Dragon Raja; Chapter 137: The Seven Deadly Sins (5)

Dragon Raja

A small figure approached, standing beside him, holding a black rope. Zero was bleeding; a piece of glass from the control panel had pierced her lower abdomen during the launch. Without a doctor, she wouldn’t last long.

“What’s that?” Caesar asked. He couldn’t hear his own voice.

“The diving bell,” Zero answered skillfully in sign language. “The pulley for the diving bell is broken, we can only pull it manually.”

“The communications are cut off—how will they find the diving bell?” Caesar hesitated, then stopped talking and signed instead.

“I don’t know, I just hate the feeling of having no hope at all.”

Caesar nodded.

“Why do you know sign language?” Zero leaned against the cabin wall. “Your hearing is so good, do you really need it?”

“It’s for talking to my mom,” Caesar replied. “She passed down the Kamaitachi to me, but she herself can’t hear. Why did you learn sign language?”

“There was a time when no one talked to me. Not hearing anyone made my pronunciation get stranger and stranger until even I couldn’t understand myself anymore. So I learned sign language to talk to myself.”

Caesar was stunned. “How do you talk to yourself using sign language?”

“In the mirror.”

Caesar imagined a girl making hand signs in the mirror, talking to herself, and couldn’t help but smile. Lying on a burning ship, feeling the scorching deck beneath him, thinking about the leaking fuel flowing toward the flames, knowing a Dragon King that might still be alive underwater, and not being able to abandon ship—it suddenly felt like having such an interesting freshman beside him wasn’t so bad.

He patted Zero’s shoulder, reached out, and held onto the diving bell’s cable together with her.

Nono lightly patted Lu Mingfei’s back and pointed ahead. Through the water at a distance of dozens of meters, something was floating.

“The diving bell!” He guessed and couldn’t help but shout.

They were eighty meters underwater; surfacing recklessly could make the gas embolism worse. Without a full diving suit, it was extremely dangerous for someone. That’s why Nono kept diving at depth, but with the diving bell, it was different. The sealed copper chamber had its own oxygen supply, so diving or surfacing wouldn’t be a problem. It seemed that the final message still reached the surface.

Nono grabbed the respirator, took a deep breath, and signaled Lu Mingfei. He understood her meaning and swam toward the diving bell.

The two swam toward the diving bell, and Nono was swimming noticeably faster than before. Lu Mingfei understood why—gas embolism was already affecting her; the pain and dizziness were getting worse, but she didn’t show it. She had to reach the diving bell quickly, or she wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. He tried to push himself harder, but his body was limp.

They were getting closer. Nono pushed Lu Mingfei forward. The diving bell’s hatch was open, like a home waiting for someone to return, warm and inviting.

Lu Mingfei entered the diving bell, braced himself against the wall, and waved to Nono, calling her in.

Nono clung to the hatch, struggling to get in. A stream of bubbles erupted from her mouth—her lung oxygen had run out.

Lu Mingfei reached out to pull her in.

Nono suddenly looked up. Lu Mingfei saw the terror in her eyes.

Before he could grab her hand, Nono pushed him back into the diving bell, and slammed the hatch shut.

The diving bell’s oxygen system activated automatically, starting to drain the water. Inside, Lu Mingfei jumped and waved his arms frantically, confused as to what had happened. Between him and Nono was the thick brass hatch, with only a 20-centimeter-wide circular window allowing him to see her face and the smoke-like rising red of blood.

All the blood in his body went cold. He saw the sharp object piercing through Nono’s heart—a barbed tail, like a spear, attached to a slender tail that extended into the water. Faintly, he saw the shadow of a dragon.

The Dragon King had been following them all along, unnoticed.

This time it wasn’t a false alarm; it wasn’t just another free day.

This time Nono was really going to die. Her hand still gripped the diving bell’s hatch, her eyes already closed, her pale face drained of all color. All her blood was dispersing in the water like smoke.

Separated by the glass, Lu Mingfei could clearly see her face—the cunning, unpredictable girl, now calm as if she were asleep.

Forever asleep.

Lu Mingfei clutched his head, his mind blank. Was there really no way? Was there no escaping this terrible fate? She was going to die; her blood would soon run dry. No one could save her—not even Superman, who wasn’t a doctor; not Spider-Man, who couldn’t swim.

What should he do? Was he just supposed to stand there, unable to do anything?

“Don’t… die…” He grabbed the copper railings of the diving bell and shouted out, knowing no one would respond.

Don’t let it end like this, please?

I admit that I’m useless, so just let me live easily. These heroic scenes have nothing to do with me. You know I can’t do anything, yet you make me watch such a tragic scene, watch a girl I like slowly die. Okay, fine, maybe I didn’t really like her that much, but I’m terrified of her dying. Lu Mingfei thought.

But there was nothing he could do… A useless person can’t do anything.

“Don’t die!” He shouted with all his strength, tears unconsciously rolling down his cheeks.

This world was truly lonely. At eighty meters underwater, he felt as lonely as someone standing alone on a planet. No one could hear him, he could shout out loud, but no one would care.

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