I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 195: Governing

Within a few moments, a dust cloud had erupted in front of them because of this very crash. It became terrifying by the passing second, as the rumble that came along with this crash, managed to shake the souls of anyone present.

It wasn't the best idea to stick around for the sake of experiencing the situation, so the couple of friends barged towards the opposite direction of this disaster.

After a minute or two, the situation calmed down and the dust cloud was disappearing. Now they had the opportunity to have a peek at the damage, and noticed that it was worse than they thought.

The damage wasn't just isolated in the main cavern, but had spread towards the couple of others that were on the sides. Painfully, the mess there was equal in value compared to the very root of this collapse. So ultimately, everything these shrimp had been working over these past few days, had been destroyed.

And the bad fate did not stop there. As there were already hundreds of shrimp in these caverns, when the collapse had started; so ultimately, most of these shrimps had died!

It wasn't tremendous damage against the entire community. But after including the war against the western rock lobsters they had, and the attack from those haddocks - it would be a surprise if this community of shrimps, had over 3,000 inhabitants right now.

This was becoming hazardous, as more than half of this community had died after leaving their former den. And obviously, they would all blame the new king now. So ultimately, this was developing towards being a time consuming occasion.

A clear fact was that this community needed new governing, as everything about it now was chaotic. Change was essential, or else a lot more of these innocent shrimp will die. Regardless of how annoying they are, large-scale deaths was something that they did not deserve.

But to establish a new governing team, he would need to investigate all of the elders to figure out which of them had the purest intent. And that will just take too much time. It was almost unaffordable now when the hero's team was racing against the clock, to slow down the growth of the holy-tar sect in this reef.

After giving each other a few shocked looks, the couple of friends noticed a few shrimps approaching them. They weren't attacking thankfully, but weren't carrying soft looks on their faces either.

A few seconds of observation later, it was easy to notice that these white-legged shrimp were elders. And one of them was quick to yell from a distance, "You're a clueless king!"

That same elder approached closer by the passing second, and shouted once more. "We have lost half of our community because of you!"

"Me?" Timmy questioned. He expected for all the blame to be shifted towards him, but it still felt offensive. "It's your rotten president who made deals with tar worshippers!"

Such a statement had slowed down the momentum of these elders, who were confident enough to cuss against the king just a moment ago. They gave each other shocked glances, before one of them was able to speak.

"Do you have a way to prove your words? We don't trust you." This elder shrimp seemed interesting. Especially since such a sentence was spoken out casually, although it sounded rough.

"What other proof do you need? How powerful do you think I am? That collapse was likely caused because of some explosion, I can't explode." Such an excuse seemed out of order, but the young one made sense.

Noticing that he had gotten superiority over the conversation, Tim decided to take a few plans towards the next step. It might be the best time to do so, as these geezers were still thinking.

The hero recited, "We need to fix things. I would hate it if more shrimps died, as much as you do."

And that's when an order was unleashed, "I demand that all elders gather up here, right now."

These elders were still in shock, but such a command managed to poke thoughts for the worse. So one of them answered, "Why? Will you kill them as well?"

"No, I will make a new government. There will be new presidents and whatever else." He couldn't nearly remember all the fancy titles, but that could be fixed with a single question so it wasn't a big matter.

Such a sentence might be the best they had heard from this new king, as they were all eager to get a better title for themselves. So they began crawling in all directions to fetch the elders. So it gave the couple of friends some time alone to think.

That's when Osira questioned, "Do you really plan on spending so much time here? There probably are hundreds of these elders."

"There should be less, old people die a lot in this community." It sounded a tad rough, but it was evident that the young one was using his entire noggin.

By now these two had subconsciously accepted the fact that asking those other enemy-blobs for information, was impossible because of the collapse. So ultimately, they have pushed that thought aside now.

Tim thought about unlocking that blood analysis ability for a while, but it was too costly and the system might not agree. That aside, it would be rather embarrassing to bite the grouper-lady.

So for now the best solution was to push this confusion aside, and focus on it more when they encounter any sect members.

...

About half an hour later, a group of 46 elders were standing near the collapse. Countless murmurs were erupting between them, but their tones also managed to give a firm hint.

Planting the seed for the sake of reaping some minor information, he asked. "These are all the elders? I thought there would be more."

An old man was standing aside from the crowd, so it was up to him to give an answer. "There are more, but we don't let our old women waste time with things like this."

"Sounds to me like you're afraid." Such a sentence was bursted out from Osira, as she had noticed a pattern that seemed almost evil.