Ashes Of Deep Sea

Chapter 377: Chapter 381: Cannon Fire

Chapter 377: Chapter 381: Cannon Fire

After seeing that row of sloppy yet sharp letters, Lawrence and the first mate beside him were both stunned.

“Humans have only two eyes… Why would such a sentence be carved here?” The first mate’s eyes widened as he stared at the line of text for a long while before turning his head in confusion. “Isn’t that very normal—aside from a very few cases of congenital deformities, who doesn’t have two eyes?”

Lawrence didn’t speak immediately but mused for a long time before breaking the silence, “What do you think, who left these words behind?”

“…The island’s original inhabitants?” the first mate said uncertainly, “Did people ever live on this island?”

“It’s hard to say about this island, but there are definitely people on the real world’s Dagger Island,” Lawrence slowly said, reaching out to gently touch the engravings on the wall. The rough and genuine sensation from his fingertips seemed to convey the strong emotions and thoughts present when the phrase was carved, “Humans have only two eyes, someone purposely carved this sentence on the wall, perhaps it indicates one thing…”

“It indicates one thing?”

“That on this island, there once appeared beings that were like humans but did not have ‘only two eyes’,” Lawrence slowly lifted his head, looking towards the dense fog and the indistinct distant shapes within it, “And they blended in with humans, yet could not be easily detected.”

The first mate inhaled sharply, hesitating before speaking, “Then… where did the person who left this message go?”

“I don’t know,” Lawrence shook his head. For some reason, he thought of the black sludge seen on the way here and the desolate dock area, but he quickly set these unrelated thoughts aside and placed his hand on the doorknob of the port office, “Stay on guard.”

The sound of firearms being taken off safety came from behind, and Lawrence steadied himself, using a bit of force in his hand, he pushed the door open with one motion.

He quickly dodged to the side to avoid exposing his body to anything that might be hiding within the building; the first mate stepped forward half a step, aiming his rifle into the room in a crouching stance, followed by the sailors who all lifted their guns, pointing at the door from various angles.

There was no movement inside the building.

The first mate at the door steadied himself, cautiously peered inside.

“No one’s there,” he turned back, “It’s an empty office, the lights are on.”

Lawrence gestured to the sailors and entered the room together with the first mate.

This was an office with no one inside; several desks almost took up half the space inside, a few chairs were strewn in front of the desks as if someone was sitting there just a second ago. Both the electric lights on the ceiling and the gas lamps on the walls were lit, making the room exceptionally bright, and on the floor… that same strange, suspicious, black sludge could be seen everywhere.

“This disgusting stuff is all over the place here too…” the first mate frowned as he looked at the black matter in the room, his disgust was plain to see. He carefully avoided the sludge on the floor, made his way to the desks, and skimmed over the pile of documents and various office supplies scattered on them, “Captain, do you want to take a look at these?”

“They are just the port’s daily paperwork and reports, material movements, personnel transfers, facility inspections, and the reports of machinery and equipment inspections…” Lawrence approached the desks, looked at some of the documents, his frown slowly deepening, “The dates… just a few days ago?”

“It’s as if someone was still working here not long ago,” a sailor nervously swallowed and muttered quietly, “Then everyone hurriedly evacuated, not even having time to tidy up… ”

“Hurried evacuation?” Lawrence murmured to himself, scanning the tabletop, a half-drunk cup of coffee rested on the table, covered with a thin layer of dust, and beside this table, a pool of black sludge had dried up, some of the black substance still lingering on the chair. His expression grew increasingly solemn, “Is it really an evacuation…”

The first mate noticed the change in the old captain’s tone, “Captain, have you thought of something?”

Lawrence thought for a moment, was about to say something when a piercing noise suddenly came from outside the room—it sounded like it was from the direction of the port square, a static noise that comes with the sudden startup of a loudspeaker!

“Buzz—”

The piercing noise took everyone by surprise, the sailors hurriedly cast their gaze towards the windows, and the next second, an intermittent, distorted broadcast voice filled with interference echoed throughout the entire port area. It sounded like an elderly voice, “Announcement… we have been contaminated… this island… is beyond salvation… will initiate Procedure 22… It has been an honor working with all of you… we will meet again beyond Bartok’s gates.”

Accompanied by a burst of piercing noise, the broadcast from the square abruptly stopped. The first mate’s eyes widened in shock, turning to look at Lawrence, “Captain, what is this…”

Before he could finish his sentence, a sound like thunder suddenly came from the distance!

And following that thunderous boom, there were more booming sounds, like the sky falling and earth shattering, like mountains collapsing!

Explosions followed one after another, instantly engulfing the entire Dagger Island, shaking everyone’s senses, and Lawrence almost instantly realized what had happened—

This wasn’t thunder; it was explosives, self-destruction devices on the island destroying everything!

“Get out of the building!” Lawrence suddenly shouted, raising his pistol and firing a shot at the ceiling, “There’s explosives!”

The captain’s shouts were almost drowned out by the explosions, yet the sound of the pistol somehow still managed to rouse the surrounding sailors, and the group immediately rushed toward the door.

About a dozen people charged out the door, down the ramp, and sprinted towards the open area, with the continuous explosions still coming from all around, as if the entire island was being torn apart in a massive blast. However, halfway through their run, Lawrence suddenly felt something was off.

“Stop!” he suddenly halted, while shooting into the sky and loudly shouting, “Stop!”

The sailors stopped in panic, and then they too realized something was amiss.

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Explosions sounded from all around—yet there was no smoke or flash to be seen in the direction of the explosions, nor could any tremor be felt.

The thunderous noise echoed across the entire island.

Soon after, the explosions gradually subsided, and the surroundings returned to the silent stillness amid the thick fog, as if the earth-shattering explosions had been nothing more than a collective hallucination.

“Only a sound?” The first mate looked around in shocked disbelief, speaking incredulously.

“It’s an echo,” Lawrence’s heartbeat also began to slow, quickly making a judgment—although he didn’t know whether his judgment was correct, but as the captain, he must provide a verdict for everyone now, “What we just heard was probably an event that had occurred on this island replaying in our ears as an echo, not a real explosion.”

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

“The nearest explosion sound just now was in that direction,” the first mate lifted his head, confirming the bearings, and finally pointed towards the other end of the harbor square, “Should we go check it out?”

“Let’s go and see what’s happened,” Lawrence decided quickly, “If something indeed occurred here, there should still be traces left behind.”

The exploration team immediately set out into the thick fog, this time moving more cautiously than before.

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

This structure was situated at the inner edge of a small bay, backed by a sturdy rocky cliff, and judging by the ruins… it was clearly destroyed by a massive explosion from the inside out.

The first mate stood on a high spot, staring at the ruins in astonishment.

“What was this facility used for… It’s staggering…”

“We should be more curious about what terrible event occurred here, to the extent that such a facility was destroyed without hesitation,” Lawrence said in a deep voice, slowly advancing two steps, “If the people on this island…”

“Stop.”

A voice suddenly came from the side, Lawrence instantly halted his steps.

“Martha?!”

He turned sharply towards the direction of the voice, uttering a startled and tense call.

But there was only a slowly undulating fog, and that familiar figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Captain?” The first mate noticed the captain’s unusual reaction, immediately hopped down from the stone, and anxiously approached Lawrence’s side, “What’s happened?”

“…Hallucination,” Lawrence stated promptly, his expression extremely serious, “You didn’t hear a voice, did you?”

“We didn’t hear anything,” said one of the sailors, as they looked at each other, perplexed.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go any further,” Lawrence frowned, “Let’s head back to the harbor, and then…”

Martha’s voice entered his ears again, this time even closer, “Return to the ship, now.”

Lawrence paused for a moment, restraining himself from looking in the direction of the voice, he was about to speak again, but the next second, Martha’s voice came again, almost against his ear, her tone carrying a trace of urgency, “Get back to the Sea Swallow, immediately—Lawrence, they’re coming!”

Lawrence’s eyes widened slightly, he instinctively asked, “Who? Who’s coming?”

The first mate beside him, worried, grabbed Lawrence’s arm, “Captain, who are you talking to?”

Lawrence didn’t speak, he simply looked up sharply in the direction where the Sea Swallow was docked.

A sense of unease surged within him.

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

It was the sound of cannon fire.

“Someone’s firing cannons…” the first mate immediately realized, “We have enemies!”

“Back to the ship!” Lawrence shouted, leading the team to sprint towards the harbor, and as the sound of the swiftly rising wind whistled past his ears, Martha’s voice brushed by like a whisper:

“The Sea Swallow is here…”