Chapter 219: The Beast Tide
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Other than the exit of the gathering place that was more than 30 meters wide, it was apparent that the area near the 50-meter wall was isolated. The pedestrians had been used to seeing people come out of the tunnel, so none of them even batted an eye.
It was approaching the end of the year soon, so even though the temperature changed after the four seasons, the island was much smaller than that of the mainland. The night wind still brought with it immense coldness.
When the group of scientists emerged on the ground from the warm bunker, a cold wind blew coincidentally, making them shudder. Some of them lowered their heads and whispered, “d.a.m.n it! It’s not a surprise that the animals would migrate with such a low temperature!”
The scholars by the side who felt the same cold wind could not help but let out a laugh as well. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, ignored the little jokes made by the professors and doctors around him and looked around instead, secretly lamenting the powerful strength of the US.
In just three months, the size of the gathering place had been expanded by at least five times. Just the amount of human and material resources spent on the city wall construction that was done layer by layer was already beyond one’s imagination. In fact, until now, there was no modern industrial factory on Shrimp B1 Island, yet for some reason, all of the building materials were transported to the island from the human world.
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“General Rowling, looks like the government’s recent investment in Shrimp B1 Island has increased rapidly. It doesn’t look like the rhythm of wanting to open up the area for private development.” Under the dim moonlight, he could not help but comment pensively.
“Young man, do you even pay attention to this matter?” Rowling was stunned before asking in astonishment.
“General, other than researching in biology, I also manage some businesses, and I’m very interested in the future development of this island.”
“In that case, you can rest a.s.sured that the reason the government continued to expand this gathering place in the recent months is so that it can be operated independently as soon as possible in order to win the confidence of the domestic large-scale enterprise investment. It’s already reported that the fiscal development budget for Shrimp World No. 2 would be greatly reduced next year.” Rowling smiled bitterly as he walked along the steep steps up to the wall. “Everyone, please follow me and hold your breath. You’ll soon see an unforgettable sight.”
Upon hearing his words, the scientists looked at each other in puzzlement and shrugged, before walking along the curved deep steps into the fortifications of the wall.
The wall of the gathering place built with no spare of expenses had a thickness of eight meters, which made the top fortification s.p.a.ce s.p.a.cious enough to organize a defense of medium-sized artillery and ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missile launchers.
The university professors, who were mentally unprepared, were relaxed and curious as they walked up to the stairs. The moment they reached the top, they were greeted with hundreds of professional soldiers in a neat and serious formation, in a manner that could only be described as battle-ready. Immediately, they could not help but turn stiff. After that, they suddenly heard a faint mysterious sound that they had never heard before.
That sound was similar to that of a hurricane blowing through the jungle, but at the same time, it sounded like the heart-wrenching shriek of some sort of animal—like a group of mules or something—that were grouped and skinned together. However, if one listened to it closely, it sounded like the kind of motor roaring akin to what could be heard in the racing field, the loud sound produced when the tires rubbed against the ground rapidly.
“It has already started, everyone! Let us go to the viewing platform.” After the strange sound resonated, with a grave expression, Rowling led the scientists to a viewing hole set up with several military high-infrared telescopes. “I believe that by directly observing the ‘animal migration’ on the island without using any means of video recording equipment, it would give you a lot of hands-on experience.”
“Hands-on experience, you say, General?” Without an ounce of modesty, Steven put his head close to an infrared telescope. Immediately, the shocking scene that appeared in front of him caused him to swallow his doubts back to his stomach.
With the help of the infrared night vision function, he saw in the dark jungle from a distance the image of thousands of red-skinned monsters that were more than ten meters tall that looked like apes tearing the branches off the trees that could be said as short compared to their body sizes and were rapidly moving about. The place that they pa.s.sed by would end up in a wreck.
Behind them was a group of monsters, that looked like a hundred-times magnified black house rat with sharp sawteeth and two fangs, that were doing their best to run and leap at the same time.
These giant rats had a strong jumping ability. With every few steps of running they took, they would leap up high. After gliding along the air under the moonlight while baring their ferocious teeth, they would land on the ground and splatter mud all over the place.
Due to the excessive panic they felt, most of these big rats did not have a fixed direction when they leap. From time to time, they would collide with the slower red-skinned apes, and this would usually lead to a b.l.o.o.d.y life-and-death fight.
“The oxygen content in the air of this island doesn’t seem too high, so why would these species evolve to such a huge size? Gravity? But the gravity here is more or less the same with Earth! This doesn’t make sense…” Staring at the beasts from far away, Steven muttered to himself with his mouth agape.
After that, he continued to move the telescope and carefully observed the scene of the various different foreign world’s animal species fleeing in a flurry.
These creatures might look fierce and full of aggressive beast traits; or that they were extremely fragile and one could tell they were herbivores at first glance; or that they were animals that possessed the common characteristics of the two former types of animals with omnivorous attributes. However, right now, they had gathered together, with no distinction towards each other, and were running towards the gathering place, sending a sense of fear to the people.
“Sh*t! General Rowling! T-They… These animals seem to be r-running towards us…” Amidst the deadly silence except for the heaving breathing in the fortifications, an unknown scientist suddenly let go of the telescope and said with a trembling voice, his face streaming with sweat.
“Yes, Dr. Herbert. Recently, every night during this time, countless animals would come charging at the gathering place, but don’t worry, our artillery and missiles are not just toys in the fortifications.”
The moment Rowling’s cold sentence resonated, the artillery and missiles in the city wall fortifications suddenly activated at the same time, making a continuous and fierce attack towards the groups of animals that were gradually getting close to the gathering place.
In an instant, the roaring explosion that ran through the clouds, a fire that lit up the sky, and the back-up attack made by the armed helicopter rising from the deck of the wars.h.i.+ps, proved the powerfulness of the modern human civilization as they used ‘iron and blood’.
In the midst of the flesh scattering and the terrifying shrieks, the beast tide began to turn away. 34 minutes later, the gathering place shook off the danger from the rampage of the group of beasts.
“Dear professors and doctors, this is the dilemma we are facing now.” After the dust had settled, Rowling became silent for a moment before looking at the equally silent scientists and said with a heavy tone, “After being driven away today, the animals on this island will rush towards here again, as though they have no sense of memory at all. During these last few days, we’d have to rely on the cannon to strike them away before they finally take a detour from the gathering place. Fortunately, the situation doesn’t continue to deteriorate…”
“This is bad enough, General Rowling,” All of a sudden, a gray-haired chubby old man interrupted Rowling’s words in an unreserved manner. “The actions of these animals would usually only appear before a devastating large-scale natural disaster, such as volcanoes, earthquakes…”
“Professor Turrin, if this is before a natural disaster, it’s impossible for this sort of ‘forewarning’ abnormalities to last for twenty days…” Immediately, one of the scientists raised a different opinion.
“But this is the foreign world, Dr. Marshall! Some of the ‘general standards’ in the human world may not necessarily take effect on this island.”
“You’ve also said that this is a foreign world, Professor Turrin! If this is the case, it’s debatable whether there is a connection between the animal’s wild migration and the occurrence of a devastating natural disaster…” Upon hearing the tall and fat old man defending his own inference, another scientist joined the discussion.
There was a well-known saying in the Western academic circles, “The truth becomes clearer through debate”. One, two, three, four, five, six… Eventually, all of the influential and prominent scientists began to involve themselves in the discussion.
Unfortunately, the existing information they had was too scarce. Therefore, when the scholars argued with each other, from evening till the middle of the night, from the fortifications of the city wall to the bunker conference room, they could not come up with any unified conclusion at all. In the end, they could only put aside the dispute and go to rest.
As an a.s.sistant to Steven, Zhang Lisheng and his supervisor were a.s.signed to a suite that had a small living room, with two bedrooms in the room. The conditions of the accommodation were not too bad.
“Professor, please let me know if you need anything.” After bringing the two of them to the room, the officer on duty saluted and when he was about to leave, Steven suddenly said, “Sergeant, I really have something to trouble you. Can you please pa.s.s a message to Major Martin? Please give me a reply about the matter of collecting foreign world’s creatures I asked him earlier. It’s really hard for me to be of any help without enough materials.”
“Sure, Professor. I’ll pa.s.s your message to Major Martin as soon as possible.” The officer on duty nodded before turning around to leave.
“What a fruitful day today! What do you think, Lisheng?” Looking at the disappearing silhouette of the sergeant, Steven heaved a long sigh of relief. When he saw the instant coffee placed on the table in the living room, he made a cup of coffee for himself before looking at Zhang Lisheng who was taking out a can of iced c.o.ke from the refrigerator by the corner.
“I find it to be very astounding and thrilling, Professor. It kind of evokes my curiosity and my desire for adventure. I plan to go to the jungle personally tomorrow to do some inspection.” Zhang Lisheng, who could not find a method to leave the gathering place without leaving any trace behind, could only use his supervisor’s question to take the opportunity to directly express his intentions.
Steven was dumbfounded for a moment. “It’s too dangerous, Lisheng! Too dangerous! The environment of the animals on this island is just too different from the ones on Earth! The wild beasts actually inhabit a region in group… Of course, it could also be a temporary grouping! Your initial judgment sounds absurd, but I don’t know why but I feel that it kind of makes sense. These animals seem to be afraid of something. The reason they fled at night is to avoid certain dangers, but what kind of danger it is to exist so invisibly and could actually affect the ecosphere of a large island with an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers…”