Chapter 2249: Seriously Corrupted Zone
As the exploration ship docked beside a shipyard, the ship repairer was stunned by the damaged hull. He blurted out, “To my understanding, your ship should have sunk long ago. So many holes down there!”
“Heh, we were lucky, protected by the Sea God. We narrowly escaped this time,” the captain said with a smile. Although he felt a bit conflicted mentioning the Sea God as a Yellow King believer, most churches had doctrines similar to the principles of Tajiya.
It was even more lenient than the Muslims, especially those cults. When necessary, they could publicly claim to believe in the local mainstream religion, and many religions even implicitly allowed their followers to have multiple beliefs.
“Ah, so you were protected by the Sea God! No wonder. I also believe in the Sea God. You should go to the church on the mountain next to the seaport and pray more. It might bring you more luck on your next voyage,” the ship repairer chuckled heartily.
He seemed to assume these people believed in the same Sea God as he did. Or rather, on Madeira, this Sea God’s worship held an absolute dominant position. He didn’t even mention other epithets of the Sea God.
The Yellow King believers naturally didn’t say much to avoid revealing themselves. After paying the repair fee, they announced their intention to go ashore and left the ship to the ship repairer.
Upon arriving on shore, the first thing they did was to observe the island. Holy Port Island was not large, with dilapidated residential buildings everywhere. Although it was one of the Free Trade Zones, it was merely a transit point with poor infrastructure, hence its economy was not good.
The most conspicuous sight, of course, was the soldiers stationed there. On the other side of the port, there was a military port enclosed by the walls of a towering castle.
This was a typical island castle, built along the coast, with high walls to defend against land attacks and coastal artillery emplacements.
A row of vertical banners hung on the walls, each with a different crest. There was the Portuguese Royal Family flag with a blue and white cross shield emblem, the flag of the Iberian Empire formed by the overlapping crests of several kingdoms, the Portuguese Navy flag, and several unfamiliar noble flags.
This indicated that the forces stationed here belonged to the feudal nobility of the Iberian Empire, with the Portuguese Navy in garrison. The presence of two or three noble family crest flags might represent a liege lord for the local nobles; perhaps he was a vassal of the Count of Madeira, like the Baron of Holy Port Island?
However, anyone could sense that this lord’s control over his territory was not strong. The town was very disorderly, with terrible infrastructure. The ground was not paved with flagstones, only dirt roads, and the town was dirty and run-down.
Furthermore, more than a dozen soldiers guarded the castle entrance, including two in full body plate armor, possibly enfeoffed knights. Yet, there were few patrolling soldiers in the town, with only a few guards posted beside the gallows and sun cages by the shore.
In the brothels and taverns, however, a few soldiers could be seen drinking with beautiful women, groping them. While these women were beautiful, they were not normal; some had fish scales visible on their bodies.
“The corruption here is severe,” Jayad frowned. He had felt the severe level of corruption as soon as he approached Holy Port Island, feeling as if the air itself was the salty, humid sea, making it difficult to breathe as if submerged underwater.
“People who make a living at sea generally believe in the Sea God, just like that ship repairer. It’s unavoidable that the Sea God’s divine power is severely corroding the island, isn’t it?” the General Manager said, though he too felt uncomfortable staying here.
“It’s not just the Sea God. There are at least several divine powers here eroding each other, although their nature is very similar,” Jayad said. He was too familiar with this situation; wasn’t this the same feeling as in Cando City?
“Indeed, I can already feel the divine power of our sworn enemy’s patron, those Deep Ones. It’s truly disgusting,” one Yellow King believer said, but dared not speak its name directly.
They had all changed into commoner’s attire, and to maintain a low profile, they wore cloaks, not even in their favorite yellow, but in dark green or brown.
Upon entering the town, they found that this attire was indeed inconspicuous, as many people there were dressed similarly, wrapped up tightly. Some even bound their limbs with bandages.
The reason did not require much guessing. Even with their coverings, one could see the strangely irregular bulges of their limbs or feel the foreign divine power emanating from them. Some, however, didn’t bother to cover up at all.
They had all undergone mutations, mutations that made people feel disgusted and physically uncomfortable. For instance, one person’s skin seemed to have barnacles parasitizing it, but upon closer inspection, the barnacles appeared to be growing from beneath the skin rather than being attached.
One sailor was drinking from a bottle, but his hand gripping it was not fingers, but more than a dozen eels. Another girl had a shark’s tail growing from beneath her skirt, and her back also revealed fins through her clothes.
The surrounding people were accustomed to such sights, seemingly unfazed, indicating that seeing mutated individuals was no longer unusual here but rather a normal occurrence.
The soldiers here did not arrest the mutants; instead, they chatted and drank with them, boasted of sea tales, and even patronized mutated girls, unafraid of being infected themselves—a scene of harmony between the military and civilians.
But one must not forget that areas with severe corruption are usually overrun by monsters. With so many mutated individuals here, even more so than in Cando City, how could the surrounding areas be safe? I don’t believe it.
The lord here seemed to have adopted a completely hands-off approach, holed up in his castle. The impregnable turrets and soldiers on the castle walls could ensure his safety.
As long as he could ensure the supply needs of the Portuguese Navy fleet, his duty as a lord should be considered fulfilled. After all, this was a tax-free trade zone, and he had no need to pay tribute, so he simply gave up.
As a result, these mutated individuals, with their severely impaired rational minds, acted erratically. Some sang sea shanties in the street, some streaked nude on the beach, and others resorted to fighting at the slightest provocation. Upon their arrival, they witnessed a physical altercation escalate into a bloody conflict involving swords.
If these were not considered serious enough, then how were the surrounding monsters and mutated creatures to be dealt with? These posed a direct threat to shipping routes and could not be ignored. It was then that they saw the notices posted on the bulletin board.
The board was densely plastered with bounty notices, all concerning sea monsters in the surrounding areas. No missions needed to be accepted; one could claim the reward simply by bringing back heads, although the bounties were exceedingly low.
