The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei calmed down and stopped punching the Manta as it was already dying. He immediately came to his senses and realized the danger of dying at any second. Instantly, he activated the Wave Force Armor’s Wave Barrier that could help reduce all incoming damage for thirty seconds. However, this puny barrier could only sustain one or two attacks from the Void Manta before breaking it. Even so, it was still extremely useful in dire situations, such as now.

The barrier that 0541 had erected was left with only 1% integrity. One more attack would instantly shatter it. If, however, the barrier was not destroyed, 0541 could restore the barrier’s integrity over time. Restarting the barrier would take a long time and Jiang Fei would almost certainly die in less than a second if the barrier was destroyed.

Once Wave Barrier was put on, Jiang Fei relaxed even more and paid attention to the dying Void Manta. After countless punches landed on the Void Manta, Jiang Fei had dealt a substantial amount of damage to blind the beast in both eyes. Additionally, the Void Manta was punched into an unconscious state. Its attacks were not intentional but of instinct. Even so, if Jiang Fei continued to deliver punches after punches, Jiang Fei would die before the Manta did.

When Jiang Fei was in trance, he had attacked the Manta continuously for more than a minute. The current condition of the Void Manta was fatal. If it was a human, it would have died so many times over. On the other hand, this unworldly beast would not only recover with time, but it could also regrow its lost eyes!

Knowing that, Jiang Fei would naturally not want the beast to recover at all.

“Time to die!”

With a conscious mind, Jiang Fei had decided to rely on the sword’s attack instead of punching blindly. At most, the Armor Piercing Cannon could be used again in less than a minute.

“Armor Piercing Cannon ready to be used sir,” said 0541.

“Hasta la vista, baby!”

Jiang Fei triggered the sword and a powerful beam blasted off.

The sword was still halfway through the Manta. The “muzzle” of the sword was right inside the Void Manta and if Jiang Fei fired the sword, it would be more than a point-blank range; a literal implosion!

Just after Jiang Fei had fired the Armor Piercing Cannon, the Void Manta expanded like a balloon that was about to explode. Contrary to what Jiang Fei had expected, the Void Manta did not collapse inward but expanded! At this point, the only thing that was keeping the Void Manta from exploding was its tough external carapace-like skin.

Even though Jiang Fei could not see anything from the outside, the insides of the Manta was completely mushed. As strong as a being was, once the insides of the Void Manta was destroyed, it immediately perished without too much of a squeak.

“Congratulations, Captain! You have defeated the enemy,” 0541 reported after scanning the Manta to make sure that it was dead and stayed that way.

“Phew… That was an unworldly battle…”

Being inside the wetsuit, Jiang Fei could tell that he was literally swimming in his own sweat. 0541 detected that and immediately expelled it from his suit. Only after the battle was over did Jiang Fei finally realized that he was too reckless. If he had not snapped back to reality earlier, Jiang Fei would have been killed by the Void Manta.

The Wave Barrier that was erected remained undamaged for thirty seconds and in that time, 0541 had managed to restore the barrier integrity to 15%. Although it was still fragile as it was, Jiang Fei was safe to dive as long as he did not take any attacks.

“How much is your power reserves?” asked Jiang Fei as he continued to dive.

“It’s less than 30%, Captain. Restoring the barrier would still require me to use 5% more power,” said 0541.

“Alright,” Jiang Fei replied and nodded. Restoring the barrier was important to him as it was the only thing that separated him and certain crushing death.

“Captain, it is recommended to store the corpse of the Void Manta. It is a good material for me to make you a potion to further increase your strength!” said 0541 before Jiang Fei leaving the corpse.

“Oh!?”

Jiang Fei was delighted. Like what he did back then with the four Level 4 bodies of Ye Zhangfa’s hired muscle, 0541 could use them to craft a power-up serum to strengthen Jiang Fei’s power level. However, Jiang Fei was a young man. Using human blood to increase his own strength was too gruesome. On the other hand, a beast as a replacement was something else entirely. He would gladly use as many of them to increase his own strength.

“Captain, the beast is not a replacement but a more powerful material entirely. The beast’s muscle and power are much stronger than of human’s. Hence, using them to make the potions would be much more effective.”

“How much more effective are we talking about?’ asked Jiang Fei.

“It is estimated that the potion made from the Void Manta could increase your energy level from intermediate Level 3 to beginner Level 4!”

“Get out… Are you saying that one Void Manta is better than four Level 4 Metahumans?” cried Jiang Fei, surprised. If 0541 was certain about the Void Manta, Jiang Fei was picking up the “whalesome” loot after the battle! Just like in the game!

“It is correct, Captain,” said 0541, confirming Jiang Fei’s question.

“Alright, please start the process as soon as you can. Let’s continue with the dive then,” said Jiang Fei after he had stored the Void Manta’s dead corpsed into the ring.

If there was no appearance of random monsters on his way down to the deepest part of the world, the journey would be smooth sailing from there on out. To be honest, Jiang Fei hoped that there would not be any more incidents.

After twenty minutes of diving, Jiang Fei had finally set foot on the Challenger’s Deep. Besides the dirt that he was standing on, Jiang Fei could not see anything else. He was hoping to see something like an underwater world!

“0541, where is the Bridge?” said Jiang Fei after he had searched the surrounding and found nothing.

“Captain, you must realize that the Bridge had been here for several centuries. Humans had made much progress since and made their way down here. If you could search for it, others would have already picked it up,” said 0541 as it attempted to make a joke.

“That’s very funny. Hahahaha…” said Jiang Fei as he pretended to laugh sarcastically.

After a few seconds, 0541 reported,” Captain, I have successfully established connection with the Bridge. Removing the optical camouflage system…”

Bzzz…

Particles lit up and faded almost instantly, revealing a huge broken vessel that was only several meters away from where Jiang Fei was. The entire structure was leaning against the trench wall. Even without the optical camouflage, the Bridge did not stand out as centuries of dust and sand had completely covered it.

“Opening the doors,” said 0541 again.

Several meters above Jiang Fei, a sliding door popped out and opened. It was easy to find the door since the inner lights of the vessel were bright like a beacon.

After Jiang Fei entered the door, 0541 sealed the entrance. Jiang Fei had to walk through two safety chambers. The first one was only a smaller room which expelled all the water from outside. The second chamber was the only space that acted as a buffer to separate the inside of the Bridge and outside.

As soon as Jiang Fei walked through the second chamber, he was greeted with a spacious room. Everything was familiar as Jiang Fei had already been inside of other parts of the ship. In the ship, Jiang Fei removed the wetsuit and could finally breathe normally.

“I’ve finally made it back…” said 0541 as it was emotional. The artificial intelligence originated from this ship. As he had been away for at least 7,000 years, the feeling of coming back to the Bridge was similar to Jiang Fei going back to his house.