The iron box lid slowly opened, and under the scattered light of the headlamp, a sheet of golden light met Li Haochen's eyes.
"Holy crap... this, this~"
Li Haochen lost his composure. This was gold, a whole large box, and there were four more over there…
He swallowed hard, removed the bite from his mouth, and with a trembling hand, picked up a piece. He put it in his mouth and bit down with his teeth. Seeing the clearly visible teeth marks, Li Haochen burst into laughter, "Ha… glug, glug…"
He'd forgotten he was still underwater. Li Haochen drank a few mouthfuls of seawater, and in his panic, a thought flashed, transporting him into the space.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
Li Haochen coughed and laughed, his appearance quite ferocious. After a while, looking at the gold nugget in his hand, still bearing teeth marks, he couldn't help but shout.
"Don't get excited, it's not safe yet. Hurry and get them all in before things change."
After a few minutes of excitement, Li Haochen calmed down. They weren't safe in the space yet, so he couldn't waste time. There were still four large boxes waiting for him.
Li Haochen ran over, grabbed a stack of nets, and flew out of the space. He needed to be fast. Who knew if the people who threw the gold down would come lurking.
Without bothering to look at the letters and numbers on the gold nuggets, Li Haochen grabbed them and threw them into the nets. Once he had about a dozen or so, he would switch to a new one, repeating this action until all the nets were full. Then he would take them into the space one by one.
Too lazy to organize, there was still a lot of gold outside. He haphazardly dumped the gold onto the beach and took the nets out again.
This way, Li Haochen went back and forth, perhaps thirty or forty times, before all the gold nuggets in the boxes were moved into the space.
Looking at the piles of gold mountains on the beach, his breathing faltered. It was too shocking; he was truly in the midst of a mountain of gold.
Li Haochen took several deep breaths, played with it for a moment, and then dived back into the sea. Four more boxes were waiting for him.
At the same time, in a high-class villa in Los Angeles, a white youth ran in in a panic, "Boss, bad news, we…"
"Shh… don't wake my little darling."
The man was affectionately stroking the head of the sleeping little girl on the bed, kissing her forehead. His kind demeanor made it impossible for anyone to imagine that he was the boss of California's largest gang, the 18th Street Gang, known as 'Simon.'
He came out, poured himself a glass of red wine, lit a premium cigar, and then said, "Speak, what is it?"
"Boss, the sensor in the lock of one of our gold… our cargo has suddenly malfunctioned. I'm afraid…"
Simon narrowed his eyes, his demeanor instantly radiating a chilling, bloodthirsty aura, a stark contrast to his earlier paternal appearance. This was his true nature.
"Have you sent people over?"
"I've already arranged for Kate and Rice and a few others to go. We should have news soon."
"Hmm… you may leave."
After the youth left, Simon, with a grim expression, took a slow drag of his cigarette and said, "I hope it's not your West Coast 13 gang. If they dare to interfere… I won't hesitate to offend the Mafia. Humph!"
Unbeknownst to Li Haochen at the bottom of the sea, this batch of gold belonged to a Californian gang. He also didn't know that gang members were already speeding towards his location.
At this moment, he had just pried open the second iron box. It was still a box full of gold. He couldn't get excited yet, as there were three more boxes to go. He had to hurry; over an hour had already passed.
With the experience from the first two boxes, his progress on the subsequent ones sped up. After another two hours, Li Haochen looked at the last large box and smiled, "The last one. I didn't expect such a huge haul this time. Thank you, free America, hahaha!"
As Li Haochen laughed and sawed at the wood, a speedboat was speeding towards the sea area where he was. One of the occupants, with a dark expression, held a tablet, "Rice, there's only one last signal source left."
"We'll be there soon. Get ready to go down with weapons. They probably won't have many people, otherwise, they wouldn't be this slow."
"Should we call the boss first?"
Rice, who was driving, thought for a moment and shook his head, "Not yet. It's meaningless now. If we grab it back, we'll be fine. If the goods are taken, and we return empty-handed, what will be our consequences?"
Kate and the others shivered. Yes, if the cargo was gone, their fate would be sealed – death.
"We're here, hurry up and change into diving gear and grab your guns."
Li Haochen, still struggling to pry open the lock, was unaware of the impending danger, still excitedly and diligently putting all his strength into it.
A few minutes later, the last line of defense was finally breached. He opened the box with excitement.
"A bag?"
Li Haochen stared at a black bag on top of the gold nuggets. Just as he reached out, several splashing sounds caught his attention. He looked up, and his heart suddenly turned cold.
"Holy crap!"
He saw a few figures faintly descending from above. He knew they weren't divers admiring the night scenery of the seabed. He quickly made a move to escape.
Li Haochen quickly turned off his headlamp. Just as he grabbed the bag, several "plop plop plop" sounds echoed from above. His head exploded, and he frantically transmitted the command, "Go in~"
In that moment of hesitation, a high-speed rotating water trail slashed across Li Haochen's thigh. Without feeling any difference, he was already inside the space.
Upon entering, Li Haochen broke out in a cold sweat. A moment later, and he might have lost his life. Now, he couldn't care less about his secret being discovered; he needed to figure out how to get back. What if they reported him? Perhaps the Americans would directly deploy troops to seal off this area. Thinking of this, Li Haochen became anxious and worried, "Too greedy."
There was no turning back now. He could only continue to stay in the space.
"Ouch!"
As soon as he took a step, a sharp pain shot through his thigh. Looking down, he saw a fiery, bleeding wound, one to two millimeters deep. Li Haochen endured the pain, took off his diving suit, and hopped to the nearby water heater to clean it with warm water. "Fortunately, the wound isn't deep. It's truly a blessing in disguise. If the bullet had been a little higher, the consequences…"
He almost died. Thinking about it sent shivers down his spine. Li Haochen couldn't help but tremble again.
After drying himself and changing his clothes, Li Haochen hopped on one foot towards the tent to find medicine for his wound.
At the same time, five figures with guns were outside, constantly searching the sea area. After half an hour of no success, they returned to the location of the gold box.
Looking at the large box of gold before them, all five men felt tempted. This was two tons of gold, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Since they were going to die anyway, why not each take a large portion and find a small country to start a new life?
This thought simultaneously crossed all five of their minds. They exchanged glances, then smiled, their understanding clear.