Chapter 251: It’s a Trap? [Part 2]
The gray cat jumped into the room while he was thinking. Things were going pretty well, judging from the way its tail was raised up high.
“You done eating?” Cillin asked.
“Yup!” Wheeze narrowed its eyes and said happily.
The gray cat jumped up Cillin’s table and spat out a deep blue object about the size of a palm.
“What is this?” Cillin asked. They were the only two beings inside Cillin’s room right now, so the gray cat didn’t bother beating around the bush.
“I’m not sure myself, but it’s probably the unique skin you guys mentioned earlier. I’d chewed this piece off a big fellow’s body. Its skin is quite thick, and the outer layer of its skin didn’t have the ability to perform ion exchange, so I had to go deeper into its body to get this. Why don’t you check if this is the right one,” Wheeze said.
All Cillin needed to do was to touch the skin the gray cat brought him to obtain the data he wished to know.
“It is the unique skin we mentioned earlier. There is a special exchange layer in the middle of this thing that could absorb metal ion attachments. Say, is this the only piece you were able to get?”
The gray cat proudly curled its tail before opening its mouth wide enough to fit a water tank. Then, it spat out enough deep blue skins to make a mattress.
“I’ve bit every part of the fellow’s body at least once, but I didn’t memorize which part belongs to which. You can do this yourself.”
“Did you actually eat an entire sea king?” Cillin asked suspiciously.
Wheeze smacked its lips. “Not really, I guess. I didn’t eat the one that showed up on the continent because I was afraid that the human troops might notice something amiss. Instead, I went below the sea to capture one for myself. I didn’t eat all of it; just the tasty parts that’re worth eating. These sea kings have a burnt exterior and tender insides. I like its burnt skin more; its inner flesh didn’t really impress me.”
Cillin nodded. This cat seriously could eat anything, and it had a stomach that seemed limitless.
After that, the gray cat continued to several sea king skins for Cillin to analyse. At this point the young man had probably gotten more useful data than the minor noble himself. The sea kings seldom appeared on land, and they were almost never caught by the humans. On the rare occasion they were caught, the sea kings would always self destruct and take their own lives. As a result, the samples of their remains became a lot less valuable. In comparison, the samples the gray cat gave him were fresh, so they were far more valuable than the dying or dead samples obtained by the minor noble.
Suddenly, Cillin noticed that the gray cat’s face was twisting.
“What’s wrong?” Cillin asked.
“It… it’s nothing… blaargh——”
The gray cat spat out a half man tall egg. The egg was covered in a deep blue, keratin-like attachment. Unlike a normal egg, this egg didn’t have a smooth surface.
The gray cat looked a bit better after it spat out the egg. It licked its paws and said, “It’s nothing. I just ate a little too much.”
Cillin: “...”
After holding up the gray cat and confirming that it really was fine, Cillin said, “If you can’t eat that much, don’t. What’s the point?”
“I can eat more actually, but these eggs are a little difficult to digest. I ate a little too many egg this time, so I’m saving this one for another time,” The gray cat said carelessly.
Cillin: “...”
The young man decided to stop thinking about the gray cat’s appetite and went to inspect the egg. Then, he touched the egg with a finger and analysed the information he got from the contact.
“Eh? It’s still alive!” Cillin sighed.
“Of course it is, I never eat rotten, spoiled eggs!” Wheeze said while licking its paws.
“Huh, so the sea king you caught is a female…” Cillin paused for a moment before correcting himself. “Wait, that’s not right. It’s a hermaphrodite. Mm, you took out a pregnant sea beast.”
The gray cat slowed its paw licking motion when it heard this. “Speaking of which, I noticed something when I took out that sea beast.”
“What is it?”
“The eggs are all wrapped at the end of its tail by a thick protective layer. However, when I scooped out the eggs to eat them, I noticed that the eggs are vastly different from one another in terms of size and shape. In fact, their genetic materials aren’t even the same; they’re made up of completely different species. They might look the same if you just look at its shell, but it’s a different story after I had crushed them with my teeth.”
The gray cat transmitted the information it acquire into Cillin’s microcomputer so the latter could perform an analysis. The eggs were quickly digested after they were crushed into bits, so the gray cat preferred to swallow them whole. This way, it could stave off the hunger.
Cillin felt puzzled as he looked at the data and the genetic materials contained inside the crushed eggs.
“It’s a sea king. Why would it bother snatching another species’ eggs?”
“That I don’t know. Give me a second…”
The gray cat stopped licking its paws and shuddered once.
“What are you doing?” Cillin asked.
“I just crushed two eggs I didn’t digest in time.”
Cillin: “...” Well that’s new.
The gray cat transmitted more data into Cillin’s microcomputer.
This time, the data indicated that one of the eggs the gray cat just crushed was directly related to the sea king. The same couldn’t be said about the other egg though. Again, it was from a different species and it was different from the two species the gray cat just showed him.
“This is odd.”
Cillin pondered as he stared at his microcomputer. The gray cat ignored him and looked at the egg it just spat out, wanting to swallow it into its stomach once more. However, the young man stopped it before it could do so. “Keep this one around.”
After he said this, Cillin took out a large box and put the egg inside safely.
“Fine.” Wheeze didn’t mind. It wasn’t hungry anyway, and it would be a waste of nutrition if it overate. After it was done licking its fur, the gray cat jumped onto Cillin’s shoulder and started to doze off. A truth of the world was to sleep after having a full meal.
Cillin couldn’t figure out the reason behind the different species of eggs despite spending a long time thinking. It the end, he put his questions to the back of his mind and went searching for information on the network.
Cillin secretly hacked into many research facilities on the planet and obtained a lot of information while he was performing the search. However, most of the information he obtained couldn’t solve his dilemma.
A small and unremarkable corner caught his attention when he was sweeping through the networks at the shoreline though.
This part of the area was under attack by the sea beasts, and a fierce battle was waged between the two sides. However, there were no scanners, no military comms or tactics discussions, and no alien roars to be found in this small corner. Although the battle had subsided a little, this place still should’ve been completely devastated. It didn’t make sense that a citizen would browse the internet at such a place, did it?
Cillin cracked into the network and looked around. Since it was a battlefield over there, he wasn’t able to obtain any image or sound files due to limited conditions. He only knew that the owner of the microcomputer was recording something.
The young man’s eyes lit up when he read through the files. They were related to the sea kings, and the analysis were far more incisive than the ones made by the minor nobles’ research organizations.
Cillin read through the person’s previous logs, and he discovered that the sea beasts had once tried to dig their way into the inland from underground. However, they were quickly discovered because the activity was too obvious, not to mention that it was more trouble than it was worth to dig one’s way to the middle of a continent from the sea. Many of the sea beasts were killed after their activity was discovered, and they’d not made another attempt since.
The next log he found was about the changes in number of sea kings for the past near five hundred years. It was here Cillin discovered a data of the utmost importance - no offspring of the sea kings had been found during this period.
Thousands of years ago, when the battle between man and beast was at its early stages, the offsprings of the sea kings would at least show themselves on the sea surface without going on land. The humans had also discovered sea king offsprings in areas that were covered in light mists. However, no sea king offsprings had been discovered in recent years.
The minor nobles and the government he ruled assumed that the war was the reason the sea kings’ offsprings went missing. The sea beasts suffered huge losses after every battle, and the sea kings would only be faring worse since their birth rate was lower than the other species. Some of the minor nobles’ researchers even claimed that the sea beasts had been driven to a dead end and were unable to replenish their numbers with new blood. They claimed that it was only a matter of time before the sea kings became extinct on this planet.
The report had won great support and response from the people at the time. Everyone on the planet was happy and looking forward to the the sea king’s demise.
However, this person had voiced a differing opinion on the matter. Although they had no direct evidence, they claimed that that was not what they discovered after gathering and analysing many circumstantial evidences. They even claimed that they had deciphered the sea king’s behavior.
The sea king’s behavior? It’s a sea creature! How could a sea creature possibly have a behavior to speak of?!
The global academic circle objected fervently against this opinion after this person had voiced their doubts. The minor noble’s research organizations especially had beat down hard against this man. It was because their words would not doubt disturb the good image the minor noble had just created for himself. It wasn’t hard to imagine what kind of difficulties this poor person was put through as a result. In fact, they probably would’ve been killed already if they weren’t lucky and had always operated near the shores.
In a way, Cillin agreed with this person’s assessment. Did sea creatures really have no behavior to speak of? Were they really incapable of intellectual thinking and careful plannings?
Not necessarily, no!
Cillin though back to the time he participated in the mice extermination mission back at Seven Lights. At the time, the black mice had come up with one big, nasty plot.
So, what were these sea beasts plotting?