Shrouded Seascape

The circular plaza once filled with gun-toting soldiers, tanks, and armored vehicles, had become desolate. Sparkle looked around excitedly while holding Charles' hand.

It wasn't Charles' first time seeing such a massive plaza. Laboratory 2 had a vast square as well, and Charles couldn't help but think that the Foundation had a penchant for building a vast, semi-circular hall in their complexes for some reason.

Standing in the middle of the vast square, Charles turned to Parker and asked, "Are you not going to give me a tour? You're the host here, and I'm just a guest."

Parker stepped forward and took the lead. "The shelter can be divided into four levels, and it is massive. The roads are quite complex as well. I'm sure it'd take you several months to search the entire shelter for the key personally."

"I can take you to the Central Bureau. The monitors for all the surveillance cameras scattered throughout the shelter are located there."

Charles said nothing and simply gestured forward with his hand.

Parker walked ahead, and Charles followed him through corridors that were four meters high and six meters wide. The soft footsteps from the rooms on both sides of the corridor told Charles that there were people inside those rooms.

It seemed that they had ordered everyone to stay at home to ensure that Charles would have the best sightseeing experience.

Upon reaching the end of the corridor, the door next to them opened slightly. A pair of curious eyes peeked out and stared at Charles.

Charles turned toward the eyes, and the door was instantly shut. Then, a feminine voice echoed behind the door, seemingly scolding someone.

"You call these small compartments home? I thought there'd be a prosperous city down there," Charles said, turning to Parker next to him.

"There's no point in building a prosperous city down here, as we originally live on the island's surface. Like I said, this is just a shelteran emergency shelter."

Charles nodded in understanding and looked at Parker. "What kind of emergency is it? You seem quite fearful, but why? You've built a formidable fortress, and you have powerful weapons as well, so what's there to fear? Is it a Divinity, perhaps??"

Parker seemed reluctant to answer Charles' question, but the latter insisted on receiving an answer. In the end, Parker told Charles that he'd need permission to answer the latter's question before walking toward a corner. He leaned closer to the walkie-talkie on his chest and started muttering into it.

After a while, Parker returned to Charles and finally replied, "We have something capable of foreseeing danger, and it has been warning us that something is chasing after us.

"We do not know what it is, but it's an entity capable of annihilating Island 68, so we've been trying to avoid it."

Charles nodded without asking any more questions. Island 68's emergency had nothing to do with him, as he was simply here for the colossal key.

The group continued on their journey and the sights that appeared before Charles made him feel as though he was inside an expansive ant colony.

Recalling the scenes he had seen not too long ago, Charles was truly amazed by the Foundation's prowess. The entire island seemed more like an artificial island rather than a natural island.

The denizens of the Subterranean Sea lived in fear of their islands sinking to the depths one day, but the denizens of Island 68 would never have such fear, as the island was capable of moving underwater.

Charles recalled something just then and turned to Parker, asking, "Can you tell me more about your origins? Do you know of the Foundation? Are you the descendants of the Foundation members?"

"We're not too sure about the so-called 'Foundation' you've been telling us about, but our books have told us that we're humans from the surface world. A long time ago, we were everywhere throughout the Subterranean Sea, but most of us died for some reason.

"Only Island 68, which was on a mission at the time, managed to escape unscathed. We'd go out and gather intelligence periodically so that the mayor could assess the possibility of returning to the surface.

"Unfortunately, the situation outside hasn't really changed much despite the many years that have passed. We've decided to lie low and wait until it's completely safe before we"

"Daddy," Sparkle spoke just then, staring at Charles in deep thought. "What are you two talking about?"

"It's nothing much," Charles replied. Then, he reached out and carried his daughter in his arms before continuing, "Anyway, what is Mommy doing these days? Is she still angry at me?"

"Mmhm. She's still angry at you. Very angry." Sparkle nodded vigorously to emphasize Anna's anger.

Charles revealed a helpless and bitter smile at the remark as he followed closely behind Parker. The group walked down the brightly lit corridors of the shelter for half an hour before they finally arrived at the so-called Central Bureau.

A group of people clad in gray uniforms stood at attention, seemingly waiting for their arrival. Naturally, they had learned of Charles' goal for coming here, so they immediately led the latter into the monitoring room.

The monitoring room had an entire wall filled with nothing but 50-inch monitors, and the array of monitors displayed scenes all over the shelter. The monitors also showed people moving about doing their own business.

Aside from the regions that Charles had passed through, it seemed that the other regions of the shelter were business as usual.

"Switch to the other locations every ten seconds," Charles said, standing before the array of monitors.

"Can you even keep up with so many monitors?" Parker asked in doubt.

"It's fine, just do as I said," Charles said, staring at the wall of monitors.

The scenes on the monitors flashed rapidly. Charles' two eyes couldn't keep up with so many changes, but it didn't matter. He wasn't the one who'd do the search, anyway.

"Sparkle, can you do Daddy a favor? Go and see if there's a really big key in one of those places," Charles said.

Sparkle nodded and disappeared in a flash of light. Then, Sparkle showed up in one of the monitors, startling everyone in the monitoring room.

"Charles! That isn't part of our agreement," Parker exclaimed, looking nervous.

The Captain of the Narwhale shook the square bracelet on his wrist. "Was this part of the agreement? I don't think so. Anyway, Sparkle isn't going to harm anybody, so don't worry.

"And how would I know that you're not trying to fool me with old video recordings if I don't send her out to take a look?"

Parker spoke into his walkie-talkie to report, but soon, he put it down reluctantly. It seemed that the higher-ups of Island 68 had decided not to kick up a fuss and allowed Sparkle to search the shelter, level by level.

Sparkle continued her search, and that was when Charles caught sight of a familiar white baseball cap. The figure soon looked up, and Charles' pupils immediately constricted. The individual wearing a white baseball cap was Pogro, the boy who had died after getting hit by a missile!

He had actually shown up on one of the monitors!

Is it an old, recorded video? Just as the thought popped up in Charles' mind, Sparkle appeared and startled Pogro.

The sight instantly invalidated the assumption that he was staring at old, recorded videos, which meant that the scene was happening somewhere live on Island 68.

Charles rubbed his nape and turned to Parker next to him, "You said those monsters keep on reappearing like pests and that they're ghosts eternally haunting the island. You said that, right?"

"Yeah, I did say that," Parker said, casting a bewildered gaze at Charles. "What's wrong? Why are you asking me that question?"

Charles turned to stare at Pogro on one of the monitors and fell into deep contemplation. Haha, this is getting pretty interesting.