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Chapter 286: Inhuman (94) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
The strong fishy smell mixed with the odor of corruption filled everyone's nostrils again.
The smell is so aggressive that it almost goes straight into the nose, and the effect is like a spell.
Bai Jinshu took a few breaths and felt his head buzzing. His thoughts, which had originally formed a little, were directly shattered into a ball. Fragmented words and sentences echoed repeatedly in his brain along with the smells, and he couldn't make out a complete sentence.
If he is like this, it will be even more obvious to the others around him.
Xiao Tang covered his nose and buried his entire face in his shawl, revealing only a pair of tearful eyes: "Damn it, magic attack!"
Bai Jinshu suspected that her action would only intensify the impact of the smell on her respiratory system.
Xiao Tang was still wearing the clothes she had borrowed from the Pipa girl in the teahouse. The cheongsam was too thin. N Port is a coastal city with strong winds and large temperature differences. In order to keep warm, the two of them borrowed two shawls before leaving.
In order to protect themselves from the sea breeze, the two of them specially borrowed a pure cotton shawl which has a greater warmth-keeping effect than a decorative effect.
As we all know, cotton clothes absorb odor very well.
When Xiao Tang borrowed the shawl, he certainly didn't expect that there would be a time when he would need to use the cloth to block out the stench that would strike his soul.
The yellow-haired man standing nearby seemed to have been dizzy from the smell. He couldn't utter a word and had to be held up by Xiao Tang with one hand to prevent him from losing his balance and falling onto the flooded road.
She still has time to care about Huangmao now, it seems that the impact is not serious.
The fisherman carrying the rotten fish continued to walk forward, his face still numb, as if he could not smell the stench from the bag on his back.
"Can't this guy smell it? Why doesn't he have any reaction at all!" The yellow-haired man paused for a long time, and finally couldn't help but said in an incredible tone.
"Maybe his sense of smell is as dull as his hearing." As the fisherman left, the smell faded a little, and Bai Jinshu finally had some time to speak.
"Was it like this in N Port before?" Xiao Tang couldn't help but lift his head from the shawl, "It shouldn't be like this. When we met Shi Pang before, they didn't have this smell... Ugh, this shawl is almost pickled, I don't want it anymore..."
The devastation on her face didn't look fake.
"You'd better not throw it away," Bai Jinshu said after slowly exhaling, "If we have to go to the sea later, we might get frozen if we don't have some warm clothes."
When we were in the well before, everyone was wearing short sleeves and almost got frozen to death.
N Port is an area where it is said that a large number of S-level ghost stories are found on the sea. If they cannot find Shi Pang, many of them will go to the sea to have a look.
"I'm not afraid of the cold..." Xiao Tang muttered weakly, but still did not throw away the pure cotton shawl. Instead, he tied it around his waist. "Is this okay? I really can't stand this smell..."
She lowered her head to tie her shawl, and when she looked up, the fisherman they had been following had already walked away.
"Come on, come on, catch up," Xiao Tang planned to run to catch up with him, "see where he is going."
"Wait a minute," Bai Jinshu stretched out his hand to stop her, "The smell of rotten fish will affect our movements. This distance is just right."
"Oh...that's right."
After the fishermen walked away, the smell did fade a lot.
Everyone kept a distance from the fisherman that was neither too far nor too close to allow them to see him, but not too close to allow them to lose him, and they communicated with each other as they walked.
"That fish is definitely not normal!" Xiao Tang was angry. "How could a fish rot so quickly and smell so bad?"
Her tone was very unhappy, and it seemed that she had been tortured a lot just now.
[This is the smell of fish.] Jin Ling typed a line of words on her phone and showed her phone screen.
"Impossible," Xiao Tang was certain, "Can a normal fish smell this strong?"
Jinling: [All animals have a strong smell after they rot.]
She blinked and tapped her phone quickly: [The smell of these rotting fish mixed with the salty smell of the sea water is what caused it to become like this.]
"Sea water..." Bai Jinshu only noticed it after Jin Ling said this.
In addition to the faint salty smell that is hard to ignore, there is also an extremely obvious salty smell of sea water floating in the air.
This smell doesn't quite resemble the normal salty smell of sea water.
It's not like he hasn't been to the beach before, and the smell of seawater isn't very noticeable. After all, the wind is strong at the beach, and the wind will certainly bring a faint smell of seawater, but the smell will soon be blown away.
It has come to this point, it's like pressing their faces into the sea.
"This doesn't look like rain water," he thought, stretched out his hand to touch a little water in the puddle on the ground, and sniffed it, "The water on the ground is probably sea water..."
"You're still touching me..." Xiao Tang showed an expression of dismay, "Is there any difference between seawater and rainwater so close to the sea? Isn't it just a difference in water circulation?"
"It's different," Bai Jinshu stood up and looked at the water-stained street. "In the water cycle, when seawater turns into water vapor, most of the salt will be retained in the seawater. The salt content of the rain that finally falls is much lower than that of seawater."
“But look now.”
As he spoke, everyone looked towards both sides of the street.
The edges of puddles on the street are surrounded by a circle of white dotted lines that are slightly larger than the puddles.
This is the trace of salt analysis after the water vapor is evaporated.
"This is seawater," Bai Jinshu thought thoughtfully, "Before we came here, something happened in Port N that caused the seawater to flood into the streets."
"Tsunami..." Xiao Tang guessed, "Did the tsunami sweep the seawater and fish onto the shore?"
"It shouldn't be..." Bai Jinshu took the napkin handed over by Huai Jiamu, wiped his wet fingers, and looked at the buildings on the seashore. "If it was a tsunami, these buildings near the sea would at least have more traces of being hit by the waves."
But now, these buildings standing on the seashore are very intact, with no signs of having been attacked by a tsunami.
"Besides a tsunami, is there anything else that could cause seawater to flood into the streets?" Xiao Tang rubbed his temples, which were throbbing from the fishy smell, and speculated aimlessly, "Tornado?"
"That's even more impossible," Huangmao said weakly, "These buildings don't look like they've experienced a tornado."
"That can't be the seawater flooding over here, right?" Xiao Tang raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Do you know what it means for the sea level to rise to this extent?"
She twitched her lips. "Although I'm not an expert in geography, I know that the sea is very large. If the sea level rises by one centimeter, the volume of water will be enough to be followed by a bunch of zeros..."
They are now some distance away from the port, but the ground of the port itself is higher than the sea level. In addition, the terrain is constantly rising. If the seawater wants to flow back here, the sea level will have to rise by at least half a meter.
Not to mention that looking into the distance, the water stains spread so far that they could not see the end.
"Before we came here... the sea level rose by at least one meter?" Xiao Tang quickly denied this guess, "It's impossible. Where did so much water come from?"
Even if there had been heavy rain for several days and nights since they entered the Novice Village, it would not have been possible to achieve this level.
"Rising sea levels... In addition to the increase in water volume, there is another possibility." Bai Jinshu touched his chin, "Have you ever heard of a crow drinking water? If it's not the extra water, then could it be the extra stones?"
His example was easy to understand, and Huangmao understood it immediately: "Erge, you mean that a lot of things suddenly appeared in the sea, causing the sea level to rise?"
"Now that the sea water has receded, doesn't that mean something in the sea appears and disappears?" Xiao Tang frowned. "How can there be such a thing? It is so big that it can raise the entire sea level, and then suddenly disappears after appearing. This is impossible."
"Then it can't be caused by rising sea levels," Bai Jinshu shrugged. "It's not a tsunami, it's not a tornado, and it can't be rising sea levels. It can't be that someone is holding a bucket of water and sprinkling water from house to house, right?"
An extremely concrete expression of speechlessness appeared on Xiao Tang's face. "How idle must this person be..."
"I also think it's unlikely," Huang Mao thought for a while and came up with a more fantastic idea, "Could it be that the ground is sinking?"
[It’s possible.] Jin Ling typed silently.
"I think this is the most likely possibility," Xiao Tang jumped on the ground, as if he could make the ground sink a little. "Although it sounds incredible that the entire ground is sinking, considering that we have seen even more incredible things, such as a dragon locked under a subway, this is also normal."
She nodded seriously: "So Port N is a floating city that sinks and rises."
"No," Huai Jiamu suddenly said, "The foundation of Raging Waves Harbor is stable."
"Ah?" Xiao Tang's conclusion was easily interrupted. She stared at the ground for a long time in confusion, "Then where did all this water come from?"
She scratched her head and poked the yellow hair: "Ask your audience."
Huang Mao pulled up the screen and looked at it for a long time: "Sister Xiao Tang, they don't know either."
[Where are the fish?] Jin Ling shook her screen.
"They said..." Huang Mao summarized in his own words, "N Port was not like this before."
The stagnant water on the ground, the fish that were quickly rotting, and the lingering strong smell of sea water in the air were all things that had never existed in N Port before.
"So something must have happened here, right..." Xiao Tang kicked the bottle caps on the road as he walked. "It's not a tsunami or a tornado. It can't be any natural disaster that would destroy buildings on the ground. It can't be seawater backflow. It can't be that someone really connected a pipe to pump water from the sea and pour it on the ground? What's the purpose?"
"Maybe it's to complete a step in triggering the S-level monster?" This is the only possibility, "Just like when we started a fight in the City of Violence in order to trigger the S-level monster talk."
"Yue... Fortunately, I didn't eat much before coming here," Xiao Tang shrugged, unable to suppress his nausea, and couldn't help but retching again, "Okay, okay... Compared to us provoking a war in the City of Violence, this step of filling the entire Raging Port with the lingering smell of dead fish is really too unenvironmentally friendly..."
"□□. Burning zero-dollar shopping is not very environmentally friendly," Bai Jinshu said, "If you tell this to any big or small boss in the violent city, you will be beaten to death."
Xiao Tang stuck out his tongue, jumped forward a few steps, and passed a dead fish with eyes wide open on the ground: "Hey, has the person in front arrived home?"
She was referring to the fisherman everyone had been following.
Everyone looked forward, and sure enough, the fisherman had put down the bag on his shoulder and walked into a street shop with a wooden face.
"We are home now," Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes, "Let's go."
The fisherman walked into a shop on the street. Behind the shop was a small courtyard, which seemed to be a residential area.
This shop is actually a room separated from the house. The wall facing the street was demolished and decorated to look like a shop.
As everyone got closer, the fishy smell around became stronger again, and more and more people came.
"These people are like zombies," Xiao Tang complained after trying to strike up a conversation a few times. "They all have frozen faces and won't respond to questions. It's impossible to communicate with them."
"Sister Xiao Tang," Huang Mao covered his nose in pain, "Don't you feel sick?"
"Ah?" Xiao Tang was stunned for a moment before realizing that he was talking about not covering his nose to breathe, "I'm used to it."
Jin Ling's eyes widened beside her.
It's really the survival of the fittest...
Xiao Tang's ability to adapt to the environment is a little too strong.
This looks like a fishermen's settlement. Everyone's clothes look extremely similar, with the only difference being the color.
Every household and every shop seemed to be selling seafood. The dead fish on the shelves were no different from the dead fish on the street and the bag of fish on the shoulders of the fisherman that had gone from life to death and then to decay. However, among these dead fish, some shops had fish that were placed in basins and glass tanks to receive oxygen, just like in the seafood market.
Xiao Tang tried to strike up a conversation but got no response. When he wasn't paying attention, he saw Bai Jinshu squatting in front of a store.
The shelves on both sides of this store are filled with dead fish in various states of death.
It was the first time that Xiao Tang knew that fish could rot into such strange shapes.
Ersi squatted in front of the basin of fish that was rarely still alive and said something to the owner. Suddenly, the owner seemed to understand what he said and turned around to take out a net bag from the shop.
"How did you do that?" Xiao Tang ran over, his face full of disbelief, "Master Er, you've got a miraculous hand!"
Bai Jin said: "I said I want to buy fish."
He pointed at the fish in front of him and said, "Ask him to pick out a few with fewer bones and more meat for me."
There are many kinds of fish swimming in the basin.
The glass tank is very large. Perhaps the owner is not worried or does not care that the fish will eat each other, so all the fish are in one tank with a device hanging next to it that should be used for oxygenation.
After seeing so many rotten fish, Xiao Tang felt like he had seen a relative when he saw a live fish. He put a finger in the fish and teased it for a long time before he said contentedly, "You should have told me earlier. If you had told me earlier that you wanted to buy fish, I could have started a conversation. Why did I take so long to inquire?"
The boss took out a net bag that looked like it was used to catch fish from the house, skillfully fished out a few fish from the water tank, and quoted a price.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to communicate, Xiao Tang asked several questions in succession, such as why there was water on the street, why the fish rotted so quickly, and can't you smell the stench?
The shop owner’s answer was always, “I don’t know.”
On topics not related to the transaction, he returned to his numb expression.
Bai Jinshu saw that the conversation was almost over, so he quickly started to talk and said, "Boss, do you provide door-to-door delivery?"
"Home delivery?" The boss glanced at the back of the yard and muttered, "Before... before, we delivered it, but now I can't leave the store. If it's far, we won't deliver it. What's your address?"
"Near the Raging Waves Harbor subway station." Bai Jinshu blinked.
"That's not far," the boss threw the net next to the water tank very straightforwardly, "I'll take you there directly."
The boss's car was a truck with only two seats. Bai Jinshu sat in the passenger seat, and the others sat in the open cargo box at the back.
On topics related to the transaction, the boss has remained silent and ignorant.
Bai Jinshu tried to get information from various angles, but failed to get anything out of him. The only information he got was that there had been no sellers recently and all the fishermen who made their living from the sea had not opened for business for a long time.
This is expected.
Xu Zichen caused a big disturbance in Port N, and all the teams were eager to leave, fearing that they would be the next to be killed by the Gu King.
The fact that he didn't attack the indigenous people here means that the problem is most likely with the newcomers.
Bai Jinshu went over this information in his mind. The driver stopped the car on the side of the road and said, "Okay, this is the subway station. Get off."
When everyone stood by the roadside, the truck drove away again, leaving only a back view.
After leaving the fishermen's community, there was no one in sight.
There was still a salty and fishy smell on the ground. I didn't know if it was because we were close to the city center, but there were fewer dead fish and the air smelled much better.
This is another completely different kind of deserted place.
Probably because of the rumors about the Gu King, no other teams dared to come and gamble their lives near the subway station, and there was no one nearby. However, this place was a completely different kind of deserted place, completely different from the violent city in the nightmare and the city of the dead in the strange space.
It was probably only a few days that this city went from being bustling with people to being deserted, and it still retains many traces of life, like a city abandoned by humans.
Bai Jinshu was worried that the fish would turn into a smelly nuclear bomb in their hands within a few minutes, so he asked the boss to put a lot of water in the bag and add oxygen.
Xiao Tang was in a good mood, carrying the bag of fish and walking towards the subway station. Huang Mao was very worried behind her: "Why are we carrying this fish? Are we going to grill it and eat it?"
Xiao Tang was in front, holding the bag, and said in a dark tone, "It's a murder weapon."
"When we find a refrigerator, we can put these fish in and freeze them," she gestured, "and then when they are frozen, we can smash them at people. If there is no surveillance, just looking at the scars, Approaching Science needs to be a Level 4 film, and Conan needs at least a theatrical version."
Huang Mao felt a chill and said, "I don't think it's necessary to go through so much trouble..."
Isn’t the last sociopath who killed his way through the Port of Raging Waves still at large, being avoided by a group of team leaders?
Bai Jinshu walked behind the crowd, staring thoughtfully at the water-stained floor and walls.
"What's going on?" Xiao Tang felt that he didn't move, so he turned around and asked.
"Water stains," Bai Jinshu touched his chin and continued walking down, "seawater has flowed back into the subway station."
The entire subway station was filled with a strong and startling salty smell. The further down you went, the more obvious the familiar stench became.
Xiao Tang was walking in front and already had a bad feeling: "The subway station was flooded with seawater. The fish..."
No wonder there are so few dead fish on the ground outside.
Without her saying anything, others also sensed something was wrong.
The smell is too strong.
Xiao Tang looked fine, but Huang Mao was about to faint.
Bai Jinshu held his breath, covered his nose with his sleeve, and turned the last corner.
"Oh my god..." Xiao Tang sighed behind him, "...I feel like I saw my breasts."
The subway station was littered with dead fish.
"It's so scary. I have reason to suspect that there was a team coming at the beginning, but they fainted in the car before they even came out of the subway station..." Xiao Tang twitched his mouth, and he didn't know where to start. "Help, can we wait for Brother Yuan upstairs? I feel like if I stay here any longer, my grandmother will come to pick me up."
The golden bell insect was restlessly moving in his sleeves.
Bai Jinshu also wanted to leave.
But a bit of professional ethics made him look around the entire subway station.
"Wait a minute," his gaze lingered in the distance, "what is that?"
"What is what? Brother, let's go quickly..." Xiao Tang looked over in despair.
"Isn't that just a big screen in an aquarium?" she said casually. "This is a coastal city, so it's normal to dig a glass near the seabed to create an underwater landscape, right?"
"I'll go take a look." Bai Jinshu rolled up his trouser legs and actually walked towards the underwater landscape.
"Ah?" Xiao Tang's eyes went dark. "No way, brother, have you never seen an aquarium? I'll treat you to a visit after we get out, please. I have an annual pass for the Pingjing Aquarium..."
She watched Bai Jinshu walk over, gritted her teeth, told Huangmao to stay where he was and not move, and followed him: "What do you want to see?"
"Under the sea," Bai Jinshuo walked in front. The smell of dead fish was too strong. He felt dizzy and didn't want to talk. "The seawater is backflowing. Something might happen to the seabed."
"Fuck..." Xiao Tang probably stepped on something and cursed, "What could go wrong with the seabed if the seawater backflows? It can't be that the seabed crust rose and then fell, right? Then you can't see anything here. The crust on the coast of the ocean is the continental shelf. The boss said before that the foundation of Port N is stable, but you can't see anything from here."
She always said that she was not good at geography, but she was very familiar with professional terms.
"Not that one." Bai Jinshu walked in front, trekking through mountains and rivers, and finally arrived in front of this huge glass.
The glass is unexpectedly tall, probably as high as several floors.
No wonder the subway station is so deep.
In front of such high glass, people seem extremely small.
Under the lights of the subway station, the windows of this area that emerged from the seabed all emitted a faint blue fluorescence. Probably for the sake of viewing, this area of sea was lit during construction.
"Then what are you looking at..." Xiao Tang followed over painfully, holding up her skirt, and suddenly stopped talking.
"What is this?" she asked in a strange tone.
"Fish." Bai Jinshu stretched out a finger and circled it in front of the glass. Inside the glass, a fish with sharp teeth suddenly rushed up.
The glass didn't move at all, and the fish was dizzy and turned over uncontrollably in the water.
Its eyes are blood red.
Xiao Tang was dumbfounded. He looked at the window, then opened the bag in his hand and looked inside.
The fish she bought from the fisherman in the black bag were still alive and kicking, wagging their tails. She had even put her fingers into the water to tease them a dozen minutes ago.
"Is that a fish?" She asked incredulously, "If that's a fish, what is this?"
Aren’t they all salvaged from the sea?
Why is there such a big difference?
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A strange light flashed in the fish's eyes (x)
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