jdhmnovel Chapter 1457 - 736: The Federation Sets the Fire, Innocents Suffer
Chapter 1457 - 736: The Federation Sets the Fire, Innocents Suffer
The mermaids are coming!
Surprised? Unexpected?
Before there's even time to continue with music and dancing, the experiences and news brought by so many survivors spread across the Seven Cities as if they had wings, and the media control of the Seven couldn't stop it...
There were too many ways, and the Seven Cities were too makeshift.
As for Luo Island, Ji Jue could control it, but he didn't see the need.
The existence of the mermaid threat could make those who self-proclaimed wisdom and daily preached that the danger wasn't significant truly see the situation, and stop blindly being optimistic.
Bloodthirsty creatures, each over ten to twenty meters long, were now migrating in groups, moving towards the eastern part of the Endless Sea.
Based on currents' positions and directions, several groups would pass through the waters near the Seven Cities. If they followed the sewers or underground rivers into the cities, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Especially since mermaids, as ocean predators, naturally have strong affinity with the Ruins and Entropy System, their destructive power defies common sense.
Even more terrifying, unlike other large predators who roam alone, mermaids are highly communal, often acting in groups, with clear division of labor, and their intelligence is quite high, comparable to a human of eleven or twelve years old.
Every group sufficiently large to be called a clan ranges from dozens to hundreds for smaller ones, and potentially hundreds to thousands for larger ones...
Encountering even one puts an ordinary fishing boat in grave danger. A sufficiently large group of mermaids might even dare to attack Federation and Empire warships.
If a large number of mermaids gather and, under hormonal influence, lead to atavistic traits and the emergence of hatchling dragon species, then the scale would escalate further.
That would certainly be a Heavenly Calamity.
However, if such a situation does arise, the Seven Cities wouldn't have to worry.
Historically, such circumstances occurred just once north in the Endless Sea, causing excessive damage, meaning the first to react would certainly be the Federation and Empire, leaving the big shots to handle it while everyone else lays back and watches.
Evidently, the nauseating part lies here, neither too small to ignore nor too large to be unconcerned.
Yet, if unsolved, the troubles would be endless.
It's like suddenly being smacked upside the head, leaving the brain buzzing.
The immediate task at hand is to figure out: Where did the mermaids come from, what are they up to, and why are they in the eastern waters anyway?
Consequently, the Seven Cities Council spearheaded the investigation, and after much searching among the Seven, combining intelligence from all sides, they concluded it was the Federation's fault!
Technically speaking, as long as you're close enough to the Federation, you can blame anything on them, but this time the blame was particularly righteous.
Before, during the rainy season, the Hai Zhou Security Bureau eradicated the mermaid clans near the Federation too thoroughly, utterly uprooting them!
As a result, without the mermaid threat, this year's fish brood was exceptionally abundant, under the prelude of plague winds, exploding in numbers.
The constant stream of food scent attracted foreign mermaid clans to congregate here, akin to nomads chasing water and grass.
But this is ecological balance at its finest.
They're just here for a buffet!
Consider this: the Security Bureau previously clashed with the mermaids because the ocean temperature rose abnormally, leading to fish chaos, with mermaids chasing fish and nearing Hai Province en masse.
The temperature rise was due to the old dog Duke Wuyou going all out, reigniting the Flame Tide catastrophe, burning through the Ancient Temple's barrier...
And speaking of Flame Tide catastrophe...
In the end, Ji Jue discovered it was somehow his own fault despite the blame cycle!
"This is damned unbelievable!"
Ji Jue mulled over the report in his hands repeatedly, feeling increasingly dazed — this was making him look like a jinx, with problems arising wherever he went!
He thoroughly examined his own faults, wondering why every crisis had connections with him, and ultimately concluded that it was those damned mongrels being indiscreet, always dragging him into it!
If not?
Could it really be his fault?
Absolutely impossible!
Leaving the report aside, he returned to his research, leaving things be.
Meanwhile, the news of approaching mermaids grew increasingly fervent across the Seven Cities.
Many old stories repeatedly surfaced on social media, and the mermaid's scale began to seem exaggerated, their migration expanded from several groups initially to dozens or even hundreds, with countless people fervently sharing the same news, embellishing figures and threats until they seemed incredibly exaggerated.
Panic spread like a tide.
In reality, the mermaids were still distant, and their numbers couldn't possibly be that absurd.
Yet at least one thing was true... If migrating mermaids pass by, they certainly wouldn't ignore the Seven Cities' existence — mermaids have senses and taste even sharper than dogs, unable to miss food scent from tens of miles away, especially with large population gatherings.
Don't even mention, even with daily waste and sewage discharge, the scent would be enough to lure passing mermaids like bending a fishing pole.
Who's going to resist a bite?