Is It Possible That It's a Gene Mutation

"The director is amazing! He immediately discovered the key to the problem."

"It's quite simple, really. Most animals have their own hunting radius, so it's normal that these water monsters would have one too."

"Simple as it may be, those experts and professors didn't think of it that way."

"Progress unlocked: 45%. All that's left is to find those water monsters."

"I can't wait to see what these water monsters look like and where they came from."

...

While viewers in the livestream were discussing among themselves, the production team quickly boarded boats and headed toward the location where clues had been discovered.

This location where clues were found was specifically arranged by Yang Lin, intended to draw everyone there.

Ten minutes later, the group arrived by boat at the backwater bay where traces of the water monsters had been discovered.

Due to the nature of the backwater bay, the river erosion here was severe, and large amounts of garbage had accumulated in the area.

As soon as they approached, everyone detected an unpleasant odor.

Perhaps this was precisely why Ming Corporation had chosen to bury their sewage pipes here.

"Wow, it stinks here. Why would water monsters choose this place as their lair?"

"Yeah, is there something special about this place?"

Hearing the staff's questions, Director Chen from the Aquatic Products Research Institute immediately explained:

"This is a backwater bay where plankton is concentrated, which attracts small fish and shrimp, which in turn attract other aquatic creatures."

"The water monsters chose this place as their lair naturally because of this advantage."

"I see."

After hearing Director Chen's explanation, everyone had a moment of enlightenment.

"No wonder fishing enthusiasts like to fish in this kind of terrain. So that's the principle behind it."

"Wait, that's not right. I'm a local fishing enthusiast from Ningnan City, and I know this place. It's notorious in our circle for being terrible. You can't catch any fish here no matter how good your bait is."

"I waited here for a whole day last time and couldn't even catch a single minnow. Complete failure."

"I'm also a fishing enthusiast from Ningnan, and I can testify that this place is very strange. You can catch anything except fish here. Last time someone even caught a cremation urn."

"Isn't this contradicting what was just said? So why would water monsters choose such a place?"

While viewers in the livestream were expressing doubts about Director Chen's words, Professor Xu had already walked over to the traces left by the water monsters.

On a smooth beach, seven or eight large fish weighing about ten pounds each had been abandoned.

These fish all had one thing in common - most of the flesh from their torsos had been bitten away.

Looking at the dense bite marks, everyone felt their scalps tingle.

As everyone knew, most native fish in Dragon Country don't have teeth, with only a few species possessing them.

And these species are generally small, so they could basically rule out the possibility of the water monster being a large fish.

"These footprints..." Professor Xu suddenly froze while observing the tracks left on the ground.

Before he could speak, Yang Lin jumped in:

"They look like giant salamander tracks."

As soon as he finished speaking, Professor Xu nodded.

"I think so too, but these footprints are as big as my palm. If it's a giant salamander, it must be five or six meters long and weigh several tons."

"How could there be such a huge giant salamander in the world?"

"And looking at these footprints, it seems to have six legs on each side. How could there be a reptile with six legs in this world?"

As soon as Professor Xu finished speaking, everyone's expression became serious.

So far, almost all evidence was proving to everyone that the water monster wasn't any known species.

If this were the ocean, it might make sense, but this was inland.

Throughout the inland areas, whether in primitive forests or major rivers, it was no exaggeration to say that there weren't any undiscovered creatures by humans.

Even if there were, they would be relatively small organisms.

How such giant water monsters had escaped human detection was the key question that puzzled everyone.

Unless it was a completely new species that had recently emerged, but that seemed even more far-fetched.

This question nearly burned out the CPUs of both expert professors.

While the two professors were puzzling over this, Yang Lin, who had been pretending to observe the ground, suddenly spoke up.

"What if these so-called water monsters are just ordinary creatures that have mutated into monsters due to some external factors?"

As soon as Yang Lin said this, everyone's attention turned to him.

Both expert professors shook their heads repeatedly.

"Impossible. Evolution and mutation don't happen that easily. Unless there's severe environmental pollution or nuclear radiation, it's very difficult for mutations to occur in such a short time."

"Yes, young Yang, we're very clear about this aspect."

Clearly, the two experts didn't agree with Yang Lin's viewpoint.

But the online viewers had different opinions.

"I think Director Yang makes sense. If they're not aliens, they must be mutated native creatures."

"I recently found a three-legged frog in my hometown's pond. It was probably caused by villagers washing their pesticide sprayers in there."

"There's a farm in our area where a chicken was born with three legs. They say it was also due to radiation."

"These things have become more common in recent years. Two-headed cows, one-eyed pigs, they're all more or less affected by the environment."

"Not just animals, there are many cases of human deformities too. With the current environment, genetic mutations are perfectly normal."

"Aren't there lots of people with three eyes on TikTok? Those are all variants."

"Yeah, I stayed up too late browsing the internet, and my son's DNA mutated and doesn't match mine anymore. Fortunately, my wife doesn't mind."

"Are you serious? I was wondering why my son looks less and less like me. So it turns out it's genetic mutation."

"Damn, why are all your comments turning green."

.......

While netizens were actively discussing the possibility raised by Yang Lin, he suddenly pointed at the river water in front of him and said:

"I think the river water might have been severely polluted, leading to serious mutations in aquatic creatures."

"Why don't we test the water quality?"

As soon as he said this, everyone turned their attention to the river water.

They had never considered this angle before.