"The director is amazing, he immediately pinpointed the crux of the problem."
"This is a simple principle, right? Most animals have their own hunting radius, so it's normal for these water monsters to have one too."
"Simple it may be, but those experts and professors didn't think of it."
"Progress unlocked 45%. All that's left is to find those water monsters."
"I'm really looking forward to seeing what those water monsters look like, and where they came from."
....
While the audience in the livestream chat was buzzing with discussions, the production crew also quickly boarded their boats and headed towards the location where clues were found.
The place where the clues were found was, of course, arranged by Yang Lin himself, specifically to lure them there.
Ten minutes later, the crew, on their boats, arrived at the backwater bay where traces of water monsters were discovered.
Due to it being a backwater bay, the river's erosion here was exceptionally severe, and a large amount of garbage would accumulate here.
Therefore, as soon as the crew approached, they were met with a foul odor.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this that Ming Group had thought of burying the sewage pipes here.
"Wow, it smells so bad here. Why would the water monsters choose to make their nest here?"
"Yeah, is there something special about this place?"
In response to the staff's question, Director Chen from the Aquatic Research Institute immediately explained:
"This is a backwater bay, where plankton is relatively dense, thus attracting many small fish and shrimp. These small fish and shrimp, in turn, attract other aquatic creatures."
"It's natural that the water monsters would choose this place as their nest, having noticed this."
"So that's how it is."
After hearing Director Chen's explanation, everyone suddenly had a moment of realization.
"No wonder those anglers like to fish in this kind of terrain. So that's the principle behind it."
"That's not right. I'm a local fishing enthusiast from Ningnan City, and I know this place. It's notoriously bad in our circles. No matter how good your bait is, you won't catch any fish here."
"I spent a whole day here last time and didn't even catch a single minnow. I was completely empty-handed."
"I'm also a fisherman from Ningnan, and I can attest to this. This place is very strange. You can catch anything but fish here. Last time, I even reeled in an urn of ashes."
"Isn't that a contradiction? Then why would the water monsters choose such a place?"
Just as the netizens in the livestream chat were expressing doubt about Director Chen's words, Professor Xu on the other side had already walked up to the traces left by the water monsters.
On a stretch of smooth sand, seven or eight large fish, each weighing about ten pounds, were left abandoned.
All these fish had one thing in common: most of their flesh had been bitten off their torsos.
Looking at the fine bite marks, everyone's scalp tingled.
This was because it was common knowledge that most native fish species in Long Country had no teeth. Only a few fish species possessed teeth.
And these fish were generally not large in size, so the possibility of the water monsters being large fish could basically be ruled out.
"This footprint..." Professor Xu, who was observing the traces, suddenly froze, looking at the footprints left on the ground.
Before he could speak, Yang Lin, who was beside him, interjected, "It looks like it was left by a giant salamander."
As soon as he finished speaking, Professor Xu nodded.
"It looks like it to me too. But this one footprint is as big as my palm. If it were a giant salamander, it would probably be five or six meters long and weigh several tons."
"How could there be such a giant salamander in the world?"
"And looking at the footprints, it should have six legs on each side. How could there be a six-legged reptile in this world?"
As soon as Professor Xu finished speaking, the expressions of everyone present became solemn.
Up to this point, almost all the evidence suggested to them that the water monsters were not any species they were familiar with.
If this were the ocean, it might be understandable, but this was inland.
On the entire inland, whether it was virgin forests or great rivers, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that there was no creature undiscovered by humans.
Even if there were, they would be relatively small creatures.
How a giant water monster like this had escaped human observation was the key point that puzzled everyone.
Unless it was a newly born species, but that was even more preposterous.
This problem almost fried the CPUs of the two professors.
Just as the two professors were racking their brains, Yang Lin, who was pretending to observe the ground, suddenly spoke.
"What if these so-called water monsters are just ordinary creatures, but they mutated into monstrous forms due to certain external factors?"
As soon as Yang Lin said this, everyone's gaze turned towards him.
The two professors shook their heads repeatedly.
"Impossible. Evolution and mutation are not so easily achieved. Unless it's very severe environmental pollution, or nuclear radiation, it's difficult to mutate in such a short period."
"Yes, Xiao Yang, we are very clear about this."
Clearly, the two experts did not quite agree with Yang Lin's view.
However, the netizens on the other side were different.
"I think Director Yang's point is valid. If it's not an alien creature, then it's a local creature that has mutated."
"Not long ago, I found a three-legged frog in the pond back home. It was probably because the villagers often washed their pesticide sprayers in there."
"The chickens born at a farm near my place had three legs. I heard they were affected by radiation."
"These kinds of things have been happening more and more in recent years, right? Like cows with two heads, pigs with one eye, they're all more or less affected by the environment."
"Let alone animals, there are many cases of human deformities too. In this environment, genetic mutations are completely normal."
"Aren't there a bunch of people with three eyes on Douyin? Aren't those all 'quirky breeds'?"
"Exactly, exactly. I used to stay up too late surfing the internet, and my son's DNA mutated and didn't match mine. Fortunately, my wife didn't dislike me."
"Dude upstairs, are you serious? I was wondering why my son looked less and less like me. Turns out it was a genetic mutation too."
"Damn, why are all your bullet comments green."
.......
Just as the netizens were hotly discussing the possibility raised by Yang Lin, Yang Lin suddenly pointed at the river water in front of them and said,
"I think it's possible that the river water is severely polluted, which has caused serious mutations in those aquatic creatures."
"How about we test the water quality?"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone present also turned their gaze to the river water.
From this angle, it seemed like they had never considered it before.