Super Invincible Battleship

38  Chapter 31: Undersea Stealth

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The Quantum Radar technology was incredibly advanced, allowing for ultra-long-distance scanning, even capable of penetrating large obstacles like mountains—only the energy consumption was enormous. If the maximum distance omnidirectional scan were activated, the energy points consumed would be astronomical, which the Drone's energy points could hardly support.

However, when the Quantum Radar narrowed its scanning range to a very small radius and used it to connect to the Network World, as well as perform various data uploads and downloads, the energy consumption was still huge, but Yan Fei was now able to afford it, which was why he used the Quantum Radar to connect to the network.

The Auxiliary Brain connected to the internet through the Quantum Radar, allowing for very fast data upload and download speeds. So after downloading language data from various countries, through its powerful calculation ability, it decoded all the linguistic knowledge in the world, enabling it to read all the documentary data in the world.

Afterward, the Auxiliary Brain continued to download various files from the internet, storing these files in the Intelligent Brain's database. Next, it categorized and summarized this data, then extrapolated the technologies they contained to supplement its own Technology Tree.

While languages were quickly decoded, it didn't mean that other technologies could also be decoded swiftly. This was because all the language rules could be found on the internet without any secrets. As long as enough language use methods were collected, the linguistic technology could be decoded and fully mastered.

Although technological knowledge could also be found online, most of them were very general, with only a basic introduction. Many specific details were deliberately hidden, so the Auxiliary Brain had to simulate those deliberately obscured details with its powerful calculation ability to extrapolate the complete technology.

The Auxiliary Brain, although advanced, lacked hacking functions and couldn't break through internet restrictions to forcibly obtain others' confidential files. Therefore, it could only download free materials through normal channels or register as a member and pay fees to access confidential materials that could be downloaded. This meant that the documentary data the Auxiliary Brain could download was quite rudimentary, thus it needed to use its calculation ability to simulate experiments to fill in the significant technological gaps.

Because of these limitations, the Auxiliary Brain's analysis of technological techniques was bound to be a long-term process and may not even be fruitful. However, Yan Fei didn't currently have any particular need for technology, so he let the Auxiliary Brain download data on its own from the network, not focusing on this matter for the time being.

The Level 3 Drone's energy had reached 100,000 points, enough to support the Drone flying at maximum speed for five consecutive hours, with a maximum flight distance of 5000 kilometers. With economical cruising speed, the longest flight time could even reach ten hours.

If the Drone was on standby, merely turning on the Quantum Radar to connect to the internet for file transfers, and using the Auxiliary Brain for extensive calculations, the energy points would be sufficient for two hours. Therefore, when the Drone wasn't going out, Yan Fei used the energy points for network connections and technology analysis after ten o'clock every evening, to avoid wasting energy points. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

On the sixth night, Yan Fei lay in bed and activated the Drone in the canyon. The Drone rose silently up the cliff and then flew towards the east at the height of the treetops. The canyon was very close to the sea, less than twenty kilometers away, and within minutes, the Drone arrived at the seaside.

Before, when the Drone Quantum Radar was fully powered, it scanned a terrain map within a radius of 500 kilometers and stored the map in the Auxiliary Brain's database. Now, navigating with this map, the Drone didn't have to worry about getting lost and arrived at its destination with ease.

During the flight, thanks to the Quantum Radar, the Drone avoided all dangers that could expose it. The scope of the Quantum Radar Scan was a half-circle in front of 1 kilometer, keeping the energy points consumption within an acceptable range.

Seeing the vast sea, Yan Fei felt a surge of excitement.

He flew the Drone tonight with the intention to test the Drone's sea entry and underwater capabilities. Because hiding the Drone in the canyon still posed the risk of being detected by satellites above, he had to find a hidden location for the Drone, and the seabed was the perfect docking place.

Yan Fei chose a very remote coastline, with hardly anyone around during the day, and at night, it was even more deserted.

The Drone flew silently towards the sea, and when it got two kilometers away from the coastline, with a thought from Yan Fei, the Drone's nose dipped, and it plunged into the sea water at an angle.

As soon as the Drone entered the sea water, it began to transform. Its slender and straight wings bent backward and the four weapon mounts underneath the wings automatically retracted into the fuselage, turning the entire body into a more streamline shape advantageous for underwater travel. After the Drone transformed, its rear propeller began spinning rapidly, propelling the Drone forward through the sea water at high speed.

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The drone entered the sea, but Yan Fei felt no pressure from the seawater nor any change in temperature; everything was just like flying in the air. Then he realized that due to the light conditions, the drone could only observe objects within a limited distance at the bottom of the sea, but sound collection wasn't affected and, in fact, was even clearer and reached further distances.

Under Yan Fei's control, the drone began to navigate underwater, propelled by the large propeller behind it, maintaining a fast speed. However, compared to its flight speed in the air, the speed at the bottom of the sea was significantly slower.

According to the data shown by the Auxiliary Brain, the drone's fastest speed at the sea bed was only 150 kilometers per hour. Although this speed couldn't compare with its aerial flight, it left other ships far behind in comparison.

Controlling the drone's underwater navigation for the first time gave Yan Fei a very novel sensation. Just like in the air, the drone moved as if it were an extension of his own body, able to perform whatever action he wished. As the drone swiftly advanced underwater, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the Quantum Radar could still be used at the bottom of the sea. However, due to the seawater, the maximum detection range of the Quantum Radar was reduced to 100 kilometers. But for the sea bed, this hundred-kilometer detection range was already more than sufficient.

With the Quantum Radar scan, the seabed's terrain map was precisely displayed in Yan Fei's mind, then recorded by the Auxiliary Brain, serving as a basis for navigation. Although the sea bottom was pitch-black, with the terrain map provided by the Quantum Radar scans, the drone navigated as easily as walking on a broad road during daylight, making it difficult to lose direction.

This area was China's territorial waters, and the average depth of the sea did not exceed 100 meters. But the entire sea appeared somewhat desolate, as the seabed had been emptied of fishery resources due to excessive fishing by fishermen over the years. At least in Yan Fei's Quantum Radar, he had not detected many large fish. However, as he headed towards the deep sea, the variety of marine life gradually began to increase.

When the drone had penetrated a hundred kilometers into the ocean, the sea bed's depth had already exceeded five hundred meters. At this depth, Yan Fei found that it became very difficult for the drone to continue diving deeper. The Auxiliary Brain began to issue warnings, and he immediately realized that he had reached the drone's maximum diving depth — five hundred meters below the sea bed.

Thus, the drone no longer descended and maintained this depth as it rapidly advanced eastward. There were now plenty of marine creatures, with large fish occasionally swimming by the drone. Yan Fei could not directly observe these marine creatures due to the pitch-dark sea bottom. All the marine creatures he saw were shown by the Quantum Radar. In the absence of light, the Quantum Radar became Yan Fei's eyes.

The drone quickly traversed a coral reef, and suddenly, a shark burst out from beneath the reef, baring its sharp teeth and biting towards the drone's wing. Yan Fei was startled, and he tilted the drone to avoid the shark's attack. Then, the drone sped forward, only to find the shark in hot pursuit.

A thought crossed Yan Fei's mind, and he maneuvered the drone to circle in front of him, facing the approaching shark. Unaware of why the drone had suddenly stopped, the shark continued its frantic chase, only to see a flash of fire from the drone's nose, followed by a large hole appearing in its body. With another flash, the shark's body was torn apart, its blood dyeing the surrounding sea water red, and its torn corpse attracted other fish to tear and bite at it.

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A thought crossed Yan Fei's mind, and he maneuvered the drone to circle in front of him, facing the approaching shark. Unaware of why the drone had suddenly stopped, the shark continued its frantic chase, only to see a flash of fire from the drone's nose, followed by a large hole appearing in its body. With another flash, the shark's body was torn apart, its blood dyeing the surrounding sea water red, and its torn corpse attracted other fish to tear and bite at it.

As it turned out, seeing the shark in pursuit, Yan Fei had activated the Vulcan Gun on the drone's nose to attack. A few naval cannon rounds had killed a large shark that had dominated the ocean. Although the missile system was no longer usable after the drone entered the sea, the 730 naval cannon at the nose was still operational. Compared to when in the air, aside from the inability to use incendiary rounds and a shortened attack distance, the 30-millimeter bullets retained their full power.

But to Yan Fei's disappointment, although he had killed a large shark, no Merit Points were added on the virtual control screen. He used the Quantum Radar to scan and found an even larger fish ten kilometers away. The drone quickly moved to that area, the machine gun roared, and he killed the big fish—yet just like before, the drone's Merit Points did not increase, remaining at zero.

Facing such results, Yan Fei was stunned. When the drone was Level 1, even attacking large stray dogs with peas could earn Merit Points, but now killing sharks and large fish much bigger than stray dogs didn't yield any Merit Points? Was it because the drone had leveled up and the difficulty of advancing had increased, meaning that attacking lower-level targets no longer yielded Merit Points? If that really was the case, Yan Fei's wish to acquire Merit Points using the abundant large marine animals was completely dashed.

The weakest Attack Method now available to the drone was the 730 Vulcan Gun at its nose, firing 30-millimeter caliber bullets, immensely powerful, beyond what a person could bear. Even a hit to a part of the body would result in instant death. Moreover, the bullets were fired by igniting ammunition, a force beyond Yan Fei's control, meaning every bullet struck with full force. Essentially, unlike before with the Steel Ball Bullets, Yan Fei could no longer aim for non-vital parts of an enemy or reduce bullet power to earn Merit Points. So, would he need to kill 10,000 enemies before the drone could Upgrade again?

Nevertheless, Yan Fei quickly shook off such thoughts; he was certain he would find a way to level up the drone. He believed that where there's a will, there's a way. Since he had obtained the Drone Avatar, there must be a way to solve this problem.

At Levels 1 and 2, the drone could only rely on killing large animals and humans to obtain Merit Points. At Level 3, large animals could no longer provide Merit for the drone. An enigmatic force seemed to restrict the drone's Upgrading method, leading Yan Fei on a journey he had never contemplated before.

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Thanks to book friends: Crazy Ajun, Dreamlike Water Towns, You're Thinking Too Much, and the Director of Police for their rewards! Also, wishing everyone a Happy