48 Hours a Day

Chapter 912: Falling

Nellie had been watching her back nervously. The monsters were closing up to them at an ungodly speed.

On the other side, however, the three of them were getting closer and closer to the sea above their heads.

For the last part of their escape route, both sides were charging at each other at full speed.

Nellie saw those human-frogfish monsters pouring in from all directions as they were going to drown them.

But the next moment, she realized that she was out of the water and was looking at the sun again.

Nellie had never thought that the sun she saw every day could look so adorable.

When the sunlight fell on her skin, the warmth felt like something she never felt before.

The three of them had now left the sea. Just when Nellie thought that they were out of danger, an exceptionally strong black shadow suddenly leaped out of the water. It used its companion's back as a launching pad, allowing it to jump higher in the water, managing to grab Zhang Heng's ankle.

Zhang Heng's Shadow Wings could only afford to carry two people. Fortunately, Nellie and Han Lu were ladies and were rather lightweight ones at that. They were, however, lugging around a complete set of diving equipment with them. The moment Zhang Heng left the water, he could feel himself getting gradually harder to fly.

His flying speed dropped again, but he was still ascending steadily. However, when the monster grabbed onto his body, Zhang Heng's Shadow Wings could no longer support the weight. The three of them soon began to fall back to the surface.

Even at this moment, Zhang Heng still maintained absolute calmness. Immediately, he gauged the distance between the nearest reef and himself.

Zhang Heng then swung Nelly and Han Lu to the nearest reef. After the two landed, the burden on the Shadow Wings was lifted. But before Zhang Heng could fly higher, more and more shadows sprang out from the water, grabbing onto the first monster holding Zhang Heng's leg.

After that, Nellie and Han Lu saw a scene that they would never forget. At that moment, there were at least seven or eight monsters hanging on Zhang Heng's body, and at the same time, more monsters were jumping out of the sea. The worst part was that Zhang Heng's Shadow Wings had reached ten seconds of usage, and before he knew it, it suddenly disappeared without any warning.

Just like that, Zhang Heng fell into the sea again, like a drop of water falling into a pan of hot oil. Those human-frogfish monsters went into frenzy mode the moment Zhang Heng dropped into the ocean. Surrounding him quickly, they dragged him all the way down the huge undersea tunnel. It was as if he was entering the gates of hell. Han Lu, who witnessed the scene, was about to jump back into the sea again to find Zhang Heng. However, she was stopped by Nellie immediately.

"Are you crazy? Your cylinder is running out of oxygen!"

"For the sake of saving us, those monsters got to him and dragged him back into the ocean," Han Lu said. "If he were alone, he would have easily escaped this place even if he couldn't beat them."

As she spoke, Han Lu turned around and looked at Nellie. "Let me use your tank," she asked.

"I don't have much oxygen left as well. You need to calm down. We can't help him if we return to the water in our current state."

There was one more thing Nellie failed to mention. There wasn't much air left in Zhang Heng's tank either. Even if he managed to survive those monsters' attacks, the probability of him surviving after being dragged to the bottom of the sea was close to zero. All she could do now was to persuade Han Lu not to do anything stupid. Otherwise, all the previous sacrifices Zhang Heng had made would go to waste.

Fortunately, Han Lu was not the kind of woman who would kill herself just to be with the person she loved, unlike how most romantic TV series' depicted a woman. The reason why she wanted to go back into the ocean was her instinctive reaction after witnessing Zhang Heng getting dragged into the water by those monsters.

After Nellie attempted to persuade her, she managed to calm down again. She knew that Nellie was right. In their current state, even if they entered the water again, there was nothing they could do to help Zhang Heng. Instead, she would risk getting killed by those monsters.

As of now, Zhang Heng had saved Han Lu twice. Hence, she didn't mind sacrificing her life to save Zhang Heng. However, if she were about to risk her life only to achieve nothing, it would be meaningless.

She realized that she had to stay alive to figure a way to rescue Zhang Heng. Unlike Nellie, Han Lu had actually thought about their gas tank problem. Thanks to the death dream incident, she had a chance to pry into the world Zhang Heng lived in. Thus, she still had some hope left.

Although Han Lu also knew that the tiny flame of hope she held on to was more of a way to comfort herself, she was still willing to do her best to keep it alive.

Han Lu asked Nellie beside her, "I heard that there are troops stationed on Yonaguni Island, right?"

Nellie was taken aback. "Yes. There is a Self-Defense Force base, but very few personnel are there right now. Do you want them to help us find Zhang Heng?"

Speaking of that, Nellie seemed to think of something else. She then took out her camera. "Although I couldn't take pictures of the monsters below, I did take some pictures of the wall carvings earlier. We may be able to convince the personnel at the base with them."

Han Lu looked at the underwater tunnel again. At this moment, it looked extremely calm, and she did not spot any monsters, as if everything she had just gone through was a hallucination. And Han Lu was expecting Zhang Heng to return from the bottom of the sea, but that never happened. After that, Han Lu withdrew her gaze desperately and said, "It's not too late. Let's go now."

…

Han Lu and Nellie used the direction they got from the dive computer to look for the boat they took to come to this diving spot. The captain had used his mobile phone to Google the magical phenomenon where the sea turned red suddenly.

He immediately greeted Han Lu and Nellie when he saw them. "I'm glad that you guys are fine. I am worried that the red tide would affect your diving experience…"

The captain suddenly stopped and asked, "I thought there were three of you? Where's the boy with a Tokyo accent?"

"We have encountered some… terrible things," Nellie said. "We need to head back to the island now and find someone to help him."

"Roger that." From how they were reacting, the captain could see that the situation was dire. So, he quickly put away his smiling face and said solemnly, "It's good to have one more person help the two of you. Do not hesitate to ask for my help. I can mobilize the people from the Fisheries Association. As long as everyone worked together, we can overcome all kinds of difficulties."

A wry smile appeared on Nellie's face, "I am afraid that ordinary people can't handle this matter. Anyway, let us go back to the island first."

Whenever Nellie thought of the monsters she saw earlier, she did not want to stay at sea any longer.

After that, she looked at Han Lu again, who was sitting in the stern at the moment, not knowing what she was thinking.