Chapter 262 Determining the Target
Early the next morning.
Everyone dispersed and began to act on their goals.
First, Baraz took Jason to the homes of the people from whom he had previously obtained intelligence.
They did not show any impatience when faced with Balazs who came to them again to inquire about things that happened decades ago.
After all, they give money.
Then he sent his deputy to take Xia Daiti to collect those maps. Of course, funds are essential for this step.
With the presence of the local boss, Balazs, everyone's actions went smoothly.
When night fell, everyone returned to the boat.
Once again gathered in the captain's room.
But this time it was an internal meeting.
Xia Daiti first took out a large pile of various maps from his pocket ring. It can be seen from these maps that most of them are basically hand-drawn.
However, due to technical problems of the hand-drawn artists, the quality of these maps is somewhat uneven. In the worst case, you cannot recognize that it is a map at all, but instead think it is a child's casual doodle.
Can these things really be called maps? What kind of shamelessness does it take to do such a thing?
Alka felt that his painting skills were better than theirs since he had just traveled through time.
"These are the maps that can be searched. They are all around here. Some are from many years ago, and some are duplicates."
“Most of these maps were drawn only for the inhabited islands among the surrounding islands.
The population is too small, there are no special resources on the island, and there is no map."
Speaking of this, Xia Daiti also felt a little helpless.
"And the island chain system seems to be different from what we thought."
"What do you mean?" Alka asked curiously.
“The islands linked by the island chain are not fixed at all. As time goes by, some islands, especially those on the edge, will leave forever.
Some new islands will also connect with the landmark islands to form new island chains and become part of the Broken Sea. "
"It's just that this process takes a very long time, basically a hundred years. Fortunately, at least in the past 20 years, no new islands have been added, and no old islands have left."
Hearing this, Alka nodded. This was at least good news.
Otherwise, what if the place they want to go is separated from it because the island chain is broken? Wouldn’t that be very troublesome?
But didn’t I expect that the island chain has such a property?
It's more like the signpost island has some characteristics that will drag passing islands.
But these are just random guesses.
Alka withdrew his thoughts and focused his attention on the pile of various maps in his hand.
As he flipped through the maps, Alka took out at least half of them from the pile.
These maps are either damaged or of poor quality, and some are simply too old.
Damaged and poor-quality maps cannot be recognized by the system.
Whether maps that are too old can be used depends on how much the areas depicted on the maps have changed. If the changes are too great, they cannot be used.
If just some houses are built differently, or some residential areas are expanded, it will actually have no impact.
However, when a town is upgraded to a city, the settlement is relocated as a whole, and a new city is built, the change in terrain will affect the original map and it will no longer be usable.
But when drawing a map, there is no need to plan these places at all and they can be used.
You only need to simply draw the general shape of the island and some woodland vegetation and mountains in the middle of the island to make a map.
Therefore, the simpler and more accurate the map is, the longer it can be used.
A map that was too perfect would not last long in Alka's eyes.
These are the experiences Alka has gained from using the system over the years.
After eliminating these unusable products, there are only 4 maps left.
Compared to the entire island chain, it only accounts for 1/4.
Two of them are repeated, but the clarity of the painting and the techniques used are different.
There is no essential difference.
In Alka's vision, there was only one white dot on the island represented by the two repeated maps.
Looking at the map, this island is not small, probably about 1/3 the size of Broken Island.
However, this island only has one small town with a population of less than 3,000, and the map is actually from decades ago.
The change is not that big, so it can still be used.
Xia Daiti, who was standing next to him, also began to tell Alka about the maps he was looking at and some information about the islands represented by these maps.
“There used to be a mine on this island, and the population on the island was actually some miners who migrated here from Southern Cross Island, but the mines were exhausted and many things were removed.
The town above is also inhabited by the descendants of those miners, and now there is nothing special about it.”
Alka looked at the situation on the map and nodded.
Then look at the next one.
This island is different. You can clearly see a small town and several villages on it.
In addition to the two blue dots, there are also several white dots, which are of moderate size and smaller than the mining island above.
But it is obviously much more livable.
But it wasn't the island Alka was looking for.
When Xiadaiti handed it to Alka again, she had already compared them and she didn't find any similarities.
She could also easily distinguish those maps that looked like graffiti.
After listening to Xia Daiti's introduction, he took the map aside.
Look at the last map.
“This is the island closest to Southern Cross Island. It has a population of about 20,000 and is also a small town with abundant timber resources.
The island is completely under the control of the island's royal family, which provides materials for the construction of ships."
In this world with only ocean, it goes without saying how important ships are.
Although wood grows very well in this magical world, there are differences between the wood used to build ships.
The wood on this island is of relatively good quality and is very suitable for building warships.
Alka looked at the map and saw a blue dot and several white dots. Although the island was large, it was not the one they were looking for.
He shook his head regretfully.
“It’s probably none of these.”
Hearing this, Xiadaiti's hand appeared with the very rough sea chart that Baraz had used before.
Then he drew a few crosses on it.
You can see that there are some annotations above, and Xia Daiti has already given priority to screening them.
Looking at it this way, more than half of the map is marked.
There are also one or two marked ones.
“Then apart from the islands represented by these maps, the other islands are those that are far away from the Southern Cross Island.
The time it takes to sail there is usually between 10 and 40 days and nights.”
"Moreover, these two are deserted islands with no one on them. These three islands are abandoned islands, desolate and very small."
A deserted island is an island with no special resources. The land on the island may not be fertile, but there are still some vegetation, trees and animals.
If you really want to live here, you will have to start from scratch, but it is not impossible to survive.
The ruins are simply called stones gathered together. Almost no one goes to these islands, and they are very small.
There is basically no capital for survival.
"There is an island, which might be where his treasure is hidden." Jason said suddenly.
Hearing this, Alka looked up at him.
Since Jason said so, he must be sure.
After all, now is not the time to joke.
“After today’s intelligence investigation, we found that one of the elderly people was very likely a companion of this pirate.
After my inquiries, I found that he was most likely an insider on the island, responsible for passing on some intelligence to Kilian."
"Through some special means, I got him to reveal some of the information he had hidden. It was very useful."
“He said that when the scum pirate first started his activities, he rotated around the three islands and seemed to be very familiar with the places.
They can even accurately judge how long it will take for the island to reach its location. It is precisely because of this familiarity that they can make a fortune by plundering with a small boat, and their business is getting bigger and bigger, successfully earning their first pot of gold. "
"One of the islands seems to be his homeland. He didn't tell anyone about this, and no navy searched the island."
"Among these three islands, one is a deserted island, one is a deserted island, and the only remaining one is an inhabited island."
So it is very obvious which city is most likely the hometown of pirates.
Hearing this information, Juanlu frowned and said, "His treasure should be famous in this area. It's impossible that no one has looked for it."
And the navy surrounding him will definitely not let go of this opportunity and will definitely turn the island upside down.
After all, this pirate had been plundering for a long time.
“Because no one knows except the first people who followed him in the robbery, their first course of action is to kill all the people who were robbed.
This resulted in their message not being delivered during their early operations.
After all, this is a vast ocean, and it is not normal for a ship to lose contact and never come back. "
Hearing this, everyone nodded, it was indeed true.
Jason continued.
“Although some of them survived and spread their reputation, they were no longer active in that area by then, and had even moved to several other areas.”
"Among the pirates who had been with him at the beginning, he is the only one still alive. I suspect that he may have betrayed the pirate in the end."
"Why do you say that?" Simon next to him was a little curious.
It would be fine to know the information about the pirates, but why do we have to check the person who provided the information, and then find out something?
Hearing this, Jason smiled and said, "Because although this man is over 60, he actually just retired not long ago. He used to be the tax collector of this town."
"It's interesting, isn't it? Later I found Baraz and did a quick check, and he confirmed that my information was accurate.
It is said that the reason why he became a tax collector was because his former boss played a major role in that crusade, and surrounded the pirate ship accurately through intelligence. "
After hearing this, everyone understood.
"Then he didn't go looking for it? It's impossible for him not to be tempted."
"He must have looked for it, but obviously he didn't find it, otherwise he would have quit his job and become a millionaire long ago."
Hearing Jason's words, Alka nodded.
But he looked at Jason strangely and said, "You've disrupted his peaceful life. Now that you know his secret, he can't remain indifferent, right?"
After all, he is a pirate, and the information may not be authentic. It is possible that he is just lying to him.
Hearing this, Jason smiled mysteriously.
The magic power in his hand condensed and a small transparent diamond appeared.
“This is the ability that the Crystal Dragon acquires as it grows. As long as the crystal material enters someone’s body, it can read their mind for a short period of time.
Very basic, but sometimes very useful.”
Looking at Jason's smile, it was obvious that he was extremely satisfied with this relatively useless ability.
This ability might not be very useful to the dragon, but it is very useful to an intelligence gatherer like Jason.
"So actually I read all that information out of his mind. I just guided him to recall these things."
Alka couldn't help but clap his hands.
"That's awesome, Jason."
Jason smiled and touched the crystal dragon in his arms.
Xia Daiti looked at Jason and asked, "You've been showing off for a long time, so what's the name of that island?"
Hearing this, he slapped his head and realized that he hadn't even said the director's name.
He quickly said, "Border Island."
"So it's that island?" Xia Daiti nodded to show that he understood, then looked at everyone and told them what he knew about the island.
"According to what we learned during the day, that island is the farthest island from the Southern Cross. It is also the farthest island in recorded history.
It was originally a deserted island, and was once used to exile criminals. Later, the exiled criminals lived on it and renamed it Border Island. "
"There are basically no special products on the island, and it's not very big. It's said that there is only one village."
It really seems to be an inconspicuous island.
"Okay, now that the goal has been determined, let's get ready and set off tomorrow."
After saying that, Alka stood up. He was going to go to Balazs to discuss tomorrow's schedule.
Balazs now lives on his large merchant ship, which is also in the port, but farther away from Alka and the others.
"Wait a minute, Yi Yi told me something today, and I think it would be better for me to tell you about it." Lucilia said suddenly.
After hearing this, everyone who was about to get up and leave sat back down.
"Yi Yi said that during the day today, someone seemed to be deliberately observing us and the Sound of Dawn, but they hid it very well and only observed for a while.
Not sure who was watching, or if they were curious or something else.”
Hearing this, Alka frowned.
After all, it was their first time to visit the island, so it was not surprising that they attracted a lot of attention.
When I first arrived, there were often people looking around.
But what's strange is why I only started paying attention to them today?
They had been on the island for a week, seven full days and nights.
It’s a bit strange that I only noticed it now.
But after all, others only paid attention to it for a moment.
After thinking for a while, he said, "Everyone should be more careful when they are on duty recently."
Let everyone be careful and maintain necessary vigilance.
Then everyone left.
After a while, Alka arrived on the Golden Trout.
He had been on this ship before.
Looking at the people on the boat, the number has indeed decreased significantly.
"Arka? What's the matter with you coming to see me so late?"
Balazs asked, looking at Alka as he sat at the table.
"We have already determined which island we are going to. We will set off tomorrow. You should get ready and we will go together." Alka said quietly.
"What! So fast?"
Balazs stood up suddenly and said in surprise.
He rubbed his head to make sure that he was not having an illusion about his perception of time.
It seemed that he took Jason to inquire about information during the day, and he also helped collect the maps during the day.
The target was determined in just one night.
Isn't this too fast?
Is it really that powerful?
He was a little bit confused, after all, he had seen those maps before.
Moreover, he was by Jason's side the whole time when he was asking for information, and the information he asked about was no different from the information he knew.
Although I don't understand why it's so fast, maybe this is professional.
I couldn't help but look at Alka and sighed: "You guys are really amazing."
Alka smiled and said nothing.
"Okay, now that we've determined it, which island is the target?"
"Border Island."
"Border Island? Where is Border Island?"
He looked puzzled, then looked at the assistant following behind him.
This is the first mate on the ship, and he has met Alka and the others several times.
Looking at his captain's puzzled eyes, he also frowned and thought for a while.
"Oh, I remember now. It seems that the Exile Island is called the Border Island."
"Oh~ So it's that island. I didn't expect the treasure to be hidden on that island."
Alka looked at the two people's reactions and felt a little strange. Xiadaiti knew why they looked as if they were not very familiar with each other.
Seeing Alka's puzzled look, Balazs smiled awkwardly and said, "That island is too far away. Basically no one goes there. I have never heard of the residents of that island coming to Southern Cross Island."
“It’s just that criminals were exiled to that island in the past, so it’s still a little bit well-known, but that was many years ago.
Since the law was amended to change the punishment of exile to labor or death penalty for criminals, no one has paid attention to the island anymore, so I didn’t think of it for a while.”
After saying that, Balazs thought for a moment and said, "Have you seen the time when that island will return to the island chain?"
Alka nodded.
The reason why he decided to go out to sea tomorrow was because, according to calculations, now was a good time for them to go out to sea.
As long as there are no accidents on the road, we will be able to land on that island when the border island returns to the island chain.
Will not miss it.
"Okay, I'll start preparing right away. Do you need us to help you prepare some daily necessities?
After all, this ship is quite large, and it doesn’t need to be fully loaded with goods for trading this time.”
Alka shook his head at Balazs' suggestion.
"You're too polite. We don't have many members on board, so we have more than enough supplies to be self-sufficient."
Balazs nodded, but didn't force it.
Because Alka and his men were really few in number, and no matter how one thought about it, the current size of that ship was definitely enough for their supplies.
If it is not enough at that time, they can also provide help.
"Okay, see you tomorrow then."
Alka said goodbye to Balazs and returned to his ship.
Get ready with everyone.
