Chapter 1554: Numerical Concepts and First Contact

"Wuwawuwa!"

"Wuwawuwa!"

The two murlocs gestured and communicated for a long time, but Xia Duo still couldn't understand what they were saying at all; he could only barely guess from a human perspective that they might be asking about his identity or perhaps inviting him to be a guest.

The "talking to a brick wall" idiom from his hometown pretty much described the current situation, and this also reminded Xia Duo of the various scenarios scientists from his hometown had envisioned for potential communication between humans and aliens.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo suddenly felt playful; he took a handful of Gold Coins from his Personal Space and then, following the quantities and sequence of "1, 2, 3," laid out five piles of Gold Coins in front of the two murlocs one by one.

It was mainly because when he was still on Earth, there was a common saying in science fiction works that "mathematics can be used to communicate with aliens."

After the five piles of Gold Coins were set, the eyes of the two lead murlocs widened significantly, and they said a whole lot more "gibberish," but Xia Duo didn't understand a single word.

However, he could communicate with math, right?

He was seen taking another handful of Gold Coins from his Personal Space, about ten of them, and then he gently pushed the previous set of the "1 to 5" Gold Coin sequence to make it closer to the two lead murlocs.

Only after that did he push the dozen or so Gold Coins over together, then pointed at the position after "5" and gestured casually a couple of times.

The two murlocs understood, as expected; they manipulated the water flow to pick up ten Gold Coins, counted out six from them, then pushed them to the position after "5," followed by another burst of "gibberish."

But unfortunately, Xia Duo still didn't understand, yet he did indeed see the murlocs' actions and knew that 6 came after 5; at the very least, this showed two things: one, the murlocs knew how to count, and two, the murlocs were willing to communicate.

Just as Xia Duo wanted to continue attempting further communication, one of the lead murlocs from one of the tribes suddenly stuffed a Gold Coin into its mouth.

The Standard Gold Coin of the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce was not pure gold, but an alloy mixed with silver; it couldn't be said to be particularly hard, but it was certainly much harder than pure gold or pure silver.

Not to mention that the metal itself was sturdier than shells, bone, or stone; the murloc spat out the Gold Coin with a "wa" sound, but the next moment it grabbed for it desperately.

It didn't even let go of the Gold Coins originally used for the demonstration; the other lead murloc saw this and, not to be outdone, stepped forward to snatch them.

And so, an inexplicable farce was staged right in front of Xia Duo in such an inexplicable way.

It wasn't just the two lead murlocs; the remaining murlocs also began to fight in pairs, though the two large Water Elements that had "surrounded" Xia Duo hadn't moved at all until now, just appearing somewhat bewildered.

At this moment, a spell seemed to echo in Xia Duo's ears—"You guys stop fighting already~"

Regardless of whether the initial cause for the two tribes fighting each other was to compete for territory, control the population, or tacitly obtain corpses for land reclamation, the fighting over countless years must have long since created hatred that was difficult to wash away.

Even with an outsider like Xia Duo present, they could still start fighting on the spot over a small matter!

Seeing that casualties had appeared as soon as the two sides engaged in battle, and that two more teams of murlocs had risen from the two tribal settlements below, Xia Duo knew his mathematical communication was over.

"All stop!"

The Mind Link, mixed with the effect of Stun, made the two teams of murlocs who were in the heat of battle stop immediately; at the same time, Xia Duo released his control over the effect of his bloodline Majesty and announced via the link:

"This is my Territory, and you will become my subjects!"

This message was not only aimed at the two teams of murlocs currently fighting, but also at the two murloc tribes on the island below.

Mental information could trace back the past of all concepts, similar to having built-in translation software; at the same time, this "translation software" itself contained a large amount of information, making it very suitable for communication in situations where languages were not mutually intelligible.

Of course, considering the murlocs' potentially small brain capacity, Xia Duo did not carry too much or too complex information in this message; he simply described the relationship between "Territory," "subjects," and "lord."

It was just simple information like "I am strong," "listen to me," and "food and housing provided."

After a deathly silence, two murlocs wrapped in Water Elements rushed out from the two tribes below.

Having specialized transport was indeed different; these two murlocs almost instantly surpassed the second batch of teams that had set out, then sped all the way up, and finally performed an emergency stop operation in front of Xia Duo.

"Gibberish!"

"Gibberish!"

Compared to the other murlocs, the bodies of these two murlocs were stronger, and at the same time, bursts of water flow surged unconsciously around their bodies; of course, Xia Duo still couldn't understand their words.

But it didn't matter; with a mental Spell, Xia Duo was not worried about communication problems.

"Do not resist—and we can communicate."

After transmitting again, the two murlocs shook their heads repeatedly, though Xia Duo speculated that their shaking heads might represent agreement; after all, they had no necks, their large heads were connected to their bodies, and they couldn't nod.

Spellcasting—Mind Link!

To facilitate communication, it was more convenient to use a Mind Link that could be maintained for a long time, rather than a Judgment Spell for interrogating prisoners.

After the Spell was completed, Xia Duo immediately perceived two weak consciousnesses coming online, and at the same time, a large amount of conscious information radiated continuously from those two consciousnesses.

There was no need for careful analysis at all; this portion of information automatically diverged, mainly into two parts: one was dominated by surprise and happiness, and the other by suspicion and vigilance, with neither side being inferior to the other.

This seemed to be the murlocs' attitude toward him.

"Do you have any questions you want to ask?" Xia Duo asked in the Mind Link.

"Is it true?"

"Is there a lot of food?"

"Are you not lying to us?"

"What kind of thing are you?"

"Are you very powerful?"

"What is outside the world?"

In an instant, the Mind Link was almost filled with the questions of two curious babies; except for the Phantom, this was the first time Xia Duo had seen a creature with such weak mental Protection.

Among these questions, besides those related to Xia Duo—since the priority of conscious communication was specifically raised—more were unrelated to Xia Duo, with content including how to fight, how to eat, and even how to communicate with Water Elements.

Xia Duo discovered that the Mind Link was not suitable for creatures that had no Subconscious or whose boundary between the Subconscious and Conscious Mind was not obvious; once linked with these creatures, it was simply an endless storm of information.

Communicating with these creatures might be more convenient using the form of "interrogation."

Fortunately, Xia Duo was not only able to passively receive conscious information; he could also filter the information and even sort it by priority.

After excluding a large amount of useless information, Xia Duo only answered two questions, in the form of practical actions—

One was about strength; with a flip of his hand, Xia Duo banished the two large Water Elements that had "surrounded" him back to their home;

The other was about food, or rather the problem of survival; he directly transformed a stone in the water, and at the same time took two steamed buns from his Personal Space and gently pushed them toward the two murlocs.