I changed the world.

Page 444

"Huff... Huff..." Chadwick's breathing became rapid, and cold sweat poured down his back, almost soaking through his shirt.

"Mr. Spencer, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Chadwick was awakened by a soft voice asking him a question. He gasped for breath, as if he were a drowning man who had finally managed to surface.

Turning his head, he saw Joanna looking at him with concern and caution: "Mr. Spencer, you look unwell. Is something wrong?"

"N-nothing...it's nothing..." Chadwick took a few deep breaths, feeling a little better, and managed a weak smile at Joanna: "I guess I had a bit of heatstroke...it's nothing, I'm feeling better now..."

“Ah…then you should still be careful…” As a girl from a poor family, Joanna wasn’t the kind of rich girl who couldn’t read people’s expressions. Seeing that Chadwick didn’t seem to want to be taken care of, she didn’t say anything more and turned her head to continue looking at the tour guide.

Chadwick dared not look at the sinister statue again. Even so, he still felt a sense of disorientation in the temple. In the dark corners and dimly lit places, it seemed as if sticky tentacles were wriggling there.

Something's not right... This temple is definitely not right... Chadwick kept telling himself, he dared not make any overly obvious or extreme reactions, for fear of causing some more serious chain reaction.

Then he noticed a figure standing in the shadows of a corner of the temple, dressed in a white robe and holding a long wooden staff. The person had a slightly hooked nose and dark skin, clearly of Southeast Asian island descent.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 933 The Mysterious Village

Strangely, in this not-so-large temple, such a conspicuous person standing there should have been noticed the moment he entered. However, in reality, no one among the people who entered the temple showed any attention to him.

This doesn't mean that no one cared about him, but rather that there wasn't even eye contact. Everyone's gaze, including the tour guide's, swept over him as if sweeping over empty space, as if that person didn't exist.

Even Chadwick only noticed his presence at this moment, and the instant he observed the man, he experienced another hallucination in his mind!

The man's face, which appeared to resemble that of a Southeast Asian aborigine, suddenly overlapped in Chadwick's mind with another illusory face. This face was no longer human, covered in scales, with tendrils growing from his jaw to his ears, distributed like a beard on the lower half of his face. His eyes bulged out of their sockets, like those of an aquatic animal, and his ears had fin-like organs growing from them...

Chadwick almost cried out in surprise for a moment, but he managed to suppress his voice. He instinctively realized that at this moment, it was best not to disturb the person in front of him.

However, the man was clearly also observing the tourists entering the temple. He turned his head towards Chadwick, and at that moment, Chadwick turned his head away, avoiding eye contact. His heart pounded, but his gaze remained fixed on the guide who was still enthusiastically explaining the temple's various details to the tourists. He suppressed his rapid breathing, trying to appear like an ordinary tourist, even mimicking some of the others by taking a few photos with his phone.

"Alright, everyone, we've now finished visiting the temple and are heading to the next location..." The tour guide raised his flag and introduced the place to the group of tourists.

Chadwick stayed with the tour group, deliberately avoiding looking towards the mysterious man's location, pretending to observe the scenery in other directions. Eventually, he followed the group out of the temple without anything bad happening.

"Phew..." Chadwick breathed a sigh of relief. He had actually been extremely nervous, afraid that the mysterious person would discover him...

This village is definitely not normal! He emphasized this to himself again. At this moment, he finally felt scared. He began to consider whether to continue. He frowned and pondered, continuing to tour the village with the tour group while thinking about whether to leave early.

A light mist rose into the air, which was quite normal in the island environment of Misula Island and did not attract anyone's attention.

Chadwick, of course, didn't notice this either. He carefully observed along the way, looking for taxis or bus stops, but to his dismay, perhaps because the village's facilities were too backward, or perhaps to maintain the so-called "original" environment, he didn't see any public transportation in the village. He did occasionally see one or two vehicles that looked like private cars parked on the side of the road.

However, it was precisely because of his careful observation at this moment that he noticed something that some ordinary tourists in the tour group had not noticed.

....................................................................................

“Brother Mata Ling, look at that cold-faced woman in Japan, her skin is so white, just like a milk tea…” About fifty meters behind the tour group, at the corner of a house, a thin young man with dark skin, dressed like a local, muttered to himself as he approached another short, stocky man.

“These white men are the ones Latour specifically asked to keep an eye on. Be careful not to let them notice anything unusual, but also don’t let them escape…” The short, stocky man glanced at his companion beside him.

"Speaking of which, the wizard really should arrange to sacrifice these people to the sea god..."

"Don't speak of matters concerning the gods that you shouldn't, or you'll suffer retribution!" the short, stocky man scolded, his expression clearly showing some tension. "The Sea God is a great deity, a great deity capable of truly bringing the dead back to life!"

Hearing his companion emphasize the words "great deity," and recalling the incredible story of the young master of the Latour family being resurrected by a wizard, the thin young man also seemed somewhat fearful. He hurriedly nodded and said, "Of course I know that the sea god is a great deity. I also know about the young master of Lumpinee. That great wizard of Ghana is truly a powerful divine messenger."

Seemingly to show his piety, he emphasized, "I also went to pray to the newly enshrined sea god in the temple, and hey... you know what, it really was... it's an indescribable feeling, but it's like the great god is watching over me and protecting me..."

“Right, you feel that way too… Let me tell you, the sea god is a truly great and efficacious deity, and we must treat deities with utmost respect.” The short, stocky man beside him nodded in satisfaction upon hearing this.

“I know, of course I know…” The thin man nodded hurriedly, then glanced at the female tourist he had been watching: “Hey… I just think that white woman has a really good figure, much bigger than the women in our village… hehe…”

"Those are women to be offered to the gods, so don't overthink it..." The two men muttered to themselves as they followed the tour group at a distance.

“Hey…to be honest, these white people have no chance of escaping. The village is surrounded by jungle, and this is all our Sriba territory. Where can they possibly run to…”

"Stop talking nonsense, do as Latour says."

“Be careful, don’t let them notice…” the short, stocky man instructed his companion, “Later, you go around to the front and wait there. They should be heading to the brewery afterward…”

....................................................................................

Chadwick finally found what appeared to be a bus stop by the roadside, but he discovered that no buses stopped there, at least not when he passed by.

"Dear guests, please don't wander off. Stay with the group, stay with the group, don't get lost..." At this moment, the tour guide waved the flag in his hand and shouted loudly at the front: "We are now going to the village's winery to see the local fruit wine making process, which has a history of 500 years..."

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 934 No Signal

Chadwick glanced at the tour guide who was still walking slowly ahead, then at the bus stop sign he had spotted by the roadside. It was a metal sign painted with markings in both Rune and Sulu, the main language spoken in the area.

He looked down and carefully examined the roadside beneath his feet. This road wasn't paved; it was a dirt road in the village. In fact, most of the roads in this village were dirt roads, formed by compacting the local soil with heavy objects.

This type of dirt road is actually quite hard, but compared to paved roads, it needs to be maintained and re-compacted every once in a while, otherwise it is prone to gradual degradation.

He noticed that there were tire tracks in some places next to the bus stop. Judging from the large size of the tracks, they were definitely not left by a small private car, but by a bus.

Turning his gaze away, Chadwick casually walked to the front and, taking advantage of a break in the tour guide's explanation, asked the guide leading them, "Are there buses here too?"

“Oh, there…” The tour guide glanced at the bus stop in the direction he was pointing, his eyes flickered, and said, “There used to be buses, but the operating costs were too high, and the villagers didn’t go to the city much, so they were canceled. Only the bus stop is still there.”

“I see…” Chadwick nodded and didn’t ask any more questions. But his doubts only deepened. The tour guide’s account didn’t match his observations. There were clearly tire tracks on the ground. In this rainy, maritime climate, if no buses had really been passing by for a long time, as the tour guide claimed, then those tire tracks wouldn’t have been left!

So... why would the tour guide lie?

He grew increasingly uneasy...

Chadwick was a very alert and cautious person. He had traveled all over the world and even entered some areas that were considered relatively dangerous by outsiders. For example, he had previously entered the Izko Rainforest in the Toltec Autonomous Territory of the Kingdom of Gasol in the New World. Such places were poor and backward, and the security environment was not good, which made him have to be quite vigilant.

Originally, he hadn't expected to encounter much danger on Misula Island, but now he felt more and more that something was wrong. It seemed that not only was there a problem with the village in front of him, but even the tour guide was problematic.

With suspicions in his mind, Chadwick became increasingly vigilant. On the surface, he acted like an ordinary tourist, following the tour guide and blending into the tour group, but in reality, he was constantly paying attention to the movements around him.

“Huh? That’s…”

As the group followed the tour guide to a wooden building that reeked of alcohol, his eyes caught sight of a thin man looking in their direction from a short distance away.

That man was a local, shirtless, dark-skinned man. To many white people, Srivijayas with such dark skin all looked pretty much the same, but Chadwick was an exception; he instinctively felt that the man looked somewhat familiar.

Then he realized that he had seen this person more than once along the way, and each time he seemed to have pretended to be an ordinary villager...

Is this person... following our tour group?

Having realized this, Chadwick quickly and discreetly surveyed his surroundings again, pretending to admire the environment while carefully avoiding eye contact. He soon spotted three seemingly suspicious men watching them from different directions.

These people had shifty eyes, and once their gaze met that of a tourist, they would turn their heads away, pretending to be doing something else. However, such expressions appeared increasingly suspicious to Chadwick, who was paying attention.

He had seen similar guys in some cities with poor security. These guys were mostly local gang members or thugs who wanted to commit crimes, and their behavior was mostly for scouting or surveillance.

"Distinguished guests, please follow me as we enter the winery for a tour..." The tour guide then entered the building through the gate, holding a flag.

The group of tourists followed the guide into the distillery, where the temperature was noticeably warmer and more humid than outside, around 35 degrees Celsius. They saw a shirtless, dark-skinned local man jumping around barefoot. Meanwhile, an elderly woman with gray hair greeted them with a smile…

After exchanging a few words with the elderly woman, the tour guide turned to the tourists behind him and said, "Look, everyone, this is the owner of the winery. Their winery has been passed down through generations and is said to be several hundred years old."

"The wine produced here is a local fruit wine, which we call Weike wine. You can try it later. The taste of Weike wine isn't fixed because it comes from fruits grown in the jungle, but the exact type of fruit isn't fixed. Our Misula Island is in the tropics, and there are many wild fruits in the surrounding jungles. So, when the fruits ripen, they collect them to make wine. Of course, different varieties of fruit will result in some differences in the brewing process, and the final taste will also be different..."

As the tour guide spoke, he pointed to a man jumping around nearby: "After the fruit is harvested, it needs to be squeezed into juice. As you can see, the villagers here use their own weight to crush the fruit one by one and squeeze out the juice."

"This step is very strenuous, usually taking an hour at a time. The temperature here is very high, so this job can easily exhaust people. During breaks, Xiao Hei will drink some freshly squeezed juice to relieve fatigue..."

While the tour guide was giving his presentation, the other tourists were focused on the winery's brewing process, with some even taking photos with their phones. Chadwick, however, went to the winery window and carefully observed outside. He then noticed two people he had seen earlier standing in a building diagonally opposite, chatting while keeping their eyes fixed on the winery...

Sure enough, someone was monitoring the tour group… He became increasingly certain of this. He quietly took out his phone and tried to access his email, but then his heart tightened because he realized that the phone's signal indicator was "no signal," meaning he couldn't contact the outside world via the internet.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 935 Is There Something Wrong with the Tour Group?

At that moment, he remembered that on the bus to this place, the tour guide had mentioned that the area was relatively remote and the cell phone signal might be poor.

However, he then realized that what he considered "relatively bad" was actually nothing at all!

However, for ordinary tourists, this can be explained by "poor signal", but for him, this is not acceptable!

....................................

"Distinguished guests, please look here. This is the soil used to seal the jars. This soil is not just dug up from under your feet, but comes from a nearby ant nest. Because the ants living in this soil filter out impurities, making the soil more airtight, after a certain process of refining and fermentation, the distillery will seal each opening with strips of cloth soaked in clay to ensure that no air escapes."

"Come and see, everyone..." The tour guide continued walking forward. On a huge stove ahead, some earthenware jars were being heated, and the high temperature inside the distillery came from this: "Ladies and gentlemen, look, this is heating and distillation. It usually takes about 8 hours to distill this batch. The steam goes through pipes into earthenware jars filled with water. Here, the steam cools down and is transformed back into liquid. Then, at the outlet, we get a lower-proof Vickers liquor..."

As he spoke, the tour guide took a glass of wine from the winery owner and said, "Interested guests are welcome to try it. If you're interested, you can also buy some to take home..."

As a result, many customers came forward to taste it, and some even quickly bought it...

The group lingered in the distillery for a while before emerging. Chadwick's unease grew. He looked around, then approached Pete Patrick, who was walking ahead of him, and whispered, "Mr. Patrick, excuse me, do you have a cell phone signal?"

Pete was taken aback by the words, turned his head and saw Chadwick. He instinctively looked down at his phone, then quickly looked up and shook his head: "Mr. Spencer, my phone has no signal. What about yours?"

"Mine has lost signal too." Chadwick couldn't help but sigh.

"It's nothing, it's probably because the location is too remote and there's no cell phone signal," Pete reassured him casually. He obviously didn't realize there was any problem, and just assumed Chadwick was the kind of person who was heavily addicted to his cell phone. In this era of highly developed communication technology, many people can't live without their cell phones, not even for a second.

“No…it’s not like that…” Chadwick lowered his voice and held out his hand, in which was a rather high-end-looking watch: “A Galaxy 2 radio-controlled watch with satellite communication capabilities. You know, I’m a frequent traveler, and I sometimes go to remote areas, so the watches and phones I use have satellite communication capabilities, not just terrestrial networks,” he explained.

Satellite communication is a mature technology, but it still has drawbacks compared to terrestrial networks. Firstly, it's more expensive, and secondly, its speed is significantly slower than that of more powerful terrestrial base stations. Therefore, both satellite and terrestrial communication have their own supporters. Chadwick's phone can receive and transmit both satellite and terrestrial signals simultaneously, but naturally, this comes at a much higher price.

“My phone also has satellite network communication capabilities, but it also has no signal…” Chadwick whispered to Pete.

Pete was taken aback. He still hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation and was still laughing: "Ah... maybe it's some other problem? I've heard that satellite communications sometimes have problems, especially here in such a remote place..."

“What you’re describing is indeed possible, but… I’m afraid we’re not facing that situation right now…” Chadwick was becoming increasingly certain. Seeing Pete’s reaction, he knew he had to be more direct, so he lowered his voice and continued:

“Mr. Patrick, what I’m about to say might frighten you a little, but please don’t show any panic or fear, okay?”