As time passed, the diving rope reached its limit. Joey was now a hundred meters underwater.
Without specialized equipment, the record for a normal person's freediving depth was 113 meters.
Beyond a hundred meters, water pressure rose sharply, equivalent to a fingernail bearing the weight of a large watermelon.
With Spirit Vision active, Joey could barely make out his surroundings. This place was like a bottomless abyss, pitch-black, with nothing but icy water.
I can't go any deeper! With that thought, he tugged hard five times on the rope tied around his waist. The water pressure made even this simple movement difficult.
After he waited a dozen seconds or so, tension in the rope slowly pulled him upward.
With a splash, Joey returned to the surface.
He had needed to adjust to the changing water pressure, so surfacing had taken a full seven or eight minutes.
"Well? Did you see those things?" Gul asked.
Annie and Oli Via also looked at him with curious, questioning eyes.
After taking a moment to recover, he shook his head and said slowly, "I didn't see anything."
He asked skeptically, "Gul, did you really catch that thing here yesterday?"
He removed his diving equipment and changed into his own clothes. The scorching sun finally brought him a trace of warmth.
Gul scratched his head, his rough voice buzzing in Joey's ears. "That's impossible. Yesterday, we ran into them after diving just seven or eight meters."
His expression became exaggerated as he waved both hands. "You have no idea. We were scared out of our minds. We thought they were crocodiles."
"Crocodiles wouldn't show up somewhere like this," Joey said.
"Exactly, but who could think that much at the time? We all swam for shore like our lives depended on it. It was pitch-black down