Chapter 66
"Dr. Cui, have you found something?" Qin Yuan asked the very emotional Dr. Cui when he arrived at the laboratory.
Dr. Cui pointed at the screen and said with disbelief, "The blood we drew from Flames and other tissue samples contain a very miraculous matter. Through our repeated tests, we found that it could quickly promote cell growth and evolution, restore damage and even change the genome of an organism. I am certain, that there is a great change from Flames compared to the dolphins two hundred years ago, or I should say, evolution."
"Does it endanger Flames in any way?" Qin Yuan asked worriedly.
"At the moment, we have not found anything danger from it. On the contrary, if our speculations are true, Flames should be even more healthy and long-lived than normal dolphins." Dr. Cui paused, then spoke again, "I think that the dolphin epidemic two hundred years ago, rather than a natural disaster, it would be better to call it a cruel natural filter. Four hundred years, humans have also suffered from a global FD virus invasion, it almost snatched away a hundred million lives. The people who survived, not only has the basic foundation of their body been greatly enhanced, their body functions also seem to have underwent different levels of development. The current universal belief is that this kind of development is some kind of special evolution."
Qin Yuan coldly intercepted, "This so-called evolution gravely influenced humanity's ability to reproduce and the population birth rate is on a straight decline. In nearly a year, the population of newborns in the entire world did not even surpass forty million, it has already reached a dangerous critical level."
The current human life expectancy was about 180 years, yet the birth rate was reduced by six folds. Every five couples might not even have a single child, even if they used science, the pregnancy rate was only 37%.
"I believe that humanity will very quickly work together to solve this difficult problem." Dr. Cui was rather confident about it, so he did not care to much. At the present time, he was more concern about the sole two dolphins remaining.
Qin Yuan did not plan to go into a deep discussion on the subject, and he suddenly switched subjects, "How old is Flames?"
"He's around twelve or thirteen, right in the age for maturity."
Matured at twelve to thirteen? From what Qin Yuan knows, the average lifespan of wild dolphins were about fifty years, according to human standard, Flames should still be a child.
"Does this mean Waves is not Flames' child?" Qin Yuan asked again.
"No." Dr. Cui answered, "We had already done a DNA test, they are not directly related. There might be other dolphins living in the ocean, but our investigation group still haven't found them."
Hearing the news that Waves wasn't Flames' child, Qin Yuan felt a strange happiness bubble in his heart.
After he walked out of the research room, he habitually headed for the pool.
At the moment, Flames was leading the small dolphin and leaping in the water. That cheerful and lighthearted scene caused his cold face to somewhat soften without his notice.
Qin Yuan looked at the gloomy sky. There would be a rainstorm in two days, he needs to start preparations early.
The next day, Shang Ke and Waves were led to the inner pools of the base. There, several areas were segregated to bred many different types of marine life.
The change in the weather caused the marine life in the base to move about uneasily, they transmitted to each other information that humans could not comprehend.
Dark clouds covered the sky, causing the light that came through to be gloomy. A burst of sea breeze whistled by and the waves rolled, heavily smacking into the reefs and leaving behind large splashes.
Shang Ke and the small dolphin hid in the underwater channel, on both sides were firm metal walls and the exit was blocked by a metal fence. On the opposite side of the exit was a underground waterway that led inside the base. No matter how violent the waves were, they would not be harmed staying here.
Shang Ke kept the small dolphin protected beneath him, swaying lightly with the waves as his right and left brains took turns sleeping.
After an unknown time, a world-shaking sound suddenly came from above, the entire base started to tremble. Following that, the sound of objects breaking.
Countless broken pieces fell into the water.
What happened?
Shang Ke quickly swam to the fence and could vaguely make out the flaring light of fire on the water surface. An explosion had happened.
From what he knows, the base has a solar-powered defense wall, it can resist level five and below hurricanes. Even if the energy runs out, an explosion would not happen.
Shang Ke turned around and followed the underwater channel toward the interior of the base. The small dolphin followed by his side closely.
Very soon, he found countless floating pieces of destroyed equipment and industrial trash in the normally cleaned waters. A great flood of seawater poured into the base and countless marine life scattered all around. Seeing such a scene, Shang Ke immediately understood that the defense wall of the base had already been destroyed, more than half of the base was under water.
Shang Ke led the small dolphin through a broken glass window and swam into the sea. They would only find out what happened once they reach the surface.
As it turns out, a public plane had unexpectedly crashed and hit the top of the base. The might of the large explosion destroyed the base's defensive wall. Over a hundred egg-shaped life-saving cabins floated on top of the water, it should be the emergency measures of the plane before they crashed. Most of the life-saving cabins were damaged, a portion of the people were already washed away by the waves, another portion was doing their best struggling to stay afloat.
Shang Ke widened his eyes as he stared at the scene. He couldn't believe that the base which was in perfect condition a couple hours ago was not broken beyond repair. The fire caused by the explosion was already extinguished by the waves. The sky remained dark, as if a monster was opening its wide jaws, preparing to swallow everything...
"Flames and Waves are still under the base!" Dr. Cui anxiously shouted toward an unstably flickering screen. He and a dozen staff members had hidden into the evacuation room before the explosion. The defensive system there and the main base were separated, so the defensive wall was still attached and was not hit by the explosion.
Under the doctor's operations, he quickly connected to all the surveillance cameras he could connect to. Once the scene appeared, everyone was stunned.
The scene they saw was a dolphin rushing courageously through the waves, throwing a lifesaver onto a victim, then biting the rope that was attached to it and dragging the victim quickly toward a relatively safer spot in the back of the base. The scene was quickly over.
But in a moment, "it" appeared again and headed for another victim, dragging him to the safe place.
One, two, three... Flames was like a heroic lifeguard, rushing into the waves and saving victims one by one. "It" who should be waiting for rescue was instead, doing "its" best to save humans.
This scene greatly impacted everyone.
That strong and healthy body, braving the waters and fast as lightning without any fear against the challenge of mother nature. In the dark, the glint of light blue light was like an ocean spirit, so beautiful it took their breaths away.
However, not everyone can appreciate Flames beauty. Most of the victims did not know Flames was coming to save them, so when they saw Flames nearing them, they would start to struggle in fear and resist.
Flames was able to swim through the waves unobstructed, nimbly dodging all sorts of obstacles. But in front of the victims that have lost all rationality from fear, Flames was bruised by their struggles. One of the victims was even holding a dagger and viciously slashed a bloody injury upon "its'" back when "it" came to save them.
Flames painfully twitched but did not give up on saving him. Bearing the pain, Flames delivered him to the safe place.
The base people were both angered and sad watching Flames, their hearts filled with worry and indignity for the harm "it" suffered. At the same time, they were shocked at "its'" bravery and kindness. Even if they were human, it was impossible for them to do what Flames was doing.
The injured Flames was clearly slower as "it" moved through the waters, the flow of blood stained the waters red. Under the blue light, it looked exceptionally demonically beautiful.
"We can't let "it" stay out in the water anymore, otherwise, "it" will die from blood loss!" One staff member impatiently yelled.
Dr. Cui steadied his mind and spoke, "Don't worry, the healing ability of dolphins are very strong, the blood will quickly stop. However, we should bring "it" back as soon as possible. Lin Zi, K, preparing the rescue equipment."
The ones that were called replied back to show they heard and immediately started on their task.
However, the movement of humans in water was very clumsy. Forget saving people, it would be pretty good if they could keep themselves safe.
After trying a few times, everyone finally gave up and returned back to escaping. They will think about this when the waves have settled somewhat.
"Strange, there aren't anymore victims around, so why is Flames still wandering around?" Someone frowned and looked at the screen.
The Flames in the screen was clearly very tired, in that past hour, "it" had saved over forty victims. Now that there weren't any more people stranded in the water, "it" should be finding a place to rest.
Dr. Cui watched Flames making rounds around the base, even when Flames was obviously moving slower and slower, "it" did not stop.
He muttered to himself, "Flames... could it be trying to find us?"
Everyone was very moved when he heard him, and looked back at the weary figure in the ocean. They were shocked speechless.
Flames was looking for them? "It" thought they were in danger?
"Dr. Cui, use the sound wave!" A researcher shouted out.
Dr. Cui sudden wisen up and quickly used the wound wave simulation system. A sound wave outside of the human hearing range spread out in circles, forming a special frequency in the water.
Flames seem to become aware of it and around rounding a few circles in the water, slowly followed the source of the sound wave.
Everyone showed a pleasantly surprised expression at the scene. However, right at that moment, a large wave raised above Flames like a mouth and swallowed "it" in an instant.
Their expression froze in a split second, they could no longer see Flames' figure in the screen.
"How is the situation? Are there any casualties among the staff members?" Once Qin Yuan received the news, he disregarded any dissuasion and rushed over to the base despite the risks. Once he was there, he was met with the bleak expression of everyone.
Dr. Cui gloomily answered, "We're all fine, but..."
"But what?" A bad premonition rose up in Qin Yuan's heart.
"Sob, Flames is gone, "it" was washed away by a wave." A female researcher couldn't help but sob as she sob.
"Wasn't 'it' in the safety water way?" Qin Yuan asked coldly, "How could 'it' be washed away by a wave?"
Everyone turned away their gazes from him as one, not daring to look at him in the face.
Dr. Cui sighed, turned on the screen and replayed what happened before to him.
Qin Yuan watched silently, as the video placed, his expression changed from surprise to anger, to worry and finally deep contemplation. Only that spirit-like figure was still reflected in his eyes.
He stared at the video and said in a certain tone, "I believe that 'it' will be fine."
Once the waves were calm, Qin Yuan immediately put together manpower to start a large-scale search for Flames in the ocean...
The dark clouds scattered and the blue sky shone, with the sea once again calm, it was like everything that had happened was just a nightmare.
In a shallow sea area around three miles away from the base, a weary Shang Ke was resting underwater. The injuries on his body were gradually healing, if this scene was caught by Dr. Cui and the others, they would be amazed at his exceptional healing speed.
Right at this moment, Shang Ke felt some shifting from the surrounding water. By the time he returned to his senses, his body was already trapped by a large net.
Shang Ke was startled awake.
Your mom, can't he get a nice sleep? It really is so annoying!
He turned his body and quickly swam for the surface. Before the people above closed the net, he rushed out of the net and leaped highly with a splash.
A cry of alarm could be heard by him, right after the cry was someone shouting, "Such a large fish! Hurry up, don't let it run!"
Shang Ke looked toward them, but what he saw was a pike shooting at him. Just when he was about to land back into the water, a pain of something stabbing into himself spread through his body. The pain made him cry out, his body lost balance and heavily hit the water.
"We hit it, pull it up!" A fisherman on the boat excitedly yelled.
Shang Ke was quickly dragged out of the water by them and hit the deck with a bang.
Shang Ke couldn't help but struggle, he felt very unwell after leaving the sea. The continuously flowing blood dyed the deck a dark red. He raised his head but could only see vague figures of men.
You guys, are, in, huge, trouble! Shang Ke roared in his mind.
"What kind of fish is this? I never seen it before." A man kicked at Shang Ke's back a few times.
"Maybe it's some rare fish." Another man ordered, "Put it into the tank first, don't let it die. We can use this to sacrifice to the Sea Emperor this time."
"Yeah!" Everyone cheered.
Following that, Shang Ke felt someone lifting him and roughly throwing him into a meter long tank. He could only curl up his body in the narrow space, breathing with difficulty in the shallow seawater. The pike in his tail was not taken out, pain attacked him in spurts as he gradually lost consciousness.
Shang Ke suddenly thought of his mission—become human food.
Perhaps, it will be completed soon...
SnowTime: Dun dun dun dunnnnn... I feel Shang Ke, all the muscles in my body feel like death has rolled over and since it was storming, all my joints are telling me I'm 60 instead of near 21. Kek the pain... my andriod charger dying too /o/ goddamn this bad luck of things