Chapter 8 008
After bidding farewell to Pu Songling and Cervantes, Romain Rolland once again disappeared into the ground, heading towards the UN's stronghold.
Romain Rolland ran for over forty minutes at a speed of thirty miles per hour without encountering any traffic jams, successfully escaping the city and arriving at the UN's outpost.
Arriving at the beach, Romain Rolland, not wanting to trouble Jules Verne, casually checked the waterproofness of his backpack and jumped directly into the sea. He found the UN's base near the shore without much effort.
It was a huge submarine, a submarine so large it was comparable to a small warship, anchored on the sea.
Swimming aboard the submarine and opening the top hatch, Romain Rolland easily stepped into the specially constructed isolation compartment, taking out his identification card as he walked.
He swiped his ID card to enter, and chased away the few ghostly figures from Pu Songling who were guarding the door. Romain Rolland, carrying his backpack, walked unhesitatingly toward the living room of the submarine.
At this time, Christie is either reading in her study or eating snacks while reading in the living room, and she is more likely to be in the living room.
As expected, Romain Rolland saw Christie when he entered the study. However, to his surprise, another person was also sitting next to Christie.
"Verne, do you also need to speak with Christie?"
The burly man, wearing a white naval captain's uniform, glanced back at Romain Rolland, who was carrying a backpack, and waved a stack of documents in his hand.
"The Nautilus's maintenance bill."
Romain Rolland's face fell instantly.
Of all the UN's expenditures, their base—the giant submarine Nautilus—is definitely the most expensive.
So many that three people were on the verge of going bankrupt because of it.
No new shipwrecks or similar sites were found.
Although he had little hope, Romain Rolland still asked the question.
The Nautilus possesses world-class deep-sea navigation capabilities, allowing it to operate in many generally uninhabited areas—salvaging shipwrecks is a lucrative source of income for the Nautilus.
“No, those once-prosperous shipping lanes have been filtered out countless times. Now, making a fortune from shipwrecks is purely a matter of luck.” Verne sighed with his eyes closed. “There are clearly none of those around here.”
It was precisely because of its instability that it was called an extra haul—ordinary ships that sank to the bottom of the sea would only become a pile of rusty iron in the seawater, only those shipwrecks carrying large amounts of precious metals or treasures were valuable targets for the Nautilus.
Unfortunately, given the vastness of the ocean, even the Nautilus could not possibly travel to every place. It could only circle back and forth along a few of the more famous shipping lanes, trying to salvage as many antiques and treasures as possible.
But... to maintain a submarine, especially a super-large submarine that's used almost every day, using antiques that were salvaged from the water and are in terrible condition... emmmmmm, that's quite an impressive level of efficiency.
The Nautilus's frantic efforts to salvage antiques were, at best, only small-scale operations—deep-sea salvage is the responsibility of crane ships, and the Nautilus's salvage capabilities, no matter how strong, were only a fraction of those of crane ships.
In rare circumstances, this ship of antiques could be worth billions of dollars, but how much can be salvaged from the Nautilus in one go?
We also need to consider the possibility that the salvaged antiques are not very valuable, or that the shipwreck cannot be found, as well as the market situation for antiques—large-scale dumping has no market in the antique world.
As for those ships in history that went out with large amounts of treasure but sank... I'm sorry, the UN has not found a single one so far.
Although the Nautilus was not the most advanced nuclear submarine, submarines generally require maintenance every time they are launched. In addition, there are issues such as corrosion and water pressure. The basic maintenance cost of the Nautilus was tens of millions of US dollars a year, not even counting fuel costs.
In recent years, the UN has developed rapidly, and there are people with supernatural abilities who can help maintain submarines. Jules Verne, who is in charge of logistics, almost cried tears of joy.
After all, the Nautilus was a rather large submarine, with a kitchen, study, reading room (living room), warehouse (should be called specimen room), and a bunch of relatively spacious bedrooms.
Correspondingly, the Nautilus had no torpedoes or missiles—although Verne couldn't afford them either—its only means of attack was its massive ram, which was designed to crash into ice.
Through a variety of means, the UN successfully maintained the Nautilus, which served as its base, and successfully retained its title as the leader of a European criminal organization.
Although it's not exactly a good title.
Romain Rolland looked away at the stack of bills in Verne's hand, his eyes stinging.
Honestly, if it weren't for the UN's finances, why would he have bothered to unlock the Quick Infiltration skill point?
"Fortunately, apart from Romain Rolland, who didn't get enough commissions because he was with us, all other sources of funding are stable." Seeing Romain Rolland's reaction, Jules Verne nonchalantly took back the stack of bills and took out another stack.
Of course, this time it's an income statement.
"The deep-sea specimen business is still the same old thing, but the pair of conches we found earlier sold for tens of thousands, and the dividends from Agatha's shares have arrived in her account. Incidentally, the hiring fee from the organization has also arrived in her account—I'm serious, they're really generous."
"The other royalties from Pu Songling are all small-scale matters. I'll talk to Pu Songling when I get back and tell him that these don't need to be handed over. Annie's handmade studio is doing as well as ever; the payments for the goods we received earlier have been transferred..."
“Not bad.” Agatha visibly relaxed, picked up the teacup beside her, and took a sip—“We don’t need to worry about funding for the upcoming activities for now.”
"Hmm... those guys have enough for living expenses." Verne, who had been pressing a few buttons on his calculator, also breathed a sigh of relief—"I don't want to eat flatbread and raisins for a month straight."
Not only Jules Verne, but also Agatha Christie and Romain Rolland nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
Romain Rolland, however, after reviewing the bill, suddenly looked up and scanned his surroundings.
"I wasn't paying attention... By the way, where did that guy who hitched a ride go?"
As he said this, Romain Rolland peeked at the pastry stand opposite Agatha Christie, but didn't see anyone.
Where is that guy?
Agatha Christie and Jules Verne paused simultaneously.
You didn't see her when you came in.
"No." Romain Rolland's expression darkened as he realized what had happened. "She ran out."
“If you haven’t seen her on your way here, then I’m afraid…” Agatha put down her teacup and tapped the table seriously. “This time I forgot to tell her to be more discreet… and it seems we’ve already been discovered by the local forces.”
"I hope that guy won't cause any big trouble." Jules Verne's expression was deep and his tone was quite serious—although I think it's unlikely.
That woman... she's a criminal wanted by the entire nation of Russia, the culprit who caused Russia to lose at least 300,000 people, a complete pleasure criminal, a legendary wanted criminal.
Getting this guy to behave... is almost impossible.
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