After running some calculations to determine Hope One’s buoyancy, sliding the ship into the water in reverse seemed to be the best way to do it.
There was another way, which was to have Hope One fastened upright to the boathouse and wait for the water levels to rise to an optimal level before lowering it into the water. However, Su Mo immediately vetoed that method.
For now, the only way to keep the ship in place was to use the modular shipyard’s scaffolding.
The quality of the scaffolding was quite good and its structure was stable. With the modular shipyard’s capability, nothing would cause it to collapse as long the level of impact did not exceed the structure’s breaking point.
It was because of black technology like this that Hope One could properly sit half a meter above the ground, waiting for the waves to come.
It would be a crazy idea to ignore the scaffolding and use the boathouse instead to raise Hope One four meters high above the ground.
Firstly, they neither had the materials nor the environment to construct a boathouse like that. Second, lowering the ship straight into the water was not that much more convenient than reversing the ship into the water anyway. That method might be more useful only when dealing with larger ships.
With Hope One’s tonnage right now, there was absolutely no need to use a method like that.
He busied himself with work, and more than an hour had passed since he had entered the simulation world.
After Su Mo ran more than ten times back and forth between the guardrails and the captain’s seat, the water had finally risen up to the optimal level for the ship to be released.
The water on both sides of the ship had dropped to 0.4 meters, but Su Mo could still feel the ship tilting to the right.
This was both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.
The good thing was, the buoyant force of the water was getting stronger and stronger, so Hope One could make use of that force when being launched into the sea.
However, the bad thing was that, if he lacked precise control when launching the ship into the water, it might very well capsize because of that same buoyancy!
“Let’s just hope that the water that is displaced by the hull is similar to what it would be back on Earth.”
“If the buoyancy simulation fails, things will become more dangerous this time around!”
This was the first time that a sea appeared on the wasteland, so he could not have gone into the water to test it previously. Su Mo could only hope that the buoyancy of the water in the wasteland was similar to that of Earth’s.
If not, they would have to start all over again if they were wrong about the buoyancy of the water.
Thankfully, the water was rising quickly. The data on the radar was beeping more frequently as Su Mo ran back and forth. The readings were at 4.15m already!
Boom!
The tracks that were placed behind Hope One started to creak eerily when the OS started lifting it up.
Hope One was less heavy than it was on land with the water’s buoyant force supporting it.
The entire process of lifting it up made him fearful.
“I have quite the problem here. When I first designed it, I only considered the height of the water, so the model only calculated the ideal water level to release the ship. It ignored the possibility of the water rising inconsistently.”
“If I take this factor into account when building a new model…”
“Forget it, I’m already in this deep, let’s go all-in!”
Adding another factor and tweaking the model would take quite some time, so Su Mo stood up and took control of the ship from the OS.
The tracks were already rising, but the current rate was nowhere close to enough!
Releasing the rear fenders and reversing the ship straight into the water at this rate would mean that the launch would exceed the OS’s safety limit.
Even if the launch was destined to fail, the OS would not have attempted something as crazy as that, so Su Mo would have to operate and control the launch manually.
He stared at the screen, eyes fixated on the buoyancy data of both sides of the ship.
It had just been raining outside so the weather was cold, but Su Mo was sweating profusely.
An object would float if the buoyancy force exerted on it by the fluid balanced its weight. According to FB = mg and the ship’s displacement of 3000 tonnes, they would need 3107 square meters of buoyant force.
The buoyancy data would change by four digits every passing second.
The front, back, left, and right sides of the ship would have to be balanced for Hope One to even have a small chance of successfully being launched!
If not, going straight into the water would be akin to throwing caution to the wind.
Su Mo did not want to bet everything on his first try. Even though he saw both sides of the ship reach an optimal state of balance, he still waited patiently.
“Two percent deviation on the left side.”
“The stern is good!”
“Let’s go for it! Full speed!”
Since the stern of the ship had recorded optimal numbers on the dials, waiting any longer might just be counterproductive. Su Mo gave the order and grabbed the lever beside him.
Creak…
Slam!
The tracks rose ever so slowly; they were not even completely raised, but the rear fenders were being released at quite a rapid rate!
After Su Mo released the rear fenders, they completed their descent in a short few seconds.
At the same time, he lifted up a metal cover on his right and carefully hit the red button inside of it. A thunderous sound outside of the bridge soon echoed.
The sound came from a remote explosive planted near the stress points of the scaffolding. It was not a huge explosion, but it was enough to hopefully blast the scaffolding in a way that it would slowly collapse.
At that moment, Hope One lost its support and tilted backward with a slight imbalance on its starboard side.
Without imaging data to tell him what was going on and no data from the fire-control radar, all he had to work with was data from the sensory radar to simulate the condition of Hope One at sea.
However, the data displayed on the screen was not all that sunshine and roses either.
The gradient of the ship entering the water should not have been more than 25 degrees, but now Hope One was sitting at 35 degrees. If things went on like this, there was a very good chance that Hope One would capsize.
Besides, the track was not completely raised and the rate of the ship’s descent was too fast, so they had to wait.
Su Mo finally managed to calm himself down as he stared at the data on the screen. At that moment, more and more information from the destroyer’s blueprint design popped up in his mind; he even remembered the crucial points of controlling the entire ship.
It did not matter whether they were modern ships equipped with autopilot systems and other technologies, or ancient keelboats powered by pure human muscle.
The ability of the captain was not measured by how well he could control the ship on a normal journey, but by how well he could stand out…
Under such dire circumstances!
Of course, Su Mo might have thought twice if this was a real-life scenario, but now that everything was part of the simulation world…
“Start the engines! Full power and full speed! Fire her up!”
As the data started to go crazy, a grin appeared on Su Mo’s face as he shoved the lever that controlled the ship’s output to its maximum without a care in the world.
While going into the water, using kinetic energy to help the ship find its balance was nothing short of insanity.
But Su Mo… still did it!
As the lever was pushed, the engine revved up and the entire contraption burst forth with unimaginable light and heat.
The energy passed through the thick cables at the bottom of the ship, activating the motors, which in turn made the blades spin wildly.
Splash!
Splash!
The fan blades were just slightly longer than 3 meters and the sea was just 4.5 meters deep when the ship entered the water, so blades made a huge whirlpool as they spun, stopping Hope One on its way down.
“Good! More power! Keep pushing!”
That amount of force from the motors brought Hope One’s angle from 37 degrees to 28 degrees. Besides, the force gave Hope One the crucial 18 seconds that it needed after entering the water…
Su Mo was overjoyed as he gave control of the ship back to the OS and stepped out of the bridge.
At the same time, the bow of the ship tilted upward away from the water while the stern dipped five to six meters deep into the water because the ship had entered the water too quickly, on top of being tilted on the sides just a while ago.
Hope One needed a large amount of force in order to get into the water, so the only way to accomplish that was to generate a huge amount of thrust at the bow of the ship and push it into the water. The ship could then use the buoyant force of the water to float itself.
There was no other way to generate such a huge amount of force.
When Su Mo saw the skill panel of Hope One light up, he was excited, so he made his way back to the front of the ship, and held the flag in his hand.
There were only three seconds left out of the eighteen precious seconds that the engine and motor had provided the ship with.
The rear of the ship had sunken seventeen meters deep into the water.
However, Su Mo was not at all hesitant as he stared at the flag glimmering red and golden. He shouted,
“Hope One, forward…”
“Launch!”
Boom!
He had never seen how this mysterious energy would manifest, so he was utterly stunned when he saw the golden-red light blitz from the entire ship!
At that moment, the 80-meter long Hope One exploded with light, illuminating the entire skyline!
At the same time, there was no need for any other force. The energy seemed like it had come from the heavens, pressing down on the bow of the boat at Su Mo’s command.
The stern of the ship that had been initially submerged seventeen meters deep, after receiving that sudden force, went down even further to forty meters!
However, the buoyant force was still at play, so the moment the stern of the ship touched the bottom of the ocean, Hope One seemed to fly up into the sky.
Boom!
Splash!
The stern of the ship resurfaced above the water, crashing against the surface with so much force that the water splashed high up into the sky.
In addition to that, the force on the bow of the ship kept going, instantly pushing the ship at an incredible speed away from the scaffolding into the distance.
When the stern of the ship was pressed into the ocean, Su Mo was flung over the side of the ship, hanging on to the guardrails.
However, the moment the ship bounced back to the surface, the force reversed in direction, throwing Su Mo back onto the deck.
It was like going on a roller coaster ride. Before Su Mo could admire the power of the mysterious force, the ship flung upward as it changed its position.
Hope One was glimmered red and golden, rushing forward at a speed of 55 knots!
“My goodness!”
“It worked!”
After Su Mo was flung around twice, his right leg contorted into a “Z” shaped fracture.
Su Mo, despite his pain, was able to experience how powerful the force was when Hope One entered the ocean.
One minute, the 80-meter long ship was on the verge of tilting over.
The very next minute it was speeding across the surface of the water at 100 kilometers per hour.
Su Mo was temporarily crippled, and there were holes and cavities all over the ship. Hope One looked like a dragon diving into the ocean, which made Su Mo realize what a “legend” really was!
In five minutes, Hope One skimmed the water right beside the basin for 9 kilometers before slowing down.
As the ship’s speed gradually decreased, the golden-red light on the ship dissipated as well, returning to the flag held in Su Mo’s hands.
“Good…”
“Good girl. When Hope One goes into the water, that’s where she earns her name!”
Su Mo was stunned as he noticed the shelter and Iron Rock Mountain had disappeared from his sight. He analyzed the area around him and realized that he had arrived near the carp lake in just five minutes.
This speed… really was amazing!
However, when Su Mo stared at his half-crippled body, he had no choice but to smile while staring into the distance.
He had completed all of the objectives of his first test session.
Going into the water, piloting under extreme conditions, and even responding to damage; all the tests were completed.
However, relying on his “blind” OS to pilot the ship into the canyon would prove very difficult. He felt scared just thinking about it.
“Not bad, I only spent two hours this time around, I still have seven hours left.”
“With what I know right now, I will pass the simulation without any injuries for sure next time!”
“As for now…”
Su Mo laughed as he saw himself inching his body forward using only his left hand, as he exclaimed internally…
Exit!
