Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 532: Not as beautiful as imagined?

“What the hell!?”

Alice stood at the bow of the Yukikaze, stunned by the scene before her.

At this time, the three of them had successfully entered the coastal waters of Lotterdana City, but they did not see the infinitely beautiful seascapes as they had hoped. What appeared before them was a severely polluted sea area. Compared with the clear blue waters of the outer sea, the sea water here was a corrupted green color, and it looked like a large mass of dead moss floating on the sea. It was shocking at first glance.

Moreover, as the Yukikaze went deeper, the pollution of the sea water became more and more serious. All kinds of strange floating objects gradually appeared in the sea: beer bottles, broken crates, cloth bags that had lost their original color after being soaked in the sea for too long, bottles and cans of unknown use, vegetable leaves that were gnawed to pieces... There were even dead cats and dead mice, which gave off a foul stench in the garbage. Sailing in such a dirty and filthy sea, Alice thought she was walking in a garbage dump. The drifting debris formed another ocean, which was even more empty than the original ocean, and it seemed to open its huge mouth and swallow these outsiders into its dark and smelly belly.

Alice suddenly felt uncomfortable watching this scene. She had to pinch her nose, lower her head and force herself to ignore the scene. Her slightly cramped stomach felt better and she did not vomit because of this dirty scene that was clearly beyond the limit.

The Yukikaze was still moving forward, and the shadow of the city gradually expanded, from a vague outline to a detailed picture. The houses in the suburb of Heligoland appeared in the sight of the three people. According to the "Land-Sea Area City Tourism Guide", if Rotdana City is the most famous holiday resort in the land-sea area, then the suburb of Heligoland is the best tourist destination in Rotdana City. Two-thirds of the long coastline surrounding Rotdana City is formed in this suburb. The slow beach area and the Gulf Stream area are formed in this suburb. In addition, the famous Cheshire Maiden Street is located here, and the Golden Beach and Lover's Reef that countless tourists yearn for are also here. The former site of the lighthouse, which is more than 70 meters high, is a wonderful place to overlook the city landscape and the sea scenery.

At this moment, Linger saw those red brick and white walled beach villas, but they looked extremely desolate, as if no one had lived there for many years, giving off a dead and lonely atmosphere. The buildings surrounding these villas were vegetable markets, seafood markets, and even slaughterhouses, which were out of place with them. The bustling crowds did not look like tourists, most of them were local residents, and the rest were ragged beggars, vagrants, and drunken sailors. Presumably, the dead cats and mice drifting on the sea just now were thrown out from these markets.

Ling'er's eyes swept across the buildings in the suburbs, and he looked around for the building he wanted to see. Sure enough, he found it soon - a large dock was built in the northeast of the suburbs of Heligoland. At this moment, one ship after another, which was no less large than the large cargo ships he had seen on the sea before, was entering and exiting the port. The chimneys of the steam cargo ships spewed out billowing black smoke, and countless black smoke columns rose up and merged into the gray sky, making this area not enjoy much light even during the day, let alone the bright sea view that Alice idealized.

The seawater near the dock was also surging with waves of corruption and stench, and the pollution seemed to be even more serious. Although it was far away, Linger could still see a three-masted sailing ship docked at the dock. The passengers on the ship even had to cover the area below their noses with handkerchiefs as temporary gas masks, wearing cloth hats and raincoats, and barely stepped on the dirty waves to board the dock. Only the sailors were used to it, wading through the stinking water without a care, boarding the deck of the ship, and starting to unload the cargo.

Looking up, farther than the dock, you can see rows of steel factories. The cold brown and black tones make them look like ferocious beasts, lying on the ground, devouring metal, and spewing black smoke from the chimneys on their backs. The tall chimneys in those factories are like a forest, and their density is even denser than the chimneys of steam freighters docked at the port. Linger believes that it is because of their constant spewing of black fog that the heavy acid-corroded cloud has formed above the city of Lotterdana, just like the gloomy coal cloud covering the mine, giving it the core that allows the swing arm, blast furnace, elevator and steam engine to work together.

It’s really strange, could it be that they took the wrong road and arrived not at the city of Lotdana, but at other industrial cities within the Mindelias Empire?
Alice had the same idea. After she got used to the bad seawater pollution, she finally let go of her hand that was pinching her nose. She pointed at the various markets, slaughterhouses, docks and factories on the distant shore and complained to Linge and Saint Chariah indignantly: "Is this the 'Top Ten Most Livable Cities in the Continent' selected by the Westland Times? Isn't this too livable? If this level is enough, I think if our Linville City works harder, we may be able to win this title. What do you think, Linge?"

Lingge shrugged and didn't respond to her angry words, because he had expected this result in his heart, and so did Saint Shallia. Only Alice, who was full of expectations, couldn't swallow this breath and continued to complain: "Where is the promised beach? Where is the promised sunny beach? Where is the promised lighthouse view? That's it? Are the tourists who came here for vacation in the past all blind, or do they think they can't be the only ones fooled, so they praise it and want others to be fooled once!?"

Alice herself believed these compliments and now she has been cheated.

"That shouldn't be the case." Saint Xia Liya felt that the malice of human beings had not yet expanded to this extent, so she spoke to calm Alice's emotions: "Calm down, Alice. We can go to land first and ask someone about the situation. Maybe there is something hidden?"

This was Ling Ge's idea as well, but Alice still groaned unwillingly, "What could be the hidden truth? It's nothing more than the local government seeing that the tourism industry is profitable, so they wanted to carry out some in-depth development, and after all the trouble, they turned this place into this horrible state!"

As an Earthling, she has been through many battles and has seen a lot.

But it would be unfair to draw such a one-sided conclusion. Besides, since she was already here, she couldn't just turn around and leave because the actual effect didn't match the publicity, right? So Alice finally swallowed her anger and decided to do as Saint Shallia said and find someone to ask what was going on.

Soon, the Yukikaze stopped at a remote location on the coast of the suburbs of Heligoland, but it didn't matter whether it was remote or not, because discarded garbage could be seen everywhere on this polluted beach. Some of it was washed up by the sea, and some was blown by the wind. It was so dense that it even covered the beach below. Occasionally, one or two shells could be found in the gaps, all of which were bumpy in shape and rotten and dull in color, making people wonder whether they were shells or some unknown biological weapons.

Naturally, no one would have the time to hang out on a beach as polluted as this. Therefore, let alone landing in a remote location, even a Normandy landing would probably not be noticed.

So, the three of them first towed the Yukikaze to the middle of two reefs and hid it (although no one would steal this thing), and then, amid Alice's constant complaints, they could not wait to leave this sea area occupied by garbage dumps, polluted creatures, stinking sea water, and reefs covered with moldy moss... and headed towards the suburb of Helgoland, officially starting their journey to Lothdana.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)