"What happened?" Xue Dili handed over his cola too, giving off a "I’ve got cola, do you have a story?" vibe.
Howard didn’t mind at all as he picked up Xue Dili’s unopened cola and started drinking. He said, "Right now, I’m an illegal immigrant... going to be deported by the president back to Turkey..."
Xue Dili: "..."
No way, buddy.
Xue Dili recalled that Howard’s father had immigrated long ago, and his father was a scientist while Howard himself was forrly a professor at Harvard. Could the immigration office really consider soone with this status as an "illegal immigrant" and deport him after decades?
No way, what kind of Earth is this we’re living on?
"Sigh, because of this, my wife divorced , and all my assets were awarded to her. She also accused of dostic violence, so I lost my assistant professor and senior tech consultant positions... Sigh..." Howard sighed.
Xue Dili felt like handing him a microphone, and he’d start singing "Tears of Yesterday" without reason.
"So now I can only wander, say ’God bless you’ everywhere to scrape by with subsidies from the church or left-wingers, rush to snatch valuable items when comrades zero-dollar shop, just have to endure for 4 years. The next president won’t have such absurd immigration policies." Howard lanted.
Xue Dili: "..."
No wonder in the Parallel World, Blington and thousands of other mystic scholars try all they can to find you. Who would know you’ve survived by zero-dollar shopping and begging, ending up as a nightclub gigolo to make it to 2029? It’s tough.
Xue Dili didn’t expect that in the real world, this guy would also be in such dire straits, without the support of those Greek ancestors.
Xue Dili rembered this guy was a descendant of Hector, right?
Actually, Xue Dili sowhat wanted to help this guy, but he had no idea how to do it right now.
The last option was to find Old Austin in the real world and have him assist Howard.
But Old Austin was once Howard’s teacher, and Howard was in such a bad position now, he hadn’t thought to turn to Old Austin. Probably because he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
"Sigh..."
A sigh echoed in Xue Dili’s mind, and he furrowed his brow, realizing it wasn’t from Howard but from Susu.
"Your world clearly doesn’t have Demons and Evil Ghosts, why do I feel like it’s not much better in any way?" the Little Witch comnted, munching on a burger, "Clearly without Evil Ghosts, why does it feel more terrifying than Evil Ghosts?"
"Eat more." Xue Dili tossed his burger to her, and she accepted it all, cuddling in a dorm playing with her newly acquired iPhone 16, gnawing on burgers.
"What do you plan to do next?" Xue Dili asked Howard, genuinely intending to lend a hand, as they’d been teammates in the Parallel World, and seeing him this miserable was hard to bear.
"Take it one day at a ti, survive day by day, it’ll be better after 4 years," Howard sighed, drinking his cola.
After another burp, Howard suddenly said, "Hey, brother, are you planning to cave dive? I’m a seasoned cave diver with years of deep cave diving experience. Since you treated to this al, I’ll contribute my zero-dollar shopping equipnt, and we can explore the cave below together?"
Xue Dili: "..."
You barely have enough to eat, and you’re still thinking about cave diving?
"These things can’t be sold anyway, might as well use them and experience cave diving one more ti. Although my condition isn’t great, I can still keep an eye on the navigation line and decompression bottles in shallow waters," Howard inexplicably trusted Xue Dili from the depths of his heart.
Thus, they prepared to take this heap of zero-dollar shopping diving equipnt to explore the cave.
However, only Xue Dili would enter the cave, with Howard watching over the guiding line in shallow water and placing additional air tanks, ensuring they wouldn’t be ssed up by passersby or animals.
Though this didn’t significantly benefit Xue Dili, he still wanted to do it.
Xue Dili rely shrugged, inviting Howard along, as he only needed to stay underwater for a few hours. If it weren’t impossible to open a Teleportation Gate underwater, he might have done so long ago.
Considering the water pressure below, if Xue Dili opened a Teleportation Gate down there, the water might all gush through the gate.
It was slightly embarrassing, but Xue Dili was clueless about underwater situations, especially since this ti there was a possibility of underwater combat.
He had fought in outer space more than once, managing to battle for half an hour to an hour at full power even in a vacuum with no oxygen. However, underwater combat was still a first for him.
Facing Susu’s mother didn’t count, that involved displacing seawater.
Given the conditions, Xue Dili genuinely considered the idea of draining the water, emptying this entire reservoir so that he could face the Divine Tree properly.
But located re kiloters from Indonesian Moth lies the sea, and according to information returned by Bloodhound, the cave might be connected internally to so trench, so this plan was sentenced to stillbirth.
Thus, draining the water was impossible.
anwhile, World Consciousness was busy surrounding and attacking all roots of the Divine Tree underground, aiming to eliminate this threat in one swoop.
"Let’s start diving. I’ll bring a 3-hour air tank, you wait for in the shallow water, if there’s an ergency, imdiately return to shore," Xue Dili told Howard by the shore.
"Alright, make sure to stay safe. As soon as the oxygen drops to one-third, co back imdiately! Pay attention to decompression, I’ll set up light sources at around 100 ters, along with the decompression tanks."
Howard advised Xue Dili based on his experience.
What he didn’t know was that Xue Dili planned not just to dip to around a hundred ters, but possibly diving deep into several kiloters of dark underground.
He might even face off against a giant creature that landed on Earth since the Cretaceous Period.
Carrying air tanks was just a ans to fight underwater freely. From prior experiences in space combat, Xue Dili reckoned he could endure close to an hour in an oxygen-deprived, high-pressure situation.
If he took several oxygen tanks, this ti could multiply; if he couldn’t capture the Divine Tree like this, Xue Dili would opt to open a Teleportation Gate to return to the surface, risking water pressure driving him back.
"Good luck," Howard wished his newly acquainted friend from today.
With a splash, Xue Dili plunged into a pit only several ters deep, embarking on what could be Earth’s most perilous exploration, cave diving.
Even for Xue Dili, this venture might be more dangerous than traveling into space with his physical body.
Should danger truly present itself, he’d prefer Demonization if it ant aggravating symptoms rather than dying underground.
The current was incredibly rapid; this was a world-renowned cave, one that claid the lives of countless cave diving veterans.
The cave environnt was highly complex and winding. Just 40 ters into the descent, Xue Dili spotted a body in a waterproof suit lying in a cliff.
The body had long decayed into a skeleton, but there were few signs of erosion on the suit. It seed this diver had been here a while.
Perhaps it was the unlucky mber from the neighboring diving club, maybe soone Howard even knew.
But now, it rely lay quietly, nearly buried by the sedint, deep inside the cave.
Without hesitation, Xue Dili continued diving further down. Along the way, he discovered nurous bodies.
All of them were divers without exception, their remnants surrounded by air tanks and underwater computers. The deepest spot, at 387 ters underwater, had two divers’ bodies embracing each other.
On the entire course, this cave must have claid at least a dozen divers.
This possibly explained why mystic scholars in the Parallel World focused on this cave.
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