Closer to Revealing My True Self
Chapter 288 - 214: No Hurry_1

Chapter 288: Chapter 214: No Hurry_1

Footsteps hurried through the stairwell.

One after another, people rushed out of the dormitory entrance.

At this point, no one cared about whether their clothes were neat or not—buttons misaligned, shoelaces tied askew, and one even dashed out in pajamas, hastily throwing on a coat.

Jia, who had already been asleep, woke up with alertness, listening intently to the sounds around him, then parted the curtains to look downstairs, spotting several familiar figures.

It must be no small matter for these big shots to react so intensely at two in the morning—was there a change in the sea?

"Tsk, what exactly did the boss do?"

Feng Yi hadn’t explained in detail last night. Jia only knew that Feng Yi had taken a stroll on the seabed, but what he did was still unknown.

However, one thing was for certain: whatever Feng Yi did, it hadn’t yet been connected to them. Otherwise, their entire dorm building would have been surrounded by now.

As long as they hadn’t been discovered and Feng Yi hadn’t revealed his true form, everything else was a minor issue.

With that thought, Jia lay down to continue sleeping, grasping the opportunity to rejuvenate.

Having chosen this profession, one must always be ready—in case Feng Yi’s true form was exposed, enough energy was needed to flee.

In the next room, Feng Yi was already asleep.

The marked route was not short, and it was the first time he had tried this method of marking, which was highly taxing. He was now in a state of rest and energy replenishment. As long as there was no loud shouting outside or negative emotional information coming in, he would maintain this state of rest.

His cell phone had no incoming calls, but there were several new message notifications. The notifications were not loud enough to wake Feng Yi.

That night, Feng Yi dreamt of a snake swimming in the sea...

In an office building not far away.

Those who had rushed over from the dormitory had no time to rest, panting as their eyes were fixed on several computers.

"Quick, let me see the data!"

"Is this the new starfish population statistics chart?!"

The chart displayed on one of the computers showed the number of starfish in certain areas at different times.

In some regions, the number of starfish in a fixed space rose rapidly, while in others, it decreased dramatically.

This was not normal!!

That’s why the unmanned submersible interrupted its mission and transmitted data ahead of schedule.

The first reaction of the staff on duty, upon seeing the data, was—could the submersible be malfunctioning? An emergency error?

But as more and more data came in, along with more detailed video files, it proved not to be a misjudgment!

A real anomaly had occurred!

"Impossible! It shouldn’t be!"

"In the areas near the coast, the numbers are increasing rapidly... but the starfish farther away are decreasing..."

"Is it only starfish that show this change? No, not just starfish. Are the fish numbers decreasing as well?"

"The fish are indeed fewer, but there are other conditions too."

An expert walked in from outside, phone in hand, having just finished a call.

"On my way here, I asked a friend who fishes. He said a few of them went night fishing—from last night till now, they caught almost nothing, especially after midnight, they couldn’t catch anything at all. They brought a portable cable remote-controlled robot and recorded the underwater situation. I just got the video from them."

As he spoke, the man projected the video on his phone to a nearby monitor.

"There are fish underwater, but they’re not biting! They don’t eat what’s scattered in the water either! This was not the case at the same time yesterday."

A researcher intently staring at the computer screen saw this and furrowed his brows tightly, "But the monitoring of the water environment shows that it is still within the normal range, and the data from the various monitoring stations show no abnormalities."

"Have the latest sea water samples been analyzed?"

"Mhm."

"Test it again! Wait, get the seawater samples back to the top floor lab for testing! The instruments there are newer and more accurate!"

An older professor who was slower paced squeezed to the computer recording the latest data after coming in, struggling to look at the screen, taking the reading glasses from a colleague, "Let me borrow your glasses for a moment; I forgot mine in the rush."

For a time, the small room was filled with a cacophony of voices—those arguing, muttering to themselves, printing documents, and typing on keyboards.

Suddenly someone shouted, "The latest video from the seafloor of the core area with issues has come in!"

At that moment, the noisy room hit the pause button as all activities were momentarily suspended and everyone’s gaze was glued to the screen in front—

In the dim depths of the sea, severed starfish arms lay eerily still beneath the submersible’s lights.

As the camera advanced, the entire scene was filled with similar images.

Like a silent, underwater horror movie.

Seeing the scattered severed arms on the screen, everyone felt a chill down their spine.

These marine creatures are extremely sensitive to environmental changes, and their behavior could reflect changes that humans might not perceive.

Yesterday, the starfish were overwhelmingly rampant, causing everyone headaches on how to deal with this assault. Now it had turned into this?

In such a short time, what exactly happened down there to trigger these starfish to collectively self-amputate?

What secrets lay behind all this?

Pessimists like Professor Li thought of "climate anomalies" first.

Having experienced a period of climate anomalies and knowing its horrors, their minds jumped to the possibility of a climate anomaly period returning at the face of such sudden, inexplicable events!

The team leader, still relatively composed, pondered for a moment before saying, "The data we have is limited right now, and just because it looks like this on the surface, doesn’t necessarily mean this is the reality. The unmanned submersibles we use have limited functions and are not intelligent enough. Their deployment is sparse, and the data they accumulate in the ocean are very restricted. In any case, we cannot jump to conclusions yet. Increase the number of submersibles! If we don’t have enough, borrow them! I will apply for a manned submarine to go and see for myself!"