Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Not an Enemy, but an Army!
It’s been growing for over three months!
Just hearing this sentence, Shen Yu could completely understand why everyone at this meeting looked so serious.
In fact, the meeting room was filled with a strong smell of smoke.
So far, all the monsters from the meteorites have a common characteristic: they become increasingly powerful over time, rapidly evolving.
Either self-reproduction or, like worms, self-expansion.
The longer the time, the more dangerous they become.
More than three months means this meteor monster arrived on the Mother Star even earlier than the worms; it had gone unnoticed and grew silently.
Clearly, this is an extremely bad situation.
The monster could potentially be terrifying beyond imagination.
"How many meteorites remain undiscovered?" Shen Yu asked, with a slight frown.
"After discovering the worm monsters, we conducted investigations into all meteorites observed to have landed on the Mother Star in the past year," another person responded. "Including this one, there are currently two confirmed and three suspected, all located in remote areas; two even fell into the ocean."
The ocean.
Shen Yu was silent.
The technology of Human Civilization, although seemingly omnipotent, remains helpless in many natural domains.
The deep ocean is one of them.
Meteorites that fall into the ocean indeed lack investigation avenues; all we can do is enhance precautions.
No one knows when disasters might suddenly erupt.
"Let’s first look at the situation with this one," Shen Yu said without overthinking.
He sat before a prepared seat, focusing on the tortoise shell in front of him.
He saw vast green.
Yes, green!
An endless multitude of plants swiftly spread across the city at a terrifying pace. Their roots could easily penetrate reinforced concrete, covering every inch, not to mention humans. Wherever they passed, numerous terrified crowds were directly pierced by spreading roots, wrapped, and blossomed with clusters of blood-red flowers on the corpses.
Filled with horror and absurdity.
The scene ended.
This scene was set to occur nine days later.
"..." After repeatedly watching several times in silence, Shen Yu uncertainly said, "It seems like some kind of vine-like plant?"
"We’ve consulted botanists, and from a botanical perspective, it indeed resembles a vine, but..." Qi Shichang shook his head.
Zombie bacteria are still bacteria, yet they can’t be treated with bacterial methods.
This vine is the same.
Using chemicals might not be effective.
The key lies in the sheer number!
This is what makes everyone witnessing this scene the most desperate.
The overwhelming numbers, the horrific spreading speed; just a glance instills immense fear. Comparatively, humans and human constructions seem so insignificant, as if nature itself intends to extinguish them!
However, despite the daunting and despair-inducing appearance, Human Civilization at this moment is not without hope.
Shen Yu in front of them is their greatest hope.
Thus, these individuals do not succumb to this fear.
"We’ve pinpointed the meteorite’s location, in the National First Forest Park, and HuaLong City, predicted to be the earliest disaster-stricken, is also the closest city to the First Forest," an executive handed Shen Yu a document.
Before Shen Yu arrived, they had not been idle.
What could be confirmed had been confirmed.
"National First Forest Park," Shen Yu read through the information.
Despite being named a park, it actually covers an extensive area of over three thousand square kilometers, an intact ecosystem primitive forest. Eastern Country merely guards, protects, researches, and a small part is developed.
After suspicion arose, personnel were dispatched to the suspected meteorite crash site for investigation, but no anomalies were found.
But now, the nature of this meteorite has been confirmed.
The previous investigation’s lack of findings even suggests the monster might possess "hiding" attributes.
"If that’s the case," Shen Yu set the document down, face serious, "Then Longhua City won’t be the only place to face attacks; what we saw might be just the vanguard. Offscreen, there might be a larger ’army’."
Shen Yu used terms like "troops," "army" to describe.
But that’s exactly what it is.
That boundless plant mass is now the enemy army that Human Civilization faces.
Not merely enemies, but structured, large-scale "enemy troops"!
"We’ve considered this possibility," a conference member, a general dressed in military attire, nodded solemnly, drawing a circle on the table, "Undoubtedly, it’s a war. We can’t just wait for the enemy to invade; we should quickly establish multiple defense lines, encircle the entire forest, and limit the battlefield scope."
Encircling this forest clearly isn’t done with a few words; the scale of military, manpower, and resources needed is enormous.
Yet no one questioned or opposed; there was no hesitation, only firm resolution.
A necessary moment.
Even if it requires annihilating the entire forest!
Compared to the annihilation of civilization, it’s trivial. As long as humanity remains, recovery opportunities exist.
"I’ll handle the preliminary investigation," Shen Yu spoke up at this point, "Meteor monsters all have unique traits. Regardless, we still know nothing about the enemy as of now: how many, what traits, whether they’re rooted deep underground, if there’s potential for underground bypassing defenses, all need to be quickly comprehended, and if valuable attributes exist, we might trade for more support from allies."
"Alright." Several attendees visibly energize.
Fear isn’t due to the difficulty but being helpless and clueless.
As long as there’s clarity and hope, no challenge is insurmountable—just proceed.
This is one reason they called Shen Yu back.
The greatest hope lies with Shen Yu!
Previous worms and eye worms also rendered them helpless and near despair, yet now isn’t victory within sight?
Indeed, victory is underway!