mchenry-crisis.org Chapter 144 Getting Ashore
Chapter 144 Getting Ashore
The atmosphere on the ship changed the moment the coastline came into view.
Some people started packing their bags, some woke up their sleeping children, and some squatted by the ship's side to wash their faces with seawater...
Everyone was very excited.
Old Zhou sat in his wheelchair, holding a roll of yellowed nautical chart in his hand.
The voyage has reached its end. The nautical chart, brought down from the flagship of the Third Fleet of the East China Sea thirty-two years ago, has been used to draw the route in the stone cave of Guangchang Island for thirty-two years. Today, it has finally come to an end.
The ship sailed into the delta at the mouth of the sea.
The color of the seawater changed from deep blue to grayish-green, and the salinity decreased. The muddy smell of the river water mixed with the salty smell of the sea breeze.
Mangroves on both sides of the river emerge from the sea level, starting as a few scattered trees and then forming a continuous expanse.
The tree roots are embedded in the muddy shallows, like countless withered hands reaching out from the water.
The birds that flew up from the mangroves were not seabirds, but land birds.
Lin Zhao stood by the ship's side and reached out to touch the outside of the ship's hull.
Water splashed on her fingers, and she put them to her lips and tasted them.
"freshwater."
Her voice wasn't loud, but the whole ship heard it.
"We've left the sea."
The boat's hull scraped against the mud and sand of the riverbed, producing a low, muffled thud, and then it stopped.
No one moved; more than a thousand people stood on the deck, looking at the riverbank three meters away.
The roots of mangrove trees droop into the water, behind which is soil, behind which is grass, and behind which are trees.
Just over ten days ago, they were on Guangchang Island, teaching the sea creatures math, physics, and how to build nuclear bombs.
Now they stood on the mudflats at the mouth of the Ganges River, their feet on land, not on an island built by strange beasts, not in a cage enclosed by sea creatures, but on land.
The first person to jump off the boat was a middle-aged man.
He fell into the waist-deep river, mud splashing all over him. Without stopping, he waded through the mud and climbed up to the riverbank using both hands and feet.
His hands dug into the mud, his fingernails filled with mud, he knelt on the bank, head bowed, his shoulders trembling.
Then came the second, and the third.
More and more people jumped off the ship.
Some people waded through the water, while others jumped directly into the mudflats and crawled across.
No one laughed at their disheveled state. The first thing everyone did after getting ashore was the same: squat down and press their hands into the mud.
Song Chen was the last to disembark. When his feet touched the riverbank, the soil was soft, but it had been trampled into a muddy mess by the more than a thousand people in front of him.
He crouched down and placed his right hand on the ground.
The soil was warm, having been baked by the sun all day.
Then he raised his head and looked inland.
Behind the mangroves lies an abandoned farmland. The ridges are still there, but the fields are overgrown with waist-high weeds.
Further away, an abandoned town disappeared into the twilight, the outlines of the houses mostly covered by vines and shrubs.
There were no lights or sounds in the town; it had been dead for a long time.
But a light shone in Song Chen's eyes; he sensed a large number of strange beasts ahead.
His eyes looked like someone who had been starving for a month finally seeing a table full of food.
He drifted at sea for a month.
In one month, he only killed one of the strange beasts on the island; the rest of the time, he was in hiding.
Hide in the patrol routes of the messenger beasts, hide in the mental scans of the fifth-tier beast kings, and hide in the cracks and crevices of the royal territory.
Even though he was surrounded by strange beasts and could easily gain kill points, he could only watch them swim by, too afraid to move.
Because if he were exposed, he and everyone on the ship would die.
The feeling was like being a wolf with its hands and feet tied and thrown into a sheepfold, with sheep right in front of its mouth but unable to bite.
Now we don't have to endure it anymore.
This is not the territory of the sea creatures; this is land, and even land that has fallen is still land.
The beasts here have no communication network, no beast king to guard them, and no royal territory; you can kill them at will!
Song Chen removed his hand from the mud and grasped the hilt of the Tianjun Blade.
Old Zhou's voice came from behind me.
"Where are you going?"
Song Chen didn't turn around.
"Let's get everyone some meat to eat."
Old Zhou was silent for a moment, then hummed in agreement and didn't ask any further questions.
Song Chen walked toward the town, the hilt of the Tianjun Blade trembling slightly in his palm, like a hunting dog that had been chained up for too long finally smelling its prey.
He walked into the town. The streets, covered with vines, were dark and quiet in the twilight. The walls were covered with moss, and only decaying wooden frames remained in the window openings.
Footsteps echoed through the empty streets, golden light shone deep within his pupils, and his gaze swept over the building at the end of the street. There was no human presence inside, only the aura of strange beasts.
Thousands of strange beasts dwell in this dead city, treating the human city as their lair.
Song Chen walked up the steps of a building. The stone steps were cracked by vines, and wild grass half a person's height grew in the gaps.
He pushed the door open. The door fell down with a hollow thud.
In the hall, more than a dozen strange beasts raised their heads at the same time.
Their eyes reflected the figure of the person at the doorway: a person, a knife, standing in the middle of the collapsed door frame.
Without saying a word, Song Chen drew his Heavenly Blade and began to fight.
Lightning exploded on the blade, illuminating the dimly lit hall.
[A Tier 2 alien beast has been killed, gaining 52 kill points.]
[A Tier 1 beast has been killed, gaining 8 kill points.]
[A Tier 1 beast has been killed, gaining 3 kill points.]
……
Soon, the strange beasts inside the building were cleared out, and Song Chen walked out of the building and headed towards the buildings on the other side of the street.
Although this town is on land, it is still inhabited by sea creatures. It is less than five kilometers from the coastline, and these creatures have come up the river to use it as a transit point for their journeys inland.
They cleared the buildings one by one, finding the aura of strange beasts behind every door and signs of ambushes at every turn of the stairs.
He stormed into an abandoned residential building, fighting his way from the first floor to the fifth floor, and then back down to the first floor.
[A Tier 2 alien beast has been killed, gaining 47 kill points.]
[A Tier 3 alien beast has been killed, gaining 489 kill points.]
[A Tier 1 beast has been killed, gaining 8 kill points.]
[A Tier 2 alien beast has been killed, gaining 52 kill points.]
……
They stormed into an abandoned school.
The monsters used the classroom as their lair. The chalk writing on the blackboard still bore traces of the old era. The desks were piled up in the corner, replaced by the shed skins and leftover bones of the sea monsters.
[A Tier 3 alien beast has been killed, gaining 501 kill points.]
[A Tier 2 alien beast has been killed, gaining 44 kill points.]
[A Tier 2 alien beast has been killed, gaining 19 kill points.]
They stormed into an abandoned hospital.
The corridor reeked of decay. The operating room lights had long been off, but under the operating lights lay a giant iron-backed sea serpent over ten meters long.
It was molting on the operating table when it was cleaved in two by a scalpel halfway through the process.
The system's notification sounds were so dense they seemed to come in one continuous stream, like raindrops hitting a tin roof.
He didn't count how many heads he killed; he just killed.
From one street to another, from one building to another, the Thunderous Annihilation Blade unleashed bursts of purple lightning amidst the abandoned buildings, each accompanied by a system notification sound.
The kill count is skyrocketing. Ten thousand, thirty thousand, fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, one hundred thousand...
After breaking through to the fourth tier, his killing efficiency increased several times over.
Two hours later, Song Chen arrived at the last building on the edge of the town, an abandoned factory.
Seventeen strange beasts dwell in the factory, four of which are at the third tier.
He stood at the factory gate but did not go in.
He unleashed the Thunderclap of the Nine Heavens, and purple lightning surged from his palm into the factory, spreading along the puddles on the ground to every corner.
The factory windows emitted a blinding purple light, and the roars of strange beasts came from inside before falling silent.
[A Tier 3 alien beast has been killed, gaining 497 kill points.]
[A Tier 2 alien beast has been killed, gaining 51 kill points.]
[A Tier 3 alien beast has been killed, gaining 518 kill points.]
……
The system notification sound subsided.
Song Chen stood at the factory gate and sheathed the Tianjun Blade.
Night had completely fallen, and psionic particles floated over the abandoned town, their eerie blue light illuminating the corpses of strange beasts lying across the streets.
He opened the system panel.
[Kill Value: 680552 points.]
That was great! In just two hours, I've gained over 300,000 kill points.
He closed the panel, cut a few pieces of meat from the beast, and turned to walk towards the riverbank.