Chapter 218: The Beginning of the Set-up

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Thank you, Sergeant.” Martin brought Zhang Lisheng and the other two into the room. Right away, everyone could see the concrete floor of the room gradually open up as a circular entrance more than two meters wide reveal a long downward spiral passage.

“Please watch out, everyone. The stairs are very steep.” When the passage was completely opened, as the person leading the way, Martin was the first to step on the stairs and led the three Stanford biologists into the bunker one step at a time.

Not long after, a spectacular underground base with extensive passages in all directions appeared in front of Zhang Lisheng.

“I thought they said Shrimp World No. 2’s development will be completely presided by the citizens? Why is there a whole military fortress in the settlement underground!?” Looking at the professional soldiers shuttling and busying with their works in the underground passage, the young man could not help but ask in a dumbstruck tone.

“Mr. Lisheng, if there’s no such fortress underneath, the gathering place would not have existed at all,” Martin explained before leading the three of them to pass through two ramps. After making a turn, he opened the door of a conference room before saluting and saying, “General! Professor Steven and his assistant from Stanford University have arrived.”

“Great! We just so happen to be in need of a top biologist’s opinions right now!” An old man, who was contemplating in deep thought with more than ten scholarly people around a giant screen that was seamlessly connected by 20 special tablets on the conference table, abruptly looked up and strode up to Steven before reaching out a hand. “Professor! Welcome to Shrimp B1 Island! I’m sorry but due to unusual circumstances, perhaps you’d have to immediately work without taking any breaks. Please come and take a look at this picture.” Before leading Steven to walk towards the conference table, Rowling ordered the sergeant on the side. “Replay the animal migration information simulation Hummingbird collected on the island yesterday.”

“General Rowling, please let me remind you before Professor Steven takes a look at the replay of the animal migration information simulation on the island. Yesterday, the day and night weather of Shrimp B1 Island did not exceed seven degrees Celsius. There was no sign of any abnormal weather at all.”

“Oh, Professor Muthu. Thank you for reminding me in time. Professor Steven, this is Professor Mordor from Harvard University’s Department of Geology. Harvard University has applied to set up a comprehensive meteorological observatory at this huge island in the foreign world and Professor Muthu is the person-in-charge.” Rowling pointed at the skinny Indian old man who had spoken just now.

“Oh, General Rowling! You said that he’s Professor Muthu from Harvard? He looks different from his photo. Nice to meet you, Professor Muthu. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for a long time. That research ‘The impact of meteorological changes in the history of Earth on the evolution of species’ of yours is one of my most admired academic works from a non-biologist.” Steven smiled.

“Professor Steven, I’ve heard a lot of rumors about you as well, particularly those ‘outstanding experiments’ conducted at the United States Department of Energy national laboratories! The ‘Beetle Puzzle’ you’ve recently published in the Science magazine is the most easy-to-understand article in the first edition of Science in the past 30 years. I like it very much as well.” Muthu replied in a tit-for-tat manner.

The little unintentional—or maybe intentional—spark created at the moment the two professors from Harvard, that existed before US independence, and Stanford, that was equal to Harvard plus a UC Berkeley, laid eyes at each other made Rowling furrow his brows right away.

“Professors, since the two of you admire each other so much, it’s good for you two to work together then. Let us continue our main topic.” He waved his hand to the technical sergeant at the side. Right away, a 3D map of Shrimp B1 Island appeared on the screen composed of tablets on the conference table. Then, it gradually showed the animal populations on a few dotted spots.

Standing behind Steven while carrying his metal box, Zhang Lisheng watched the migration evolution of hundreds of large animal populations on the 3D map on the screen with interest but never understood where the anomalies lied.

“Captain Rowling, it’s not surprising for a sudden animal migration to take place in the absence of drastic changes in the habitat.” After he finished watching the entire situation of the simulation, Steven also pondered for a moment before commenting. “On Earth, birds tend to migrate to places with warm climate before the weather gets cold, the same goes to some of the wild beasts as well. Of course, on an island like this that has the longest diameter of not more than 350 kilometers and a small overall climate difference…”

“Please don’t be hasty in drawing conclusions, Professor Steven. Please look at the species distribution map of the animal on Shrimp B1 Island eight days ago.” Lio Lin smiled wryly.

The technical sergeant immediately switched the screen on the conference table into a 3D image that was completely different from the one just now. The distribution of the animal populations on it was poles apart, but it seemed to be faintly related.

Steven looked at the new image with concentration and furrowed his brows. Suddenly, he asked, “Lisheng, what did you see?”

“Professor, comparing this image to the previous one, the animal population originally in the center of the island has moved to the vicinity of the coastline, while the animal populations living near the coastline has migrated to the center of the island jungle.”

“Is this young man your assistant, Professor Steven? What a detailed observation he has right there.” At this moment, Rowling finally looked at Zhang Lisheng in the eyes. “Young man, what if I tell you that this incredible animal migration will repeat its cycle every seven to eight days. Not only that, each time, it will start at night and ends in the morning, with an uproar so huge it can even stir the gathering place upside down! How should you explain this then?”

“There are only two possibilities for this to happen. These animals are either crazy…” Zhang Lisheng said with a shrug. “Or they are afraid of something.”

“The animals involved in this migration are made up of all kinds of strange creatures, which includes wild beasts at the highest end of the Shrimp B1 Island food chain. Your hypothesis is null.” Zhang Lisheng appeared to be naive in Rowling’s eyes and the reason he asked the young man was just out of casual prompting, with the intention of actually wanting to lure Steven who had been silent for a long time to give his opinions. “Professor Steven, what do you think instead?”

“General, without a field inspection of the environment, I can’t give you an answer,” Steven shook his head and answered solemnly. “However, I’d like to remind you that it has been quite a long time since the US discovered this big island, so I believe there must be some linguists who had managed to induce the linguistic features used by the indigenous people on the island and can communicate with the natives freely. No matter what, we’re only a ‘guest’ on Shrimp B1 Island, so it’s impossible for us to know more than the ‘master’…”

“I understand what you mean, Professor Steven.” Rowling pointed to a young lady who seemed to be the youngest at the conference table. “Dr. Donna is a linguistics expert at Cornell University. She has carried out some exchange with the natives about this matter before. Unfortunately, Shrimp B1 Island’s natives are stereotyped people. Other than bartering for things they needed, they’re unwilling to tell us anything more, let alone working for us.”

“General Rowling is right. I’ve come in contact with some of the seemingly wretched-looking aborigines in the city before. My intuition tells me that they must have come here to take refuge. Even so, these aborigines would rather risk their lives and venture out of the city to hunt, to barter, or to maintain livelihood, than telling me the situation of the island, let alone doing some simple yet extremely rewarding work for us…” Donna shook her head.

“Trying to tame a civilization with just a few dried fishes? What a ‘creative’ idea…” While this linguist was speaking, Zhang Lisheng who was by the side suddenly muttered rashly.

This voice was not loud, but it managed to make Donna shut her mouth right away and turned to look at him. “Sir, it seems like you have a different opinion than mine?”

“It’s not that I have a different opinion, but I feel like the direction of the entire thing is going in the wrong way, doctor.” With all of the burning eyes in the conference room on him, Zhang Lisheng pondered for a moment before replying. “I think if we want to communicate with these indigenous people on the island, a theologian who is proficient in kickboxing would be far more useful than a linguist.”

“Young man, you’re not the only smart person in this world! There have been many theologians in Shrimp B1 Island before and all of them… wait a minute! What did you just say?”

“I said, ‘a theologian who is proficient in kickboxing would be far more useful than a linguist’, General. These aborigines are short and strong! The gods they worship are usually living monsters, just like our ancestors who would depict tigers, lions, and so on on the rocks to offer sacrifices for them. It’s hard to influence them using an abstract belief, so if you want them to really listen and communicate with you, you’ll need…”

“A theologian who is proficient in kickboxing…” Rowling muttered with a frown. “Not bad, young man! You’re right! This is a new idea! Yes, this is a new idea…”

“However, no matter how good an idea is, it will only remain an idea before we test it out.” Seeing that his intended purpose had been achieved, Zhang Lisheng calmly shook his head. “General, we’ve gone out of topic already.”

“That’s right, we’ve gone off-topic already.” Rowling snapped back to reality and sighed with slight regrets, before carefully studying the young Chinese man who looked as though he was only in his teens or twenties. “What is your name, young man?”

“Zhang Lisheng. I’m Professor Steven’s graduate student, general.”

“Zhang Lisheng, Zhang Lisheng…” After muttering the young man’s name several times, Rowling waved his hand and took the lead out of the conference room. “Alright! Professors, doctors and oh, young Mr. Zhang Lisheng, the time is near. Our eyes will always be more useful than our ears. This is why they are situated in front. Let us go and see what happens on the island tonight. After all, if you have finished watching it, you’ll come to understand it naturally without the need of much explanation.”

Most of the scientists in the conference room arrived on the island today, but at different times. They followed behind Rowling and shuttled through the underground passage in puzzlement. After a long walk, they climbed out of the bunker along the straight upward and downward exit and realized that they were now below the thick cement wall.