Bizarre Detective Agency

   Chapter 660 Two hundred and thirty seven. Voyage

   "We're fifteen nautical miles from land!"

   In the early morning of the third day, the shouts from the foremast lookout were blown by the sea breeze to all parts of the deck.

   The first mate came to the bow with the crisp sound of boots, opened the monocular and looked out, the outline of the horizon vaguely appeared in the distance.

   "It's finally here..." The young chief mate muttered to himself, took out the pocket watch in his arms and lifted the lid, with a photo of a beautiful girl posted on it. "Selina, wait for me to come back as a hero..."

   when - when - when -

  The bell on the deck rang suddenly, and a short whistle sounded from the ironclad not far away.

  The time of silence has come.

   Sailors ran around, anchoring themselves under the mast or clinging to the sides of the boat as they had done before. Since three unfortunate fellows swayed and made footsteps and were swallowed by the silence, no one dared to ignore the silence on the basis of experience.

  The bulging sails led the Old Gentleman to land, but it seemed as if time had stopped on deck, and the crew remained eerily still.

  Ten minutes later, two long whistles came from the ironclad ship, indicating that the silence had left.

  Revived on the deck, tied his crew with hemp ropes and walked around, their bodies stiffened by movement.

   At eight in the morning, two ships from the Lennon Islands arrived in the waters near the Old Channel.

   Several boats have dropped anchor in this calm waters. Two of them were wooden multimasted sailing ships of the same age as the Old Gentleman, and the ironclads that guarded them.

   "Semaphore and tell them we're coming." Mannick Pa said, raising his monocular to look at the warship similar in size to the Old Gentleman.

   He almost saw a fellow as old as himself standing on the deck and shouting something arrogantly.

   The last arrival of the old gentleman and the following ironclads entered the fleet, and for a moment, the three warships gathered at the temporary port.

  Mannick Pa and Canglang, the captains who are both enemies and friends, meet again after decades, and they don't seem to want to talk about the past. After greeting Luo Qi Bellman, the owner of the small battleship, Canglang looked towards the sea: "Why is there one less."

   They were both escorted by two boats, only the Old Gentleman was one.

  "...I encountered some trouble on the road." After a moment of silence, Mannick Pa took off the captain's cap, buckled it on his chest and bowed slightly in the direction where they came.

  Blue Wolf and Luo Qi Bellman knew what this meant and made the same move.

   They got entangled by a monster last night, the ship stayed behind and never caught up with them again.

   "Go and meet the commander of this operation, Keylan Fast." The wolf put on his hat again and said.

   "You guys go, I'll go back to the boat and wait for the action." Mannick Pa refused.

   "You're still the same." Canglang shook his head indifferently and survived, and went to the town with Luo Qi Behrman to see the True Sight Night Watchman.

   The chief mate on the side of the ship saw Manic Pa back on board. "Aren't you going to get together with Lord Canglang?"

   "No need." Mannick Pa walked towards the captain's room, no one knew what he was thinking.

After    dozens of minutes later, the two captains boarded the old gentleman, went to the captain's room to talk for a few minutes and then left. Before Canglang left, he looked around nostalgically and sighed a few words.

   On the eve of sailing, Chief Officer Manique Parjean told the crew that he needed to pay attention.

   They will go nearly two hundred miles inland far from the ocean, stopping when they are about a mile from the oasis.

   This distance will not be like the surroundings in silence, the ritual does not exist all the time. And the seven or eight minute interval was enough for them to break down and reload.

   At the same time, the cannonball will not deviate too far from the target, ensuring that the first round of cannonballs can cover the body when it is silent.

  The Exorcist United Organization led the locals to solve the narrow and curved river as much as possible, but still only three wooden warships could enter because the draft of the ironclad ships was too deep.

   They just had to make sure to drop their anchors and keep quiet during the increasingly long periods of silence, without letting the boats touch the shore.

  The latter is a problem, but fortunately the river flow is gentle, and there are three experienced captains.

   There was no time to meet and say goodbye, and the three warships that got the plan left the port and sailed into the meandering river.

  The five ironclad ships on the sea simultaneously sounded echoing whistles. The townspeople also looked at the warships entering the Badlands.

   They carry people's last hope.

   "Go and rest first, we won't be able to get close to the time of silence until tomorrow morning." The mate advised.

   The old captain never closed his eyes and rested after the strange encounter last night.

   "After a moment of silence," Mannick Pa said, taking off his captain's hat.

   Outside the Badlands, the Silence will only appear once a day, while in the Badlands, it will appear more frequently.

The closer    is to the time of silence, the more serious the situation becomes.

   For example, as written in the information brought back by the crusade team, when you are one mile away from the oasis, the time will switch back and forth between ten minutes of silence and seven or eight minutes.

   The first silence came at noon a few hours after entering the river.

  The crew seemed to be in a hurry because of their nervousness, but they dropped the anchor and fixed themselves on the deck.

The two ships behind    also broke down and stopped.

   After ten minutes, the anchor was lifted and the sailing continued.

The first attrition of the   Old Gentleman was late at night, and no one knew when he disappeared. It was only after the roll call crew found his disappearance. Then the second, the third.

   The latter two ships are also inevitably attrition, corresponding to the fact that they are getting closer and closer to the oasis...

  In the early morning, the darkness that enveloped the barren land began to dissipate.

   Thirty minutes have passed since the last silence.

   "The map shows that we are very close to the oasis, less than 20 miles." The young chief mate handed the parchment map to Mannick Pa. At full speed, they could reach the oasis in an hour.

   "How about the two boats in the back?"

   "Not so good... They're like us, down by almost a quarter."

   "Pay attention to the next channel, here—"

   Manik Pa's words were interrupted by the sudden vibration of the hull. Manik Pa couldn't stand firm, his forehead hit the wooden wall, scratching his skin.

   The first mate also almost fell, he helped the old captain and rushed out of the captain's room shouting: "What happened just now!"

   The sailor, who was lying on the side of the boat, watching the hull, replied loudly: "We hit the rocks - we hit the bottom of the river!"

"is it serious!"

   A crew member ran from the bottom to the deck: "The cargo hold is slightly leaking, but it is not serious."

   was about to breathe a sigh of relief when a crew member stumbled onto the deck and rang the bronze bell that signified the hour of silence.

   Except for the sailor who lowered the anchor, everyone else held themselves numbly and skillfully,

  The young chief mate went back to the captain's room, fixed the drowsy Manique Pa to the chair, and then tied himself to the wooden pole with twine.

   "Be careful... ahead..."

  Manik Pa struggled to point forward, the young chief officer who tied the hemp rope raised his head - in front of the river, a narrow pass blocked the front, and the water rushed through.

   And the anchor has not yet sunk to the bottom.

   The bells on the deck disappeared.

   (end of this chapter)