Chapter 2: Dishonest business!
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: Elkassar
After recognizing the three legendary ships, the nightmare imprint sent a clear notification to Sheyan:
“Time: Ocean calendar year 233, 5th month, Afternoon 1700 hours.”
Location: Europe Adriatic Sea, free port of Tortuga (latitude 17.19 degrees, longitude 51.4 degrees)”
“Setting: Carribean pirates.”
“Difficulty: Easy (D class).”
“Pain limitation degree: 50%.”
“Individual abilities additional bonuses: 0.”
“Current scene exploration rate: 0.00.”
“Additional description: Scenario setting is peaceful, contestants death will not trigger any loot drops. Initializing digitalization of character information module. Contestant can investigate individual attributes through their nightmare imprint.”
“You have automatically grasped the corresponding language, able to smoothly interact with this world’s characters. After leaving this language skill will be unlearned.
“Accepted mission count: 1”
“You appearance and identity has been settled, upon returning the present world it will be restored. You can also personally customize your appearance through the nightmare imprint. For any inquiries, please voice out through the nightmare imprint, and thereby obtain your answer.”
Sheyan surveyed the environment, he realized the surrounding vegetation was cold and dismal. All around him, the huts were all decayed and destroyed, there was not a single trace of people living. It looked as if the only contestant around was only himself.
Within the nightmare realm, he had tried to store a great amount of data, he also had sort of an understanding towards the pirate of the Caribbean world. Queen Anne’s Revenge,The Black Pearl,and The Flying Dutchman. These three legendary gigantic ships were anchored beside each other, which is something that would cause an uproar in the seven seas! This scene did not even appear in the movies! Therefore his preset movie scene was either set before events in the movies, or it was a sequel after the movie story had ended!
In the Pirate of the Caribbean’s 3 original storyline, after Will Turner took over Davy Jones as the captain of the Flying Dutchman, he could only resurface to come ashore once in 10 years. He would definitely use his once in 10 years opportunity to meet with his wife and kids instead of spending time at this declining port…. Then all is clear now. This period of the movie world that Sheyan has entered should be before the movie storyline had even begun!
As per usual, Sheyan checked his personal belongings, after ensuring his equipment was there, he realized he had a money purse on hand. Regrettably, the only words to describe it are “Shrivelled” “Light as a feather” “filthy”.
2 pound sterlings, 15 shillings, 7 pennies (1 pound sterling, 20 shillings, 12 pennies)
That was the starting funds that the nightmare realm provided to Sheyan. Through the milestone description he was able to infer that a huge glass of rum should be priced at about 4.5 shillings. As the common beverage in the Caribbean sea, Rum was the equivalent to the present world beer that Sheyan was from. Sheyan thus understood his purchasing power. A large glass of beer is about 20 RMB or 4 shillings, therefore 1 shilling is about 5 RMB. Sheyan’s starting funds here converted to RMB should be about 250 – 300 RMB. One good news from this was that this world’s currencies as compared to the terminator world one was much more flexible.
(ED: Do not drink rum like beer. Very bad idea.)
Something worth mentioning was that at this point in time, the Flying Dutchmen and Queen Anne’s revenge were already pirate ships. However the Black Pearl was still a United Kingdom East India company personal illegal armed merchant ship. Its primary purpose was to smuggle goods, but if they met a n easy and profitable target, they would equally attack it.
After a few years, Jack Sparrow was commissioned to transport a batch of goods from Africa. However Jack Sparrow had realized these so called “goods” were infact African slaves, feeling a strong sense of righteousness, he had freed all of them. Hence, Jack Sparrow was listed by the East India company’s incharge, Cutler Beckett, as a Pirate and thrown ough him into a Turkish prison. Furthermore, Beckett had gave an order to sink the legendary ship to the bottom of the sea.
The imprisoned Jack Sparrow was determined to find his ship, and it was him who found the Flying Dutchman’s captain Davy Jones and begged this horrifying person to rescue his ship. The condition was that once Jack became the captain of his ship, on the 13th year, Jones will use Jack’s soul for 100 years (Slaving on the ghost ship for 100 years). Jones agreed to thisese terms, and helped Jack to rescue the Black Pearl. From that point onwards, the Black Pearl was considered to be a legit pirate ship, and Jack had planned to default on his agreement right from the start….
Walking through a complicated little road on the hillside, Sheyan headed down towards the port. Upon coming close, he could smell the strong rum alcoholic scent. It smelled like a blend of sweet and thick alcoholic fragrantce. Rum was classified into two different kinds of manufacturing fermentation; one was fermented with potatoes, the other was to use the sugar cane juice to ferment and 3 years later it will turn into an intense alcohol variation. To veteran sailors on board their bumpy boats, this was a sort of cheap and tangible relaxation.
The yearly consumption rate of rum in the caribbean sea was over 5000 tons, and this figure was extremely common. Therefore every port will always host a rum festival, and to the pirates and seamen, this festival is as grand as the Chinese New year to the Chinese.
Although the port was arranged in a disorderly manner, its floor was paved with the exquisite slippery flagstones. In this era, the port experienced frequent storms, therefore the expenditure for this immense floor engineering project was necessary. Sheyan’s facial appearance had not been altered much, he had tanned black skin, capable sturdy physique and a rich asian chinese look, which made him look like a seaman from East Asia. In the Caribbean world, this was not an uncommon thing, Shao Feng, a chinese, was even one of the great seven pirate lords.
Sheyan was not in a rush to find a job, yet he carefully strolled about and observed the streets of this port, in hopes of obtaining a clue. His gaze suddenly rested on a nearby grocery store. This grocery store had an ancient and greasy door, and it s sign read “Chicken and Dog”. More importantly, the shop owner looked like an old asian man, he had a white bandana strap across his forehead, as he lazily rested on a similarly old bamboo chair while he puffed on his smoking pipe.
This was where charm came into play, Sheyan approached forward but this old man actually let loose a cold groan through this nostrils, and used his pipe to point towards the sales counter. It was a lazy greeting and had the intention of “Take anything you want just don’t forget to place your bill at the counter”. Very obviously an empty handed person seeking information is definitely an impossible task! Therefore after Sheyan unwillingly purchased a few betel nuts with 5 shillings, he finally obtained some information regarding this port from the old man.
This Tortuga port was constructed 70 years ago by a famous pirate named Bernard Fokke. Rumour has it that this pirate had plundered more than a hundred ships, and had exchanged blows with 11 different country fleets. His accumulated wealth was uncountable, and he was hailed as a Pirate Overlord.
When Bernard Fokke was 45 years old, he fell in love with a woman and for the sake of this woman he donated his warship to the Queen of England, and a big portion of his wealth. The Queen of England was moved by his generosity, accepting his loyalty and bestowed a Lordship onto him, and even gave a personal authorization permit to him.
This Pirate captain Bernard Fokke thus succeeded in turning over a new leaf, and he did not turn back to his roots but instead constructed this free port when he discovered this “Blessed by the heaven” (chinese idiom it means favoured by nature) island, naming it Tortuga port. Tortuga port was relatively huge in this island, stretching out for 14 km and 7-8 km in width. Its area surpassed a hundred square kilometres, however only a fifth of the port’s area were currently active.
The pirate overlord that shook the world resided down at this place, and his former comrades had settled down here as well, they used their previously acquired swordsmanship and firearm skills to maintain the order of this port. Because Bernard Fokke had the status of an English Lord as well as a former pirate, therefore this port became a free port. Officials and even pirates were free to roam in and out, and the surrounding sea space was converted into a “safe zone”, no one was permitted to do battle there.
Once someone violated this regulation, the successive generations from Bernard Fokke would hunt the person down and utilize a sort of English nobility coupled with a pirate’s brutality to punish the criminal.
Sheyan wanted to further understand this things, however this strange old man started to gradually hardsell a “magical protective talisman” to him. This item was just a torn and tattered rope knot but was worth 20 pound sterlings. Sheyan rolled his eyes, if his charm was higher, he would definitely be able to dig out more information for free and may even receive better deals during transactions.
In the port, the least lacking place was a bar, and these bar all looked extremely shabby. Their roofs were all caved in from the violent storms, even their weirdly named signboards were covered in scars from the rain and winds.From time to time rough and loud bursts of laughter would travel out from the inside.
Sheyan pushed open the door of the nearest bar, a strong unexplainable nostalgic steam rushed against him. At the moment, he felt like he was dazzled by a misconception of the space-time paradox, bringing him back to when he was still the second in command of the ocean liner he previously worked at. Hands on his comrade’s back as they walked into a Black sunday pub in Jamaica.