Mermaid Reef

Where is Port Royal?

It is said to be a wicked and depraved city, like Sodom in the Bible.

People don't drink water, only strong alcohol.

Killings are happening all the time in the city, dead bodies or drunks are lying in the streets.

The bazaars are filled with goods and luxuries from all over the world, and whole ships of gold are waiting to enter the harbor.

The pirates jumped into tubs full of gold coins, put their arms around women, and held their weapons to party all night.

This is the most common description in adventure novels and sailing notes.

From the nobles who were captured by pirates to Port Royal and waited for the ransom, the slaves who escaped successfully, smuggling merchants, and the British soldiers stationed in Port Royal.

In order to seize Spain's wealth in the Americas, the United Kingdom publicly sold plunder licenses to encourage pirates to attack various sea ships, and sheltered pirates and provided them with supplies.

Since the British acquired Port Royal in 1670, it has been the anchorage of the largest pirate fleet in the world. This deformed prosperity lasted for 30 years until a major earthquake destroyed the entire city.

"...people believed it was a punishment from God because Sin City shouldn't exist."

John paused when he said this, he saw that Juan's expression had recovered, so he stopped speaking.

Juan was stunned by John's series of precise analysis, he subconsciously showed resistance, this is a subconscious self-protection - no one likes to be seen through, everyone will be afraid of this kind of secrets and truths that can be grasped through details people.

But Juan quickly broke free from this resistance, and reason forced him to calm down.

Juan put his hands in his hair, and then pulled twice hard.

"I don't believe in a God, and it turns out there isn't, so you mean... wasn't that a big earthquake?"

"No, I do not know."

John slowly leaned back on the recliner, raised his pipe and said, "I need to read the materials, it's time for me to wake up, Mr. Juan, see you tonight."

As his words ended, the surrounding scene began to blur and distort.

They are expanding.

Like a colored soap bubble, suddenly burst.

The chair in which Juan was sitting had also disappeared, and he was panicking when a large, rough hand gripped him like a pair of iron pincers.

After spinning around, Juan found himself in a dark house.

It seemed to be winter here, and there was a fire in the fireplace.

There was a curved bloodstain on the wallpaper, bloodstains could also be seen on the ceiling and the carpet, the doors and windows were closed and a few wooden strips were nailed, the table and furniture were also pushed there, and there were strange sounds outside the room.

A low growl, a strange crunching sound.

It's like a wild beast crouching at the door gnawing bones.

Juan felt the creeps, he subconsciously grabbed the candlestick, which was the closest thing to him and could be used as a weapon.

Then he saw some viscous black liquid on the iron rod of the candle.

The foul-smelling fluid seemed to writhe.

"boom."

Juan dropped the candlestick as fast as he could, panting for a safe place in the house.

"Sorry, my dream was terrible." The voice of Grizzly Hans came out from the darkness, and he picked up the flame in the fireplace with the tongs.

Those strange sounds, blood stains, and liquids seemed to have lost their color, and also lost their inexplicable sense of terror.

Only then did Juan feel better. He forced a smile and asked dryly, "I've been wandering into this kind of dream in the past few days?"

"Yes."

"..."

Juan cursed in Spanish.

"Is this a nightmare? I mean, do you have the same dream every day?" Juan keenly noticed the problem.

Hans didn't evade, he said bluntly: "Just like you think, I'm a dream healer, but I can't cure my own shadow."

Juan's pupils contracted, his body tensed, and he blurted out: "So... this is the hell you see?"

Hans remained silent.

Juan took a few short breaths. He raised his hands and lowered them again, like a person who wants to vent his emotions and finally chooses to be calm.

"I guess, you didn't create a good dream because of a 'need'?" Juan had never hated his brain so much.

If he wasn't that smart, he wouldn't be mad now.

Hans had a guilty expression on his face, and he apologized seriously: "I made a decision for you without your consent, I'm sorry. But you need to pass training... more training than I originally planned, Because the problem is more serious than expected, when you are brought in front of the evil god by the compass again, you must have the ability to protect yourself."

Juan was panting like a bellows in a smithy.

"You need to learn how to stay sane and fight the enemy."

Hans' voice was steady and powerful. He walked to the corner of the room, picked up a wooden stick under Juan's disbelieving gaze, and threw it on the carpet.

"You may not be able to find the weapon in time, but in the city, it is not difficult to quickly dismantle the tables and chairs, so we must first learn how to carve a rune on the stick. The simplest rune can play the power of your blows. strength.

"The second is the rune combination, which prevents your stick from being corroded."

Hans handed the wooden stick to Juan, and said in an encouraging tone: "The lowest monsters are people and animals polluted by the power of evil gods. They have no reason and only attack indiscriminately. As long as you learn to dodge, you can kill them." , there is one outside the door now, come on.”

Juan: "..."

Juan twisted his neck with difficulty, and asked questioningly: "Wait, I remember that I need to face the evil god?"

"There are still four evil gods." When Hans said this, he couldn't help pinching the bridge of his nose, as if to relieve the pressure.

Hans closed his eyes and opened them again after a few seconds, his expression remained calm: "The situation is like this, as long as human beings get close to evil gods, they may go crazy or die. You need to get used to this kind of 'stimulation', you even the lowest I have never seen any other pollution monsters, which is not good for your survival."

Juan got it.

But he would rather not know.

"I've had simple training, I mean... I can take down a strong man in a fight," Juan stammered.

"That may not be enough." Hans chose a more euphemistic way of saying it.

Juan looked at him silently.

Hans added: "The polluting creature is very strong, has serrated claws, tough skin, and is very fast."

"Are you describing a 'tyrannical king'?" Juan asked blankly.

The tyrannical king was the name given by paleontologists to a prehistoric creature in 1905. Juan was a surveyor for the archaeological excavation team, and this was a familiar analogy for him.

Hans said bluntly: "No, in the dream where you finally passed the test, the power of the monster was similar to that of a tyrannical king. But now, the mutant monster with the least power is blocking the door of the house. It is only the size of a hound, like a twisted mass. You can knock down a man with a strong physique and you can beat it. I believe you have the ability, what you really need to do is overcome your inner fear."

Hans patted Juan on the shoulder.

Juan felt that he was going to collapse, but his rationality made him break away from the passive emotion of wanting to shout crazily again, and listened dully to Grizzly Hans' explanation:

"Remember, calm down! Attack their eyes, the position of the eyes is the brain, it is the fatal weakness!

"A lot of people would have survived, but they were overcome by fear."

"Fear is an emotion rooted in the flesh and soul of human beings. Some people have never seen a snake, but they will be afraid when they hear the word, and some people are born afraid of flames. These are the fears left to us by our ancestors. Human beings will Inherit ancient fears.

"What kind of existence is an evil god? When you approach him, hear his voice, and feel his breath, the code of fear deep in your body will be activated. Most people will go crazy in the process, but we have to Stay awake and rational...you can't look directly at the real body of the evil gods, you only need to look at their shadows and speak."

"The evil god is in Port Royal, and everyone at the archaeological dig site is in extreme danger.

"I can't get to Jamaica in a short time. The Caribbean Sea is too far away. Disasters may break out at any time. Juan, hurry up..."

Hans looked directly into Juan's eyes, whose distracted attention was slowly recovering.

Juan's fingers turned white from the force he held on to the stick.

"You can persuade your friend to leave Jamaica."

Hans looked a little unbearable, but for a moment, he became calm and firm again, "But you can't escape the disaster, that compass will always follow you, this is your 'connection' with the evil god. John has encountered a similar situation, If you sell and lose the compass, the compass will come back automatically, and if someone steals or snatches the compass, that person will die."

Juan thought of the dead antique dealer.

He looked at Hans, who pointed to the door.

The dream "lived" again, and the strange sound and bloody smell tormented Juan's nerves.

Half an hour later, Juan crawled through the door dragging his bruised body.

"What's next?" Juan asked weakly.

Hans began to change the scene in his dream. They fell near a village, and in the distance there were figures of giant wolves biting each other.

Juan found that his injury recovered instantly.

Before he could make a move this time, the giant wolf rushed over, and then Hans held the wolf's drooling head with one hand and Juan who was trembling with the other, keeping the two at a very close distance.

Juan screamed, but he fell silent after screaming.

He remembered that this was a dream created by Hans, where he was not afraid of getting hurt, and it was okay to die.

Hans can also "stop" everything in a critical moment.

Just like now, staring at that deformed and disgusting wolf head for a long time is barely bearable.

……

……

"start running!"

"Fight! Don't forget to use runes!"

"Monsters used to be people too, they are not followers of evil gods, they can be dealt with!"

……

……

Juan supported his crippled knee. He asked incomprehensibly, "I thought this dream would last for more than four hours. Why do I feel like three days have passed?"

"Dreams can take a long time," Hans replied.

He stood beside Juan, as tall as a mountain—this is the illusion that Juan's mental inability to withstand the high-intensity pressure began to produce.

"Have you personally experienced these monsters?" Juan asked while holding his head.

"Yes."

"Including the assessment you mentioned tomorrow, you defeated the tyrannical king?"

"That's right." Hans explained seriously, "Actually, the assessment does not require you to defeat monsters, as long as you are not swallowed by fear."

The next day, Juan, who recovered, fell into a dream, and was dragged directly into a burning street by Hans who adjusted his schedule and waited for him.

The house collapsed, and a horned demon tens of meters high rushed out of the ruins, and ruthlessly threw itself at a monitor lizard.

Juan was dumbfounded, and then fled desperately.

He tried every means to escape in the dark night, and was either crushed to death or trampled to death by monsters.

Each time he was about to die, the dream would stop and start over, with Juan thrown randomly to a new corner of the ruins to struggle to survive.

Once Juan was about to succeed, but was shot into the fire by the third monster that jumped out from under the ruins.

What broke Juan the most was the appearance of a fourth tyrannical king-level mutant monster.

"Hans?"

When Juan finally climbed out of the ruins to find the owner of the dream, he suddenly found a young man who looked like Hans with a broadsword in his left hand, and a silver-white knight's long wooden barn in his right hand, rushing towards the four. monster.

Juan's eyeballs were about to pop out.

——John's wisdom and Hans' strength, are they really human beings?

"I think the evil god chose the wrong person."

The dream changed, and Juan sat in John's courtyard, expressing his opinions numbly.