Survival on the Internet: A Bizarre Start at Sea

Su Zhisu slowed her pace, her senses subtly expanding.

[Thorne's Pocket Watch] pressed against my skin, it gave off a slight coolness, as if it were sensing the atmosphere of this area.

He walked into a dark alley, where noisy voices and the sound of waves crashing against the rocks could be heard at the end of the alley.

Several ragged men with shifty eyes squatted at the alley entrance. When they saw Su Zhisu, a stranger, especially his neat clothes and the conspicuous badge on his chest, they all cast malicious glances at him.

Su Zhisu remained expressionless, his gaze sweeping calmly over them, his hand seemingly casually resting on the hilt of the curved sword at his waist.

A faint, menacing aura belonging to the survivors emanated from the air.

When those people met his gaze and sensed his presence, they immediately shrank back, looked away, and muttered something under their breath.

"Tsk, another tough nut to crack..."

"They don't look like they're here to 'have fun'..."

Su Zhisu ignored him and continued to delve deeper.

The reef area is much larger than I imagined, like a "lower city" attached to the body of the main city.

The narrow streets are like a maze, lined with various shops and stalls.

One stall displayed stained, unidentified metal parts and broken instruments; another vendor peddled suspiciously colored powder and dried, twisted plant roots, claiming them to be "powerful calming incense."

The air was filled with a mixture of cheap tobacco, rotten food, cheap alcohol, and a faint, unsettlingly sweet aroma.

Several burly sailors burst through the wooden door of a low-ceilinged tavern, pouring into the street reeking of alcohol and cursing, casting unabashedly appraising glances at Su Zhisu as he passed by.

Su Zhisu kept his eyes straight ahead, but all the muscles in his body were in a subtle state of preparation.

He could sense that at least one gaze was being cast from a darker corner or from behind an upstairs window, carrying assessments and calculations.

"Here, any outward display of wealth or weakness will immediately become a target."

He stopped in front of a stall selling used books and miscellaneous items.

The stall owner was a one-eyed old man, wiping a rusty compass in the dim light.

Su Zhisu's gaze swept over the pile of junk, finally landing on a thick notebook whose cover was mostly covered in stains.

There appear to be traces of silver foil stamping on the corners of the notebook, but they are now blurred.

He crouched down, picked up the notebook, brushed off the dust, and pretended to look through it.

It contains some scribbled images of the sea, weather symbols, and incomprehensible abbreviations, interspersed with a lot of meaningless doodles.

The one-eyed old man raised his cloudy eyes and glanced at him, but said nothing and continued wiping the compass.

Su Zhisu put down his notebook and picked up a rusty brass pocket watch case with a complex gear structure. The dial and movement had long since disappeared.

"How much are these...?" he asked, his voice low.

The old man stopped what he was doing, glanced at the pocket watch in his hand, looked at him again, and slowly uttered a few indistinct syllables before quoting a price.

Su Zhisu put down the watch case, shook her head, and made as if to leave.

"Inquiring about someone."

He spoke casually, placing a copper conch coin on the tattered cloth of the stall.

As for the Conch Coins, he had exchanged some supplies with Steward Matthew on the Conch before. The amount wasn't too much, but it was enough to support him for more than half a month.

The one-eyed old man raised his cloudy eyes, glanced at him, then looked at the coins, and slowly said, "First, tell me who it is."

"Liliana Thea. A female alchemist who was quite famous about twenty years ago."

The old man paused in his wiping motion, a barely perceptible glint flashing in his single eye before it returned to its cloudy state.

"Never heard of it."

He lowered his head and continued wiping the compass, but his movements were noticeably slower.

Su Zhisu did not immediately add more money.

He picked up a twisted whistle that looked like it was made from the horn of some small sea monster, held it to his lips and gestured with it, then put it down.

How far can the sound of this whistle travel?

"Let's see how you blow this up."

The old man said in a muffled voice.

"I heard there used to be a Ms. Thea who was very knowledgeable about these kinds of marine mammal materials?"

Su Zhisu brought it up as if in casual conversation, and then put down a slightly larger silver conch coin.

The old man stopped what he was doing, stared at the two coins for a few seconds, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he lowered his voice: "Young man, why are you asking about someone from so long ago? You'll only cause trouble."

"I was just asked by an old friend to deliver something."

Su Zhisu said calmly, her gaze seemingly studying the whistle, but in reality, she was taking in the old man's subtle expressions and body movements out of the corner of her eye.

The old man sized him up a few times, then quickly glanced at the conch shell badge on his chest, seemingly weighing the trouble the badge brought against the temptation of the money.

"Liliana Thea..."

He lowered his voice even further, almost as a whisper, and leaned forward slightly.

"I've heard he's quite skilled in life alchemy, and has even dabbled in some... areas he shouldn't have."

"Later, it seems he got involved in something terrible and then disappeared."

"Some say she's dead, others say she's hiding deep within the Reef Area, in that abandoned alchemy workshop near the cliffs of Old Harbor."

"But some people say that the place is a 'cannibal' place, and no one who goes in ever comes out. In the end, only some crazy talk floats in the alley."

The old man pointed with his withered fingers toward the deeper part of the alley.

"Walk to the end of this alley, turn left, and you'll see a half-collapsed gray wall covered in black vines. Behind it is a steep path half-buried in garbage, leading down to the cliff below."

"The workshop's entrance is said to be on the side of a cliff, and the stone door frame can only be seen when the tide is low. It gets submerged when the tide comes in."

"Thanks."

Su Zhisu pushed the two coins over, didn't take anything, and turned to leave.

He could feel the old man's gaze fixed on his back until he turned the next street corner.

Almost at the same moment his figure disappeared, the one-eyed old man, with an agility beyond his years, swiftly swept the few slightly valuable items and coins from the stall into a tattered bag, not even keeping the tattered cloth, and quickly disappeared into the darker crevice behind him.

Su Zhisu paused briefly after turning the corner, observing through the reflection in a broken window to confirm the old man's departure.

"The information was given too quickly...like a memorized script. And then it disappeared just as quickly. Were they afraid of being silenced, or...afraid I'd change my mind?"

Instead of heading to the location the old man had indicated, he continued to wander seemingly aimlessly through the broken reef area.

He walked into a sparsely populated tavern filled with the sour smell of cheap ale, ordered a glass of water in the corner, and sat there silently for ten minutes.

At the next table, several men with scarred faces were arguing in hushed tones about the division of a "smuggling job," their words simmering with tension.

Beside the bar, a drunken old sailor was boasting to the bartender about the magnificent sight of the "contaminated" during his voyages.

I didn't hear anything related to "Thea" or "Alchemy Workshop".

As we stepped out of the tavern, the sky had darkened further.

Night seemed to fall faster in the reef area, with shadows spreading from every corner.