New Ship X Probe

A convoy drove out of the Nosra Manor.

Kevin and his companions were sitting in the car.

In the middle car sat Morel, Berolete, Kevin, Biscuit, Melusina, and others.

"So, are you satisfied with the results of your hard work?"

Kevin looked at the two of them and asked with a smile.

After returning and resolving the Parasite People incident, the two have been busy building a new ship.

They had already begun preparations for this even before the Parasite People was over. They later obtained sufficient resources through meetings with various countries.

The world's largest shipyard, along with experts from various countries, helped them design and ultimately build the ship.

The entire ship was transformed from blueprints into reality in just about a year.

Upon hearing Kevin's words...

Morel couldn't help but break into a bright smile.

"You're smiling so happily, you must be quite satisfied."

Biscuit, sitting next to him, couldn't help but laugh.

Morel was in a really good mood and casually waved his hand.

"That's true. Once you've seen that ship, you'll all be satisfied. There's no ship that satisfies me more."

He couldn't help but gesticulate wildly as he spoke.

"This ship is much bigger than my old little boat, and the variety of functional cabins and equipment is truly extravagant."

Morel's previous boat could indeed only be considered a small vessel, mainly designed to accommodate a few people.

The entire ship is less than thirty meters long.

Fortunately, the ship wasn't carrying too many passengers.

Moreover, given that it is an exploration vessel, its equipment and sturdiness are beyond question.

"The expedition team this time, at most, won't exceed one hundred people. How big can it be?"

Hearing Morel's words, Biscuit couldn't help but speak up from the side.

Aside from the number of people they can freely add.

With the six countries plus the Hunter Association, there are a total of 70 places available.

Kevin and his team will definitely not bring more than 30 people.

In other words, this is a team of no more than one hundred people.

How big can a team of one hundred people really be?

The ships also do not need to be built to be very large.

"Biscuit, you really underestimate us."

Berolete, who was in charge of the construction and planning, spoke somewhat unhappily from the side.

He coughed as everyone's gazes turned to him.

"Do you know what we're doing this time? The Forward Base at Half-Moon Bay, although it's been successfully built, to be honest, it's just that we've got electricity and are using an old-fashioned method to dredge the water source."

"What's the difference between this and an ancient Village? Essentially, there's not much difference, right?"

That statement isn't wrong.

The house was built of wood, with only a portion of the blue bricks cut from it.

Overall, it's rather old-fashioned.

Fortunately, they were all Nen user, so there was enough manpower; otherwise, it would have been time-consuming and laborious to even build the Village for the Forward Base.

Not to mention the need to build a rudimentary, usable port.

But it's definitely an ancient village.

The power supply is thanks to the Unmanned Stone; it's incredibly useful.

"If we hadn't obtained some metal materials from the Machine Lifeform's home, setting up the camp would have been even more troublesome."

Berolete couldn't help but complain.

After all, he was one of the main builders.

"This time, the entire exploration vessel must be equipped with all the necessary equipment to enable the camp to enter modern society, and this equipment is not for one-time use, but rather the most basic construction equipment."

"These are all the facilities and machines I meticulously built specifically for my Nen ability; they take up a lot of space."

Berolete began counting on her fingers.

"Koto and Miss Illumi need a large enough botanical garden, and of course, mainly some sophisticated equipment needed for the construction and planning."

"Qiduo Kita also needs the most cutting-edge biomedical technology. She also needs sufficiently sophisticated electronic equipment components and transmitting devices, and—"

Berolete read out each item one by one, Biscuit shut her mouth.

Finally Berolete glanced at Biscuit.

"Of course, there are some crafting tools you wanted, Biscuit, but these aren't important, so they can all be made without taking up much space."

In terms of individual needs, the demand for Biscuit is too low.

Display cases plus equipment for making some ornaments.

In general, everyone has needs.

These needs are necessary.

Berolete is, he cannot truly replace humanity's cutting-edge industry single-handedly.

This is something that simply doesn't exist.

Perhaps he could do it if he became Lord, but who knows how long into the future that would be.

It's not impossible that we might never reach that level.

These cutting-edge components and instruments can only be built within human society; this is something that cannot be done outside of human society.

Moreover, as various materials from the Dark Continent begin to flow into human society, these cutting-edge instruments will only be updated and iterated in an even more exaggerated manner.

These cannot be built or produced on the Dark Continent; they can only be carried along.

Fortunately, the number of people at the Forward Base was kept at around six hundred.

Therefore, even if you do need to carry it, you don't need to carry too much.

There's nothing we can do about the various cutting-edge devices.

Chatting idly, they arrived at the city's port.

I got out of the Biscuit and looked around.

"I don't see any new ships?"

The surrounding area consisted mostly of smaller cargo ships and fishing boats; no vessels matching the description given by the two individuals were visible.

Then the two men led them to a ferry boat.

"The harbor isn't deep enough; ships can't sail into it and have to anchor in the nearshore waters outside."

Upon hearing this, Kevin, who had just boarded the boat, raised an eyebrow.

If he remembered correctly, the city's port, while not exactly a deep-water port, still had a draft of about eight or nine meters.

Melusina also realized what was happening and asked in surprise, "So, this latest ship is over 10,000 tons?"

This is no joke.

Ships with a capacity of 10,000 tons are generally around 100 meters in length.

Morel nodded with a smile.

Now everyone knows why he was so happy—he traded a small boat for such a huge vessel.

On the ferry, after a short while, a strangely shaped ship could be vaguely seen moored on the distant sea.

Without a doubt, everyone knew that this was their ship.

As they get closer and closer.

The ship was like a steel mountain floating on the sea.

As the distance closes, its breathtaking full form is revealed.

It looks completely different from a normal ship.

It lacks the fluidity of a modern ship, instead possessing a clumsy, biological heaviness reminiscent of Xi Jinping.

It is extremely long, lying silently across the sea like a dike that cuts off the view.

The bow is a typical sharp shape, cutting through the waves, but only this part of the bow is an open deck.

From the open deck to the rear, it forms a near-perfect, huge, elliptical enclosed structure, and is molded as a single piece.

The outer shell of the ellipsoid was a perfectly sealed steel dome, round, smooth, and without any gaps.

It gleamed with a cold, matte light under the daylight.

Its overall outline, sharp at the front and rounded at the back, resembles an enlarged whale floating in the deep sea.

Its paint job is extremely understated, cleverly blending itself into the background of the sea and sky.

The lower part of the ship is a deep blue, close to the color of the deep sea, gradually transitioning upwards to a misty light blue, and finally turning into a grayish-white similar to the low-hanging clouds at the huge elliptical dome and upper structure.

The ship had no flags and no frequent light signals.

Only on the side of the ship was there a huge and extremely conspicuous sign of Dark Probe.

And because it was the first ship of the Dark Probe, it was directly named the Probe.

"I should have changed my name."

This ship has absolutely nothing to do with the word "probe".

Round and chubby.

If it weren't for the triangular pointed deck at the front, it would be no different from a submarine.

However, this structure also means that the ship is capable of submerging in water.

In terms of human technology, building such a ship is not actually that difficult, after all, they were able to build something as outrageous as the B. W.

The ferry approached, and then the group did not use the boarding rope.

It jumped and landed on the front deck.

Stepping onto the metal floor, you truly feel like you're inside this ship.

"It really is huge."

Biscuit looked around and couldn't help but say something.

It was bigger than she had imagined.

With his arms crossed, Morel smiled and began to introduce the ship, which he now considered his most cherished possession.

"The Probe is 180 meters long and 30 meters wide. It is currently fully loaded with a displacement of 50,000 tons and a draft of 15 meters."

Upon hearing the enormity of the ship, Melusina asked, "How many people would it take to operate such a large ship perfectly?"

These words made Berolete pat herself on the back.

"Look at me, with Morel and me, we're actually enough to get the whole ship running."

"This ship uses the Unmanned Stone as its power source. Apart from some emergency backup energy sources, the Unmanned Stone is the main and almost the only source of power for the entire ship."

"This directly reduced the overall weight and operational complexity of the ship significantly."

Morel nodded in agreement.

"If we add Ce and my two apprentices, then the five of us will be able to start the entire ship perfectly and easily."

"Even most of the operations are extremely simple, foolproof. When the navigation direction is unidirectional, it can even use autopilot directly, requiring only one or two people to keep an eye on it at all times."

I don't understand it, but no matter what, it sounds incredibly exaggerated and high-tech.

Morel led them to the central section and began to give a proper introduction to the entire ship.

In front of you is an exhibition model and explanatory diagram of the entire ship.

"Besides being enormous, the ship has eight decks and is divided into five sections from bow to stern."

First, there's the open bow deck, where anchoring operations, rescue boat launches, and ventilation all take place.

He then pointed ahead.

"We just passed through the entire equipment area of the second part, where sonar detection, various data collection, and ship thrusters are all located.

"We are now in the central core area, which includes personnel dormitories, recreational areas, medical centers, ship bridges, laboratories, communication arrays, and so on."

He then pointed to the area behind them that they hadn't yet visited.

"Behind this is the rear industrial zone, mainly Berolete's area. It contains all sorts of equipment he needs, as well as the machine tools and various workshops that we will all need for production later."

The central residential and command area houses the most functional units, making it the largest area on the entire ship, followed by the industrial area at the rear.

The two areas together occupy almost two-thirds of the entire ship.

"Finally, there's the unloading area at the stern. It doesn't need much introduction; it's just where cargo is loaded and unloaded."

After a brief introduction, Morel led them up to the upper deck.

"This is the top deck. If needed, the skylight can be opened to reveal an open area about ten meters wide."

Berolete then started the engine.

The skylight above opened, and the dome split open on both sides, revealing the blue sky and white clouds outside.

The two then led them on a tour of the entire ship.

The ship is quite complex due to its size and the various functional areas it occupies.

It needs to be functional, comprehensive, and space-efficient.

It's just that it's complicated; there's nothing we can do about it.

After visiting various areas in the center, especially some of the experimental areas.

Melusina nodded, asking with some curiosity.

"Why do these areas look modular? It feels like they can be disassembled."

Hearing this, Berolete nodded.

"Aside from the essential areas for a ship, the rest of the functional areas are actually metal rooms that can be dismantled and transported ashore."

Upon hearing this, everyone understood.

Many of the ship's functions do not need to be integrated into the ship itself.

Its primary function is transportation, carrying these functional areas like individual rooms to the Dark Continent.

The land can be dismantled and used as a land-based laboratory, and can even be freely expanded.

The industrial zone was where Berolete was most excited.

The largest area is the central smelting zone.

"This is the hottest place on the entire ship, so on the lower deck, there's a metal smelting boiler used for refining and forging ore to produce enough raw materials for our other equipment later on."

They can also be directly disassembled and transported ashore.

Then we arrived at the most important and core classified area of the entire industrial zone.

"This is the machine I designed entirely using my Nen ability and created using a portion of Nen Sand."

Berolete's eyes lit up, and she patted the wall of the room with a smug look on her face, laughing as she spoke.

The group looked around and realized that the entire room was the interior of this machine.

"This is a giant metal printer. Under my control and assembly with my Nen ability, it can basically complete the design and production of all metal parts. This is the most primitive industrial machine tool."

"Of course, such advanced equipment simply cannot be built. Whether it's due to my Nen ability or the limitations of the entire equipment's printing capacity, it's impossible to reach such an exaggerated level."

It is impossible to do such a thing by one's own strength alone.

Even so, this printing machine is extravagant enough.

In the Dark Continent, as long as the materials have special properties, you can simply use your strength to fly.

Why think so much?

"It's truly a perfect ship; you two must have worked really hard."

Back on the forward deck, Kevin walked around for a bit and nodded in satisfaction.

No matter who comes to see this ship, they absolutely cannot find any problems with it, unless they are nitpicking.

We've already done our best within the limits of what we could do.

"Now that the ships are built, it's time to begin preparing the troops."