Chapter 1911 Old Taran's Burial at Sea

Garcia Island is just a small island at the southern end of the land. Because it is close to Shante Island where the Eye of the World is located, it was built by the country to which it belongs into a resort island specifically for Shante Island tourism. The facilities here are also very complete. There are not only special docks and piers, but also special power plants. Moreover, this power plant does not use common energy crystals, but the latest wind power generation. There are also lakes on the island that can provide a stable water source and can provide daily water for tens of thousands of people.

Before the disaster, this island was full of tourists. Tourists from all over the world would stay here for a few days by boat, and then take a special boat to Shante Island to see the famous Eye of the World.

When the disaster occurred, the volcano on Shante Island erupted, which directly caused an earthquake, and the earthquake also affected Shante Island. Although the residents and tourists on the island were not injured in the earthquake, and the buildings were not damaged too much, the subsequent tsunami destroyed the dock on the shore, and the sea water also crossed the protective embankment of the dock, overturning all the ships docked inside, directly causing nearly 3,000 tourists to be trapped on the island.

The people trapped on the island tried to ask for help, but they didn't get any response. They could only save themselves. However, before they could come up with a plan, an extremely abnormal cold wave swept the entire sea, causing snowflakes to appear on Garcia Island, which had never seen winter. Only then did the people trapped on the island realize that something was wrong.

When the island's rulers built the island into a resort island, they did envision some possible disasters, such as typhoons, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, etc., and even considered man-made disasters such as pirate attacks, and prepared a large amount of supplies to deal with these disasters. It can be said that they were extremely thorough, but they didn't expect the disaster of extreme cold climate, or no one could have imagined that such a tropical island with perennial hot weather would have a winter climate.

As a result, the order that had been stabilized after the disaster began to become turbulent due to the lack of cold-resistant supplies. After several battles for supplies, only more than 3,000 people survived on the island. In addition to tourists, there were also residents on the island and employees of various travel companies. A small tribal society began to form on the island.

Although the people on the island later repaired the ocean-going ship and sent people to the land for help, the people sent out did not come back in the end. After several attempts without success, the people on the island never tried again.

Later, they found that as long as they were a little further away from their island, the surrounding climate would drop rapidly, and the icebergs in the sea would hide. Even if the people on the ship would not be frozen to death, the ship would sink because it hit the icebergs hidden in the seabed. So people at that time thought that the southern tropics were already so cold, and the temperature in the north might be even lower. Normal people could not survive in such an extremely cold environment, so they thought that they might be the only survivors in the world.

In fact, the survivors on the island did not know that the reason why Garcia Island was not covered by extreme cold, but only maintained the coldness of ordinary winter, was entirely because of the Shante Island volcano not far from them. Although the extremely cold weather covering the entire world was extremely overbearing, it still could not suppress the temperature of the Shante Island volcano, as if the Eye of the Wonderful World had an invisible power to resist the approach of the cold wave.

It is also because Shant Island constantly radiates heat to the surroundings that the temperature of the sea area around Shant Island is much higher than other places. Many fish live and reproduce here, so that people on the nearby Garcia Island can still maintain their daily needs through fishing after the food is exhausted.

In this way, the survivors on Garcia Island have spent nearly a hundred years, and the population has multiplied for three or four generations. The original population of more than 3,000 has now increased to more than 5,000 people. When the disaster struck, the first survivors on the island also died one after another. Now there is only one original survivor left. This survivor is 98 years old. He was only a few years old when he came to the island. He came to travel with his parents. His parents died in the tsunami. He was lucky to survive and was not injured in several turmoil on the island. He has lived to this day. Because of his luck, people on the island call him Lucky Taran, the most prestigious person on the island.

Although Taran has a special status on the island and is loved, he is not happy because he has been having the same dream. In the dream, he returned to his childhood home. Even though he was very young at that time and could not remember what his home looked like, he still dreamed of his childhood home and the scene of his parents who had long since died living at home.

He has had this dream since he was very young, but it was intermittent, and he would have it once every few months. In the past half month, he has been having this dream, and the content of the dream has become clearer and clearer. Every time he wakes up from the dream, he feels that his body has become a little tired. Although he has been examined by a doctor and his body is in good condition, he can feel that he is getting closer and closer to death. Therefore, the idea of ​​leaving the island, returning to the land, and returning to his past home has become stronger and stronger in his mind.

Driven by this idea, he spent his life savings and decided to buy the last intact sailboat built before the disaster on the island. This sailboat was being treated as a cultural relic and placed on the island. In the Museum of Civilization on the island.

"Do you want to buy the Barracuda?" The director of the Civilization Museum looked at Old Taran in surprise, then looked at the box full of currency placed in front of him, and asked in a confirmation manner.

"Yes," Old Taran nodded affirmatively, and then asked, "Can't the money be used?"

Although the population of the island is only more than 5,000, and daily necessities are bartered, the builders and successors of the island system believe that currency should be retained because they feel that the existence of currency represents Being civilized means that they are still a civilized race, not a group of barbarians. Therefore, wages are still paid on the island, and currency is used for transactions on specific occasions, such as getting haircuts, purchasing certain pre-disaster clothing, etc. All in all, the island's administrators work hard to keep the currency running.

According to the currency regulations set by the administrator, all items manufactured on the island before the disaster must be traded using currency, so there was no problem for Old Taran to use the accumulated money to buy this sailboat that was made before the disaster.

The director of the museum is also very aware of this. Although he does not want to sell the ship to Old Taran, if he refuses, once this matter is spread, it will definitely cause a fatal blow to the current fragile monetary system. Everyone will think that Even the currency in Old Taran's hand cannot be used, so the currency in their hands will be even more unusable. When the time comes, he will definitely be blamed or even punished by the superiors.

"Can I ask, what do you want to buy this boat for?" The museum director still wanted to save this only remaining pre-disaster sailing ship, and said: "Although this ship has been repaired, due to the material, the repair will be difficult. The boat is not very good and cannot sail on the sea for a long time. If you want to buy this boat and go to sea, you may..."

"Can't you sail for a long time? This is exactly what I want." Old Taran showed a satisfied smile and said: "My hometown has the custom of sea burial, and this ship is just suitable for sending off an old man like me from the pre-disaster world."

Hearing this, the curator couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, then thought of the recent rumors on the island, and then comforted: "Have you not seen the doctor yet? The doctor said that you are in good health, you just have a cold, it is not a big problem... "

"I know my body very well," Old Taran interrupted the curator and said in a deep voice, "What we are talking about now is about buying a boat, and it has nothing to do with my body."

After muttering something about being stubborn, the curator said nothing more, and said in a business-like manner: "After all, this ship has been regarded as a cultural relic. Whether it can be bought or sold is not something I can decide. I need to ask the superiors. Ask."

"Go ahead and ask!" Old Taran said as if I could understand: "I'm waiting for news here. Although I'm not feeling well, the time is not a problem."

Seeing Old Taran's attitude, the curator didn't say anything. He got up and left the office, and actually went to the management building on the island to report the situation and let the boss in the management building decide what to do.

After a while, the curator returned to the office and told Old Taran that he agreed to his request to buy the sailboat.

In the next few days, Old Taran moved the sailboat to the seaside, then carried the few simple supplies and tools he had prepared onto the boat. Then at noon one day, he gathered his relatives and friends and held a banquet, and then In front of everyone, he distributed his property on the island to his relatives and friends, and then boarded the ship under the watch of his relatives and friends, and drove the old sailboat slowly away from the only pier on the island.

After sailing away from Garcia Island, he confirmed the route closest to the land, spread all the sails, and sailed quickly in the chosen direction.

Old Taran was no stranger to this sailboat. When he was young, he had gone fishing with the owner of this sailboat many times. Although most of the time, he was responsible for pulling the net and rarely drove the boat himself. But for him, this little experience of driving a boat is enough. He doesn't think he can really drive to land, because as long as he sails out of the warm sea area, the extremely cold temperature will freeze the boat and kill him. Killing is destined to be an endless route.

The ship was traveling very fast. In just half a day, it had already reached the edge of the warm current sea area. Old Taran could clearly feel the drop in temperature, but he did not lower the sails, but continued to move towards it at an extremely fast speed. Sail outside the warm sea area.

After fixing the steering wheel, he returned to the cabin and took out half a bottle of wine from the few supplies he had prepared. This half bottle was the last bottle of wine brewed before the disaster on the island, and he has kept it to this day. , was reluctant to drink it, and now he felt it was time to take it out and drink it.

After uncorking the bottle, he raised the bottle high, said a toast to himself, then raised his head to the mouth of the bottle and took a big sip, and then spit out all the wine he drank.

"Damn it! What bastard changed my wine?" Old Taran looked at the wine bottle in his hand angrily and cursed.

The expected sense of ritual was ruined, and Old Taran had no way to make up for it. He could only suppress his anger, walked out of the cabin again, returned to the steering wheel, held on to the steering wheel, and decided that he would always control the steering wheel. Until the extremely low temperature froze him to death, freezing him and the steering wheel together, so that his soul can be with the ship, and maybe one day he can return to the land shore in the form of a ghost ship.

With the belief that he must die, Old Taran focused on driving the ship. As the number of icebergs on the surrounding sea increased, he knew that the ship had left the warm sea area formed by the volcano on Shente Island, which could easily freeze any living thing into ice. The extremely cold temperatures will come, and he is already prepared to face death.

However, what surprised Lao Taran was that the expected extremely cold temperature did not appear. Although the surrounding temperature was much lower than that in the warm sea area, this low temperature was still within the normal tolerance range of humans, and The careful old Taran also discovered that the surrounding icebergs seemed to be melting and collapsing. Just now, several melted iceberg fragments fell into the sea beside the ship, causing a wave of waves and shaking the ship this way and that.

"Is the climate getting warmer?" Old Taran immediately made a bold guess after seeing this scene.

Thinking of this, he was extremely excited, because returning to land on the island is everyone's lifelong wish, and it has even been written into the basic constitution of Garcia Island. However, due to the extremely cold temperature, all attempts have failed. Succeeded.

But now, the extremely cold temperature on the sea seems to have disappeared, so their long-cherished wish can be realized. Thinking of this, Old Taran's will to die dissipated in his heart. He immediately turned the bow and carefully avoided the sea. The iceberg reef, driving the ship back, he wanted to tell the people on the island this important news.

However, Lao Taran's luck seemed to be not very good. When the ship was about to leave the extremely cold sea, a huge iceberg in the distance suddenly broke off. The fragments of the iceberg that fell into the sea set off huge waves and pushed forward in all directions. This Waves of waves pushed another iceberg straight towards the sailboat, and Old Taran could not turn to avoid it.

Seeing that the iceberg was about to hit the sailboat, when old Taran thought that he was destined to die this time, the huge iceberg collapsed in front of his eyes into countless ice shards, which were mixed with a gust of cold wind and fell from the sky. , swept across the sailboat without causing any damage to the ship.

Just when Old Taran was still confused by the scene in front of him, a man fell from the sky and stood on the top of his sail mast. He asked Old Taran below, "Excuse me, how far is this place from Shante?" How far is the island?”