"Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough!"
The chill in the ice cave made Mei cough incessantly. Aldemir lowered his head and quietly took boiling water from the electric pressure cooker, poured it into a thermos, and then Evangeline, leaning against the ice wall, cooled it down a little before handing it to Mei.
"Ah... ah! Thank you!"
Mei stared unblinkingly at the electronic screen in front of her, one hand constantly entering formulas while the other went to grab the thermos, but ended up grabbing at nothing.
Evangeline sighed softly, used both hands to deliver the thermos to Mei's lips, and allowed her to take a small sip.
"Mmm…"
Mei's breathing was a little heavy, but the next moment, her eyes suddenly lit up, "Quick! Put the tracker over there!"
Before one of the soldiers could even pick up the tracker, which was the size of an egg, Aldemir snatched it and leaped into the opening in the ice wall like a monkey. He then dashed to where Kevin had been sucked away, placed the tracker, dove forward, jumped up, and leaped back out through the opening.
Just under ten seconds later, a spatial rift opened up again next to the tracker and sucked it in.
"Latitude 11 degrees and 20 minutes north, longitude 142 degrees and 11.5 minutes east, and an altitude of approximately minus 6,100 meters..."
Could that be the other side of the spatial rift?
Mei's heart suddenly tightened. Putting everything else aside, the water pressure at 6,100 meters below sea level was not something a normal person could withstand.
But she kept a calm expression on her face, without even a single extra movement. In contrast, Evangeline, who was standing next to her, covered her mouth when she saw the results and barely managed to suppress her cry of surprise.
Mei's slender fingers were tapping aimlessly on the keyboard. The sound of her nails lightly tapping the keycaps filled the ice cave.
"Doctor, would you like some more water?"
"Ah… oh."
Mei finally freed up one of her hands and took the thermos from Evangeline.
But at the moment she felt the weight, the slight trembling in her fingertips was magnified countless times until the warm water was spilled out.
"I'll do it."
Evangeline took the thermos, and once again, brought it to Mei's lips. This time, she didn't allow Mei to refuse and poured a large gulp down her throat.
"Please, put another tracker there."
Although he didn't understand why, Aldemir did as he was told. But this time, the spatial rift didn't appear for a long time. Mei stared at the dimly lit ice cave with her arms crossed, while Aldemir secretly pulled Evangeline to a darker corner.
Before he could even ask, Evangeline already knew what he wanted to ask: "We can't confirm if this spatial rift is stable… uh, in other words, we can't confirm if each time the spatial rift opens it will lead to the same place, got it?"
"Oh oh."
Aldemir was at a disadvantage due to a lack of education, and could only respond vaguely.
But he did understand it…
"Hey! That's right! I actually understood! Evangeline, you're so amazing!"
"Huh?"
Evangeline tilted her head and her mouth twitched. She was practically asking, "Huh?" with a big question mark on top of her head.
Aldemir scratched the back of his head and explained awkwardly: "It's just that… when I encounter these problems, I always ask other people, but they always explain it with a bunch of names I can't understand... so I never understand it in the end. But what you said was very… very special… no, I mean very… well, it was just very easy to understand!"
"Hehe!"
Evangeline covered her mouth and chuckled softly. She straightened her chest proudly and said, "Actually, most of the people who explain things by throwing a bunch of technical terms at you probably don't understand it themselves! If you truly understand something, then how would you not be able to explain it simply?"
"Damn! You're so right!"
Aldemir made a fist with his right hand and gently hit his left palm that was resting on his chest.
In the dimness, he suddenly saw something shiny flicker. When he looked closer...
"Hey… what are you doing…"
Evangeline quickly backed away two steps and lightly poked Aldemir's tactical vest with her index finger.
It was then that he realized that it wasn't anything shiny, just the girl's jewel-like eyes… Alright.
So he awkwardly scratched the back of his head again. He was also a bit anxious, wondering if this new recruit, who was one of the few people that he could talk to, would be angry about his reckless actions...
"Pfft!" The girl's smile chased away all the muddled and nervous feelings. But it also caused the other soldiers in the cave to turn their heads.
The soldiers, who were ready for some gossip, were clearly disappointed --Evangeline and Aldemir were standing stiffly against the ice wall, their shoulders carefully maintaining a safe distance of about fifty centimeters between them.
Amid the boos, the light from the flashlights was moved away.
"Hehe..." Evangeline used her elbow to poke the forehead of Aldemir who was wiping away cold sweat, "You've been very influenced by Unit Leader Mikael…"
"Uh, can you see that?"
"Yep! Of course! You, and Unit Leader Kevin, and even a lot of the veterans from our Fifth Squad are like that!"
"Uh, uh… that..."
Aldemir hesitated for a long time, searching his mind for the perfect words before finally coming up with a word that sounded quite impressive:
"How so?"
"Pfft!" Evangeline quickly covered her mouth and chuckled for a few seconds before explaining in a low voice:
"Have you not noticed that… you and Unit Leader Kevin, when you're embarrassed, will subconsciously scratch your heads?"
Aldemir habitually scratched his head.
"And then, you guys touch your noses when you're lying, and will try to cover it up by staring intently into other people's eyes."
Aldemir touched his nose and silently averted his gaze.
"Those are all Unit Leader Mikael's signature moves, right?"
"Ah? Oh!"
Aldemir subconsciously felt like something wasn't right…
"That can't be right! You shouldn't have seen Unit Leader Mikael!"
Evangeline was a new recruit who had joined with Kevin at the same time. Besides Kevin, who had seen Mikael before in R'lyeh, none of the others should have ever interacted with Mikael!
"..." Evangeline pursed her lips. "Please! I was with a support unit before. I was also in Canghai City back then. You didn't forget about that, did you?"
"Ah..." Had Aldemir ever paid any attention to that? Furthermore, he was hung up about something, and was feeling a bit anxious and absent-minded. So, he could only respond vaguely in an attempt to muddle through.
"Hmph!"
The girl stamped her foot angrily. Just as she was about to say something else, she heard Mei's low shout from not too far away:
"It's here!"
The second tracker was once again sucked into a spatial rift.
"Latitude 11 degrees and 20 minutes north, longitude 142 degrees and 11.5 minutes east, and an altitude of approximately minus 6,100 meters, exactly the same as the first result..."
Mei pressed her thumb hard against her brow. Evangeline hurried over and supported her shaking body, making her appear to sit up straight in the eyes of the other soldiers.
"Do we need to do a third experiment, Doctor?"
She whispered.
"..." Mei was silent. She had actually already deduced that the structure of this spatial rift was stable... but in accordance with a rigorous scientific mindset, she needed to test it with an experiment...
Test it…
"Report the coordinates to headquarters…"
Mei's voice was a little dry. She stood up from her chair, pulled her coat tighter, and stared at the darkness and chaos of the ice cave.
Seeing that no one was around, Aldemir carefully pulled out something he had found in the cave from his back pocket.
"Sign language? I'm going to guess it's E!"
"It is, huh…"
He glanced at the others. Evangeline was reporting to headquarters, while the rest of the soldiers were huddled together to keep warm. For the time being, no one was paying attention to him.
He swiped on the contact list and effortlessly found the most noticeable name. Then, with his fingertips dancing across the screen, a set of coordinates was sent out.
The signal was weak in the ice cave, and the progress bar for the message was stuck at 99% and wouldn't go higher. Aldemir knocked his head lightly, then helplessly placed his phone back in his pocket.
But at that moment, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded on the public channel that was connected to headquarters. Many of them screamed from the sudden noise, and hastily removed their headsets.
The alarm sounded three times, and Mei, who had turned her back to them, put her headset back on.
"Fifth Squad, message received. Please immediately go to the Moana Islands. A new Herrscher has been born!"
"Repeating: Fifth Squad, message received. Please immediately go to the Moana Islands. A new Herrscher has been born!"