Chapter 279

The first time?

Zhang Li was a bit surprised and asked in puzzlement, “Doesn’t seem like it, I thought you were quite skilled, as if you know diving very well.”

“That’s because I’ve been a ‘water ghost’ at work sites several times,” Lin Mo said with a smile. “Do you know what a work site ‘water ghost’ is?”

Zhang Li shook his head.

He had heard of the Rolex Submariner ‘Hulk,’ but wasn’t familiar with what a work site ‘water ghost’ was.

Lin Mo paused what he was doing, a nostalgic look on his face, and explained, “Whether it’s building railways or bridges, the first step always involves underwater drilling. During this process, if we encounter complex terrain or huge water currents, the drill bit could come off.”

“When the drill bit falls off and is lost, it has to be retrieved. Otherwise, the pile driving would have been for nothing. And the person who goes down to retrieve the drill bit is called a work site ‘water ghost.’

“Going down for a retrieval pays well, and if you don’t come back up, the price is even higher, a direct payment of one million.”

Even though Lin Mo was recounting the past with a smile, just by listening to the description, Zhang Li could imagine how dangerous this job was.

By now, both of them had donned all their diving gear.

Lin Mo gave Zhang Li’s oxygen tank a final check before patting him on the shoulder and saying, “Don’t be nervous. Once we go down, just follow behind me. I’ll show you the ropes of diving; we’re in no rush to find the treasure.”

“If you feel any discomfort, just signal for help, okay?”

“Got it, bro,” Zhang Li nodded.

Lin Mo didn’t dawdle any longer and with a flick backwards, he plunged into the seawater.

The cold and the sensation of weightlessness hit him all at once, invigorating Lin Mo and giving him goosebumps.

He first got Zhang Li accustomed to the water at a depth of around three meters, making sure he was alright before slowly swimming downward.

The depth of the water near the coast was not particularly deep. According to the instrument on his wrist, they had reached the seabed at just 18 meters down.

All around them were rocks and sand, with coral and marine life not being particularly abundant; occasionally, they could see a few fish.

After all, the place where they were located would again become a beach with rocks and reefs during low tide, so not many marine animals lived there.

Once they reached the seabed, Lin Mo and Zhang Li took out the detectors they had prepared in advance and started to slowly search for the treasure within the area of the fish farm.

The task was immense,

and both of them were new to diving, occasionally needing to surface to switch to a fresh oxygen tank, then rest a while before continuing their underwater exploration.

Meanwhile, the detection equipment on the fishing boat had also been turned on, just waiting to pinpoint the location of the treasure bit by bit.

Several hours later.

The two had searched an area of less than 10 acres before returning to the fishing boat.

Lin Mo removed the face mask and said to Zhang Li, “That’s enough for now, let’s take a break. It’s winter now, and staying in the seawater for a long time can easily lead to hypothermia.”

“It’s just this small area. If we search about 50 acres a day, we should have searched everywhere in a maximum of two or three days.”

“By then, whether there’s treasure or not, we’ll have an answer!”

Zhang Li wanted to continue searching but knew that such tasks couldn’t be completed in a single day. He nodded and didn’t say much more.

So, the two of them would sleep when they were tired, and upon waking up, they would continue searching for the treasure. They would eat and stay in the fish farm, keeping everything simple and focusing all their energy on the treasure hunt, working for over ten hours each day. After nearly two days, their perseverance was rewarded as they found a spot that might conceal the treasure.

In the evening, inside the abalone farm.

The sea breeze was gentle.

Lin Mo and Zhang Li sat beside a campfire, munching on roasted fish while discussing their gains from the past two days.

After two days of continuous diving, they had nearly mapped out the entire seabed around the farm.

Zhang Li took a bite of the slightly charred rockfish and said somewhat unclearly, “Bro, I think we’ve searched almost everywhere that needs searching. If there’s really treasure in this area, it must be inside that water cave.”

The water cave he mentioned was a new discovery from today, located roughly in the middle of a cluster of reefs, a stone cave about one meter tall.

Through sonar detection, they knew the cave had a deep area within.

And that part of the cave was the only place Lin Mo and the others hadn’t ventured into yet.

Because it was too dangerous!

Diving in waters less than 18 meters deep may not seem like a big deal,

Any healthy adult could learn to do it in about an hour or two – in fact, some tourist dives are even deeper.

But cave diving is a completely different story; it’s considered one of the most dangerous activities in extreme sports.

It’s not hard to understand why,

the direction of the water cave is unknown, as is its depth and the narrowest part—whether it’s passable or not. Even the presence of dangerous marine life in the cave is an unknown.

If the water cave descends, then the deeper one dives, the greater the pressure on the lungs, and there’s a high chance of not being able to return.

Not to mention the possibilities of getting a very sharp stone to cut the air supply hose in the cave or of getting stuck somewhere in the body—either scenario would be a death sentence.

Or if the structure inside the cave is unstable, there could even be a collapse after someone enters.

Lin Mo was here to earn money, risking his life was certainly unnecessary.