[Did that dude trick them?]
[I don't think so. Look how baffled he is. I think he's more shocked than anyone present]
He Ruiqi looked blankly at the calm scenery. Where did all those beasts go??
But soon after, he calmed down. In truth, there was another reason he didn't tell them about the water source immediately. There was a chance that the creature that was chasing him yesterday was still around here.
He managed to shake it off last night thanks to the moonless sky. He didn't know where it went after it lost him. It's good if it went back to its nest. But if not…
Thirteen seemed to notice something was amiss earlier by how silent the forest was. Lixue already realized the area was empty from long ago.
At least the surface.
"I swear I wasn't lying to you. It's highly likely that there's one of those Irregulars here that scared them away." He Ruiqi learned the name from Bai Shui when they were on the way here.
"I know. It's our miss that we didn't consider that. By now, their scope of activity is probably no longer limited to the red zone from chasing the participants. Not to mention this area is close to one." Thirteen sighed.
"It's not necessarily empty," Lixue pointed to the lake, "There might be something underwater."
"You want to dive into the water?" Bai Shui asked incredulously.
"Why not?" Thirteen asked.
"There's no breathing equipment from the military or any underwater function in our combat suit."
"Right… Perhaps you don't know. There's this skill called swimming that humans can do. It's by holding their breath and swinging their arms and legs to move around. It's not limited to dogs, you know?"
"…"
I was just reminding you! Why do you have to attack me like that?!
From Lixue's suggestion, they agreed to check if there's any beasts beneath the surface. Lixue and Thirteen would be the ones diving down while Bai Shui and He Ruiqi kept watch on the surface.
Their only problem was that they didn't have their communicator, so one pair wouldn't be able to know what was happening to the other pair. One of the difficulties of not having their communicator was they weren't able to move separately while knowing the situation of the other side.
That was why in this exam, all the groups never separate too far from their teammates. There were also lesser tactics they could use when they're in a fight. Not to mention getting lost by yourself.
Swapping partner was out of the question. Lixue and Thirteen's movement would be limited that way.
In the end, they decided that if the surface team encountered unmanageable trouble, they would go to the west first and wait for the other team. Along the way, they would mark their path for Lixue and Thirteen to follow. This would also be the case if the diving team doesn't return after 1 hour.
Lixue and Thirteen entered the water with a small drone following them. Their combat suit was water-resistant so they couldn't feel the wetness of the water until they completely emerged themselves.
The water was surprisingly very deep as they keep swimming down without seeing any shadow of the bottom. Their surrounding became darker and darker, so they turned on the light on the shoulder of their suit.
'How much longer can you hold?' Lixue asked.
'About 5 minutes at most.'
Lixue eyed the drone following above them. He put out his demonic energy to add to the water pressure. Although the drone could also dive, its capability wasn't as good as on the sky and it halted.
The 2 of them continued leaving the drone behind. When they're out of sight, a flaming butterfly appeared. It was the same as the one Lixue sent out yesterday. The water didn't seem to have any effect on its fire.
Following it, they swam for around 2 minutes when they finally saw the bottom. In front of them was a tall rock wall blocking their way. It was embedded with fluorescent corals that shone ethereally in the dark underwater.
In the middle of the wall was a huge white door, inscribed with unknown patterns along its surface. It gave an illusion of emitting light when in reality it wasn't glowing at all.
'I didn't expect you to find something like this.' Thirteen scanned the wall from left to right and finally focusing on the conspicuous door.
Lixue pointed up, 'Let's resurface first.'
'Good idea.'
They swam up but when they were finally out, what greeted them wasn't the bright scenery of the sky. It was a dark cave with a high ceiling full of sharp stalactites. Droplets trickled down from time to time, creating soft echoes around.
"If I'm not wrong, then we're probably inside the mountain." Thirteen said as he went up shore.
"We are," Lixue confirmed. The flame butterfly hovered around him before going to Thirteen. He threw his gun to him, "You inspect around up here. I'll try opening that door."
Thirteen caught the gun as he watched the butterfly coming towards him, "Does this functioned to you like a drone to me?"
Lixue nodded, "I can see what you see. It can also search around by itself. Use it to assist you. It understands human language."
"Got it. Speaking of the door," Thirteen added, "Judging by how you want to get inside, is there something inside that you want?"
"It's vague, but I can sense there's something with a high amount of energy laying inside that door. I don't want someone troublesome to get it. It'll hinder our plan in the future."
Thirteen narrowed his eyes, "I think your 'someone' is pointing at a specific person."
Lixue shrugged, "You think? I'll give it to you if you can guess it. After all, our strength differs too much. You can level up this way." He swam down.
"…Is it General Yi?" Thirteen shook his head and dropped the matter, "Well, let's explore first for now."
In the water, Lixue looked silently at the door as he studied the inscription. He couldn't read it, but he could tell that the inscription wasn't just random scribblings. More likely, it was to prevent anyone from opening the door with brute force.
He went closer and touched the door surface to try probing if there was any mechanism inside. Although he did found it, in the end, it all went back to the door.
On each side of the door, there was a circular hole. It connected to other smaller dots scattered around them where pearl-like spheres were attached.
Probably, the key to the door was another pair of spheres containing some type of energy to generate the power for the mechanism to open the door.
If it's only energy, then he also has one. But he didn't know whether the other pearls would reject any energy that differs from their own.
In the control room, the person who was in charge of Lixue's team reported about how the drone couldn't break through the water pressure and that he lost track of the two.
"Should I switch it with the main drone?"
"Yes, do so. Don't lose their track." Long San nodded.
"Yes, sir."
Long San turned to Yi Xieyan, "General, do you think they really found something underwater? True, it was abundant with beasts yesterday, but there's no sign of life from the drone now."
"Near that area was where that candidate, He Ruiqi, fell, right?" Xiao Huiqing opened the map, "Look, the pit is right here."
"When we scout there, the beasts inside that lake was pretty high-leveled. If there really was an Irregular that managed to scare all of them away, it would be at least a C level," Long San rubbed his temple, "I hope they're not as stubborn as yesterday's candidate. If it really appears and the drone hasn't found them yet, we won't know their location unless they pushed the emergency button."
"Advisor Long!" someone suddenly shouted, "There's another earthquake!"
Long San stood up, "How big?"
"3 times stronger than the last one!"
Under the water, Lixue steadily hold his position while his two hands were stretched out. On the door upfront, two flaming orbs were pushed into the empty spot in the center of each side.
He focused on his force and gradually increased the amount of energy he put into the 2 orbs. As more energy was poured in, the door, the walls, the grounds, and even the mountain shook from the intensity.
The corals inside the walls fell down one by one as the wall surface also slightly crumbled. The candidates in a radius of at least 10 km could feel the ground beneath them shook.
Almost half of his energy was used, but the pearls only gave a dim glow. He clicked his tongue and was about to transfer more when suddenly a white shark appeared and smashed itself to him.