Fate's Choice: Livestream at the Start Summoning Billions of Ravens

"how long?"

"It's hard to say. Six months, a year, or five years, depending on the size of the debris and the carrying capacity of the seabed environment."

Funina tilted her head.

"But the problem isn't time; the problem is that it spreads. The code of the abyss isn't picky; it eats whatever is available. First it eats seawater, then seabed rocks, then ocean currents, and finally the physical constants of the entire Pacific Ocean."

The living room was quiet for a few seconds.

Zhou Ruo stood behind, clutching a glass of warm water that she hadn't handed out.

Chen Jianguo closed the briefcase.

"Can our current technology handle this?"

"cannot."

Funina answered crisply and decisively.

"Your deep-sea equipment can't even get close, let alone clean it up. That's pollution at the conceptual level; physical tools are useless against it."

"Then who can?"

Funina stood up from the sofa, walked to the window, and tapped the glass with her finger.

Outside the window, on the sea, a seagull skimmed across the water and snatched a small fish.

"The realm of water."

Her voice was soft, but there was no room for negotiation in her tone.

"My domain."

She turned around and looked at Chen Jianguo.

"Those lingering smells make me very uncomfortable, can you understand? It's like someone threw a pile of garbage on my stage, emitting a foul stench and ruining the beauty of the entire performance. This is something I, the Water God, cannot tolerate."

Chen Jianguo remained silent for five seconds.

"Ms. Furina, the Mariana Trench is over 11,000 meters deep at its deepest point, with a water pressure exceeding 1,000 atmospheres per square centimeter. Moreover, according to your own description, there is still conceptual pollution there. I need to report to my superiors..."

"You can send a ship to follow."

Funina interrupted him.

Chen Jianguo and she stared at each other for three seconds.

He had seen Frynn freeze the entire Yokosuka harbor with a single finger, seen her turn the USS Ronald Reagan into a giant conductor, and seen her hang two hundred Marines from the ceiling with water from fire hoses.

There's no point in arguing with this water god about water.

"I'll make a phone call."

Chen Jianguo picked up the briefcase and walked towards the door.

He stopped halfway there.

"Any other requests?"

"There are plenty of desserts on board."

Chen Jianguo didn't turn around, but quickened his pace and went out the door.

Chen Jianguo's phone call lasted for forty minutes.

From the secure communications room downstairs in the safe house to the capital, there are three encrypted relays and two layers of manual verification in between.

But this time, the approval process went much faster than he had expected.

The top management made the decision within forty minutes, codenamed "Jingyuan".

He returned to the living room with an electronic approval document stamped with the highest command authority seal.

Funina was using her fork to poke the last piece of tart crust on her plate into pieces, looking quite bored.

"Approved."

Chen Jianguo turned the terminal screen towards her.

"The Chinese Navy urgently dispatched two Type 055 destroyers and one deep-sea rescue ship to form a small formation, which completed its assembly at the naval port within 48 hours. The formation commander was responsible for maritime surveillance and logistical support throughout the process."

Funina glanced at the screen but did not comment on the military deployment.

She never cared about how many ships there were or how big the cannons were.

"Two requirements."

She held up two fingers.

"Please speak."

"First, Zhou Ruo, come aboard with me."

Chen Jianguo glanced at Zhou Ruo, who was standing at the kitchen door.

Zhou Ruo's expression wasn't exactly surprised; it was more like a resigned acceptance of something she had already anticipated.

She was still clutching a half-used rag in her hand, her knuckles white.

"Secondly, as I just mentioned about desserts, bring me egg tarts, tiramisu, macarons, cream puffs—whatever you have, prepare enough for how long we'll be at sea. Don't let this water god go hungry."

Chen Jianguo took a deep breath.

"Do as instructed."

As he turned to leave, he heard Funina's casual remark behind him.

"Cream puffs have to be made fresh; frozen ones won't do—the texture is so much worse."

Chen Jianguo paused for a moment, but did not turn around and continued walking out.

Zhou Ruo waited until he was far away before speaking softly.

"Do I really have to go with them?"

"You don't want to go?"

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just... I can't even swim at a depth of 10,000 meters."

Funina put down her fork, tilted her head to look at her, and the warm yellow light from the kitchen reflected in her heterochromatic eyes.

"I've already said it, you don't need to know how to swim to be by my side, the water god."

She paused, her tone softening slightly.

"You just need to follow me."

Zhou Ruo opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing more.

She placed the glass of warm water beside Funina and turned to tidy up the kitchen.

Funina picked up her water glass, took a sip, and then looked out the window toward the sea to the southeast.

The water droplet imprint was still shimmering slightly, and the fluctuations coming from that direction hadn't stopped; in fact, they were a little clearer than they had been an hour ago.

It's not just clearer.

The rhythm has changed.

An hour ago, the fluctuation was spreading at a steady pace, like a blot of ink slowly spreading on the surface of water.

Now it's accelerating, each wave more rapid than the last, like a heart that should be beating slowly suddenly starting to pound wildly.

Fu Ningna had just told Chen Jianguo "six months, one year, five years," but now she vaguely felt that this estimate might be too optimistic.

She wrinkled her nose and put down the water glass with disdain.

The moment she put down the water glass, she sensed another faint presence passing by at the very tip of her senses.

It's like some ancient pulse, belonging to the water itself, quietly lurking deep within the rock layers of the deep sea, completely obscured by the noise of the abyss fragments.

But that feeling was too faint; separated by more than 3,000 kilometers and 10,000 meters of water pressure, it dissipated in an instant.

Funina blinked, seemingly unconcerned.

……

Qinling underground base, medical intensive care unit.

When Zhou Dazhuang opened his eyes, the LED lights on the ceiling made his eyes sting.

How long was he unconscious? His mind was a complete mess.

Later, the military doctor told him that it had been a full thirty-six hours.

A dull pain came from the palm of my right hand. I turned it over and saw a tiger-shaped brand clearly imprinted in my flesh, which had already begun to scab over.

Academician Qi sat on the folding chair next to him, his head against the wall, his eyes closed, holding a glass of water that had long since gone cold.

"Academician Qi... Academician Qi."

Zhou Dazhuang's throat was so dry it was cracking.

Academician Qi's eyes suddenly opened.

The 63-year-old man sprang up from his chair faster than a young man, rushed to the bedside, and checked Zhou Dazhuang's pulse.

"Don't move, lie down."

"That...flying...pterodactyl, has it come back yet?"

Zhou Dazhuang's lips were moving, but the sound was so soft it was almost inaudible.

Academician Qi paused for a moment, then smiled.

It wasn't a smile of relief; it was an indescribable expression, a mixture of bitterness and resignation.

"We're back. We flew back to the sixth underground palace along the same route. We're currently in hibernation, having consumed a large amount of internal energy. We probably won't be able to move again for a while."

Zhou Dazhuang closed his eyes again, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

"What about the thousand brothers?"

Academician Qi's smile vanished.

"The long spears are ruined. The runes are overloaded, and more than 700 spears have been burned to scrap metal. The bronze terracotta warriors themselves are also severely damaged. Less than 200 can still stand. The rest... the gear sets are jammed, and the power fluid is leaking."

Zhou Dazhuang remained silent for a long time.

"Can it be repaired?"

"The bronze terracotta figure itself is being repaired, but the problem with the halberd is more complicated."

Academician Qi sat back down in the folding chair, which creaked.

"We tried to recast the blade using modern metallurgical techniques, including tungsten carbide, titanium alloy, and high-temperature ceramics. Guess what happened? The crimson gold light of the Tiger Talisman was poured in, and it all cracked in less than half a second. Modern materials can't withstand that kind of energy infusion."

Zhou Dazhuang's mark is burning hot.

He turned his hand over and stared at it for a while.

"Then we'll have to use the original material?"

"We still don't fully understand the composition of the original material. There are three unknown trace elements, and the molecular structure cannot be found in any known database."

Academician Qi rubbed his temples.

"Things from two thousand years ago were more than two orders of magnitude ahead of us."

Zhou Dazhuang didn't say anything more.

His fingers curled slightly, and the brand on his palm throbbed faintly beneath the scab, as if something was waiting under the scab.