Chapter 311: Keep On Charging Forward, The Tenacious Hope One!!
Gurgle…
Gurgle…
After the waterfall-like sound of rain stopped cras.h.i.+ng down on the deck and overhead, the only sound left was that of water running down the drains of Hope One.
The rain came fast and caught a lot of people off guard.
It went away just as quickly, without a trace.
Were it not for the water beneath him and the ringing sound in his ears, Su Mo would have thought that he had imagined the whole thing.
After 15 minutes and 10 seconds, within three seconds after the final wave had descended, the rainstorm stopped abruptly. It was as if someone had pressed the stop b.u.t.ton somewhere high in the sky.
The black clouds that shrouded the sky also faded away at an incomprehensible speed, revealing the silver moon again that had returned to its initial hue.
"Whew...
"Whew...
"It"s a good thing that we were so used to the Underground Shelter"s 4.2m height that we changed the bridge to this height as well. Otherwise, we"d be..."
As Su Mo looked down at the rainwater below that had almost overflowed past the 3m high steel frame, he gasped out two ragged breaths with his heart still pounding.
He never would have guessed that the disaster would have arrived in such an outrageous manner.
Rain like a waterfall descended from the sky onto the ground below.
It happened in such a way that even an intelligent person would never have predicted!
He could only imagine how bad it would be for a person with an ordinary s.h.i.+p who did not know what was going to happen. If a s.h.i.+p as powerful as Hope One had its durability worn down by more than twenty thousand points, dropping it to below ten thousand points, then such people would stand no chance whatsoever against the rainstorm.
If the rainstorm had continued for another 20 seconds, at the rate Hope One was going, with the many holes torn through the deck, the entire s.h.i.+p"s structure would have been smashed to bits and torn apart by the torrential rainstorm.
If things proceeded as such, without any changes, it would have been a glorious victory for the terrestrial foreign races.
After the fifteen-minute rainstorm, perhaps only one out of ten thousand humans would survive.
Su Mo pondered that fact as he waited for the water level to drop.
Hope One"s drainage capacity was good and, had it not been faced with a rainstorm, the rainwater in the bridge would have lowered by two meters every three to four minutes. It was clear that the water level was falling at a considerable rate.
With the help of the portholes that had been pushed open by the rainwater, the bright moonlight shone through and Su Mo made out the patches of blood on his face.
"I can"t just wait this out. I must hurry and check and fix the damage that"s been done to Hope One. Otherwise, the damage this time would"ve been suffered for nothing!
"We"ll just use this rainstorm as a test for Hope One to simulate how I should handle such situations when at sea!"
As the rainwater continued to drain out, gradually lowering the water level from neck-level to waist-level, and then back down to feet-level, it was akin to walking out of a swimming pool.
Without the water"s buoyant force to support him, every step Su Mo took felt like he was carrying the weight of a thousand catties.
In addition to that, the feeling was coupled with the pain from the internal injuries he had suffered due to the impact...
The soreness he felt was indescribable.
Even so, at this point, he could not afford to worry about such things!
If he could not handle it in the simulation world, how badly would he fare in the real world?!
That was why he had to hold on to the thought that "what did not kill him would only make him stronger", and if it was really so bad, he could just quit.
After the water level had reached his calves, Su Mo used all his might to move through the water. He pulled open the metal door of the bridge and strode out.
Whoos.h.!.+
Without the metal door in the way, the water in the bridge drained out faster.
At the same time, he found out that he had underestimated the damage the rainstorm had caused. Right after he stepped out and saw the current state of Hope One, he could not help but suck in a breath of cold air.
"Hiss...
"Seriously? Even a cannon blast would not have done such damage to the s.h.i.+p, given the strength and thickness of Hope One"s steel plates!"
Under the moonlight, from the bridge below, the extent of the damage stretched all the way to the s.h.i.+p"s bow.
The entire place was a mess.
Gone were the beautifully painted lines on the deck…
Instead, large holes the size of cars were all over the main deck, revealing the crew"s living quarters directly below it.
That was not all. After carefully walking up to the holes, Su Mo was shocked to find that the damage extended beyond the main deck; even the flooring of the crew"s living quarters below had been destroyed, revealing a cavernous hole that led straight down to the s.h.i.+p"s warehouse compartments.
Most of the supplies that he had brought onto the s.h.i.+p were now submerged in water, bobbing happily from side-to-side with Hope One"s every sway.
In the water, Su Mo could even see a few components of the fire-control radar, which had clearly been torn apart, beyond repair, mixed in alongside the other debris!
"Sh*t!"
"If I hadn"t simulated the disaster using the Divulgence of Heaven"s Secret talisman, I would"ve happily sailed Hope One out to sea for an expedition."
"Who would"ve thought that, as soon as this rainstorm descended, my s.h.i.+p would be on the verge of disintegration even before sailing out to sea! I just can"t believe it!"
As Su Mo looked at how miserable Hope One looked in his simulated environment, he did not know whether he should be thankful or in grief.
However, walking around the s.h.i.+p, Su Mo gained some ideas on how he could protect himself against the rainstorm.
"Actually, I don"t think the rainstorm that almost took down Hope One is impossible to withstand. All I need to do is to make a boathouse to shelter the s.h.i.+p."
"And I can even add some shock mitigation elements and materials to the boathouse to help it withstand the rainstorm."
"If I design the boathouse with the flood in mind as well, then Hope One can easily sail out of the boathouse when the rainstorm ends!"
The sea level, which had been rising for eighteen minutes, was now just over two meters high.
Judging by the rate at which the sea level was rising, it would only take another twenty minutes or so for it to rise to four to five meters high.
Once the sea level exceeded five meters in height, Hope One could then sail out to sea.
"Yes!"
Despite the fact that Hope One was currently in such a miserable state, Su Mo decided to try sailing out to sea with the mindset of going all out.
At the very least, before quitting, as long as Hope One was still standing, Su Mo decided that he would keep going and finish all the tests he had planned.
Since it was a simulation, Su Mo decided not to clean up the water in the second or third decks, and just threw all the debris on the deck down into the hole.
Su Mo"s initial dream of setting sail was back!
At that moment, after five minutes of draining the rainwater, the bridge was wet and slippery, but there were finally no more pools of water pooling inside.
As Su Mo stepped onto the slippery floor, he slid down the stairs after opening the secret door to the engine room.
"It"s a good thing that the thick steel plates in the engine room and the original foundation of the s.h.i.+p kept this place safe and unscathed."
Since the secret door in the bridge was made to be concealed and had waterproof sealing, not only were the stairs dry, but there was nothing inside the engine room that made it seem like the s.h.i.+p had just survived the onslaught of a torrential rainstorm.
Despite the absence of electrical supply, it glowed a deep blue hue as it worked quietly like normal.
The powerful engine would continue to provide a steady output of energy for the entire s.h.i.+p until the liter of psychic energy water that Su Mo had poured in as "fuel" was used up.
After he tried to switch on the pump, Su Mo finally felt relieved; the pump warmed up for a minute and he gratefully realized that it was working fine as well.
"There"s no such thing as a child that cries every day or a gambler that loses every day!"
"If things are already this bad, I"m sure it can only get better from now on!"
On the top deck, Hope One was in a state of disrepair, having lost its radar, and with the bridge in shambles. However, the engines and pumps were still going strong!
As long as he could restore power to the s.h.i.+p, he still had a chance to take it out for a spin!
"Let"s see, I should have instructed Chen Shen to stock some extra supplies for the damage control deck before I got on board earlier!"
Even though the storage s.p.a.ce could not be opened, Su Mo was in no hurry. After making his way back to the first floor through the staircase, he managed to slowly descend the large hole all the way down to the leaky warehouse compartments.
The supplies used to repair Hope One were marked with a yellow exclamation mark and had a waterproof canvas laid over them, making it easy to find.
With little effort, Su Mo managed to pull out some tools that were used to get the power up and running again.
"Now this is just rude. Why can"t I use the system in the talisman"s simulation world?"
"If this was truly the wasteland, all I would need is five thousand points to repair these damaged parts and I wouldn"t be in such a mess right now!"
While he was in danger earlier, he could have summoned the system.
In this simulated world, however, he was not sure if the system was blocked, or was just too lazy to come out, because no matter how much Su Mo tried to summon it, nothing happened.
After he got all his tools, there was not much to repair as Hope One"s power transmission cables were all embedded in the steel plates.
Even without the help of the robot workers, Su Mo managed to make temporary repairs to the broken parts by fumbling around a little bit.
The longest these temporary repairs would last was probably three to five days, and the shortest probably at least one or two days, before it completely fell apart. Even so, it was more than enough time for the current situation he was in!
Tss...
Bang!
With the main switch turned on again, the entire energy circuit first underwent a slow process of self-diagnosis, as Su Mo watched expectantly, before it showed that everything was perfect and that it was able to function steadily!
With the power restored, the spotlights that had previously been turned off due to the temporary power cut began to slowly turn back on again.
"Hehe, three of the eight spotlights survived. Not bad. Not bad at all."
As he watched the deck light up outside, Su Mo let out a loud laugh. It was a silver lining and the gloom he had felt during the previous rainstorm was all gone.
It had been a tough ride, but he still managed to pull through!
Compared to the torrential rainstorm, sailing out to sea was going to be easy-peasy!
After Su Mo turned around and wiped off all the water on the dashboard, he climbed up with the help of the steel frame and managed to take down the monitor he had thrown up earlier, and rebooted the operating system.
At the moment, he was going into this blind without the fire-control radar"s topographical scanning or the cameras transmitting data for real-time image a.n.a.lysis.
The only thing he had were the four sensory radars mounted on all sides of the hull which could detect terrain up 50 meters away from Hope One, which would provide him with some rudimentary data.
In order to sail out to sea, he had to switch it to manual mode. It was up to Su Mo to judge when he should launch it based on the minimal data he had and the actual situation he could see outside!
"The waterline level on the left side of Hope One is now 3.84 meters and the right side is now at 3.15 meters. Even though the difference of nearly 0.7 meters is kind of bad, this will have to do for now!"
"OS, when the water level on the left side is at 4.14m, launch the s.h.i.+p on the slideway!"