Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 583: Computer Room

Charles's heart skipped a beat when his eyes landed on the colossal hand that had reached out of the purple mist to grab the cape of darkness. The darkness hadn't just vanished without a reason; it had really been taken by some unknown entity.

The video continued to play on the screen. The other giant hand swept toward 068. Buildings collapsed under its fingers, which were as large as towering pillars. A flying shard of glass flew toward the camera lens, causing it to tilt. Several cracks to appear in the video footage.

Through the tilted camera, Charles saw that the giant hand had seized 068. Alongside the darkness, both hands were retracting toward the obscure square-shaped entity in the purple mist.

Despite the mist rapidly receding, the outline of the cubed entity remained vague and hazy. It was quickly retreating while towing its captives.

As time ticked by, the square within the purple mist seemed to be gradually taking on a new shape.

Wait.

Charles double-clicked on the right mouse button to pause the video. He then pulled out his journal and began sketching rapidly.

Using the body of the Light God as his reference point and the information from this video, he would be able to calculate where the unknown entity had taken the darkness.

"This thing is very fast. Based on the ground movement, that's at least forty nautical miles. No, fifty! Based on the duration of this video…" Charles muttered to himself as he calculated.

Just as Charles busied himself with the calculation, Dipp's uneasy voice suddenly sounded from outside the door. "Captain… Captain!"

"What is it? I'm busy now!" Charles asked, his eyes remained glued to the screen.

"You'd better come take a look. Something seems to be coming over."

Standing outside, anxiety stirred within Dipp as he nervously stared into the darkness. He could make out rows of bird heads squishing against each other, multiplying and forming a wall as they slowly approached.

"Whatever they are, hold them off! I'll be right there!"

Knowing that a situation was happening outside, Charles didn't have the leisure time to slowly browse through the folder contents. After pondering for a few seconds, he immediately entered his name into the address bar.

A folder named "Charles" appeared soon enough. With a drag of the cursor, he moved the video file directly into his memory. Since he had located the clue, he could just stuff it into his brain and decode the details later.

Just then, an unexpected figure jumped out of his memory folder and onto the slowly progressing file transfer bar.

It was Tobba; Charles was certain of it. He had seen Tobba appear on this screen before and in the same simplistic, doodle form. However, Tobba was now 3D instead of 2D. Half of Tobba's body protruded out of the screen and was waving frantically at Charles.

"Charles, I finally managed to get a hold of you. It has been incredibly difficult. Did you receive the message I sent through a friend? You must retrieve the darkness; it's very important!" Lines of text popped up in a speech bubble above Tobba's head.

Charles' fingers flew over the fleshy keyboard, the keys clicking loudly as he typed furiously.

"Why are you still in there? Didn't you say that once you have escaped the Chalkboard Erasers' pursuit, you'd regain your sanity soon?"

Seeing the message Charles typed out, Tobba appeared frustrated as his 3D figure jumped up and down repeatedly.

"I should be asking you that question! Why did you drag my physical body everywhere?

"Do you know how hard it is to navigate around in this perspective? I was so close to getting back to my physical body, but then you took my body somewhere else!

"Do you know how long and how tiring it was for me to make that return trip? I've ridden ten rabbits to death trying to come back!"

Charles was taken aback. He realized that Tobba was probably talking about that time when he took the latter to the Fhtagn Covenant's main base. It seemed like his actions out of good intentions had complicated things instead. If he had left Tobba at Hope Island, perhaps the old man would have returned to normal by now.

"How much longer until you can return? Do you need me to bring your body closer to where you are?" Charles typed.

"NO! Please don't. In that perspective you are in, you won't be able to perceive the distances here. Just leave me at Hope Island, and I'll be back in at most six months."

"Please make it quick. The Subterranean Sea is in a huge crisis, and we need your prophetic abilities."

Though Tobba might appear as an old lunatic, his ability to foresee the future was formidable and could prove to be crucial in finding the darkness.

"I can't come out completely. Those guys will follow me," Tobba replied, shaking his head.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of gunshots sounded from outside the door.

Charles glanced at the slowly ticking progress bar and continued his conversation with Tobba. "Which guys? The chalkboard erasers? Aren't they dead?"

"No, they won't die and can never die. They are like the wind, appearing and disappearing out of nowhere. Say, does the wind ever perish? We probably angered them the previous time. When they come next time, it won't be just two of them."

"Captain! Are you done yet!" Dipp's urgent cry echoed from outside. "We can't hold them off much longer! There are too many of them! We need to break through!"

"Soon! Just a few more seconds!" Charles replied as he watched the progress bar at 95% slowly inching toward completion.

Ding!

The progress bar vanished, and a series of special memories abruptly flooded into Charles' thoughts, seemingly happening right before the day he met Anna.

"Charles, if you get the chance, remember to bring 068 back to the Subterranean Sea. The longer it stays there, the more primitive it becomes. If it stays a little longer, it'll probably revert to being a living organism. Neither it nor I want to see that happening."

"I'll try, but I can't promise," Charles replied, his spider eyeball hopping onto the computer screen, ready to shut down the computer at any moment.

Charles turned and dashed out of the door. The previously desolate corridor was now shrouded in smoke and death.

Row after row of bird folks charged toward them. Though they were clad in the distinctive black uniform of the special task forces, they didn't wield any modern weapons. Instead, their bodies continuously split and multiplied. From time to time, some of them would also suddenly vanish into thin air.

"Captain! There are too many of them here! I don't even know where all these shitty birds are coming from! We're trapped! Dipp shouted anxiously, tossing two grenades toward the group of bird folks ahead of him.

However, Charles remained calm in the face of their dire predicament. He gave Dipp a reassuring pat on the shoulder, saying, "Don't worry. We won't be leaving through the way we came. We'll leave the same way we did last time.

This was why Charles had only brought a few crew members with him onto 068.

Charles entered the room once more and located the folders of his crew members on the computer screen. Selecting all of them with the cursor, he then dragged them out of the computer screen.

Swish!

Silence abruptly fell outside the room. Charles then hovered the cursor over his own folder.

But just then, an unexpected event happened. The entire room suddenly tilted upright; the computer was suddenly on the ceiling and the door was beneath him.