Chapter 148 - 148: The Inner Space of the Reef
Chapter 148 - 148: The Inner Space of the Reef
After reporting the incident, he didn’t pay it much attention.
Over the next two days, Tang Rui and Li Shuyao enjoyed various sea activities.
By the fifth day, Tang Rui was starting to get a bit bored. Drifting on the sea every day was exciting at first, but it lost its charm over time.
Just as Tang Rui was contemplating changing his vacation destination, news came from the Jinling Museum. They had managed to repair some of the items recovered by maintenance robots from the sea floor.
While photos and paper documents were beyond restoration, they had managed to salvage quite a bit from a notebook. Through the efforts of experts, some information had been pieced together.
In simple terms, it was about the treasure that Imperial Japan had collected from both domestic and Southeast Asian sources. While the army was responsible for plundering, the navy was in charge of transport. Everyone knew that the Japanese army and navy were not on good terms, and so, when the navy handled the transport, they did something shady, as they were trying to build battleships.
The captain of this sunken ship was a navy officer, specializing in these operations.
However, his fate wasn’t a good one. When Japan was defeated, the navy couldn’t transport the treasure back home, just like the treasures collected from Southeast Asia. All these treasures were secretly hidden away by Japan.
The navy officer who knew the exact location of the treasure couldn’t survive either.
The ship didn’t sink due to bombing but was intentionally scuttled.
The notebook in the safe was left behind by this navy officer before he died.
As for the crucial treasure map, it was missing or possibly dissolved by the seawater in the document bag, making it impossible to restore.
The only clue obtained from the notebook was that after they had hidden the last piece of treasure, they set sail on the warship and decided to sink it two hours later.
With this condition in mind, they looked at a nautical chart.
They drew a circle around the sunken ship’s location, with a radius equal to two hours of a warship’s travel time.
F*ck.
It covered a massive area.
“Brother Yang, get in touch with the fleet and tell them I want to send a drone to search for something. It will need to land on the aircraft carrier when it’s done.”
“Alright, I’ll contact them immediately.”
After reviewing the documents from the Jinling Museum, Tang Rui decided to bring in a drone to search for the treasure. He didn’t care about the shipwreck, but the treasures collected by Japan from the nation needed to be recovered.
Using maintenance robots wouldn’t work. Their efficiency was too low, and their scanning systems were inadequate for the task. The only option capable of meeting the treasure-hunting requirements was the scanning system of a drone.
If he could scan the area 200 meters underground, he would be able to find these treasures even if he had to search for a needle in a haystack.
With communication established with the fleet, Tang Rui had Red Lotus control the drone’s flight.
He didn’t pilot it himself but let Red Lotus take over. The drone’s optical-electronic system had never reached its full potential due to the limitations of the terminal system. Now, with Red Lotus’s superconducting quantum computer, it could fully utilize the drone’s optical-electronic system’s capabilities.
In this situation, as long as the treasure hadn’t been taken by Japan, the drone’s formidable performance would undoubtedly uncover it.
Fifteen minutes later, under Red Lotus’s control, the drone arrived in the designated area and began scanning along the outer ring.
Tang Rui expected to wait a while to get any results, but who would thought that it would only take less than ten minutes for Red Lotus to discover the treasure.
“Master, Red Lotus has found the treasure. It is hidden beneath a small island reef. The island is hollow with a sealed space inside, and all the treasure is there.”
While describing it, Red Lotus displayed the scanned images on Tang Rui’s smart glasses. Although the images were not very clear, they were clear enough to see a pile of boxes, with over half of them containing gold bars.
“Show me the coordinates.”
“Master, the coordinates are XXX.XX, and there’s a small yacht in that area.”
“A yacht? Show me that yacht.”
“Okay.”
The image on his glasses changed, showing the yacht’s video, and Tang Rui enlarged it with his thoughts.
“These people on the yacht are definitely from Japan. They must be here searching for the treasure.”
Even though they were all Asians, their appearance was quite similar, and it was difficult to distinguish foreigners. However, as a Chinese, Tang Rui could sense something different about Japanese: their distinct presence.
“Yang, inform the fleet that I’ve found the treasure Japan hid when they were defeated, and they need to come here quickly.”
“Okay, I’ll let them know.” Yang immediately contacted the fleet.
After that, he set sail toward the island reef, and the aircraft carrier followed suit. The destroyer and patrol ships were even faster.
On the other side, on the yacht near the island reef, a group of young people and several bikini-clad Japanese girls were having a good time, laughing and playing.
At that moment, a Japanese diver emerged from the water and whispered something to one of the crew members. The crew member hurried to the group, leaned in, and whispered something to one of the young Japanese, whose expression suddenly changed.
“Kawasuke, what’s happening?”
One of the young men in the group asked, curious.
“Nothing, just a minor issue with the company.”
Kawasuke quickly regained his composure, dismissing it as a trivial matter.
“If there’s a problem here, you can tell me. As long as it’s not a major issue, I can solve it with a phone call. It’s a token of my gratitude for your hospitality these past two days.”
“Thank you for the offer, but it’s a domestic matter, and there’s no need to trouble you with it.”
“If it’s a domestic issue, then 1 can’t help.”
“I apologize for disrupting your enjoyment, Mr. Wang.”
“If something happens here, you can talk to me. As long as it’s not too big of an issue, a phone call from me can resolve it, as a thank you for hosting me these past two days.”
“Thank you for your kind offer, Mr. Wang, but it’s a domestic matter, so there’s no need to trouble you.”
“It’s your domestic matters, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Sorry for bothering your tranquility, Mr. Wang.”
“Please don’t worry about it. You can talk to me if something happens here. As long as it’s not a big issue, I can resolve it with a phone call, as a token of my gratitude for hosting me these past two days.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wang, but it’s okay.”
“Alright, don’t apologize. It’s just a mood dampener.”
“Thank you.”
“Okay, I’m going inside to get some,” he said and walked into the cabin with two Japanese girls.
Once he was out of sight, Kawasuke immediately rushed into his room and made a satellite phone call to his family, nodding continuously as he spoke.
An hour later, the yacht started taking on water and began sinking.
The group quickly boarded several lifeboats, watching helplessly as the yacht disappeared beneath the waves.
“Mr. Wang, don’t worry. I’ve called for rescue, and they should arrive in half an hour at most.”
“What the hell is wrong with this piece of junk yacht? How did it start leaking?” “I’m deeply sorry, Mr. Wang. When 1 return, I’ll arrange for a new team to come and compensate you.”
“Never mind, I’ve lost interest.”
“Sorry, Mr. Wang.”
“Alright, this isn’t your fault. It’s just disappointing.”
“Mr. Wang, later I will have the yacht salvaged to investigate why it sank.
Someone might be trying to harm you.”
“Hmm? Are you saying someone wants to harm you?”
“Yes, I’m not the first heir in my family, but I’m highly regarded. So…”
“Okay, 1 understand. When the time comes, you can send people to salvage the yacht, and I’ll call the maritime police.”
In less than half an hour, they were salvaged.
However, it wasn’t a rescue vessel that saved them; it was a carrier battle group.
The young Japanese were taken on board an escort ship and looked quite bewildered.
Nobody paid attention to their thoughts, and they were all locked in a room, with the door securely closed.
On the other side, Tang Rui’s yacht arrived at the island reef.
The frogmen team was once again deployed.
This time, their mission was to retrieve the treasure hidden beneath the island.
Tang Rui also donned his diving equipment and descended with the team.
Thanks to the drone’s scans, they easily located the buried entrance, adorned with a set of symbols.
Maintenance robots swiftly cleared the sand and rocks blocking the entrance.
Everyone proceeded into the interior of the island reef.
It was an underwater space, half submerged by seawater, while the other half had become an internal cave-like space.
Honestly, it must’ve been a stroke of incredible luck that Japan had found this place. It would be challenging for an ordinary person to discover such a location.
Click!
As they opened a sealed chest, the golden treasures inside illuminated the cave with their dazzling radiance, reflected in the lights..