Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 12 Falling Into the Eyes of the Sea

In all fairness, after Milady's victory was announced, the cheers and cheers on the second deck were sparse at best.

The Night Castle gradually came to a halt, and the low sound of the propulsion mechanism running from the bottom of the ship disappeared after a while, the sea breeze became soft and quiet, and the thin applause became even rarer.

"Good job," Seinfeld clapped his hands vigorously, and shouted loudly among a group of bewildered crew members, "Don't worry, they've already launched the lifeboat!"

It seems that those friends of Dao Mingke are indeed gone.Milady poked her head out from the edge of the deck and looked behind the ship, and found a tiny black figure floating up and down in front of the faint white mist on the distant sea, struggling and thrashing in the water—it looked like Dao Mingke Fortunately, he was awakened as soon as he fell into the water, as if he was desperately swimming towards the Night Castle.

After the lifeboat came up to meet him, his life was saved; but his honor as a combat mercenary was another matter.

"What... what's going on?" Hearing the voice, it was the voluntary commentator just now.His square face protruded from the crowd, and he asked loudly, "How did you knock Dao Mingke unconscious?"

This sentence immediately revived life on the second deck.

The moment of silence just now was not because the crew hated Milady and was unwilling to let her win, but because the result was too unexpected.The crew regained their senses at this moment, and there was a buzzing sound again: some were distressed about losing money, some were yelling and suspecting mistakes, some were afraid of really killing someone; but the most, undoubtedly, were confused. A person who understands and keeps asking Milady.

"Milady," Lu Ranzhou's voice was the clearest among their chatter, "You are so self-conscious that you actually tore down my railing, so hurry up and fix it for me! There is a root in the middle of the deck Pole, are you going to hang clothes there, or are you going to trip someone up?"

Milady couldn't hold back, and burst out laughing.

No wonder the captain was unhappy, the railing on one side of the deck was now empty for some reason; the missing railing, after leaving its companion, was standing abruptly and alone on the right side of the center of the deck. In terms of position—it is also where Dao Mingke fell just now.

"Milady, tell them about your battle strategy for this duel." After a group of crew members rushed to the deck, Seinfeld stretched out his hand and said, "Well, let me fix the railing for you."

Milady handed her the hollow cylinder rather shyly.She moved the railing to a place with a hollow tube, and Seinfeld had to use it to move the railing back.

Milady smiled at the group of crew members who surrounded her, and said, "Don't take offense. I am not as skilled as Dao Minke, so naturally I have to spend some time on planning. I know when our ship will enter the sea of ​​​​dense fog , the time for the duel was set. When the captain asked us to guess punches, Dao Mingke was leaving according to my plan."

"What do you mean?" Someone asked, "Do you know what the result of guessing fists is?"

"Not only do I know, but if you put yourself in your shoes and think carefully, you will guess." Milady replied, "What kind of character is Dao Mingke? He is aggressive and fierce, and he never misses any threats." My chance, when face-to-face fist guessing, the first thing he thinks of and is most willing to give is definitely the fist that hits me."

Someone said "ah".

"So you lost on purpose? But why did you let him choose the weapon first?"

"Because that way, I can calmly choose the mechanism for counterattack." Milady smiled and said, "I have been taking care of the mechanism on board, and I know very well which mechanisms on the ship can provide us and which ones cannot. Among these 25 mechanisms, I know that Dao Mingke prefers lightning gloves, so I also focused on formulating a countermeasure against it. However, no matter which ones Dao Mingke chooses, even if all four are taken away, I can also get them from From the remaining organs, a set of things that can check and balance him and defeat him will be formed."

"So that's how it is..." The voluntary commentator frowned and asked, "But there are contingencies in everything. What if he doesn't make a fist during the boxing game, what will you do?"

"Then I can use the opportunity of choosing first to force him to choose the military mechanism I want him to choose." Milady explained, "The combination of checks and balances I choose is generally composed of three to four items. , and the upper limit of the mechanism that each person can choose is five. I will pick out the military mechanism that I don't want him to take according to the situation, so he can only take what I want him to take?"

"Really," the narrator sighed in admiration, obviously having a lot of doubts in his heart, and asked non-stop: "What happened after the boat entered the thick fog? How did you avoid his attacks again and again?"

Milady shrugged and said, "It wasn't me at all he attacked."

When everyone was taken aback, the captain who was sitting cross-legged and staring at Seinfeld's railing said abruptly, "You didn't notice it? Didn't this guy kick the mower with one kick before starting the duel?" Is it on?"

The faces of the crew turned to the captain, hesitated for a moment, and turned to Milady one after another.She rubbed her nose and said with a smile: "After entering the dense fog, when Dao Minke swung the steel fork, you heard someone hit the railing with a bang, right? That wasn't me...that was wiping the floor machine."

She kicked the mopping machine to the ideal position early in the morning; in order to prevent the slight possibility of the mopping machine falling off the deck, Milady even took care of the direction and distance and kept it in mind.

When necessary, Milady only needs to manipulate it to bump to the side, and then she can make a sound on the railing to attract Dao Minke's attention.Sure enough, he immediately threw the steel fork at the source of the sound, but the mopping machine was only calf high, how could his steel fork hit it?

When Domink followed the sound and rushed to the railing and began to search for traces of Milady there, she had already moved the mopping machine away.

His judgment was good, if Milady was really standing nearby, then she would have no time to run away; however, no matter how much he released the current around, it would be a waste of effort—at that time, Milady was on the other side of the deck, Busy with the hollow tube melting, cutting railings.

"That's not an easy job," Milady sighed. "Besides, in the dense fog, you can only see things clearly when you get very close... After I cut off a part of the railing , my plan is considered to have completed the first step. Next, I have to run to the center holding the railing, cut a piece of wood, and then weld it to the metal layer under the deck. Before I can weld the railing Come on, you all agree to let the ship speed up, I was really in a hurry."

Song Feiya raised his head from his work, and replied, "I opposed it for you!"

Milady couldn't help showing a smile, and said to the crew beside her, "Not only did she help me oppose... she also helped me a lot later."

"What's the big deal?" The crew members were all fascinated.

"While I was welding the railings, I also manipulated the mopping machine to come to me in time. After the railings were welded, I first sprayed a large piece of soapy water in front of it with the mopping machine, and then took the mopping machine Backed up to the dry deck together, grabbed the airflow skateboard again, and threw it in the direction of the railing."

Someone immediately remembered: "Yes, I heard the sound of that board falling to the ground."

Milady tilted her head and asked with a smile: "It was thick and foggy at the time, how did you know it was the sound of the airflow skateboard landing?"

"Because Seinfeld said——" The man just opened his head, and immediately became dazed. "Is this why she helped you?"

"In order for me to recognize its voice, she yelled that sentence in time," Seinfeld sighed, and said, "I've heard the skateboard land at least a dozen times."

"Fix it quickly," Lu Ranzhou murmured softly, "I'll check the airflow skateboard in a while. If it breaks, let's see how I can deal with you."

"But what's the use of her yelling that sentence?" the guide asked suspiciously.

"Dao Mingke is fast and can cover a large area, but he couldn't find me after searching for a long time. Every electric shock failed. Isn't that strange? I can't make him suspicious and think of the mopping machine " said Milady, laughing: "In the thick fog, he thought I was afraid to go up in the air, but as you say, there is always a chance. When he heard a crash on the deck, and heard Seinfeld said that it was the sound of a jet ski, and he would naturally form a guess, thinking that the reason why he didn't hit me just now was because I ventured into the air and just fell back on the deck."

"I actually had the same guess at that time," the guide said shyly.

"It's human nature." Milady nodded and explained to him: "I judge that when Dao Minke heard the sound of the skateboard landing, he would rush towards me. One is because of the continuous use of long-distance electric shocks. The power consumption of the lightning gloves is too high; secondly, it is not as accurate as usual when identifying the direction from a distance in the thick fog; thirdly, because he missed so many times in a row just now, he definitely hopes to be able to hit me steadily this time.

"There's a fourth reason, I think, because he realized that if I had just gone up in the air, I couldn't move for the period of time I just fell. Because the skateboard was still on my feet. Now, if I don’t untie it, I won’t be able to run away, right? How could he let go of such a good opportunity?”

Everyone listened attentively and nodded frequently.

"After he rushed to me, because of the distance and visibility, he couldn't use the whale chain gun, so he naturally only had the option of lightning gloves."

At this moment, Sein Feiya took the cut off railing and put it back to its original position.Milady turned her head and glanced at the railing, and said with a sigh: "Before entering the sea of ​​thick fog, Dao Mingke had already released an electric shock on me. I was in a hurry and hid under the railing It’s not on the ground, so it’s not electrified, is it? It’s not my luck, either. I’ve checked that these metal railings can conduct electricity away, just like the lightning rods on the mast.”

When Dao Minke rushed into the area that Milady had arranged in advance, whether he could save his life depended on how powerful the electric shock he planned to release at Milady.The railings lead away the current in the air, and when directed to the ground, the pool of soapy water on the ground is also electrified; and Dao Minke's leather boots stepped on this pool of water.

"Wait a minute," the voluntary commentator suddenly came to his senses, and asked hastily: "Do you mean that when you set up traps, you were operating several mechanisms at the same time? This... this pair of people Isn’t the ability to control very high? Even if the average person only controls one thing, they have no time to care about it.”

Milady nodded.

After she boarded the ship, she found that her experience and knowledge were not as good as that of the old crew members. In order to make the most progress in the shortest time, she had been working almost without sleep for a month, often forcing herself to operate several mechanisms at the same time.

Strange to say, "multitasking with one mind" is generally a taboo for mechanism engineers; however, in her eyes, operating several mechanisms at the same time to complete the same job is like a general launching attacks from multiple strategic positions at the same time, each with its own function and uniqueness. As a result, the time spent on work can often be reduced by half under the coordinated attack of several groups.

Milady seemed to belong to this path by nature. The more she explored, the more she felt natural, and the more she studied, the less effort she felt. Unknowingly, she is now able to control five organs at the same time without any confusion.

"Seinfeld gave me a name for this technique." Milady was a little embarrassed, and said with a smile, "It's called 'Morning Birds'."

"One of the birds must be a woodpecker." Lu Ranzhou muttered, "You cut off a piece of deck wood from me to weld the railing, and I have to settle the bill with you..."

Milady smiled at him, feeling like a balloon just filled, for the victory became light and swollen, bright and joyful, and the heavy clouds of Haidu seemed to have been lifted for a while; and she said simply: "I'll come Responsible for fixing it."

"It's not fair," a crew member who probably lost money said with a sour face, "She planned everything long ago, and Dao Mingke fell into the trap..."

The voluntary commentator glanced at him, and asked back: "If she doesn't plan well, this duel will be fair? If nothing else, the same plan tells you, do you dare to have a fight with Dao Mingke? Are you going to fight?" Do you have the guts to roll out from under the conductive railing when you’re getting an electric shock? Anyway, I can’t. When Dao Minke fired the whale chain gun at me, I was probably finished. Courage, vision, wisdom, and determination, including manipulating The capabilities of several institutions...none of them can be planned out. I don't deserve my money."

Milady smiled gratefully at him, looked at the crew in front of her, and was thinking about whether she should propose to Lu Ranzhou to void the bet, when Seinfeld suddenly let out a sharp breath from behind, A half-voiced exclamation escaped his throat.

Everyone turned their heads and found that she was holding on to the railing that had just been repaired, and while looking at the sea, she shouted hastily and in a low voice: "Then, over there... Come quickly, that is..."

Since meeting her in January, it was the first time that Milady heard her so panic-stricken that she couldn't even finish her sentence; .

For half a second Milady could not even comprehend what she was seeing when her eyes fell on the distant sea.

The dark blue waves on the sea that are always ups and downs and folds now become more violent, as if the mother's hand pushing the cradle suddenly strengthened, shaking the Night Castle and the lifeboat on the distant sea, causing the People are slightly in a trance.

While everyone was talking just now, Dao Mingke had also been rescued from the sea and boarded the boat, and a group of people were heading towards the Night Castle.But the waves between them were like countless mountains and mountains. No matter how hard the lifeboat climbed, it seemed that it couldn't climb the mountains or the unblinking eyes watching it in the mist behind it.

The mountains formed by thin white mist are continuously dense under the sky, vaguely covering the pair of eyes that are still rising slowly - so far away, it is only a pair of eyes, compared with the sea boat, it is small Like a drop of water.

For the first time in her life Milady saw such beauty, such solitude, such peaceful eyes. 2
They must be older than ships, cities, and humans. They have coexisted with the sea since ancient times, and have witnessed the rise and fall of countless creatures.The original companions all died one by one, and now only itself is left in the vast world; its mourning can no longer be answered, it searches, longs, and keeps going up from the endless bottom of the sea until it breaks through the sea. , wanting to open his mouth, bite the lifeboat lightly, and feel its warm blood and breath.

Those eyes waited for tens of millions of years before they got this faint warmth that was almost nothingness...

Milady suddenly shuddered in pain, and recovered from her trance.

"Wake up, don't think too much about it," Lu Ranzhou withdrew his hand from her arm, his complexion was never as pale as it is now, and he slapped Seinfeld on the shoulder again, his voice seemed a little hoarse: "Don't fall into its mind!"

Song Feiya was also stunned at some point, staring blankly at the distant sea, motionless.Milady glanced at her, and found that her eyes were red and watery; she hastily reached out her hand to touch her cheek, and sure enough, she also touched the cold tears.

On the sea, what is that?
Milady had always been proud of her calmness and self-control, but now she dared not even glance at the surface of the sea.She reacted quickly, and found that the crew did not respond to the shouting, so she quickly slapped the shoulders of the people around her a few times, and helped Lu Ranzhou wake up a group of people.

"Hurry up, let's sail," one of the crew members cried out in surprise, before they could wipe away the tears, "Captain, we're still far away, so we'll take advantage of it showing its eyes. We hurry up before we can leave."

"But the lifeboat—" someone said.

"They can't run away anymore, and it's impossible for them to get up and run again!" The crew member was anxious and panicked, almost biting, and shouted: "We can't save them either, we can all, all To feel that way...it must be 'Tears of Chaos'!"

Lu Ranzhou gritted his teeth, and there were even hills and valleys on his thin cheeks; although he didn't dare to look up at the pair of huge, misty dark blue eyes on the sea, he kept his eyes fixed on the one lifeboat.

At such a distance, they could not see the expressions and attitudes of the people on board clearly, but one thing was clear: from the Night Castle, only the backs of their heads could be seen.They all turned their heads away, looking straight at the pair of eyes that gradually became clear from the mist.

Looking closely now, there wasn't even a single splash behind the lifeboat.

...Are you really going to abandon the crew on the same ship?
Milady didn't dare to raise her head, but her peripheral vision told her that the pair of dark blue eyes in the distance seemed to rise again and become clearer; even if she didn't raise her head now, she could still feel that there seemed to be an extra star in the sea under her feet. The cold beating heart, every heartbeat, gave birth to a new layer of waves.

The creature named "Tear of Chaos" has such a huge body that it almost exceeds the scope of human understanding; if it wants to, it must be able to lift the entire sea into the sky.

Why is it not moving?If it's just for predation, it doesn't even need to show its eyes on the surface of the water; it only needs to stir gently on the bottom of the sea, and in the tsunami of hundreds of meters, let alone a lifeboat, is there a way for the Night Castle to survive?
"Captain," she couldn't help calling out, "what are the Tears of Chaos?"

"It is said that it is a giant creature that has been sleeping alone on the bottom of the sea since ancient times, and occasionally wakes up because it senses humans." It was the voluntary guide who answered her: "Anyone who encounters it at sea, I heard All because of sinking into its solitude, losing itself in its mind, until being taken into the deep sea by it... I just didn't expect that Tears of Chaos is a real thing."

Does this mean that they still have a little time?
"Perhaps they have a chance," thought Milady, and said hurriedly: "Captain, if we punch the lifeboat through the front of the lifeboat with a whale-piercing gun, we can grab it with a steel fork and pull it back. I I don’t know why Tears of Chaos appeared in front of people, but I think that when it meets people’s eyes, it might not swallow the lifeboat right away...it doesn’t seem to appear for predation.”

"Why? What should you do if you guessed wrong? No, I won't talk about that," a crew member murmured, "The most important thing is that we are so far away that even the whale chain gun may not be able to reach it."

"No, if you launch from the stern, there may be hope." Lu Ranzhou said in a low voice, measuring the distance. "If the stern is not enough... isn't there a jet ski?"

"But--"

"Needless to say. Since I decided to save people, let me bear the risk. Milady, you are now the acting captain." He ordered without looking back, "You are responsible for monitoring the situation on the sea. , When you think it’s time to sail, you immediately order the boat to sail, regardless of whether people come back or not, you must leave, understand?”

When Milady was stunned, Lu Ranzhou had already turned around and left, rushed to the middle of the deck, and reached out to pick up the whale chain gun that Dao Mingke fell on the ship when he was unconscious. Even if she wanted to stop him, it was too late.Lu Ranzhou held the whale chain cannon in one hand, but he seemed to be able to do it with ease; when he jumped out on the airflow skateboard, he was so fast that he even held his breath. into the sea breeze.

Anyone's worries, doubts or instructions are a waste of their already limited time.Milady didn't know how she could enter the role so calmly and naturally in an instant, as if she was born accustomed to standing in a high position and giving orders; almost as soon as Lu Ranzhou finished speaking, she challenged I saw the crew member who had been shouting to set off immediately, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Follow up with the captain! In case he loses his mind, no matter what means you use, you are responsible for waking him up."

"But, but I—"

"You keep your head down, don't look at anyone but the captain," Milady ordered, "Go!"

The crew member was captured by her aura, so he hurriedly followed Lu Ranzhou and went to the stern; Milady stared at Lu Ranzhou tightly, and dared not look at anything else.

In a distant corner of her body, there still seemed to be a small voice, hesitant and afraid.What if her judgment is wrong?What if she sends Lu Ranzhou to a dead end?

What if the creature named "Tears of Chaos" is not attracted by human sight, body temperature, and the ability to empathize with it, but simply wants to prey?
(End of this chapter)