RoleplayNovel Chapter 120 Lucas and the Past of Treasure Island
Chapter 120 Lucas and the Past of Treasure Island
Yu Wen rolled up the parchment and stuffed it into his pocket before turning and leaving Lucas's courtyard.
As one of the second batch of players to log in to the game, he knew the terrain of Pearl Harbor like the back of his hand.
Besides the security zone officially under Lucas's jurisdiction, there is also the shipwreck area where we once fought side by side.
As soon as he turned into a narrow alley, two tall figures emerged from the shadows ahead.
The newcomer was dressed in elegant black clothes, carrying a crossbow in his hand. His demeanor was polite but not one to be refused.
"Our boss wants to see you."
Yu Wen raised an eyebrow, his gaze lingering on the two crossbows for two seconds.
With his current beginner stats, it's clearly unwise for him to try and tank this weapon head-on.
Moreover, as a veteran player, he was very familiar with this kind of tactic; this was definitely triggering the hidden area's guiding storyline.
"Please lead the way."
He shrugged and said.
Passing through the low-lying shacks on the outskirts, which reek of fish and excrement, the terrain begins to descend.
The buildings on both sides gradually transformed from wooden houses into steel fortresses pieced together from the remains of huge steel ships.
Good heavens, this must be the black market that Little Snail and Little Rain went to before.
Yu Wen clicked his tongue inwardly, while his brain raced, assessing how many seconds he could survive if a battle broke out here.
The conclusion is that three seconds is the maximum.
The thugs leading the way stopped in front of a huge, old merchant ship. Most of the ship was sunk into the mud of the shallows, and its hull was covered with thick barnacles and seaweed.
Walking up the rusty iron plate that had been lowered onto the deck, the view suddenly opened up before me.
Unlike the desolate state of the shipwreck area outside, the interior of this ship has been transformed into an extremely luxurious living space.
A chandelier powered by some kind of luminescent mineral hung overhead, and the air was filled with a complex mix of perfume, barbecue, and spirits.
Yu Wen's eyes lit up. This place was practically a paradise for late-game players. He had to find a chance to share the coordinates with the veteran players' chat group.
Stepping onto the deck, Old One-Eyed, the underground emperor of Pearl Harbor, was sitting swaggeringly on the sofa.
He was wearing a heavy, dark woolen overcoat and high-top leather boots, and was fiddling with a gold pocket watch in his hand.
"Search him," the lead thug ordered.
"stop."
The one-eyed old man stopped his men and then waved for them to step back.
"That's interesting. That old bastard Lucas actually gave you a letter of recommendation from the Magic Forest. Looks like you've really made a name for yourself in the Wasteland."
Old One-Eyed picked up the half-empty bottle of liquor on the table and poured it into two glasses.
Yu Wen took a seat with great poise, picked up his wine glass, and took a sip.
"Today, the entire area surrounding the port is filled with my men."
The old one-eyed man exhaled a puff of smoke, looking at the visitor through the smoke. "Your little tricks outside Lucas's yard didn't escape my eyes."
Yu Wen raised an eyebrow but didn't respond, waiting for the other person to continue.
"You newbies, do you think that old man who bribed the inspector is just a spineless, greedy rookie village chief?"
The one-eyed old man sneered, his tone carrying a complex emotion.
"Isn't that right?" Yu Wen retorted.
"Twenty years ago,"
The old one-eyed man put the gold pocket watch in his hand into his pocket. "Lucas is one of the key figures who actually holds power on Treasure Island. His status is comparable to a second-level official on the Arbitration Committee. If it weren't for his secret intervention back then, I would have lost my life in the ruins long ago."
Yu Wen paused for a moment, holding the wine glass.
"The catastrophe at that time was ten times more devastating than the shipwreck zone you experienced. The purple fog blocked out all the sunlight, crops withered and died on a large scale, and mutated creatures in the wild attacked human settlements like madmen."
The old one-eyed man's fingers, holding a cigar, trembled slightly, as if he had returned to that hellish era.
The old one-eyed man took a deep drag on his cigar, the firelight illuminating half of his face, making it appear particularly ferocious.
"Back in the day, I was a gang leader in the ruined city, doing dirty work like selling my fellow human beings like animals."
He chuckled self-deprecatingly, pointing to his blind eye, "Later, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I led a few brothers to try to defect. But we were chased by people sent by our superiors, and we fled all the way to this beach, where we had nowhere to go."
"Lucas saved us. He was the highest-ranking official the committee had sent to take over the Pearl Harbor shipping route."
He commands an entire heavily armed fleet; with a mere nod, he could blast us, along with those refugees being treated like cargo, to smithereens and collect the spoils.
"In Lao Tzu's eyes, he was a bottomless old monster."
The old one-eyed man's gaze turned somewhat resentful.
"Back then, the environment changed drastically, and those in power who sat in high positions used ordinary people as bargaining chips for exchanging benefits in order to protect themselves."
Lucas saw through their greed. To save the innocent refugees who were about to be discarded and slaughtered, he voluntarily relinquished all his power and was exiled to this wretched place.
The one-eyed old man pointed in the inland direction.
"He disbanded the fleet and took his men to Rainbow Village to become some kind of village chief. Now he's back, and those bloodsuckers on the committee don't dare to openly touch him, after all, he has too many connections at the top, but they have never stopped exploiting Pearl Harbor all these years."
Old One-Eyed downed the liquor in his glass in one gulp and slammed it heavily on the table.
His single eye was fixed on Yu Wen: "Do you know why I brought a nobody like you on board today, and why I'm talking to you about all this old, trite nonsense?"
Yu Wen shook his head; he had been pondering this logic in his mind the whole time.
"Because you bunch of idiots have been causing too much trouble in the ruins lately."
The old one-eyed man, munching on a cigar, said in a chilling tone, "Go back and tell your Lynn a message: don't think you can turn the world upside down just because you've taken over a few broken cities."
"If you make a huge mess that Lucas can't cover for, and the higher-ups investigate, we'll all be dragged down with you."
The one-eyed old man pointed in the inland direction.
"He's feigning madness now, using the profits from smuggling to feed those insatiable inspectors, and he's doing it to shield you and the people of this land from the butcher's knife of the Forest City's higher-ups."
…………
Even as Yu Wen walked out of the shipwreck area, his mind was still buzzing.
While processing the massive amount of information, Yu Wen keenly noticed a blind spot in the old one-eyed man's words.
A city in the forest?
Just now outside the courtyard, Lucas clearly said that the trade arbitration committee was directly under the command of Sky City.
Furthermore, in the background research posts in player chat groups and official forums, it has long been discovered that Sky City is the true center of power.
Why did Old One-Eye think the inspector was from the City in the Woods?
Yu Wen stopped and looked back at the huge, luxurious steel merchant ship.
He got it.
This seemingly all-powerful and arrogant underground emperor is indeed a figure in Pearl Harbor, but in the larger world of the game, his status is nowhere near the true core of power.
His gaze extended only as far as the city in the forest.
This only further confirms how terrifying Lucas was back then.
The game's world-building is so profound it sends chills down your spine.
The fact that players can run rampant in the ruins is entirely due to that retired old monster patiently cleaning up their mess in Pearl Harbor.
Carrying a huge amount of information, Yu Wen walked onto a deserted breakwater, preparing to head to the Magic Forest.
The sea breeze around us had stopped at some point.
Thick sea fog rolled in without warning, swallowing up the distant lights.
A figure shrouded in a tattered robe silently blocked the narrow embankment.
The man looked up, revealing a pair of completely white, pupil-less eyes beneath his hood.
A mysterious fortune teller? A quest that appeared in a previous version update announcement!
This seems to be an Easter egg left by the game company!
Yu Wen instinctively sensed the danger and subconsciously tried to mobilize his mental energy to create a magic shield.
However, the surrounding magical elements seemed to have been drained, or perhaps completely locked down by some higher-dimensional force.
Faced with this seemingly frail NPC, this battle maniac who had been fighting his way through the ruins of the city couldn't even lift his arm.
Fortunately, the fortune teller did not make any threatening moves.
His blind eyes stared into the void ahead, and his withered, twig-like fingers lifted slightly.
A hoarse yet ethereal voice echoed slowly along the empty coastline.
"The blood of strangers has seeped into the parched soil of Treasure Island..."
"Don't be blinded by the vanity of the tower; true power lies dormant amidst the roaring machinery and black smoke..."
"When the shadow of black wings obscures the sky, the continent where the gods slumber... will finally awaken."