Endless route

Chapter 4 4. Ten days at sea

The sea water spreads along the coastline into a crescent moon, and the city lights are refracted into tiny points of light on the sea surface. With the rise and fall of the waves, you will feel dizzy after looking at it for a long time.

The taxi pulled into the port.

Zheng Yun looked at the sea with mixed emotions. This was his first time going out to sea to pan for gold, and everything ahead was unknown.

He was flipping through the photo album just now.

There is W-06's northern continent on the ancient sea map, but the outline is very distorted and does not match the place he is going to. He can only study it after the mission is over.

While his thoughts were wandering, the taxi stopped in front of a retro and old cruise ship called the Elizabeth, lying across the shore like a city on the sea.

It is indeed an old ship. It was built in 1930. The facilities are old and outdated. The advantage is that it is cheap. It was a top-class cruise ship a hundred years ago and the speed is not slow.

There is a gangway when you get off the bus.

Zheng Yun followed the tourists to check in with a backpack, and climbed up the gangway to observe the hull up close. The white paint could not hide the rust, and several huge dents were shocking.

Find your own room according to the ferry ticket.

The room is in a classical Western style, with clean cheap carpets, soft old iron beds, and the only porthole is small and rusty, with very limited viewing angles.

Professor Zhang reimbursed the ferry ticket after returning from the mission. He had to pay for it himself in the early stage. He was not rich, so he could only choose this old cruise ship and live in an ordinary single room.

The cruise will depart at ten o'clock tonight.

The end point is W-06's Port of Enns. The route is more than 8,000 kilometers, approximately 4,500 nautical miles, and has to pass through four seas of fog and three planets.

The average speed of old cruise ships is 20 knots, and including stops along the way, it takes about ten days to arrive.

…

Two days later.

The cruise ship sailed in a large white fog, heading straight to the west of the route. The window was filled with thick white fog, and the visible distance was no more than five meters.

With a steady fluctuation in space, the cruise ship Elizabeth, built in the last century, jumped into space again and entered W-03.

Zheng Yun kept watching from the window.

He only felt a faint vibration, and then the sky suddenly turned dark, which meant that the ship had crossed the endless starry sky and jumped to the next planet.

There is still white fog outside the window.

This sea area is relatively stable, and its temperature and climate are similar to those of the Earth. But in fact, it is one hundred and seventy light years away from the Earth, completely in deep space outside the solar system.

It's amazing.

Zheng Yun sighed.

It is worthy of being a relic of ancient civilization. Cruise ships of the last century were able to navigate the interstellar space without any pressure. No wonder the ancients thought that the Sea of ​​Mist was the residence of immortals.

Thinking about the ancient people back then, riding the wind and waves in ancient ships, passing through the fog and seeing the stars change dramatically, it is not difficult to understand why they were so superstitious.

But today, this route has been completely developed and is bustling with ships, with giant cargo ships of one hundred thousand tons coming in and out.

But there are some exceptions.

Zheng Yun took pictures of several antique sailing boats with his mobile phone, dreaming back to the age of exploration hundreds of years ago. Last night, he saw two speedboats suspected of being pirates from a distance.

There are almost all kinds of boats.

There are even people on the Internet who challenge to swim across the foggy sea and rely on physical interstellar navigation, but only a few succeed, and they often lose contact halfway.

The marine life on the endless sea route is no joke. Creatures that occasionally stray into the earth and are regarded as 'sea monsters' by the ancients are everywhere on the sea route.

Before humans went to sea.

They are the overlords of the routes.

The jump rules of the Misty Sea are also beneficial to marine life. Only materials near the sea surface can jump. Flying and deep diving are difficult to jump.

Mainstream speculation is that the Endless Sea Route was created by a highly developed marine civilization. Perhaps that civilization still exists at the end of the sea route.

But that's too far away. The furthest drone exploration of the endless route has reached W-42C. It almost spans the cantilever of the Milky Way, but it's not the end yet.

Go to the porthole and look out.

The outside world is not completely dark. You can faintly see the dark blue water and some luminous creatures in the depths of the sea. It feels unreal.

My adoptive father once said that a colleague once found a shipwreck in the early Ming Dynasty in this area. The silver ingot was as soaked as a sponge, and he made ten lifetimes of wealth in one day.

In the early Ming Dynasty, some people came to this sea area and left traces in this deep space...

…

Eight days later, it will be 9pm international time on May 5th and 10pm local time in Ennsport.

The cruise ship finally approaches the port.

Zheng Yun saw the city again. Through the porthole, he could see a distant but dazzling bustling port floating at the end of the dark sea.

The cruise ship slowly entered the south side of the port.

Zheng Yun changed his clothes in the guest room, wearing a thin black jacket and T-shirt, off-road pants, a brown hat and a rough and durable backpack.

The outdoor temperature is about 30 degrees Celsius. It is very comfortable to wear this way and looks more like a tourist.

After packing up everything, I walked out of the guest room, followed the tourists to get off the boat, stepped from the gangway to the land, and stepped on the hard cement road with my feet.

My feet felt a little weak.

The aftereffects of being on a boat for a long time.

After looking around, Zheng Yun walked to the taxi nearby and reported the name of a hotel. This was included with the purchase of the ferry ticket and allowed him to stay for three days for free.

The taxi driver is a middle-aged brown Asian who speaks multiple languages. He chatted non-stop along the way, constantly introducing the surrounding environment and major facilities.

This place does not belong to the country. It was originally a French colony. It has become half independent in modern times. Almost all resources are controlled by French capital. The Port of Enns is a port city mainly invested and developed by French Bank Group. Regardless of culture or camp, it is considered a Western city.

Taxi arrives at the hotel.

Zheng Yun successfully got off the bus after paying a twenty tip. He carried his things into the hotel and exchanged his ferry ticket for the room. He entered the room, put down his things and immediately went downstairs.

There is a beach downstairs from the hotel.

The cool sea breeze is refreshing.

Along the way, I met many tourists dressed in cool clothes. The hotel has a beach barbecue. The young bodies and alcohol are intertwined under the night. The scene looks very good.

Ten minutes later.

Zheng Yun walked into a coffee shop and found his college classmate Liu Ming on the table at the door.

It's so hard to meet you.

Liu Ming stood up and walked to Zheng Yun, giving him a strong hug as soon as he entered the door.

When did you arrive?

Zheng Yun smiled. He and Liu Ming were not in the same dormitory back then, but they had a very good relationship. No one else knew that this guy was a rich second generation.

I arrived this morning. I have been waiting for you at the port all day, and you are finally here.

Liu Ming punched Zheng Yun in the chest, suddenly noticed something, and squeezed his arm hard: With your arm size, I will rely on you to protect my brother this time.

You're not much worse.

Zheng Yun lowered his head and looked at Liu Ming's figure. He was not bad, and he should have continued to exercise.

Dude, I don't have the talent you have.

Liu Ming shook his head and pulled Zheng Yun to the table and introduced him to another schoolmate: This is Song Wan, who is a few years behind us.

Hello.

Zheng Yun nodded to the girl.

He knew about this in advance. Liu Ming was pursuing Song Wan. This school girl liked adventure, so Liu Ming pulled her into Professor Zhang's team.

It's the same as a college internship, there is no salary, she just follows the team to gain experience.

Song Wan was also involved in the private work of finding someone, but they were considered as one person, so they shared half of the money, and the rest was given to Zheng Yun, and Liu Ming paid for all the expenses along the way.

At this point, Zheng Yun couldn't find any reason to refuse. When he and Liu Ming went out to surf the Internet together, he paid for everything except the Internet fee, cigarettes, alcohol and meals.

And if it hadn't been for this, he might not have had this opportunity. I just hope that he wouldn't lose money in the end.

Hello, Mr. Zheng.

Song Wan stood up and said hello. She looked quite cute and dressed neatly. She was dressed in sportswear. Apart from anything else, she was at least very polite.

Professor Zhang's graduate students are all overseas. He approached my supervisor and asked me to find a few people for him. Otherwise, this good task would not fall into our hands.

Liu Ming took Zheng Yun to sit down, took out a tablet, placed it on the table, and clicked on a plant photo:

The target plants are widely distributed, and there are quite a lot of them in caves and mines. They are not particularly difficult to find. We mainly focus on finding people, and we are tight on time.

Liu Ming turned a page.

A picture of a woman appeared on the tablet. She was wearing a black ski suit. She had blond hair and light blue eyes. She was very beautiful. She was obviously not Chinese.

This woman's name is Daphna. She is twenty-five years old. She left our W-02 half a month ago and disappeared after arriving at W-06. Her location is about 200 kilometers south of Lake Krogalt. Isn't it a coincidence?

Liu Ming smiled and spoke.

Zheng Yun thought about it and realized that the place where they were going to find the plants was near Lake Krogalt. The distance was not very far, so it was just a coincidence.

There is only one thing that is strange. This Daphna is wearing a positioning rescue device. Every two or three days, this rescue device will be activated.

She should still be alive, but she didn't send any message using the distress device, and her family couldn't contact her, so they asked someone to look for her.

Liu Ming introduced the situation carefully.

The place where Daphna disappeared is also deep in the tropical rain forest. It is rumored that there are several gold mines nearby, attracting many gold prospectors.

The target's family was quite wealthy, and they said they had quite a lot of property in Fu'en City. In addition to people like them who were looking for people along the way, they also hired a professional search and rescue team. They happened to bump into Liu Ming when they were on the boat.

The search and rescue team is different from them. Each person has 400,000 yuan, and they have to pay if they can save the person. There is no competition with their bounty nature.

Liu Ming wanted to go with them.

So he boasted that he was a graduate student in the Department of Rainforest Biology. He also said that Zheng Yun ran a pawn shop, was knowledgeable and knew everything, and had special skills passed down from his ancestors.

These words really worked. They had agreed yesterday that the search and rescue team would set off first, but when they arrived at the place, the two teams would act together.

Zheng Yun nodded in his heart.

Liu Ming has a quick mind. It is extremely dangerous to go into the rainforest to find people. He also knows the stakes. It is definitely a good thing to work with the search and rescue team.