437: Chapter 436 Jiaolong Submarine's First Exploration!

The term "proposal" belonged to the "loanwords" from Earth within Trisolaris.

In the past, everyone communicated efficiently and transparently without barriers through brainwaves.

There was absolutely no need for any "proposal."

Under the high-speed collision of thoughts, a collective decision would naturally emerge.

"Feasible..."

"Optimal decision..."

"Agreed, but proceed with caution..."

"..."

Not long after, the Chief Executive's proposal was unanimously passed.

The golden hall returned to dimness.

A golden beam of light led to the Trisolaran supercomputing center at the top of the command hall.

The supreme decision was set.

The Trisolaran supercomputer would immediately proceed to the next step of wargaming.

It would exhaustively calculate all possibilities to provide guidance for "Sophon No. 1."

A monstrous storm against humanity on Earth was officially launched...

...

Earth.

The Pacific Ocean.

Southeast of the East China Sea.

Sailing about 1600+ nautical miles (around 3000 kilometers) into the high seas, one arrives at the famous Mana Archipelago waters.

Beneath these waters lies the deepest submarine "Great Rift" on Earth—the Mana Trench.

For many years, this submarine abyss, home to countless unsolved mysteries, has been one of the mysterious regions that Earth's scientists most want to explore.

Prior to this, the maximum depth of the Mana Trench explored by deep-sea probes from various countries on Earth was 10,990 meters.

But almost all of Earth's geological scientists understood that this was by no means the actual maximum depth of the Mana Trench.

Beneath the Mana Trench, there must be something else!

Otherwise, the phenomenon of the Mana Trench swallowing over 5 billion tons of seawater from the Pacific Ocean every year would be scientifically inexplicable.

In particular, when deep-sea probes reached the bottom, they unexpectedly encountered a strange and eerie situation.

In the submarine abyss with water pressure as high as 1100 atmospheres, a low-frequency Hertz sound wave of unknown origin unexpectedly existed widely...

These mysterious, unsolved puzzles have consistently attracted experts from Earth's scientific community, including those in geology, biology, chemistry, and other fields.

After all, if even one of these secrets could be unraveled, it would at the very least be a Nobel Prize-level achievement.

However, limited by the stagnation in the development of deep-diving technology for many years, the exploration of the Mana Trench by various countries on Earth has always remained only on the surface.

Because it is very close to China, the exploration of the Mana Trench has never stopped within the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

At this very moment, the midday sun shone on the sea surface, stirring up golden, shimmering waves amidst the swells.

An incredibly vast steel fortress floated on the water's surface.

Surrounding it were fully 100 destroyers, cruisers, and frigates flying the red dragon flags of China.

500 meters beneath the surface, 88 "Kunlong Submarine" deep-water submarines were lurking.

This was the combat strike group belonging to the "Kunpeng" submersible aircraft carrier.

They were ordered to cooperate with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Geological Research Institute to carry out a special mission.

"9600 meters!!" "9800 meters!!" "10000 meters!!"

"Attention everyone! Attention everyone!"

"About to reach the bottom! About to reach the bottom!"

"Jiaolong is about to reach the bottom!..."

"Must hold steady!..."

Inside the command center of the "Kunpeng" submersible aircraft carrier, more than 40 senior experts in the field of Chinese geological Science were focused, looking up at the big screen with faces full of excitement.

A few minutes later.

"11060 meters!"

"Reached the bottom!"

"Successfully reached the bottom!"

"Reach the nine heavens to pluck the moon, descend to the five oceans to catch turtles! How joyous, how joyous!!"

"Wait... why do I feel it was so easy?"

"What else?"

"With our current deep-diving technology in China, let alone 10,000 meters, we could drill down to the seabed at 20,000 or 30,000 meters. What does exploring the bottom of the Mana Trench count for?"

"Haha! That's true, that's true!"

"Stop chattering!"

"Time is tight, Jiaolong only has 20 minutes, start the scientific research mission immediately!"

"Old Zhou, you are responsible for the 3D modeling of the trench bottom according to the original plan; Old Liu, you are responsible for collecting the unknown submarine sound waves..."

"Okay!"

"..."

After reaching the bottom, Jiaolong began a precise scan of a 3000-meter radius from its position.

Soon, as the 3D modeling was transmitted back to the command hall of the "Kunpeng" mothership, everyone's expressions changed drastically as they looked at the holographic phantom light and shadow generated before them.

"What is going on..."

"Why are there so many large and small caves in the bottom area of this Mana Trench??"

"Old Zhou, tell me, what is inside these caves??"

"You damn well ask me, who am I supposed to ask!"

"..."

Just as everyone... Academician Liu, who was responsible for collecting low-frequency sound waves, handed the analysis report to everyone with a serious face, while giving a brief conclusion.

"It is no different from what other countries have collected."

"According to the judgment, the low-frequency sound waves do have patterns; it cannot be ruled out that they contain information!"

Everyone looked at each other in dismay.

At such a deep seabed... are there really unknown creatures?

Just at this moment, the image on the big screen fluctuated violently.

"Not good! It's an undersea earthquake!!"

"The water pressure at the bottom of the trench is fluctuating violently; a pressure cliff is about to occur!"

"Damn it!! How could it be such a coincidence?!"

"Ascend!"

"Jiaolong, ascend immediately!"

"Leave the positioning probes, we can only find another opportunity to explore next time."

"..."

All the experts sighed heavily.

This time, executing the mission to explore the bottom of the Mana Trench, dozens of research institutes joined forces and finally made sufficient preparations with great difficulty.

Unexpectedly, an accident occurred.

The next time, at the earliest, it will probably be three to five months later...

"It can be considered a worthwhile trip!"

As the project leader, Huang Mingqing, Dean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Geological Research Institute and lifelong honorary academician of China, said with regret, shaking his head.

"We can only start by doing some basic research based on the existing data and collected materials."

"Half a year later, we will come back to explore what exactly is inside those caves!"

...

As Jiaolong gradually ascended to the surface, the violent earthquake at the bottom of the trench unexpectedly began to subside.

At the same time, a hair-raising low-frequency sound emerged from the pitch-black submarine caves.

After a while, a giant tentacle suddenly reached out from the cave, sweeping away all the dozens of positioning probes that Jiaolong had scattered...