Isabelle: There are two ways to detonate these mines. The first is detonation by severe impact. After a ship hits a mine, an alarm will sound from inside the mine for five seconds, followed by an explosion. If you hear the mine's alarm during transport, seek cover immediately, protect your vital areas with your hands, and lie down.
Jiang Ye: Understood. I'll bolt when it goes off.
Isabelle: The second method is remote detonation, with a range of 300 meters. I'm transferring the remote control to you now. The battery is separate; please install it yourself and use it with caution.
As Isabelle's message arrived, the trading bay flashed with light again.
Jiang Ye bent down and retrieved a remote control and a AA battery from the trading bay.
It looked much like an air conditioner remote, small and all white. On the surface was a red button and a warning label:
[Press twice briefly, then press and hold for three seconds to detonate]
[Remove the battery when not in use]
This combination of short and long presses was clearly designed to prevent accidental detonation. If a single press would cause an explosion, the remote could be accidentally set off by being squeezed in a pocket or dropped.
Isabelle: May I ask what you're buying this for?
Jiang Ye: There's a gold mine at the bottom of the sea, and the excavators can't reach it, so I need explosives for blasting.
Isabelle: These mines are floating. You'll need to attach several dozen kilograms of ballast to sink them to the seabed.
Jiang Ye: I have a way to do that, don't worry.
Isabelle: Then I wish you a pleasant experience.
Jiang Ye bent down, hugged a mine, and lifted it with effort.
Each mine weighed at least thirty kilograms, quite heavy.
Jiang Ye gently placed it on the ground and pushed it forward.
Being spherical, it rolled quite easily.
He rolled it out of the base, across the sandy beach, and onto the boat.
Jiang Ye returned to the base and bought a second mine, then a third.
In total, ten mines were neatly arranged on the deck.
If detonated all at once, they could sink a warship!
With fifty thousand spent, his personal account balance dropped to 291,600 yuan.
But it wasn't over yet.
Jiang Ye then purchased 40 sacks of coal and ten fishing nets from the base panel.
He made twenty trips back and forth, his back nearly breaking, before finally moving all the items onto the deck.
He entered the captain's cabin and clicked on the screen to steer the fishing boat forward.
As the boat slowly moved, Jiang Ye busied himself on the deck.
He placed four sacks of coal and one mine together in a fishing net.
Then he gathered the net and tied it off securely.
This was his method for sinking the floating mines: using coal for weight.
He could have used sacks of soil for the same effect, but it would have been too tiring and troublesome. Since coal wasn't expensive, he used what was readily available.
Finally, the fishing boat reached the location of the gold mine.
Jiang Ye strained to lift a mine, along with the coal sacks, and tossed them overboard.
Splash!
With a large splash, the mine sank successfully.
One, three, five...
Eight, nine, ten!
All the mines had been deployed.
Jiang Ye returned to the captain's cabin and steered the boat forward.
He sailed a hundred meters, then stopped.
He picked up the detonation remote and installed the battery.
He pressed the button twice briefly, then held it for three seconds!
The remote beeped once, indicating the signal had been sent.
Jiang Ye immediately clicked on the screen, and the fishing boat continued forward. Although he was already beyond the safety distance, that was for a single mine. With ten detonating at once, who knew how powerful it would be?
The fishing boat sped forward, and Jiang Ye counted down in his mind.
5! 4! 3! 2! 1!
Boom!
The sound was earth-shattering, like a muffled thunderclap from beneath the sea!
The water behind the boat swelled outwards, waves crashing skyward. Dozens, even hundreds, of fish were blasted thirty meters into the air, only to fall like a blizzard. Many small fish even landed on the fishing boat's deck, landing with a thud, motionless.
Jiang Ye clearly felt the stern of the boat lift and then drop. All the windows rattled, and the fire axe on the table slid off, crashing to the floor and nearly severing his toes.
The power was terrifying!
Once the water surface returned to calm, Jiang Ye turned the fishing boat around and headed back to where he had dropped the mines.
He stopped the boat, put on his diving suit.
Carrying a sack, he dove into the water, descending!
The water was still filled with white dust and pebble-sized stones, like an underwater fog.
Jiang Ye swam through the fog, descending to see the devastated ore bed.
The entire gold mine area had been blasted to rubble. All the rocks were pulverized, with fragments of varying sizes layered upon each other. Occasionally, he could see shiny steel balls, gleaming like dewdrops.
The sunlight was already bright enough to see at this depth. In all directions, countless gold particles and flakes reflected the light, like scattered embers or the hoard of a dragon.
Jiang Ye was ecstatic. Standing on the ruins of the explosion, he bent down to pick up gold ore.
It was everywhere; no need to search, just pick it up with all his might.
In just ten minutes, the first sack of gold ore was collected.
Jiang Ye pulled on the rope, swimming upwards with all his strength.
The sack of ore was quite heavy, and he had to use all his might to get it onto the boat.
He dragged it to the cargo hold, lifted the sack, and poured the gold ore into the trading bay with a rumble.
A brief scan, and the price appeared:
[Estimated value: 975,000 yuan]
"Awesome!" Jiang Ye exclaimed.
Nearly a million for one sack!
From diving in to surfacing, it had only taken twenty minutes.
This profit rate was unbeatable!
He sold it, and his personal account surged to 1,241,600 yuan.
Jiang Ye was overjoyed and, without resting, took an empty sack and dove back into the water.
He continued to collect gold ore from the seabed.
Besides the gold ore, there were dead fish scattered everywhere, and black lumps of coal. The golden ore, white fish bellies, and black coal were mixed together, possessing an eerie beauty.
The dead fish weren't just on the seabed; some were suspended in the water, and more floated on the surface. Mangled and with scales missing, the impact of ten mines detonating simultaneously was too strong. Almost all the fish in the vicinity had been killed by the shockwave. As Jiang Ye worked, he looked up, feeling as if he were in a rain of dead fish.
Twenty minutes later, he surfaced again.
Panting, he dragged the sack to the trading bay to sell.
This time, the price had dropped significantly.
[Estimated value: 687,000 yuan]
Jiang Ye was initially confused. The same sack, why was it tens of thousands less?
Then he realized: the gold mine must be unevenly distributed, with some ore having a higher gold content than others.
In other words, it was a matter of luck.
He clicked sell, and his personal account rose to 1,928,600 yuan.
Jiang Ye was exhausted. Collecting ore on land was completely different from collecting it underwater. After working for nearly an hour, his stamina was starting to falter.
He took off his diving suit and sat on the deck, enjoying the sea breeze and sunshine.
It was quite pleasant, he had to admit.
After about ten minutes of sea breeze, his stamina recovered.
Jiang Ye stood up and put on his diving suit.
He picked up a sack and was about to dive when his movements suddenly stopped.
His expression was one of shock, his eyes fixed on the sea surface.
Large patches of white, upturned fish bellies floated, like a snowfield.
Within the white "snowfield," a patch of dark gray triangular fins was weaving back and forth.
Looking into the distance, he saw two more similar dark gray fins swimming around.
Three sharks had arrived!