# 1910
Chapter 1910: The Repenting Gods
The camera followed his gesture and turned, revealing a silver-white island standing in the storm-tossed sea.
"A silver island?" The reporter clearly froze. "No, that can't be right... the map doesn't show any island around here..."
"The waves are getting bigger, quick! Head for that island!!"
The captain, as if grasping a lifeline, immediately shouted his orders. Everyone rushed back to their posts, controlling the ship to inch closer to the silver island.
As the exploration vessel struggled forward, the full view of the island gradually revealed itself.
Standing amid the towering waves, a silver-white maritime fortress rose like a mountain, magnificent and unyielding. The dozens-of-meters-tall waves seemed as insignificant as splashing water in a pond compared to the scarred, battered outer walls.
Everyone on the exploration ship's deck stood with their mouths agape. Even the captain froze in place, forgetting to give further orders.
"What... is this?" The reporter murmured to himself. "A fortress? When was such a massive stronghold built in the East Sea?"
"This area is already near the border zone. When the Mist wasn't dispersed, this was a no-sail zone designated by the military." An experienced sailor answered nearby, his face also full of shock. "On the Great Xia border... such a huge city, such tall walls... what are they defending against?"
The reporter snapped back to his senses and leaned toward another person, asking quietly:
"So you're saying we accidentally entered a military restricted area and livestreamed footage of it? Are we in trouble?"
"Before departure, we applied for our route to the higher-ups, and they didn't say we couldn't go this way... Besides, look—this fortress seems empty. Has it been abandoned?"
Hearing this answer, the reporter's worry faded somewhat. Regardless, since the higher-ups approved the route without rejecting it, the situation should be manageable.
"What do we do now?"
"Let's try to use the radio to request rescue from inside... The waves are getting so strong, the hull can't take much more." The captain eyed the towering outer wall suspiciously. "But... where exactly is the main entrance to this thing?"
The captain maneuvered the vessel, struggling around the outer wall amid the churning waves. A crew member had already opened the radio, attempting to communicate with whoever was inside.
As they pressed forward, several neat, massive characters were outlined on the outer wall's surface:
—A-011, [沉龙 / Sunken Dragon]
These characters were printed on the outer wall, equally imposing and grand. The exploration vessel in the storm was even smaller than the "✓" at the bottom-left of the character "沉" (to sink). Everyone had to crane their necks to see the full characters.
"Sunken Dragon?" The reporter stared at this, murmuring. "What an overbearing name..."
Meanwhile, a dense stream of comments nearly flooded the entire screen.
【A military base this huge? Are there probably several Gundams inside??】
【I spent a few years in the military, and I've never heard of the "Sunken Dragon" base... The numbering system here is completely different from other bases. What kind of place is this?】
【@Great Xia Military should see this!】
【I've seen something similar! Really! My hometown is in the mountains near the border. A couple years ago, I went hiking and got lost. I walked to a mountain peak and saw something silver on the mountain in front of the Mist border. At the time, I thought it was snow】
【Yeah yeah, there's one under my apartment building too (dog head)】
【I'm not joking. I even took a photo. When I got home and zoomed in, I realized it looked like a building... Later when I tried to go back, I got stopped by military personnel before even entering the mountain. They said there was a military base ahead and wouldn't let me through】
【Then what about your photo? Why have I never seen it?】
【I posted it online many times, and every single time it got deleted! When I sent it to friends, they said it was Photoshopped...】
【Honestly, I've always thought Great Xia surviving in the Mist wasn't due to geography and magnetic fields like those experts claimed... There might really be something protecting us in the dark】
【I've thought the same thing! I even wrote several articles about it, and they all got deleted too... Then someone from the Cyberspace Administration showed up and told me not to spread rumors, gave me a warning】
【The Mist suddenly disperses,疑似天神的六翼身影, a super fortress on the Great Xia border... What's going on lately?】
【...】
"It doesn't work, no one's responding on the radio." The crew member's voice rang out again in the footage.
"Switch to the loudspeaker!" The captain grabbed a microphone from the control panel, took a deep breath, and his voice rang out over the waves. "This is the 'Pioneer Exploration Team' Second Unit. We've encountered a海上风浪 and are requesting military assistance... Repeat, this is—"
The captain's words cut off mid-sentence.
In the footage, he stood before the massive glass window of the bridge, eyes wide, staring fixedly in some direction, motionless as a statue.
The next moment, everyone else, including the reporter, also froze in place!
The camera gradually tilted downward, focusing on a corner of the hull, then suddenly stopped moving, as if the person holding the camera had also seen something. The hull fell into a brief deathly silence...
Heavy breathing echoed through the broadcast, audible to everyone watching.
"What... is that?"
Fully five or six seconds passed before the camera suddenly shook, finally pointing toward the top of the outer wall!
Thirteen massive crosses stood proud atop the wall, covered in dark red bloodstains and gaps. Each cross was over a hundred meters tall, with what appeared to be different figures bound to them—human-shaped silhouettes barely visible under the pitch-black storm clouds.
【What is that? The image is too dark, I can't see clearly!】
【It's probably the lighting over there combined with the reduced image quality. We can only see some shadows from our end...】
【Why would there be crosses on a military base? And those crosses are way too huge! Are they for executing giants?】
【Wait! Take a closer look—are there people on those crosses?!】
【Don't joke around. What person could be that tall?】
【...】
Sssss—!!
Just as the comments疯狂刷屏, a pallid bolt of lightning tore through the clouds. The dim heaven and earth were illuminated for an instant, as if by a blinding light bulb. In that moment, everyone watching finally saw the full view of those crosses!
S败俱伤的 god corpses, full of oppressive majesty, were firmly nailed to the crosses. Dark red bloodstains dyed their forms—
Thirteen crosses with gods nailed upon them faced the direction of Great Xia, their heads bowed low...
As if repenting.