Chapter 72 Could it be...them?

"Short-Range Spatial Warp, activate!"

As Lin Yuan issued the command in his heart, the "ghost"'s overclocked and modified "Miniature Curvature Gravity Engine" instantly erupted with a low, yet terrifyingly energetic roar!

"Hum—"

A spatial distortion force field, a hundred times more powerful than when it materialized earlier, suddenly contracted inward with the "ghost" at its center!

The surrounding seawater seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand!

Inside the cockpit of the "deep sea 20000", Yamamoto and Sato felt the entire submersible shake!

It was as if it had been slammed hard by a deep-sea behemoth!

"Ah! What is happening?!"

"Have we been attacked?!"

The two let out terrified screams.

However, they didn't even have time to react.

Something even more bizarre happened.

They saw that in the water directly in front of the submersible, illuminated by the searchlights, space was actually... collapsing violently toward a single point, like melting glass!

A pure black "singularity," the size of a needle tip and seemingly capable of swallowing even light, appeared out of thin air!

The next second.

That "singularity" vanished.

Along with it, all the abnormal physical parameters in the surroundings and that terrifying pressure instantly returned to normal.

It was as if nothing had ever happened.

Only on the sonar system was there a chaotic signal record, too brief to be almost captured, representing a "spatial tear."

Yamamoto and Sato stared blankly at everything, their minds completely blank.

They felt as if they had just had a bizarre nightmare.

...

Meanwhile, tens of kilometers away, the "Reagan" aircraft carrier strike group of the Eagle Sauce Navy.

Inside an accompanying "Virginia"-class nuclear attack submarine.

In the sonar room, the atmosphere was equally tense to the extreme.

"Report, Captain! Just now in the target area, an extremely brief but highly intense spatial anomaly signal was detected!"

An experienced sonar operator took off his headset, his face full of disbelief.

"Signal characteristics... unidentifiable! There is no known signal in our database that matches it!"

"It's as if... as if someone was there and poked a hole in space with a needle, then instantly patched it up!"

The submarine's captain, a burly white man with a full beard, listened to his subordinate's report, his brows furrowed into a knot.

"Immediately encrypt and send the signal data to The Pentagon! Highest priority!"

"Yes!"

...

Eagle Sauce, The Pentagon, underground Command Center.

The four-star old general, who had just been preparing to watch a game, was called back by an emergency phone call.

On the huge holographic screen, the eerie signal spectrum transmitted back from the "Virginia"-class nuclear submarine was displayed.

It was an extremely complex waveform, full of high-dimensional information, like a tangled mess.

Beside it, over a dozen of Eagle Sauce's top physicists and signal experts were arguing fiercely around it.

"No! This is impossible! This kind of signal violates all the physical laws we know!"

"It simultaneously possesses the characteristics of gravitational waves, quantum tunneling, and high-energy particle collisions!"

"Could it be... some kind of precursor signal for a supernova explosion that we have never seen before?"

"Impossible! The Hubble Telescope hasn't detected anything!"

The old general listened to the experts' arguments, his head spinning.

He didn't understand the technical jargon, but he could read one thing from the shocked, confused, and even slightly fearful expressions of these top scientists.

Something big had happened.

Something that exceeded the scope of their understanding.

"First, the flag disappeared into thin air like magic."

"Then this kind of signal appeared, which even our top scientists cannot explain."

The old general's gaze fell on the map, on the red territory representing Great Xia Country.

For the first time, a deep chill welled up in his heart.

"Could... could it be them?"

As soon as this thought emerged, even he felt it was absurd.

Great Xia Country? When did they master such god-like technology?

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

Their most advanced fighter jet is still imitating our F-22! Their aircraft carriers are still only three conventionally powered ones!

How could they possibly master this kind of space technology, which even we cannot understand?!

"Investigate it for me! Use all our spy satellites, all our intelligence networks! I want to know exactly what happened in that sea area today!"

The old general roared at his intelligence chief.

He had a premonition that what happened today might become a turning point that would change the world order.

And at this very moment.

The initiator of the incident, Lin Yuan, was piloting the "ghost" and appeared in a calm deep sea area ten kilometers away from the incident site.

"Holy crap... is this... spatial warp?"

Lin Yuan felt that less than 0.1-second experience, which felt like his soul was traveling through, and monstrous waves rose in his heart.

Too fast!

The last second, he was still next to the Little Sun submersible.

The next second, he had already appeared ten kilometers away!

In between, there was almost no feeling at all!

"If this thing were used for travel... no, if it were used for food delivery, wouldn't it take off?" Strange thoughts popped into Lin Yuan's mind again.

[Warning: 'Miniature Curvature Gravity Engine' overloaded! Entering forced cooling mode. 'Short-Range Spatial Warp' cannot be used again within 24 hours.]

The system's prompt pulled him back to reality.

"Fine, once a day is enough." Lin Yuan was satisfied.

He glanced at the map; this was the secret recovery point designated for him by the East Sea Fleet.

He piloted the "ghost" and slowly surfaced.

Soon, a ship disguised as an ordinary fishing boat, but actually a special operations vessel, appeared in his "field of vision."

A giant mechanical arm, covered in special wave-absorbing material, extended from the ship, silently salvaged the "ghost" from the seawater, and then quickly sent it into a completely enclosed hangar isolated from the outside world.

Thus, the special operation codenamed "Flag Pulling" ended perfectly.

The "ghost" had quietly arrived and quietly left under the noses of the whole world.

Leaving behind only an unsolved mystery that left the whole world confused and shocked.

And a Little Sun Country that was scared silly on the spot.