Preparing for Battle Against the Sea Monster

The other party would certainly be on guard against that too, so getting more out of him would take skill.

The man was a merchant, after all. Su Ming had to respect his profession.

As Su Ming pondered, he picked up the drawing of the sea monster. He realized he had it upside down and was about to turn it around when he frowned. He examined the patterns on the tentacles closely, then suddenly stood up.

"Zijin, take a look at this!"

Zijin leaned closer and saw the upside-down drawing. "What is it?"

Su Ming pointed to a pattern on one of the tentacles. "That's the number seven!"

The scholar was already familiar with Arabic numerals. She looked at it uncertainly. "It does look a bit like one, but there are so many lines-"

"Those are interference lines," Su Ming explained. Zijin had never been subjected to image captchas on Earth, so it was only natural she couldn't make it out. He pointed to another pattern. "This is a two, and this is a six."

Zijin began studying the patterns on the tentacles. Only after carefully picking out the interference lines did she manage to recognize the numbers.

The scholar picked up several other drawings. They came from different survivors and had been made by different artists, but hidden Arabic numerals could be found in them all the same.

One instance could have been a coincidence, but this many meant something was definitely amiss!

"The sea monster keeps its head underwater and attacks ships with its tentacles raised," Su Ming said, laying all the drawings upside down on the table. "Turn the drawings around, and dealing with the sea monster is the real message."

"I understand the direction the numbers are facing. But why would number symbols from Earth appear