Infinite Hunter

The only pity is that apart from Martin, the witness, he has no other evidence to prove the existence of the megalodon - his academic reputation is probably not that high.

Cheng Yijiu had no interest in eating them at that time—they had little meat and lots of bones, too little fat, and too few calories to be worth it. As a giant shark reaching 64 feet in length, of course, he had no interest in such worthless prey—unless they swam right up to his mouth, in which case he might take a bite. But most of the time, he would spit them out after taking a bite because they were not tasty.

Cheng Yijiu went after the whales. He was like a herder, following his herd and occasionally eating one. The whales were heading north, along the warm currents where there was plenty of food. These whales weren't just preyed on by giant sharks like Cheng Yijiu, but also by orcas. These little creatures, less than half Cheng Yijiu's length, were also his prey.

Killer whales are able to and prefer to hunt great white sharks, not only because of ecological competition, but also because the great white shark's liver, rich in fat and nutrients, is one of the best nutritional supplements for killer whales. Furthermore, great white sharks are only half to one-third the size of killer whales, and killer whales have their own unique methods of dealing with great white sharks: biting their pectoral fins or knocking the shark over, which can cause it to fall unconscious, and then they can bite open its stomach and eat its liver.

When Cheng Yijiu approached the sea surface, even the killer whales quickly avoided him. This was the most intelligent animal, and of course it could correctly understand what kind of monster this was. This was the king of the ocean.

Indeed, some unlucky killer whales were attacked by Cheng Yijiu, using the same old trick of a surprise attack from below. However, Cheng Yijiu used the pod of whales as bait, attacking the pod of killer whales that had attacked the pod. Again, a single bite dealt a fatal blow, and the remaining killer whales fled, screaming in pain. Cheng Yijiu would periodically lose consciousness, and when he regained control, he would always find himself near the shoreline.

The consequence of being close to the coastline was the possibility of being discovered by humans. Of course, another consequence would likely be forcing him to attack humans and create an incident - after all, only when wild animals attacked would it be considered big news. Even if Cheng Yijiu's body was naturally super newsworthy, it would still be the same. If no one saw him, there would be no news or sensation. He would not only need to be witnessed, but also attack and survive to become famous.

That's what he did when he was the man-eating tiger of Bihar...

Cheng Yijiu knew this was probably the true meaning of the punishment plot: he was being forced to commit suicide. The last time the Bihar man-eating tiger was infamous, it became a legend in the animal world. There had been no one before, and there would probably be no one after. There would never be another tiger capable of devouring more than a thousand people. This time, Cheng Yijiu seemed to be forced to attack humans, but he was still ready to choose his next target.

For tigers, humans are decent prey; their meat is decent quality and they're plentiful and easy to catch. But for megalodon sharks, attacking humans isn't very cost-effective. Cheng Yijiu decided to attack the wealthy. Attacking poor fishermen isn't big news, but attacking a wealthy man's yacht is. Is there a wealthy man's yacht? Yes, but it's a little further north. A short distance north of Cheng Yijiu's current location would bring him into the waters near New York City.

New York City is home to many wealthy people, and naturally, there are also yachts and other things. Cheng Yijiu was planning to make a killing—not on the yachts of the wealthy, but rather on the crowded ferries. To do this, he had to endure the discomfort of entering freshwater and attacking the ferries on the Hudson and East Rivers. He didn't necessarily need to eat humans; simply attacking them would be a major news item. Furthermore, entering freshwater could effectively cleanse his body of parasites.

The water in New York Harbor was deep enough to hide Cheng Yijiu's massive frame. So, he swam toward the harbor, relying on his sense of smell—the diffuse scent guided him. Ordinary sharks didn't have the intelligence or the in-brain odor database to analyze it, but Cheng Yijiu had no problem; he had a memory for the smell of motor oil and man-made objects.

As expected, Matt's paper made some waves but then fell into obscurity. His paper was not recognized by the academic community - it seemed that such sightings of Megalodon were more appropriately classified as legends... There were urban legends all over the world about sightings of particularly large sharks, and there were even some "confirmed" disappearances attributed to giant sharks, but after investigation, the academic community generally believed that these were visual errors of the witnesses.

This is perfectly normal. It's difficult for the average person to accurately estimate an animal's size, especially if they're nervous and the animal is underwater. Human illusions often lead to seeing animals that appear larger, and even when several people are talking, they might see something that isn't there. Therefore, ordinary eyewitness testimony is completely unreliable. There's no physical evidence, and the few photos that were taken have been proven to be fake or simply flawed in perspective.

Matt's paper was just one new example of these urban legends. There was no evidence to prove that the man-eating great white shark was devoured by the larger megalodon, not even with Sheriff Martin's testimony. The only evidence that seemed to be of some use was that there had been no more shark attacks in Amity, and the shark that had killed several people had simply disappeared.

Fortunately, Matt hadn't become a laughing stock. His colleagues thought he had seen something, but most likely it was another great white shark, or perhaps he was so nervous that he saw a killer whale—perhaps an albino one—and mistook it for a great white shark. This made perfect sense, because the great white shark had just eaten a man in front of him, and he had stayed in the cage and entered the water to kill the shark. Instead, the shark hit the cage, causing it to deform, and he fled to the bottom of the sea in a hurry. He must have been extremely nervous, so it was completely understandable that he had seen it wrong.

But now, Matt might be on the verge of fame…

Chapter 11: Attack

Cheng Yijiu swam into New York Bay from the vast Atlantic Ocean. While the water seemed clear, Cheng Yijiu could only smell the heavy metal pollution—a strange, pungent, sweet smell. The feeling of water flowing through his gills made him a little uncomfortable. "I can't...stay here...for long." There were fish in this bay, and plenty of them.

He continued along the bay, and where the bend led to the river's mouth. It was now late at night, and Cheng Yijiu could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance as its massive dorsal fin emerged from the water. The giant shark lingered just outside the river's mouth, not entering the river until daybreak. Just outside the Statue of Liberty, a dorsal fin, more than a man's height, emerged from the water. The waters were vast, and Cheng Yijiu wasn't sure if anyone had seen him, but he had already chosen his target: a ferry.

Someone on the ferry had already seen the giant shark fin, and the entire ship was screaming. Cheng Yijiu's huge head had already emerged from the water and soon slammed heavily into the ferry from the side. This collision was actually very "gentle", because the megalodon was not made of steel. When it hit the iron ferry, it would also have to bear the reaction force, so it only grazed the ferry, but it also caused the ferry to vibrate.

The direction of Cheng Yijiu's impact force was from bottom to top, so after the vibration, the boat tilted... and Cheng Yijiu controlled his instinct to bite, and directly exposed his dorsal fin and part of his body to the water surface. After making a circle, he dived and ran away - he had to leave here immediately before humans caught up. As long as he left the estuary, there would be the trumpet-shaped Atlantic waterway, and it would be impossible to track him there.

New York City was abuzz. Although this wasn't the era of smartphones forty years later, there were still many witnesses, both on the ferry and on shore. Some even managed to snap photos—but only two or three skilled photographers managed to focus accurately in time to capture a clear image. The others only managed blurry images. The person who snapped the clear photo earned $20,000 straight away—several news stations and newspapers competed for it.

The news broke immediately, and newspapers published special editions—the entire paleontological community was quite excited. After all, megalodon had been extinct for two million years according to the fossil record, so its rediscovery was nothing short of miraculous. Of course, rumors of living dinosaurs resurfaced, but the American people weren't foolish enough at the time, so the rumors weren't that frivolous. The world was certainly shaken, but the shock only lasted a day or two.

People see photos on TV and say, "Oh, so megalodon is not extinct!"—and then forget about it after a while. Paleontology enthusiasts are a niche group, after all, and most people don't even know what a megalodon was, except that it was just a giant shark.

The New York attack left two people missing and twelve injured. The missing were thought to have been swallowed by a shark—after all, the creature in the photo was estimated to be at least twenty meters long, and its jaws stretched over two meters wide. Swallowing a few people was no big deal. Poor Matt was forgotten, and his paper contained no evidence that he had actually discovered the possibly extinct megalodon.

Yes, there's proof of Megalodon's survival, but so what? Matt, can you prove that what you saw was real? There are countless sightings like this. If you can't prove it, forget about writing a scientific paper. Just find someone to make up a story and maybe get it approved. So, Matt, the unlucky guy, is still the same...

After completing his mission, Cheng Yijiu entered the Atlantic Ocean. The question now remained: whether to pursue the whales northward or turn southward to the Caribbean Sea to hunt them. Both options remained open to him. Many people went out to sea to search for Cheng Yijiu. After all, there seemed to be only one megalodon, and no one knew what the situation was. But how could they find a giant shark in the vast Atlantic Ocean?

There's a mathematical approach—how fast can a shark swim? Allowing for a margin and factoring in the time since discovery gives a rough idea of ​​the shark's likely range. And since fossil records show that Megalodon primarily preyed on whales, one should focus on whale schools within that range. However, there's a problem: funding. American universities might contribute some, but the government definitely won't.

Monitoring every whale pod within this area? Just to find that giant shark? Is that even worth it? What's the point? "We just need to know the sharks are still there so we can keep looking for them later. Why waste money on this?"

So Cheng Yijiu was safe. He eventually headed north, chasing after the giant whales. He hunted the old, weak, and sick whales, but controlled his appetite. After killing a whale, he would devour as much fat and meat as possible to minimize waste. Therefore, Cheng Yijiu would only need to hunt once every two to three weeks. It took him more than three months to reach the frigid North Atlantic, near the Arctic Ocean.

The giant shark wasn't suited to the temperature here, so Cheng Yijiu planned to cross the Atlantic Ocean into the warm current, follow Europe into the Mediterranean, and perhaps even head south from Africa, across the Cape of Good Hope into the vast Indian Ocean, and then onto the Pacific. The title of "King of the Ocean" wasn't just a casual remark; in the absence of the Melville whale, Cheng Yijiu was an invincible monster in the ocean.

The huge shark smelled the scent of fresh whale blood. It swung its body and turned the direction of its nostrils. Soon Cheng Yijiu confirmed the direction of the blood. The huge shark quickly caught up with it. "Injured whale..."

The shark chased the bloody water. When it lifted its head above the surface, it saw a black-hulled ship. "Whaler?" Cheng Yijiu saw a Norwegian whaling ship. They had killed a baleen whale and were attempting to tow it aboard. The capstan and crane, controlled by the sailors, turned, slowly pulling the baleen whale from the red water onto a lowered chute.

At that moment, a massive, stubby shark head suddenly emerged from the water. This shark, no smaller than the baleen whale they had killed, viciously bit the whale's waist and abdomen and dragged it downward. The combined weight of the baleen whale and the shark snapped the chains holding the whale, and the broken chains even killed one man. The sailors screamed in terror, completely unsure of what to do.

Chapter 12: Sinking

The whale weighed over forty tons, and Cheng Yijiu weighed over eighty tons. His maw, nearly three meters wide, bit the whale's flesh and flesh, dragging the dead whale directly into the sea. Cheng Yijiu, clutching the whale, actually dived to the seabed. His impact caused the whaling ship to tilt violently, causing a large amount of seawater to flood into the chute originally used to tow the whale.

Then the boat suddenly jolted, a resounding crack echoing across the water. "Our boat has stopped! Damn it!" Cheng Yijiu bit the whale's carcass and pushed it toward the propeller. Although the propeller sliced ​​through its flesh, the whale's hard bones stuck to the propeller. Cheng Yijiu swung his tail, twisting his body to tear a large piece of flesh from the whale, and swallowed it amidst the crimson blood.

In the sea water, due to the violent tearing, a tooth larger than a palm slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

Beside the whaling ship, a massive shark fin emerged from the water, more than a man's height plowing through the sea, creating a trail of white foam in its wake. The sailors on board could even see its massive body through the water. Megalodon wasn't a slender, long shark; it was a stocky, powerful king of the ocean. Otherwise, how could a twenty-meter-long body weigh eighty tons?

Cheng Yijiu quickly continued to dive, and the torn whale carcass surfaced again. While on the surface, Cheng Yijiu had already seen the whale guns on the bow—people were working hard to adjust their direction, trying to use the whale guns to kill the shark. There was a problem: the shark had to be close to the surface, and if the shark approached from the back hemisphere, the whale guns would not be able to fire at all.

As for blocking the whale cannon? That's not something a carbon-based creature can do.

Whaling ships today were no longer made of wood, and Cheng Yijiu had no interest in biting steel with his teeth. However, he could use the whale's carcass as a battering ram, ramming the submerged hull. His blows were so powerful that they sent the whale spinning on the surface, and the welds on the hull unsurprisingly began to break. Seawater began to pour into the hull. The giant shark never appeared within range of the whaler's cannons; it always struck the ship from below.

Sharks don't need to surface to breathe like whales do, so even now the whaling ship has begun to tilt. The sailors pumped frantically, but no shark fins appeared above the surface. The fear beneath the surface had overwhelmed the men. They screamed and ran around, even drawing their weapons and firing at the surface. The pumps were useless because the impact continued. The whale's carcass shattered the hull, and cracks stretching over ten meters long appeared on both sides...

Finally, the collision came to an end, and the entire cabin was dead silent. Suddenly, there was a sound as if the outer hull was being polished by a cutting machine - it was the body of a shark swimming past the hull... The water in the cabin was already more than half a person deep. After hearing this sound, people abandoned the pump and fled to the deck frantically.

The whaler had signaled for help, but no rescue ship would arrive for at least an hour. The hull was already flooded with water, and the deck was less than a meter above the surface. The waves had already crashed onto the deck—and today, they were only gentle. A massive shark fin appeared from the stern. And not just the fin, but the shark's entire back was exposed, and its terrifying maw was visible.

Just as the shark approached, it dove again. Seconds later, the seawater exploded, and the massive shark leaped to its feet. Sailors knew and had seen great white sharks leap from the surface to attack seals. But a shark this massive... they finally saw its full form, perhaps fifty or sixty meters long... at least that's what many survivors later reported.

The shark passed over the bow, carrying away the whaling gun... The impact deformed the bow. The ship began to sink rapidly, and everyone rushed to the lifeboat. They prayed to the Virgin Mary, praying that the shark would not eat people. With the plump whale, a shark that big wouldn't eat people... The lifeboat was then torn in half by its massive jaws. All on board, except for the three people at the bow, disappeared into the sea, leaving only fragments of wood floating on the surface...

Cheng Yijiu didn't eat them. He opened his mouth and let the water wash away the contents of his mouth, with only a small amount going down his throat. Unlike when he was a tiger, human flesh and blood didn't feel good in his mouth, and it didn't put him into that "auto-eating" state. However, this didn't stop Cheng Yijiu from chewing most of the lifeboats. On the other hand, those who jumped into the sea wearing life jackets were fine - although they were scared half to death.

Only two people had been swallowed by Cheng Yijiu—those wearing life jackets. Of the forty or so people on the lifeboat, fewer than ten remained. Cheng Yijiu swam away, continuing to chase the whales toward the European continent—his direction was southeast. The rescue boats arrived late, and there weren't just one, but three—because the sailors' cries were so devastating when they called the police.

The captain, first officer, and others were already dead. The highest-ranking survivor was the chief engineer... Of the 68 crew members, 23 survived. Around 40 were killed by sharks, and several died of hypothermia. This incident is outrageous. This isn't the 17th or 18th century, when such incidents would have occurred on whaling ships. This is the 1970s...

This is an exaggeration. The mega-shark attack killed 45 people. Of course, the shark wasn't the 60 meters the survivors claimed. Experts later estimated it was probably around 20 meters—tooth marks are still visible on the whale's carcass. The existence of the megalodon is now a scientific fact. Based on historical distribution, this shark should exist in all oceans except the Arctic.

Cheng Yijiu was already nearing the European continent. He might follow the warm continental current southward, perhaps even into the Mediterranean. However, the most suitable location was still the Pacific Ocean—that would require following the African coastline southward and around the Cape of Good Hope, a long journey. The giant shark swam proudly near the surface, its warm waters preventing it from starving too quickly.

The whales here are not big in size, so it is not easy to catch them. Therefore, Cheng Yijiu now needs to expand his diet. The fat-rich creatures in the ocean are not just whales, but also walruses and seals...

Chapter 13 Blackmail

Among the seals are leopard seals and elephant seals. These two pinnipeds, members of the family Phocidae, can reach enormous sizes, with leopard seals reaching over 4.5 meters and elephant seals reaching 6.5 meters. Male elephant seals, in particular, can weigh up to 3.6 tons, more than enough for Cheng Yijiu's giant shark. There's just one problem—there are no elephant seals along the European coast...

As a result, this terrifying giant shark could only try to hunt seals, which were little more than a snack for him. Dolphins swam too fast for him to catch, but there should still be some whales, so Cheng Yijiu should be able to starve for a while. This giant shark, using his human brain, could still find another way... "Attack those fishing boats... Maybe we can tear open the holds where they store their catch and get some food."

He acted immediately. The fishing boats he attacked must be small or medium-sized. Cheng Yijiu patrolled the sea and found his prey off the coast of Spain. He thought carefully and decided that the Mediterranean might not be an option because he might not be able to pass through the Suez Canal. However, he could still take the risk because the Suez Canal had no locks and the water was deep enough to hide his body. Perhaps he could enter the Red Sea through the canal.

This was much faster than his plan to travel south along Europe and then around the Cape of Good Hope from the west coast of Africa into the Indian Ocean. This giant shark also wanted to reach the vast western Pacific Ocean sooner. In fact, another route he could take was to turn north, take the Arctic Ocean route, cross the Bering Strait and enter the Pacific Ocean... "It's too cold." This was Cheng Yijiu's thought. Megalodon was not a shark that could adapt well to cold waters.

Even though there are quite a few whales there...

Megalodon originally thrived in the Pacific-Caribbean Sea—in the distant past, Central America lay beneath the surface, connected by a strait. This area served as a convenient passage for whales to cross the oceans. For tens of millions of years, whales bred and evolved here, their comings and goings like a swarm of crucian carp. It was this unique environment that gave rise to the evolution of the king of the ocean, the megalodon.

Therefore, Cheng Yijiu is more suited to those warm waters. Unfortunately, human whaling has continued for hundreds of years, and the number of whales has dropped to an unprecedented low. Conservation efforts cannot quickly restore the population... As a result, Cheng Yijiu's food is quite difficult to obtain. So don't blame him for attacking fishing boats. Cheng Yijiu can already smell the odor seeping from the cracks in the hull, the smell of fat from the plump, ruptured fish...

Juan Carlos and his companions worked the boat together. They were exhausted after a night's work, but their spirits were high—they had a good catch, and everyone was calculating their share of the profits upon their return. They were especially happy because they had even caught tuna, which, after being bled and quickly frozen into the warehouse, was worth a fortune.

Everyone was excitedly anticipating their return to the dock. The captain had already radioed the dock company, and once they arrived, bids would be waiting—these were the freshest catches. "How long will it take?" someone asked impatiently. Carlos glanced at the sky. "About two hours, I think." Then he took a cigarette from a coworker and happily lit it.

Carlos leaned against the side of the boat, squinting his eyes as he watched the sea surface after the sun emerged. The specks of red light gradually turned golden. He had seen the sun rise many times, but the scenery that followed was probably something he had never seen in his life... Faintly, among the golden specks, he seemed to see something. Carlos adjusted his angle to avoid the reflected sunlight in his eyes, and this time he saw clearly...

It was a dorsal fin, unprecedentedly large, lazily swaying, trailing white foam behind it. It swung from side to side, then circled and pointed directly at the fishing boat. Carlos' cigarette fell directly into the sea. He clucked like a chicken with its neck stepped on, stumbling backwards, losing his balance and falling backward, dragging his coworker, whose back was turned, with him.

"Hey! What's wrong with you? Holy Mother Mary!" Several workers supported Carlos. They had also seen what Carlos saw, and as the distance quickly closed, they could see it even more clearly... The huge dorsal fin seemed to be taller than the side of their boat, so close that it seemed they could reach out and grab it... Some people were already kneeling on the ground, kissing their crosses and praying to the Virgin Mary...

The collision struck, shoving the entire ship sideways, sending nearly everyone tumbling to the deck. "Speed ​​off! Go as fast as you can! Damn it!" someone yelled. But they were a fishing boat, a fully loaded one at that. How fast could they possibly go? A second collision sent the boat tilting again. For some reason, everyone's hearing suddenly became incredibly sharp—everyone could hear the hull crack beneath them.

Water was pouring into the bottom of the ship.

The boat slowed down, its turns became more sluggish, and its massive dorsal fin circled the boat almost in a mocking motion. Was there anything on board that could harm Cheng Yijiu? No… This wasn't a whaling ship, and there was nothing there that could harm Cheng Yijiu—unless they wanted to entangle him in a trawl and drown him… but that had no effect on Cheng Yijiu. The massive shark peered through the water, assessing the success of its attack.

The bottom of the boat had cracked, and seawater was rapidly pouring into the hull. Soon they would lose power due to the water inflow. The next thing Cheng Yijiu had to think about was how to tear the hull apart and then find a way to open the freezer and eat the fish inside. Fortunately, the smart people on the boat helped him solve this problem. "Open the freezer and throw the fish in! We need to reduce the weight! Send a few people down to pump out the water! Damn it, otherwise we will all be finished!"

Tuna worth a fortune were thrown into the sea, and fish kept on ice in the bottom tank were pulled out and thrown directly into the sea... Their movements were so fast and frantic that they completely forgot the pain of muscle strain caused by the amplitude of their movements. Cheng Yijiu was very satisfied. He didn't intend to sink the ship, after all, but he was pleased that these people were so smart. Of course, the people on the boat also saw the owner of the dorsal fin emerge from the sea, which spurred them to move faster.

It was a sharp, yet very short "face." Carlos and his companions had seen many great white sharks, many other sharks, but never one so stout, with such a wide mouth, and such a massive body... A tuna, more than a man's length, vanished in that mouth in the blink of an eye, not even being chopped into pieces. Similarly, Cheng Yijiu was devouring the fallen fish in huge gulps.

The giant dorsal fin disappeared from the sea within half an hour, and Carlos and his crew also surpassed their standard in that half an hour by throwing almost all of their catch back into the sea. Combined with the damage to the boat, the loss was devastating - but they survived...

Chapter 14 Pacific Ocean

It was four hours later that Carlos and his companions returned to the port. The sun was already emitting endless heat. The fishing boat was docking very awkwardly, with its side only a foot away from the water surface... Almost everyone on the dock was asking what was going on, and Carlos and his companions were crying and laughing, and they managed to explain the situation roughly amidst their nonsense.

When they heard that a huge shark attacked the fishing boat, no one doubted that they were suffering from collective hysteria, because there was solid evidence - the broken hull and the water-filled hull could prove it, and their catch was almost lost, except for the only tuna in the cold storage that had not been thrown away... Finally, they got back a little bit of their money.

Carlos and his friends enjoyed one benefit: many people were willing to buy them a drink in the bar just to listen to their story... When the ship was being repaired, the workers also said that it was very lucky that the ship could come back.

The hull was cracked, with parallel cracks several meters long, enough to fit a palm in. There were at least hundreds of tons of water in the hull. If the pumps hadn't been working perfectly and the power hadn't been maintained, the ship would have sunk long ago.

Cheng Yijiu had already passed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean. This warm and tranquil ocean has been a center of human activity since ancient times, and numerous ancient civilizations have been located along its shores. The giant shark swam along the coastline of North Africa. In waters hundreds of meters deep, it discovered traces of man-made structures.

Cheng Yijiu's mental activity was limited; he couldn't recall the style of these man-made structures. A massive shark accidentally collapsed an archway, stirring up a cloud of sand on the murky seabed. Attacking fishing boats in the Mediterranean was more appropriate; it was much easier than chasing whales.

There are no whales in the Mediterranean, only dolphins, and there aren't many fish in the Mediterranean, so the giant sharks have to attack fishing boats. Fishermen along the North African coast are all small boats, so there's no way they can go back and say they were attacked by giant sharks. Cheng Yijiu can usually easily overturn or crush these fishing boats and then get food from the sunken boats.

Don't be too demanding; even fishermen can accept meat these days. Cheng Yijiu didn't look back and didn't visit any tourist destinations—there were enough beach resorts in North Africa to replenish his nutrients. In short, the situation was chaotic, and shark attacks increased exponentially this year.

Most of the fishermen's attacks were inconclusive, as no one survived and no one knew what happened. However, the disappearance of tourists at the beach resort was most likely caused by sharks - some people saw the shark's dorsal fin, but they were too far away to see its size.

Cheng Yijiu was very careful not to get too close to the coastline, and his activities were always in waters at least a hundred meters deep. Although giant sharks had attacked many people and fishing boats, there was no evidence to prove that they were the work of the megalodon in the 1970s.

Going out to sea is inherently a dangerous thing.

Cheng Yijiu crossed the Mediterranean and arrived at the entrance to the Suez Canal. He hid in the middle of the waterway and quietly passed through the canal, even enduring hunger. There were no unusual incidents in the Red Sea. Cheng Yijiu only began his killing spree after entering the Indian Ocean. The waters near this continent were quite safe for him, as the countries on the continent were backward, and their fishing boats were just small snacks. These fishing boats could not leave the shore very far, generally operating in the waters within 100 to 200 meters, or at most one kilometer, of the shore.

Cheng Yijiu did not track the whales in the Indian Ocean. He first set his sights on the fishermen who were the easiest to obtain but not tasty. No one really cared about the lives of these fishermen - except for their families, local bureaucrats did not care about their lives at all.

The shark vomited up indigestible debris—from clothing to bones, from shattered ship hulls to metal signs. Hunting fishermen was a far cry from his whale hunting. Fortunately, he was about to enter the whales' hunting grounds. In the vast waters of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, there was plenty of food.

Cheng Yijiu followed the warm currents, and in Japan, he found a perfect hunting ground. The scent of cetacean blood, which Cheng Yijiu loved, permeated the bay, where giant sharks swam, searching for a suitable target. This was the hunting ground for fishermen, who set out before dawn each day. Cheng Yijiu had become quite adept at attacking fishing boats—depending on their size, he would attempt to capsize them.

Shimada is a powerful figure in the local fishing association. He has several boats under his command. Every day, he takes his fleet out to sea to fish, and the fish he catches always sell for a high price. Sometimes they catch minke whales, which can be sold to processing plants - many people still like to eat whale meat.

The real high-priced goods were tuna and sea bream. Shimada, just as he had in years past, steered the boat from the cockpit—as a veteran and a powerful figure, he had his own secret, exclusive waters. Anyone attempting to enter or follow him would likely suffer a shipwreck, and someone might drown.

The giant shark had excellent eyesight, and it was sizing up its prey. The shark's attack was almost vertical, and Cheng Yijiu pushed the fishing boat upwards. The immense kinetic energy of its eighty-ton body lifted the boat up and then plunged it heavily into the sea, causing the entire boat to tilt sideways.

Several crew members working on the deck fell cleanly into the sea. Shimada struggled to escape through the open door in the cockpit—if he had been thrown upside down into the sea, he would have been doomed. Now, thanks to the ship's reserve buoyancy, he might be able to right himself or float upside down at sea, and the other boats would be enough to rescue him.

But he saw a massive shark fin protruding from the water dozens of meters away, a dorsal fin taller than a man, rapidly approaching—well, Shimada peed himself, his crotch clearly feeling hot in the seawater. Everyone frantically scrambled to the bottom of the overturned boat, knowing it was mostly futile.

As the shark's fin approached, its upper body gradually emerged from the water, revealing its ferocious, sturdy frame, its enormous mouth, and its terrifying fangs. Shimada climbed onto the bottom of the boat, but as he watched the shark, almost larger than his boat, swim past, his men were gone...

He had no weapons in his hands and was terrified. He waved and shouted to the other boats to come and rescue him! At this time, the shark circled in the distance and swam back...

Chapter 15 Hokkaido

Not all the boats came to the rescue. One turned and sped away, even throwing away tools from the deck to outrun them. "Kojiro! You idiot! Die!" Shimada roared from the bottom of the boat. But that was it. If he didn't make it back alive, there would be no punishment. The shark fin turned, toward the fleeing Kojiro. Shimada, after all, was the boss, laughing wildly as he hurriedly urged the rescue boats to hurry.

"Xiaojirou, you are such a loyal man! I was wrong!" Shimada shouted as the shark fins were getting closer and closer to the fishing boat, praying that Xiaojirou could take the sharks further away... Cheng Yijiu didn't have any special intentions. The atmosphere on these boats was relatively old, and these people had just set out to sea and hadn't opened yet. He chased these guys purely for fun.

Sharks may be a bit curious, but their intelligence isn't enough to even consider "fun"—that's just Cheng Yijiu's own opinion. So, Shimada and the others were out of luck. Cheng Yijiu quickly closed in on the fleeing Kojiro ship—he was simply interested in this guy moving in a different direction than everyone else. The shark, having no intention of attacking the stern, was tangled up in the propeller and flew over the stern, striking the front of the ship.

Cheng Yijiu took advantage of the situation and took a bite. The impact, combined with the huge gaping hole in the shark's jaws, caused the boat to capsize and sink rapidly. As for the fishermen, Cheng Yijiu had no intention of eating them—they weren't enough to fill his stomach, so he'd wait until he was extremely hungry. After the massive shark sank the boat, its fin didn't surface again, but instead quickly approached the rescue fleet underwater.

Due to the angle, the crew couldn't see the massive shark underwater, but they knew it could appear at any moment, and their fear was so intense that their movements became distorted. Those who could pull themselves up in seconds slipped, fell, or even became so exhausted from the tension that they couldn't pull themselves up for several minutes. The same was true for climbing. Fear made their hands and feet so weak that they could climb the side of the boat in a few steps, but now it took them over a minute to get up.

"Hurry up! Hurry up!" Shimada wasn't much of a character, but he was still a fellow gang member, so he had to show some respect by letting a few of his brothers climb first. Then, he ignored the others and began climbing himself. The massive impact lifted the entire boat out of the sea, sending everyone aboard and those climbing flying like flowers from the sky. Those who hadn't had time to climb, seeing the massive shark head, some fainted out of fear.

Cheng Yijiu left. He didn't launch further attacks, but it seemed a few people were unlucky enough to be subconsciously bitten by him in the collision. That was just bad luck, but the massive teeth and hydraulic bite probably didn't cause much pain. Another ship escaped, but the last one persisted in rescuing everyone it could—including Shimada.

The shark didn't reappear, and after rescuing the people, they fled back to the harbor at full speed. Only when they touched the ground did everyone breathe a sigh of relief and collapse to the ground, unable to move. Those who saw them later said they had seen a ghost. The immense fear left indelible marks on their faces, and the muscle spasms made them look like ghosts.

Many people's hair has turned white...

Shimada spotted the boat that had arrived earlier and, enraged, was about to rush over and chop down the fleeing ship, but was stopped. "Did you encounter a shark bigger than a whale?" someone from the fishing association asked. Finally, someone drew a shark, but the proportions were definitely distorted. In their drawings, Cheng Yijiu must have been forty or fifty meters long... The entire fleet lost three boats and six people were missing, presumably eaten by the shark.

The news hit the headlines, with the island nation's news channels reporting on the incident relentlessly. Suddenly, news of Cheng Yijiu, the megalodon, became incredibly popular. Japan's economy was booming, and the Japanese people, including their youth, were still passionate about nature. It seemed like news of extinct creatures reappearing, or sea monsters appearing, was exactly what they loved. It had already been a hot topic before, but that was in New York, and this time, it had appeared in the Sea of ​​Japan.

Was it the same megalodon? Marine biologists find it unlikely, as their limited knowledge suggests a shark wouldn't travel such a great distance... And if there was only one megalodon—does one have to assume that it was the only one left for millions of years? There must have been a population, and the latest "excavation evidence" suggests that megalodon likely existed as recently as 500,000 years ago.

Of course, some paleontologists claim that their Megalodon tooth fossils, when examined, are only 10,000 years old, implying that this shark existed 10,000 years ago. They were once ridiculed, but now irrefutable evidence proves that this king of the ocean exists even now, not just 10,000 years ago. Unfortunately, aside from a few photos in New York and a few crude drawings by some Japanese, no one has ever seen the full extent of this shark.

There was a man, but he had become a joke before.

Cheng Yijiu roamed the fishing grounds of Hokkaido, which not only boasted abundant fish but also abundant whales, sufficient for his food. Cheng Yijiu's whale hunting was restrained, focusing primarily on destroying whaling ships. Commercial whaling was practiced by a handful of Nordic countries and Japan; as for Eskimo whaling, it wasn't considered commercial and had no impact on whale populations.

After their first whale capture, Japanese whaling ships would often attract Cheng Yijiu—his sense of smell would lead him to the bleeding whale, and once he saw the whaler, he'd understand exactly what it was, and then simply attack. Attacking a whaler was easy; all it took was repeated ramming into its bottom, causing widespread desoldering and cracking—and in the process, interrupting its operations, allowing Cheng Yijiu to replenish precious energy.

These people would also become extremely frightened and nervous. Cheng Yijiu wasn't a whale; he didn't need to surface to breathe. Therefore, if he attacked underwater, the whale guns would be completely useless. And the whaler wasn't a warship; it wasn't designed to resist sinking, and it wouldn't have many watertight compartments. If it took on a lot of water, it would just list. If it continued, it would sink. Cheng Yijiu would finish these poor people off in the water. He wasn't going to eat them, though. Who would want to eat these people when there were fat whales?