Chapter 253: 250: The Greatest Miracle of Life in the World!
At the sight of that massive tail, Bi Fang realized at once what he had encountered.
A huge whale!
The raft fell into the water, splashing up a great deal of spray, and the craft rocked violently.
Bi Fang lowered his center of gravity, letting his body sway in sync with the raft, narrowly avoiding being thrown off; then he tensed up as if facing a great enemy, staring fixedly at the whale beneath the raft.
The audience was terrified by the sudden thrust of the whale just moments ago. Some even thought that an underwater volcanic eruption was about to send Bi Fang sky-high, only to realize it was just a nudge from the whale’s tail.
Wait, just a nudge from the whale’s tail!?
[Damn, that scared the piss out of me, I thought it was an earthquake!]
[Holy shit, that’s a huge whale, my goodness!]
[It doesn’t eat humans, right?]
[Beiming has a fish, and now this]
[Can Old Fang even handle a whale? It nearly flipped the raft just now, right?]
The raft had almost fallen apart a while ago; if the whale struck with its tail once more, facing the largest animal on Earth, everybody was on edge.
Out of the shark pack and into the whale’s mouth?
Bi Fang was silently sweating bullets himself; he had never been so close to a whale. Although he had seen them in his past life, it was from the safety of a boat, a good several dozen meters away!
But just now, he could have touched it with an outstretched hand!
No one could remain indifferent in the face of a creature dozens of meters long, a single opening of the whale’s mouth could swallow his small craft whole!
[By the way, I remember whales don’t usually eat people…]
“Whales don’t eat people, but that doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous! If it’s a toothed whale, if you anger them, they might chew you up before spitting you out!”
After showing its head, the whale rapidly vanished. Bi Fang lay beside the raft, staring intently at the ocean floor, trying to determine the type of whale since the situation had been too urgent earlier to get a clear look.
Looking at the calm sea surface, it was enough to trigger a maximum level of thalassophobia, fearing that a giant mouth might suddenly emerge from below and swallow the raft whole!
[Holy crap, are whales this scary?]
Bi Fang did not respond but instead waited for the whale to resurface, or hoped it would never appear again.
Unfortunately.
A whale’s call sounded again, and a giant head surfaced from the ocean, followed by a huge spray of water which formed a faint rainbow under the sunlight.
And at the moment the whale’s head appeared, Bi Fang’s suspended heart was somewhat relieved. It wasn’t a toothed whale, but a baleen whale, and the most widely known one at that.
“Blue Whale!”
The largest existing animal on Earth, its weight is equivalent to more than 25 African elephants, or the combined weight of 2,000-3,000 people!
Fifty people could stand on its tongue. Its heart is as big as a small car. An adult man could crawl through its arteries, and a newborn blue whale calf is heavier than an adult elephant.
In the first seven months of its life, a calf drinks 400 liters of mother’s milk, gaining 90 kilograms every 24 hours.
This is a miracle of life, the most enormous, most majestic animal!
[Holy shit, first time live-streaming a whale! Is this the Blue Whale?]
[My god, it’s so close! So big!]
[Can you use some other words, and not sound so uncultured, please?]
[Why don’t you say something cultured?]
[Holy crap, that’s insanely cool!]
[What kind of whale is that? Is it dangerous?]
Bi Fang was also stunned by the close encounter with the blue whale, his eyes wide open. He didn’t even notice the barrage of comments, and only thought to respond after the whale had dived back down.
“There might be a small chance, but it’s very low. Blue whales are baleen whales, and most baleen whales are generally docile, very docile like a granny next door.
But if it’s a toothed whale, then the danger is much higher. Toothed whales are mostly fierce and ferocious, and the sperm whale is one of them, so many creatures in the ocean don’t dare to provoke sperm whales.”
The blue whale had just nudged the raft, probably unintentionally. After all, with the blue whale’s massive size, it’s quite difficult to maintain distance, and his raft was just a tiny one.
Bi Fang lay at the edge of the raft, gaze eager.
He wanted to see the blue whale again. Such opportunities were rare, especially at such close range, practically face-to-face, which to someone like him who pursued thrilling adventures was the ultimate reward.
The audience, hearing there wasn’t much danger, were all excited as well.
Many people knew that blue whales were the largest whales in the world, yet had never seen one. Now, they were witnessing it together with Bi Fang, live-streamed, feeling the excitement of shared adventure.
The massive shadow of the whale moved under the water, making the raft above seem incredibly tiny.
As he watched the whale slowly swim by, Bi Fang suddenly seemed to remember something, his thoughts flashing through his mind like electricity, mapping out a picture of the Earth that linked into a line.
“The intersection of warm seawater and cold seawater is the perfect habitat for blue whales. Cold seawater is usually rich in plankton and krill, which are the main diet of blue whales. This coincides with the current sea area we’re in.”
“There are only two populations of blue whales in the North Atlantic. The first is around Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, estimated to be around 500.
The second is farther east, appearing around the Azores Archipelago in spring, and by July and August, they move to Iceland, navigating between these two volcanic islands along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The entire North Atlantic population ranges between 600 to 1500. Now it’s February, the end of winter and start of spring, so based on their migration patterns and timing, as well as me approaching the mainland, could my final destination be Ireland?”
Jerret looked at Pondy beside him, and Pondy looked back at Jerret.
Both of them simultaneously typed a question mark.
How the hell could he deduce that?
According to the drone’s GPS location, the closest land to Bi Fang indeed was Ireland!
His guess was correct!
Originally, Jerret thought that without paper or pen, and with the North Atlantic’s rough seas and constant drifting of the raft, it would be impossible for Bi Fang to determine his exact latitude and longitude in order to identify his location…
And you’re telling me he figured out where he is just by spotting a blue whale?
Even professionals were astonished, let alone the ordinary viewers. Although Bi Fang had made many remarkable achievements, identifying his location by seeing a blue whale truly shocked everyone.
[Production team, come out, is this for real?]
[Although I’ve always known Old Fang was awesome, this time it’s just too awesome!]
[Crap, he knows this too? That’s outrageous!]
[Damn, what’s his role this time? A biological researcher?]
The audience was overwhelmed with excitement. Such deductive methods were simply too cool.
In such a vast ocean, to encounter one of the thousand blue whales, how fortunate and thrilling that was!
Just then, the blue whale breached the surface. The whale broke through the water, sending a spout high into the sky. It stirred the sea with its long tail, leaving behind a transparent vortex over ten meters in diameter, its immense body creating thunderous sounds as it moved through the water.
This was a blue whale dozens of meters long, its underbelly patterned like gray-and-white clouds, a giant Kun in the sky!
Bi Fang stood on the raft, a smile on his face. This wasn’t knowledge granted by the System, but from his past life as an investigator, he had always been fascinated by blue whales, and he knew where every single group was located.
Land, not far now!