Mermaid Reef

"...Great, it's still daytime and the light is good."

Juan pushed several wooden carts piled with sacks under the eaves and climbed onto the roof.

This sinful city, which is described in records as a land of gold and spices, is actually not that special.

There are no gold-cast roofs here, and it is impossible to have buildings inlaid with gemstones. Most of the houses are products of rock and wood. Only the streets near the Governor's Mansion are relatively clean.

"Governor's Mansion, Port Wharf, Slave Market, Dockyard, Bazaar... Hey, a lot of bazaars."

Juan took down the approximate distribution of the city and began to climb down.

It is important to go up to a high place and check the surrounding environment, but the high place is dangerous, and the shorter the time you stay, the better.

At this time, the wheels of the wooden cart slipped, and Juan quickly got down on the ground and grabbed the sack for balance.

His fingers subconsciously squeezed the granular contents of the bag, and then picked up the outer skin of the sack, observing the contents through the rough fibers with tiny gaps.

"corn kernels."

Juan quickly came to a conclusion, and he glanced up at the nearby buildings.

At the place where the wooden cart was originally parked, there was a small door on the wall, standing a fat man with oil stains all over his clothes, he was also drunk, impatiently counting coins to the deliverers.

Four or five slaves in chains were squatting against the wall.

The slaves were so thin that only a handful of bones remained, and they formed a small circle with the help of the wooden cart.

Juan climbed onto the wooden cart and saw that the slaves were holding a sharpened bone in their hands and stuck it into the bottom sack. Their dirty palms caught the dried corn kernels that flowed down. A child couldn't wait to stuff them. into the mouth.

Juan: "..."

Although we know that this is an afterimage of history and a time that has been buried, these human beings who maintain a posture have warmth, not wax figures or stone sculptures.

Their expressions are frozen, but there are still souls in their bodies.

Along the way, Juan saw drunk guys in taverns, pirates killing each other on the street, and slaves with numb faces.

The clothes on people remind Juan that this is a completely different time, and in this sin city, anything can happen.

There were a lot of slaves, innocent sailors on merchant ships, or Native Americans, and they couldn't be saved.

Can only ignore.

This is not what a human investigator who prevents disasters should manage, let alone what an archaeologist who witnesses history should do.

Juan thought he was ready, but he wasn't.

These corn-stealing slaves were different.

A slave is pulling a sack, ready to smooth out the sack of corn pulled out by the sharp bone and stack it on the flatbed cart so that no traces will be left; another slave is dragging another bag, and the slave holding the sharp bone is aiming at it; The older old man supported the child's shoulders and looked back warily.

The master of the slave was counting the corn money with the fat tavern cook, and the sewage was flowing at his feet.

Outside the alley, two groups of pirates were arguing, as if they had a dispute.

The sun just shone into the alley, just on the corn kernels flowing out of the sack.

This is an oil painting with perfect composition and strong color contrast.

The real scene shows the "tiny hope" hidden in the shadow of Sin City.

Juan stood dumbfounded.

He couldn't tell whether it was the light in the slaves' eyes, the expressions on their faces, or the skillful movements of the slaves when they stole the corn that moved him.

Anyway, Juan couldn't help walking up to the slaves, trying to grab some corn kernels and put them in the slaves' pockets.

But the slaves had no clothes at all, only two or three strips of cloth, and the child was naked, so he couldn't hide food at all.

Juan found the key to the shackles from the delivery man and opened the lock, but still kept the fake button.

He hoped that when time flowed again, these slaves would discover this unexpected surprise and seize the opportunity to escape.

"You're wasting your time."

A deep and beautiful voice floated from the depths of the alley.

Juan's body was stiff, looking at the evil god wearing a Venetian mask, he silently threw away the key.

"Indeed...according to the law of time, I should not affect history."

Juan stopped looking at the slaves and ran out of the alley.

Jensen came out from behind Gemil and asked suspiciously, "The law of time? What is that?"

"I don't know, maybe it's a vocabulary in human novels?"

Poseidon said thoughtfully, "It sounds like if you go back to the past, you can't change what happened?"

The Cthulhu doesn't believe in this logic. The Cthulhu's essence is disorder and chaos, and messing around is the norm.

After the evil gods saw too many of them messing around, the law of order automatically checked and filled in the gaps, and things returned to normal.

This can be regarded as a protection mechanism for order. Human beings will forget about mysterious memories, which is also the same principle.

"Humans' thinking is really complicated, and there is not so much to worry about."

Gemil muttered.

Even he can't break the time order of this planet, what are you afraid of human beings!

In fact, Gemil felt that the human investigator stayed here for a long time without any movement and no progress in cracking the maze, so he came to remind him.

Whether Juan freed the slaves or killed people, the evil god would not care.

The evil god only cares about investigators not working.

"He unlocked the lock on the slave's leg." Jason was bored and saw the key on the ground.

Gamir glanced lazily.

Before meeting Jason, Gemil had been using this method of forcing the surrounding time to stagnate, because he didn't want to have too much "connection" with humans.

So in Gemil's eyes, isn't it normal to take things from the side or hands of stationary humans?As for people's reactions after time resumes?What does that have to do with evil gods!

When it comes to anthropology, Jensen knows better.

Jason thought for a while, and casually referred the slaves to the next street.

Juan, who was squatting in a corner studying the city's sewers, was taken aback by the slave who suddenly appeared in front of him, and pressed his body tightly against the wall.

"This is--"

"Don't you want to save them?" Jason patiently explained, "Then you should put clothes on them and give them a boat. They have the brand of slaves on them, and they can't run very far without the shackles. If you go to the pier, you will be caught by the soldiers stationed there."

Juan was dumbfounded.

"No, there are artillery in the port. The ship cannot leave the port without permission." Jason thought seriously.

Gemil walked over slowly, heard what Jason said, and asked subconsciously: "Why do you need permission? Put people on the boat, and then I push the boat to the sea, isn't it all right? When the time resumes, they are already It's at sea."

"This is fine, but we need to put a few buckets of fresh water, and we must not forget the food."

Jason looked at Juan, as if he was waiting for Juan to happily prepare the "shipping supplies".

Finding that Juan didn't respond for a long time, Jason even felt puzzled.

"No, they don't necessarily know how to sail." Juan said dryly, "And this place is full of pirates. Even if the ship leaves the port and goes to sea, there is a high chance that it will be hijacked by pirate ships and become a slave again."

"Is that so?" Jason asked in surprise.

Holding the sapphire cane, he sighed and said sincerely, "It's too hard to escape."

Gemil also asked: "Is there no other way?"

Juan: "..."

No, why would the evil god discuss with himself the feasible plan of "escaping from Port Royal as a slave"?

"Well, Jamaica is a large island with many springs. They can abandon the escape route directly to the port and take a long detour through the jungle."

Juan couldn't help but took out the map in his pocket and began to draw.

"It's the shortest route, but the jungle is full of deadly dangers... oh, they don't have to go.

"Then choose this beach. It is three days away from Port Royal. The sea is full of hidden reefs and there is no boat to dock. They can make rafts to go to sea or live directly by the sea. Port Royal is very prosperous, and pirates bring huge amounts of money. Wealth and population, there is never a shortage of slaves. If slaves do escape, they are usually not chased out of the city."

Juan found stiffly that the two evil gods were really listening, and they were also very interested in the follow-up survival plan.

"What to eat?"

"Coconuts and sweet potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, grow very quickly and the leaves can be fed to livestock."

"So humans can survive?"

"It's hard to say, you will get sick, you will be bitten by poisonous snakes and insects." Juan said bravely.

Jason frowned, then sighed.

Yes, humans are too fragile.

Gemil grabbed the slaves casually and disappeared.

When it reappeared, Gemil yawned and said, "Let people go, let's see their luck."

Juan said weakly, give some more tools or food.

"I know that, um... knives, axes, rum, sails to keep warm at night..."

Jason met Juan's incredulous gaze, and said calmly, "I read it in a book I bought on Charing Cross Road, London, didn't I?"

Juan thought for a while, and asked tentatively, "Robinson Crusoe?"

"Have you seen it too?"

"..."

Juan not only watched it, but also thought about how he should survive in case of shipwreck.

This is not a wild idea. The voyage from Europe to the Caribbean is too long, and no one knows what accidents will happen.

He hadn't told anyone about it. Firstly, it was very taboo on the boat, and secondly, he would be laughed at.

Juan never expected that it would be two evil gods who would happily accompany him to "discuss" how a person or a group of people survived on the island.

"It's a pity that time is stopped. When the time resumes, we will leave again. We can't observe how long these humans can live there." Gemil said regretfully.

Juan shivered and was completely awake.

He realized that all this was just a game for the evil god to find interesting.

"I'll go to the market to have a look, maybe there will be clues to get out of trouble." Juan ran away quickly.

Jason didn't chase after him, he turned his head and asked Gemil: "If there is a big earthquake, will the humans who let go just now die?"

"On the hillside, not to be swept away by the waves."

Gemil said that he has considered this issue.

Jensen looked across the house and saw Juan enter the port tax collector's office, staring at the calendar on the wall.

1692 6 Month 7 Day.

"Is this the day?"

Jason appeared behind Juan again without a sound.

He sat in the tax collector's comfortable and spacious chair, with a straight back and a calm expression.

"It seems that this city will be destroyed on this day. Do you want to save more people?"

The evil god with light blue eyes stared at Juan in the form of a human, and the air around him was slowly descending, showing a frozen paleness.

"Do not……"

Juan took a step back, his expression struggling.

Then he bumped into something and fell on the chair.

Gamil just picked up a chair to block Juan's retreat. He looked at Juan's flickering lights and thought it would be fun to tease the human investigator.

"It seems that to achieve your wish and keep this bay in 1959, the price is to destroy this sinful city and destroy Port Royal in 1692."

Gemil narrowed his eyes slightly behind the mask, and his voice was beautiful but made people tremble all over:

"According to the principle of 'history is the same' that humans believe, there is nothing to be sad about. These people you see are destined to die, aren't they? Everything happened."

Juan's consciousness was blurred for a while, he saw black smoke filling the city, and then huge waves overturned everything.

The smoke that symbolized sin rose slowly, and was about to wrap around himself.

Jason couldn't help stretching out the black vine, and poked Gemil hard.

He was trying to persuade Juan not to feel bad about the death of slaves in these time rifts, what was Gemil doing?Scared the investigators to death?

As they tug--

"wrong!"

Juan broke free from the illusion for a second.

Juan gasped, then sat up straight suddenly, looked at the two evil gods (Jason hid the vines under the table in a panic), and said seriously: "After the sinking of Port Royal in 1692, the British rebuilt it. A Port Royal, and it was engulfed in a fire in 1703. A new city, Kingston, was built on the other side of the bay, but my friend Nick said to me... the fire is like a curse, always haunting the city, Locals believe it is the ghost of pirates from Port Royal of yesteryear."

"After picking up the compass, I specifically checked the information in Jamaica."

Juan took out his note book, opened it, and recited line by line:

"Kingston was burned in 1780, 1782, 1843, the worst fire was in 1882, it burned for four days and four nights, and everything was reduced to ashes.

"Ah, forget the horrific outbreak of cholera in Kingston in 1850.

"By 1907, the earthquake destroyed the whole city again. Nick said that the tsunami was coming from the direction of Port Royal, but this is nonsense. Kingston is on the inside of the bay, and Port Royal is on the outside. The waves must have come from Come from the sea..."

The temperature in the tax collector's office keeps dropping.

Juan shuddered from the cold and woke up instantly.

The brightness of willpower that had skyrocketed just now weakened greatly.

Juan looked at the two evil gods and said tremblingly: "So according to my speculation, the first possibility is that we can't get out of trouble directly, we can only arrive at 1703 and wait for a fire or create a big fire, and then go to 1780 according to the timetable... Anyway We must destroy this area again and again. The second possibility is that the war between the four evil gods has lasted too long, traveling back and forth in different time rifts, affecting all eras... Then it may not end in 1959, it may continue In the next century or even the next century, the date of escape is even more uncertain."

Jason: "..."

Gemil: "..."

What did you say, say it again!