I am your natural enemy.

Chapter 539: The End of Shipping, Hiring (5k)

A few days later, a fire broke out in one of Robin's biological laboratories. The person in charge, who was not inside at the time, sealed all the exits to prevent the contents from spreading, and allowed the fire to burn the inside cleanly, purifying everything.

This biological laboratory had just received some biological samples from the extinction town a few days ago and had just found out something when the fire broke out.

The news was so insignificant that only a local newspaper published a brief report that did not mention any casualties at all.

The owner of Torredo was very perceptive. Before getting the sample, he sold some of his assets in Robin, leaving only some in Maple Leaf Country.

However, just as we got the samples, we heard the next day that the "friend" who had given intelligence to many people and may have given samples to several people was robbed on the road, and the robber's gun went off accidentally, hitting him in the head.

The samples were sealed and taken on board, and then transported from the sea to the Maple Leaf Country, and then from the eastern part of the Maple Leaf Country to Europe. After a long journey, it took more than ten days to finally arrive at the port of Nanhai County.

After the goods arrived at the port, they passed the normal customs, but failed to pass the customs of the Lieyang Tribe because there was a prohibited item inside, so the container was sealed and taken away.

After being transported from Nanhai County to Nanwu County for two days, a sealed metal box finally fell into the hands of the Lieyang Tribe of Nanwu County.

Wen Yan also received news from the little bat at the same time. Their clan leader was also very powerful and well versed in the rules of the game over there. He not only got some intelligence, but also a sample.

In order to prevent people from knowing, he also specially put some prohibited items outside, which would definitely be stopped by the Lieyang Customs if they were discovered.

Once it falls into the hands of the Lieyang Tribe, it is equivalent to falling into the hands of Wen Yan.

Wen Yan did not take over because Nanhai County could not handle the contraband. The normal processing procedure was not to open the box and send it to Nanwu County for processing.

Feng Yao got the news from Wen Yan and naturally knew what was going on.

The contraband was naturally destroyed according to normal procedures and specific methods, but the sample that Wen Yan wanted was kept quietly.

In half a month, a special layer in the underground beehive was built into a laboratory.

In order to distinguish them from the people in the aerospace department on the lower level and to prevent them from communicating with each other, a new passage was specially opened in Guihai Building.

The equipment needed was not very expensive, they were all simple things, and the main thing was that the equipment Bourne needed was not expensive.

Born doesn't know how to use those equipments which cost tens of millions of dollars, and his research direction is also different from general scientific research.

The samples were unsealed in the Lieyang Tribe of Nanwu County. Part of them was left to Feng Yao, who was asked to deliver them there, and part of them was left to Wen Yan.

Originally, Feng Yao didn't want to leave it to Wen Yan at all, as this thing was too dangerous.

Finally, I heard that the laboratory level of the underground hive was completely isolated from the other levels, with separate entrances, all several kilometers northeast of Decheng.

Moreover, the people doing the research were not living people, but undead. Feng Yao was speechless.

Guihai Yidong formed a construction team of one person, and Wen Yan almost worked them all out. In just over ten days, they managed to build a tunnel several kilometers long.

The materials used are also the materials used in the previous tunnel construction.

No wonder I heard that people in the design institute complained about the plummeting income throughout last year, but suddenly shut up at the end of the year and even received a year-end bonus during the Chinese New Year.

In Guihai, one person is responsible for one construction team at a time, and the efficiency is incredibly high. The unit that makes prefabricated parts hauls concrete in truckloads every day without stopping, and they take as many truckloads as they can.

The time spent on construction is less than that spent on design, surveying, planning, etc. Those people always have work to do, and this work is even easier than all previous projects. They are not grinning from ear to ear.

Wen Yan was very self-aware and did not have any contact with anyone during the entire process. None of the people he came into contact with were alive, not even a corpse.

Born was very happy. He had a laboratory on one floor all to himself. The space was very spacious and could be expanded later. Everything he wanted was prepared there.

After getting the sample, he began to study it and gave a preliminary conclusion on the same day.

“Boss, this thing does have traces of necromancy, it should be a plague ritual, and it’s not much different from the previous ones.

But I have never seen anything that carries such power. It should be those viruses that are difficult to see with the naked eye.

The person who casts the spell is too eager for quick success and this thing will quickly destroy the person's vitality.

It is unlikely to spread too far if you don’t take care of it. If it is in a sparsely populated area, it is basically impossible to spread.”

"Transportation is very developed nowadays, and it is common to travel thousands of miles a day." Wen Yan reminded.

“That’s a bit dangerous, but the power of this thing, once it comes into contact with a living being, its potential will be exhausted within a day.

If the infected person is an ordinary person, his vitality will be destroyed within a day.

The power in the sample has been basically exhausted, only a few remnants remain, and it poses little threat. "

Born was afraid that Wen Yan might not understand, so he explained it in detail.

Basically, there is some kind of virus in the sample, but the virus itself is actually ordinary. When combined with plague magic, it can burst out with extremely strong lethality.

The power of plague magic is roughly equal to the blue bar of the virus. Once the blue bar is exhausted, both transmission and lethality will cease.

And this power can only be spread within one day. Within one day, the power will be exhausted and can no longer be spread.

All the strength is focused on causing death, seeking to unleash the strongest power in the shortest possible time and exhaust a person's vitality.

On the other hand, the samples sent by Feng Yao also underwent inspection and research.

Combining the actual situation in the intelligence, the conclusion we have come to is that this thing is similar to some so-called super viruses.

Basically, it is particularly strong in certain aspects, such as resistance to a certain drug. In fact, in a normal environment, it can't beat the most ordinary competitors at all.

Or it may be very troublesome under certain conditions. For example, athlete's foot fungus is a specific evolution for specific situations. If it is released into the wild to fight against other fungi, it will really be no match for them. That's why people used to say that athlete's foot can be cured by walking barefoot in the fields. This method may not be completely reliable, but it does make sense.

The two sides reached the same conclusion through different methods.

The news was summarized in the hands of the director of headquarters. He looked at it in a complementary way. With the professional opinions of both sides, he naturally understood what was going on.

This should be an experimental accident, and this thing is indeed a big threat.

After all, plague is something that is really difficult to prevent, especially when there is frequent exchange of people around the world and huge amounts of goods enter and leave ports every day.

But just three days, just after the first month of the lunar year, on February 2, several explosive news appeared.

On a route from Kangaroo Country to Robin, four container ships and three large bulk carriers all sank within two days.

On the northern ocean route, six cargo ships departing from the island country or from the west coast to the island country all sank.

Two bulk carriers carrying more than 300,000 tons of iron ore and coal also sank on their way to China.

In addition to the cargo ships sailing within the near-shore area, eighteen cargo ships sank in the largest ocean alone in just two days.

The giant beast in the sea has entered its period of explosive growth.

Of course Robin couldn't stand it, so the fleet went over that day, and then, on the same day, they performed a sea drift and ran away at high speed.

Before they reached the place, a giant beast that had never appeared before appeared. It quickly emerged from the bottom of the sea and roared at a warship. The huge sound wave killed most of the crew on the ship on the spot.

A few days ago, a cargo ship was stuck in the Grand Canal. Compared with what is happening now, the damage caused was just a drop in the bucket.

In the headquarters of the Lieyang Tribe, a group of people were holding a meeting. This time, not only people from the Lieyang Tribe were there, but also people from the Navy and leaders of some related departments.

On the big screen in the conference room, there was a map marking the locations of various giant beasts that appeared in the ocean.

Three also appeared in the South China Sea, but they did not cause any major damage.

One of the giant beasts did not approach the offshore area, while the other sank the ship driven by the water ghost, and then fought with the angry water ghost in the sea for three hundred rounds. Finally, the giant beast was injured and escaped.

Another one was scared away by the Dahlia. The corpse of the giant beast tied to the Dahlia served as the Dahlia's food. That giant beast had a strong deterrent effect on other giant beasts.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the result of integrating the latest news.

According to the current results, all large ships that leave the coastline more than 200 nautical miles are in danger.

The bigger the ship, the more dangerous it is.

On the contrary, these giant beasts seem to have little interest in small fishing boats."

As he spoke, some close-up photos and videos appeared on the screen. They were all taken by fishermen in the South China Sea. Some of them were probably less than a thousand meters away from the giant beast.

When the giant beast passed by, the waves it created were enough to overturn the small fishing boats.

The head of the headquarters had a gloomy face and watched quietly, then looked at some documents prepared by the chief secretary, which contained some research, or speculation.

I opened it and took a look, and saw something saying that those giant beasts were too big, and their nerve conduction speed would be very slow, so they would appear to be slow to react, clumsy in movement, etc...

But after looking up and watching the video again, it was obvious that this conclusion was not quite right.

Creatures that are too large can only exist in the ocean. At present, this is basically correct. The giant beasts that are dozens of meters long or even hundreds of meters long and appear in the world are basically in the ocean.

Some of the characteristics of those giant beasts can be found in some corresponding things, but for most of them, there is actually no corresponding record at all, not even in mythology.

The atmosphere in the conference room was somewhat depressing.

Even though Shenzhou had been preparing and planning land transportation for many years, it was very effective. Not only did it complete the plan, it also increased its influence on the surrounding areas.

However, sea transportation still occupies the absolute majority of foreign trade. As of this year, more than half of imports and exports still rely on sea transportation.

The transportation cost of sea transportation has tripled in the past two years, but it is still low enough to crush land transportation. The costs of the two are not at the same level at all.

If shipping is severely damaged, the subsequent impact will be huge.

We are not afraid of cost increase, as the increase is still within an acceptable range. We are just afraid that we will not be able to transport it at all.

Given the huge throughput of the port each year, it is impossible to escort every ship. Even according to the current situation, escort may not be reliable.

Today's weapons may not be very effective against those sea monsters. Some of them can even become invisible in sonar.

To be honest, it is better to bring a water ghost than to rely on sonar detection. At this time, the water ghost may be able to sense that danger is approaching.

"Can the Dahlia of your Fiery Sun Tribe..." someone asked.

The director immediately knocked on the table.

"You are wrong. That is not the ship of our Fiery Sun Department. By the way, the Dahlia is an outlier. It is just a ship. It does not belong to the Fiery Sun Department. It is just an outlier registered by the Fiery Sun Department."

The director glanced to the side, and the chief secretary immediately retrieved the information and projected it onto the big screen.

It is clearly written in the information that when the Dahlia was registered, it was registered as a different category.

Dahlia's IQ is not particularly high, but she is a big eater.

However, compared with ships of the same tonnage, the food on the Dahlia is just a fraction of the fuel cost.

At present, the Dahlia is not working for the Fiery Sun Tribe, but the two sides have reached a tacit understanding.

We just need to pay a little money to buy some food. The Dahlia is patrolling the sea with a group of sea ghosts, that's all.

Fighting with giant beasts and the like is purely a hunting activity of the Dahlia.

These records are all written very clearly.

As the leader of the department, the director general knows very well how things should be defined.

Some things can be done, but the name on paper must be another way of saying it.

On the one hand, nominally, the Lieyang Tribe must not possess too much power. For example, sometimes when the priority is high, the Lieyang Tribe will just ask people to take action and ask the military for assistance.

Everything that happened in the past is still vivid in his mind. The director-general personally experienced the days when the Lieyang Tribe was almost disbanded, so he knows it best.

On the other hand, while restraining yourself, you must also restrain others. To put it bluntly, you must be on guard against others taking advantage of you.

According to the records, Dahlia is an independently registered outlier and does not belong to Wen Yan.

But when it comes to really getting things done, you have to communicate directly with Wen Yan, ask Wen Yan to discuss and so on.

The matter is still the same matter. The procedure cannot be wrong, and the definition cannot be wrong.

The navy man waved his hands helplessly.

"I mean, can we ask the people from the Fiery Sun Department to help discuss and ask the Dahlia to provide escort? Recently, some of the giant ships are carrying important items, either ore or soybeans.

We are also providing escort, but judging from the current situation, it may be far from enough and may not be safe.

The most important thing is to try and find some sustainable methods under the current environment.”

"So that's it. We just so happen to have the same idea. We also know that shipping must not collapse immediately, as that would bring disastrous consequences."

Everyone is aware of this. If shipping suddenly collapses completely, it will inevitably become a wave of disaster that will sweep across everyone.

The resulting disastrous consequences are much greater than all the impacts from the beginning of the revival of spiritual energy to the present.

The meeting ended in the morning, then in the afternoon, and continued in the evening.

After the meeting, the director returned to his office, opened the map, and asked the chief secretary to mark the main routes.

Looking at some of the marked information about the giant beasts, he sighed.

This is a disaster, but in the eyes of some people, it is actually an opportunity.

In this situation, whoever can maintain the shipping routes will be able to influence the great navigation of the new era.

And so far, the safest method is not fleet escort, but Dahlia escort.

The fleet is actually a bigger target, more likely to attract hatred and attract attacks from behemoths.

Among the known sea monsters, some can create cliffs in the sea, some can be invisible in sonar, and some can kill people with sound waves...

There are all kinds.

It is very difficult to kill them. These things have strong vitality, and some of them can recover on their own even if they have lost limbs.

Most importantly, these guys will learn their lesson.

At first, some giant beasts dared to swallow the torpedoes when they saw them, but they all avoided them later.

If they don't kill each other after the fight, it will only make these giant beasts more vengeful and retaliate crazily.

The Dahlia's escort is safe because the giant beasts nearby will treat it as a stronger member of their species and will actively avoid it.

What they are looking for is how to turn this special case into a replicable method.

Simply taking some of the Dahlia's spoils and hanging them on other ships has been tried before and has proven to be ineffective.

Doing so will actually attract giant beasts, just like fishing.

Only if the Dahlia carries it itself will it be considered by other behemoths as a display of strength and a deterrent to other sea beasts.

The next day, Feng Yao came to Decheng in person and drove his broken car to Wen Yan's house.

"Hey, Minister Feng, why are you here in person?"

"Don't talk nonsense. I have something to talk to you about." Feng Yao sighed.

"What's going on? Is it serious?"

"It's very serious. A sea monster has erupted. In the past four days, 23 cargo ships have sunk in the Eastern Ocean alone.

Although there was no large-scale coverage in the news, everyone who should know knew about it.

Ocean shipping was completely destroyed and no one dared to leave the port.

The most important thing is that among the giant beasts that attacked the giant ship in the past few days, only one died, and he was not beaten to death.

The guy attacked an LNG carrier and bit through the carrier's spherical tank with one bite.

The liquefied natural gas inside, which was more than 100 degrees below zero, suddenly released into its mouth, freezing its mouth there.

In the end, the giant beast was frozen alive into pieces.

We in Shenzhou were also attacked several times, and a ship carrying iron ore also sank."

"Uh, you're looking for me. Are you expecting me to go and kill the sea monster?"

"That's not the case. They want to use the Dahlia as an escort. Those behemoths will avoid the Dahlia. Currently, no ship has sunk in the South China Sea. The Dahlia is wandering around the South China Sea, occupying a large part of the reason. It is probably because those behemoths have tacitly accepted that this is the territory of the Dahlia."

"Okay, I'll go to the South China Sea and talk to those water ghosts to figure out the mission, right?"

"Well, it counts as hiring the Dahlia, including the sailors on it."

"Is it very troublesome?"

"It's very troublesome. Although giant beasts appeared from time to time before, the threat was not that great. But this time the number suddenly exploded. Some of those giant beasts can even hide in sonar detectors."

(End of this chapter)