The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Garcia Island is just a small island at the southern end of the land. Because it is close to the Shinte Island where the Eye of the World is located, it has been built by the country as a holiday island specially for tourism on the Shinte Island. The facilities here are also very complete, not only There are special docks and docks, as well as a special power plant, and this power plant does not use common energy crystals, but the latest wind power generation, and there are also lakes on the island that can provide stable water sources, which can provide tens of thousands of people of daily water.

Before the disaster, the island was full of tourists. Tourists from all over the world would take a boat to stay here for a few days, and then take a special boat to Shante Island to see the famous spectacle of the Eye of the World.

When the disaster happened, there was a major eruption on the volcano on Shante Island, which directly caused an earthquake, and the earthquake also spread to Shante Island. Although the residents and tourists on the island were not injured in the earthquake, the buildings were not damaged The damage was too great, but the subsequent tsunami destroyed the dock on the shore, and the sea water also crossed the protective embankment of the dock, overturning all the ships docked inside, directly causing more than 3,000 tourists All stranded on the island.

The people trapped on the island tried to ask for help, but they didn't get any response. They could only save themselves, but before they could come up with a plan, an extremely abnormal cold wave swept across the entire sea area. Snowflakes also appeared on Garcia Island, which had never experienced winter. Only then did the people trapped on the island realize that something was wrong.

When the rulers of the island first turned the island into a resort island, they really envisioned some possible disasters, such as typhoons, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, etc., and even considered man-made disasters such as pirate attacks, and in order to deal with these A large amount of supplies were prepared for the disaster, which can be said to be extremely comprehensive, but they never thought of the disaster of the extreme cold climate, or no one could have imagined that such a tropical, perennially hot island would have a climate like winter.

As a result, the order that had been stabilized after the disaster began to become turbulent due to the lack of cold-proof supplies. After several battles for supplies broke out, the survivors on the island were dead More than 3,000 people, including tourists, residents of the island and employees of various tourism companies, a small tribal society began to form on the island.

Although, the people on the island later repaired the ships that could go ocean and sent people to the land to ask for help, but the people sent out did not come back in the end. Haven't tried it.

Later, they discovered that as long as they were a little farther away from their islands, the surrounding climate would drop rapidly, and the icebergs in the sea would also hide. Therefore, people at that time thought that the southern tropics were already so cold, and the temperature in the north was probably even lower. Normal people would definitely not be able to survive in such an extremely cold environment, so they further thought that they might He is the only survivor in this world.

In fact, these survivors on the island did not know that the reason why Garcia Island was not covered by extreme cold, but only maintained at the cold level of ordinary winter, was entirely because of the Shante Island volcano not far from them, although it covered the entire world. The extremely cold weather is extremely domineering, but it still can't suppress the temperature of the Shante Island volcano, as if the Eye of the Wonderful World has an invisible force that can resist the approach of the cold wave.

It is precisely because Shante Island continuously radiates heat to the surroundings that the temperature of the sea area around Shante Island is much higher than other places. Many fish live and multiply here, so that people on the nearby Garcia Island can live and breathe. After the food is exhausted, daily needs can still be maintained through fishing.

In this way, the survivors on Garcia Island have spent nearly a hundred years, and the population has multiplied for three or four generations. The original population of more than 3,000 has now grown to more than 5,000. The first survivors on the island also died one after another, and now there is only one original survivor left. This survivor is ninety-eight years old. He was only a few years old when he came to the island. He traveled with his parents, and his parents died in the In the tsunami, he survived fortunately, and was not injured in several turmoil on the island. He has lived until now, and because of his luck, people on the island call him lucky Talan, the The most prestigious person in the world.

Although Talan has a special status on the island and is loved, he is not happy because he keeps having the same dream in which he returns to his childhood home, even though that When he was very young, he could no longer remember what his home was like, but he still dreamed of his childhood home, and the scene of his dead parents living at home.

He has been having this dream since he was very young, but only intermittently, he will have it once every few months, but in the past half month, he has been having this dream all the time, and in the dream The content of his words became clearer and clearer, and every time he woke up from the dream, he felt a little tired. Although he was in good health after the doctor's examination, he himself could feel that he was getting closer to death. It was getting closer, so the idea of ​​leaving this island, returning to the land, and returning to the old home in his mind became stronger and stronger.

Driven by this kind of thinking, he took out his life savings and decided to buy the last sailing ship made before the disaster that was still intact on the island, and this sailing ship was being regarded as a cultural relic and placed on the In the Civilization Museum on the island.

"Do you want to buy the Barracuda?" The curator of the Civilization Museum looked at Old Taran in surprise, and then at the box full of currency in front of him, and asked in confirmation.

"Yes," Old Talan nodded affirmatively, and then asked, "Can't the money be used?"

Although the population of the island is only more than 5,000, and the daily necessities are bartered, the builders and successors of the island system all believe that the currency should be preserved, because they feel that the existence of currency represents Civilization means that they are still a civilized race, not a group of savages, so wages will still be paid on the island, and currency will be used for transactions on specific occasions, such as haircuts, and buying some pre-disaster clothing in stock, etc. All in all, the administrators of the island are working hard to maintain the operation of the currency.

According to the currency regulations set by the administrator, all items manufactured and produced on the island before the disaster must be traded in currency, so there is no problem for Old Talan to use the accumulated money to buy this sailing ship manufactured before the disaster.

The curator of the museum is also very aware of this. Although he does not want to sell the ship to Old Talan, if he refuses, once this matter gets out, it will definitely deal a fatal blow to the current fragile currency system. Everyone will think that Even the currency in the hands of Old Taran can't be used, so the currency in their hands will be even more useless. At that time, he will definitely be questioned and even punished by the higher authorities.

"May I ask, what do you want to buy this ship for?" The curator of the museum still wanted to save the only remaining pre-disaster sailing ship, and said: "Although this ship has been repaired, due to the materials, the repair It’s not very good, and it’s impossible to sail on the sea for too long. If you want to buy this boat to go to sea, maybe..."

"Can't sail for a long time? This is exactly what I want." Old Taran smiled with satisfaction, and said: "My hometown has the custom of sea burials, and this ship is just right to send away my old man from the pre-disaster world."

The curator couldn't help being stunned for a moment, then thought of the recent rumors on the island, and then comforted him: "Haven't you already seen a doctor? The doctor said that you are in good health, but you just have a cold, it's not a big problem... "

"I know my body very well," Old Talan interrupted the curator, and said in a deep voice, "We are talking about buying a boat now, and it has nothing to do with my body."

The curator muttered in his heart that he was old and stubborn, but he didn't say anything else. He said in a businesslike manner, "After all, this ship has been regarded as a cultural relic. Whether it can be bought or sold is not something I can decide. I need to ask the higher authorities. Ask."

"Go and ask!" Old Talan said with a look that I could understand, "I'm waiting for news here. Although I'm not well, the time is not a problem."

Seeing old Taran's attitude, the curator didn't say anything. He got up and left the office, and actually went to the management building on the island to report the situation and let the boss of the management building decide what to do.

After a while, the curator returned to the office and told Old Taran that he agreed to his request to buy the sailboat.

In the next few days, Old Talan moved the sailing boat to the seaside, and then carried the few simple materials and tools he had prepared onto the boat. Then at noon one day, he gathered his relatives and friends and held a banquet. In front of everyone, he distributed his property on the island to his relatives and friends, and then boarded the ship under the watchful eyes of his relatives and friends, and drove the old sailboat slowly away from the only pier on the island.

After sailing away from Garcia Island, he confirmed the route closest to the land, spread all the sails, and quickly sailed towards the selected direction.

Old Taran was no stranger to this sailing boat. When he was young, he had gone fishing with the owner of this sailing boat many times. Although most of the time, he was responsible for pulling the nets and rarely piloted the boat himself. But for him, this little experience in driving a boat is enough. He doesn't think he can really sail on land, because as long as he sails out of the warm waters, the extremely cold temperature will freeze the boat and kill him. Kill, this is destined to be an endless route.

The speed of the boat was very fast. In just half a day, it had already sailed to the edge of the warm sea area. Old Taran could clearly feel the temperature drop, but he did not lower his sails, but continued to head towards the sea at an extremely fast speed. Sailing out of the warm waters.

After fixing the steering wheel, he returned to the cabin and took out half a bottle of wine from the prepared supplies. This half bottle is the last bottle of wine brewed before the disaster on the island, and he has kept it until today. , Not willing to drink, now he thinks it's time to take it out and drink.

After pulling out the cork, he raised the wine bottle high, said a salute to himself, then turned to the mouth of the bottle, raised his head and took a big sip, and then he spit out all the wine he drank.

"Damn it! Which bastard changed my wine?" Old Taran looked at the wine bottle in his hand angrily, and cursed.

The expected sense of ritual was destroyed, and Old Talan had no way to make up for it. He could only suppress his anger, walked out of the cabin again, returned to the rudder, held the rudder, and decided that he would always hold the rudder. Until the extremely low temperature froze him to death, freezing him and the rudder together, so that his soul can also be with the ship, and maybe one day he can return to the shore in the form of a ghost ship.

With the belief that he must die, Old Taran focused on driving the ship. As the number of icebergs on the surrounding sea increased, he knew that the ship had left the warm waters formed by the Shante Island volcano, and could easily freeze any living thing into ice. The extremely cold temperature will come, and he is ready to face death.

However, what surprised Old Taran was that the expected extremely cold temperature did not appear. Although the surrounding temperature was much lower than the temperature in the warm current sea area, this low temperature was still within the normal tolerance range of human beings, and The careful old Taran also noticed that the surrounding icebergs seemed to be melting and collapsing. Just now, several pieces of melting icebergs fell into the sea beside the boat, causing a wave of waves and shaking the boat.

"Could it be that the climate is getting warmer?" Seeing this scene, old Talan immediately had a bold guess in his heart.

Thinking of this, he was very excited, because returning to the land on the island is the long-cherished wish of everyone, and it has even been written into the basic constitution of Garcia Island. However, due to the extreme cold temperature, all attempts failed. Succeeded.

But now, the extremely cold temperature on the sea seems to have disappeared, so their long-cherished wish can be realized. Thinking of this, the death will in Old Talan's heart dissipated. He immediately turned the bow and carefully avoided the sea. He drove the boat back, and he wanted to tell the people on the island this important news.

However, old Taran's luck seemed to be not very good. When the ship was about to leave the extremely cold sea, a huge iceberg in the distance suddenly broke, and the iceberg fragments that fell into the sea set off huge waves and pushed in all directions. The waves pushed another iceberg straight towards the sailing ship, and Old Talan couldn't turn to avoid it.

Seeing that the iceberg was about to collide with the sailing ship, old Talan felt that he was going to die this time, the huge iceberg broke into countless ice chips in front of his eyes, mixed with a gust of cold wind, and fell from the sky , swept the sailing ship without causing any damage to the ship.

Just when Old Talan was still wondering about the scene in front of him, a person fell from the air and stood on the top of his sail mast, looking towards Old Talan below, and asked, "Excuse me, how far is it from Shante?" How far is the island?"