When we entered the second Buffer Zone, I froze.
The second Buffer Zone was actually a fish pond. It lay between the first and third Buffer Zones, with a bridge normally spanning it. The bridge was about three meters wide, but in an emergency, it would retract completely into the third Buffer Zone. Anyone trying to get from the first Buffer Zone to the third would then have to cross this roughly ten-meter-long fish pond.
That was not the main point. The main point was that the pond was full of piranhas.
If someone fell in, they would probably be gnawed down to nothing in less than ten seconds.
"Are the underground shelters of the other families like this too?" I asked.
The Old Patriarch of the Yu Family nodded. "They are all the same, and they all keep piranhas. Feeding them alone consumes countless fish and shrimp every day, but that is nothing to us. We live off the sea, so it is simple enough for people like us who live on the water. However, ever since the Island Lord announced that we were entering a state of readiness, we stopped feeding them."
Without even thinking, I asked why. He smiled and said, "To keep those beasts hungry. That way, when food appears, they will work even harder."
I gave a wry smile. Really, if I had thought about it for a moment, I would have understood the reasoning myself.
We crossed the bridge and arrived at the third Buffer Zone. It was a rectangular area roughly three meters wide and more than thirty meters long, with the walls on either side level with the sides of the bridge.
"Once activated, the walls on both sides will rapidly squeeze inward. In other words, anyone who enters this area will