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Chapter 172

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Diver IV

7

Four days have passed since Busan and the Ark were flooded by the Great Rainstorm.

The Ark was still faithfully fulfilling its role as an artifact submarine from an ancient civilization.

In other words, it was floating aimlessly within the water column.

[This is an incredibly unique sight. It feels just like an orbital elevator from a science fiction movie.]

The Saintess gave this assessment.

Sure, from the outside, it might seem romantic to watch the colossal H₂O waterspout reaching from the Earth\'s surface to the troposphere.

However, for those aboard the Ark, it was like experiencing the misery of living in a shantytown.

Finding any sense of \'romance\' in a room that was constantly flooding, soaking everyone to the bone, was no easy feat.

[Even in other regions, people come out to gaze at the waterspout for hours. You can even see it clearly from Japan.]

"How is the damage situation?"

[The other Arks haven\'t suffered major damage.]

Although there was some noise in the Saintess\'s telepathy, it wasn\'t too difficult to understand.

As to how we communicated with the Saintess even during this Great Rainstorm, that was thanks to a method we discovered by chance.

I was currently located between the 9th and 10th isolation zones of the Ark.

To be precise, it was in the area that could be described as \'9¾.\'

Yes, it was the most famous border checkpoint leading to a magical world, along with the Han River.

It was only in this spot that external communication was somewhat possible.

I had figured this out when Tang Seorin had playfully put up a sign last time.

I have no idea why \'magic\' works even within the Great Rainstorm. You\'ll have to ask the anomalies.

"Is there any sign that the Great Rainstorm might be moving to another region?"

[None at all.]

[The awakeners of the Three Thousand Worlds are flying around the waterspout, conducting real-time reconnaissance, but so far, they haven\'t detected anything unusual.]

[Except for the fact that such a massive waterspout, with its immense height and size, continuing to surge endlessly is strange in itself.]

"Hmm."

I nodded.

It was as expected.

\'For now, I\'ve prevented the destruction of East Asia.\'

If I hadn’t taken any action, the \'Great Rainstorm\' would have extended its typhoon from the Korean Peninsula to the Japanese archipelago and the Chinese mainland, pouring down torrential rain for as long as 200 days.

In fact, it might not have stopped at 200 days; it could have gone on for 300 days until every city was submerged, with \'summer\' and \'rainy season\' continuing endlessly.

It was, literally, the Great Rainstorm.

The Eternal Summer.

The Wrath of the Oceanic-Scale Anomaly.

[Hey, Doctor Jang.]

The Saintess\'s voice became more cautious.

[Has this kind of rainstorm been repeating every six years in other timelines as well?]

"No, this anomaly is relatively recent. In the past, it mainly struck Southeast Asia or the American continent, but recently, it’s been veering towards the Korean Peninsula."

[Why would that happen...]

I had my own hypothesis about that.

As I’ve mentioned several times, various Alien gods in this world maintain a certain balance.

For those readers who are astute and wise enough always to recall the lessons from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I would describe it as a situation where "the world is divided like a tripod."

"Imagine a bathroom tub."

[A bathroom tub?]

"Yes. The tub is filled with seven different-colored liquids: red, orange, yellow, and so on."

Due to the use of unique dyes, these seven liquids do not mix or invade each other.

But then, someone—me, the Doctor Jang—suddenly pulls the drain plug.

What do you think will happen?

"A huge commotion will break out in the neatly divided into seven tub. It’ll be chaos."

[The seven dyes represent the seven Alien gods, don’t they?]

"Exactly."

First, the red dye (Endless Hell) and the yellow dye (The Admin of All-Play), which were closest to the drain, are helplessly sucked down the drain.

This means that an Alien god has been vanquished.

Then, the remaining colors, which were living well in their own territories, begin to converge towards the drain.

They aim to conquer the territory that once belonged to the red and yellow dyes.

"This drain is the Korean Peninsula."

[......]

"More precisely, it’s the \'area where Alien gods like Endless Hell have been vanquished.\'"

The reason why increasingly powerful anomalies are gathering around me with each passing timeline is probably due to this.

Ultimately, it\'s a battle of whether I—the drain—will be clogged first, or whether the bathtub will be completely emptied.

"I call this the Bathroom Tub Theory."

[Sometimes, I find your naming sense hard to understand, Doctor Jang. Like with \'ubiquitous.\']

What\'s wrong with ubiquitous? It’s a cool word.

[And saying \'bathroom tub\' instead of just \'bathtub\' makes me feel like you’re showing your age, Doctor Jang.]

Why is having a bathtub in the bathroom a symbol of age?

Just then—

- Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.

A loud alarm sounded in the Ark.

It was a siren.

The sound itself resembled a tsunami warning in Japan. The doll strings that Lee Hayul had strung throughout the ship vibrated intensely, emitting loud sound waves.

The entire ship became noisy in an instant.

- Another fall!

- Hold on to something! Anything!

- Buckle up! Don’t worry about your bags! Just buckle up first!

Veteran Awakened, skilled in Aura, shouted from the various isolation zones.

I, too, could no longer focus solely on my conversation with the Saintess.

"Apologies. It seems the storm currents are causing trouble again. Please contact me immediately if you observe anything unusual from outside."

[Yes. ...Please be safe, Doctor Jang.]

Boom!

As soon as contact was cut off, the enormous Ark shook violently. The hull tilted—then immediately began to plummet downward.

It was as if the ship had been struck by a torpedo, with the bulkheads rattling from the impact.

- Aaaaah!

- Stay calm! Stay calm!

The ocean currents created by the super typhoon within the Great Rainstorm were anything but gentle.

The Void Poison, disguised as seawater, continuously surged, coiled, and crashed down.

The current swept the fleet of 12 Arks away each time.

On certain days, the altitude soared to a staggering 8,000 meters above sea level, equivalent to the height of Mount Everest. At other times, it plummeted sharply to just 2,000 meters above sea level.

Abnormal changes in altitude.

Naturally, the survivors were exposed to severe dangers.

Headaches, fainting, bleeding, ruptured eardrums, and altitude sickness were common occurrences.

In extreme cases, people’s bodies were thrown like billiard balls, smashing into partitions and shattering their spines.

Even now, the awakened medical personnel, centered around Sim Aryeon, were tirelessly healing the injured in three shifts.

Without Sim Aryeon, well, the damage would have been at least ten times worse than it was now.

- Beep beep beep beep beep beep...

The siren emitted from the Puppet Room gradually subsided. Along with it, the vibrations of the Ark also slowly calmed down.

But there was no time to relax.

- Damn it, the water\'s coming in again!

- Water buckets! Move the water buckets!

When a \'fall\' or \'ascent\' occurred within the deluge, flooding always followed.

Just like on Day 1, the isolation zones were entirely submerged.

However, the survivors had become accustomed to it. Unlike the first day, when they suffered considerable damage, people now efficiently transported the water buckets.

- Anyone with a physical mutation?

- Over there, help that person to the treatment room!

- Move in pairs! Never wander the ship alone!

"Hmm."

Indeed, the survivors\' movements became more swift after about four days.

Even SCVs could participate in combat if necessary. Ultimately, humans are beings that adapt to and overcome their environment.

Even if the isolation zone flooded in the blink of an eye or their limbs turned into those of a frog, humans had the strength to accept such changes.

As a regressor, I ensured that this strong vitality could last as long as possible by creating \'strategies\' and \'systems.\'

I nodded with satisfaction.

\'At this point, I can leave for a while without any major issues.\'

I immediately returned to the command center.

As soon as I opened the steel door, a monkey wrench flew at me. Whoosh. I dodged it lightly, and Noah (formerly Noh Doha) glared at me with a look of hatred.

"Noah, if you throw random things like that, someone could get hurt."

"Damn it..."

"What if the person who just walked in wasn\'t me?"

"I can tell by the sound of your footsteps. Your footsteps are unlucky as hell..."

Noah, who muttered that, looked utterly exhausted.

It was only natural.

Anyone who has lived inside a submarine would understand, but this Ark was far from \'comfortable.\'

The sirens went off constantly, injuries occurred, and the roller coaster provided a free ride whenever it got bored.

Seo Gyu, who prided himself on being a tough guy, had passed out, strapped to the bed with belts. Tang Seorin also looked haggard.

Except for Yoo Jiwon, who was probably the only one who had received a special lecture on sleep techniques from Napoleon himself, all the members of the command center were extremely fatigued.

"Rejoice, everyone. I just took a quick look around, and there were no fatalities in this flood."

"Oh. That\'s some damn good news."

Noah sneered.

"Except for the fact that we have to endure another 36 days in this hellhole, I don\'t know why we aren\'t popping open a bottle of wine right now..."

"That\'s why I have a proposal."

"A proposal...?"

"Not the proposal of cutting my neck instead of a wine bottle."

I preempted the conversation, as it had come up in the last turn. The hatred on Noah\'s face deepened.

"There are two ways to deal with the deluge. One is to endure it. It will be over if we can hold out for another 36 days."

I shrugged.

"For the record, this was the method used in the previous turn."

"Then why don\'t you use that method again? Why are you suddenly pretending to suggest another strategy...?"

"It took a whopping 31 days last time to reach the point where there were no fatalities."

"..."

"Anyway, it was only a week left, so it didn\'t matter."

Installing the Puppet Room to facilitate communication between the isolation zones, blocking the flooding by quickly transporting the water buckets, the strange fact that \'external communication with the Saintess\' worked somewhat between Isolation Zones 12 and 13—all of this was knowledge gained through the sacrifices of previous turns.

"But now it\'s only Day 4. Unless you love the roller coaster so much that you want to keep enjoying the thrill, I think it\'s the right time to explore another strategy."

"..."

Noah stared at me blankly.

Due to excessive stress, his left eye had developed an iris infection and was bloodshot.

Under normal circumstances, the medical team would have immediately swarmed to polish the eyeball of the highest dignity in the Korean Peninsula like a diamond, but this was wartime.

There was no spare capacity to pull a medically awakened person away just for an eye infection.

"So, this second strategy of yours... It hasn\'t been tested yet, and you\'re going to try it for the first time in \'this turn’...?"

"Exactly."

"And if it fails...?"

"It will become the mother of success."

"You damn bastard..."

Noah glared at me fiercely, closing his left eye (which is actually quite a difficult thing to do).

"So, what is this strategy...?"

8

First, I changed Lee Hayul\'s species from Homo sapiens to turtle shell.

"..., ..."

"If it\'s uncomfortable, just let me know anytime, Hayul."

"..."

"Oh. My bad. I left the maid doll behind, so you can\'t speak."

Thud! Hayul punched the back of my head. It didn\'t hurt at all.

By the way, I was currently wearing swim trunks. Hayul was wearing a wetsuit.

Not because it was summer and I thought it was the right time for abs exposure and swimsuit service.

Rather, it was to earn the title of the first human to swim at an altitude of 8,000 meters (underwater).

Noah was disgusted.

"Are you out of your mind...?"

"Yes. There must be a core of the anomaly inside that deluge. There should be a \'eye of the storm\' equivalent."

I tightened a specially made belt. The turtle shell made of Lee Hayul clung even more closely.

Hayul resisted with all her limbs, but it was futile. We couldn\'t proceed with this operation without her.

"How do you plan to find that core in this massive storm...?"

"We will connect Hayul\'s doll rooms between the Arks, creating a wide web."

There were 12 ships in the Ark fleet.

We would connect these 12 ships with kilometers-long doll threads. Carefully, so they wouldn\'t tangle.

Then, the 12 \'radars\' would move through the storm, automatically searching for the core of the anomaly.

"Oh. Since it\'s the first time we\'re trying this, there\'s a high chance of failure. If you check with the Saintess and find that we\'re dead, just endure for the 36 days."

"No, if you\'re gone, I think we\'ll collapse soon anyway. This damn world..."

"Then we\'ll be off."

Thunk. I opened the window.

Water immediately tried to rush in, but I had already formed a barrier with my aura, so such an unfortunate event didn\'t happen.

"Our Hayul, don\'t you like swimming when you go on a trip?"

"...! ...!"

"Let\'s become the first humans to swim in the sky. Ready, dive. One. Two—."

"...! ...!"

"Two and a half. Two and two and a half. Two and two and two and a half—."

"...! ...!"

"Three."

Splash!

I immediately submerged myself in the water with aura infused into my legs. A strong current engulfed my entire body.

Hayul seemed to enjoy it so much that she continuously drummed on my back with her fists.

Of course, this wasn’t revenge for bothering me with the Uyuni Salt Flat case. Absolutely not.