Chapter 18: Explosion Is Art

Su Wen pressed the M key in the game, opening the built-in map. Four danger zones requiring adjustment were marked with glowing points in the coastal area near him. These locations were all situated within the restricted coastal border zone and the offshore waters, places usually inaccessible to tourists. Even if anyone were around, they would at most be a few scattered employees from Schlott Heavy Industries sneaking away from their duties.

The situation was dire. Due to the psychic tidal shift at the relic site, the super-hurricane "Eunice" had unexpectedly changed its course. With such a high-intensity storm, the Special Affairs Bureau had taken too long to dispatch a rescue fleet from the coastal port dozens of kilometers away. This delay resulted in the "Voyager" being completely destroyed and sunk in the storm, and the BHX isolation zone suffering severe damage.

After reading the background of the incident, Su Wen clicked on the descriptions of the four target points:

[Danger Node 1: Lighthouse 43. Due to years of neglect, the lighthouse failed as a navigational beacon after only twenty minutes of support once the hurricane arrived.]
[Please proceed to Danger Node 1: Complete the repair of the lighting system for Lighthouse 43.]
[Right now, your priority should not be how to fleece Schlott, but how to reach the repair site.]

Seeing this game prompt, Su Wen smiled. He wasn't worried about being trapped in the reclamation zone; after all, the Schlott Heavy Industries area was an isolation zone containing nothing of value besides mechanical waste. After cleaning up, he returned to his workstation and opened the old employee terminal, ordering a mobile Bluetooth camera produced by Schlott.

He then returned to the reclamation area and picked up the parts that should have been used to install the camera for Schlott.

[Configuration Link Point—Replace]
[Modular assembly complete]
[Camera module assembly complete]

Exactly. He had modified the newly purchased camera into an old-style structure and tossed it onto the pale green precision reclamation conveyor belt. The retail price for one of these was 15,000, yet the reclamation value was only 2,000. It was daylight robbery. As Su Wen watched his balance increase by a mere 2,000 from his "hard work," he couldn't help but denounce the evil and greed of capitalists.

At the same time, he connected to the gimbal to view the video data transmitted by the camera. The conveyor belt moved diagonally upward, passing through an open-air section as it climbed higher, likely to avoid the influence of the underground Cohen radiation field. This provided Su Wen with an exit. He exploited a loophole in the Schlott scanning mechanism—which had a very low maximum detection threshold—by dumping a large amount of combined junk at once. This flooded and blocked the two scan path exits, allowing him to walk out through the conveyor belt area with impunity. As for whether he would be discovered later, he didn't care. Once this job was done, he was going home.

He would definitely have to pull one last big stunt on Schlott Heavy Industries.

Su Wen jumped from the conveyor belt exit onto the coastline of the isolation zone. Unlike the roaring, waste-land style of the Schlott reclamation plant, the coastline he traversed was pristine and indifferent, far from the borders of civilization, thanks to the lack of visitors. Perhaps it was a place suitable for a sunset stroll to discuss future prospects. He decided to make a note of it and bring Jiang Menghan here one day. For the impoverished Su Wen, any free tourist attraction was worth a visit.

In the distance, Lighthouse 43 stood lonely on the cape. As he approached, Su Wen saw the aquatic moss spread by the constant crashing of waves and the rusted iron fences. It certainly looked aged, but it was, after all, a navigational lighthouse with no routes reaching it and no precedent for storm warnings. It had likely been forgotten long ago.

"Time for a proper renovation."

Su Wen looked at the various high-end parts in his unrestricted storage box and smiled confidently. He already had the mindset of a "whale" gamer when it came to how to guide ships through a storm. In the old-style lighthouse, designers had emitted light horizontally to conserve energy and concentrate the source. The light remained horizontal, with a rotating device at the top to ensure the glow was visible from every direction.

Su Wen was different. He pulled out twenty "Halisde M04 Focused Beam Cannons." These were large submarine lighting systems used for exploring deep-sea ruins and piercing through deep-water barriers; they were top-tier beam generators capable of penetrating extreme turbidity. Each one cost 3.7 million dollars. It was the only way to experience being a "whale" in a game.

[Begin Assembly]

Fifteen minutes later, an external protective layer made of deep-water anti-penetration modules was hung at the top of the lighthouse. Then, he luxuriously brought out the energy core he had exchanged for at a high price from Schlott. There was no helping it; he could find functional parts in the broken machinery, but he couldn't find an energy core that had survived an electromagnetic storm unscathed.

Through modular linking, a massive sphere of radiant light was hung in the center of the transparent external protective layer. When the hurricane arrived, the crew would see what "a new dawn in the storm" truly looked like.

[Danger Node 1: Repair of Lighthouse 43's lighting system, complete.]
[Current progress: Over-fulfilled.]
[Please proceed to Danger Nodes 2 and 3: Reef clearance in the shipping channel.]
[Since there is no port in the BHX isolation zone, the "Voyager," guided by the intense light during the storm, will likely run aground on reefs if forced off course.]

The two most prominent reef clusters were marked with glowing points. Su Wen was truly speechless. Fixing a lighthouse was one thing, but clearing reefs was pushing it. He couldn't exactly build himself an Iron Man suit. Perhaps high-level module skills could, but his current beginner level only allowed him to build mature human technology. Moreover, most reefs were underwater, and hitting bottom was only one danger. Underwater reefs had complex shapes and were often accompanied by intricate gullies, making the resulting water flow changes unpredictable.

Looking at the unstable, defective products in his storage space, a great idea struck him.

[Combine: Isaiah underwater micro-remote-controlled submarine, equipped with—unstable compound.]

He deployed simple, self-destructing remote-controlled underwater submarines into the water. Seventy percent of them stalled after traveling for a while. There was no helping that either; he wasn't an engineering major, and he hadn't performed multiple test runs before launching. It was impressive enough that he could build toys that exploded.

But he wasn't worried. As a "pay-to-win" player, one had to have confidence. If ten were not enough, he would use a hundred. If a hundred were not enough, he would use a thousand. He was playing with money and self-destructing attacks.

Su Wen sat inside the waterproof barrier at the top of Lighthouse 43, which he had turned into a simple control console through modular renovation. Dozens of screens displayed the status of each Isaiah submarine and the footage scanned by their front cameras. Whenever a screen went black, he switched to the next.

[Target reached]
[Simulating explosion model, finding the best deflection point to destroy the reef]
[Data model rendered, expected explosion result matches simulation]
[Initiate detonation?]

Su Wen looked at the dozens of red dots on his screen. Ensuring he wouldn't harm any passing ships, he pressed the detonation key.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A continuous series of underwater explosions rang out, shattering the seabed reefs into small fragments or powder. The shipping channel was thoroughly cleared. Su Wen felt his "post-modern art" had been sublimated once again. After all, explosion is art!