Chapter 426

Chapter 426: The Fishing Sage

On January 25 of the New Era 9, a winter-sleeping awakener on vacation went missing while fishing on the eastern city wall at sea.

As natives of the spaceship, these awakened beings did not hold the same status as the council members with supreme authority, but they were certainly not comparable to the matured humans.

Therefore, when an awakener identified himself during his vacation and requested permission to fish on part of the city wall at sea, no one dared to stop him.

An hour later, the man scolded two soldiers who insisted on providing protection, claiming they would disturb the possibly existing sea fish. The two soldiers did not dare to hesitate and quickly disappeared from the fisherman’s view.

No one knew why a human elite from the home planet was so obsessed with catching possibly existing alien creatures in the sea of another planet using simple meat bait.

Perhaps nearly a decade of peace had dulled his instinctual thinking ability, or he simply wanted to relieve his worries through this method.

In any case, that remark to the soldiers to get lost was the last thing he left behind in this world.

The next day, patrolling soldiers along the city wall at sea saw an empty small stool and a fishing rod floating on the distant sea surface.

Seeing this, Arthur frowned slightly; sure enough, no matter which world it was, fishermen would always remain abstract.

It was uncertain what this unnamed man, who was not recorded, truly gained by sacrificing his life to fish.

This incident garnered some attention, but overall, not many knew about it.

On the side of the spire, they were not pleased to see such negative news become known to so many people.

Thus, secret salvage and search operations began.

Two months later, people found nothing except for some torn pieces of clothing.

Due to this man’s sacrifice, humanity gained new information.

The Sea on this planet was not lifeless; at least some aquatic creatures resembling those that appeared during the early evolutionary stages of species on the home planet existed.

The only question was, why did this body of water near Hope City rarely show the presence of creatures that could be called "fish"?

No one knew, and it seemed they had little interest in further exploration.

Shortly after this incident, humanity’s only enemy in the coming decades—the extraordinary beasts—began their attacks on Hope City.

In fact, the higher-ups had a simple thought: no matter how powerful the creatures in the sea were, they couldn’t crawl ashore to bite humans.

But if attacks from the extraordinary beasts on land could not be defended against, everyone would have to jump into the sea to feed the fish.

Thus, all research and focus shifted to land, to those extraordinary beasts that were continually learning and evolving.

Meanwhile, the creatures in the sea were naturally categorized as extraordinary beasts.

For the following decades, the Sea remained mostly quiet, and the tidal power plants in the outer city still operated steadily.

However, every few years or decades, whenever the extraordinary beasts made significant moves, there would be some unrest in the sea.

Humans on the shore formed a complete set of countermeasures, using charged weapons from the spire to repel and even kill those sea monsters, without needing to dispatch too many troops.

The connection between the sea and land further convinced most people that the creatures in the sea were undoubtedly extraordinary beasts.

Upon reading this, Lin Qingliu discovered a blind spot:

All the information he was currently reading came from past records.

And in the intelligence previously held by humanity, extraordinary beasts had always been the greatest enemy, while their understanding of mycelium was severely lacking.

It was also reasonable to categorize the fish in the sea as animals and discuss them together with those creatures on land, and the professionals in the research institutes could hardly pinpoint any problems.

But now, as Lin Qingliu had officially revealed the existence of mycelium, these alien creatures, the status and situation of the Sea had become somewhat peculiar.

If the previous conclusions were accurate, suggesting that the creatures in the Sea also belonged to extraordinary beasts, it would imply that mycelium had already adapted to the high salinity of seawater, thriving and producing corresponding types of extraordinary beasts.

However, this hypothesis was entirely implausible.

Given the intelligence level of the will of the mycelium, if it truly could achieve such a feat, Lin Qingliu was certain it would orchestrate a beast tide from the Sea, catching humanity off guard, and possibly even create extraordinary beasts capable of floating or swimming, deploying them like a marine corps to the relatively vulnerable Eastern defenses.

Yet, it had not done so.

Could this mean that the Sea was a domain beyond the reach of the mycelium?

But if this assumption held true, why did the ocean also churn when a large beast tide erupted on land?

Lin Qingliu felt he had pinpointed the crux of the issue.

He continued to peruse the documents for a while longer and ultimately confirmed that Hope City harbored a misunderstanding regarding the Sea.

As for the nature of this misunderstanding?

He would have to investigate it himself.

“Infinite Scroll.”

“I’m here.”

“Are there any fishing rods in the spire’s warehouse?”

“……”

On the other end, “Infinite Scroll” fell into a brief silence.

“The warehouse records indicate that there are currently twenty types of fishing rods from the home planet of the Old Era in stock. What style do you require?”

“The same style as the one used by the missing person in New Era 9.”

With a smile, Lin Qingliu in Arthur’s state said:

“I want to replicate the classic operation of this senior from back then.”

“Understood, materials have been retrieved for you. Do you need any additional items?”

“No, I have everything else.”

—

In the eastern district of Hope City, at the city wall at sea.

Although this place was typically deserted, with even extraordinary beasts avoiding this direction for attacks, Lin Qingliu discovered that the walls here were constructed with substantial materials.

Perhaps this was due to the need to support more firepower equipment, as the city wall here had undergone special treatments not found in many other places.

However, this was irrelevant to Lin Qingliu’s current task.

He casually altered his appearance, donned the spire’s uniform, passed through the sentry, and arrived at the farthest point of the wall from the shore. There, he began to set up his fishing rod on the ground.

Soon, Lin Qingliu leaned against the rail cannon behind him, using a small knife to cut a small piece of meat from his arm to hang on the fishing hook. With a forceful cast, he sent the hook with the luminescent fish float far out into the water.

A Fifth Level warrior using his own flesh and blood as bait—what greater fortune could there be? Let alone tasting it, just the scent…

However, to be cautious, Lin Qingliu had already erased all genetic information from the flesh when preparing the bait, making it a piece that looked appealing, had high nutritional value, and was otherwise no different from normal bait.

As the sky darkened, Lin Qingliu, leaning against the rail cannon, perked up and began to prepare to reel in the line.