Learn one small skill every day

Wiener plunged his hands into the puddle, clamping down on the shark that was wreaking havoc among the fish, and then raised his fist to pound on the shark's snout.

Only after the shark stopped struggling did Viner pull his hand out of the pit.

Everything in the puddle returned to calm.

"The shark has been driven away, you can wake up now."

As the water level slowly receded, the crew members gradually regained consciousness.

"The counseling session is over. You were affected to some extent by the sea, but not deeply. Go back and get some rest."

“Okay, thank you, Minister Viner…”

After saying that, the female crew member hurriedly ran out of the room.

"So, psychological counseling is like beating up a shark?"

Now there's another explanation for beating the shark, which has only deepened Bai Miao's confusion.

Did the Hilai people of that time beat up a 50-meter-long shark from the ocean, or something like this... from the spiritual world?

"Sharks are just a figurative representation of psychological risk. If we consider each person's mind as a small fish in the sea, then sharks vividly represent the predicament that individuals face when confronting psychological problems. As for why it's not a whale, it's probably because the appearance of a whale often represents a large number of small fish being swallowed up."

"I can directly interfere with the crew's mental projections. As long as the shark is killed, the psychological problems will be solved."

Wiener said with considerable pride.

Is this the capability of a human resources manager?

"It's pretty awesome."

"There are many more crew members waiting, Captain, do you want to keep watching? Actually, you don't need to be so shy."

Bai Miao noticed something strange in Vina's eyes: "Have you seen me before?"

Everyone's already seen it!

"?"

Bai Miao felt quite uncomfortable being stared at by Viner and, without thinking about watching the subsequent crew training, hurriedly ran back to the duty room.

Emma, ​​who was sitting with her legs crossed, sipping her tea, saw Bai Miao looking flustered and chuckled, "Captain, it looks like you had a few unforgettable hours in the personnel department."

"You already knew the HR department's work processes, why didn't you remind me?"

Why should I remind you?

"Vina said you've all seen me?"

"Is such that."

"No way, that would be too unfair to me. Look at yours!"

Emma paused for a moment, then drank the tea in one gulp, placed her hand on the first button of her shirt, and moved her hand away when she saw that Bai Miao did not react.

"Captain, how long are you going to keep staring like that?"

Chapter 127 The Moon Over the Deserted Island

"Tsk tsk, now I'm starting to doubt whether Gungnir can shoot through your mouth."

Emma didn't understand at first, but quickly realized that this was an insult for being stubborn, and she glared at him angrily.

"Um... I'm going to study now."

Bai Miao knew when to stop and stopped provoking Emma, ​​so he sat down at the table and started studying math.

The knowledge base on the Endless Energy ship was more effective than Bai Miao had imagined. The holographic projection alone allowed Bai Miao to understand the meaning of various formulas in the most efficient way.

Even while in a dungeon, Bai Miao didn't forget to continuously improve himself.

In addition to acquiring a large number of science-related skills every day, Bai Miao also took advantage of his position as captain to study like crazy.

Bai Miao felt he was getting closer and closer to the location of the second accessory.

Three more days passed. Since leaving Stemmont last time, the number of islands on the route Bai Miao chose had become even sparser, as if he had sailed into a no-man's land.

Looking out over nothing but seawater, it's getting a bit visually tiring.

"Captain, a large landmass has been detected thirty nautical miles away. There's a good chance there's a clue to a second accessory. Shall we move closer?"

"Damn! It's been so long since we've seen land, I almost started to doubt that the Endless Energy Ship had moved from the same spot!"

Having learned from the experience of Stramon, Bai Miao knew that he should first send out drones to scan the general situation of the entire island and obtain basic information on its development.

However, this time, the drone revealed that the island was uninhabited.

To be precise, there are only buildings left by humans, but no one lives on them.

Everyone's dead?

Bai Miao looked at the pictures that were sent back. The island was roughly circular, with a huge volcano in the center.

It cannot be ruled out that a volcanic eruption led to the extermination of the island's inhabitants.

However, the drone analysis of the volcano revealed that it was an extinct volcano and had not shown any signs of activity in the last 10,000 years.

The buildings on the island are estimated to have existed for less than 10,000 years, meaning that the inhabitants settled on the island after the volcano ceased activity.

"Captain, it's your turn to take charge."

Since the island was uninhabited, it would be much easier to explore. Bai Miao, also intending to go and return quickly, called on the others who had gone to Sternman with him on the previous trip and then went to the island.

The destination was also clear: first search the area where they lived, and then head to the volcano.

There were no wild animals on the island, only dense jungle. The group's route was quite brutal; they walked and hacked their way through, carving out a path even where none existed. They traveled in a straight line and arrived at the closest building complex to the volcano in less than two hours.

Without human activity, moss and vines have climbed all over the former steel buildings. If this civilization had not disappeared, it should have been classified as a city civilization with a development level of 5.

The architectural style is very simple and square, yet it connects each household well.

It is constructed using materials similar to steel bars and concrete.

“Wait a minute… these buildings have very obvious mortise and tenon joints… I suspect they used modular construction.”

Wang Xiang squatted in front of some ruins, carefully tearing the vines apart with his hands and gently scraping away the moss with his dagger.

His professionalism made Bai Miao suspect he might be an archaeologist.

"It's not important what this civilization is doing. We should hurry up and find the second component. The component must look like a person too. There are ruins everywhere here. Let's go check out the volcano."

Zhuo Xinzhi didn't understand the point of looking at these useless things and urged him from the side.

"This helps us analyze why this civilization suddenly disappeared. Without natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, it is very unusual for an entire civilization to disappear into thin air."

Wang Xiang explained earnestly: "This civilization is highly developed, which either means they have expertise in architecture or their technological level has reached a very high level."

"But they disappeared, and you can see that the remaining streets and buildings occupy an astonishingly large area. There weren't many items in the collapsed houses either. Most importantly, we didn't find any means of transportation."

Bai Miao also became interested in Wang Xiang's point of view: "So what does this prove?"

"This suggests that the civilization in this area may not have gone extinct, but rather... relocated."

Wang Xiang paused for a moment: "Moving is a more colloquial way of saying it; strictly speaking, it should be 'migration'."

As he spoke, Wang Xiang looked towards the towering volcano in the distance.

"Obviously, no one would migrate to the sea, so their most likely destination was the volcano. And judging from the environment left behind, this civilization was highly organized."

"So, we might encounter this civilization inside a volcano?"

Hearing Bai Miao say this, the other crew members all seemed a little nervous.

This civilization doesn't seem as easy to deal with as that one in Stramen.

"Yes, so we need to remain vigilant and not treat this like a picnic when we came here."

Wang Xiang's purpose was to keep the team in a state of tension, because volcanoes are definitely going to be explored. This analysis was not a suggestion to explore volcanoes, but rather to keep everyone alert.

While land is safer than the sea, that's a relative statement.

"Maintain the exploration formation, take out your firearms, but do not initiate attacks!"

The group moved forward in a fan shape through the jungle, but this time their pace was much slower.

The volcanic mountain occupies a large area of ​​the island, leaving not much space for living on the outskirts. In fact, there are already some scattered buildings a kilometer inward from the coastline, but these buildings are very small and do not seem to be for living purposes, but more like sentry posts for guarding the coastline.

This time they advanced another twenty kilometers, taking about four hours. By the time they reached the foot of the volcano, it was already evening.

"Don't you guys think this place is much brighter? Compared to St. Petersburg?"

Bai Miao has excellent eyesight and is more sensitive to light.

Although the area around the volcano is now covered with dense forests, the moonlight shining through the leaves onto the ground is still clearly visible.

"It seems... a little bit."

To get a better view of the sky, the group cut down the surrounding trees and created an open space.

"Why does the moon look so big?"

Bai Miao felt something was off, so he told everyone not to look up at the moon.

"Everyone, lower your heads for now. Something's not right with the moon. Let me check it out!"

The moon overhead seemed to be hanging right in the crater.

And its size is different from what I saw at Stramon.

Bai Miao used all the physics knowledge he currently possessed, but he still couldn't explain all of this.

However, it is certain that the moon's orbital patterns are completely different from those on Earth.

Is there such a significant difference in latitude between the northernmost and far-northmost points of the city of St. Bengal?

Distance estimation becomes less useful in the face of such astronomical observations.

Fortunately, Bai Miao kept staring at the moon, and his mental energy did not decrease, nor did he see any strange phenomena, which at least indicated that there were no strange memes in the moon.

"Captain, I think we can ask the Endless Energy about the moon. They have computer calculations there, so they should be able to give us a more scientific answer."

"We're just not sure if we'll be interfered with and end up giving them the wrong information."

After thinking for a while, Bai Miao decisively decided to retreat temporarily.

The sight of such a large, eerie moon overhead was unsettling. We had already scouted the way we came, and it wouldn't take long to get back, so to be on the safe side, it would be best to return to the ship and figure out the moon's problem in person before deciding what to do.