Shrouded Seascape

Charles felt uneasy for some reason upon sensing the laptop's growing heat. A simple video call couldn't possibly put a ton of strain on the CPU to the extent that its fan would spin desperately just to cool it down.

Charles glanced at the computer screen and saw Johnson seemingly in deep contemplation. Moments later, Charles reached out a trembling hand and pressed the Ctrl, Shift, and Esc buttons at the same time to open the Task Manager.

However, not a single window popped up to Charles' surprise. He couldn't see anything else aside from Johnson's face.

"What are you trying to do?" Johnson asked.

Charles' heart skipped a beat at Johnson's voice. He immediately tried to shrug it off, acting nonchalant as he replied, "I was just curious. It's been a long time since I saw a computer, after all. Anyway, have you thought it over?

"Just give me any clues to the key, and we'll go to the surface world together."

"You're right," Johnson's voice was solemn as he said, "We do know that we're below the surface, and we've been looking for a chance to go up to the surface. But regardless of the authenticity of your words, it is unfortunate that we really do not have a colossal key here."

Charles grimaced, seemingly furious.

Johnson saw that and hurriedly added, "However, I talked to the mayor just now, and he has allowed you to look around Island 68 yourself if you do not believe my words. However, you and your subordinates must answer all of our questions."

"Oh?" Charles was delighted. Regardless of the condition, he was willing to fulfill it so long as he could obtain new leads that would lead him to the colossal key. As expected, diplomacy was only possible if both parties were equally strong.

"I accept your condition," Charles responded.

Soon, Charles found himself in an identical room as earlier. The only difference was that he was no longer shackled and that there were people sitting across from him in front of a long table. The individuals held tables and wore serious expressions while staring at Charles.

"Mr. Charles, please answer our questions truthfully. Your honesty will definitely help both of us," a woman with silver earrings dangling from her lobes said, shattering the silence.

"Ask away. And hurry up so I can go and look for the key," Charles replied, hugging Sparkle in her little girl form.

Charles had nothing to hide and was willing to answer them honestly. After all, he wasn't some kind of individual with illicit underground businesses, nor he had any information to protect with his life.

The woman swiped on the tablet and showed the screen to Charles. The display depicted a few pages of Charles' diary.

"Mr. Charles, answer me honestly. What characters are these?"

"Those are Chinese characters. Have you never seen them before? I guess the Foundation has truly broken apart. Wait, are you even from the Foundation?"

Charles gave Sparkle's little arm a gentle pinch, and her arm abruptly dispersed into slime before reforming into a beige-colored tentacle that wrapped around Charles. Sparkle giggled at the tangled Charles.

The woman wearing silver earrings seemed to find it difficult to accept the scene before her. She took a few breaths to calm herself down before continuing with her next question.

"These characters don't seem to be among the widely-used scripts in the Subterranean Sea. Can you tell me where you learned these characters?"

"How do you know that it's not a widely-used script in the Subterranean Sea? It seems that you've sent quite a few people outside to gather intelligence," Charles said. Then, his eyes narrowed into slits as he leaned forward and asked, "Perhaps one of those people you've sent out goes by the name of Feuerbach?"

"Mr. Charles, I'm the one asking the questions here. Please abide by your agreement with the mayor."

"Answer my question!" Charles roared as he slammed his hand on the table. A huge dent appeared on the metal surface of the long table, and a violent tremor ran across the four individuals sitting across from him.

The surrounding glass walls suddenly became transparent, and Charles saw the barrels of a variety of firearms pointing at him. The atmosphere, which had eased ever so slightly, was slowly becoming tense once more.

The woman wearing silver earrings pressed on her wireless earpiece and listened quietly for a while. Then, she looked up at Charles, and she sounded sincere as she said, "Mr. Charles, we can answer that question. However, may I remind you that you'd best not destroy the hard-earned peace between us.

"We also believe that violence should always be the last resort, regardless of the circumstances."

The glass walls turned white once again; the firearms vanished, but Charles knew that the firearms had not budged an inch and were still aimed at his vitals.

"Is someone called Feuerbach one of the people you've sent out?" Charles asked once more. His second mate's special ability to breathe underwater and his modern gun made it clear to Charles that he was from Island 68.

"No. We generally don't go out to gather information ourselves as the variety of anomalies outside is simply too huge. Most of the time, we capture outsiders and bring them in here, just like you and your group."

Charles let out a sigh of relief. The possibility of them deceiving him was very low, which meant Charles had simply misunderstood Feuerbach. It seemed that he needed to have a good talk with his second mate upon his return.

"If you have any more questions, then ask away," Charles said, sitting back down and waiting patiently for their questions.

They proceeded to ask Charles questions about his origins, and he answered them truthfully. They appeared surprised upon learning that Charles was from the surface world, and they started asking questions related to it.

However, they seemed to have received some kind of directive, which prompted them to ask questions about the organizations and forces of the Subterranean Sea, such as how powerful those organizations were and the status quo of the Subterranean Sea's islands.

Charles answered those questions without stopping, as he truly had nothing to conceal when it came to that topic. He also didn't really think that those pieces of information were particularly important.

After all, they could easily obtain such information by capturing a sailor at sea.

The question-and-answer portion passed quickly, and as they reached the end of the back-and-forth, the four people across from Charles whispered to each other while glancing at their tablets.

Charles played with Sparkle, acting like he was unconcerned. However, he was eavesdropping with them using his keen ears.

"Director, there aren't any abnormalities with the polygraph. It says that he's not lying."

"Let's not trust him too much. Compare that data with the data that we had obtained from the other subjects."

The four people soon became engrossed in their discussion, but Charles was already getting impatient.

"Hey," Charles said, attracting their attention. "I already told you everything that I know. Don't you think it's your turn to fulfill your end of the agreement?"

An audible click echoed just then, and the nearby door opened. Captain Parker walked into the room with a bracelet in hand.

"We'll let you proceed with your search, but we want you to wear this as a precaution," Parker said.

"What's inside that thing?" Charles asked, sounding curious.

"It's a wireless bracelet with a vial of sodium cyanide inside a syringe. Threaten the lives of the islanders here, and you'll die with just a press of a switch," Parker warned sternly.

Charles merely glanced at the silver square bracelet before snatching it away from Parker's hand and putting it on his wrist. "Come on, let's hurry up and go. I'm starting to get a bit impatient."

Parker was caught off guard by Charles' straightforward actions. "Are you not afraid that we might arbitrarily press the kill switch?"

"Do I look like someone who's afraid of death? Go ahead and do as you wish. If I die, my daughter here will be very sad. My life in exchange for the lives of everyone on this island—that doesn't sound like a bad deal to me."

With that, Charles ignored Parker and walked out through the open door.