Thaumas, the giant sea turtle, had lived for a very long time. In fact, it could even understand the word âislandâ in many languages, including various Chinese dialects. Yes, isnât that such an accomplishment?! Thus, the turtle was supposed to remain calm and take care of any sudden emergencies unhurriedly. It was just an earthquake, right? Thaumas had seen countless earthquakes in its lifeâ which was why it had decided to remain on the surface at first.
HoweverâŠ
Thaumas had honestly never encountered an underwater earthquake as insane as this. From its experience, even if it happened to be right at the epicenter <sup>1</sup> The point on the earthâs surface that is vertically above the focus of an earthquake. , the most appropriate solution was to stay somewhere in between the shallow and deep sea; since earthquakes often occurred on the ocean floor, tsunamis wouldnât appear on the surface despite the waters tossing and turning below, and if the earthquake was to occur in the shallow areas of the sea, then Thaumas should escape into the deep seaâ that way, it could once again calmly ignore the churning waves above.
See, this was Thaumasâ experience gathered from its many years of living. Still though, despite its lifeâs voyage having circled the Earth many times, Thaumas never could have predicted that this earthquake would cause a chain reaction that resulted in the breaking of the stratum. That fracture was the main reason for the tsunamiâs later appearance. All the organisms that couldnât escape ended up suffering miserably. Even then, the age-old rule still stood: it was unlikely for tsunamis to do any real damage if the water was deep. The true extent of their destruction would be displayed on land.
When rapidly-moving water encountered resistance, it would immediately push up against the object and form enormous waves that were tens of metres high. And such âresistanceâ, for the humans, would be the land that extended from the shore, well into the ocean.
At that moment, the sky was completely hidden from view. All that anyone could see was water that towered over any tree in sight. In a matter of seconds, the entire cluster of islands in the area were razed to flatland.
Tsunamis were the most destructive force of nature.
When An Li dragged herself â along with Li Shao and the others â onto land, chaos greeted her eyes.
Pieces of palm trees were floating everywhere; the beach was covered with knee-deep, water-filled holes; a bicycle, completely deformed and wheelless, was hanging oddly from a high place on a distant hill; in front of them laid countless broken objects, such as lamps, jars, and pieces of wood that nobody could tell what they used to be; several articles of clothing were torn and soaked in the muddy water.
But An Li had no other choice. Grabbing a piece of the clothing, she wrapped it around herself. She couldnât care about it being dirty anymore. If it wasnât that most of the algae and shellfishes had fallen from Thaumasâ back, many people would seriously consider covering themselves with algae.
After a night of clinging onto their lives, nobody was interested in looking at othersâ not even at An Li while she was changing.
Having no energy to care about the dirty water and strewn items, the people managed to find a place that had no glass shards and laid down. Sounds of panting could be heard all over the area.
It had been about two weeks since theyâd left the Thalassa Goddess and this was their first time stepping back onto solid land. It was difficult to say whether theyâd escaped from danger⊠especially when they remembered the sea monsters that kept on following them.
This was surely the apocalypse then?
Exhausted, many of the passengers collapsed into a deep sleep right where they laid.
ăShayi is not well.ă
Far away on the ocean surface, Siren was still on Thaumasâ back. The mermanâs fingers were stroking Xia Yiâs forehead and felt that its treasure was burning up like the water temperature around underwater volcanoes. Siren had never suffered from a fever before so it couldnât understand what was going on. It could only sense Xia Yiâs gradually weakening mental waves; they felt the same as the time theyâd first met, when Xia Yi was about to be swallowed by the cold ocean.
The giant squid who inhabited the Ross Sea in Antarctica was a light red in colour. Its body was flatter and longer in comparison to Abyss, and it had ten tentacles instead of eight. The short ones were âarmsâ while the long ones were âtentaclesâ and didnât have any barbs.
When almost half of the squidâs body crawled onto the edge of Thaumasâ shell, the sea turtle couldnât help but sink towards the left.
ăEurybia!ăThaumas roared angrily.
The squid quickly brushed the tip of one of its tentacles over Xia Yiâs body. Before Siren could glare at it, the squid had long since retracted its tentacle and said an earnest but dumb,ăSo hot!ă
The cloudy sky pressed down heavily, completely different from how it appeared in the morning. The Lionâs Mane Jellyfish floated lazily on the surface and voiced its complaints.ăMy entire body was rolled up into a ball! I almost stung myself to death with my own tentacles! That damned Abyss was practically using my own head to cover my tentacles!! Come here and fight meâ fuck off, Eurybia! You donât know how to say anything other than âyouâre so hotâ!ă
The squid stretched out eight of its tentacles, and Nereus, being so âfrail and fragileâ, was immediately slapped away.
ăWhat I meant⊠is that the human is so hot. Siren, why are you still leaving him on Thaumasâ back? Heâs about to die of heat!ă
ăâŠă
ăAre you sure⊠that thatâs a human?ăAbyss said strangely.
ăYeah? He looks like a merfolk but doesnât have scales or a tail⊠What else could he be other than a human?ă
The giant octopus began paddling away with the help of its tentacles. It quickly swam to the side, as if afraid of the squidâs idiocy being contagious. Even when it was frequently considering various problems, Abyss still found the world to be a fascinating place. On the other hand, the squid was a plain idiot through and through. Abyss couldnât understand why humans would always confuse octopuses for squids or vice versa⊠Just because they looked similar didnât mean they had the same qualities!
âAnd that, our smart octopus, is where you are wrong. Like how itâs been said, âthe truth is often in the hands of idiotsâ (yes, definitely a saying). And like that, dear Abyss, who likes to let its imagination run wild and make a gazillion assumptions, completely bypassed the correct answer. The world isnât as complicated as you think! Abyss! You made the mistake that many humans would fall for! Complicating what is really simple and then ending up confusing yourself even more!
The Lionâs Mane Jellyfish began to sink, clearly in a state of panic.
ăNereus, what happened?ă
ăEurybia just⊠just poked a hole in my body⊠Help! ă
Jellyfishes swum by contracting their bell, which squeezed out the water, or âpropellantâ, from their bodies. Nereus was already wrinkled after suffering through the earlier disaster, and the barbs on Eurybiaâs tentacles slashed right through it. And so⊠!!
Abyss caught the jellyfish with one of its tentacles while the others trailed over the cuts and gashes on its own body.
This was all the fault of that dumb squidâs actions in the earlier waves! Abyss glanced over at the oarfish and crab, both of which were dragged over by Eurybia. These two look almost pitiful, still unconscious like that.
For the time being, the sea monsters didnât dare to return to the deep sea. After the occurrence of an underwater earthquake, the seafloor would open up and release gases toxic enough to kill schools of marine animals. The best option now was to stay far away from those areas.
Siren laid beside Xia Yi, facing the sky. Reaching out, it gathered its human into its embrace.
The mermanâs cold body temperature caused Xia Yi, who was drastically heating up due to his fever, to instinctively lean in.
A rainstorm began to pour not long after. The sky was heavy and dark enough that one could barely see in front of their noses. The rain woke up many of those whoâd previously clambered onto the island. Stumbling, they stood up, and despite every ounce of their beings screaming at them to stay down and rest some more, no one wanted to sleep forever right then and there. They had to force themselves to search for somewhere that could shield them from the weather.
Li Shao sneezed and shivered.
They were in the tropics where even January wasnât supposed to be too hot. However, the weather had grown abnormal since the apocalypse and chilly winds were, in fact, blowing hard. If they were unfortunate enough to fall sick, they didnât even have the means to search for medicine.
âWhere are we?â Until now, An Li didnât have the energy to speak a single word.
Scanning their surroundings, the passengers discovered that they seemed to be on a large island. Many of the ocean-bounding countries in the world were made up by island groups, and this was one that had human inhabitants. Of course, whether they were able to survive the tsunami was a whole different question.
Suddenly, Na Linâs scream pierced the air. After standing up, she realised that a swollen corpse was right beside the place where sheâd laid down. Upon closer inspection, the people could see many similar corpses along the entire shoreline. Nobody knew if theyâd died from the tsunami or the earthquake that occurred earlier.
âLetâs first find a water source and somewhere to take cover.â An Li glanced at the numerous corpses and decided to come back later to burn them all. After all, they may be staying on this island for a long time; if these dead bodies rotted and birthed some new plague, theyâd be the ones suffering the consequences.
What did you say? Building another ship and sailing back to China?
Did living in a different place make any difference in the apocalypse? Plus, there were so many sea monsters in the ocean. If they were unfortunate enough to be met with another earthquake, there was no way theyâd be as lucky as they had been just now.
âAn⊠An-Jie!â Li Shao sneezed again and motioned towards the horizon.
They could see the sea turtleâs ginormous shadow in the distance, which meant that the merman and Xia Yi hadnât left. Even though it was unrealistic to worry about the fate of others in such a broken society, Li Shao couldât help but ask, âWhat is Xia-Ge going to do?â
An unexplainable expression crawled onto An Liâs face. Frankly speaking, she had no idea what kind of person Xia Yiâ no, more likeâ she couldnât even tell whether Xia Yi was human or not. In the end, she turned, and her words echoed behind her. âYou heard what the sea monsters said earlier, didnât you?â
Li Shao stopped in his train of thought. Indeed⊠if that was a special ability, then it was way too insane!
The water-user amongst them could only fill up a plastic bottle full of water and that was the extent of his power.
Honestly, it wasnât An Li and the othersâ faults for going down the completely wrong rabbit hole. In the eyes of others, Xia Yi had always been someone who acted strangely and even âimproperlyâ. So when theyâd encountered the scene from earlier, no one even stopped to consider that his power could be the result of an exceptionally strong power and incredible amount of control.
And perhaps the sea monsters around him acted as crucial factors for the misunderstanding?
Oh well, it was a miracle to still be alive; there was no point in thinking too much about things that they couldnât understand.
As An Li walked into the inner parts of the island, the rain beat down mercilessly. Xia Yi was drenched from head to toe and Siren had no concept of âshielding the human from the rainâ. Ultimately, this was a merman who lived in the ocean, so â not being drenchedâ was what would be worrisome for Siren. Thankfully, Xia Yi possessed a water abilityâ if that wasnât the case, then he wouldâve probably lost the remaining âlife forceâ he had after over-exhausting himself into a fever and being left out in the raging wind and rain.
ăSiren, Iâm so hungry.ă
ăMe too.ă
Thaumas stretched its neck and sighed gloomily.ăJust a day ago, my back was covered in food!ă
Sea turtles were omnivores who ate algae, seafood, and shellfish. Technically, Thaumas was swimming around with a plateful of delectables⊠um⊠all it needed was someone to tear the food off its shell and bring it to its mouth!
Siren was not in a good mood and snapped,ăEndure it!ă
ăBut⊠if Iâm hungry enough, I might not be able to control myself and start nibbling on Abyssâs tentacles.ă
The octopus was fuming.ăEat your own! You have tentacles too!ă
It was very difficult to find food in the area right after a natural disaster. Even if dead fishes or other marine life existed, the waves had long washed them to god-knows-where.
âMmmâŠâ A faint moan escaped Xia Yiâs lips.
Siren felt a hand climb onto its arm. Looking down, the merman saw that Xia Yi was clutching its arm tightly, clearly finding the cold skin very comfortable.
Abyssâs eyes flickered between the two and decided to convince Siren through some logistical reasoning.ăEven if we donât eat, what about your treasure? What if he starves to death? Thereâs a mountain on that island that the tsunami didnât reach⊠There has to be food there. Look, Siren, the humans are going that way too. When they find food⊠hmm⊠how about we snatch it from them?ă
Siren stared at Xia Yi for a few moments.ăVery well, go wake up Gululu.ă
ăHuh?ă
ăYou are talking about land, are you not?ă
Hold up, the biggest issue here is that infrasonic waves can travel great distances! If the frequency is low enough, it can travel across half the globe without losing its message! Did you think that the humans over there didnât hear you?!
1
The point on the earthâs surface that is vertically above the focus of an earthquake.