Chapter 388: Blade of Thought
Lu Siya was stunned by Meng Chao’s bold guess.
She could not help but turn and ask the researchers beside her about it. “Can the severed parts of sandworms live independently like earthworms after they’re cut in two?”
The sandworm experts discussed this nervously for a while before they said, “If it happened in a natural environment, not quite.
“After all, the difference in their sizes is too great. There’s also a certain difference in their structures. The sandworm’s oral cavity alone is already very hard to reproduce. After all, it’s covered in sharp teeth.”
“But what if top-tier biochemical technology would help it in a lab?” Meng Chao said anxiously.
“We have to understand that we’re not facing a wild sandworm but an art piece that has been carefully modified through genetic engineering. This sandworm contains the genes from creatures with incredibly powerful regeneration abilities, like earthworms, sea cuc.u.mbers, and octopi. Is it really impossible for it to turn into two?”
“Well...” The sandworm experts looked at each other before they nodded gravely. “In a lab, if you cut a sandworm into two and put the severed parts into incubation cribs, there’s a possibility that the second half will grow a completely new oral cavity and the first an excretion pore.”
“That’s exactly it!” Meng Chao swung his arm. “This Ultimate Sandworm must have been born from the second half of Gao Ye’s body, which was its b.u.t.t and tail. It’s an incomplete form, and that’s why it’s fighting strength wasn’t as great as the original’s. It didn’t have any intelligence or humanity.
“Big Sis Ya, think about the battle just now. It didn’t show even a teeny-tiny bit of fighting intelligence that was comparable to a human’s, right?
“Also, when I said those touching words, even a zombie would cry, while if a monster heard them, it would fall silent. But this didn’t even cause a splash in the depths of its heart.
“I thought that my silver tongue was no longer silver, but now that I think about it, it’s because the sandworm was just Gao Ye’s b.u.t.t and didn’t have a soul at all!”
“Err...” Lu Siya said. “That’s just your guess. You don’t have any proof.”
“I don’t have proof, but it’s logical, isn’t it?” Meng Chao said. “This guess answers all of my questions in regards as to why its fighting strength was so weak, why it didn’t understand what I said, and why the enemies chose to release it ten days in advance to cause trouble.”
“Wait,” Lu Siya said. “Even if it’s really just Gao Ye’s duplicate, why did the enemy release it ten days in advance and make us wary of it? Even if it’s just a duplicate, it still possesses the ability to destroy the underwater tunnel.”
“Yeah. That’s another question...” Meng Chao mumbled and started thinking again.
But this time, it only took him half a minute. He raised a finger and said, “I can only think of one possibility. They wanted to attract our attention to the maximum degree so that the entire Group 9 would be led around the nose by this duplicate of the Ultimate Sandworm and we wouldn’t have the time to care about other things.
“At the end of the day, Group 9 is a squad specifically formed to investigate Lin Chuan and Gao Ye’s case. Once Gao Ye appeared, no matter what, we had to set aside everything in our hands and mobilize all forces to hunt him down.
“Everyone from Captain Ye to an offsite member like me have been working day and night playing hide and seek underground with this creature for more than ten days. We practically didn’t sleep, and so, naturally, we didn’t have the time nor the energy to handle other stuff.
“Let’s say that my hypothesis is correct and all of Group 9 has been chasing after the Ultimate Sandworm’s duplicate over the past half a month. What about the original? Where is it? What has it done? It has been ten days, and ten whole days are enough for Gao Ye and the abnormal beasts controlling him to set up a shockingly grand scheme!”
“Isn’t the destruction of the southern part of the city a ‘shocking and grand scheme’? The destruction this time has allowed the abnormal beasts to deliver the same damage as from a monster horde invasion when fog descends without any fog.”
“So what? Would Dragon City be destroyed because of it?” Meng Chao retorted. “Even if the speed of the abnormal beasts’ attack was increased by three or five times and the entire southern part of the city was engulfed in flames, it’d be nothing. Would Dragon City be destroyed just because of that?
“No. It’s impossible. It’s not as if Dragon City has never been injured this severely before. During the most dangerous era, the territory humans controlled was less than half of our current city, but we managed to get through it.
“Big Sis Ya, if the monsters attack Dragon City purely through physical means, it’s impossible for them to destroy us. The danger will instead cause us to unite even more. It will also subtly cover up and put an end to the conflicts in Dragon City. I believe that the abnormal beasts know this all too well.
“Then, there’s little tactical meaning to launching such useless attacks.
“I know that tonight, the southern part of the city has descended into chaos and many innocent citizens have suffered greatly. Many buildings are still burning, and perhaps some skysc.r.a.pers have collapsed. Some of our powerful fighters probably died too.
“When everything comes to an end, there will be countless citizens who will have lost their homes and we’ll need to find a place for them to settle down. We will encounter all sorts of problems.
“But these problems won’t shake Dragon City’s foundation, and it’s impossible for them to affect humans’ beliefs. Instead, it will unite us against a common enemy, and we will be one.
“And what price would the abnormal beasts have to pay for this?
“First of all, this offense will allow us humans to realize that the abnormal beasts have a new strategy. From now on, we will definitely increase our surveillance of the underground world. Next time, it won’t be as easy to dig an underground tunnel leading into the city from outside.
“Next, we would have also discovered the new zombie virus. Based on our learning and research speed, we will definitely soon uncover the secrets of the new virus and develop a corresponding vaccine and serum. We will also figure out a strategy to fight against the new zombies.
“Even the normal citizens will no longer be as lost and alarmed as they are now when they see the new zombies who can spit acid and self-destruct.
“Besides, the attack would have wasted a lot of genetically modified pests who have super nerves and basic intelligence. Even for the abnormal beasts, it must have required a lot of resources to modify them, right?
“All of this is capital to attack Dragon City. Then, what exactly did the abnormal beasts gain by pouring so much capital into this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s the same as the previous fog descents. The cost benefit ratio is so low that it’s terrifying!”
When Lu Siya heard him, she could not help but say, “Isn’t your imagination a bit too rich? In the past, that’s how the monsters fought during the fog descents.
“Now, they’re led by the abnormal beasts. The stealthy nature of the monsters’ attacks, their targets, the coordination between different species, and the coordination between monsters and zombies have increased, so isn’t that already aplenty?”
“No. It’s far from enough.” Meng Chao stared at Lu Siya seriously, and a light that far surpa.s.sed those belonging to the current era shone in his eyes. He said clearly, “Big Sis Ya, do you know what the current Dragon Citizens lack the most?”
Under his stare, a strange feeling rose in Lu Siya’s heart. She instinctively asked, “What is it?”
“Tactical thinking,” Meng Chao said. “We have plenty of Deity Realm superhumans who stand high above us in Dragon City. We also have experts who stand at the top of their specialties. We even have mighty generals who lead large armies of the Red Dragon Army.
“They’re definitely far smarter than I am. But pardon me for being rude, I think that the current powerful and intelligent people in Dragon City can’t quite see the overall situation and aren’t skilled enough in tactical thinking.
“Of course you can’t blame anyone for it. After all, since Dragon City transmigrated to the Other World more than half a century ago, it has been an army in a foreign place. Our views are shrouded by the fog, and all we see and think about is limited to this small city. It’s inevitable that we have an increasing number of limitations and reach more deadends.
“Besides, our opponents have been far from smart creatures. The monsters never had any intelligence in terms of tactics. Their so-called city attacks were really just them charging into the city to destroy things because of their instincts, which was them marching to their own deaths. They might have been fierce, but they didn’t have any tactics. In terms of strategy, they could kill people, but in terms of tactics, each of their offenses were meaningless.
“Have you heard of this phrase before: Don’t argue with idiots, for they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
“Similarly, we shouldn’t be fighting against Demonic Halberd Pigs in swamps. Even if we win, we will end up covered in stinky mud.
“Do you understand what I’m saying? The Monster War in the past was not really a war, because those fights were basically us playing house. We can’t call them a real war!
“Even if the Deity Realm superhumans and Apocalyptic Beasts fought soul-stirring fights in certain battles that are worthy of being written in epics, from a tactical point of view, it was no different from both armies rolling about in trenches.
“The result is that during the decades of this ‘Monster War’, not only have we never gained any sort of tactical thinking, we were instead pulled down to the level of monsters and ended up the same as them. We have strong bodies but simple minds!
“Let’s talk about the battle this time. Since the enemies chose to attack the southern part of the city first, we believed that the southern part of the city is their only goal. We never even considered why the enemies launched this attack and what their tactical goals were. This is the typical example of us seeing only the tree but not the forest!”
Lu Siya opened her mouth to say “Are you saying that no one else but you in Dragon City has tactical intelligence?”, but then closed it.
She remembered the many a.n.a.lyses and predictions Meng Chao had tossed out about the abnormal beasts, and they were all so accurate that they were terrifying.
Also, the Ultimate Style he helped create with Gu Jianbo was practically perfect against the continuously evolving monsters.
Lu Siya obediently did not say a word.
But Meng Chao also realized that he had overstepped his boundaries with what he said. The Dragon City’s fighters, intelligent people, specialists, and elites might actually possess tactical thinking. It’s just that their tactical thinking was definitely not as good as what it would be decades later, which was what he remembered from his past.
The current Dragon Citizens had only ever been enemies against stupid monsters, and their battlefield was limited to their city.
Decades later, the battlefield would switch to the entire Other World, and the enemies would also become all sorts of Other World races!
Meng Chao had only ever been someone who was in charge of being a vanguard or an a.s.sa.s.sin before the apocalypse arrived, but due to the much larger battlefield and the much more dangerous enemies, his mind had become a blade that was much sharper than anything the current Dragon Citizens possessed!