Chapter 645: Evoking mermen emotions
The more he thought about it, the more he immediately wanted to start preparing for its construction.
It seemed like the Dao Heart was a problem for all mermen, which meant that his target market numbered in the millions or possibly even billions! And if he priced a ticket for the rollercoasters at just one measly Sand Dollar, then he would only need a thousand mermen to purchase a ticket every day to get 10,000 dollars in ten days!
And it was even possible that those mermen would ride the rollercoaster multiple times a day, and he’d be able to get to his goal a lot sooner.
But of course, he needed to attract a thousand customers first for him to achieve that.
First, he had the mermen get on the roller coaster ride just to see if the ride would work on them at all. If it did, then he wouldn’t even need to construct a new ride.
"You guys should have a go at it," he advised.
Serena and the other mermen seemed more than happy to try out the roller coaster. The mere prospect of having their Dao Heart already gave them excitement and a little bit of fear.
He used his authority and moved the mermen to the front of the line. Of course, the people who were cut off complained, but he solved that by giving them a coupon that gave them a free ride.
"Please leave all your belongings in the locker," said the Rebornian ride attendant.
Serena and the old mermaid had to put their very valuable pearl necklace in the locket just like everybody else before they could board the ride.
They cautiously entered the seats, their eyes filled with curiosity and a little bit of apprehension. Now that they were actually here, they felt a little bit nervous after seeing the grandiosity of the whole roller coaster.
The attendant pushed the locking bar against their chest, securing them to their seat.
A few seconds later, the pistons released gas and gave off a PSSSHHH sound before the ride started to move.
The rollercoaster train slowly got up to a decent height before making a near 90-degree drop that accelerated their speed tremendously.
It usually wasn’t this fast, but he had the engineers change up the speed so that he could see if it stimulated the mermen’s Dao Hearts.
A few minutes later, the ride came to a stop and the locking bar let loose, allowing them to board off.
"How was it?" he asked them.
The old mermaid looked at Michael and immediately prostrated on the floor.
"My Dao Heart hasn’t moved this much in twenty years," she said. "Thank you, and I apologize for my rudeness when we first met. I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is Moiranna, and I am princess Serena’s caretaker."
"It’s fine. It’s nice to meet you, Moiranna," he said to her.
"That was very exciting, Michael!" praised Serena. "I never knew that there could be something this wonderful in the surface world."
The other mermen had the same positive reaction to the rollercoaster, which should be a good thing. But Michael wasn’t satisfied.
He turned to Vivi and asked what she saw during the ride.
"They were excited, fo sho! But it’s not as much as the humans. Like, if humans’ emotions peaked at 100%, then the mermen only reached 40%."
For the mermen, this seemed to be enough. After all, even just exhibiting 20% of their emotion would have been so much better than they could have achieved back in Metropolis.
To create a Mermen-themed roller coaster, I need to find out what they fear.
That was very important. He wanted to get their emotions rolling at 100% capacity.
Thankfully, they had a lot of mermen here that he could ask.
"Do you guys have any fear? Something that makes your heart palpitate?"
The mermen looked at each other and eventually looked at the Moiranna.
"The ancient deep sea monsters of Atlantis like the Cthulhu, the Kraken, and the Leviathan are the ones that breed fear in any mermen. " she answered.
He was quite surprised by that answer. He thought they’d be desensitized of fear for the ocean monsters because they resided in Atlantis.
But it was probably the fact that they intimately knew about these monsters that they feared them so much.
Well, I can’t bring Cthulhu all the way over here. I’d get turned into fillet if I forced that ancient monster to become a mascot for the rollercoaster.
"How about things in the surface world? Anything you dislike?"
They had no answer. They haven’t been in the Royal Continent for long and there were also no documented weaknesses of the mermen. They didn’t even fear dehydration because their powers allowed them to extract water from the air and all around them.
Well, maybe they just don’t know what they’re afraid of yet.
He quickly summoned Sheina and had her prepare a variety of things that could possibly evoke fear from the mermen.
He tried all kinds of plants, rocks, metals, and anything else that he could think of.
Vivi was right there beside him, monitoring the mermen’s emotions for any reaction.
It took them about four hours and a thousand samples before they finally got something.
Serena and the other mermen’s eyes grew wide as they stared upon a stone in the middle of a table.
This rock looked normal, but if one looked at it closely enough, they’d be able to see a skeletal outline of something that was fossilized directly in the stone. It was a cephalopod creature with a coiled shell, which Michael recognized to be an ammonite.
"Amazing..." Serena gushed. "It’s our ancestor!"
"You can still see the spirals on its shell!"
"It is with great honor to stand here and bear witness to our predecessor."
There was reverence in their gaze. Even though this was just an ammonite, they treated it as if it was a holy object that they should cherish.
"What’s so special about this fossil?" he asked them?
"Did you know that all life in this world was born in the seas? Back in the very birth of our planet, there was just but an empty, endless sea of nothingness. And thanks to the Sea God, he bestowed life upon our world with a single whisper.
We believe that mermen, humans, demi-humans, and beastfolks are all connected in some way, being a descendant of the Sea God’s whisper.
This creature, and all other sons and daughters of the sea that have already left the plane of existence, are considered sacred for they have sacrificed their lives in order to make us alive.
And the more ancient the creature, the more awed we are of its remnants. They could have possibly witnessed the birth of the sea and even life as we know it!"
As Moiranna expressed her admiration and reverence for the fossil, Vivi suddenly saw an explosion of wondrous emotion coming from Moiranna.
The strength of her emotion rivaled even that of the humans experiencing the roller coaster for the first time! It reached a 100% peak!
"Michael! Michael!" Vivi said, quickly telling him of her discovery.