Krill are actually not shrimp, but a type of small plankton living in the ocean, known as krill because of their unique body structure that can emit phosphorescence.
What's incredible is that these tiny creatures, merely a few finger joints in length, have nurtured the largest animal in evolutionary history—the blue whale.
While blue whales also filter other plankton besides krill, there's no doubt that krill are the most nutritious dish in their diet, not only abundantly available, but also rich in various nutrients and easy to digest, almost like some kind of high-level civilization has provided this feed specifically to nurture ocean creatures.
The krill in the South Pole Ocean have nurtured the seals and penguins here, as they are the main food source for Emperor Penguins, usually active several dozen meters below the sea surface. If they encounter predators, they might sink to hundreds of meters deep, but if the weather is good, even standing on the surface you can see the twinkling phosphorescence under the water. When they swim, they appear like a gigantic beast, looking quite spectacular.
Shiller stood on the ship's railing looking down, the krill swarm surging like a dragon, traversing and churning in the frigid waters under the ice cap. That inexplicably familiar feeling surged again in his heart; the krill swarm indeed seemed abnormal.
Typically, swarm-living creatures, especially fish species, can disguise themselves through dense swarm activities as larger-sized creatures, but this is just a disguise. Now studies show that against predators who evolved alongside them, this disguise serves no purpose. Many documentaries show scenes of large fish preying on fish swarms, without any fear of these swarms, only a hunger for the food.
However, the movement trajectory of the krill swarm beneath this sea area resembles a truly massive creature, even showing division of labor, a portion of krill gathering to form a torso, extending countless tentacles from the center, they rove the sea in a pattern that cannot naturally form. That is not the posture of small fish and shrimp at the bottom of the food chain, it looks more like a top predator.
Suddenly, several streams of white rapids appeared on the sea surface. Shiller couldn't see clearly what jumped into the water, but it was probably a seal or a penguin. They fixated on this enormous swarm of krill, almost without hesitation, dashed right into it, intending to pursue the plankton and have a feast as usual.
But then, a shocking scene unfolded before everyone's eyes—a particularly agile seal in the water, was entangled when it encountered the krill swarm's tentacles, and then more tentacles converged, surprisingly, these insignificant little creatures without even predatory organs, relied on continually pressing the seal, through collective movement, friction against the seal's skin, like a sharp saw, it cut the strong adult seal terribly.
Krill burrowed into the wounds, gnawing at the seal's flesh and blood desperately. The seal in pain twisted, trying to escape, but the krill swarm pursued relentlessly. Fortunately, the seal swam extremely quickly in the ocean. Stimulated by the great shock and pain, it burst forth a strong will to survive and vanished in a flash, despite its injuries.
Peter, witnessing this hunt, was dumbfounded, too shocked to speak. This clearly overturned a scientist's common sense. Before coming to Antarctica, he already had some understanding of the Antarctic food chain. Here, the food chain is very simple, most organisms depend on marine plankton for sustenance, and plankton are synonymous with a feast. Their structural bodies are primitive, their size small but their numbers vast, powerless to resist yet highly nutritious, the best source of bottom-tier nourishment.
But now, krill swarms have somehow turned into a kind of predator. They are definitely deliberately harming seals, extracting nutrition from their flesh and blood. The consequence of the food chain being overturned would be catastrophic. Fearfully, it is precisely because of the krill swarm's resistance that Emperor Penguins have lost their nutritional source, thus are completely unable to reproduce.
Peter stared at the krill swarm in a daze for a long time before coming to his senses. He scraped his paws on the railing and said, "No wonder, there are some strange scars on the female Emperor Penguins. We thought it was from fighting among their kind, but even for mating, it's rare in nature for females to fight, let alone go all out. For a species' female Emperor Penguins, it's even less likely for internal strife. Most of the time, they hunt collaboratively, otherwise, they can't survive."
"Now it seems, they are likely to have been injured by their former food, or at least attacked, hence unable to hunt as they used to, unable to obtain sufficient nutrition, which will affect reproduction. If this continues, the entire Antarctic ecosystem will suffer a devastating blow."
"I think I know who did it." Shiller looked at Peter and said, "Remember I told you Nyarla came here before?"
Peter nodded and said, "Could it be him causing trouble again?"
"This isn't causing trouble, he's doing it deliberately," Shiller sighed. "Once large-scale extinction occurs in Antarctica, it will surely attract global scientific attention, prompting scientists to investigate and protect. There will always be a few lucky ones who manage to reach the depths of Antarctica and discover those anomalous things, that's what Nyarla wants."
"He's very smart," Peter commented, "Smart to the point of being eerie. Who would think that an Evil God doesn't control the human race through magic, but uses even a very scientific method to strike the Antarctic ecosystem, modify the bottom-tier plankton in the food chain—it indeed is the best method to cause ecological extinction."
"That's Nyarlathotep," Shiller said. "He understands the human race better than we do, excels at exploiting human nature to set traps, not only is science not a method to counter him, but it could also become his weapon."
Peter let out a long sigh. Regrettably, it seems the Outer Gods might indeed be more suited to scientific research than the Human race. They live longer, possess abundant knowledge, don't get blown up, and can even cunningly gather funds, with the ability to use spiritual control to bring researchers and assistants.
At that moment, Peter understood why, from the human perspective, Nyarlathotep is as renowned as Yog, who established the rules of time and space. Nyarlathotep's power lies in that, while other Outer Gods merely possess knowledge, he has already learned to actively utilize it. Moreover, he feels malice towards the lives that seem tiny as ants to him. To humans, he is the most dangerous Outer God.
Peter turned to look beside him. Professor Dexter was frowning deeply, continuously writing something in his notebook. Clearly, he realized something was wrong. Peter immediately said, "We can't let the professor send the message out. Otherwise, the research institutions will rashly send people here, and without proper preparation, it may cost the scientists their lives."
Shiller sighed. Even disregarding real environmentalists, once the news of the possible extinction of Antarctica's biological chain gets out, governments and research institutions from various countries will certainly send scientific research ships over to preserve biological samples. Simply put, they would quickly transport some animals back to raise them artificially. Although it may have some environmental benefits, it's mostly due to political and economic considerations.
However, such hurried actions will inevitably cause significant casualties. In this era, Arctic scientific expeditions are fundamentally unsafe. Hundreds of disastrous events occurred in the past century, with most ending in complete destruction, where daring explorers and scientists, who can be considered the jewels of the human race, were buried beneath the ice caps of the snowy plains.
Peter began to anxiously grab the railing, but still strove to find solutions. Even without considering the scientists, the consequences of contamination at the bottom of the food chain are terrifying. The Megalodon and Leviathan Whale, which once dominated the oceans, faced extinction due to problems with krill causing a sharp decline in baleen whales, leaving these top predators without food, ultimately ending in a painful demise. Once this marine extinction spreads, humans won't be able to remain unaffected.
"Don't panic," Shiller's tone was calm yet powerful, as though he had a solution. "The more dangerous the cosmos, the more resiliently life finds a way."
Shiller jumped down from the railing and walked up to Professor Dexter, leaping onto his shoulder with a couple of quick moves. The wise Black professor turned his head to look at him, seemingly trying to understand his thoughts. Meanwhile, Shiller started looking at his notebook, which indeed contained information about abnormal krill group activities but more records about the state of penguin populations in the Weddell Sea.
Shiller didn't say anything, so Professor Dexter spoke: "Although I'm not sure what's happening, phytoplankton aren't as weak as they used to be, which makes it harder for predators to hunt and affects the propagation of their populations. It's a very terrifying matter, and the influence humans can have is very limited."
Shiller still said nothing, only lightly pressed his paw, gazing into the distance. Professor Dexter looked in the direction he was seeing, spotting wobbling silhouettes emerging from the ice cap amidst a vast snow fog. The penguin group seemed to have sniffed out the scent of prey as they arrived at the shoreline of this sea area, yet didn't jump in to hunt. Instead, they appeared to be waiting for something.
Professor Dexter cautiously moved to the edge of the ship, while nearby crew members, slightly terrified, tried to hold him back. He stopped at the railing's edge, gazing at those small shapes. The penguins, hungry and scarred, with only a few remaining chicks nestled between the legs of the tall male Emperor Penguins, were looking in the same direction as their parents. Humans were watching them; they were watching humans.
Professor Dexter's hand suddenly tightened. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it, the white fog lingering between his mouth and nose, the mist on his glasses obscuring his gaze. But soon, he stepped back a few steps and shouted, "Bring out the food on the ship, take out whatever's ready to eat, and throw it onto the shore."
The crew looked at him somewhat incredulously. Although they had more than just this one ship and supplies were coming, they still didn't understand why food should be wasted in such harsh environments.
However, Professor Dexter's students seemed to understand their teacher's intent and turned to move the food. In fact, foods like flour were left behind; they brought over previously prepared dry bread, oats, smoked sausages, and even a pile of mice that the cats hadn't finished eating.
The big ship moved closer to shore, and the students began tossing these items onto land. The penguins surged forward, starting to devour the food, while the male Emperor Penguins with chicks started clumsily moving towards the ship's edge, seeming to want to get close to humans.
"Disembark!" Professor Dexter shouted, leading the way off the ship. The students followed closely behind him, and some crew members got off as well. The cats jumped down along with them.
Soon after, it seemed they perceived humans as larger penguins, with the male Emperor Penguins tucking their chicks between the humans' legs, then joining the female penguins to start eating.
Subsequently, an inconceivable scene unfolded as thousands of penguins dove towards the ocean along the ice, as if committing collective suicide, all plunging below the freezing surface in mere seconds. When people returned to the ship, they only saw penguins speeding toward the massive krill swarm, like arrows shot from a bowstring.