Wasteland Development Diary

Chapter 99: The "Moon Tooth" Dilemma

The bridge.

Qin Xie was observing the distance through a light-print telescope.

A colossal object floated on the misty sea 4,000 meters away from the heavy cruiser "White Dove."

Its main body was shaped like a crescent moon, with three dark maws and eight long, straight, sharp teeth.

An alien that could move autonomously on the Dead Sea without falling into slumber was extremely rare.

Qin Xie's biggest headache at the moment was how to write a report to hand in.

Commander Feng Ji's order was to investigate the situation of the alien codenamed "Moon Tooth" and to appease the relevant friendly merchants.

This alien was lying across the most important Dead Sea trade route in this area during the winter, causing many merchant guilds to become very nervous and forced to detour far away.

Detouring made it easy to encounter monsters from other regions, stray into dangerous areas such as light bursts, rapids, and high-pressure vortexes, or even run into territorial lords on expeditions—who wouldn't mind collecting some spoils along the way.

If friendly merchants suffered losses, the Dead Sea Knights responsible for security would also be blamed, and if the Seventh Fleet's credit rating was downgraded as a result, the losses would be severe.

Qin Xie understood.

The harm of panic was greater than the disaster itself.

But how could he convince the friendly merchants that "Moon Tooth," despite its size and strength, posed no threat to ordinary ships sailing on the Dead Sea?

He looked to his side, "Teddy, what do you think?"

On the table to Qin Xie's left stood a half-meter tall plush teddy bear.

The gray-brown teddy bear moved its body, "I still have the same suggestion: tell everyone that it's completely harmless, but due to some security and confidentiality principles, we can't reveal too much to the outside world."

"We first declare that nothing is happening."

"If something really happens, we'll say maybe something is happening, but according to the current situation, no drastic action should be taken."

"After the situation deteriorates, say maybe we should take action, but there's nothing we can do."

"If it's completely out of control in the end, say it's all too late."

Teddy put his hands on his hips, "This is the process for solving most problems: denial, delay, creating obstacles, shirking responsibility. Simple and effective."

Qin Xie felt a bit helpless, "I admit, your method is useful, but it doesn't solve the current problem."

"Ah? You don't really want to solve this problem, do you? Are you stupid?"

"If you really want to solve the problem, the entire Seventh Fleet should come over!"

Teddy Bear gave Qin Xie a cotton punch, "The commander sent you here to say these words. Others are useless, but you have a family background, so if you say this, even if there are follow-up problems, you'll just be transferred. The only difference is who does it."

"A Xie, you also know very well that merchants, knight orders, and the sailors on those ships all know that what's happening here is difficult to deal with. But they also need to explain to others. Everyone wants to get rid of responsibility but is reluctant to give up profits."

The young captain said, "What I mean is that this method is too bad, and it will be seen at a glance that we are shirking responsibility. The report won't pass the logistics and technical assessment of the Knight Order. At least we have to think of a convincing way. We may not be able to solve it, but we have to show that we have tried to solve it."

"..."

Teddy Bear was a little impatient, "Then you have to move it away from here. Can you do it?"

Qin Xie said, "Let me think about it."

Just as the two were about to start a new round of arguing, there was a knock on the door.

"Captain, there's a situation near 'Moon Tooth'!"

Qin Xie opened the door and found the knight Huo Bing outside looking nervous.

"Please come to the observation deck! We've discovered an unidentified object over there."

Qin Xie and Teddy Bear went all the way to the top of the ship's cabin.

A Class C light-print device, the "Telescope," was fixed here, which could see real-time conditions up to 4,000 meters away. Although the Dead Sea's light mist affected the view, its special components could detect suspicious targets through the dead light.

Next to the telescope was an imaging silver plate engraved with azimuth and distance circles, showing a luminous body approaching.

Huo Bing said nervously, "Captain, this unidentified object has a speed of 45 kilometers per hour, which is faster than the two fastest supply ships here."

Qin Xie glanced at the mechanical watch on his wrist and immediately ordered, "Notify the 'Changfeng' and 'Cinia' and the two supply ships to enter formation 3 and prepare for battle."

"Yes, Captain!"

The order was issued through the speaking tube, entering every cabin along the tin pipes.

Soon, the two Class C medium patrol ships, which were originally in a line with the White Dove, immediately contracted, with the flagship Class B heavy cruiser White Dove as the arrowhead and core, forming a triangle. The two lighter supply ships sailed into the protected area in the middle.

Huo Bing suddenly said, "Captain... the unidentified object has disappeared."

In a moment, Qin Xie responded again, looking at his watch again, "Switch light-print tracks, 'Light-Blocking Shells' and 'High-Pressure Shells' ready, high-pressure first, then light-blocking, 3-second interval, and after 40 seconds, fire a covering barrage around us."

Light-blocking shells could block the light-print from condensing dead light, and were weapon killers.

Its defect was that the scattering attack intensity was limited, and it could only weaken the enemy's round of attack. In addition, its shooting interval was long, and it was mostly used for the first round of blocking or the last round of cover.

High-pressure shells were used to instantly pressurize a range of areas to temporarily disrupt the stability of local dead light, forming special light and shadow phenomena. This weapon was mainly used to identify hidden enemies.

On the mechanical watch, the hands ticked.

3

2

1

The guns fired in unison!

The White Dove's four secondary guns fired simultaneously in four directions, blasting out some strange bands of light in the surrounding waters, like stretched auroras.

High-pressure shells were followed by light-blocking shells, which dispersed some of the mist on the Dead Sea this time, and there were some splash gaps in the light fluid.

Huo Bing said, "Target found, it's... over at 'Moon Tooth'."

Qin Xie looked through the observation mirror of the observation deck.

Next to the sea alien, there was a strange black ship.

The ship was not large, smaller than a medium patrol ship, and its outline was very similar to an ordinary reinforced ship, with no weapons found on the deck and ship's side.

But Qin Xie observed carefully and found that it was completely different from the normal ship structure, composed of square and spherical black building units, more like a stone ship.

The black ship had no flags and no sailors, but it floated steadily.

The only good news was that its target was the alien "Moon Tooth."

Suddenly, silver rings grew out of the spheres on the black ship, as if activating some kind of light-print structure or light-nano organs.

This black ship, covered with silver eyeballs, surrounded "Moon Tooth", and many silver eyeballs turned, as if the ship had opened hundreds of eyes, looking at the alien.

The scene in front of him made Qin Xie's scalp tingle.

What kind of monster is this?

He calmly observed, trying to recall similar things he had seen in his mind.

...

This image and structure is a Winsnake.

Qin Xie had more doubts.

Winsnakes were fierce and very lethal, and they were indeed social creatures, but he had never heard of them combining into a ship... This reinforced ship structure must have been ordered by someone to keep them in this unfamiliar form.

"Winsnake?"

Huo Bing next to him was a little puzzled, "Captain, that's not right. It looks like there should be more than two hundred. If so many Winsnakes gather together, they usually deal with enemy invasions. But 'Moon Tooth' didn't attack them..."

The knight showed a strange look, "Could it be that they are going to hunt this alien?"

Qin Xie said, "Let's take another look."

About an hour later, it was confirmed that the black ship composed of Winsnakes was indeed focused on the alien, just circling around it, and this time it could be seen that the black ship was diving under the Dead Sea, seemingly observing "Moon Tooth" from the bottom.

But the size of "Moon Tooth" was similar to a small piece of land, and the black ship was like a sand rat circling a behemoth.

It was unlikely to pose any threat to it.

The Winsnake's 【Poison Break】 was also useless against aliens, because the latter had no so-called light-nano organs.

Qin Xie saw that the black ship quickly docked on the side of "Moon Tooth's" body, and they broke up into individual Winsnakes and entered the alien's surface.

Are the Winsnakes going to settle on "Moon Tooth"?

His head hurt even more.

Another group of Winsnakes appeared, and the friendly merchants were probably even more afraid to approach this side.

At this time, Teddy Bear suddenly said, "Forget it, I'll go talk to them and see what's going on."

Qin Xie frowned, "There are too many Winsnakes, you are not a combat unit, it will also be very dangerous."

Teddy Bear patted his belly, "Winsnakes communicate through smell, but I am a Dream Thief, and I can talk to any life in a dream. All creatures that dream are objects that I can enter."

"Don't worry, although Winsnakes have a fierce reputation, they are relatively reasonable to me, a neutral electromechanical life. Aliens rarely attack us either."

In the end, Teddy Bear drove a small reinforced ship over alone.

Qin Xie nervously observed, ready to participate in the rescue of his friend at any time.

The teddy bear was indeed not attacked among the Winsnakes, but was just watched by them all.

Teddy fell asleep.

Half an hour later, the teddy bear returned safely by ship.

...

"Figured it out."

Teddy Bear made a gesture, signaling to speak alone.

On the side of the deck, Teddy Bear said, "Those snakes belong to the Wasteland Development Company and received an order from Chairman Zhou Yi to recover this alien."

Wasteland Development Company, Zhou Yi?

Qin Xie had an impression.

The Concertina went to find this person for trouble, and then never appeared again.

This matter was suppressed internally. But Qin Xie knew very well that it was because of the scandal behind this incident that Vice Commander He Jiu was transferred away.

The commander had no evaluation of Zhou Yi. No evaluation meant that he was not an enemy at the moment.

But.

Recovering aliens?

The alien 'Emerald City' was indeed well-known in the Sandport area. It was said that it had rescued and absorbed many homeless scavengers, and the second generation of Emerald City was born... It was certain that the chairman did understand aliens.

Could it be that 'Moon Tooth' really has something to do with the Wasteland Development Company?

Teddy also said, "There is also a Spinehunter in the high sky, who is also an employee of their company, who is here to check the situation. You can talk to that Spinehunter, it is considered an observer sent by that chairman."

Qin Xie thought.

The 'Moon Tooth' problem seemed to have a solution.

He immediately ordered, "Communications, contact the Spinehunter in the high sky and say that we want to cooperate with the Wasteland Development Company."

"Yes, Captain."

Soon there was a response.