Chapter 72
People living on land now were not as leisurely as Xia Yi, who could still ponder the logical differences between humans and sea monsters.
In times of crisis, one can often see a person’s true nature clearly: those who were once valued may abandon you, while those you didn’t value may silently stand by your side.
This wasn’t just a disaster lasting one or two days, where you grit your teeth and endure. The apocalypse had no end; the value of all gold, silver, jewels, stocks, and deposits has turned to nothingness. The migration of people has led to catastrophic destruction of vegetation.
As for food, there’s nothing to say—grass, tree bark, everything that could be used to satisfy hunger, all gone without a trace. For those fleeing later, heading north is incredibly difficult; it’s as if there’s nothing edible to be found.
Many people starve to death halfway through their journey, and many more cursed madly:
Why didn’t radiation kill more people when natural disasters began?
Why didn’t more planes crash and kill more people?
Why are there still so many survivors, and why can’t any food be found?
So now they regret leaving the cities. Although there is plenty of land in the northwest, it’s all grasslands, deserts, and loess plateaus. The only way is to head southwest, but the mountain roads are extremely treacherous.
Those who luckily make it there have no medicine, and their weak bodies cannot adapt to the damp and humid climate there.
In Yunnan and Guizhou*, it’s famous for “three days without clear skies, three feet without flat ground.”
*T/N: Provinces in Southwestern China
After the awakening of spring, epidemics begin to spread. Just the rampant mosquitoes were enough to cause widespread illness and death among humans.
In the area controlled by City B, and within the small areas managed by several military districts, there haven’t been any epidemics. However, there are constantly waves of people from various places coming in.
According to reason, they should be accepted, but there was worry that diseases would spread as they enter, so they simply cannot be allowed in.
They can only be allowed in based on the time they arrived in City B; those who remained healthy within seven days can be let through.
This was already an era without efficient medical equipment, and even medicines were from the previous panic era of stockpiling.
Without the conditions for individual isolation, or even isolating groups of ten, they can only be classified by the number of days.
Hundreds of people at a time… it’s impossible to guarantee safety at all.
If one person falls ill, everyone has to wait for observation for three more days.
Even if there are rations distributed by some military units, no one wants to wait to die! Especially when people start falling ill one after another before seven days have passed.
And so the riots began like this, a situation that no one wanted to face.
It’s unclear whether it was the intellectuals cultivated during the internet age who developed a godlike logic, or if there were instigators behind the scenes, but the riot developed rapidly.
The angry crowd felt that the country had abandoned them. They had struggled to come to City B only to be left here to die. By the third day of the riot, an esper finally appeared.
He was an ordinary young man. When the team of espers subdued him and his group of friends, he blushed and shouted loudly. Captain Hao had seen many such people over the past few days and impatiently lowered his head,
“Hey, tell me, how many people are here, and how many people are in City B?”
“Are you sacrificing the few for the sake of the majority? Should we just die? Are those who originally had household registration in City B exempt from death in the apocalypse?”
His voice was loud, and all the social contradictions from before the apocalypse were piled onto it again, causing the previously subdued crowd to riot again.
“According to you, should we let everyone in, let the epidemic spread, and everyone gets infected before you’ll be satisfied?”
“You… But you can’t just leave us here. We haven’t been infected yet, but if we stay, the healthy will also be infected by the sick! Your rescue is selective. Why did some people survive, but my second aunt died? She lay there miserably with no one to care for her until she died! They all told me!”
“This is an epidemic. Even in the good old days, people would still die! The country isn’t a god, doctors aren’t gods; they can only do their best to save each person, to save more people. Doctors are not omnipotent!! If we can’t hold on until the doctors come…”
Captain Hao felt extremely aggrieved, especially for the exhausted medical teams who were almost dying on duty.
“All day long, all I hear is complaints about this and that debt owed. Damn it, you people were like this even before the apocalypse. Now, who hasn’t lost family, friends, or relatives? Anyone who is complete and still alive, step forward and let me see! People can’t come back to life once dead, yet everyone just blames others. We’re all waiting for our country to perish, for humanity to disappear from the Earth!”
With that, he turned and walked away, ignoring the esper who was still sobbing.
Captain Hao looked at the grayish sky. During spring, there were always sandstorms. Now, all edible things had been plundered. He supposed this year’s climate would be even worse.
Captain Hao felt a tickle in his throat and wished for a cigarette, but such desires were now luxury.
Ah, he had been trying to quit smoking for three or four years but never succeeded.
Now he had quit for good.
All orderly areas in the world were equally chaotic. Some measures weren’t properly implemented, and epidemics were even spreading in urban areas. Yet, this wasn’t the worst news; some island nations in the Pacific had already encountered new situations.
“The direction of the ocean currents has reversed…”
Experienced fishermen and elderly people looked serious.
“In three months, an even greater disaster will come…”
However, for Xia Yi and Siren, the reversal of the Pacific tropical monsoon ocean currents meant that their journey south required no effort at all. Naturally, they leaned towards the southwest and were about to reach Australia.
Missing that taste, Xia Yi had been deliberately searching for stonefish all along the way.
However, this species was extremely good at hiding. With their small bodies, they could stick motionless to the bottom of the reef. It was truly difficult to discover them. No wonder Abiseth loved to eat them but could never find them.
Xia Yi felt that if he stared for three minutes, he could definitely pinpoint where the stonefish was hiding. It must be his sharp eyes and insights.
It was interesting, though. Since childhood, he had loved imagining various patterns from stains and lines on the ceiling and floor. So, finding small animals or objects hidden among a jumble of lines was his forte.
However, converting a flat image to three-dimensional increased the difficulty countless times.
Unfortunately, it seemed that many animals loved playing hide-and-seek, loved pretending to be stones, and even loved pretending to be seaweed. For instance, a bunch of purple-red seaweed didn’t look quite right; it felt overly beautiful.
Xia Yi cautiously touched the seaweed.
Huh, it really is seaweed.
But when he pulled it, the main stem in the middle of the seaweed looked peculiar; it didn’t budge at all.
Behind the seaweed were piles of willow coral, those slender, branchy things that didn’t grow symmetrically like staghorn coral, often with one side higher than the other. Xia Yi thought the coral reefs in the Australian waters were more beautiful and taller.
Xia Yi!
Don’t move!
At this moment, Siren returned with food, startlingly shouting to a halt.
Xia Yi stiffened instantly.
He had already heard Abiseth talk endlessly about how dangerous the habitats of the blue-ringed octopus were. Not only were there box jellyfish, the most toxic marine creatures, but there were also over a dozen species of highly venomous sea snakes. Unfortunately, these fellows were also ambush predators and wouldn’t usually be seen.
However, it seemed he was a bit late. A small coral behind the seaweed suddenly darted up. Before Xia Yi could see clearly, Siren had swum over and slapped it aside with his tail fiercely.
When Xia Yi was pulled back, he saw a bizarre fish, with a pink-purple color and all sorts of thick and thin spines all over its body. Its big eyes glared fiercely but then turned its head and slowly swam away.
Its side fins were exceptionally beautiful, not ugly at all, semi-transparent like unfolded lace edges.
Siren used the seawater lifted by his tail to slap it aside, not pursuing it further, allowing the strange fish to sway back and continue masquerading as coral.
If you see this kind of fish in the future… stay far away, it’s poisonous!
Really? I’ve only heard that the more beautiful the mushroom, the more poisonous it is. I didn’t know tropical fish had this saying.
Wait, should it be the weirder the fish, the more poisonous it is!
Xia Yi was certain because he had eaten quite a few tropical fish. Even before the apocalypse, he thought these beautiful creatures were meant for decoration.
Is it very poisonous?
Hmm, this is a species of scorpionfish. It’s troublesome if you’re pricked by its spines… for humans, I’m not sure, maybe they’ll die.
More potent than stonefish?
Yes, how did you know?
You dare to reach out for stonefish, but not for this fish.
Watching Xia Yi, who seemed earnest, Siren froze.
Should he tell Xia Yi the truth?
—Catching stonefish was because they taste good, but ignoring this fish was because it looks as weird as its taste. What’s the point of catching it if it’s not food? Just for fun?
Forget it, better not say anything. Let Xia Yi misunderstand. It’s better than him accidentally touching it.
“I don’t understand…”
As Xia Yi swam further away, he couldn’t help but glance back at the “coral”.
Since these fish disguised themselves so well, why did they need to be so highly venomous?
“These two skills, having one should be enough. Anyway, with such weird looks, they’re destined not to be fast swimmers, only ambush predators.”
“While we might not see it, other fish can, afraid of being eaten, of course they need to be highly venomous.”
Siren shrugged, because more creatures in the ocean don’t use eyes to see, and have peculiar organs to sense heat for hunting.
“What about Abiseth?”
Xia Yi felt that their current location seemed a little far from the sea surface.
In the ocean, the so-called sea surface is the sky. Rising up and down, they just needed to follow the sunlight.
He looked down and saw the food Siren had brought, and was stunned.
Dark clumps, covered with spikes.
It looked familiar, like a hedgehog.
But this was okay, at least Xia Yi recognized it; it wasn’t rare in seafood restaurants. He just hadn’t eaten it before.
Sea urchins wouldn’t appear where there was light, so Xia Yi had never encountered them. Plus, they looked so hard to handle.
How could he open them without tools?
Wait, after eating, Xia Yi hoped Siren wouldn’t put these spiky shells on Abiseth’s tentacles.
Octopuses instinctively respond to things they felt were threats!
Xia Yi pondered, are octopus skins thick enough?
They should be able to withstand it! Well, no need to worry.
Xia Yi looked forward to seeing if his guess was wrong.
He found that he and Siren seemed to be more and more in sync lately.
It seemed like sea monsters were also very simple-minded, at least guessing wasn’t too hard. Abiseth’s habitual actions were even more obvious. After spending time with it, Xia Yi found that it liked to sneakily peek underwater, just like when it tracked the Goddess Tarrasa.
“This sea urchin is small.”
According to Abiseth’s size, it had to be larger to be effective.
The smaller it is, the denser the spikes.
Only after Siren finished talking did he realize something was wrong. He looked at Xia Yi in confusion, struggling to guess whether Xia Yi was asking if the sea urchin was too small to eat or if his previous answer was wrong.
