Chapter 1 After Seeing the Letters

After seeing the hurried yet sharp letters, Lawrence and his first mate were stunned.

"Humans only have two eyes... Why is this sentence carved here?" The first mate widened his eyes, staring at the line for a long time before turning his head in confusion, "Isn't this perfectly normal?

Except for a very few congenital deformities, who doesn't have two eyes?"

Lawrence didn't speak immediately, but after pondering for a long time, he broke the silence, "Who do you think left this line of words?"

"…The island's natives?" the first mate said uncertainly, "Were there people on this island before?"

"It's hard to say about this island, but there must have been people on Dagger Island in the real world," Lawrence said slowly, reaching out to gently touch the carvings on the wall. The rough and real touch came from his fingertips, as if conveying the strong emotions and thoughts when this sentence was carved, "Humans only have two eyes. Someone specifically carved this sentence on the wall, perhaps indicating one thing…"

"Indicating one thing?"

"On this island, there once appeared something that was not 'only has two eyes,' something that resembled humans," Lawrence slowly raised his head, looking at the surrounding thick fog and the shadowy distant views within the fog, "And they mingled among humans, yet could not be easily detected."

The first mate took a light breath, hesitatingly opening his mouth, "Then... where did the person who left this sentence go?"

"I don't know," Lawrence shook his head. For some reason, he recalled the black mud he had seen along the way, as well as the empty dock area, but he quickly put these unrelated thoughts aside, and placed his hand on the doorknob of the port office, "Be on guard."

The sound of a gun's safety being disengaged came from behind. Lawrence steadied himself, exerted a slight force in his hand, and pushed the door open.

He quickly flashed to the side, avoiding exposing his body to anything that might be hiding inside the building. The first mate stepped forward, pointing the muzzle of his rifle inside the door in a half-squatting position. The sailors who followed also raised their guns, pointing them at the door from various angles.

There was no movement inside the building.

The first mate, standing at the door, steadied himself and cautiously peeked into the room.

"No one inside," he turned his head back, "It's an empty office, with the lights on."

Lawrence waved his hand at the sailors and led the team into the room with the first mate.

This was an empty office. Several tables took up almost half of the space inside, and several chairs were placed randomly in front of the tables, as if someone had been sitting on them just a moment ago. The electric lights on the roof and the gas lamps on the walls were all lit, making the room particularly bright, and on the floor... the strange and suspicious black mud was everywhere.

"This disgusting stuff is everywhere here too..." The first mate frowned, looking at the black substance in the room, his disgust evident. He carefully bypassed the mud on the floor, came to the desks, and scanned the messy documents and various office supplies piled on them, "These things... Captain, do you want to take a look?"

"These are all forms and reports that the port needs to handle on a daily basis: material entry and exit, personnel transfers, facility inspections, and inspection reports for machinery and equipment..." Lawrence came to the desks, looking at the documents on them, his brows slowly furrowing, "The dates... are just a few days ago?"

"It's as if people were still working here not long ago," a sailor swallowed nervously, muttering in a low voice, "And then everyone evacuated in a hurry, without even having time to pack up their things…"

"Evacuated in a hurry?" Lawrence muttered in a low voice, his eyes sweeping across the table. A half-finished cup of coffee was on the table, with a thin layer of dust floating on it. Beside this table, a pool of black mud had dried up, and a small amount of black substance remained on the seat. His expression gradually became serious, "Is it really an evacuation…"

The first mate noticed the change in the old captain's tone, "Captain, what are you thinking about?"

Lawrence thought for a moment, just about to say something, when a harsh noise suddenly came from outside the room—it sounded like it was coming from the direction of the port square, the electrical noise when the broadcast loudspeaker was suddenly activated!

"Buzz—"

The ear-piercing noise startled everyone. The sailors hurriedly turned their eyes to the outside of the window, and in the next second, a discontinuous, distorted, and interference-filled broadcast sound resounded throughout the port area. It sounded like a slightly old voice: "Notice... we have been contaminated... This island... cannot be saved... Procedure Twenty-Two will be activated... Honored to have worked with you all... We will meet again at Bartok's Gate."

Accompanied by a burst of ear-piercing noise, the broadcast from the square came to an abrupt halt. The first mate widened his eyes in astonishment, turning his head to look at Lawrence, "Captain, what's going on…"

Before he could finish speaking, a thunderous roar suddenly came from the distance!

And accompanying that thunderous roar were more thunderous sounds, like the sky falling and the earth collapsing!

One after another, explosions swept across the entire Dagger Island, shaking everyone's minds. Lawrence reacted almost instantly to what was happening—

This was not thunder, it was explosives. The self-destruct devices of certain facilities on the island were detonating, destroying everything!

"Get out of the building!" Lawrence suddenly shouted, raising his pistol and firing a shot at the ceiling, "There are explosives!"

The captain's shout was almost drowned out by the explosions, but the blast of the pistol at least startled the surrounding sailors. A group of people immediately rushed towards the door.

More than a dozen people rushed out of the door, down the slope, and ran wildly towards the open space. The dense explosions continued to come from all directions, as if the entire island was being torn into pieces in a massive explosion, but halfway through the run, Lawrence suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"Stop!" He suddenly stopped, shouting loudly while firing into the sky, "Stop!"

The sailors stopped again in a panic. Then, they also noticed something was wrong.

Only the sound of explosions could be heard all around—however, no smoke, no flashes, and not even any tremors could be felt in the direction of the explosions.

Only thunderous sounds echoed throughout the island.

Then, after a while, the sound of explosions gradually subsided, and the surroundings returned to the silent appearance of the thick fog, as if the earth-shattering explosions had only been a collective hallucination.

"Only sound?" The first mate looked around in disbelief, unsure of what to make of it.

"It's a residual echo," Lawrence's heartbeat gradually calmed down as he made a quick judgment—although he didn't know if his judgment was correct, as the captain, he had to give everyone a judgment, "What we just heard should have been something that happened on this island in the past, replaying in our ears as a residual echo, not a real explosion."

"I was scared to death just now," a sailor muttered, "I thought there was really a big explosion…"

"The closest explosion to here just now was in that direction," the first mate raised his head, confirming the direction, and finally pointed to the other end of the port square, "Should we go over there and take a look?"

"Go over there and check the situation," Lawrence quickly made a decision, "If something really happened here, there should still be traces left behind."

The exploration team immediately set off towards the thick fog. This time, they advanced even more cautiously than before.

After an unknown amount of time, a collapsed large building appeared in front of Lawrence.

This building was located on the inner edge of a small bay, backed by a solid rocky cliff, and judging from the damage to the building... it was obviously completely destroyed by a massive explosion from the inside out.

The first mate stood on a high place, looking at the ruins in shock.

"What kind of facility was this used for... It's amazing…"

"We should be more curious about what terrible things happened here, so that such a facility would be blown up without hesitation," Lawrence said in a deep voice, slowly taking two steps forward, "If the people on this island…"

"Stop."

A voice suddenly came from the side, and Lawrence stopped instantly.

"Martha?!"

He suddenly looked in the direction of the voice, calling out in surprise and nervousness.

But there was only a slowly undulating fog there, and the familiar figure could not be seen at all.

"Captain?" The first mate noticed the captain's abnormal reaction, immediately jumped off the rock, and came to Lawrence's side nervously, "What's wrong?"

"…Hallucination," Lawrence said immediately, his expression particularly serious, "You didn't hear a sound, did you?"

"We didn't hear anything," the sailors looked at each other, one of them said.

"We probably shouldn't go any further," Lawrence frowned, "Let's go back to the port first, and then…"

Martha's voice entered his ears again, this time the voice was closer, "Back to the ship, now."

Lawrence paused for a moment, restraining himself from looking in the direction of the voice again. He wanted to continue speaking, but in the next second, Martha's voice came again, this time almost贴着 his ear, with a hint of urgency in her tone, "Back to the White Oak, immediately—Lawrence, they're coming!"

Lawrence's eyes widened slightly, and he subconsciously opened his mouth, "Who? Who's coming?"

The first mate, concerned, supported Lawrence's arm, "Captain, who are you talking to?"

Lawrence didn't speak, just suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction of where the White Oak was docked.

A sense of unease surged into his heart.

And in the next second, as if to confirm this unease, a muffled thunder suddenly came faintly from that direction.

It was the sound of cannons.

"Someone's firing..." The first mate reacted instantly, "There are enemies!"

"Back to the ship!" Lawrence shouted, leading the team to run back to the port, and in the sound of the wind rushing past his ears, Martha's voice brushed past his ear like a soft whisper, "The Albatross is coming…"