After an unknown amount of time, William finally opened his eyes. He stretched and was surprised to see that he was no longer in Hook Desert.

"Eek? Where is this?" He peered through the sphere fighter's monitor, confused, "What just happened? Why am I here?"

The sphere fighter he was in told him that it was because they had come here on their own. The screen read,

We've loaded your map, and the connection to the compass has been established.

"Oh!" William replied, "How intelligent you guys are! It's nice. But you don't seem to have told me where it is, do you?"

"We can answer that question, Mr William." A voice came from the front of the sphere fighter.

"Who? Who's there?" William was consciously on the alert. But when he saw what appeared on the screen, he relaxed. It was a shark, a jellyfish and a whale, as they slowly approached the sphere fighter.

"Hello, Mr William. You are now in the sea." The shark said.

The jellyfish said, "Want to know where your friends are?" Then she winked at the whale. He immediately understood what she meant and told William that they were in his belly.

"What? You ate them??" William was shocked.

"Oh dear, no, no! I didn't eat them. We just forgot to tell you we're robots. You see, my belly is a huge space. It's big enough to hold your friends and the sphere fighters."

William still didn't believe it. He decided to see for himself. So the sphere fighter went into the whale's belly. "William, there you are at last!" He heard Ranran's voice. At this point, the lights of the sphere fighter lit up all around. With the light he could clearly see the other sphere fighters parked ahead. His companions were cheering loudly.

"Do you believe it now? We're not in any danger." The shark and jellyfish also entered the whale's belly, saying to William.

"It's extremely unbelievable... I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"Certainly not!" Laughed the jellyfish. She held out a mechanical tentacle, and William's keen eyes spotted an icon of a snake.

"Why do they have that sign too?" He wondered, "Were they also made by Colonel Michael?"

"Yes, you are right. Colonel Michael made us." The whale said.

"Can you tell what I'm thinking?" Asked William, surprised.

"Bingo, Master!" Natalie replied, "While we were resting, the sphere fighters flew here. The whale hided us all and put a mind detector on each of us. You have one too, but you can't touch it because it's in your head. You woke up just as the whale tried to hide you in his belly too."

Natalie told William what just happened. Now he knew completely why he had not seen the green snakes when he woke up. "You slept for the longest, Master." Photon said, "Ms Ranran also needed rest, but she only rested for six hours before she 'was reborn', while you slept for nine hours."

"Are these all done with what's called a mind detector?" Asked William, surprised. Photon nodded.

"Then does it still guarantee I won't be controlled by You-Know-Who?"

"Yes and no." Said the shark, "It can help you to some degree, but that doesn't mean you don't have to fight. Colonel Michael told us about You-Know-Who. He couldn't bear to see you tortured like that, which is why he asked us to give you guys mind detectors. We have a lot of these mind detectors in our base."

"You even have a base?" The party asked in unison.

"You bet! Let me show you." The whale turned round and swam deeper into the sea.

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After about ten minutes, the whale stopped. "Here we are." He said, "Do you want to see it?"

William, who had already been impatient, rushed out first. The sphere fighters came out into the sea water, and William could clearly see a huge door in front of them, next to which was a camera. The camera captured the profiles of the shark, jellyfish and whale, gave instructions, and the door opened slowly.

The party entered in turn. They were surprised to see a large school of small fishes swimming around them at once, swaying happily. "Are they funny?" The jellyfish laughed, "These are our friends, the friends we made."

"What do you mean by 'friends you made'?" Ranran was at a loss.

"Ah," The jellyfish answered after a moment's hesitation, "we have mechanical tentacles inside us that assemble parts, and these little fishes are robots that were assembled using some parts."

"So you mean they were born inside you?"

"Yes."

"We can also make extra sphere fighters for you if you want." The shark said.

"You even have functions like that?" Rebecca gaped at the three robots. She had never seen a robot capable of producing machines, as on her planet, machines were produced by the inhabitants rather than robots. So she thought it was funny.

Photon wanted to know what function this base had. "Oh, it's powerful." Said the jellyfish, "It is equipped with tidal power generators that convert the mechanical energy of the sea water into electricity to power the entire base. As you can see, there are some circular panels on the walls. These panels have superconducting coils behind them that allow us to charge ourselves wirelessly and quickly. About-100,000-watt-hour supercapacitors power the whale, and with these coils, plus good graphene, the supercapacitors in his body can be fully charged in about 10 minutes."

"Wow," William raved. He could not imagine when earthmen would master these technologies.

"Our base can also supply materials, such as fuel for ion engines of sphere fighters, bullets for plasma cannons and other necessities." The shark continued, "Of course, it's convenient to store a lot of water."

"And most important of all," The whale took his words, "this base will hold us out against attacks from the drone fighter for a full year. With a strong enough shell material and sufficient reserves of ammunition, this is no longer a dream."

"God," Said William, impressed by the base. Photon and Rebecca almost crashed in battle with the drone, and their shells were already pretty solid. So he decided that it must not be ordinary material.

"You have a good point." Said the shark, "The outermost layer of this base is made of self-healing material. After a certain degree of damage, it can quickly restore to its original state; however, if the damage is too severe, it will not be able to recover. In this case, you can only pray that the self-healing material and the ceramic composite would stay strong for as long as possible."

"Yet this is already good enough." Ranran said.

William thought it was an upgraded version of then undersea villa. He began to drive his sphere fighter around the base with a school of small fishes following him. "Let him have a good look." The jellyfish smiled, "He'll think it's wonderful."

"Yes, our master likes it very much." Said Natalie, "He even wanted to live here." Everyone laughed.

"It's a real pleasure to meet you," William said, stopping in front of the shark, jellyfish and whale after looking around the base.

"That's true." Natalie said, "We couldn't believe that Colonel Michael used this many technologies. Just now in Hook Desert, we were already amazed by the giant springs and sphere fighters; but you guys surprised us even more. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm dreaming."

"Ha ha ha, no." The jellyfish said, "Colonel Michael can tell that your master is in pain, and he sincerely wants technology to ease his pain. However, he told us that your master still had to work his way back to his planet. A mind detector can only help but not replace him."

Ranran nodded. The picture of William struggling in agony returned to her mind, which made her tremble slightly. "You've got to hold on, William." She whispered.

"I have great faith in my master." Said Photon, "He has held out for so long that I am sure he can do it."

William's heart trembled slightly at Photon's words. "I can't let everybody down," The words bounced through his head like a pinball. Somehow, his vision grew brighter and brighter until he saw the stars flashing at the same frequency.

This was what he saw in the wheat field. "Oh yes, Griffin told me that the stars might be magical creatures that can hang in the air and glow. I had long wanted to ask people we had met, but I forgot. Now that the shark, jellyfish and whale are with me, I'd better ask them and see if they know what the stars are." He thought.

They didn't seem to know what stars were. "There is a sunken ship near here." The jellyfish thought carefully, "Perhaps there is a clue to it inside. But we haven't been there, so we can't give you any tips or help."

"Oh, all right. Where is the ship then?" Ranran asked.

"Your sphere fighters will tell you." The whale said.

William was going to look for the ship. "Wait a minute." The jellyfish stopped him, "I need to make sure that you have enough ammunition."

Under the confused eyes of the party, she quickly walked to each sphere fighter and operated it skillfully. "Very good! The ammunition was loaded. It's unlikely, but I'm afraid you might be in danger. So, if necessary, fire immediately."

"No problem, thanks for your concern." Ranran replied politely.

"Pay attention to safety!" The shark, jellyfish and whale shouted behind the retreating party. "Will they be all right?" The jellyfish watched them anxiously.

"I think they should be able to find the clue." Said the whale, "All we can do is to pray that they would be safe."