Enforcer's Handbook

"Sea monster? You mean the kind of monster like a big octopus?"

Song Lan felt that this title sounded a little incompatible with the scientific worldview. These terrifying creatures that inhabit the deep sea often only appear in folklore from various places.

He was timid and had a phobia of the deep sea. He had always read folklore as a horror story. When he thought that there might be monsters as huge as mountains under the sea, he felt panicked and could only It's a good thing they live on land.

"Big octopus!"

Night Heron's eyes shone brightly.

Because she was sure it was edible. She had tasted the takoyaki made by the locals when she went to Silver Moon Port before. It was one of the few snacks that made her linger.

Silvermoon Harbor is also one of the most common places for apostates to escape, because once they take a ship to sea, the church's judicial body can no longer catch them.

The archbishop also issued a clear order prohibiting all travel to sea.

Lu Xiang nodded and said, "The local legends in Silver Moon Port describe them this way, but no one has ever seen them with their own eyes. In other words, everyone who encountered them while sailing has died. Only people in the Misty Islands know about it. A safe route between the two places.”

"Looking at them from a scientific perspective, they are probably mutated from certain marine organisms."

According to Song Lan's observation, most of the mutated creatures in this world will grow geometrically in size, just like their good friends the Death Crabs. They were originally crabs, but after mutation, their sizes expanded to be as tall as a building, and after they When passing through the desert area, his spiritual energy sensed that there were unknown creatures that were several times larger than the Death Crab deep in the desert.

If those businessmen knew what lives in the depths of the desert, people might suffer from "deep sand phobia".

Fortunately, those big guys just look scary, but they are quite easy to deal with.

At least I didn't feel sorry for them when they passed by.

This is what a good friend does. No matter what those unknown creatures living under the desert think, Song Lan has unilaterally regarded them as good friends in her heart.

"The people who ordered the exploration thought so too."

Lu Xiang clicked his tongue in surprise, "You guys said the same thing."

It’s just that at that time, the person who said this sentence was still called an admiral, rather than a war criminal in the eyes of people later. “Because of this, he led three explorations of unknown seas, and all three explorations failed. In the end, those who went to sea never came back, and even his own fleet was lost in unknown waters."

You must know that the concept of fleets in this era is not the same as those old sailing ships in the Middle Ages. When the admiral set out for the last time, he was aboard a strategic-class aircraft carrier, which was equipped with enough armaments to handle a small war.

They originally went to sea with the intention of fighting.

"The information currently available to the coalition government is that there is strong signal interference in unknown sea areas with unknown sources, which will cause all communication equipment to malfunction. This is why the fleet was unable to convey what they saw back to the coalition government before disappearing."

Even the last expedition, on which they had high hopes, failed.

The admiral was buried forever somewhere in the unknown sea. It has been more than ten years since they were killed. Since then, the coalition government has never touched that sea area again.

The sky and ocean are restricted areas for humans. Without a foothold, even six-star rescuers cannot adapt to the maritime combat environment.

Lu Xiang added, "There is also a group of believers in the sea in the Sea of ​​Mist. They believe that the sea monsters are ruled by the Lord of the Tides. He will guide the believers' navigation. Only the most devout believers can pass through that sea." .”

"This is starting to feel more like folklore."

"That's not necessarily true. For a long time, believers in the Misty Islands have been the only ones who can pass through that sea. Intelligence workers from the coalition government have also asked them about the secrets of navigation. This is why they provided it."

"In that case, why not let intelligence agents get on board the believers' ships?"

"Of course they did, but some of them were assimilated into believers of the Lord of the Tides, while those who refused to believe in the Lord of the Tides were thrown off the boat to feed the fish halfway through the voyage." Lu Xiang Explained, "Not only that, the coalition government once launched a high reward, hoping that someone would provide navigation charts, but all neutral ships that went to explore unknown waters have also lost their news."

As a result, more and more legends about unknown seas were born.

"Unknown" is the name given to that sea area by the coalition government. These two words are enough to reflect the coalition government's helplessness towards that sea area.

"My knowledge has improved."

Song Lan had goosebumps all over his body. According to Lu Xiang's description, he could easily think of those deep sea monsters that existed in terrifying legends. He even couldn't help but picture the admiral and his fleet in the storm in his mind. Horrible encounter.

Although the ocean expedition led by the admiral failed, the coalition government always found a way to regain its confidence - Kolo Films filmed a superhero movie involving unknown sea areas there, and took this opportunity to launch The new rescuer "Reef" they highly praised.

Song Lan still remembers the uncomfortable sea monster image in the film.

But like all superhero movies, "The Reef" ultimately defeated the raging sea monster and allowed the locals to have a happy ending.

"What, are you afraid of sea monsters?"

One of the reasons why Lu Xiangyue spoke more and more enthusiastically was because she noticed the change in Song Lan's expression, which made her feel that the ghost stories she had experienced in school before were scary. It was one of the few ways of entertainment for students. Her former roommates were often so frightened that they called her at night to ask her to pick them up and take them back to their dormitory.

"That's a sea monster! It's as big as a mountain. It suddenly appears in front of a ship while sailing and can drag the entire ship into the sea at once!" Song Lan felt that it was necessary to emphasize how terrifying the sea monster was. "I think I I’m going to have nightmares at night.”

"It doesn't matter."

Lu Xiang smiled slightly, "If you are scared at night, you can hold me tight and sleep."

"Ye Heron is here, what are you talking about!"

"Um?"

Ye Lu, who was concentrating on cooking, heard someone calling her, raised her little head, and looked at Song Lan with confused eyes - when the story progressed to the admiral and his fleet, she had already lost interest in the unknown sea. Exploration is not the part that interests her. She feels that the story should incorporate more introductions to local snacks.

She and Song Lan looked at each other for a long time before tentatively making a request, "I would like to apply to eat octopus tomorrow."

……………………

Late at night, Silver Moon Harbor.

The "Emperor" is no stranger to this port city. This was once one of his main investigation locations.

Silvermoon Harbor today has changed a lot from when he last arrived.

After the civil war in the third neutral country ended, the port regained its vitality, and Cuenca and the rebels did not seem to cause any damage after moving in. Instead, they integrated well into the lives of the locals and established a line of defense in the coastal area.

He learned about the recent ships heading to the Misty Islands.

The last ship has already set off, and the next ship will not be available until a week later.

And there was only one reason why he came to this port city.

There seemed to be something calling him here. Ever since he fought fiercely with those unknown deep-sea creatures, he would hear whispers coming from nowhere from time to time.

It was a language he had never been exposed to. He tried to remember some pronunciations, but even the linguistic experts in the coalition government did not understand this unknown language system.

He walked along the pier to the bottom.

The sea stretches as far as the eye can see at night.

For a moment, he felt like he was hallucinating.

When he stared at the sea, it seemed that there was a pair of eyes staring at him from the depths of the ocean.

Small theater one hundred and fifty-two:

A certain day, a certain year, a certain month, Friday, noon.

At noon that day, Song Lan, who was taking a nap in the office, received a summons from Lu Xiang.

Walking to the door of Lu Xiang's office, he couldn't help but recall what happened every time he came to Lu Xiang's office, and he couldn't help but become wary.

"What are you doing standing at the door? Come in."

Lu Xiang waved to him with a smile.

"Lao Lu, you don't have any conspiracy, right?"

This smile made Song Lan more convinced of the ominous premonition in his heart. He looked around with suspicious eyes, trying to find the trap set by the other party.

"Why, weren't you very tough when you came here last time? You also wanted to threaten me with videos and photos."

"Misunderstandings are all misunderstandings."

"It's okay if you don't come in. Speaking of which, a lot of people have asked me what your special trick is recently. It seems that I still--"

"That's enough, come on!"

Faced with Lu Xiang's threat, Song Lan was heartbroken and went straight into the office, closing the door behind her and saying, "Old Lu, why did you come to me today?"

"Business."

"Business?"

"Recently, more and more people have resigned from our department, and it has become more and more difficult to recruit people. However, it is hard to find a job in your department, and many people have submitted applications for transfer to your department, so I want to learn from you."

"...Is it really just a matter of learning?"

"Want to hear the truth or lies?"

"The truth."

"This is an act of workplace retaliation."

"I'm going to investigate right now."

"No, you only have two choices now. One is to find a way to make me happy, and the other is to accept the punishment obediently."