Blue Star Survival Project: Animal Edition

In 1854, New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA.

This port town, which is only 80 kilometers away from Boston, prospered with the whaling industry, and the sailors and merchants who came and went supported countless taverns in the town.

It was late at night, and the lights were still on in a tavern with "Spermwhale" on the signboard. The proprietress was already feeling a little sleepy, and she opened the door to wake herself up. (Note: Spermwhale is the English word for "sperm whale".)

Sailors shouted in the distance, the whaling ship returned with a full load, and they were sending the barrels of whale oil on the ship to the processing factory on the shore overnight. These raw materials will eventually be processed into industrial lubricants and lighting fuels, and shipped to the world everywhere.

The salty sea breeze was mixed with the rancid stench from the giant beasts in the deep sea. The proprietress frowned and closed the door of the tavern.

"How's your income this time?"

She asked the man sitting at the table drinking alone, this is the last guest for tonight.

The oil lamp filled with whale oil burns quietly, and the dim light outlines the man's thin face. Four years of wandering at sea made him look like a thick-haired savage. His blue eyes were lost in the shadows.

"God bless, we caught more than 300 whales this time, and we can definitely make a lot of money! You can see my name, Ethan Sparrow, in the newspaper tomorrow."

"I heard that you led those sailors along the mid-Atlantic ridge all the way to Hawaii Island in the Pacific Ocean. It was expected to come back in two years, but the time doubled. They are secretly cursing you."

"This group of guys haven't always been like this. They say bad things and take money."

Ethan smiled contemptuously, and casually played with the sperm whale tooth in his hand, on which a whaling ship was carved with delicate knives, which was his "Spyro".

"Then how long are you going to stay here this time? Sailors also need to go ashore to rest."

The proprietress sat down at the table at some point, with a sweet voice and winking eyes.

"Whales are getting harder and harder to catch now. I heard that a new thing called kerosene has appeared in the UK. Burning it can also light up. It will become more and more difficult to do business in the future."

"Now the "Spyro" needs to be repaired, and I'm going to purchase a batch of new weapons, and recruit a few new sailors by the way. The next time I go to sea should be five years from now. I won't do this job after finishing this ticket."

Ethan stretched out his hand to embrace the woman beside him, and said in a frivolous tone, "I'm going to New York to discuss business in two days, do you want to come with me?"

"I can't ask for it."

The flame burning on the whale oil danced for a moment, then was extinguished, and there were murmurs from the tavern upstairs, which drifted into the night with the wind.

At the same time, in the Great Shoal waters 200 kilometers away from Newfoundland, Sheng opened his eyes in the darkness.

His memory still stayed on the red horned owl with night vision, so when he found that he couldn't see anything, he was at a loss for a while.

The system showed up in a timely manner.

"Congratulations on your successful crossing. Let me introduce you to the situation of this mission."

"Your identity: a 5 year old male sperm whale, which by the way is a 10 year old adult, so now you are a calf and can enjoy your mother's love to the fullest.

Task background: It is now 1854, the period when the American whaling industry is turning from prosperity to decline, and your location is a piece of sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

Explanation: There is no progress reminder for this mission. You only need to help the group of sperm whales to avoid a massacre in 5 years to complete the mission.

Reminder: In the disaster after 5 years, all members must escape to complete the mission!However, before the system sends out the massacre start message, appropriate sacrifices are allowed, so please don't put too much pressure on it.

Well, good luck! "

sperm whale?Shengcun's impression of this kind of creature is very vague. The legendary ambergris seems to be obtained from the sperm whale...

Haven't they become endangered animals? How can they be hunted and killed...

Wait, isn't it because of the indiscriminate hunting in previous centuries that the number of whales has been greatly reduced?

Sheng Cun was frightened. Now he doesn't have the identity protection of animals, let alone a kind female college student silently paying attention. There are only dangerous oceans and human's cold whaling guns.

He really can't figure out how to escape the doom five years from now, especially now that he's a cub who doesn't know anything.

He swayed his body tentatively, and his flicking tail touched something slightly elastic.

There was a rhythmic "click" sound from his side, passing through the sea water to his ears, and turned into a whisper: "Don't make trouble, sleep well."

Sheng Cun: "?!"

It turned out that there were sperm whales nearby. How did they see things in this dark place?

He suddenly remembered the whale song he heard in the documentary before. The melodious sound waves of humpback whales can travel far along the ocean currents and become a language for transmitting information between them.

So, do the sounds made by sperm whales also have special functions, such as using echolocation, like bats?

Sheng Cun opened his mouth to speak, but found that his voice came from the top of his head.

"Click, click, click..."

The sound wave spreads forward and is quickly reflected back after hitting an obstacle. After a series of complex processing by the body, a picture under the sea surface is formed in the brain——

Surrounding him were ten huge bodies, their heads upright standing motionless in the sea water. The one closest to him was 15 meters long, almost twice his size.

The body raised its huge flippers and patted Sheng Cun, as if to warn him again to keep quiet.

This light palm was enough to make Shengcun shake with the current for several times, and he finally understood the situation. The one next to him should be the original owner's mother, and now the entire group of sperm whales was resting in the shallow sea.

He decided to listen to his mother, close his eyes, and get used to his new huge body.

The author says:

About why the English name of the sperm whale is so weird (if you don’t understand it, you can Baidu the meaning of sperm): because the head of the sperm whale can store more than 1000L of whale brain oil, which is a white waxy substance, which was originally misunderstood as Something indescribable (laughing and crying).

From the 17th century to the 20th century, the whaling industry experienced several ups and downs. The whale oil on the whale is a very important industrial raw material, and other parts are also valuable.The high profits have spawned countless whaling operations from various countries, which once made the offshore whales tend to be extinct.

Regarding how whaling rose up, even became a pillar industry in a certain country, and how it gradually declined under the wave of industrialization, I suggest reading an article "Disappearing Whales and Empty Seas".