under the mask

On the third day of the back-to-school day, Abel checked the big sword, and then retracted the weapon twist.Li Wei maintained both his and Jacob's great swords, and also upgraded the energy tank on the great swords, making them easier to use.

"Brother, I always feel something is wrong." Jacob sat cross-legged on the carpet beside the bed, rubbing his chin in distress, "What do you mean by what that pervert said to my dear?"

"What do you mean?" Abel opened the closet expressionlessly and put on a T-shirt on his body: "How dare you provoke the relationship between husband and wife, you are a fucking scum!" Thinking of this, he became angry, and even made Li Wei Stay away from them?And say it's for their own good?How many fucks! !

But when he was angry, Jacob felt uncomfortable, and he was not much better.Their sixth sense is often comparable to radar, glued together with instinct, it is impossible to ignore.

"...I'll send you the coordinates when the time comes, and you stay nearby just in case." Abel lifted his trousers, frowned and said, "Put those ear studs on too, I guess they will use another military channel communicate."

"Oh, got it." Jacob got up and pulled out a triple-space compressed suitcase from the closet. After decoding it, he took out the brass jewelry box that Levi gave them. The two pairs of earrings inside had been modified to receive to twelve encrypted channels for military use.He tossed Abel's ruby ​​studs over and put on the opal ones.

Abel took the earrings and put them on angrily and said: "That pervert may know something, he told his wife not to be with us... That means 'we' will be in danger. You don't want to contact Lynn and the others for now, now I still don't know which link is wrong, do you hear me?"

"Understood!" Jacob rolled his eyes and threw his boots to him: "Number One also said that Lynn and us are a cooperative relationship, not our good comrade!"

At [-]:[-] a.m., all personnel assembled on the basement floor of the Biotechnology Building.

This is an underground space covering an area of ​​nearly [-] square meters. Two-thirds of the ground area is a bottomless black pool. After entering the water, you can go through an underwater passage and directly enter the Sea of ​​Death.Of course, this special entrance and exit is absolutely safe. The exit connected to the Sea of ​​Death is close to the sea surface, and it is a very hidden reef entrance.

At this time, there were two huge monsters floating on the wide water surface, with their huge fusiform heads protruding from the water, those huge arms and legs protruding ferociously around the head, they remained calm, and their whole bodies were covered with disgusting gray sticky Gel-like skin, terrifying compound eyes staring silently at the water's surface from underwater, it's like a creature from a nightmare.

The ground of the basement, which was almost parallel to the water surface, was damp and cold. Seven or eight soldiers carried boxes containing supplies back and forth, and walked into the monster's head along a long gray matter arm.The rest of the staff stood around the basement in twos and threes, the researchers of the research institute gathered in a corner and talked in a low voice, and the ten students stood silently on the side away from the water, looking at each other silently.None of them wanted to get close to the black water in the distance. It looked terrible, as if something would burst out of the water at any moment... Disgusting things, just like the two "monster" detection ships they had to ride in later.

Li Wei leaned against Abel and was half-wrapped in his coat, and glanced at the girl standing alone.After just a few days of vacation, Emilia lost a lot of weight. The roundness of a girl turned into something overly mature and sharp. It reminded him of Mrs. Elizabeth and made him feel very uncomfortable.

"Good morning everyone, here, this is for you... Everyone take one..." Qiao smiled and walked to the students to distribute the military built-in communicator, and at the same time ticked on the electronic sign-in board.He was wearing a uniform military-style waterproof suit, but his protruding belly made his attire look a bit nondescript. In such a cold weather, he was so hot that he was smoking. From time to time, he took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the fine sweat from his nose and forehead.

"It's all here," he breathed a sigh of relief, put away the sign-in board, looked at the students in front of him in confusion, and said, "Huh? Why don't you put on the communicators?"

Everyone lowered their heads in a daze, looking at the transparent colloidal bead smaller than a grain of wheat in their palms.This thing has no sense of existence in the palm of the hand, even if it is stuffed into the ear hole, it will just fall in and can't be pulled out again...

Joe scratched the top of his half-bald head in embarrassment: "Don't you guys know how to use this?"

No one speaks.

Joe had to cough a few times, twisted the bead and held it up to him, explaining to the students: "This is a built-in disposable communicator, look..." He pinched the bead up and down with two fingers and exerted force, and the transparent colloidal bead emitted an extremely loud sound. The subtle sound is like the fruit of some plant being squashed.Everyone squinted their eyes and came forward, only to find that there are many fine and dense glass fiber-like burrs around this too small bead, and it seems that it can still move when you look closely.

The chubby director carefully moved the bead towards his earlobe. The moment he touched it, his whole body twitched. The bead penetrated into his skin like a moving worm, and the earlobe bulged slightly. A little, a little red light through the thin skin.

"It's just a little stimulation like an electric shock..." Joe seemed to feel itchy, and scratched his neck unconsciously: "Don't worry, everyone, this one doesn't hurt at all, it's a one-off, and it will automatically decompose after six hours..."

Li Wei trembled all over, and couldn't help shrinking back.He hates bugs...or anything like them!He was slandering in his heart, when he heard a certain boy's deep and joking laughter, he couldn't help being very annoyed.

"Oh shit——" Abel felt extremely sad, and he hugged Li Wei's waist tightly and begged for mercy in a low voice: "My wife let go, I'm wrong, can't I make a mistake? It hurts——"

Li Wei withdrew his hand from behind without changing his face. Damn it, you don't know which corner you are staying in when Lao Tzu laughs. How dare you laugh at Lao Tzu!

"I said, at least you should restrain yourself a little bit," Seth leaned against the wall with his arms folded, his freshly shaved short blue hair covered his scalp lightly, and his temperament was completely different, much more powerful: "It's annoying. ..."

Li Wei glanced at him sullenly: "Shaving such a monk's head...was he dumped? Jealousy?"

Seth kept his mouth shut.

"Hey, Li Wei, there seems to be a shortage of someone," Nicholas walked over, "is that guy from the Verdecourt family?"

"He's different from us." Seth put on the communicator and said casually, "Scott is a proud student of Russell Hels, a member of 'Pallard'."

"'Pallard'?" Levi frowned, he seemed to have heard Hall mention this strangely pronounced word before...

"The intelligence agency of the empire." Abel whispered in his ear: "The eyes and ears of the royal family and the cabinet."

Li Wei was surprised.Isn't this an agency like the CIA?Of course, as long as there is political power, there must be such an institution, but what surprised him was Scott Verdecourt, the young heir of the Verdecourt family among the five major families.He only saw Scott last time, but he didn't leave any clear impression. He only felt that the other party was taciturn and didn't look like a nobleman at all.Li Wei always thought that this senior was just doing an internship in a military garrison, but thinking about it, there must be a special reason for being awarded the rank of second lieutenant before graduation.

"He doesn't seem to be a student at the military academy," Nicholas said thoughtfully, "I heard that he studied interstellar network communication engineering...how did he get together with that Russell? He even entered 'there' ?”

"If you are curious about my past, we can meet in private." The cold male voice sounded suddenly, without any warning.

Nicholas turned around quickly in shock, and saw Scott standing behind him wearing a long military uniform, his short blond hair was slightly exposed outside the military cap, and his eyes covered by the black brim were looking down at him, as if looking at something humble and dirty. Like the bugs.

A wave of evil fire shot straight into his head, he clenched his fists fiercely until the skin on the back of his hands was so painful that he could barely restrain himself, turned around stiffly and walked a few steps quickly.Oh shit!Oh shit! !

The students suddenly fell silent, only Pompey, who was also leaning against the wall, let out a sneer.

Scott shifted his gaze to Pompey for a second, then nodded at Seth, turned and walked towards the group of researchers.From the beginning to the end, he didn't look at others, but everyone could feel as if they were being scanned by the camera, and all the secrets were forced to be exposed in the sun.

Li Wei watched the senior leave before he felt his tense back relax.Sure enough, the so-called aura...has nothing to do with age. He has lived in the environment of his previous life for 40 years, and he is not necessarily better than the children of these big nobles. The completely different growth environment...is really a freak.No wonder such a young person can enter the spooky place of the Intelligence Bureau.He turned his head slightly to look at Abel, and found that he was frowning and staring at Scott's back.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a low voice.

Abel hugged Li Wei's arm tightly, not knowing what to say to him.The weird feeling in his heart became more and more obvious, almost making him feel threatened, but what could be wrong?If those guys from the Imperial University had discovered the identities of him and Jacob, wouldn't it be more straightforward to arrest them directly?Why is it necessary to make it so complicated?

No, that's not the problem...

"Is there something wrong?" Li Wei squeezed his chin to force him to look at him, and his voice became softer: "Don't hide it from me."

Abel leaned over and kissed him, and replied in a low voice: "It's okay, it's just that guy makes me feel a little uncomfortable."

Li Wei looked at him suspiciously. At this time, Joe led the researcher and more than a dozen soldiers towards this side, yelling for them to gather to the side of the detection ship.Scott didn't intend to come over to join them, so except him, a total of ten students walked to the water's edge in a line, and boarded the second giant squid-shaped bionic exploration ship one by one.

The well-structured gate gave off a metallic luster. After entering, it was the first sealed cabin. Under the guidance of Joe, the trainees used safety devices to fix their bodies. After everyone entered, the gate was closed to drain water, and the main ballast water tank began to fill with water, and the buoyancy gradually increased. weakened, the underwater detection ship began to dive.Li Wei found that the space began to tilt, and the entire airtight cabin tilted to the right with a slight hum, until it was completely sideways.

He suddenly realized that squid and octopus are obviously different, and this giant squid obviously does not move head-up.They didn't release the safety device until Joe said yes, and carefully stepped on the place where the wall should have been.

The personnel distribution of the two exploration ships is different. All the trainees are on the second ship, while most of the researchers from the Institute of Oceanography are on the first ship. There are seven or eight soldiers on each of the two ships as guards.

"Okay, now everyone can move freely in these three connected airtight cabins, and you can observe the scene below the sea surface through the observation windows on both sides," Qiao said with a smile: "Believe me, this is an extremely rare opportunity. You won't regret it."

After he finished speaking, he walked forward. Levi guessed that it should be the command room of the exploration ship, and Russell should be there.That Scott also followed Russell onto the ship.

"Look." Abel took his hand and tugged.

Li Wei looked back, and the metal wall that should have been a pressure-resistant shell slowly rose, exposing a part of the transparent glass surface. This should be the kind of coated SLR glass, but it has been treated with pressure resistance and is specially used for underwater observation. .

Several students exclaimed and gathered in front of the observation windows on both sides.Li Wei thought for a while, talked to Abel, and walked towards Emilia.

"Hi." He greeted cautiously.

Emilia turned her head, her blue eyes stood out even more on her thin face, but she was expressionless.

She nodded slightly to Li Wei, but still did not speak.

Li Wei's heart sank, knowing that the worst result had happened.Not so long ago, when they were together without talking, it would not be like this now, Emilia gave him the feeling that she didn't exist at all...

He was ashamed of his previous hesitation.

"You don't have to feel guilty." Amelia said suddenly, her voice hoarse.She stared at the dark blue water pattern outside the observation window, and said softly: "You, I said it before... Sometimes we are in a dilemma... because we stand too low..."

She pursed her lips: "I know I'm too weak, so I can't resist...but...I'll be fine."

Li Wei was silent.In fact, they are all like this, because they are too humble, so they have to abide by the rules of this world, trying to go up against the current, and the dragon gate does not know where it is.This struggle is indeed difficult, but is it okay not to work hard?Even a fish, if it does not wag its tail in the water, will sink like a drowning person.

"If you need help, come to me." He said solemnly.

Amelia showed a small smile, and there was a trace of familiar vitality on her cold and pale face.

When she looked outside, she always felt that she saw a familiar face in the dark blue water waves, so familiar that her nasal cavity was sore, and she had the urge to cry.Several times, she almost wanted to lean on that person's shoulder, just a little bit, just a little bit...

When I pinched the cute animal with my own hands, I realized that the knowledge with a well-thought-out plan is so floating, and the ideal of wanting to enter the army is pale and naive, and the first whip in my hand fell on the same body as myself, so I realized that the original self is really true. Very well protected.She was very scared, afraid that she would become like her grandmother, wrapping herself layer by layer with other people's blood, and even a thick layer of calluses grew on the outside of her heart... Now she has trouble sleeping, and she always feels that there is death in her hands. The fur of the animal, and the wet and sticky feeling... the whole body is cold and numb.

However, there is still a fire in her heart, and it will be able to burn again someday.

Li Wei pretended not to see the water on the ground, turned around and walked towards Abel.The ten-year friendship between him and Amelia will come to an end temporarily... Amelia is working hard, and he should also do the same.

He felt a little gloomy when he thought that he hadn't received a message from Kashgar for the entire holiday.

Abel raised his hand and pressed the ruby ​​earring on one earlobe.There was a slight electric sound in his ears, proving that he had successfully tuned to the same channel. He raised the corner of his mouth, bowed his head and sent out the coordinates.As for the communicator sent earlier, he had already thrown it into the water.

Two exploration ships in the shape of giant squids swam through the long passage, passed through a distance of coral reef caves, and finally entered the icy and magnificent sea of ​​death.Two giant squids passed through a school of silver swordfish leisurely, their ten arms and legs were swinging in front of them, moving forward one shuttle at a time.

At the same time, on the reef islands on the side of the Sea of ​​Death, a red-haired figure lay motionless in a dry cave, crossing his legs and closing his eyes to rest.There was a buzzing vibration from the communicator. He squinted his eyes and raised his wrist to look, and began to use the communicator to locate.