Tomb Raiders Codex

Chapter 155 The Cannibal Spiral
Everyone was in astonishment, when they suddenly heard what Professor Lin said, Wu Sidong couldn't help asking: "Teacher, what's going on?"

Professor Lin explained to us that this is not a space-time tunnel. In fact, this kind of similar phenomenon is very common at sea, and it is a mirage.This thing is also called 'mirage', which is a natural phenomenon formed by the refraction and total reflection of light. This phenomenon is relatively common in deserts and coastal areas. 'Sea city' has been mentioned in folk ghost novels.This phenomenon seemed miraculous in the past, but now that it is deciphered, it is not a big deal, it just reflects the distant scenery.The warship we saw before should be located far away, but the scene we just saw was formed by the total reflection of water molecules in the sunlight.

At this moment, the sun was getting hotter and hotter, and the patrol ship disappeared as the activity of the water molecules decreased.

That is to say, we were blinded by illusions, and the bottom plate of the fish tank was demolished in vain.After Professor Lin finished explaining, everyone stared angrily. Looking back, the reef belt and the boat were no longer visible. It seemed that we had failed and had to row back.Just when everyone was dejected and ready to row back, Gu Wenmin suddenly said: "Hey, it's so strange, look below." She pointed to the sea water below her, and I looked down. There was nothing else in the sea. The visible range was also clear, and nothing abnormal was found, and everyone couldn't help staring at her.Duan Fei didn't agree with her, so she said in a bad tone: "What's the matter, I was surprised."

Gu Wenmin frowned slightly, ignored Duan Fei, but said, "Didn't you realize that our raft is moving forward by itself?"

Since there is no reference object at sea, it is really impossible to feel whether the raft is moving forward, but even if it does move forward, it is not surprising. After all, there are ocean currents under the seabed, and it is normal to drift with the current.I was a little stunned by Gu Wenmin's words for a moment, she would not attract attention for such a trivial matter.Seeing no response from the crowd, she shook her head and said, "Do an experiment and you will understand." She suddenly reached into her pocket, and took out a small notebook after a while.It was her work notes. I wanted to read it before, but she clapped my hands. Women always have some little secrets.

It took two days for the book to dry completely. After opening it, most of the writing inside was blurred. Gu Wenmin tore off a piece of unused paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the water.Soon, the ball of paper was pushed by the water and headed behind us.

Tofu said: "Can you see anything from this?"

Gu Wenmin said: "Look at the oars again, everyone." She is not a person who can pretend to be a ghost, and she is more reliable in her work, so everyone looked at the oars half in the sea, and they felt that something was wrong. The water pattern is completely opposite to the direction in which the paper ball floats away!
The paper balls are taken away by the ocean currents. If our boats are also moving because of the ocean currents, then the direction in which our water patterns expand should be in the same direction as the paper balls drift.Originally, we had no reference, so we couldn't detect any abnormalities, but Gu Wenmin connected paper balls with wood pulp and made them into a reference, which made us understand the current situation at a glance.

It turns out that we are not drifting with the ocean current, but going against the current.

In the case of paddling, it is normal to go against the current, but because of the incident with the patrol ship, everyone has stopped paddling, so how can the raft go upstream?The only possibility is that some strange force is moving us!With rich imagination, Tofu immediately made various speculations, saying: "Is there any fish hiding under the raft? I heard people say that dolphins like to push things floating on the sea. Maybe there are dolphins under our raft." What?" He took a deep breath and plunged his head into the water.

After diving into the water for only a moment, he raised his head, his face full of water, stammering, almost biting his own tongue, and said: "There is really, really something."

Duan Fei exclaimed, "There are really dolphins."

I was startled, and thought to myself that if I let the dolphins bear it, God knows where it will drift, and I still have to expel them.Just about to plunge into the water to see the situation, Tofu grabbed my arm violently, shook his head, looked very strange, trembled all over, and said, "It's not a dolphin...it's, it's a person, it's that little girl."

"Hiss..." Ah Ying gasped, covered her mouth, stared at her eyes and was speechless.As soon as this remark came out, there was a sudden silence, and a strange atmosphere permeated the crowd. I even wondered if Tofu was joking, but I knew him. Although he is usually unreliable, when can he joke and when can't? , he is still very clear, coupled with the pale face at the moment, it made my heart skip a beat.

The little girl... She should have been killed, how could she be under our raft?This is definitely not a coincidence, is it caused by ghosts, or is it arranged by Mrs. Tang?What's the point of doing this?
I settled down, patted Tofu's hand on my shoulder, and said, "I'll go and have a look." Besides me, there were four other robots, obviously none of whom were just waiting to die. The five of us took a deep breath together, I plunged my head into the sea, opened my eyes and saw that there was a person stuck under our raft, as if stuck by the raft.The man was not big, and the baggy clothes on his body were scattered under the impact of the water, like a jellyfish, but the specific appearance was not clear.But just based on the clothes and figure, it is undoubtedly the little girl.

Why is there such a situation?
Could it be that the little girl or she and his father are playing tricks together?Where is she pushing our ship?
Just as I was thinking, there was a sudden movement outside, and I felt the raft shake violently, as if the people on the raft suddenly stood up.

What happened?I originally planned to salvage the little girl to have a look, but the swing of the raft made me pull my head out of the sea, shake the water drops and look back, only to see that the rest of the people on the board stood up.Tofu immediately said to me: "There is a piece of grass in front."

grassland?

I said, "Have grass grown in your head?" Everyone had different expressions, and they didn't know what they had discovered. I couldn't help but stand up and look at it. I was dumbfounded for a while, oh, there is really a grassland.

At the end of the sea level, the blue sea has disappeared, and a piece of green stretches across the place where the sea and the sky meet, just like a large grassland.

How could this be?I couldn't help turning my head and asked Carp: "Is there a big island in front? The greenery on this island is pretty good."

Carp quickly said: "We deviated from the course due to the storm, I'm not sure where we are now." He spread his palms, and the index finger of the other hand stood up in the center of the palm, facing west, and looked at the fingers The light and shadow left behind are probably positioned using a relatively primitive calculation method.After a while, he said: "It's quite out of the way. I've never been to this area, but there aren't such big islands in this area...Could it be..." He seemed to think of something, and suddenly gasped. , Said: "Could it be a man-eating spiral? Not good... Hurry up, back up quickly, we can't go to that place."

When the carp mentioned the man-eating spiral, I was shocked, because when I was selling fish, I heard about the man-eating spiral from the fishermen on the seashore.

It is a kind of spiral seaweed, which mainly floats on the sea surface. It is a new creature discovered 30 years ago. Some people predict that it may be due to ocean pollution, resulting in mutated plants. Go like an endless pasture.Sometimes when the ship was moving, those things would pop out suddenly, and by the time the crew realized it, they had already protruded out of the man-eating spiral pile.

Those seaweeds are no different from ordinary spirulina on the front, but the back is red, with a zipper-like opening in the center, which is full of barbs, and any sea creatures, including humans, are within their edible range.These things will turn over when they are full, and at that time, the sea will turn blood red.This thing eats and drinks enough, basks in the sun, performs photosynthesis, and then dives into the sea to rest. The dragon sees its head but does not see its tail, like an ogre on the sea, which is daunting.

When the carp said this, I also realized that there must be no grass on the sea, and the large green area on the horizon must be a man-eating spiral, and what's even more frightening is that we are now heading in that direction!

Could this be what Miss Tang and the little girl meant?
What are they trying to do?revenge?
Damn it, we didn't abandon the little girl on purpose. At that time, everyone was unable to save her. Could it be that because of this, they would trap us to death?After hearing the description of the man-eating spiral, Duan Fei immediately became nervous, and kept saying: "What to do, what to do?" The more I thought about it, the more irritable I became, and suddenly my heart darkened, and I said: "Fill up the corpse and expose it to the sun!" I didn't believe it Under the scorching sun and dead bodies, she and her father can still play tricks.

The robots immediately understood what I meant, No. [-] and No. [-] entered the water one after another, and salvaged the little girl without much effort.I just glanced at it, and felt sick in my heart. After soaking in sea water for three days, the body was already swollen and disfigured, as if it would rot if pinched. It was covered in bruises, like a swollen balloon. Girl, it's completely out of sight.

Although I got along with the idea of ​​violent corpses, now that I saw it seriously, I felt uncomfortable. Thinking that Mrs. Tang tried every means to entrust her daughter to us, but in the end her daughter also died tragically, I must be unwilling.But after thinking about it, if it wasn't for saving Mrs. Tang, we wouldn't have provoked ghost octopuses, let alone a storm, and ended up like this. It's really unreasonable for him to blame us.

Thinking about it this way, the uneasiness in my heart also dissipated. Sometimes when people do bad things, they have to learn to find reasons for themselves, so that they can continue to do it with peace of mind.

As soon as the body was picked up, the stench and the smell of the sea were unbearable, so we all crowded together and placed her alone on a raft.There is a folk saying that exposing corpses to ghosts is the only way we can do this in order to survive.

Sure enough, as soon as the body was picked up, we found that the reverse current of the raft had finally stopped.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)