Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 261 Decompression, The Turtle's Gratitude

The sea turtles seemed to be frightened by the arrival of Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, and began to crawl back to the sea.

However, this was certainly not because of Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, who had already figured it out.

They saw sea turtles shoveling dirt and covering something before leaving, presumably having finished doing something that required them to come ashore, and thus preparing to depart.

"They must have finished laying their eggs and are about to leave."

Lu Xi'an said, "I wonder when those sea turtle eggs will hatch? If they hatch before the tide comes in, then we're doomed."

Will I die?

Yao Wei asked.

Lu Xi'an said, "I don't know, maybe. Normally, once they hatch from their eggs, they have to rush into the sea to escape danger."

“If the tide hadn’t risen, the coastline would still be far away, and they wouldn’t be able to get into the sea. I don’t think these seabirds would have let them go.”

At this point, Lu Xi'an paused slightly, then added, "But you can't say for sure, that was the situation in the past. The world has changed now, who knows what it will be like?"
"There was never such a phenomenon of the sea rising and receding before."

Most of those seabirds currently only target fish and shrimp washed ashore. Some are also interested in shellfish, carrying them to high places and dropping them down, then breaking the shells to eat the meat inside.

As for sea turtle eggs, seabirds generally don't bother with them, unless a sea turtle isn't careful enough and doesn't bury its eggs properly, leaving them exposed, which will attract seabirds to come down, peck open the eggshells, and eat the egg yolk.

After Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei finished explaining the matter, Lu Xi'an said, "Let's go see what we can find to eat. This beachcombing doesn't require any effort at all."

"Ah."

Yao Wei, holding the dog, actually said to it, "Dog, take a look and see which things are edible."

The creatures in the sea were quite strange in shape compared to those inland, making Yao Wei unsure if they were edible, so she asked the dog for help.

Dogs are always trustworthy in situations like this. As Yao Wei held him and swayed him, his two dog eyes remained incredibly steady, instantly locking onto a seashell.

Lu Xi'an went straight over, picked up the seashell, and threw it into the bucket.

The dog's eyes continued to shine as it went to look at the next food item.

The dog had its sights set on a slightly raised mound of earth. Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had already witnessed the turtle's earlier actions, and without needing to dig up the soil, they could confirm that what lay beneath the mound were the turtle's eggs.

Lu Xi'an was about to dig up the soil to retrieve the eggs when Yao Wei stopped him, saying, "Those eggs are too small; the sea turtles haven't hatched yet. There's plenty of food here, so let's not touch these eggs, shall we?"

Lu Xi'an was slightly surprised, not expecting Yao Wei to have such compassion.

She probably genuinely felt that the eggs were too small and wouldn't be filling enough, so she decided to keep them and see when a sea turtle would hatch from them.

"Okay, it's up to you."

Lu Xi'an agreed and then stopped digging for eggs.

He turned to look at the sea and said, "What about the sea turtles? Should we keep one to eat?"

When Yao Wei saw the sea turtles that had reached the beach and were about to enter the sea, and saw that the shelled animals were indeed quite large, she nodded and said, "Okay."

But before that, she showed it to her dog and asked, "Doggy, can you eat sea turtles?"

The dog's eyes lit up when it looked at the mirror, indicating that there was no problem.

Those sea turtles looked very clumsy, but they were all quite fast when they crawled up, and most of them had already crawled into the sea.

However, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei were not in a hurry. They only needed to catch one sea turtle and did not need to keep too many.

There's so much more to do on this shore; they can try other things instead of just focusing on the sea turtles.

So as they approached the sea, they walked and looked around, picking up whatever they could find.

Most of the items were seashells, but I also dug up two crabs and a fish barely clinging to life. It's a mystery how it has managed to survive on this dry shore.

Keep in mind that most of the other fish didn't survive.

Perhaps this is a new ability that these marine fish have evolved after the world has changed and disasters have struck?

Those fish that were reduced to mere remains were probably not dried out, but rather pecked to death by seabirds.

Lu Xi'an made wild guesses and walked to the beach with Yao Wei.

There is only one sea turtle left on the beach.

This sea turtle moves slowly and dawdles, so it fell behind.

Compared to other sea turtles, this one is the largest and stands alone, as if it were covering the rear of the other sea turtles.

Lu Xi'an initially thought the sea turtle was moving so slowly because it was too big and had difficulty moving. But when he got closer, he found that the sea turtle was covered with dense, bulging sores.

It extends from the turtle's shell all the way to its head and limbs.

Or it might not be called a sore. Lu Xi'an had seen this kind of thing in a video from his previous life. It should be called a barnacle, which is good at attaching to and parasitizing other things. Once it sticks, it can't be shaken off.

Moreover, once it parasitizes, it begins to reproduce rapidly, one becomes two, two become four, causing unbearable suffering to the parasitized.

No wonder this sea turtle crawls so slowly; it turns out it has barnacles.

—The barnacles had blended in with the sea turtles, and their colors were almost identical, but no matter what, they couldn't hide it from Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei's eyes.

After all, two new humans can be seen clearly no matter how far away they are.

The two of them had been picking up turtles along the way, only checking if there were any left on the shore, but hadn't paid much attention, so they hadn't noticed.

Lu Xi'an suddenly became interested. He took out a small knife from his waist, squatted down, and inserted it into the turtle's back. With a flick of his wrist, he lifted a barnacle and it landed to the side. A clean space immediately appeared on the turtle's back, making it look more pleasing.

Lu Xi'an picked another one.

Seeing that there's another clean space, I really feel relieved.

The video doesn't lie!

The sea turtle initially tried to struggle, stretching its head forward as if trying to pull its body forward with its head.

But then it seemed to sense that Lu Xi'an had stabbed it twice, and suddenly became quiet and still, obediently letting Lu Xi'an do as he pleased.

Lu Xi'an sighed and said, "Brother Turtle, do you know we're going to eat you?"

Unfortunately, the sea turtle couldn't understand what Lu Xi'an was saying and just kept lying there.

Lu Xi'an stopped talking and focused on cleaning the barnacles off the sea turtle. Since they were going to cook the turtle soon anyway, cleaning the barnacles was necessary.

This is a job I'll have to do sooner or later, and it's pretty good that I can relieve stress while doing it.

"Shh, crack, shh, crack..."

The knife was embedded in the barnacle, then lifted, embedded again, and lifted again. As the area on the turtle's back was cleaned more and more, Lu Xi'an felt a great sense of satisfaction.

Getting rid of those unpleasant grime always makes people feel more comfortable.

Yao Wei, watching from the side, seemed to find it relaxing and felt a bit itchy to do something. So she squatted down on the other side of the sea turtle, put the dog on her lap, took out her small knife, and stabbed it into a barnacle on the turtle's shell.

"Is that so?"

She asked.

She had been observing Lu Xi'an for a while, and given his strong self-control, his actions were naturally flawless.

Lu Xi'an glanced at her and said with a smile, "Yes, that's how it is. You do that half, and I'll do this half."

Yao Wei said, "Yeah."

So the two of them started cleaning the barnacles off the turtle's body, plucking them off one by one.

Sometimes the barnacles would stick too tightly, inevitably tearing the sea turtle's skin. But the sea turtle remained quiet, simply enduring the pain as Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei worked on it.

"pat, pat..."

One by one, the barnacles were pried up and fell to the ground. The turtle's shell, head, and limbs became cleaner and cleaner, more and more pleasing to the eye.

Once all the barnacles had been cleared away, Lu Xi'an stood up, let out a long sigh of relief, glanced at the sea turtle, and felt extremely comfortable all over.

"How about it?"

He asked Yao Wei.

"Looks much better."

Yao Wei spoke in a relaxed tone, indicating that this job was also a great stress reliever for her.

The sea turtle suddenly raised its head and looked at Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, as if it wanted to remember the two people who had helped it clean the barnacles.

Lu Xi'an met the sea turtle's gaze, let out a soft breath, and said, "Suddenly I don't really want to eat this sea turtle anymore."

"Ah."

Yao Wei said, "Then don't eat it."

Lu Xi'an said, "Don't worry about me. I'm just suddenly feeling sentimental. We're just cleaning out the barnacles for it. We've never raised it before, so we don't have much of a bond. There's no need to be so formal."

But Yao Wei said, "I don't want to eat it anymore. It was so hard to clean it properly."

Lu Xian: "..."

The sea turtle, unaware that it had already narrowly escaped death twice, was still dawdling, wanting to memorize the two carnivores before it could leave.

Lu Xi'an simply kicked the sea turtle into the sea and complained, "Run! Aren't you afraid we'll go back on our word?"

"Wow--"

The sea turtle entered the sea, lost its balance for a moment, rolled over twice, and then swam out to sea.

The seawater was clear and blue. Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei stood on the beach and suddenly saw the hillside sloping down below the sea, with tall buildings rising up and their edges winding. The green plants that had been clinging to the buildings had also scattered and were floating and swaying in the sea.

Is this the underwater world?
What kind of scenery is the seabed in the fish mouth area?
Lu Xi'an watched quietly, lost in thought.

Seeing that Lu Xi'an was admiring the underwater scenery, Yao Wei didn't disturb him and went to pick up her things.

She carried the dog, which naturally told her what she could and couldn't eat, so she didn't need to ask Lu Xi'an for advice.

Lu Xi'an watched for a while, and suddenly saw the sea turtle swim back, carrying a small woman's handbag in its mouth, which looked like a wallet. He wondered what was inside.

The sea turtle carried the woman's handbag ashore, gave Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei a deep look, turned around and swam back into the sea.

Is this... coming to repay a debt of gratitude?

Lu Xi'an watched the sea turtle swim back into the sea before his gaze fell on the handbag on the ground.

(End of this chapter)