Although it was still the early days of the apocalypse and the strength of these Steel-toothed Sharks wouldn't skyrocket too dramatically even after Super Evolution, their change in size alone posed an absolute danger, even without any new abilities.
In a sense, size represented combat power—not to mention that Super Evolution also brought an enhancement to their skills.
By then, attacking targets high above the water would be a simple task. Even though Mo Shao could fly, she wouldn't gain much of an advantage.
“Then what should we do?” After gaining a brief understanding of the situation, everyone instinctively turned their gaze toward Mo Shao.
“We still have to sail. Otherwise, we’ll be trapped here to death tonight,” Mo Shao stated her decision with certainty.
“But isn’t sailing just looking for death?”
“Take the speedboats and push them to their limit.”
Mo Shao looked at the speedboats on the sea. The sharks had prioritized attacking the wooden boats where people were clearly visible, while the speedboats hadn't been targeted much.
Furthermore, their fuel tanks were full. Previously, the survivors had relied on Redstone for propulsion, but its output was insufficient, making them move at about the same speed as the wooden boats.
After all, the number of fuel barrels was limited. Even if the gas station on the island offered infinite fuel, returning there was a massive hassle.
...In the end, they hadn't expected that trying to save fuel would lead to such trouble.
...
Mo Shao shared her idea and then turned to Zhang Xiao, the math teacher. “Is this feasible?”
She asked because Zhang Xiao was responsible for data statistics within the team, and he had indeed been doing an excellent job.
“For that... let me check the data.” Zhang Xiao pushed his glasses up, flipped open a notebook, and began calculating in front of everyone.
“Minecraft boats travel at 8 meters per second, which is 28.8 kilometers per hour. We won't consider the jet skis; their carrying capacity is too low.”
“I’ve experimented with the speedboats. With a full tank of five barrels, cruising at a slow speed of 65 km/h, they can cover 8 kilometers.”
“Cruising at 80 km/h, they can cover about 6 kilometers. If we push them to their limit of 90 km/h, they can only cover about 4 kilometers.”
“We have ten boats left, each with five barrels of fuel. To cover the distance, the three modes would require an additional 75, 117, and 200 barrels respectively.”
(The protagonist’s own boat was useless at this time, as there wasn't enough fuel.)
“We have a total of 135 barrels.” Zhang Xiao sighed, offering a helpless conclusion: “It seems we can only choose the first option.”
“Wouldn't the second option be better?” Teacher Yuan asked, seeming somewhat puzzled.
“We have too many people, which will affect the speed.” Zhang Xiao shook his head, ignoring Teacher Yuan's subtle hint and laying everything out clearly.
“However, the first option is actually sufficient. These sharks travel at a speed of roughly 40 km/h.”
(I searched for data for a long time but couldn't find a definitive answer. Finally, I watched some cartoons and managed to roughly derive this figure.)
“I can provide Redstone blocks,” Mo Shao added from the side. The output of a Redstone block was much stronger than Redstone dust.
A single Redstone block alone would be enough to power a speedboat at 50 km/h indefinitely... Perhaps she should have brought these out earlier.
Maybe if they had traveled faster, the probability of encountering the Steel-toothed Sharks would have been lower, and they wouldn't have to deal with this mess now.
Well, she really did need to look further ahead in the future. Because of this, she had lost so much human resource capital that owed her favors!
...
“In that case, by combining the two, we should be able to choose the second option,” Zhang Xiao said, his voice brightening with hope.
“...Then how should we divide the teams?” Although Teacher Yuan felt slightly displeased, he didn't show it.
“Each speedboat has a limit of 15 passengers. Any more and it will capsize. Considering potential emergencies, 12 is the ideal number.”
Zhang Xiao gave his conclusion: “Then, each speedboat will use Leads to tow 18 wooden boats. That will provide enough space for everyone.”
“Now there’s only one question left—who will sit in the wooden boats?” He finally tossed out the most piercing conflict and fell silent.
While theoretically, those in the wooden boats would also be safe, that was only the best-case scenario.
The sharks wouldn't simply chase from behind; they could very well block the path directly ahead.
And don’t forget, the Steel-toothed Shark's skill set included a special attribute-boosting ability—Agility.
Therefore, those in the wooden boats at the back were destined to be in great danger.
...
“...” After a brief silence, the group quickly fell into chaos, with all sorts of noisy arguments erupting.
Moral kidnapping, threats of force, distribution of interests, comparisons of value... To survive, everyone was practically exhausting their voices.
“Sigh...” Watching the scene before her, Little Ka ultimately just sighed and shook her head, retreating to the edge of the platform with Mo Shao.
This was not something she should get involved in, and the same went for Mo Shao.
They could take the initiative to step in and save people just now, but this kind of life-or-death conflict was not their place to manage.
Neither of them was the type of talent who could lead a large organization, nor did they know how to engage in these pointless moral debates with these people.
Everyone had their own reasons, and no one could convince anyone else. According to Mo Shao's experience...
All words eventually had to boil down to a decision backed by force.
Ultimately, the core team led by Wu Yingzhe took complete control of the situation and arrived at a final plan.
As a whole, ordinary people would sit in the back, while Dead-binders would be on the speedboats. Among the Dead-binders, the strong would be in the front, and the weak would be in the back.
This was the most logical choice from a perspective of 'value.'
...
While the decision was being made, many ordinary people looked toward Mo Shao, seemingly wanting to beg for help.
Mo Shao's response... was that she and Little Ka had already turned invisible.
Should she have made the Dead-binders sit in the back and the ordinary people sit in the front? On what grounds? Were the lives of Dead-binders not lives too?
Just because Dead-binders were stronger than ordinary people?
In this situation, the survival capability of most Dead-binders was no different from that of ordinary people; they were dead if they were caught.
Only a few very strong Dead-binders had decent survival capabilities—but how many of them were willing to give up their spots?
In fact, the number of Dead-binders now exceeded the number of ordinary people—after all, most of the ordinary people had already perished in the sea.
The most Mo Shao could do was see if she could save a few people along the way during the escape.
“Ultimately, we lack the ability,” Little Ka said, her expression looking slightly sorrowful.
“We’ve already done our best,” Mo Shao comforted her casually, then added a word of encouragement: “We’ll just have to work harder to become stronger in the future.”
If Mo Shao were strong enough right now, she could have directly treated the entire gas station as an Island and moved it intact into the Wilderness.
That way, they wouldn't have to worry about these fuel issues, and her own fleet could have been deployed, solving the capacity problem.
She had originally planned to develop in Seven Hills City for a while before returning to the sea island to perform that maneuver. Now, she could only say that the plans hadn't kept up with the changes.
Just as Little Ka had said—ultimately, their ability was lacking.
Rate on N.U.
