Chapter 22 Choice

Having gotten to this point in the story, Uncle Three heaved a big sigh and pinched his brows, as if he didn’t want to continue.

I was covered in a cold sweat after hearing this last part, but Uncle Three’s pause gave me some time to calm down.

It was like listening to a storyteller weaving a good tale—the story was so thrilling that I found it hard to breathe as I listened, especially when I heard that there was a third person. Such a development was very shocking.

Who is this person? I wondered. Based on their behavior, they were quite determined to take Uncle Three and Xie Lianhuan out—it was impossible for the valve on the oxygen tank to open by accident or unscrew itself, so that fact that it was open meant that this person must be the culprit. Moreover, it was very likely that they opened it when they followed Uncle Three in, so there must not have been much oxygen left.

This undersea tomb chamber was quite far from the surface, so no oxygen meant that Uncle Three and Xie Lianhuan would inevitably be trapped here. And when the person returned to the boat, they wouldn’t tell the others what happened, which meant that the tomb would never be discovered. No matter how hard the others looked for them, it would be impossible to find them, so there was no reason to hope that they might be found and rescued. Such a malicious method made it obvious that this person wanted Uncle Three and Xie Lianhuan to die inside the tomb.

Thinking about it, Uncle Three’s situation was actually much worse than ours was. Not only was he alone, but he was much deeper in the tomb than we were, which meant that he was farther from the surface.

But he was sitting right in front of me now, casually scratching his foot and drinking some tea, which meant that he had obviously found a way out of the tomb. There was no need for me to be so nervous.

After taking a moment to calm ourselves, Uncle Three slowly continued the story.

As soon as he saw the situation, it felt like his mind exploded. He hurriedly went up and twisted the valve shut, but then he froze as his whole body seemed to lock up in fear.

At that moment, he knew that he was doomed—not only was he going to die, but it was going to be in the worst way imaginable: trapped in an enclosed tomb. A sudden wave of self-hatred and regret at his own carelessness seemed to surge up in his chest. In Uncle Three’s mind, if he died in an ancient tomb because of a trap, then it was fate, but he absolutely refused to be killed by someone else. The thought of going out like that was enough to enrage him.

He immediately went to check the oxygen gauges on the tanks and clenched his teeth. His own oxygen tank didn’t leak as much and still had about a tenth of the oxygen remaining—probably because the valve had been sealed so tightly—but Xie Lianhuan’s tank barely had any left. He estimated that there was only enough oxygen for thirty or forty breaths.

This might have been because the gas hadn’t been leaking out of the tanks for long. If they had been leaking for several minutes, both tanks might have been completely empty by the time he discovered them.

But then again, this amount of oxygen was basically the same as having no oxygen. When they first came in, Uncle Three had used half a tank, while Xie Lianhuan had used more than half. This amount of oxygen was far from enough to get them out of here.

When Uncle Three realized this, he immediately fell into despair. He looked at the dark tomb chamber around him, and felt a wave of extreme fear wash over him. Am I really going to die, trapped here? He wondered.

The more he thought about it, the more afraid he became, but it was real fear, not just a sense of nervousness or anxiety. At that time, a thought suddenly popped into his head—he couldn’t die here; he should die somewhere else. He even briefly thought about jumping into the water and drowning himself.

But Uncle Three had always been a fighter. He quickly suppressed his fear, slapped his face, and scolded himself for being ridiculous. Once he had calmed down, he immediately began thinking about what he could do.

When Fatty, Poker-Face, and I were trapped in the tomb, we didn’t have any oxygen at all, so we could only pin our hopes on finding our oxygen tanks. But Uncle Three still had oxygen at that time—even if it was a pitiful amount—so all of his thoughts quickly focused on how much he had. He first began to consider whether this small amount of oxygen was enough to help him reach the surface.

But no matter how much he thought about it, he knew that it was impossible—there was simply not enough oxygen. Although, when they came in just now, they were being very cautious so they were moving slow. If he swam faster while getting out of here, he could shorten the time by a lot. But he had used half of the oxygen when he came in, and now he only had about a tenth to use getting out. In other words, he had to be five times faster going out than he was going in.

It took them about thirty minutes to reach this place, so he had about six minutes to get out and reach the surface. But he wasn’t a fish. How could he possibly do that?

Uncle Three started to feel anxious again, but he quickly slapped himself to suppress the fear, and then forced himself to keep thinking.

How far could he get in six minutes? It should take about three to six minutes to get out of the tomb, but that would still only put him by the reef entrance in the huge abyss, even if he was going at his fastest speed.

Once he made it into that entrance, he’d be able to swim through it in about ten minutes, hopefully completing the half-hour journey in just sixteen minutes. Moreover, according to his watch, the tide would soon be ebbing, which meant that the cave entrance would be exposed to the surface, and a little air would enter the top part of the cave. If that happened, he might not have to make it all the way to the surface before he could take a breath.

As long as he could hold his breath for a minute, and had enough oxygen to last for another ten minutes, he should be fine.

But where would he find ten minutes’ worth of oxygen? There wasn’t anything here… Uncle Three scratched his head and looked around, hoping to find something that would give him an idea.

But what could he possibly find in an ancient tomb that would help him in this situation? Unless there was a ceramic oxygen tank from the Ming or Qing Dynasties…

Such thoughts were not only useless, but also a waste of time. Uncle Three slapped the water out of frustration, but at this time, he caught sight of his own reflection in the dark surface below. As he shifted his flashlight to the side and the reflection became clearer, he suddenly found something that could provide him with ten minutes’ worth of oxygen.

It was a crazy idea, but what Uncle Three saw at that time was his own diving suit.

How could a diving suit act as an oxygen tank? Uncle Three’s idea was actually very clever—he tied the sleeves and legs of the diving suit together, swung it around to fill the inside with air, and then tied the collar so that the diving suit became a giant air bag. Then he jumped into the water, untied one sleeve, and took a deep breath.

As soon as he tried it, he found that it actually worked. Hell, he was able to breathe for about three or four minutes before the air was finally depleted.

This was it! This was his chance! Feeling overjoyed, he immediately climbed out of the water, ran to Xie Lianhuan, and stripped him of diving suit. He then turned it into another air bag and filled both of them up with air while thinking to himself, now I have ten minutes’ worth of oxygen!

Unable to wait any longer, he immediately dragged everything over to the water and prepared to make his escape.

Unlike me, Uncle Three wasn’t the type to hesitate or wait for a more solid solution, so he didn’t waver at that time.

But even if there was enough oxygen to make the trip back to the surface, there was only enough for one person. This person had to take both oxygen tanks with them, which meant that the other person would have to wait here until the first person came back to rescue them. But if the person died halfway through their journey, then no one would come to save the person who was left behind. The weight of this psychological pressure was enormous.

Uncle Three didn’t seem to understand how serious the situation was at that time. All he thought was that there hadn’t originally been enough oxygen for Xie Lianhuan to make the trip back, but now it was just a little worse. Moreover, he didn’t feel like worrying about Xie Lianhuan at this time—he was too excited to get moving.

He placed Xie Lianhuan on the coffin platform, and then placed the waterproof bag containing the human skull under his head to act as a pillow so that he would be more comfortable. Once that was done, he went back to the water and jumped in without a second thought.

Just as Uncle Three expected, six minutes later, he found himself in the dark underwater abyss. Luckily, he still had some oxygen left in the tank.

By this point, Uncle Three’s heart had finally settled down and he was full of nothing but admiration for himself. At least like this, I won’t be trapped in that tomb, he thought to himself. When I return to the boat, I’m definitely going to beat the bastard who plotted against me.

The two huge air bags floated behind him in the water as he dragged them along, saving him from wasting a lot of energy. Relying on his memory, he swam through the abyss towards the reef entrance, but when he got to the place where he thought it should be, he was left stunned.

There was nothing there. All he could see was a jagged coral reef.

Huh? Feeling confused, he looked to the left, the right, and then the surrounding area, but the entrance was nowhere to be found.

His whole body suddenly felt like it was encased in ice. Damn it! It looked like things didn’t go as smoothly as he originally thought they would. He apparently forgot where the entrance was! He broke out in a cold sweat and nervously checked the oxygen gauge on the tank, only to find that it was at zero.

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