To be honest—
Alex didn't yet have a particularly detailed plan for how to use Vulko as an entry point to ultimately find the Sacred Trident.
The reason was simple.
The intelligence Alex currently possessed was far too limited.
It was nowhere near sufficient to support any concrete, elaborate scheme.
Whether it was Vulko or Mera, to Alex they were merely an entry point—nothing more.
But how to extract something truly substantial from that entry point would take time.
At the very least,
Alex needed more information.
Of course—
If he were to call Charles over, things would become much simpler.
All Charles would need to do was read Vulko's mind, and everything would be laid bare.
He could even directly control Vulko and turn the whole matter into child's play.
But Alex had no intention of doing that for now.
Without Charles, it was merely a bit more troublesome—nothing more.
Alex wasn't so helpless that he'd rush back to Krakoa for reinforcements the moment he encountered the slightest difficulty.
This was something he could solve on his own.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
And so—
While all these scattered thoughts passed through his mind, Alex quietly followed Vulko from more than ten kilometers away.
There was no chance Vulko would notice him.
After descending roughly six or seven kilometers into the depths, Vulko finally stopped.
He boarded an Atlantean-style "undersea craft."
Its speed instantly skyrocketed.
Boom!
A dull, thunderous sound echoed.
The craft left behind a long trail in the water before vanishing from sight.
Boom!
At the same moment—
Alex's speed surged as well. He was no slower than Vulko's craft, maintaining a steady distance as he followed.
Vulko still didn't notice a thing.
Until—
A majestic, magnificent, and dazzling underwater city appeared before Alex's eyes.
"Atlantis… finally found it!"
Gazing at the enormous city filled with an unmistakable sense of "exotic splendor," excitement flickered in Alex's eyes.
Although it was an underwater city, judging by its infrastructure, Atlantis's technological level far surpassed that of the surface world.
Whether it could compare to Krakoa was still uncertain, but purely in terms of visual appeal, Alex felt it would make for an excellent tourist destination.
Unfortunately—
Alex wasn't here for sightseeing.
He quickly suppressed those thoughts and began carefully observing the underwater city.
This was a completely sealed city.
Not the kind of "sealed" that ordinary people imagined—simply surrounded by walls.
Instead, it was sealed in all directions, without a single blind spot: a fully enclosed energy sphere enveloped the entire city.
That made perfect sense.
After all, unlike land-dwellers who mainly operate on a flat surface where walls are enough, Atlanteans and other sea creatures exist in true three-dimensional space.
Naturally, full enclosure was necessary.
And to enter the fully sealed Atlantis, there was only one way—through its designated entry points.
Those entrances were heavily guarded, with large numbers of soldiers stationed there.
In Alex's eyes, that level of defense was laughably insignificant—he could wipe it out in minutes.
But for now, he didn't want to alert Atlantis, so some planning was required.
Hm?
Right!
Alex's eyes suddenly lit up.
The surfboard!
At this very moment, Alex was still standing on his surfboard.
Aside from allowing its user to absorb cosmic energy, the surfboard had another extremely important function—
Phasing through solid matter.
In Fantastic Four 2, when the Human Torch chased the Silver Surfer through the city, he had been deeply envious of this very ability.
Alex didn't know the exact principle behind it. Hank had once briefly mentioned something about quantum-domain mechanics.
But that wasn't important.
What mattered was that it could pass through walls.
Normally, this ability was pretty useless to Alex—he rarely ever needed it.
So he'd completely forgotten about it.
But now—
It was finally time for it to shine.
Without any further hesitation,
Alex first used his x-ray vision to observe the situation on the other side of the barrier.
He selected a location with little to no foot traffic.
Then—
Whoosh!
He stepped on the surfboard and slammed straight into the city's outer wall.
Buzz!
The instant his body made contact with the wall, the solid surface transformed into something like liquid.
Ripples spread outward in layers.
Alex, along with his surfboard, slipped directly into the ripples and vanished.
In the next moment—
His vision blurred, and he emerged from the thick barrier.
The true Atlantis unfolded before his eyes.
The initial infiltration of the Ocean Empire—successful!
As usual, after infiltrating Atlantis, Alex immediately expanded his super senses to cover the entire underwater empire.
In an instant, countless sounds flooded into his ears.
Many of Atlantis's secrets were laid bare before him.
Over the next several days, Alex remained hidden within Atlantis.
He conducted covert investigations and gathered intelligence.
Unfortunately, to most people, the Sacred Trident was nothing more than a legend.
Let alone knowing its actual location.
Even Vulko, according to Alex's findings, hadn't yet obtained the crucial key that pointed to the Sacred Trident's whereabouts.
That was… rather frustrating.
Worse still—
Vulko currently had no intention of searching for that key at all.
In the future, Vulko would seek it out because he needed the power of the Sacred Trident to help Arthur defeat the current king of Atlantis.
But right now?
Atlantis's current king—Orm, Aquaman Arthur's half-brother—had not yet begun secretly plotting an attack on the surface world.
As a result, Vulko and the others were still behaving themselves.
They had no ulterior motives whatsoever.
This situation was extremely unfavorable for Alex.
After all, Atlantis neither knew where the key was nor had any intention of searching for it—there was no room for him to manipulate events.
"Wait… the Mother Box?"
When Alex uncovered this particular lead, his heart stirred.
That was it.
This was his opportunity to obtain the Sacred Trident.
"Then it's settled."
Alex made his decision almost immediately.
Whoosh!
With a thought, he turned his surfboard in a new direction and vanished.
Relying on his super senses, Alex moved freely through Atlantis. Despite being an intruder, none of his actions drew any attention.
He smoothly arrived at an ancient city ruin on the outskirts of Atlantis.
This—
Was where the Mother Box was stored.
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