Chapter 273 Naval Offensive and Defensive Warfare (Exclusively Published on Jinjiang Literature City)
Inside a clinic built from a giant mobile modular unit in the working-class district of the capital city on the western continent.
Every hospital bed was filled with people lying or sitting. Those who couldn't sit on the beds had to stand, and without exception, all of them were covered in wounds.
Lu Xuan stood at the doorway, watching the incessant wailing from inside the clinic, his expression unchanged.
However, the viewers in the live stream found it hard to watch.
This is so tragic.
I saw several people missing limbs; the wounds hadn't been properly treated, and it looked like they'd been bitten off alive. Huh!
The others weren't much better off; they were covered in bite wounds, their flesh mangled and bloody.
Huo Tiankuo, who was standing next to Lu Xuan, said in a deep voice, "Those fish in the sea have gone crazy for some reason. Many people who went out to sea today were attacked."
Besides being bitten by schools of fish with sharp teeth, some people were unlucky enough to encounter large, aggressive fish such as swordfish and marlin and get stabbed through, while others encountered sharks and had several pieces of flesh bitten off.
This is considered good.
Even worse, some were devoured by multiple sharks and did not return alive. When Huo's army went out to search after receiving the news, they only managed to find some wreckage of boats or kayaks.
Huo Tiankuo took Lu Xuan to the area where the less seriously injured patients were being treated and showed him their injuries.
These patients didn't have any flesh bitten off; they were just covered in small bruises that, at first glance, looked like hickeys, creating an ambiguous impression.
But in reality, these are all from the mouths of ordinary fish that don't even have teeth.
Each person has at least several hundred marks on their body; in other words, it's as if several hundred fish were stuck to their bodies and desperately biting, causing the injuries they have now.
ambiguous?
It's clearly terrifying.
The viewers in the live stream, who were about to make a joke, felt their hair stand on end.
The pink atmosphere instantly turned eerie.
Even ordinary fish that are not aggressive have gone mad; they don't look like they're in a normal state at all.
Lu Xuan asked, "Did this just happen today?"
Huo Tiankuo was about to nod when he hesitated for a moment.
“In the past, some disaster victims who went out to sea would encounter accidents and not be able to return. Some, like the young master of the Bai family, had their boats or inflatable platforms damaged. Others encountered storms and capsized without communication devices to call for help. But I cannot guarantee that there were no cases of accidents caused by encountering raging schools of fish. But the large-scale accident is indeed today.”
Tens of thousands of people go out to sea every day, and today nearly one-fifth of them are involved in accidents, with several hundred not returning.
For now, we have enough medication, but who can guarantee that this kind of accident will only happen for one day?
Huo Tiankuo's face was somber. "After learning of this news, the court discussed it and came up with a conjecture: are these fish the same as the previous frenzied beasts?"
Upon hearing the words "beast attack," Lu Xuan subconsciously looked up at the sky.
Of course, there's no blood moon during the day; as for the night, we'll have to wait until it gets dark to find out.
However, no one can guarantee that the frenzy of beasts or fish is always due to a blood moon.
Huo Tiankuo said, "If the fish in the sea continue to go berserk, the amount of medicine needed will definitely increase exponentially, and the treatment equipment will not be enough."
Lu Xuan nodded knowingly and said, "Just tell me how much you want. We have as much as you need."
[Judging from General Huo's words, do they not intend to prevent the disaster victims from going to sea?]
[How can we stop it? Will stopping it even work? Are we just going to give up on life? Are we going to stop eating?]
The main sources of supplies for the remaining survivors in the Western Continent, besides helping build city walls and working in greenhouses, are fishing or catching fish at sea. Preventing them from going to sea is, to put it bluntly, cutting off their means of survival.
Even if they forcefully organize people to go to sea, it's inevitable that some people will secretly go out to sea when their families run out of food.
Why not just distribute relief grain? Didn't Liu Wenchi in Luochuan do just that?
[If Prefect Liu hadn't met the streamer and given up, who knows how long this fish frenzy would have lasted?]
[Besides, can the current population compare to that of Luochuan? Even if the harvest from the greenhouses is plentiful, it can't feed millions of people.]
[Besides, aren't there still people who haven't been attacked? This proves that not all fish are going berserk; it's probabilistic, and many more people are just hoping to get away with it.]
[It's better to guide than to block. Instead of preventing people from going to sea, we should find ways to defend against attacks while continuing to catch fish to fill their stomachs.]
That night, Lu Xuan stayed in the capital, waiting for the blood moon to appear with the new emperor, Huo Tiankuo, and others.
Other groups of survivors were also attacked and were paying close attention to changes in the sky.
However, until late at night, the moonlight remained no different from usual.
After a moment's thought, Lu Xuan invited Huo Tiankuo to go for a spin at sea to check if the fish were still behaving wildly.
As expected, not far from land, they could clearly see, by the moonlight and night vision goggles, schools of fish leaping wildly across the sea.
These fish look like they're drunk and acting crazy.
[The blood moon didn't appear, but the fish went berserk... So, could this be considered a new type of 'beast attack'?]
[The Western Continent isn't without living animals; haven't you heard that the beastmen in the capital have gone mad? So X can indeed be considered a new type of beast attack.]
[It's also possible that the disaster has escalated, because the sea now covers a larger area, so the disaster has shifted from land to sea.]
The fish became noticeably more frenzied after detecting the presence of living people.
Unfortunately, Huo Tiankuo was on a hoverboard, and Lu Xuan had spread out huge blue wings and hovered high in the sky, so no matter how wildly the fish went, they couldn't touch the hem of his clothes.
The two did not linger at sea before returning to shore and recounting what they had seen to others.
Lu Xuan said to the new emperor in front of him, as well as Liu Wenchi, Ye Feiluan and others who were in contact through the communicator, "The fish can't fly too high. As long as we do a good job in rescue and prepare more hoverboards, we should be able to minimize casualties."
The new emperor meant the same thing.
Therefore, in addition to medicines and treatment equipment, towns and cities in the western continent, led by the capital, also purchased a large number of hoverboards, hover buses, and communication devices.
Given that not all disaster victims can afford or are willing to buy skateboards and communication devices, towns are preparing to rent these two items out to disaster victims who have gone overseas.
If they encounter danger, the victims can abandon their boats, take to the air for refuge, and call for help.
The hoverbus allows the capital's guards, the Huo family army, and young men from various towns to form rescue teams that patrol different sea areas. Upon receiving a distress call, they immediately go to rescue the person and bring them back.
In this way, the safety of those going to sea can be protected to the greatest extent.
To avoid further losses, the news was announced in various towns early the next morning.
Most people have heard about the tragic situation of those who went to sea yesterday, or more accurately, the plight of some of them.
Some people returned safely from fishing, but they were also afraid that they would follow in the footsteps of others next time, and there was a great deal of anxiety among them.
Upon seeing the notice posted above, the people immediately became excited.
"I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go out to sea anymore. With the hoverboard, I can also call for help from the rescue team. Now I'm not afraid of not being able to come back."
"However, just in case, it's best to bring a couple of knives for self-defense when you go out to sea. Only ask for help if you really can't hold on any longer. After all, we go out to sea to make a living. It would be a huge loss if we came back empty-handed."
"If that's the case, it's better to just hope we don't encounter a school of fish that's gone berserk."
"No matter what, it's good that the higher-ups are willing to rent us skateboards and have even prepared rescue personnel. At least they've given us a way to survive."
The people were relieved and grateful for the court's timely response, but some timid ones shook their heads and said, "It's better to be safe than sorry. In the past, beast attacks could last for a month or two. This time might be the same. If several groups of people are attacked at the same time, the rescuers may not be able to save them in time."
If you arrive too late, you could lose your life.
“My family had stockpiled a lot of nutritional supplements, and we also dried a lot of the fish we caught into salted fish, which is enough to last for a while. We will not go out to sea until the fish population returns to normal.”
There are quite a few people like this. Call them cautious or cowardly, but they are all trying to survive.
However, many families have large members and high expenses, and they don't have enough supplies. Even though they know that safety cannot be guaranteed, they still have no choice but to grit their teeth and continue to go to sea.
Others thought they should wait and see for a few days.
As a result of the observation, the preparations made above were indeed quite comprehensive. Although casualties were still unavoidable in the next few days of sailing, the overall number had returned to a level similar to that of the past.
Although the number of people going to sea has plummeted from tens of thousands to less than half, the number of people involved in accidents has also decreased to only three or five ships, totaling no more than a few dozen people.
Most of those attacked by the fish received timely rescue, but the people on one boat, hoping for the best, only rented a communication device and not a skateboard, which prevented them from being rescued.
Some of those who simply encountered storms and capsized were also brought back safely.
With such remarkable results, people who were seeing their food reserves running out could no longer wait.
Even with a one percent chance of something going wrong, they all felt they wouldn't be so unlucky as to be the ones to experience it.
Even if they unfortunately die at sea, the authorities have prepared corresponding subsidy policies for the families of these disaster victims, including material subsidies and priority assistance in finding work.
For several days, the fish continued to rage, but the number of casualties remained at a stable level.
The number of people going to sea has gradually returned to normal levels.
However, this period of stability lasted only ten days before new problems arose.
Following the schools of fish, the seabirds also started to go crazy.
The survivors, who had relied on hoverboards for protection, were tragically attacked again before the rescue team arrived.
Although skateboards can keep them from falling into the sea, it's inevitable that they'll get pecked by seabirds.
When someone is initially startled and loses control of their fall, if there happens to be a school of fish below, or even fish that can fly out of the water, they are more likely to be bitten to death or lose consciousness due to excessive blood loss and be unable to continue controlling the skateboard, ultimately falling into the sea.
When the rescue team arrived, all they could see was the shattered skateboard and a patch of blood-red blood that hadn't completely faded in the seawater.
When the news reached the shore, not only were the new emperor and his ministers deeply saddened, but Ye Feiluan, Chen Bing, and others couldn't help but curse.
"Damn it, God! He's not giving anyone a chance to survive!"
"What's wrong with these bird-like beasts?! Do they think human flesh tastes that good?! Or do they think we're easy to bully?!"
Worse still, unlike schools of fish which can only operate at sea, seabirds can not only attack from the sea, but also fly to land and attack people who have not gone out to sea.
The range of beast attacks expanded directly to the entire continent.
The superhumans and able-bodied men in each town could only try to stop and fight back as they had done during the beast attack, while the disaster victims who were unable to fight were advised to avoid going out as much as possible.
All hoverboards on the sea have been phased out, and more hover buses have been added instead.
At least the bus is sturdy enough to withstand an attack from a crazed seabird.
Enraged, the leaders also dispatched an attack team led by superhumans to turn defense into offense and eliminate the discovered schools of crazed fish and birds.
As the number of people going insane decreases, the probability of disaster victims, whether on land or at sea, being attacked will naturally decrease.
At the same time, let's look at Yunlu Village again.
While the fish were running rampant, the villagers were still comfortably escaping the summer heat on the island.
After the greenhouse harvest was completed, the days consisted of nothing more than training the young and strong, the women doing housework or visiting each other, the children going to school, and wandering around the island. It could be said that they lived a very carefree and leisurely life.
Later, after learning of the emergency at sea, it turned out that this year's extreme heat was divided into two phases, with the first peak ending in mid-June and the temperature dropping back to around 50 degrees Celsius.
Unlike the fearful disaster victims, the young men of the hunting team were in high spirits and took the initiative to go out to sea to confront the crazed fish and birds head-on.
In Xiong Mao's words—
"If they come in a group, we'll kill them all; if they come in two groups, we'll kill them both. What's there to be afraid of! Let's just do it!"
This wasn't just empty talk; when they actually encountered the mad fish, Xiong Mao and the others did exactly that.
Before the fish even got close to the ship, the superhumans launched fireballs, water arrows, earth spikes, cactus needles, and hemp vines at the fish.
Those without superpowers can use energy guns, tranquilizer guns, or any heat-based weapon they are comfortable with to attack; the efficiency is equally astonishing.
If you're unlucky enough to encounter a school of swordfish or sharks that are inherently aggressive, and you don't have time to kill all the large fish that approach, you should change positions, store the ship in space, and start aerial combat.
They encountered a flock of birds on the way, so they simply threw out a hypnotic dart. The birds fell into the water like rain and became fish food.
Viewers in the live stream couldn't help but tease him:
[It used to be seabirds eating fish, but now it's the other way around; schools of fish are getting to eat them too. What goes around comes around.]
[Rebellion against the Heavenly Generals!]
[In the end, we'll all become prey for the streamer and the villagers anyway, so it doesn't matter if you eat me or I eat you :)]
Even if there are occasional attacks that are too numerous for everyone to handle, there is no need to worry. The city's protective shield can be activated, or Lu Xuan can take action personally.
Several bolts of lightning struck the sea, instantly paralyzing the fish within a radius of hundreds of meters, rendering them helpless and allowing them to be slaughtered, all becoming the spoils of the hunting team.
Of course, if you walk the dark road too often, you're bound to encounter ghosts.
After the hunting party had been at sea for more than ten days and was getting better and better at hunting, several enormous tentacles suddenly burst out of the water and attacked the fishing boat carrying the hunting party.
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Author's Note: Reader "Yan" donated +1 nutrient solution on 2025-07-22 20:29:59
Reader "SUN" irrigated with nutrient solution +10
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