If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon.

The door of the temporary war conference room was pushed open. Ye Sheng and Aji walked in with their heads down from the wind and rain outside. They turned around and tried to close the door with a "bang" to cut off the noise of the heavy rain outside.

"Sorry, we are late. Aki and I took a nap in our room. We originally thought the meeting would not start until tomorrow morning." Ye Sheng let go of the door handle with his right hand and exhaled softly, turning to look at the combat conference room. Mance and others who had been waiting for a long time nodded slightly.

Rain kept slipping from the hoods of Ye Sheng and Ya Ji's raincoats. Mance, who was standing in front of the tactical board, glanced at them, "The plan is indeed tomorrow morning, but the reinforcements arrived early, and the meeting was naturally moved forward. After all, we had already I’ve always said we don’t have much time.”

"yes."

"はい(hai)."

Ye Sheng and Aji answered at the same time, taking off their raincoats and hanging them on the hangers, revealing the black diving suits they had worn before coming in. The light in the room hit the dark neoprene clothing. There is a dark light flowing on the upper body, and there is the mark of the half-decayed World Tree on the chest, which means that this body is produced by the equipment department.

At the same time, Ye Sheng also observed the people waiting in the war conference room. Professor Mance and Thelma need not go into details. Professor Jiang Peijiu was also sitting in the corner and nodded slightly to the two of them who came in, but it was a bit surprising. The noble lady of the Chen family and "Key" were actually allowed to sit at the table and listen to the tactical plan. But what attracted the most attention to the two of them was the other figure who had never appeared on the Monyach. He was facing away from the two of them and carefully watching the underwater strategy drawn on the tactical board. picture.

"Ye Sheng, Yaji." Mance called out the names of the two main diving students. The two of them responded and stepped forward to stand upright in front of the table. When they saw him, he gave a slight gesture to the back of the black trench coat next to him for introduction. , "Lin Nian."

Lin Nian interrupted his thoughts of looking at the tactical board and turned to look at the two familiar seniors and seniors from the execution department behind the table, and nodded lightly, "We have met before."

The three of them had indeed met. In front of the bar in Brooklyn, New York, Ye Sheng and Aji still remembered it. At this time, a little understanding appeared in their eyes. It seemed that they remembered what Lin Nian said at that time. quite metaphorical words.

"Since we know each other, I don't need to introduce you. Even graduates rarely don't know you, unless they are commissioners who are sent to areas isolated from the Internet all year round." Mance glanced at the people in the room, "But there are still many By the way, Lin Nian joins the operation as deputy executive officer this time, and under special circumstances he can replace the first officer and take over my command."

"Commissioner Lin." Ye Sheng and Yaji looked at Lin Nian but nodded and said hello seriously. In this operation, the two of them were temporary subordinates of this boy who was much younger than them.

"I will only command and give orders in the profession that I am proficient in. Captain Mance still has the final say in general actions, and everyone performs his or her own duties," Lin Nian said.

"It couldn't be better," Mance said, his face calm.

"This mission will probably be a lot safer with an 'S' class in charge?" Selma said with a smile, which was a bit of a relief from the serious atmosphere caused by Professor Mance's own habits.

Just when Mance was about to reprimand Thelma, Lin Nian spoke first, "If sending an 'S' class can safely solve the suspected secret mission about the Dragon King, then the Dragon King's War will not seem so serious and scary. I It's not omnipotent. Although I feel a little dejected by what I said next, it is the truth. Don't believe too much that I can solve the things under the Yangtze River. I have no experience in meeting the four monarchs. I can't say how the situation will develop by then. must."

"The Dragon King may not have hatched yet. Norton, the King of Bronze and Fire, was a violent monarch in history. The more pure-blooded the Dragon King is, the more he hates human civilization. If he really hatches, he will rush out of the river as soon as possible to release the dragon king. Forbidden words and spirits." Jiang Peijiu spoke in the corner, Lin Nian cast his eyes on her, and she nodded slightly.

"'Word Spirit·Zhulong'? It is indeed a very troublesome word spirit. 'Rhine' at the same level is suspected to be the top-secret word spirit that caused the Tunguska explosion." Young Lin nodded lightly, "But let's take a step back. If Norton hatches and I drag him to death under the river, even if the 'Candle Dragon' is released, the damage will be kept to a minimum, right?"

"But it is inevitable to evaporate a large section of the river. The shock wave may also cause underwater earthquakes and the collapse of the surrounding mountain gorges. If this happens, it can be explained by earthquakes." Jiang Peijiu nodded, "But if that happens If it happens, you will definitely be dead, no one can survive within the core range of a word spirit explosion like the 'Zhulong'."

"If that happens, I'm sure to escape, unless something unexpected happens and I have to stay." Lin Nian shook his head and said.

‘Snap’? Jiang Peijiu knew that the speech spirit of this flourishing 'S' student might not be able to escape in that situation if it was the ultimate instant, but could the 'initial' underwater also display the same extreme speed as on land? She didn't know, but when she saw Lin Nian didn't want to argue on this topic, she didn't ask. She just nodded quietly and continued to think about this issue.

"Hey, ladies and gentlemen." Mance clapped his hands to attract attention and said calmly, "The most priority assumption in the operation is that His Highness Norton has not yet recovered and is still hiding in the 'cocoon' of transformation. Don't forget that our The first goal of this operation is to find the 'cocoon' in the Bronze City and achieve the glorious deed of being the first human being to 'capture' the Dragon King alive."

"I have never directly seen a dragon's 'cocoon'." Lin Nian said thoughtfully, "But if I were the Dragon King, my incubation place must be full of institutions. If there are enough manpower, it will naturally be guarded by the Forbidden Army. It is worthy of being the incubation place of the Dragon King. Winning his 'cocoon' will be as difficult as the ancient Greek hero Hercules passing through the twelve trials."

"This is also the crux of the problem, and that's why we didn't break through the underground rock formation immediately." Mansi folded his hands and looked at the tactical board, which used drawings to analyze the structure of the underwater rock formation and the implementation of the drilling machine's excavation. Progress, the scale conversion is annotated in the lower right corner. The tactical map, which is updated every hour, has not been touched for half a day. The drilling progress of the drilling machine has stopped at 38 meters.

"We still have two and a half meters of excavation progress before we can drill through the rock formations and build a passage leading to a huge underground building. If it goes any deeper, I'm afraid the water pressure will collapse the geology. These rock formations are not particularly hard after crustal activity. Therefore, the excavation progress is also very fast. If we want to dig through it, we can dig through it within an hour." Mance raised his hand and pointed to the tactical board to explain.

"Have you confirmed that Bronze City is under the rock formation?" Even though he had received part of the situation here summarized by the execution department before coming, Lin Nian still asked one more question.

"Professor Jiang Peijiu has located this area of ​​water through Feng Shui surveys several times. The sonar observer has also determined that there are huge buildings underground. They are not caves or naturally created terrain. The underground buildings are very complex. The supercomputer modeling place Eighty-five percent of the outline revealed after removing possible growths in the rock formations is consistent with the 'city'." Mansi said, "In addition, after we drilled a 38-meter hole, we sent Ye Sheng and Yaji After diving down, at the place closest to the ground, we asked Ye Sheng to release the 'snake'. Ye Sheng, tell him what you sensed."

"A huge amount of bronze." Ye Sheng looked at Lin Nian and said, "I felt that the 'snake' was extremely active after breaking through the rock formation. Only a very good conductor can provide this activity. After getting out of the water, I was in a variety of conductors. We conducted simulation experiments, and in the end the ones that were more than 90% similar were fragments of bronze artifacts that we bought at antique markets on both sides of the river."

"In other words, the underground buildings are indeed made of bronze. What is the maximum extension range of your snake?" Lin Nian asked.

"Three thousand feet, close to the limit of 1,000 meters, double that if extended in one direction."

"It seems there is no misjudgment." Lin Nian nodded, this was the information he had to confirm, "Ya Ji, I remember that your word spirit can disturb the water flow. How fast can you move underwater in complex situations? "

"Faster than ordinary fish." Ye Sheng answered this question for Jiude Aki, "At least I never beat her during training."

"The terrain in the Bronze City will be very complicated. At least from my experience, every dragon's lair is a maze. This is also to be expected. Sonar detection can only detect the outline, and the detailed internal structure map can only It can be entered and drawn by divers," Jiang Peijiu said.

"Can 'Snake' be used as a map guide to find the way?" Lin Nian suddenly asked.

"No. Snakes do not spread in the way of radar. You can imagine that they are biological currents. When I tried to explore the terrain of Bronze City, I only felt that I had entered a huge maze. In some areas, snakes cannot even penetrate. Toru, I suspect that there is an alchemical matrix carved in ancient times that repels the power of the spirit." Ye Sheng shook his head.

"It is both a maze and a treasure. This is a mythical city built by the first generation species. It must contain treasures of knowledge that will allow hybrid species to achieve a leap forward in their current technology. So I wish this city would be more complex and huge." Jiang Peijiu He held a tea cigarette between his fingers but did not light it. He was probably taking care of the baby in the lady's arms.

"This is also the difficulty of the plan. We don't know the internal structure of Bronze City. We need divers to enter and slowly search for the location of the 'Cocoon'. Even Norma can't predict the time it will take." Mance said in a deep voice.

"Oxygen is a big problem. Once you get lost in Baidi City, no matter how many people go in, they will die." Lin Nian said.

"When divers enter the water, there will be a traction rope and signal line connected to the winch on the Monyach. If a big problem occurs, we can quickly pull back. The divers can also follow the diagram on the traction rope behind to find their way home. It is unlikely that Lost,” Mance said.

Lin Nian glanced at Ye Sheng and Ya Ji, "What about underwater combat? You must be ready to meet the enemy, right?"

"Underwater buildings are divided into interior and exterior. After breaking through the rock formation, we arrived not inside the Bronze City, but outside the Bronze City. The 'Snake' did not capture any heartbeats outside the Bronze City. It was very quiet under the rock formation, and we did not exist. In the expected 'ecosystem', the existence of dangerous dragon-like species can basically be ruled out. This is a relatively lucky thing." Mance raised his head slightly, "What we should be concerned about is that after opening the gate of the Bronze City, there is something hidden inside. What is truly unknown – this is your time to step in.”

ps: There are also today’s ones.