As the gate creaked open, a wave of trepidation washed over Norman.
He stepped hesitantly into the open abyss, the biting cold enveloping him like a shroud.
The darkness was so profound that he couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face.
It felt as if he were plunged into an infinite void, where his very existence threatened to vanish into nothingness.
A surge of disorientation washed over him, followed by a tightening grip of panic around his body.
He knew that lingering in this state could fracture his mind. Summoning the last remnants of his composure, he activated the lights on his diving suit. A narrow beam burst forth from his helmet, slicing through the darkness and granting him a fleeting sense of reassurance.
Though the depths remained an enigma, that small ray of light offered a flicker of security amidst the oppressive gloom.
Norman gripped the metal exterior of the submarine, his hand trembling. "This is terrifying. Just stepping out of the airlock exit and into the water would send most people into fear induced shock" he thought. "If any of the others pioneers have a fear of the ocean depths where there nothing but darkness and creeping silence, you'd probably prefer to stay inside the submarine and resign yourself to your fate rather than face this shit."
"My survival is going to be tougher than I thought, huh!" he sighed inwardly, shaking off the unease.
But he had no time to dwell on that.
Outside the submarine's cockpit, his cheat wouldn't be useful without a functioning sonar, except for gathering information from visible objects just by staring at it. In this pitch-black environment, he couldn't detect any potential threats lurking in the shadows, leaving him with no choice but to minimize his time outside the submarine.
Moving cautiously, he adjusted to the disorienting weightlessness of deep-sea diving. To his surprise, the system had endowed him with diving skills. Though he had never taken diving class, he was executing complex underwater maneuvers with surprising ease.
"This must be part of the game mechanics, nice" Norman realized. Throwing inexperienced divers into these depths would be tantamount to a death sentence. To be honest, he felt like he was merely scraping by death just being out here.
After a minute, feeling somewhat more comfortable, he directed his focus toward the bottom of the submarine and swam. The dark, rocky mountain slowly slipped from view. According to the sonar, the iron ore was located at the entrance of a seafloor fissure directly beneath the reef mountain—only about thirty or forty meters away.
In the dim, light of the submarine's searchlight, Norman resembled a clumsy metal fish navigating through the abyss. As he advanced, he instinctively clung closer to the rocky mountain beside him.
The unyielding darkness amplified his dread, and panic tightened its grip on his throat. He sought solace in anything that offered a semblance of safety.
As he descended further, the submarine's searchlights flickered, and the darkness deepened, wrapping around him like a living entity. By the time he reached the base of the reef, the searchlight had almost faded into insignificance. The only light remaining was a faint glimmer from where he had come and the beam from his helmet. It felt as if he were plummeting into an infinite void—an unsettling and surreal experience it was.
His breath quickened, and a shiver coursed through him as dread washed over him. "I need to finish this quickly and get back to the submarine. This place is playing tricks on my mind; it's no place for a human being."
Taking a deep breath, Norman willed himself to calm down. He reached the hard, icy surface of the seabed. With his helmet's light, he scanned the area but found no trace of the iron ore. The entrance to the seafloor fissure remained hidden.
He circled around the reef mountain cautiously, finally spotting the entrance to the fissure on the opposite side—a gaping, three- or four-meter-wide crack. The fissure stretched into the darkness, resembling a vast, web-like wound in the seabed.
Norman approached the edge of the fissure, peering into the abyss. The crack seemed bottomless, occasionally releasing bubbles that danced toward the surface. The depths within were shrouded in darkness, and whatever lay concealed in that suffocating blackness beckoned him closer.
In such a narrow, foreboding environment, most people, save for the bravest souls, would have been deterred. But now that he was here, Norman had no alternative. Fortunately, the sonar system hadn't detected any immediate threats in the vicinity, which offered a small measure of comfort.
Suppressing his fear, he carefully maneuvered into the crack.
The helmet's light bounced off the stark rock walls, casting eerie shadows that danced in the darkness. In one corner of the rock wall, he spotted a lump of dark brown iron ore, faintly shimmering in the beam of light. "There it is!" Norman thought, a mix of relief and apprehension swelling within him. He swam toward the ore with urgency.
"This has to be it, right? Though it looks a bit out of place!" he mused, examining the iron ore through the glass of his helmet. The ore was no larger than a basketball, and without its distinctive color against the dark rock, it would have been nearly impossible to find.
(Info Drop: A small lump of iron ore, probably only two or three units in weight.)
As he focused on the ore, golden text appeared before him. With the target located, Norman wasted no time. He retrieved the handheld mining tool from his waist, aimed it at the ore, and pressed the button. The tool was straightforward: align it with the ore and press the button. A low hum accompanied the tool's operation, sending ripples through the water.
Half a minute later, a fist-sized chunk of ore detached from the pile.
[System prompt: Iron ore *1]
Just as Norman reached for the ore, a sudden system prompt echoed in his mind, startling him so much that he nearly dropped both the tool and the ore he had just acquired.
"The Fuck...! What was that? Why does it have to be so loud?" He swore under his breath. He took a deep breath and quickly stowed the chunk of iron ore in his backpack.
Below him, another crack lay hidden in the reef floor, completely invisible in the darkness. The thought of the iron ore tumbling into the abyss sent chills down his spine; even if the ore was very important, he wouldn't dare dive in to retrieve it. The environment was far too perilous. In fact, if not for the system prompt, Norman would have almost forgotten this was a survival game.
After securing the first chunk of iron ore, Norman remained focused and continued to extract the remaining pieces. After about a minute, he successfully cut through the basketball-sized ore, collecting two additional chunks. In total, he had gathered three units of iron ore. Although it fell short of the five units needed for the freshwater extractor, it was a promising start. The 10-space backpack, where each resource unit occupied only one space, was a godsend.
With all three iron ores chunks secured, Norman checked the oxygen levels in his diving suit. Twelve minutes had passed since he entered the water, and with the current oxygen level, he had eighteen minutes left. The oxygen consumption seemed to be based on time rather than cylinder volume. If it had been based on volume, his small emotional outburst would have increased consumption and shortened the duration. But with the remaining oxygen, he had enough time, which provided a small measure of relief.
He didn't linger at the fissure's entrance. The deep, dark crack filled him with a sense of dread, as if something in the shadows was watching him, ready to pull him into the abyss. Although it was likely just his imagination, he couldn't be sure.
Norman retraced his path. As he ascended, the submarine's searchlights gradually dispelled the darkness, and the oppressive anxiety began to lift. When he reached the gate, it closed behind him, banishing the wide-open darkness and his anxious thoughts.
Slumped in the airlock room, Norman felt drained and mentally exhausted. The brief twelve-minute dive had been an unforgettable ordeal. If given the choice, he would never step out of the hatch again. Yet reason reminded him that what he had just experienced was merely the beginning.