its rapid-fire cannons and its pulse lasers, a hail of bullets sweeping down on the parasitic creatures below, while pulse lasers weaved through them—like cannons firing at mosquitoes.

"That's way better than me!"

Levi said to Luo Tianming with some anger.

Luo Tianming: "..."

Even without looking, he could guess that Lucy had probably connected the submarine's main computer to her body and was controlling the entire ship by hacking into the computer. She could command the weapons to automatically lock onto the areas scanned by the sonar system.

Under the Nautilus's almost insane firepower, the parasitic swarm of skin-painting creatures was quickly reduced to corpses strewn across the battlefield...

"Host information confirmed to have disappeared. Connection terminated." Lucy's voice came through the headset. "Captain, are you all alright?"

Luo Tianming: "I'm fine. Levi suffered minor injuries."

Levi said somewhat irritably into the earpiece, "Yes, yes, I was a little injured, but I'm not dead."

Lucy: "I'm so glad Miss Revy is alright..."

This time her tone was noticeably calmer, and you could tell from her tone alone that her attitude towards the two of them was clearly different.

Luo Tianming quickly interjected, "Lucy, how did you manage to get the boat in here?"

Lucy: "Once I realized you were in danger, I immediately hacked into the radio channels of your diving suits and confirmed the signals you were sending."

"Then I discovered that the rocks that make up these caves are all igneous rocks erupted from underwater volcanoes. These rocks were formed at very low temperatures, and they contain many air bubbles and are more brittle than I had imagined."

"So I immediately submerged the Nautilus to the depth you are at, then used the submarine's ammunition to blast all these rocks apart, and then rammed it in."

Luo Tianming: "..."

He thought to himself: Lucy is really crazy, using a submarine to ram a cave—a normal person would never have such an idea.

Now that Lucy has brought in a submarine, things will be much easier from here on out.

He said to Lucy, "Lucy, could you please come out and bring two fully charged underwater thrusters? We need to collect as much of this loot as possible."

Lucy: "No problem, but Captain—our haul this time is probably far beyond your imagination. The area behind you, according to the sonar, is almost entirely made of Originium."

Luo Tianming: "?"

He hadn't quite grasped the meaning yet, but then the Nautilus's ship lights came on, allowing Luo Tianming and Levi to see behind them...

"—!"

This is a crystal that spreads upwards as a result of a volcanic eruption, buried in brittle igneous rock, and it was probably the diamond mine that the mining team discovered back then.

Behind them stood a massive, intact rough diamond, tens of meters high and of immeasurable thickness.

No wonder he didn't insert the alloy harpoon into this thing at first... but Levi's ability to insert a harpoon is quite astonishing.

This is the hardest diamond...

It took the three of them nearly half an hour to move the corpse of the Painted Skin Parasite, which was floating outside, along with the two eggs and the corpse of the Mud Swamp Velociraptor they found on it, into the boat.

"..."

Just as the three of them returned to the return capsule to celebrate their success, a green smoke grenade was thrown into their return capsule.

The three people, who had just taken off their oxygen masks to breathe fresh air, were caught off guard.

Luo Tianming stared at the suddenly appearing smoke bomb and said, "It looks familiar."

"Hypnosis...gas?"

"!"

By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

As a wave of dizziness washed over him, he realized he had been infected.

With two thuds, Revy and Lucy fell to the ground before him.

Luo Tianming was the last to fall.

His last glimpse before collapsing: He saw a punk-style female doctor wearing a gas mask with her hands in her pockets.

2232 words.

Chapter 73 Psychological Problems

"..."

The three woke up almost at the same time, indicating that the other party had a fairly precise control over the dosage of hypnosis used on them.

When Luo Tianming, Levi, and Lucy woke up, they found themselves in the infirmary.

Then, the strange sensations on their bodies made them realize that they were wearing a straitjacket, a type of clothing that binds them from head to toe and is very uncomfortable to wear. Fortunately, the users did not seal their heads and mouths, otherwise it would have been even more uncomfortable.

After their vision was restored, they saw Dr. Takemi, who was facing away from the three of them, typing away on a keyboard.

"I'll see you!"

Lucy roared first, her pearly teeth clenched: "You betrayed me!"

Wu Jianmiao still sat cross-legged on her special chair. Her punk outfit did not ruin her overall look; on the contrary, it added to her charm.

She turned her chair around and said to them, "Save your energy, Levi, Lucy. I gave you both an extra injection of muscle relaxant. It won't be fully gone for several hours."

"Seriously, are you two even human? Lucy is alright, part of her body is a mechanical prosthetic and she's quite heavy, but how did Revy manage that? I gave you a dose that would paralyze three adults, and you still almost broke my wrist."

Levi, who seemed to have woken up a little earlier, said, "Pah, you should be glad that my other hand was injured, otherwise I could have definitely snapped your arm."

Wu Jianmiao said nonchalantly, "I've taken care of your other hand. Just remember not to remove the plasterboard for a week."

"..."

Lucy was somewhat surprised by her strange attitude—because if she wanted to hurt them, she could have easily ignored Revy's injured hand, yet she didn't seem angry at all even after Revy almost broke her wrist, which was clearly not an act.

Lucy: "Dr. Takemi, what exactly are you trying to do?"

At this point, Luo Tianming had basically regained consciousness. He discovered that the straitjacket he was wearing was actually the easiest one to break free of; he could easily break free with a little effort.

I guess Miaomiao did it on purpose...