AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 60
Using the tunnel, there was no resistance or barriers. That included wind. I didn’t need my frictionless skill, and when I realized that neither of us felt any acceleration as long as we continued in a straight line, I ramped up to 20x, which was 364 kilometers per second. It was a 12 second trip to the middle of the ocean, we came out high above the big waves.
She was gasping in wonder, as I slowly lowered us down to just above wave height. I summoned the boat into the water, where it rocked unsteadily for a moment, before finding its equilibrium. I set us down on the deck, the whole event taking less than a minute, but only after she spent 30 minutes figuring out how to fully undock the boat and put the engines in standby.
Aida quickly ran up to the deck, and got the boat engines going, pointing us into the direction of the long waves. I took a deep breath of the morning sea air. It was magnificent. A huge section of the ocean we were above was flashing in my vision. I knew we were at the right place.
“Is this the right spot?” she called down.
“Yes, can you put the boat in a station keeping mode?”
“Done, we will stay right here until you say otherwise.”
My outfit shifted into a diving suit with full face mask, and I summoned a five gallon bucket. She came trotting down the stairs, to the upper deck where I was.
“I’m going to dive now.”
“Ok, if you disappear I’m going to be in a world of trouble.”
“Rapa Iti is not too far from here. You can get there and get help if you need to.”
“Come back anyway,” she suggested.
I lifted into the air, and then slowly went over the side and into the water. The bucket was a significant drag, so I returned it, diving down into the darkness. The water got cold, but the suit got thicker, and warmer in response.
I reached the bottom, and summoned the bucket. I couldn’t see in the dark, and had no light, until suddenly my dive helmet had one. The sand sparkled. I dug the bucket in, filling it halfway, then turned, seeing the sparkle of gold along the bottom as far as I could see.
The current was strong, and I had to swim hard as I headed for the surface. The bucket was also very heavy. I remembered my draw snake add feet skills, and shrunk the bucket. It got immediately easier, but was still difficult. I started adding strength and was soon moving quickly upwards.
When I breached the surface, I had to use my navigation skill to find the boat. It was significantly distant, and the bucket, even only half full, and shrunk to 90% was heavy. It felt heavier than the bags of cash had, but I didn’t have a good idea of how much.
I dropped onto the deck, where I found Aida in a very nice pale blue bikini, sunning herself on the top deck.
“Hey! You’re back!” she cheered.
I dropped the bucket, and the strength skills, breathing deeply. I touched the bucket and it expanded to full size, and Aida tried to lift it. She couldn’t move it.
“How much did you get?”
“About half a 5 gallon bucket. It’s almost all gold. There is a very strong current that has washed away any sand.”
“How much is that?”
I looked it up using an app on my phone, and 2.5 gallons of gold came to 182.84 kg. I did the math, multiplying it by 2.2.
“Maybe 400 pounds?”
“400 hundred pounds? I’ve never seen so much gold, dump it out!”
I amped up my strength, and lifted the bucket with one hand, the handle came off, but the bucket stayed. Grabbing the bucket, I turned it over, cracking it as I dumped the gold sand over, and out onto the fiberglass deck. The water went off to the sides, the gold remained piled up in a small mountain. Aida pushed her hands into it, and pulled them back, finding the wet gold sand sticking to her fingers.
“I’m so pretty!”
I snorted in amusement, and activated jade not cut without tools and using the shaping ability, squished the gold into a big lump, rolling it across the deck.
“How pure do you think it is?”
That gave me an idea and I focused on the big lump and activated the elemental portion of draw snake add feet. The cost gave me an exact measurement at 1000 points per jin, or half kilo it cost 349,000 points before discounts. The result was a big poof of air, and the big blob of gold turned into cubes of stuff. Three large cubes and another slightly smaller of gold. There was a tiny silver cube that was sizzling in the water left on the deck. I summoned a pair of tongs, and grabbed it, tossing it overboard.
“What was that?”
“Left over sea water I think. Pure elemental sodium.”
“Is that safe?”
“It’s back in the ocean where it came from.”
She reached out for the smaller cube, lifting it with a grunt, “This is really heavy!”
“Gold is very heavy,” I agreed. I summoned a ruler with both metric and american measurements on it. The big gold cube was 5.4 inches on each side. The smaller one, which felt about half as heavy as the big one, was 4.25 inches on each side. I checked and they really were perfect cubes.
“Can I have some?” she asked.
“Sure,” I replied, using my cutting skill I sliced off a chunk and rolled it in my hands into a nice round ball. Using my fingers I flattened it, then poked a hole in the middle, working with my hands to turn it into a bracelet. She held out her arm, and I slid it on.
“Thank you, but it’s really heavy.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Are you going to go get more?”
“I’m undecided,” I told her.
“How big are these cubes?”
“I’m guessing that we are looking at 50 kilogram cubes.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’d need internet to look it up.”
“Why was this smaller cube so much lighter, when it wasn’t that much smaller?”
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