Chapter 273 The Darkness of the World
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The three towering masts and huge sails of the Thriller Bark can be seen from a long distance.
"Captain, didn't you say it was an island? This doesn't look like an island at all. It looks more like a huge sailing ship."
Everyone looked at their all-knowing captain with puzzled expressions.
Gel was also confused. He had always thought that the Thriller Bark was a modification of Moria, but now it seems that it is obviously not the case.
"Eh? To be honest, Captain, I don't know either, but this is a good thing. It will save us a lot of trouble in the later transformation."
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While they were talking, the boat had already approached the island.
The main body of the island is in a regular circle, surrounded by a circular wall. The central island is like a hill, and the terrain becomes higher towards the center.
Looking from afar through the layers of fog, you can vaguely see a magnificent Gothic castle complex at the highest point in the center. It is like a huge beast hiding its body, squatting quietly in the fog and waiting for its opportunity.
After opening the gate whose outer shape resembled the bloody mouth of BIGMOM, Ming Wang took the initiative to move itself into the "mouth".
As soon as we entered the lock gate, the sea surface instantly became calm, without the disturbance of waves.
"The design of this inner bay is really good! It's not easy to build such a big ship from an island."
Shipwright Tom looked around and nodded in affirmation.
After the Ming Wang docked, Captain Gel led all the crew members onto the island, and they walked towards the castle complex in the center.
No children and women were left on the boat. We had to see what we needed to see sooner or later, and we didn't know if there were still some antiques from the last era alive on the island. It would be safest to act together.
Because this island has been drifting in the Devil's Triangle for many years and has suffered from a severe lack of sunlight, the trees on the island grow crookedly and appear to be severely malnourished.
"quack......!"
Several large black birds landed on the branches, tilting their heads to curiously look at the group of living people passing by.
The six words "withered vines, old trees and crows" are enough to summarize it.
In addition, the ground is littered with broken walls, white bones, and the entire island is shrouded in fog, creating a gloomy, terrifying, lonely and dilapidated scene.
"Crack!"
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that. I'm so sorry for disturbing your rest!"
On the way, Bi Ya accidentally stepped on a skeleton's leg bone and broke it, so scared that she quickly clasped her hands together and apologized.
"Hehehe! This is really a place chosen by the boss. I really like it here."
Moria looked around excitedly.
"I think it's pretty good too, but there are so many Brooks on the ground."
Senior said while smoking a cigarette.
"Yohohoho, Mr. Senior, please don't make fun of me. I'm not like these skeletons. It's really scary. In fact, I'm also afraid of skeletons."
"Brook, don't you think talking and moving skeletons are scarier than normal skeletons?"
Senior was speechless.
"Really? Is that true? I'm so sorry... But, the number of corpses here is a bit... too scary!"
Although Brooke has no facial features, one can still tell that he has put away his smile and his expression has become serious.
"It's too tragic. Did a war happen here a long time ago?"
Funi asked, frowning.
The others were silent, waiting for the all-knowing Captain Gill to explain.
"You may not believe me, but most of the dead here are civilians, and the cause of death was not war, but a hunting game held by the Celestial Dragons."
Gel also lit a cigarette and said slowly, now it can be basically confirmed that this is part of the island of the Valley of the Gods.
"Game? Game? A game that requires killing so many people?"
"That's right. Every three years, we randomly select an island or country and treat all the humans living there as prey. We hunt them freely until they are all gone. This will be a game and a competition to see who can kill more."
"Nani??? This?"
Gel exhaled a puff of white smoke and continued:
"Yes! More than a decade ago, the Tianlong people chose the Valley of Gods in the West Sea as the venue for this bloody competition. Hundreds of thousands of citizens and some specially prepared rare "prey" were slaughtered at will, and the winner could get a generous reward."
"Is this... really something a human could do?"
Everyone on the boat was stunned and looked incredulous, as if they had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world, and they were speechless for a long time.
"Where is the king? Where is the army that protects the country? And where is the sea and the navy? Is there no one who can stop their evil deeds?"
The young and naive kids asked excitedly.
Gel smiled and said:
"The king and the army are powerless to stop it. They are also being hunted."
"As for the navy? The navy is just a watchdog kept by the World Government and the Celestial Dragons. They did go, but not to rescue civilians. The navy dispatched a large number of warships to surround the Valley of the Gods to prevent the "prey" from escaping and to prevent outsiders from disturbing the Celestial Dragons' hunting pleasure!!"
"How could this be! Isn't the Navy clothed in justice? This must be a lie, right?"
Funi covered her mouth, her voice choking. Is this what the world's rulers and the navy that claims justice do to the civilians under their rule? She couldn't imagine what would happen if her hometown was accidentally chosen, and she couldn't imagine how desperate the hundreds of thousands of people in the Valley of God would be at that time.
"It's cruel, but this is reality. The justice of the navy has a prerequisite. They must obey the orders of the Celestial Dragons first and then follow the justice in their own hearts. So they can never represent true justice! This is also the reason why I did not choose to become a navy."
Gel slowly exhaled the last puff of white smoke and stepped on the cigarette butt on the ground to put it out.
"Ship...Captain, what happened next?"
Franky's voice was already trembling. Every child has a dream of being a hero. He hoped so much that there would be a twist in the story later, and that a hero or a savior would come and save those poor prey.
"Later, the news leaked out accidentally. The strongest pirate alliance on the sea received the news and attacked the Valley of the Gods in order to grab the generous reward... In the end... only a few hundred people survived out of more than 100,000 people."
Along the way, Captain Gir told everyone what he knew about the Valley of the Gods incident, as well as his own speculations about subsequent developments. Everyone listened quietly, but their hearts were not at peace at all.
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