Chapter 1455 - 474: We Must Believe in Science

Chapter 1455: Chapter 474: We Must Believe in Science

When the light representing the Hood on the mini-map suddenly increased in brightness, it meant that the battleship had completely entered the effective killing range of the Pola.

If the players were willing, they could brake, stop the ship, and fire now, but to be on the safe side, the players decided to get closer to the maximum distance before firing, to seek the highest hit rate, so they continued to advance.

If possible, they would even want to crash the Pola directly into the Hood, firing face to face.

On the other side, the Hood, which was still wrapping up its maintenance work, felt a little restless.

On the deck of the Hood, the accumulated vapor from the cold appeared as a hazy white under the bright moonlight, like a tranquil girl in a milky white long dress, enchanting.

Boom!

Although the airship used critical carbon dioxide for power generation, many devices still required steam assistance to operate,

The flange connection of the steam pipeline caused the bolts to break under high-pressure impact, resulting in insufficient airtightness, and white-hot steam spewed out, immediately scalding the face of the maintenance team engineer.

Not everyone can modify themselves limitlessly like players do; many still have artificial skin on their faces, which the high-temperature steam immediately scalded and burned.

The maintenance engineer who couldn’t dodge in time rolled on the ground, holding his face and screaming in pain,

"Ah! Ah, ah, ah!!"

The excruciating pain almost made him gouge out his artificial eye.

"What’s going on?"

Technician Frankfurt rushed over from not far away after hearing the news and was shocked at the steam rushing toward him.

"How did the flange connection break? Wasn’t it just maintained?"

The personnel working nearby also found it strange,

"I don’t know, it was fine and then suddenly broke without any sign."

Frankfurt felt suspicious, bent down to pick up the shattered bolt fragments that were still emitting high heat, examined them, and then opened his terminal to try to find out the origin of this batch of materials. As expected, nothing came up; the quality inspection process was normal, and the related company also provided the qualified documents from the testing station.

A trace of sorrow flashed in Frankfurt’s eyes. He roughly guessed what was going on, but this was not something a technician could influence. He could only say to the person next to him,

"Take him to the medical room for a skin change, and let him rest for 6 hours."

Even if his face was burned, at most, he could rest for 6 hours, which was already nice of Frankfurt. Otherwise, others might not even grant leave.

Moreover, the issues on the Hood were far more severe than anticipated.

The higher-ups, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, would push the prices to the lowest in material tenders, so high-quality components couldn’t be bought in the first place. The middle management colluded, cutting corners, bribing testing stations, and when finally delivered to the front line, one could imagine the quality level of those components.

Now, the broken flange bolt was just an exposed problem; who knows how many hidden dangers lay behind it. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Thinking of this, Frankfurt felt his head swell, yet powerless, he could only pray that the Hood could hold on until he applied for a transfer back to the United Kingdom.

As the personnel carried the injured away, Frankfurt asked,

"By the way, where is this pipe connected to?"

"Hmm..."

The working personnel thought for a moment and said,

"It should be connected to the Force Field generator cooling system’s number two pipeline. Now that the pipeline’s airtightness is compromised, the shield’s operating efficiency might drop a bit."

"....."

Frankfurt nodded, his worries somewhat eased.

So what if the shield engine’s power was a bit lower; anyway, being on the open sea with no enemies around meant it wasn’t needed.

Just as he was thinking this, another loud bang came from the end of the corridor, followed by a dramatic flicker of the corridor lights before they exploded, plunging the entire number one cabin into darkness. A few seconds later, the emergency lights came on, bathing the corridor in red light, making it resemble an alien filming set with the pervasive steam.

Frankfurt was utterly speechless, opening the channel and roaring,

"Damn it, what are you doing? Conducting blast tests on the ship?"

"We connected something wrong here, burned out the breaker, and are replacing it now. It’ll be done right away."

"Then hurry up! I’m only giving you ten minutes!"

Frankfurt was truly tired of this damned job, with parts of poor quality to start with, and even the staff’s capabilities were rapidly declining. A decade ago, these types wouldn’t have even passed the written exam, yet now they work under him.

Although everything that happened seemed reasonable, Frankfurt always felt something strange.

Just his bad year, why did all the troublesome things pile up together?

Should I pray to Jesus?

He suddenly felt a cold sensation on his forehead, wiped it with his hand, and it was a drop of milky white liquid. Looking up, he realized that evaporating steam had begun to condense inside the compartment.

But why is it milky white?

————

kilometers away from the Hood, the Pola had already stopped its propulsion engines and maintained complete channel silence.

The two electromagnetic cannons had begun to adjust their positions. To avoid detection, the players hadn’t even activated fire-control radar, relying entirely on laser feedback signals to calculate positions.

Now they just awaited Brother Ni and the others to get into position.

"Strangely enough, how come we haven’t seen even the shadow of a ship along the way? Could it be that we’ve fallen into a trap set by the opponent?"

Giant’s captain was full of confusion,

"I was thinking it would be like in those American movies, where someone screws up causing the battleship’s actions to be discovered, forcing us into a fierce confrontation, overcoming all obstacles, and in the end, landing a deadly blow."