The steel battleship was parked quietly in the port of Purander. The flag representing the Sea Fog Fleet above the battleship stretched in the wind under the sunlight. The pattern on the flag was a cluster of sharp ice crystals, with a crack in the middle of the ice crystal -
—Ice crystals are the mark of frost, and cracks symbolize the self-exiled "rebels".
After the famous pirate captain left with his entourage, no one left the battleship. The Sea Mist was like an iceberg that fell into silence, parked quietly, with its towering and majestic
The sides and bow of the ship blocked the view of all those who were curiously looking at the dock. At the same time, a city-state guard came from a nearby garrison and blocked the entrance to the trestle to prevent irrelevant people from approaching.
After the police officer came to disperse them, the troublemakers who gathered near the pier finally dispersed.
First Mate Aiden stood on the bridge of the Seamist, silently watching the movements on the dock.
He did not go ashore with Tirian - while the captain left the warship, he, the first mate, had to stay on board with temporary captain's authority to prevent trouble.
"Those city-state guards look nervous," a sailor muttered next to him, "Are they afraid that we would go ashore and plunder? I thought the city-state guards of Purland, the Pearl of the Sea, were better than the idiots on the cold sea.
Be stronger."
Aiden didn't look back: "If they don't come forward to maintain order, then you should say that Purande's guards don't even have the courage to go to the streets to block roads - if you are really asked to fight their steam tanks, will you go?
?”
"...I won't go. I don't want to be carried back to the deck in a bucket again." The sailor shook his head quickly, and then looked up at the direction where the steam walkers left just now. "The captain followed them.
Let's go...are you okay? That tall woman looks hard to mess with, I don't think the captain can beat her..."
"We are not here to fight, we are here to be invited. Do you understand?" Aiden finally couldn't help but cast a sidelong glance at the sailor, "You, and you, can you adjust your mentality? You have forgotten the captain's usual instructions.
Is that so? We are now Haiwu Venture Capital Company - robbery will not last long, and doing business will not make money faster than robbery?"
"Then when are we going to rob?"
Aiden thought for a while, and a ray of sunlight reflected on his shiny forehead: "Of course it's when the other party doesn't want to do business..."
Several undead sailors nodded one after another, expressing their high opinion, and then they were quiet for a few seconds. One of the sailors, whose left half of his head was completely deflated, couldn't help but look in the direction of the city and muttered: "Can we go ashore and see?
See? Purande, I heard that this city..."
"Don't even think about it," Aiden interrupted the subordinate directly, "The captain ordered that you are not allowed to leave the Seamist without permission - you bunch of crooked people will definitely scare people when they come ashore.
Rand is not the North, and few people in this place have seen a talking corpse."
"So the captain only picked a few guys who looked the most like living people to go ashore, right?" the sailor with his deflated head said resentfully, and raised his hand to support his head, "Actually, I think I look very good.
It's okay, just use half a shell to block this place, and then put on a hat..."
"Shut up, no one is allowed to go ashore without the captain's order!" Aiden gave the sailor who was talking nonsense a fierce look, "If you really have nothing to do, go to the cabin and see those unlucky people who were stuck on the deck before.
Whether the egg is alive or not, if it is alive, let them take revenge..."
A slight clicking sound suddenly came from not far away, interrupting Aiden's instructions.
Everyone on the bridge heard the slight clicking sound, and several eyes invariably looked in the direction of the sound. The sailor who spoke first discovered the source of the sound first.
Next to the captain's seat, there is a strange machine composed of many gears, connecting rods and compass pointers. The machine is quiet now, but several of its pointers are still trembling slightly, which seems to show that it was still there a moment ago.
It suddenly moved.
"Did this thing move just now?" A sailor who was closest carefully came to the delicate and complicated machine and stared at its compass needles that had quieted down.
Aiden also walked over, and his eyes fell on the small hemispheric bowl in the center of the machine - there was a bit of dried blood left there, which was left after Captain Tirian used this device last time.
The bald first mate's brows wrinkled little by little.
As the captain's most trusted subordinate, Aiden knows this device very well.
Anomaly 203, the blood-seeking compass, a brass machine with complex structure and unknown principle, was once the collection of the Frost Queen, and is now the property of Captain Tirian.
This machine should be regarded as one of the more "positive effects" among the ranked "abnormalities". The small bowl in its center can hold blood, and after absorbing the blood, it will use a series of compasses to indicate the user's "
The orientation of "Blood Relatives", its indication priority has a certain relationship with blood proximity, distance, and the user's wishes.
Compared with most anomalies that are directly malicious and may be fatal if not properly kept, the blood-seeking compass is relatively safe in terms of "keeping". It does not require any special sealing conditions - but in contrast, once this device is activated,
, will show a sinister side.
First of all, once blood is injected into it, the user will continue to be tempted by the compass and have the urge to continue to inject blood. Those with weak minds may even kill themselves alive in the continuous bloodletting. Secondly, the blood-seeking compass
Although it can indeed help users find "blood relatives", it often "brings bad luck" in the process, constantly leading things to the bad side as the user gets closer to blood relatives.
As only Aiden knows, Anomaly 203 has a "deed" of guiding a father to find his long-lost son, but when the two met, he killed each other by mistake.
However, these negative effects have never mattered to Captain Tirian - the captain's will is strong enough to resist the "blood donation temptation" of the blood-seeking compass, but as for the tendency of bad luck in the process of approaching blood relatives...
First of all, the captain and Miss Lucretia will never meet while Anomaly 203 is in effect. Secondly, Abu Nomar and his son have always been "father is kind and son is filial".
Even a blood-seeking compass would not create a more "plagued and nuclear twilight" reunion scene than two cursed warships covering each other with firepower after meeting.
Over the past half century, Captain Tirian has often used the Blood Compass as a kind of "alert device" to determine whether the Homeless Ship has returned to the real world.
Aiden and the sailors gathered around Anomaly 203, with several pairs of eyes fixed on several simple compasses decorated with complex patterns surrounding the brass device.
Those gears and hands have gone completely silent.
"...Maybe it just wants to move around," a sailor with a hole in his forehead said cautiously, as if to lighten the atmosphere, "After all, this thing usually stays motionless..."
Aiden glared at the sailor: "If you don't know how to joke, you don't have to."
"How about... let's wipe off the remaining blood in the middle?" Another sailor, who shriveled up like a mummy, said, "How about... we always feel like this thing is going to 'wake up' at any time."
"No," Aiden shook his head, "The captain told me that the blood in the center of the compass cannot be wiped off manually. You have to wait seventy-two hours for the compass to absorb it on its own."
"...What will happen if I wipe it in advance?"
"No one knows. It's not easy to sum up the correct use of 'exception'. Who would be so full of energy to test various incorrect operations," Aiden said casually, "Why don't you give it a try? Forget it.
You contribute to human civilization."
"No, no, that's what I said."
Aiden snorted coldly.
"Kaka——"
At this moment, the slight sound of the blood-seeking compass' mechanism suddenly came again. The conversation between the first mate and the sailors was interrupted for an instant. Aiden looked at the machine for the first time. He saw this thing.
The gears gradually began to tremble, and several compass pointers on its edge also shook violently. Then, all the pointers suddenly pointed to the surroundings of Prand.
The blood-seeking compass fell silent again, and this time it seemed that there would really be no more movement.
All its pointers avoid Prand.
Aiden and the sailors looked at each other.
"...I just said this thing just wants to move..."
"Shut up." Aiden interrupted the sailor, but his eyes were still staring at Anomaly 203, while recalling the scene he just saw in his mind.
All the needles turned to a random direction outside of Pland, but he was sure that at a certain moment just now, there was definitely a moment when the needles of the blood-seeking compass were pointing in the same direction - pointing to
The city-state of Puland!
It's just that the moment was very short, so short that one would suspect it was just a coincidence in the irregular rotation of a few pointers. But in Aiden's view, it was as if the "eyes" of the compass had just focused on their target.
He looked away in fear.
But now that the pointers of Anomaly 203 are all pointing to the sea near Puland, in Aiden's view, it has become a "cover-up".
He suddenly thought of what the captain once said to him——
Anomaly 203 occasionally exhibits "living" characteristics and does not always operate mechanically.
This thing will be scary.
"Something's wrong...there's something wrong with this city-state!" Aiden suddenly reacted, "We have to tell the captain about the situation here."
"But didn't the captain give us an order prohibiting us from going ashore?"
"Send a message first," Aiden spoke quickly and looked at a sailor, "Go and bring Perli over!"
The sailor ran away quickly, and not long after, he ran back to the bridge - a huge parrot with colorful tail feathers stood on his shoulder, grinding its beak with the exposed skull on the back of the sailor's head.
shell.
"Perley, I need you to deliver a message." Aiden said loudly.
The parrot immediately stopped bullying the sailor, raised his head and stared at the first mate: "Perli, you can send a message."
"Go to the city-state's cathedral, look for the captain's aura, and tell him that the blood-seeking compass points to Plande, and the city-state is not safe!"