The Cripple looks no different from the malnourished, skinny old men in the dock area. One of his legs is a prosthetic leg made of wood, so everyone who knows him calls him the Cripple. As for his real name, he has been called to the hospital for a long time. Su's stormy waves were shattered.
At this time, his wooden leg that had been used for more than ten years was being held by Dr. Henry. This probably the best prosthetist in the world was very interested in this old prosthetic leg that was purely mechanical. It was its existence that gave Austin the opportunity to temporarily block Henry's mouth that couldn't stop.
How does it feel to fight against inferior armed merchant ships and the latest naval warships? Poble and Cripple, who were being dumped on one of the August Lion's masts, could answer that question.
Although their two ships combined have more than 10 artillery pieces, they were all destroyed by the August Lion outside the range. The magical artillery modified by Henry has been comprehensively improved in performance and can unilaterally defeat those no-name goods. It can be said that there is no pressure. If Austin hadn't been caught alive to interrogate pirates, the two merchant ships might have turned into a pile of garbage and sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Knowing that he was outmatched, Poble directly chose to surrender, and led his crew to fight with the lame man's crew, and captured the lame man alive as a token of his survival.
But the result was no different. They were both now suspended upside down from the same mast, with the cripple trying desperately to bite his ear off.
"Not an ordinary businessman." The first mate Yupi jumped from the mast of the "Black Gold" onto the deck of the August Lion. He had just led a few sailors to conduct a brief search of the three-masted sailing ship that had sunk in half.
"It looks like an old pirate ship has been refitted." Austin is not a rookie who doesn't know anything. At least he is as good as veteran sailors like Oliver in terms of basic knowledge of the navy.
"Some people say it fell from the cripple during a fight. If it's true, then the cripple has a lot of background." Martin got off another merchant ship, holding a shiny gold coin in his hand.
This gold coin is not the style uniformly stipulated in the "Treaty of Commercial Union", nor is it the old coin of the surrounding kingdoms. It is engraved with a magnificent three-masted sailing ship on both sides. The workmanship is very fine, but the wear is very serious, and some patterns are even Almost worn out.
"Pirate gold coins?" Austin was a little unsure and turned his head to look at Oliver. He had to rely on this first mate for things other than basic naval knowledge.
The so-called "pirate gold coins" are generally not circulated as currency, but as a symbol - according to the rules among pirates, only the group of pirates who stand at the top of the pirate pyramid and are known as the "Legend of the Seven Seas" are qualified to mint representative coins. Pirate gold coins that represent your identity. Only those who are appreciated by the contemporary "Legend of the Seven Seas" or who have found the legendary treasures of previous generations will have pirate gold coins representing the corresponding legendary pirates.
Oliver took the pirate gold coin into his hand and looked at it, his expression gradually became serious. Although he usually had the same expression, both Austin and Martin could feel the difference: seemed to be a little colder?
"That's right, this is a pirate gold coin." Oliver pointed to the flag on the three-masted sailboat. "Although it's a little worn, you can still see what's on it. This is..."
Ma Fei came out of nowhere, took one look and shouted: "The flag seems to have crossed scepters, but why..."
Martin kicked Ma Fei aside and said, "If it's not a fake, it should be a symbol of that person."
Oliver nodded.
Austin next to him was confused and couldn't help asking: "That one? Who is it?"
"This is the Traitor Mariano."
Austin's eyebrows twitched slightly, then returned to normal, looked at Oliver and asked: "The betrayer Mariano? Is it one of the thirteen ghost ships?"
The thirteen ghost ships drifting on the sea have always been the coveted targets of pirates, adventurers and even navies of various countries. Legend has it that when a powerful god's favored person sinks with his ship full of unwillingness or resentment, the soul of the god's favored person will merge with the ship, giving birth to a ghost ship with intelligence and special abilities. So far, there are a total of thirteen suspected ghost ships.
"Yes, the 'one' that Martin mentioned was her last owner, the minter of this gold coin: 'Legend of the Seven Seas', 'Siren Slayer', 'Haberd of the Waves', 'Shameless Maniac', ‘Breach of Promises’, Benjamin Doug.”
When Oliver finished speaking, everyone fell into silence.
Ma Fei's eyes were full of admiration, Martin and Oliver had serious expressions, and Austin lowered his head slightly, not knowing what he was thinking.
"In the last year of his life, this legendary pirate chose to betray his own camp and led his pirate group to switch to the Royal Navy. Finally, he was besieged by four other legendary pirates in the Maelstrom twenty years ago. The entire fleet The losses were heavy, Benjamin was missing, his life or death unknown, and some said he was seen sinking into the maelstrom.”
After Oliver finished speaking, everyone sighed again.
"So, where is that ship? Where did the traitor Marianu go?" Austin licked his lips.
"Missing. The naval battle at that time was very tragic. Maybe he and Benjamin sank into the maelstrom." Oliver looked at his captain seriously, "Each ghost ship has its own will and wants to be recognized by them. It’s definitely not going to be easy, and you still have a long way to go, my captain.”
Austin nodded and turned to look at the lame man and Boble who were hanging upside down not far away: "Is it possible that the lame man is related to the legendary pirate?"
"He'd better have it." Oliver rubbed the gold coin in his hand, "The king's favorite youngest son, Prince Ansa, was also attacked and disappeared with Benjamin. I think the king should be very happy to find clues about Benjamin."
Martin laughed when he heard this: "This guy will be very valuable, we have to treat him well and don't let him die. Ma Fei! Untie him, don't hang him here anymore, lock him in the storage room, Let him eat and drink well!"
Ma Fei turned his head and glanced at Austin, who waved his hand gently, and then the acting boatswain mobilized several sailors to untie the lame man.
"Enter these two captains well, and don't forget the purpose of our coming here. I want to record this unexpected harvest so that I can report to the superiors." Austin patted Oliver on the shoulder, and the latter flicked the gold coin behind him. Austin caught him.
"Captain." The happy bald second mate gave Austin a clumsy aristocratic salute.
Austin nodded slightly, holding the gold coin tightly and walked towards the captain's cabin.
Placing the gold coin on the unfinished chart, Austin looked at the ship on the gold coin. The engraved lines on the gold coin seemed a little distorted.
Rubbing his eyes, the distortion became more serious, and Austin had some ideas. Among the many divine gifts he has received, there is one ability that he has not used so far. This ability is really stupid, but now maybe he can try to see if it can trigger something.
After making up his mind, Austin concentrated his mind and activated the ability he named "hallucination trigger". At first, he thought that this ability could cause other people to fall into hallucinations. After careful study, he discovered that the trigger object was actually himself, which was really speechless.
The surrounding light began to dim, and the cabin continued to rise and fall, as if it was driving on rough seas. Austin began to have tinnitus, and the "buzzing" sound became louder and louder, constantly impacting his brain, and finally turned into the sound of gunfire exploding in his ears.
Austin suddenly came back to his senses, and the surrounding decoration completely changed. The flame of the kerosene lamp swayed wildly, and the hull made an overwhelming "squeak" sound, echoing the sound of gunfire outside the window. The roar of the storm seemed insignificant in this environment.
Looking at the chart on the table, a red cross was marked on the twisted vortex drawn with ink pen, and there was a line of small words next to it.
"Poseidon... Miles." Austin murmured that note, and suddenly understood the current situation in his heart - he is now in the captain's cabin of the Believer Mariano, and the time may be Benjamin When he was lost in the maelstrom.
He looked around and began to call softly in his heart, trying to communicate with Mariano. However, there was no response. The ship was still rocking, the sound of gunfire was still there, and now the sailors' shouts of death were heard - the boarding battle had begun.
Austin changed his mind and wanted to go outside to take a look, but the door to the captain's cabin was locked. In desperation, he had to return to the table again and carefully search for clues.
The table was very cluttered, but there were only two things that could really be turned over, a nautical chart and a brown-covered notebook.
The chart is completely hand-drawn and does not seem to be the standard version of the Royal Navy. The names of some areas are slightly different. For example, Bahar Island is called "Fragment Mountain" on the map, and the Maelstrom Sea Area is called "God's Abandoned Land". , Austin tried hard to write down these different places, then rubbed his temples and looked at the notebook.
He felt that the sound of gunfire was being replaced by ringing in his ears, and the illusion was about to end.
Austin untied the thin string binding the notebook, opened the brown cover, and saw a sentence on the title page: "The ugliness of angels is to scare away devils, but humans always prefer beautiful devils."
A loud noise exploded in Austin's head, and the severe pain made his body stiffen instantly and he fell straight to the ground.
I don't know how long it took, but Austin gradually regained control of his body and stood up slowly holding on to the chair.
With his head still aching, Austin had no time to rest and quickly marked the things he saw in his hallucinations on the chart.
After completing the work, Austin finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed on the chair gasping for breath.
"The ugliness of angels is to scare away devils..." Austin murmured, and then thought of the image of Poseidon for no reason - a man with an octopus head and body, "Is this ugly enough?"
"Captain, the interrogation on Bob's side is over." Ma Fei knocked on the door of the captain's cabin.
"Okay, I'll be there right away." Austin sighed and wrote that sentence on the title page of his voyage diary.
