Deep Sea Embers

The steel battle gauge is quietly moored in the port of Zengland. The flag representing the Sea Fog Fleet above the battleship stretches with the wind under the sunshine. Fissures - ice crystals, a sign of frost, fissures, a symbol of self-exile
"Rebels".

After the famous pirate captain left with his entourage, no one left the warship. The Sea Mist was like an iceberg in a state of silence, mooring quietly, its towering and majestic The side and bow of the ship blocked all curious sightlines on the pier. At the same time, a city guard came from a nearby station and blocked the intersection leading to the trestle bridge to prevent unrelated people from approaching.

After the sheriff came forward to disperse them, the troublemakers who gathered near the pier finally gradually dispersed.

The first officer, Aiden, stood on the bridge of the Sea Fog, silently watching the movement on the pier.

He didn't go ashore with Tirian - when the captain left the ship, he, the first mate, was to stay on board as interim captain to prevent trouble.

"Those city-state guards look nervous," a sailor muttered next to him, "Are they afraid that we will go ashore to plunder—I thought the city-state guards of Purand, the pearl of the sea, could compare with the idiots on the cold sea. Let's be stronger."

Aiden didn't turn his head back: "If they don't come forward to maintain order, you should say that Purand's guards don't even have the courage to go to the streets to block roads - really let you fight their steam tanks, you go ?”

"...I won't go, I don't want to be carried back to the deck in a bucket." The sailor hurriedly shook his head, and then looked up at the direction where the steam walkers left just now, "Captain Follow them...are you alright? That tall woman doesn't look easy to mess with, I think the captain can't beat her..."

"We're not here to fight, we're invited, do you understand?" Aiden finally couldn't help but cast a sideways glance at the sailor, "You, and you, can you adjust your mentality, the captain's usual teachings are forgotten Are you done? We are Haiwu Venture Capital Company now—robbery doesn’t last long, doesn’t doing business make money quicker than robbery?”

"Then when are we going to rob?"

Aiden thought about it, and a ray of sunlight reflected on his shiny forehead: "Of course it's when the other side is unwilling to do business..."

Several undead sailors nodded one after another, expressing the chief mate's opinion, and after a few seconds of silence, one of the sailors whose left half of his head was completely sunken couldn't help looking in the direction of the city-state, and muttered: "Can we go ashore and see?" See? Prand, I heard that in 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 guys will definitely scare people when you go ashore, Pu Lan Germany is not the north, few people in this place have ever 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 head down said resentfully, and raised his hand to help his head, "Actually, I think I look like a living person. It's okay, take 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 talkative sailor a vicious look, "If you really have nothing to do, go to the cabin and see those who were killed by the lake on the deck before. Did the unlucky guy on the board survive, and if so, let them report..."

A slight crackling sound suddenly came from not far away, interrupting Aiden's instructions.

Everyone on the bridge heard the slight rattling sound, and several lines of sight looked in the direction of the sound, and the sailor who spoke first discovered the source of the sound.

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 hands are still trembling slightly, which seems to show that it was still there just a moment ago. It worked suddenly.

"Did this thing move just now?" A sailor who was closest came cautiously to the side of the delicate and complicated machine, and licked its quiet compass needles.

Aiden also came over, his eyes fell on the center of the machine.
In the small hemispherical bowl—there was a bit of dried blood left after Captain Tyrian used the device last time.

The bald first officer frowned slightly.

As the captain's most trusted subordinate, Aiden knew this device very well.

Anomaly 203, the Bloodseeking Compass, a brass machine with complex structure and unknown principle, once the collection of the Frost Queen, is now the property of Captain Tyrian.

This machine should be regarded as having a more "positive effect" among the "abnormalities" with rankings. Its small bowl in the center can hold blood, and after absorbing the blood, it uses a series of compass to indicate the user's " "Blood relatives" location, its indication priority is related to blood relationship, distance, and user wishes.

Compared with most anomalies that are directly malicious and may be fatal due to improper storage, the Bloodseeking Compass is relatively safe in terms of "storage", and it does not require any special sealing conditions-but in contrast, once this device is activated , so that it will show a sinister side.

First of all, once blood is injected into it, the user will be constantly tempted by the compass, and will have the urge to continuously inject blood into it. Those with weak minds will even let themselves die in the uninterrupted bloodletting. Secondly, the blood-seeking compass Although it can indeed help users find "blood relatives", it often "entrains bad luck" in the process, and constantly leads things to the bad side when the user and blood relatives get closer.

As far as Aiden knows, Abnormal 203 once guided a father to find his long-lost son, but caused him to kill each other by accident when the two met.

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, and as for the tendency of bad luck in the process of blood relatives approaching...

First of all, the captain and Miss Lucrecia will never meet while Anomaly 203 is in effect.

Even if it is the blood-seeking compass, it will not create a more "nuclear curtain" scene of reunion than two cursed warships covering each other with firepower after meeting.

...

Over the past half-century, Captain Tirian has often used the Bloodseeker Compass as a sort of "warning device" to determine if the Lost Home has returned to the real world.

Aiden and the sailors gathered around Anomaly 203, several pairs of eyes fixed on the several simple compass decorated with complex patterns around the brass device.

Those gears and hands have completely quieted down.

"...Maybe it just wants to move around," a sailor with a hole in his forehead said cautiously, as if trying to ease the atmosphere, "After all, this thing usually doesn't move..."

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 blood left in the middle?" Another sailor, who was as shriveled as a corpse, said, "Or I always feel that this thing is going to "wake up, come here 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 72 hours for the compass to absorb it by itself."

"...What will happen if you wipe it in advance?"

"No one knows, it's not easy enough to sum up the correct use of 'abnormal', who would be full to test various wrong operations," Aiden said casually, "Why don't you try it? You contribute to human civilization."

"No, no, that's what I said."

Aiden snorted coldly.

"Kaka-"

At this moment, the slight sound of mechanism operation suddenly came from the blood-seeking compass, and the conversation between the first mate and the sailors was interrupted instantly. Aiden looked at the machine for the first time, and he saw this thing The side wheel of the car gradually began to vibrate, and the several compass pointers on the edge also trembled violently. Then, all the pointers suddenly pointed to the surroundings of Prand...
Seeking Blood Compass became quiet again, this time it seemed that there would be no more movement.

All its pointers eluded Prand.

Aiden and the sailors looked at each other.

"...I just said that this thing just wants to move around..."

"Shut up." Aiden interrupted the sailor, but his eyes were still fixed on Anomaly 203, and at the same time, he recalled the scene he had just seen in his mind.

All the pointers turned to a random direction other than Prand, but he can be sure that at a certain moment just now, for a moment, the needles of the bloodseeking compass pointed in the same direction—pointing to The city-state of Pland!
It's just that that moment was very short, so short that one would suspect that it was just a coincidence in the irregular rotation of a few pointers, but in Aiden's view, it seemed that the "eyes" of the compass had just focused on their target, and then He shifted his gaze in horror.

But now that the pointers of anomaly 203 are all pointing to the sea near Prand, in Aiden's view, it has become a kind of "disguised"

He suddenly thought of a sentence the captain once said to himself——

Anomaly 203 occasionally exhibits the properties of a "living creature", which does not always function mechanically.

This thing is scary.

"Something's wrong... there's something wrong with this city-state!" Aiden suddenly realized, "We need to tell the captain about the situation here.

"But didn't the captain order us not to go ashore?"

"Send a message first," Aiden said quickly, looking at a sailor, "Go, bring Poli here!"

The sailor ran away quickly, and after a while, he ran back to the bridge - a huge parrot with colorful tail feathers was standing on his shoulder, grinding his mouth with the exposed skull on the back of the sailor's head shell.

"Perley, I need you to send a message." Aiden said loudly.

The parrot immediately stopped bullying the sailor, and raised its head to stare at the first officer: "Perley, you can send a message.

"Go to the cathedral of the city-state, look for the breath of the captain, and tell him—the blood-seeking compass points to Purand, the city-state is not safe!"

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