As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up
Chapter 542 - 339: A Sunken Ship Map Delivered to the Door_2

Chapter 542: Chapter 339: A Sunken Ship Map Delivered to the Door_2

As the Sea God changed direction, the pirate on the opposite island beach, just as expected, was exceedingly thrilled and ran down towards the beach.

But he had not noticed that the Sea God was moving too slowly.

After about ten minutes, the pirate reached the beach.

However, when he saw the ship was still so far away, he was slightly taken aback, seemingly surprised by the opponent’s slow pace.

He then went to a higher ground and, seeing the ship was still approaching, he breathed a sigh of relief and patiently waited on the beach.

Twenty more minutes passed, and the ship was still far, only slightly closer than before, which made him subtly feel that something was a bit off.

Just then, the ship suddenly changed direction.

The pirate on the island panicked immediately, What’s going on?

"Help~Help me~"

He raised his hands high, waving them and shouting loudly.

Since the last time he was ambushed and robbed, and both his partners and his man had disappeared, he had understood the fate of his friends and men and knew what he was about to face.

During these ten days of surviving on the deserted island, he feared being left to die alone on the island, preferring imprisonment over living a savage life.

Moreover, he knew he had few skills to survive on a deserted island; his survival so far was only because the remaining supplies had not yet run out.

Once they were consumed, he was likely to starve to death.

However, in these ten days, he had encountered three ships.

The previous times, the ships were too far away to see this side, but today, this ship was the closest yet.

The ship suddenly turned around, and he wasn’t sure if it was because it was getting dark and the other party couldn’t see him, or if the other party had clearly seen him but deliberately pretended not to in order to avoid trouble.

But no matter which possibility it was, he didn’t want to give up easily. So, while the Sea God was still not too far, he hurried back to the temporary shelter he had built and grabbed two items.

One seemed to be a piece of parchment, and the other was a homemade torch that he was holding.

He used a lighter to ignite the torch, ran back to the shore, and waved the torch while shouting loudly, occasionally shining it on the parchment to make it clearly visible.

Chu Mingcheng had been paying close attention to him all along because it was getting darker, and it was hard to see clearly; he was even planning on leaving.

His curiosity was already satisfied, and he had no feelings of attachment to this place.

Little did he know, a pleasant surprise awaited him—the object in the pirate’s hand, although unclear, successfully peaked his curiosity.

He had originally planned to see if the pirate had met his demise and tease him a bit if he hadn’t, but now the pirate had taken out something intriguing.

Actually, the pirate was also helpless. If there had been a choice, he really wouldn’t have taken this object out.

But Chu Mingcheng had previously been too thorough, not only taking the things from under the bed but also digging up all the private savings of ordinary pirates.

If only a bit of gold had been left, he wouldn’t have taken this object out.

The reason Chu Mingcheng hadn’t discovered the parchment last time was that the pirate cleverly hid it inside the pillow and didn’t place it in the chest.

Then, Chu Mingcheng piloted the ship closer, and purposely inflated a rubber boat, making his way to the beach.

The pirate, with a joyful expression, approached him, but upon seeing his face clearly, a familiar feeling washed over him.

But before he could ponder why this person looked so familiar, the next moment, an even more familiar face slap hit him.

With a crisp "snap" sound, from the same angle and location, his recently unswollen left cheek returned to its original state.

The pirate had no chance to struggle and immediately fell straight to the ground.

Chu Mingcheng took the parchment, and also extinguished the torch.

He had a flashlight and had no need for the torch.

Upon opening the parchment, he was surprised to find a hand-drawn map, accompanied by some English.

Chu Mingcheng’s English wasn’t proficient, of course, and he couldn’t understand it; he would have to slowly use software to translate it back on the ship.

He couldn’t immediately make out where the map on the parchment was depicting, it was a bit abstract, but there was a spot specially marked with red dye.

This way, it looked more and more like a treasure map.

Chu Mingcheng’s heart thudded excitedly; he hadn’t expected the pirate to actually bring out a treasure map to entice people. Wasn’t he afraid that someone might get duped and then dumped into the sea?

If the pirate were still awake and knew his thoughts, he would definitely curse out loud. His possessions taken and left abandoned on a deserted island—wasn’t that worse than being thrown into the sea?

And would he have brought out the map if he had a choice?

After being rescued, he would surely be sent back to his country, and then a simple investigation would land him in prison.

He couldn’t understand anything drawn on the map, so there was no way to find it; it was better to see it simply as a reward.

In fact, the pirate didn’t know the true value of the map; he was illiterate and couldn’t understand English either.

The one who really knew the value of the map was the pirate leader who had been sent to feed the fish by a tail swipe from a Killer Whale.

Although the pirate leader was a fisherman by origin, before coming here, he had managed to become the captain of a large pirate crew.

Lately, he had betrayed the pirate crew with the parchment.

The followers he had gathered here afterwards were a mixed-bag pirate gang, but they still managed to loot quite a bit.

Chu Mingcheng stored the parchment and prepared to head back.

Just as he reached the rubber dinghy, he looked back at the pirate corpse, thought for a moment, and then, with a burst of kindness, picked him up like a dead dog and threw him into the crude shelter.

"He’s a ’good man’," Chu Mingcheng thought, after having brought warmth twice, he couldn’t bear to leave him lying on the beach.

Moreover, after about ten days, he didn’t seem to have lost much weight; he must have been living quite well on the deserted island by himself, so he didn’t have the heart to change the other’s way of living, thus he let him continue to stay there.

Dusting off his hands, Chu Mingcheng hummed a tune and sat in the rubber dinghy, returning to the Sea God.

The Sea God hadn’t been turned off; he drove the ship to the other side of the island, where he found a reef area. Thus, he let the rope down, then quickly went back inside the ship to study the parchment he had just snatched.

Opening his laptop, Chu Mingcheng translated the English on the parchment using online translation software.

The English wasn’t extensive, and soon he knew the most critical information on the map.

Shipwreck, Palau Sea Basin.

The specific information on the map indicated several shipwrecks in the Palau Sea Basin, but nothing about how many ships, when they sank, or what was on board.

Chu Mingcheng really wasn’t sure where the Palau Sea Basin was, but after searching on his computer, he found it just under the Philippines Sea,

which is northeast of Da Ma Country and southeast of Maid Country.

"Why would merchant ships pass through this ghostly place?" The parchment hinted at the era, probably between the 1800s and 1950.

Normally, commercial trade ships should sail through the western route; the points marked on the map aren’t on the main trade routes.

However, when Chu Mingcheng had previously learned some pirate information, he knew some ships purposely took a longer route through the Palau Sea Basin to avoid pirates.

So what kind of ship would make someone leave a map specifically?

Chu Mingcheng couldn’t say he wasn’t curious, but the information on the map was too scant, and he wasn’t sure if the pirate on the island knew any details.

He felt it was very likely he didn’t know—if the shipwreck was useless, no one would have left a map.

And since the pirate casually took out the map, he obviously didn’t know the specific details, so Chu Mingcheng extinguished the thought of going back to inquire.

The Palau Sea Basin was far from him; his main purpose this time was to upgrade the aquatic species atlas, and with a relocation feast in a week, he decided not to go now.

But since there was still time, he began to research the map carefully, looking up the approximate location online.

Upon realizing that the marked location was in international waters, he breathed a sigh of relief.

In international waters, it would be easier for him to search for shipwrecks in the future, and the items would be easier to transport back.

If they were near the coasts of these countries, Chu Mingcheng’s ship couldn’t get close; he would have to visit these countries as a tourist to search for shipwrecks.

Moreover, even if he really found shipwrecks and excavated the treasures, how to bring them back to his country and pass customs was another problem.

This was also why Chu Mingcheng hadn’t gone to the south to search for shipwrecks on the Maritime Silk Road.