As the gate slowly opened, Meng Lei finally took his first step into the deep sea.
When he was in the deep sea more than 2,000 meters below the surface, Meng Lei's first feeling was endless cold.
Secondly, there was the eternal deep darkness.
There was no light at all in sight. It was completely pitch-dark.
It was as if he had also covered his eyes with a blindfold in a lightless room.
In a daze, there was even an illusion that one could not sense one's own existence. There was an inexplicable panic.
This feeling was very bad. If one stayed in this state for a long time, it was very easy for a big problem to arise!
After a short period of calm, Meng Lei hurriedly turned on the light on his diving suit.
A pale beam of light shot out from above his head, instantly tearing through the dark curtain and dissipating the uneasiness in Meng Lei's heart.
Although he looked into the distance through the mask and saw that it was still dark and unknown in the depths, the faint light gave Meng Lei a rare sense of security.
Holding the metal outer wall of the submarine with one hand, Meng Lei took a deep breath.
"The environment in the deep sea is really terrifying. Just the step out of the cabin into the water will probably stop most people!"
"Especially those with deep-sea phobia. They would probably rather wait for death in the submarine than take a step out of the cabin."
"It looks like the difficulty of this survival game is even greater than I had imagined!"
Meng Lei sighed to himself and stopped thinking about it.
Now was not the time to worry unnecessarily.
After leaving the submarine's cockpit, his game cheat had lost most of its effect.
More importantly, without the sonar detection system, he would not be able to know immediately even if a crisis approached in the dark.
Therefore, he could not stay outside the submarine for too long!
He moved his arms gently and wandered around the submarine for a while, getting used to diving in the deep sea.
Meng Lei discovered that the System seemed to have imperceptibly bestowed upon him the corresponding diving skills.
Even he, a landlubber who had never been to the sea, was able to skillfully perform all kinds of complicated diving movements, as if it had become his instinct.
Meng Lei secretly guessed that this should be the universal rule of the game.
Otherwise, if a person with no diving experience was thrown directly into the depths of the sea, it would not be deep-sea survival, but cold murder!
Although, the current situation was actually not much different from murder…
A minute later, Meng Lei felt that he was completely familiar with diving techniques. Then, he did not delay anymore. He used his hands and feet to swim slowly toward the bottom of the submarine, toward the dark brown protruding reef mountain.
According to the detection system of the sonar, the anomaly with the iron ore was at the entrance of the underwater crevice close to the bottom of the reef mountain.
It was only about 30 to 40 meters away from where he was now.
Under the pale light of the submarine's searchlight, Meng Lei was like a clumsy metallic fish, swimming slowly in the darkness according to the direction in his memory.
As he advanced, he subconsciously got closer to the reef mountain beside him.
Apart from this reef mountain, there was nothing but emptiness around him. He could not see anything, making him feel extremely insecure.
Subconsciously, panic would breed in his heart.
Instinctively, he wanted to be as close to everything he could rely on in this desolate and barren deep sea.
As Meng Lei continued to advance, the light from the submarine's searchlight gradually faded.
The endless darkness was as pervasive as ink, swallowing everything again.
When Meng Lei dived to the bottom of the reef mountain, the submarine's searchlight had completely lost its effect.
He looked up.
In the dark distance, there was only a white light spot. Pushed by the sea current, it seemed to be getting further and further away.
That strange feeling was like watching oneself fall step by step into a bottomless abyss. It was hair-raising.
Meng Lei's breathing instantly became hurried. An inexplicable sense of panic made him tremble unconsciously.
"No, I have to finish my work quickly and return to the submarine as soon as possible. The environment in the deep sea is too terrifying. It's not a place for humans at all!"
Taking a deep breath, Meng Lei retracted his gaze and tried his best to calm down.
At this moment, he had already arrived at the bottom of the reef mountain. His feet stepped onto the hard and cold seabed.
With the rays from the searchlight above, he looked around and did not find any traces of the iron ore.
At the same time, he did not see the entrance to the underwater crevice.
Meng Lei frowned and swam again. He walked half a circle around the reef mountain.
Finally, on the other side of the mountain, he found the entrance to the underwater crevice, which was three to four meters wide.
A huge and complex crevice in the bottom of the sea, like a spider web, stretched out from the distant darkness. This was the terminal end.
Meng Lei stood at the edge of the crevice and looked down.
The pitch-dark underwater crevice was bottomless. From time to time, a series of bubbles would surge up. It was impossible to see clearly what kind of scene was in the depths of the darkness, and what unknown existence was lurking.
Under normal circumstances, in such a narrow and unknown environment, except for those who loved exploring, everyone would probably shrink back.
However, at this point, Meng Lei had no choice.
Fortunately, the sonar detection system had not detected any threat in this crevice.
This made Meng Lei feel much more at ease.
Suppressing the fear in his heart for the time being, Meng Lei carefully swung his legs and slowly sneaked in from the entrance of the crevice.
The pale light shone on the bare rock wall, reflecting a deep luster.
An iron ore, dark brown in color and with some sparkling light, was suddenly exposed in a corner of the rock wall, easily captured by Meng Lei.
"Found it!"
Meng Lei's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly swam toward the pile of iron ore.
"This should be the thing, right? The place where it grows is really strange!"
Through the glass shell on the diving suit's hood, Meng Lei carefully sized up the pile of iron ore and found that it was only the size of an adult's head.
If it had not been for the difference in color from the nearby rock walls, it would not have been easy to find this thing in such a dark environment.
(A pile of resource-poor iron ore only has the weight of two to three units.)
As his gaze focused on the iron ore, the faint golden System notifications appeared in front of him again.
Since he had found the target, Meng Lei did not hesitate anymore. He took out his mining tool from his waist, aimed it at the pile of ore in front of him, and pressed the button.
The hand-held mining tool, which he had brought along, was actually similar in appearance to a mini cutter. It was very convenient to operate.
He just had to aim the sawtooth at the target ore mineral and press the button.
A faint buzzing sound accompanied the vibration. With the mining tool in hand as the center, the water waves rose and spread out in a radiating manner.
Half a minute later, a fist-sized ore separated from the ore pile.
[System notification: Received 1 iron ore]
When Meng Lei reached out to catch the iron ore, the mechanical and ethereal System notifications suddenly echoed in his mind.
The voice appeared very suddenly. In this dark and terrifying environment, Meng Lei was so frightened that he almost threw away the iron ore he had just obtained.
"Damn! What's going on? Must you frighten me like this?!"
Meng Lei cursed angrily.
Then, he took a deep breath and quickly and carefully put the hard-won iron ore into his backpack.
Beneath his feet was an incomparably deep crevice in the sea. He could not see the bottom at all.
If the heavy iron ore were to fall freely, even if Meng Lei had a hundred guts, he would not dare to dive in and salvage it. The environment was too terrifying.
In fact, if it had not been for the System's sudden notification, Meng Lei would have almost forgotten that this was a survival game.
Whether it was the visual effect or the perception of the environment, everything was too real. It was no different from the real world.
After putting away the first piece of iron ore which he had personally mined, Meng Lei composed himself and continued to work on the remaining pile of ore.
After another minute or so, the pile of ore, which was the size of a human head, was finally split up by Meng Lei. He had also obtained two parts of iron ore.
Overall, these piles of ores had provided him with a total of three units of iron ore.
Although it was still a little short of the five parts of iron ore required for the freshwater extractor, it was a good start.
Moreover, 5 units of resources would only take up one unit of space in the 10-slot backpack, which came with the diving suit. This would save Meng Lei a lot of trouble.
After putting all three parts of iron ore into his bag, Meng Lei looked at the oxygen reserves in his diving suit.
A total of twelve minutes had passed since he got into the water.
Currently, there were 18 minutes of oxygen content left.
The oxygen consumption mode of the diving suit seemed to be calculated by time, and not by the volume of the oxygen cylinder.
Otherwise, his series of emotional fluctuations just now would definitely increase the consumption of oxygen and shorten the use time.
But now, the remaining oxygen content could still last for 18 minutes. The consumption mode was naturally self-evident.
Relatively speaking, this was also good news.
Next, Meng Lei did not stay too long at the entrance of the underwater crevice.
The deep and dark crevice in the sea gave him an extremely uneasy feeling.
He had a feeling that in the depths of the darkness, where the light could not reach, there was something lurking in the dark. It might suddenly appear at any moment and drag him into a bottomless abyss.
Although this was only his delusion, no one could guarantee that it would not happen.
He returned the way he had come.
As he continued to rise, the searchlight of the submarine gradually dispelled the darkness, and the uneasiness that had enveloped his heart gradually receded.
The moment the gate closed, the endless water pressure disappeared as all kinds of negative emotions disappeared one after another.
Meng Lei let out a long sigh and sat weakly in the airlock. His eyes were lifeless, and he was a little exhausted.
In just ten minutes, the deep dive had brought him an unforgettable experience.
If he had a choice, he definitely would not want to take another step out of the cabin door!
However, rationality reminded him that what he had just experienced was only the beginning…