Chapter 4259: Island Holiday (Part 2)

Just as Shiler had anticipated, a shovel, a bucket, and a sandpit were enough to keep them busy for a whole day. For the children, sand was the most interesting thing in the world. Especially with so many kids here, the ways to play were endless: one moment they were competing to see who could dig the biggest hole, the next they were orderly transporting water into the pits, and then they started digging canals; some built dams, some built tributaries, and others developed civilizations along the riverbanks. With Helen and Franklin, those two super-powered individuals, keeping watch, the parents were finally completely liberated.

No longer needing to watch the children, everyone's mood improved significantly, and they even felt that not going to Xia Weiyi was a good thing. Although Xia Weiyi wasn't popular right now, it was impossible for the beach to be completely empty. If outsiders were present, these parents absolutely could not leave: on one hand, they were genuinely afraid of danger, as you never knew if the tourists on the beach had superpowers and might suddenly lose control; on the other hand, the US was very strict about this, and if parents wandered even a little too far, it was easy to be judged as negligent. If someone happened to film it and post it online, it would be completely over.

Wanda had previously left the children with Erik to look after, mainly because she had to work, and US law did not allow children to be left home alone. If reported by a neighbor, there was a high possibility of losing custody, even if her husband was an all-purpose robot who could observe the children 360 degrees through the home's electronic devices at any time.

Moreover, Erik couldn't look after the children in the US because he didn't meet the standards for a legal guardian. The US had a series of very complex procedures for determining a qualified guardian; just because you were the child's biological grandfather didn't mean you would necessarily pass. So, many American grandparents didn't want to help their children look after the kids, but the law didn't allow it; even bringing the children over for a weekend could potentially lead to being reported by neighbors, which was equally troublesome.

Therefore, Erik always brought the children back to New Asgard or the Andromeda Galaxy, and would bring them back when Wanda had free time. Although he could use wormholes to travel back and forth, wormholes were currently not allowed within Earth, so he could only send them to the space station first, then take the official portal, and finally fly back with the children.

It could only be said that it was fortunate these children were all super-powered individuals, basically not under government surveillance, and could teleport back after arriving on Earth; otherwise, it would truly be a massive headache.

Wanda stretched, leaned against the table, and while drinking iced fruit juice, rocked her youngest daughter's cradle. Jarvis was tapping away at a computer nearby, seemingly working overtime.

The young people had all changed into swimwear and set up a net on the beach, preparing for an intense and exciting game of beach volleyball; while the older ones prepared to go diving and take some photos.

Natasha looked at the few people packing their gear, feeling somewhat speechless. She said, "You can move freely in a vacuum environment, yet you wear wetsuits to go diving on Earth. And you, Tony, why don't you just wear your armor?"

Tony was struggling to pull on his wetsuit, jumping in place as he said, "What do you know? It's all about the atmosphere. Besides, my fans have long since grown tired of seeing me take photos everywhere in my armor. I must let them know that without relying on the armor, I am also a diving expert."

Reed scoffed and then said, "Whether it's a wetsuit or a symbiote suit, you know that yourself."

Venom kept pulling Eddie to run to the side, saying, "Stay away from that bastard rich guy! He couldn't subdue me, so he wore my compatriot's corpse on his body. You humans are truly disgusting!"

"Isn't that symbiote secretion? At most, it's equivalent to your compatriot's saliva. The kind from the Osborn Group is what you'd call a corpse."

"The more you talk, the more disgusted I get. Blegh."

"So can't you turn into the shape of a wetsuit? I want to take a few photos too!"

"What's your opinion on my image? Listen to me, we'll jump in like this in a moment, guaranteed to make the biggest splash!"

Natasha still refused to wear a wetsuit, but she put on a mask and snorkel for show, not considering at all that she was going deep-sea diving. Shiler brought a diving tank, regulator, and fins, also not wearing a wetsuit, mainly because that thing was too troublesome to change into; even Steve had spent a long time struggling to put his on.

After everything was ready, the group swam directly toward the center of the sea. Actually, the normal procedure should be to have a boat take them over to save energy, otherwise, they would be exhausted by the time they reached the designated spot, but the group were not ordinary people, and there were no boats on this small island, so they just swam themselves.

Because the small island was not a naturally formed island, the shallow water area was very small, and after swimming for a while, they could no longer see the bottom. The group prepared to dive. The seawater was very clear, and when the sunlight shone down, they could faintly see the shadows of coral.

The seabed terrain was not as flat as many people imagined, but like the land, it had valleys, abysses, and structures like caves. The area where the group dived had complex terrain: ahead was a relatively shallow flat area, but further ahead was a cliff, and cracks could be seen on the cliff.

Shiler took photos in the shallower area for a while; there were many corals and tropical fish here, and because the sunlight could reach it, the scenery was also very good. There was no mud or sand here, and everyone felt like they were floating in the air.

However, because the environment here was too good, everyone felt bored after taking photos back and forth, so Stark pointed to the cliff over there, preparing to continue diving deeper.

The depth over there was much deeper than here, and after swimming over, they found they couldn't see the bottom at a glance, but it also made people more curious about what was at the bottom, so they all swam over and continued to dive.

Diving descent didn't rely on swimming, but on increasing weight. They hadn't thought about going this deep before, so the weight blocks they brought weren't enough, and Shiler had to take other things out of the gray mist: there were bricks brought back from a construction site, iron pots, and a whole pile of messy things. Each person carrying this pile of messy things to descend looked just like the time they had emptied out the Stark Group's cafeteria and had to urgently buy supplies at a supermarket to fly back.

Descending to the crack, Steve looked up and inside, but this crack was too small for them as adults to squeeze into, and it didn't look like there was any space inside either; if they forced their way in, it might become a tragic news story in the cave diving circle.

Continuing to dive. After descending another few dozen meters, the current depth was estimated to be close to 200 meters, and they still couldn't see the bottom. This place was probably not ordinarily deep, but these people were not ordinary people; for this group to withstand thousand-meter-level water pressure was not a problem at all, so they just dove down single-mindedly.

Actually, besides water pressure, there was another fatal factor in diving, which was water temperature. At this depth, the water temperature was already very low, and the wetsuits they were using weren't the very professional kind; if it weren't for their superpowers, they might have already been frozen stiff.

However, as they continued to dive deeper, Shiler felt the water temperature rise slightly. After diving down another 200-plus meters, the group discovered that this was exactly a geothermal belt; no wonder the water temperature below was warmer instead.

But precisely because of this, they couldn't continue to dive deeper: being cold didn't matter, but if it were too hot, the symbiotes might not be able to hold up. After the water temperature rose, Venom was the first to howl and swim back, and the wetsuit on Stark also shrank somewhat.

There was nothing here, so everyone turned around, took a few photos, and left. When ascending, they spent some time decompressing as a matter of routine, but it wasn't fully done: at a depth of several hundred meters, the time required for decompression is unimaginable, but they were not ordinary people, so after waiting for a little over an hour, it was about enough.

Genetically modified humans like Natasha went up first, and after confirming everything was fine, the others floated up. However, even as superhumans, there were physical differences: Stark and Reed were obviously not feeling very comfortable, so they could only stay in the water for a while longer, and Steve stayed behind to watch over the two of them.

Shiler had no discomfort at all, successfully floated to the water surface, took out his phone while floating, and prepared to upload the video. After waiting for a while longer, the others came up, and they walked toward the shore.

The children were still playing with sand, but by now they had evolved to building several fortresses and started dividing into countries and factions to fight: some used water and sand to make mud bombs, some kneaded wet sand into balls, and others destroyed the downstream river channels from upstream, playing with such great delight.

Jeff the Land Shark also participated in it; originally he was playing volleyball, but because Deadpool violated the rules and snatched the ball, Jeff chased after his butt to bite him, was judged to have committed a foul, was kicked out of the beach volleyball team, and could only come to play with the kids.

The remaining adults who didn't participate in diving were all sunbathing. Just as Shiler walked over, Wanda handed him a cup of white drink and said, "Here, soybean fruit juice."

"What soybean fruit juice, that's called soy milk." Shiler shook his head, and after taking a sip, discovered that this soy milk was actually iced. However, iced soy milk also had a unique flavor, and it was very refreshing to drink.

Nick's efficiency was also very high; in just this short while, the rescue planes had actually arrived. Three small planes that could land on water arrived one after another, and the passengers began to pack their luggage and board the planes.

Although vacationing with superheroes was quite nice, the insurance company's compensation was still more important. The S. H. I. E. L. D. staff said they wanted to understand the accident situation from them and issue an official accident report; this thing would help with insurance claims, so they happily boarded the planes.

After only the superheroes were left on the island, they gathered around the table shaded by a parasol in front of the noodle shop to chat, from family to children, then to the community and the country, and the most popular interstellar society recently.

However, in the end, as they talked, the topic turned to the multiverse. As everyone knew, the review of a war could last for decades, or even hundreds of years, and regarding the multiverse war, there were even more endless topics to discuss.

However, the details regarding the war had already been discussed very thoroughly, and the problems in all aspects had also been analyzed. Standing from the perspective of the participating superheroes, there weren't as many big-picture issues to discuss as those commanders and staff officers, so the topic returned to the basics, starting to discuss the rules themselves.

"I feel this wasn't a pure war, and it didn't truly achieve the purpose of the exercise. Everyone had their own little schemes, including Batman. We all wanted to use this war to gain status within our own multiverses, or to seize benefits for our own universes; it wasn't pure enough in terms of strategy and combat."

Steve nodded and said, "That's indeed the case. This couldn't well reflect our state when the multiverse crisis arrives; after all, by that time, the superheroes of the multiverse, even if they had little schemes, wouldn't dare to go too far, the degree of unity would definitely be higher than now, and there wouldn't be too many opportunities to take advantage of the situation to seek profit for one's own universe."

"Precisely because of the bias in strategic inclination, the intensity of this war wasn't enough, and it didn't well achieve the purpose of training tactics. However, since our universe was used as a battlefield, it was indeed right to get some benefits, and I can't think of any better way."

"We could completely compete in a purer environment," Stark said, "unrelated to universe interests, or the status of the multiverse, just pure tactical confrontation, doing our best to achieve balance and have some restrictions; only then can we achieve the effect of training." ===== CHAPTER 4260 =====