138: Crossing the Westerlies

40 degrees South Latitude.

This is a scar on the Earth and the nightmare of all sailors.

Geographically, this place is known as the "Roaring Forties." Further south are the even more formidable "Furious Fifties" and "Screaming Sixties."

Because there is almost no land to block the wind at this latitude in the Southern Hemisphere, the westerlies accelerate recklessly under the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation, stirring up endless, towering waves.

Here, ten-meter-high waves are commonplace, and hurricanes are a daily greeting. Even a ten-thousand-ton giant ship is as helpless as a withered leaf when entering these waters, and it could be swallowed by the sea at the slightest carelessness.

The dark clouds are so low they seem within reach, and the sea surface presents a deep, almost black, dark green color.

The gale howls, emitting a shrill whistle like the wailing of ten thousand ghosts, whipping up white foam that fills the sky.

As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but waves, and more waves.

Those walls of water, towering like city walls, strike with the force of ten thousand tons, one after another, against the lonely black yacht.

If there were satellite cloud imagery at this moment, one would find this hundred-meter-long small boat located at the edge of the center of a huge temperate cyclone—the true eye of the storm.

"Warning. External wind speed: Level 14. Wave height: 12 meters. Atmospheric pressure continues to drop."

Zero's voice sounded in the cockpit, still in that calm tone without any fluctuation.

"Detected overlapping swells ahead, estimated impact force: S-Class."

Jiang Yuan sat in the pilot's chair, looking through the panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows at the massive mountain of water that was rapidly rising and blotting out the sky ahead.

That wave crest was five stories high, with white foam curling at the top, like a gaping abyss ready to swallow everything. Facing such power of heaven and earth, human instinct should be fear, trembling, and prayer.

But Jiang Yuan just swirled the whiskey glass in his hand, watching the amber liquid trace graceful arcs against the glass wall.

He said calmly.

"Activate 【Absolute Silence】 mode."

"Activate 【Wave Stabilization Field · Vector Suppression】."

"Understood."

Just one second before that fifteen-meter-high giant wave was about to smash the yacht named "phantom" into pieces.

Hum—

A strange, invisible fluctuation instantly spread outward from the yacht as the center.

A miracle had descended.

It was a scene that would make Newton jump out of his coffin and cause all fluid dynamics experts to burn their doctoral degrees on the spot.

The water within a twenty-meter radius around the yacht seemed to have been pressed by God's "leveling key."

The originally violent, chaotic, and surging seawater, the moment it entered the range of this force field, seemed to have all its kinetic energy drained. It instantly became docile and smooth, just like a black mirror.

And outside the force field.

That was hell.

The fifteen-meter wave crashed down hard.

Boom!!!

A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering loud noise.

The giant wave slammed fiercely against that invisible wall of air.

Millions of tons of seawater shattered, turning into spray and white mist that filled the sky, sliding down along the hemispherical force field shield. The scene looked like a massive waterfall covering the top of the ship.

But the hull did not move at all.

It really did not shake even the slightest bit.

The glass of whiskey with ice placed on the small round table on the deck was as steady as a mirror, and not even a single ice cube hit the side of the glass.

Jiang Yuan stood up, adjusted his collar, and walked to the aft deck with his glass.

The automatic glass door leading to the deck slid open.

Although he was outdoors, Jiang Yuan could not feel a trace of wind.

That huge force field shield not only blocked the waves but also blocked the Level 14 gale that was strong enough to blow a person away. Inside the shield, the air was still, and there was even warm air blowing from the climate control system.

Jiang Yuan walked to the infinity pool.

The water in the pool was full to the point of overflowing, but in such harsh sea conditions, the pool water did not even ripple, as calm as a sapphire.

And just less than ten meters outside the shield.

The wind howled, the waves surged, and the whole world was roaring.

That extreme "motion" and extreme "stillness," separated only by a thin wall of air, formed a strong visual impact.

"This kind of weather is best for doing one thing."

Jiang Yuan put down his glass and walked to the ship's rail.

At this moment, the seawater outside the rail was churning like boiling water.

With a flick of his wrist, a silver-white fishing rod full of a technological feel appeared in his hand—【Quantum Gravitational Wave Fishing Rod】.

This was no ordinary carbon fiber fishing rod. Its line was woven from carbon nanotubes, strong enough to lift a tank.

And the hook was equipped with a biological entrapment field, capable of simulating the biological electrical signals that deep-sea prey craved most.

"Fishing in the eye of a storm, this is a man's romance."

Jiang Yuan cast the line skillfully.

Swish—

The silver fishing line easily penetrated the force field shield and submerged into the violent black seawater.

The shield was intelligent; it identified the fishing line as a "friendly object" and did not block it.

Jiang Yuan sat on the lounge chair by the pool, drinking while watching the seascape outside the shield, which looked like a doomsday disaster movie.

The raindrops outside hit the shield like bullets, splashing into water flowers and flowing down to form curtains of water. Looking at the world through the water curtain, everything became distorted and bizarre.

"The fish in these Westerlies must be quite strong, right?"

Jiang Yuan muttered to himself.

Because the winds and waves in this sea area are too strong, few fishing boats dare to come here to fish, so the marine ecology is kept extremely primitive and wild. Many huge deep-sea predators live here.

Just then.

The fishing rod in his hand sank sharply!

The force was immense; if it were an ordinary person, they would have been dragged straight into the sea to feed the fish.

But Jiang Yuan's arm did not move an inch, as steady as Mount Tai.

"Yo, it's hooked."

A flash of excitement crossed Jiang Yuan's eyes.

This was what he wanted.

Fighting against heaven is endlessly joyful; fighting against fish is also a kind of pleasure.

"Zero, display the underwater view."

"Yes."

A holographic projection instantly unfolded in front of Jiang Yuan.

Through the murky, dark seawater, the thermal imaging radar clearly outlined the behemoth fifty meters underwater.

It was a giant fish over three meters long, streamlined, with extremely well-developed muscles. It was biting the hook, frantically swinging its tail in the giant waves, trying to break free from the restraint. Its strength was so great that it even carried the surrounding water current to form a small vortex.

"Is it actually... a Bluefin Tuna?"

Jiang Yuan was a little surprised.

Usually, Bluefin Tuna live in warmer waters, but this one was clearly an outlier, or some subspecies that had mutated in an extremely cold environment. Its size was a circle larger than an ordinary Bluefin Tuna, and its whole body exuded a fierce aura.

"Good guy, this is the Rolls-Royce of the sashimi world."

Jiang Yuan laughed.

He didn't use the winch to pull the fish in directly; that would be too boring.

He began to play the fish.

In these fierce Westerlies, on this yacht as stable as a rock, a cross-species wrestling match was being staged.

The waves outside were getting bigger and bigger, with the highest reaching twenty meters, crashing down like a collapsing building.

Every time it hit the shield, the sky darkened instantly, as if the whole ship had submerged to the bottom of the sea.

But under such devastating blows, Jiang Yuan just reeled in and let out the line unhurriedly, enjoying every vibration transmitted to his palm.

Half an hour later.

The exhausted giant tuna finally gave up resistance, floating to the surface with its white belly up.

Jiang Yuan pressed the retrieve button.

A robotic arm extended, directly lifting the four-hundred-kilogram deep-sea beast and tossing it onto the deck.

It shimmered with a metallic dark blue luster, and even after leaving the water, it still fiercely slapped its tail, making a thumping sound on the deck.

"Tonight's late-night snack is sorted."

Jiang Yuan put away the fishing rod and walked over to pat the cold body of the big fish.

"Freshly sliced fatty tuna belly, paired with the scenery in the eye of the storm, is absolutely perfect."

Just then.

A blinding flash of lightning tore through the thick dark clouds, followed by deafening thunder.

Through the instant light of the lightning, Jiang Yuan saw that heartbreaking touch of white on the horizon ahead.

That was floating ice.

It meant he had crossed the core area of the Roaring Forties and was about to enter the realm of the Antarctic Circle.

"Zero, accelerate."

Jiang Yuan turned and walked toward the cabin, holding a Japanese sashimi knife that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Charge through."

"We'll spend the night in the ice floe zone."

Hum—!!!

The stern of the black phantom ejected a powerful stream of blue magnetic fluid, thrust at full capacity.

Like a black orca, it fearlessly smashed through the giant waves in front of it, sprinting at full speed toward that colder, more mysterious white continent in the south.

And behind it.

The Roaring Forties, known as a human forbidden zone, could only roar in impotent fury at the black trail that had disappeared.