"And then?"

"And then? No then. I only heard these two words, as if they had never appeared, and after they said these two words there was no sound, not even footsteps. To be able to walk through the jungle so quietly is either fucking or to meet a fellow traveller, but who of us in what we do—oh, mercenaries, not pirates—would run to a place where birds don't shit? So, I think maybe I'm hell or I'm having a mental problem. ”

Petru's expression looked a little depressed, "I didn't have many weapons with me at the time, and I was afraid that something would happen to my boat, if it wasn't my mental problem, if there were really people on the island, they would definitely find my ship." So I quietly returned to the ship the way I came. ”

"With your temper, you shouldn't leave so easily, and you must have left marks along the road when you come out, right?" Su Huilan said.

"Of course! I finally found this place, and I felt that there was something mysterious about this island that attracted me, maybe there was something I was looking for on it. I took the weapon from the ship and went back to the island. Because of what happened before, this time, I was very careful, for fear of being discovered by others. ”

"It's just that as soon as I got up, I encountered an unexpected situation. The accident was not dangerous, but it only scared me, because I found that what I saw on the island for the second time was completely different from the first time I went to the island, everything on the island had changed, the shape of the mountains had changed, and the vegetation had changed. All the marks I left behind were gone, as if I had never been here. I found the lake anyway, but I didn't hear anything along the way, and I didn't meet anyone. ”

"Until then, I still didn't know that spiritual power came from the lake. I found that the water in the lake was lukewarm, generally speaking, the water in the hot springs was not drinkable, and judging by the temperature of the water and the surrounding rocks, it could be a volcanic crater. But I was tired and thirsty, and I couldn't take care of it anymore, so I went down and tasted it. The water is sweet and has no salty and heavy alkaline taste. Then I took off my clothes and jumped into the lake to take a shower. ”

"You must wonder how a person like me, who lives with his head pinned to his belt, could so easily let his guard down and dare to bathe in the lake." Petru laughed self-deprecatingly, "I think so too." But at the time, I didn't know why, my mind was dizzy, and I just wanted to take a shower. Moreover, when I jumped down, I found that the lake was very relieving. Then I discovered the source of my spiritual power, which was at the bottom of the lake. There must be something underneath the water, I guess, and under the water is the tab. ”

"I wondered, why did you make the tabb under the water? Later, I thought that it might have been an extinct volcanic crater, but it came back to life at some point, and the eruption caused the Tab to sink to the bottom of the lake. I felt a force calling me to find it, and it would see the light of day. So I dived underwater. ”

"I don't have diving equipment with me, but I'm very good at water, and diving is the basic skill for people like us who live at sea all year round. In such warm water, I can hold my breath for more than ten minutes. When I dived, I found that the lake was not small, the bottom of the lake was full of rocks, and the deeper it got deeper and deeper in the middle. When I swam to the middle of the lake, I didn't have enough breath and had to float up to breathe. However, when I came up, I suddenly saw two people standing on the shore. ”

"That's where I went into the water, and that's where I take off my clothes. They first rummaged through my clothes, then picked up my gun and muttered something. Because of the distance, I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I probably couldn't understand it when they got closer. There was fog on the lake, and I couldn't see what they looked like, and they probably wouldn't have noticed a head peeking out in the middle of the lake. ”

"I hurriedly dived under the water and swam towards them. I don't want to run away bare-bottomed, and I want to hear what they're saying. I calculated my route and swam to a shelter under a raised mountain rock on the shore of the lake. I heard their voices, but I couldn't understand a word. Their pronunciation is not in any of the languages I've ever learned. Then I heard a bang, a gunshot. ”

"I was startled, thinking they had spotted me, and then I heard someone screaming in terror and hurrying away. I made sure that there was no one on the shore, so I got out of the place where I was sheltering, and when I saw my clothes, I threw them on the shore, and there was a man lying on the ground. It occurred to me that maybe my gun had misfired. I couldn't see the man's face in the water, and I was about to climb up to take a look, when I was about to get my clothes and weapons back when suddenly a large group of people came out of the fog in the distance. They had spears in their hands and feathers on their heads, and they screamed as they ran. ”

"I was so frightened that I hurriedly dived back into the water and swam towards the opposite shore. About the middle of the lake, I floated up to breathe, and then looked back to see the shadowy figures on the shore, one of whom seemed to glance at me. Actually, it was so far away, and with the fog barrier, I couldn't see the man's face clearly, but I really felt as if he had seen me. You don't understand the feeling, it's like being targeted by a sniper. I didn't dare to stay any longer, so I dived to the opposite shore and couldn't care about my bare ass, so I rushed headlong into the thickest part of the fog. ”

As he said this, Petru took a deep breath and looked tired, as if he had just returned from a dive.

Aoki frowned and asked, "You mean, there are wild people on this island?" ”

Su Huilan said: "Unlikely. The surrounding islands are already civilized, and the resources of an isolated island in the ocean are not enough to sustain a tribe, which cannot be explained genetically. ”

"But it's not the natives of the neighborhood, they look like the Indians of a hundred years ago," Petru said. ”

"Did you see them again?"

"Nope." "After I escaped, it was already dark, and I didn't dare to go up again because I was afraid that they would find my boat." When I went back later, I couldn't find the island. ”

"Then why are you hiding this experience from us?" Su Huilan asked.

"Actually, it's not to hide it, but even I think it's incredible, it feels like a hallucination or a dream. What's more, it's not very honorable to say such a thing as Redbeard once running away with his bare butt. Petru said.

"Wait......" Aoki suddenly remembered something, "you just said that there are two people who speak Russian, as if they called each other names, right?" ”

"Yes, one is called Ivan and the other is Boris."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, I can be sure, I heard these two intelligible words that day, I remember them very clearly, and it is impossible to forget."

"Ivan, Boris......" Aoki vaguely remembered that Captain Church's diary seemed to mention the names of the two men.