Cold, dark, suffocating…
As Lin Yuan closed his eyes and dove into the deep water, all these terrifying sensations rushed in.
He felt himself sinking continuously, the water pressure growing stronger.
No.
He had to open his eyes.
Diving in the darkness with eyes closed was ten thousand times more terrifying than walking through a deep mountain forest at night.
"Gurgle gurgle"
A large stream of bubbles escaped from Lin Yuan's mouth and nose, rising to the surface and bursting.
This was also a signal to the people on the shore, indicating his position.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes and found himself sinking from a certain point, with no obstacles around.
He was already close to the center of the lake.
Daylight began to emerge, and many rays of light shone down from above, but for this deep, dark lake water, it was like a drop in the ocean.
There were no reference points around him, only the occasional passing fish reminding him that this was not a stagnant pool.
Lin Yuan swam upwards, taking breaks to look down, estimating the depth of the water by the light that penetrated.
In freshwater lakes like this, due to algae, suspended matter, and various environmental factors, sunlight could only penetrate about 10 meters before losing its power.
Looking down, the water was almost an unfathomable abyss, at least 20 meters deep.
Deep lakes bred big fish. He wondered if there were any giant fish over 5 meters in this large lake, like sturgeons or kaluga, such fish.
Just thinking about it made his legs weak.
Lin Yuan's aquaphobia kicked in at this moment.
But the feeling of fear lasted only a few seconds before dissipating completely, and he continued to float upwards.
Compared to what he was about to do, water monsters and the like were nothing to be afraid of.
But just as Lin Yuan was about to touch the surface, his right foot was suddenly gripped by something that pulled at his leg.
Damn it!
Lin Yuan panicked, struggled a few times, and the oxygen in his lungs was consumed faster with the violent movements.
Looking down, he saw several long water weeds that had somehow entangled his leg. The other end extended to the bottom, and he couldn't see where the roots were.
After the initial panic, Lin Yuan calmed down. He drew the dagger from his back, bent his legs to maintain buoyancy, and cut the weeds with the dagger.
He didn't know what kind of plant this was, but it was very tough. However, Lin Yuan's military dagger was no joke, and he managed to cut through the weeds that had nearly cost him his life.
In this process, Lin Yuan also unknowingly overcame his fear of deep water. Nothing was more important than staying alive, and even fear could not stop the will to survive!
After checking himself and finding no water weeds, Lin Yuan continued to ascend.
As he looked up, a white shadow flashed past in the distant darkness and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Was it an illusion?
He didn't think much of it; his lungs were running out of oxygen, and he had to surface quickly.
Fortunately, his reinforced body was reliable enough, and he still had some air left when he surfaced.
Looking around, Lin Yuan realized he was nearly a hundred meters away from the shore.
"How long has it been? I swam this far with my eyes closed?" he exclaimed, while his body was already heading towards the shore.
He still needed to figure out how long he had been underwater and if he needed to be re-assessed.
Before he got close to the shore, he saw Ying Tianlong, who was guarding the bank, throw out a long rope.
"Lin Yuan, grab the rope quickly, we'll pull you up."
Many hands make light work. In less than 10 seconds, Lin Yuan was pulled ashore.
Wearing only shorts, he felt a slight chill upon emerging from the water.
It was a bit cold.
The winter morning was also exceptionally cold.
Lin Yuan took the towel handed to him by Wang Xiaoxin, quickly wiped himself dry, and asked, "Team Leader Ying, how long was I down there?"
As he spoke, Lin Yuan was already putting on his clothes, not at all worried about any secret-revealing scars on his body being discovered, because thanks to his powerful self-healing ability, his scars never lasted more than 15 days.
"5 minutes and 38 seconds. From the moment you went underwater to surfacing, that was the total time," Ying Tianlong said without hiding his approving expression. "And looking at you now, you still have energy, your face isn't red, and you're not out of breath. Very good, very good. You must have overcome your aquaphobia too."
There was no fog that morning, so they could see clearly.
"Haha."
Lin Yuan forced a smile and said humbly, "Don't mention it. I got tangled by water weeds underwater. Luckily, I had a dagger tied to me, otherwise, I might have really been finished today."
"Water weeds? What water weeds?" Ying Tianlong asked, puzzled, as he hadn't heard anyone else mention any water weeds in the lake.
"I'm not sure either. I didn't see them at first, but when I was about to surface, some water weeds wrapped around my feet. I guess it's some kind of predatory plant, swaying in the water, and when it encounters prey, it grabs it.
Of course, it could also just be some kind of water weed swaying in the water," Lin Yuan waved his hand dismissively, casually stating his guess.
The other team members also started discussing.
Wan Changfeng was the first to scoff, "Comrade Lin Yuan is right. I saw this thing too when I went down for the first time. It was a bit far from me, and I thought it was something strange. I swam over to take a look, and it was just water weeds, with leaves too."
What nonsense about ghosts and spirits! They probably haven't seen the iron fist of socialism. It's better to be well-behaved. If anyone dares to cause trouble, just casually drop a depth charge and blow up the entire lake.
"Yes, yes! When I went down a couple of days ago, I saw several large fish. The longest was about 6 meters. I swam over and touched them; they were several large sturgeons and weren't afraid of people at all. They probably thought I was one of them. It's just that the scales on their backs were very hard and not very pleasant to the touch, hahahaha."
"Hey, hey, hey, hearing Comrade Xiaoxin say that, I really want to see them too. One of them splashed water in my face at the bottom of the lake. I laughed so hard!" Zheng Mengmeng said excitedly, as if she had discovered a new continent.
Lin Yuan: "..."
Seriously, guys.
Can you consider me, a little newbie who's still a bit aquaphobic? Giant creatures at the bottom of the water sound terrifying!
"Team Leader, what are you spacing out for? Your diving and swimming skills are almost perfect! You only need to learn underwater combat. Let's go, let's go, hahaha, the last project."
How could the others know Lin Yuan's thoughts? They all thought Lin Yuan had completely overcome his aquaphobia in one go. They put their arms around Lin Yuan's neck and headed towards the camp, starting to chat about everything under the sun.
Lin Yuan had no choice but to grit his teeth and listen. After getting used to it, he wasn't as scared anymore.
(This book does not feature supernatural elements. These two chapters serve as a prelude to what follows.)