Although the water in Qinghe River is really clear, the ever-rising waves have cut the river surface into countless tiny pieces. The bright sunshine has dazzled the eyes with the ever-changing waves of countless water blocks on the river surface. I want to see Clearing what's under water isn't that easy. baby
The protagonist's compound eyes only captured a narrow shadow under the water about three or four meters away from the stern of the ship.
The black shadow was quite large, at least as wide as a walnut boat, and two or three meters long, about the size of a human palm.
If such a creature is on land, then the protagonist has never seen a creature of this size in this world. But it is possible in water. Most of the largest creatures in the protagonist's past life memory live in water, because the buoyancy of water can offset the burden brought by excessive weight on the body.
Under the water, the shadow was so flexible and vigorous. The protagonist saw it turn a sharp turn with a short radius under the water, then headed forward and sprinted towards the fleet again.
The black shadow quickly grew larger from far to near, and the colors under the water became darker and more eye-catching.
The protagonist felt nervous and hurriedly used smell and friction sounds to warn.
At this time, the shortcomings of ants' communication method are fully apparent. If it were a human, a shout would be enough to attract the attention of everyone nearby. But the smell emitted by the protagonist at this time has not had time to spread, and the warning friction sound is also very weak. Only a few ants nearby heard it, but the black shadow is only seconds away from hitting the ship.
Moreover, the friction sound signal sent by the protagonist only expresses vigilance and cannot provide more useful information. The ants who received the signal looked around blankly. Their vision was not enough to detect the vague shadow in the water more than half a meter away.
Therefore, most ants did not receive the warning, and the ants that received the warning did not find the source of the danger. They just stopped what they were doing and were on guard. Except for the protagonist, no ant knows that the most important thing to do at this time is to hold on to anything that can fix itself.
The black shadow is extremely fast, and even the underwater environment with great resistance cannot stop the shuttle-like streamlined body from accelerating.
The huge collision force erupted as the black shadow hit the rear of the fleet. The walnut ship that was directly hit by the collision was pushed out of the water, and nearby ships also collided together under the pull of ropes.
As the lifted ships were controlled by gravity again and fell, the entire fleet and the nearby river surface undulated violently like a trampoline net.
The protagonist's six limbs tightly grasped the mast. His position was not the center of the collision, but the huge force also caused him to swing in the air several times with the top of the mast. Fortunately, he was strong and did not fly away.
The protagonist took the opportunity to finally see the true face of the black shadow under the water: it was a creature covered with white scales, and it was a fish!
Although the protagonist was familiar with many kinds of fish in his previous life, that is, he could distinguish between carp and crucian carp, but this did not affect his recognition at this moment that this big underwater monster was a fish, a fish only as big as a human palm.
"There are fishes!" This is the protagonist's only thought at the moment.
In all the years since he came to this world, he has never seen other animals except insects, arthropods, worms, etc.! Even in the big river, there were only some shellfish, snails, and aquatic insects. At this moment, a fish actually appeared in the Qinghe River, a real fish!
What does this fish mean? At least it means that the protagonist has a more complete understanding of the world's ecosystem, which will also help him continue to guess the truth of the world.
The protagonist had made speculations about this world earlier. Based on the ecological conditions he observed, he once thought that this was the earth or a world similar to the earth. The evolutionary tree here is different from that of the earth. The most advanced life forms have only evolved to insects. level, and developed an ant civilization.
But as traces of human presence were unearthed in the swamp, this conjecture was overturned.
Later, the protagonist had two other conjectures about the truth of the world.
The first conjecture is that this is not the earth, but another planet, but the location of the star system, the size and gravity level of the planet, the number of satellites, and the revolution and rotation period are all very similar to the earth.
Then, just like what is written in science fiction, humans who are already technologically advanced are like the Creator, sowing the seeds of life on this suitable planet, and waiting for the planet's ecosystem to grow enough to be suitable for human life before colonizing it. .
But for some reason, humans have never set foot here again. Only the place in the swamp where humans once worked left evidence of their existence.
But the world was evolving in its own direction, until the civilization of ants appeared.
The second conjecture is that this is the earth, but it is the earth many, many, many years after the era where the protagonist lived.
Perhaps for some reason, human civilization died. Over the years, drastic changes in geology and climate have made large creatures extinct. Only tenacious plants and insects survived.
Just like the primitive humans who lingered during the Ice Age, these survivors finally occupied the world after the extreme climate ended, embarking on an evolutionary path without mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
Both of these conjectures are just conjectures. The protagonist has too little evidence. It is just what he saw and heard as an ant in a small area, which is not enough to deduce the complete truth.
Even the truth is meaningless. The protagonist no longer feels that there are still humans in this world as he did when he just traveled through time. He wants to return to the human world, and it is best to transform back into a human.
He already felt that if he traveled through time and became an ant, he would never be able to go back.
And like now, being the ant at the top of the world's food chain and the ruler of an ant colony is relatively the safest, but it is also the heaviest responsibility.
Therefore, compared to the illusory desire to discover the truth of the world and the stories of humans who left behind traces, the most important thing is how to survive better and lead one's own tribe through the current predicament.
But regardless of whether the protagonist cares about the truth or not, and whether he wants to discover the truth or not, there is only one truth about this world.
The truth may be the protagonist's first conjecture, or the second conjecture; perhaps it is a combination of some elements of both conjectures, and it may be completely different from what the protagonist imagined; perhaps the protagonist's real kind - human beings still exist, Maybe human beings have already disappeared in the river of time.
Which one do you believe?
——I am the dividing line——
I feel like the end of this chapter is very suitable as the end of the book! If I am really a eunuch here, will it be seen by readers as shown in the picture below?
(*・ω・)✄╰ひ╯
