Water ran down the slanted side of the wooden crate, gathered along its sealed edge, and dripped onto the deck.
The sea breeze made the crystal-clear drops tremble, each reflecting a panicked face.
"Master Carson, do you mean the Balance Net outpost is gone?" The attendant swallowed, his voice low.
"..." Carson fell silent for a moment. He reached out and touched the scorch mark along the crate's upper edge. "Don't cling to false hope. It looks like the Balance Net really is gone. Heh. From now on, we're on our own..."
Xia Lun thought for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Everyone, don't you think something about this is strange?"
"Strange?" Roman blinked. "What is?"
"We only decided to head for the Balance Net outpost a few hours ago, and now we've found wreckage from it. What are the odds?" Xia Lun looked at the others. "Besides, a lot of this doesn't add up."
He paused, then pointed to the current behind them.
"According to Carson, the Balance Net outpost is two months away from us. The Submarine is obviously much faster than the current."
"By that logic, the outpost must have exploded months ago. That's impossible. The large-scale Cosmic Electromagnetic Storm hadn't blocked communications back then. If the Balance Net outpost had really blown up, the collection station would have received word."
The Manhunter started. "Damn, you're right. So what's going on?"
Silence fell over the deck again. The timing of the crates' arrival was far too strange.
Xia Lun stared at the crates on the deck, rapidly weighing his options.
There were many ways to explain the crates. Which explanation he chose depended chiefly on what he wanted to achieve.
Based on his experience clearing previous Scenarios, this anomaly was surely connected to the "secret"