Unfortunately, the Sacred Trident is not like the Dragon-Slaying Saber; it's not something just anyone can hold to command the world.
The rule that the wielder is the king only applies to Atlanteans with royal blood.
Upon learning this, Darian had to abandon the idea of replacing Arthur as the King of Atlantis.
It was a wasted effort.
In the end, Arthur made up his mind to find the legendary Sacred Trident and become the King of Atlantis.
Of course, he wasn't doing it for the endless seafood or a harem... well, maybe that part was worth considering.
But his main goal was that he didn't want to watch Orm lead the armies of Atlantis to attack the surface. If it really came to that, he wouldn't know which side to stand on.
If he helped the surface, Darian and Clark would both step in, and it wouldn't matter if he was there or not.
If he helped Atlantis, what if Darian and Clark decided to take him out along with them?
Bruce believed this matter was of great importance, as it would directly determine whether Atlantis would be an enemy or an ally in the future, and it was not safe enough to let Arthur act alone.
He said to Darian, "Darian, you go and assist Arthur in finding the Sacred Trident. If you can't find it..."
Before he finished his sentence, he knew Darian understood what he meant.
If Arthur failed to successfully ascend and become the King of Atlantis, then they would have to deal with Orm, the hidden danger who deeply hated the surface, before any catastrophe could occur.
Of course, Batman does not kill.
He just planned to send Orm to a suitable place for retirement; for example, Arkham Asylum would be quite nice.
[NPC Bruce Wayne has issued a new quest to you]
[Quest: Sacred Trident]
[Objective: Find the legendary Sacred Trident]
[Reward: EXP +3000, Arthur Curry favor +10, Random Item *2]
[This quest is a prerequisite; the next quest will be automatically unlocked upon completion]
"It was definitely the right choice to let Bruce serve as the Commander of the Justice League."
Darian nodded with satisfaction.
Sure enough, as long as they are wearing black, they are walking quest dispensers.
As for the other members, Bruce had arrangements for each of them.
Needless to say, Diana would return to Paradise Island to seek an alliance with the Amazons.
Clark would head to the airbase where he was previously detained to visit a general named Calvin Swanwick.
As the most populous race on Earth, humans were a force that had to be won over; after all, these people possessed the ultimate weapon—nuclear bombs. If all else failed, they could use the mushroom cloud warning.
Moreover, that general's identity was not simple. Clark had observed him before, and there was a high possibility that the other party was also a superhuman, so it was a good opportunity to test the waters.
Barry was responsible for running to Star City to recruit the local Superhero, Green Arrow, to join the Justice League.
Although Green Arrow looked like an ordinary person and was far less monstrous than the members of The Seven, and only had outstanding archery skills—retiring as soon as his quiver was empty—having one more person meant having one more source of strength.
However, don't even think about joining The Seven; they had a strict threshold, and only those who were essentially cheating could join.
Someone might ask, then why could Hawkeye join the Avengers?
That goes without saying; naturally, it's because Hawkeye used Nick Fury's back door and got in through unspoken rules.
As the founder of The Seven, Darian led by example, resolutely resisting such behavior and refusing to let any male connection-based candidates enter The Seven through unspoken rules.
Mercy Harbor.
This was a small coastal town on the east coast of Maine in America, with a small population, and most of the residents made a living by fishing.
At noon, the sunlight made the sea surface sparkle. Darian was sitting on the rocks by the shore, with seven or eight children squatting around him, all looking up, listening to him tell a story with rapt attention.
"A long, long time ago, there lived a mermaid princess in the sea. One day, while patrolling the surface, she happened to save a prince who had been shipwrecked and fell in love with him. To go to the land and find the prince, she went to make a deal with a sea witch, trading her beautiful singing voice for a pair of human legs."
"As it turned out, after the mermaid princess went ashore, she discovered that there was another woman standing beside the prince. It turned out that the woman had claimed credit for saving his life and had already become engaged to the prince."
"That woman wasn't an ordinary person either, but a mermaid from the deep sea. Affected by the nuclear radiation in the waters around America, her appearance resembled a fish, her skin tone could completely hide her in the deep sea, and she wore dreadlocks. The prince lived happily ever after with this imposter."
"The mermaid princess was heartbroken and didn't want to return to the sea, so she drifted along the coastline to a small town. She met a kind-hearted lighthouse keeper, and they quickly fell in love and gave birth to a big, chubby baby boy."
"That, above, is the story of Aquaman."
A little girl with pigtails raised her hand, looking confused: "Isn't this the story of Aquaman? Why hasn't Aquaman appeared in the story at all?"
"Who said that? Isn't that big chubby baby boy at the end Aquaman?"
The children: "..."
"Darian, what nonsense are you telling these kids?"
Arthur walked over from behind with a dark face.
He had just come ashore from the sea, soaking wet, his hair plastered to his head like seaweed.
Darian chuckled: "These little ones all admire you. Knowing that I know Aquaman, they pestered me to hear your story, so I was just telling them."
Arthur's mouth twitched: "This isn't my story at all; it's clearly the story of the Little Mermaid, and a heavily modified version at that."
Darian was a bit surprised: "You even know about the Little Mermaid?"
"Of course, when I was a kid, my dad often told me this story. I even fantasized about one day being able to save a prince in the sea, until I later discovered that princes are only male..."
"..."
Halfway through his sentence, Arthur realized he had let something slip and quickly stopped.
"It's Aquaman! It really is Aquaman!"
Soon, some children recognized Arthur, and they jumped up in excitement, screams erupting one after another.
Arthur was quite famous locally, having saved many fishermen in danger, and both adults and children knew him.
Looking at the children's admiring gazes, Arthur was in a great mood and flashed a brilliant smile at them.
Then he turned his head and boasted to Darian: "It seems my charm is much greater than yours."
Darian curled his lips in disdain and pulled out a stack of hundred-dollar bills, holding them over his head.
"Whoever shouts 'Long live Omni-Man' gets one hundred bucks."
"Long live Omni-Man!!"
The children who had originally crowded around Arthur swarmed over, all surrounding Darian, leaving Arthur standing alone in place.
Arthur: "..."
Darian chuckled: "When it comes to charm, you're still far behind."
Arthur's eyelid twitched twice: "Bullshit, it's clearly Benjamin Franklin who has more charm."
Benjamin Franklin's charm, from three-year-old toddlers to eighty-year-old grandmothers, appeals to all genders and ages, and no one can resist.
Darian finished handing out the money, and the children cheered that Omni-Man was their true hero, all of them taking the money and running home happily, not even sparing Arthur a glance.
Arthur cursed with heartbreak: "Damn capitalism, even such small children have been corrupted by money."
Darian waved his hand: "Stop talking nonsense, let's go find the Sacred Trident quickly."
Arthur said helplessly: "But I don't know where the Sacred Trident is either. I've only heard of this legend, and I don't even know if it's real."
"It's fine, I know."
As Darian said this, he tapped on the quest panel, and a translucent golden guiding line immediately appeared in his field of vision.
He touched his chin: "It's a bit far, deep in the Pacific Ocean."
Arthur was stunned: "How do you know that?"
"Don't ask; if you ask, it's quantum mechanics."
Darian couldn't be bothered to explain. Considering there were no teleportation coordinates there, he contacted The Penguin on the spot and asked him to send a helicopter. The latter indicated that it would take until the evening at the earliest to arrive.
Anyway, since they were idle, Arthur suggested that his house was quite big and invited Darian to sit for a while.
His house was right next to the town's lighthouse. Arthur's father, Thomas Curry, was a lighthouse keeper. Usually responsible for the maintenance of the lighthouse, his life was extremely boring; every day was either watching the sea or fishing.
Until one day, while he was fishing in the sea, he caught a mermaid, and his life finally took a turn for the better.
When Thomas heard that Arthur was bringing a friend home, he was both happy and conflicted.
He was happy because his son had grown up and was bringing a friend home for the first time. One had to know that Arthur usually spent his time in bars drinking beer with a group of rough, burly men, or drifting on the sea; his social circle was pitifully narrow.
The conflicted part was that the friend he brought back was a man.
He began to suspect that there might be a reason why Arthur hadn't taken a girlfriend until now, instead hanging out with a group of strong men every day.
However, Thomas was still quite friendly to Darian and personally prepared a full fish feast to entertain him.
Thomas greeted him enthusiastically: "Darian, try this fish. I caught it myself today. It's not heavy, just over a hundred pounds. It's light compared to what I usually catch."
Arthur was beside him, wanting to say something but stopping.
Isn't this the fish I caught for you in the sea?
Darian knew Thomas liked to drink, so he didn't hide anything and put the Infinite Wine Bottle on the table.
"The wine in my bottle is random; some is good, some is bad, some has high alcohol content, some has low. Do you dare to try it?"
When Thomas heard this, he laughed and said heroically: "Go out and ask around; I'm a famous 'thousand-cup-no-fall' in Mercy Harbor. With this little bit of wine of yours, I can drink with you until tomorrow morning!"
Saying that, he picked up the Infinite Wine Bottle, poured himself a full glass, tilted his head back, and downed it generously.
Bang!
Thomas's forehead hit the table directly, and he fell into a deep sleep on the spot, snoring thunderously.
Darian turned to look at Arthur: "Didn't he say he could drink a thousand cups without falling?"
"Yeah, that's why he fell after one cup."
"...."
Darian was speechless: "Your dad really knows how to brag."
Arthur was a bit embarrassed and was about to say something to make up for his father when his expression suddenly froze, and he turned to stare out the window.
Darian also noticed something unusual and looked outside at almost the same time.
I saw a white line rolling and surging at the end of the distant sea.
The lighthouse where they were was at least a few kilometers away from the horizon. Anyone who has studied junior high physics knows the principle that things look larger when close and smaller when far. Even at such a distance, they could clearly see the churning of the waves; one could imagine just how massive the real wave was.
"Damn it! This is a tsunami!"
Arthur stood up quickly and shouted at Darian: "Darian, hurry and take my dad away from here!"
He himself was not afraid of a tsunami, but Thomas was just an ordinary human and would be shattered at the slightest touch in front of a tsunami.
Arthur knew Darian possessed flight abilities, so he wanted Darian to take Thomas away first.
Darian said: "I can take Thomas away, but everyone else in the town will likely be finished."
Arthur froze, his face suddenly turning extremely ugly.
Indeed, the town was right behind the lighthouse.
If this tsunami hit, the entire coastal residential area would likely be razed to the ground, and who knows how many people would lose their lives.
Mercy Harbor was the place where he was born and raised, and there were hundreds of people living in the town, every one of whom was an acquaintance of his. He couldn't just watch them die in the tsunami.
"Then what do we do?" Arthur gritted his teeth.
He didn't have the ability to manipulate water at will like some Atlanteans.
What's more, this was a tsunami in front of them. To resist an impact of this magnitude head-on, he would probably need to invite Moses himself.
"Let me try."
Darian dropped these words, and his body had already flipped out the window, landing on the shore.
The next second, countless sandbags poured out from the game inventory, stacking densely by his feet.
He raised his hand and waved, and all the sandbags split open simultaneously. Yellow sand surged out, scrambling to rush out, churning wildly on the ground.
"Still not enough."
Darian looked at the huge waves in the distance and directly spread his single wing, rising into the sky.
At the same time, that white line a few kilometers away was advancing toward Mercy Harbor at a terrifying speed.
It kept rising in his field of vision. Within a few breaths, it had grown from a thin line into a colossal water wall of over ten meters. Huge warships were overturned in the waves like toys, being swept along as they crashed toward the coastline.
"Tsunami! It's a tsunami! Everyone, run!"
Many residents in the town had already seen this apocalyptic scene, and screams erupted one after another.
But by this time, the night was already deep, and most people had long since fallen asleep. By the time they were awakened by the shouts and ran outside, they looked up and saw that the wall-like seawater was already close at hand.
Some people's legs went soft on the spot, and they collapsed to the ground; some hugged their children and closed their eyes.
Just when everyone felt despair, they saw a figure.
A person with pure white wings unfurled appeared in mid-air at some point, facing the water wall that was about to swallow everything, and slowly opened his arms.
In everyone's shocked gaze, countless sand particles surged toward Darian from all directions, gathering more and more, thicker and thicker, gradually forming a huge sandy barrier.
Arthur rushed out of the house, stood under the lighthouse, and looked up at this scene, his mouth slightly agape.
Darian's right hand lifted upward.
The sand wall instantly rose, and then he waved his arm forward. The sand wall turned into a fluid and surged forward toward the tsunami at the same speed.
The sand particles constantly adjusted their form as they moved, gradually changing from a clumsy wall into a sand wave of the same height as the tsunami, the crests rolling, the sand flowing, as if the entire desert had been moved to the sea.
Quicksand Torrent!