While Herta was engrossed in her research, the perspective shifted to Elysia. Elysia had deliberately chosen a secluded spot when a gray-haired girl materialized before her—none other than Firefly.
Overwhelmed with concern about the "Godzilla" situation, Elysia had decided to investigate personally. Firefly, or rather SAM, was the ideal candidate for this mission.
Firefly used the Chat Group's teleportation function to instantly appear beside Elysia. Sparkle remained in the Dragon Nation, but Firefly could teleport back at any moment if needed.
After marveling at the Chat Group's convenience for what felt like the hundredth time, Firefly activated her Transformation Device. A swirling vortex of flames erupted around her. In the next instant, a silver-white metallic arm emerged from the inferno, slashing violently as if tearing through the fiery cyclone. The flames vanished completely.
SAM had arrived!
With a vivid trail of fire trailing behind her, SAM soared into the sky like a meteor streaking across the heavens, heading toward Sakura Prefecture.
This was precisely why Firefly had to teleport to White Eagle before transforming and taking off. SAM was simply too conspicuous. If she had transformed in the Dragon Nation, the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations would likely have uncovered the connection between Firefly and SAM within days.
As mentioned earlier, she didn't mind a few people knowing her secret. For instance, Ikezawa, who had a loose tongue, and Lü Heng were both aware, yet Firefly hadn't said a word. However, she was extremely cautious about too many people finding out, as that would undoubtedly lead to complications.
Therefore, if she wanted to transform in the Dragon Nation, she would have to resort to her old method from her time in the European Union: going to a beach, putting on a swimsuit, and transforming in the sea under the guise of a tourist. But that was far less convenient than simply teleporting directly to Elysia.
Shortly after, Baldy Burke hurried to Elysia's location, his face etched with confusion. "What was that meteor just now?" he demanded. "Did it come from here?"
Elysia merely blinked her adorable pink eyes. "I was a bit worried about the efficiency of the Sakura Prefecture mission, so I called in a friend to help out. Nothing serious~"
This was one of the benefits of Elysia being the highest authority at White Eagle: whether or not to investigate was entirely her decision.
Elysia's words were perfectly reasonable, but Baldy Burke couldn't shake the feeling that the fiery meteor they had just witnessed was most likely SAM.
Burke had no doubts about Elysia's social skills. He wasn't surprised she had befriended SAM, but he did wonder if SAM was actually a beautiful girl. Why else would Elysia go out of her way to befriend someone?
In a way, Burke's wild guess had inadvertently stumbled upon the truth.
While they were talking, SAM had already flown across the Pacific Ocean, successfully reached the vicinity of Sakura Prefecture, and plunged headfirst into the sea.
She descended rapidly: a hundred meters, five hundred meters, a thousand meters. At this depth, the ocean was pitch black, devoid of even the faintest light. Even a flashlight could only illuminate about half a meter ahead before its beam was swallowed by the abyssal darkness.
To be honest, the scene was a little terrifying. In that moment, Firefly finally understood why thalassophobia existed.
Imagine being in pitch-black darkness, utterly alone, unable to see your hand in front of your face, with the crushing weight of the surrounding water pressing in from all sides. Wouldn't a suffocating sense of panic naturally arise?
But Firefly, of course, felt none of this. Thanks to SAM's array of sensing devices, everything in the ocean was crystal clear to her. She even lingered at a depth of a thousand meters, curiously observing her surroundings.
However, the emptiness offered little of interest.
Meanwhile, back at headquarters, Herta continued to ponder what equipment could enable ordinary people to conduct explorations at such depths. While Firefly was here, Herta certainly didn't expect her to find Godzilla all by herself.
Humans had only explored five percent of the ocean. Expecting one person to search the remaining ninety-five percent for Godzilla? Was this some kind of joke?
It was literally like searching for a needle in the ocean's depths.
One of the reasons Firefly had come ahead was to scout the area and assist Herta in gathering data.
Humans, without diving equipment, can only descend to a maximum depth of about 100 meters. With equipment, the limit is around 300 meters. Tasking ordinary people to operate at depths of several kilometers would be exceedingly difficult.
While there's a historical record of a manned submersible reaching 10,000 meters, that was solely for breaking a record. The cumbersome vessel itself had no exploratory capabilities and even required surface assistance for descent and ascent.
At that moment, Firefly considered abandoning the plan to seek help from Sakura Prefecture and instead modifying Little Herta to deploy her puppets for underwater exploration.
As she pondered this, SAM's sensors suddenly detected something unusual. Normally, marine life is scarce at 1,000 meters, but SAM's instruments indicated a massive swarm of creatures rapidly approaching her.
Within ten seconds, she spotted the "marine life." These humanoid monsters had fish heads and human bodies. Their heads were shaped like inverted triangles, tapering backward, with massive eyes bulging outward from either side of their foreheads.
Aside from their eyes, the most striking feature of these fishmen was their enormous mouths, which nearly split their skulls in half, stretching all the way to their earlobes. Crowded with countless jagged teeth arranged in chaotic rows, their mouths hung agape, perpetually half-open.
In contrast to their grotesque heads, the fishmen's bodies were surprisingly ordinary—resembling emaciated, skin-and-bones humans, except for their deep green skin.
These creatures swam with astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, they swarmed SAM from all directions, completely encircling him and attempting to tear at his armor with their razor-sharp teeth.