Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 43 The Fishy and Salty Land
"You know, they say there are underground gangs or something."

"I've heard of it. I've also heard that there are drowning ghosts who slipped out of the water prison, and man-eating sea monsters that climbed up from the sea at night."

Not far from Elm Street, they were soon standing in front of a not-so-pleasant array of buildings, which, just from a distance, one associates with decay and mildew.

Most of these dark-colored buildings are made of wooden boards, growing out of the damp depressions, multiplying like colonies, and spreading out densely.

Rather than saying that it is a man-made object, it is better to say that it is some kind of alternative creature that grows out of order.It continuously absorbs more tiny individuals, and drives them to bring more materials, and it does not reject anyone who comes.

From shapeless reef rocks to woods of various shapes and unknown origins, all the leftover and discarded materials of the city are gathered here, stacked and spliced ​​in an amateur way.

The only purpose is to make them form a space that can barely accommodate human habitation, and there is no room for thinking about other things.

Over a period of months or years, the already poor-quality wooden structure slowly but surely changed in the moist air, bending and breaking in unreasonable directions of force.

The owner of the house needs to find new materials and repair these defects repeatedly.If there are holes, they are covered with plates, and if they are inclined, support structures are added on the outside. Adjacent residents often build their houses very close to each other and connect them with short wooden beams so that they can lean on each other and form a more stable whole.

Because there are few thick and long timbers, the house has to be less than the shoulder width of a strong man, so that it can be connected with peripherals that are as dense as millipede appendages and are disproportionate to the main body.

Even so, on the soft land soaked by sea water, without a stable foundation, any efforts are doomed to be futile after a longer period of time.Sooner or later the building will tip to one side under its own weight and lie down on the ground.

The still usable remains were utilized to grow another short-lived building on top of the ruins, repeating the fate of the former.

With such a planning idea, don’t expect any normal roads. Entrants need to advance between the twists and turns of the dirty houses, and pass sideways at narrow places so as not to rub against the sticky wooden boards on both sides.

Lucius lowered his head to avoid a wooden stick protruding obliquely, and there was still unpeeled bark on the surface.Kraft stopped at the fork ahead and looked back to see if he was following.

"How do we go back later?"

Not long after entering the salt tide area, after turning a few turns, Lucius quickly lost his sense of direction.They have hit several dead ends and frequently change directions.

If they had come here with Liston, they should have been terrified in this maze, and they should have turned back wisely to avoid falling into a deeper place.

"I remember the way." Kraft pointed to his head, the way he came from was clearly imprinted in his memory, and he outlined the way he traveled in his mind to form a map, "This location is almost there, let's find someone first Ask, and then continue to walk in."

Bypassing a messy pile of waste, the two found the main entrance of the building in front of them, reached out and knocked on the wet door.

The person who opened the door was a skinny man with an unsuspecting expression. Seeing the visitor in strange attire, he wiped his face in front of his eyes, suspecting some kind of hallucination.

"Hello, we are doctors, may I ask if you or your family members have been sleeping longer and it is difficult to wake up recently?" Kraft asked.

The skinny man looked at the bird-headed man who claimed to be a doctor suspiciously, not understanding why he asked this question.

Out of the desire to get rid of them as soon as possible, he still replied: "No, I am the only one here, and there has never been such a thing. If you want to sell some medicine powder, you are definitely in the wrong place, no one will bought."

"Then have you ever heard of someone nearby sleeping longer and longer?" Kraft crossed out the dot in his mind and continued to ask for other clues.

The thin man became impatient with the clueless conversation, and left a dry "don't know", hoping that the two strangers would leave voluntarily and stop disturbing him.

Sensing his impatience, Kraft reached out and took out two copper coins from his purse, and spread them out in his palm, "I don't have the habit of asking people to help for nothing, can you think about it again?"

The man reached out to get the money, but the black-gloved palm quickly turned and clenched, clenched the copper coin in his fist, and disappeared from his sight.

"Please think about it carefully, any news, as long as it has something to do with it."

He could feel the eyes looking at him from behind the red glass, not offering the money until he had an answer.

The hand with long black nails scratched his face, and the skinny man searched his stomach, trying to find one from the mess of rumors in exchange for the immediate reward. He had no reason to let go of the almost free two copper coins.

And this kind of behavior reminded him of those rich people with strange hobbies he had heard, willing to exchange money for things that normal people think are completely useless, maybe they can get it from that heavy purse. Get more money.

"It seems that I heard something like this a few days ago. It was said that someone at the Red Sea Well lost his job because he overslept. Does this count?" He stuck out his tongue and licked his dry lips, staring at the coin while holding it fist.

"Thank you, this is very useful." Kraft spread out his palm and let the skinny man take two copper coins from his hand, stuffing them into a strange part of his clothes, "Are you interested in earning a few more copper coins? I need someone to take them now." I'll go and have a look."

"But I have work to do today."

There are two different things between earning some extra money and losing a job that you can still do for a few days. Even if you don't know math, you can understand which is more important.

"What if I give out a black silver coin?"

"Two, I still have four more days to work over there." The decisive offer convinced him that Kraft was "a rich man with strange hobbies" and he could get more benefits.

Although I don't know if the price is fair or not, my intuition tells Kraft that he may have been wronged by others. Anyway, he already knows the name of the place, and he doesn't mind shopping around for the toll.

"Okay, then this silver coin will be earned by others." He gestured to leave, and pulled Lucius who was carrying the suitcase.

"and many more!"

Just a few steps away, the people behind stopped them, "One silver coin is fine, how stingy, I want to lose a full four days of work."

The local guide took the two of them through the crooked alleyways and drilled deeper into the salt tide area.

As it goes deeper, the messy laneways become more messy and narrower, and the messy supporting structures protruding from the sheds become more complicated and cumbersome.

The closer it is to the inside, the longer it exists, just like the granulation tissue of an old wound, wrapped and connected, and the regrown volume will always be a circle larger than the original to approach the original strength. Repeated trauma has caused more hyperplasia.

Kraft had the illusion that he was following the capillaries into the tumor.It can barely be seen from the outside, but the deep part has already started to die due to insufficient blood supply, and the discarded waste and domestic garbage are the pus formed by it.

They are accumulated here, randomly piled up wherever there is space, and the congested narrow passage becomes narrower, and the deterioration is aggravated in a vicious circle.

The sun rises gradually, and the warming light squeezes into the gaps between the criss-cross structures. The water vapor evaporates from the ground and the garbage mixture, carrying the smell of salty, musty and excrement, and the passing hot wind sends it into the nasal cavity of human beings .

Wearing a bird's beak mask stuffed with several layers of spices, Kraft still smelled this smell, and it would be more intense and penetrating when passing through the piles of garbage, which made him think of turning back the same way several times.

And their guides seemed to be completely unaffected, they breathed these gases directly, whether they were used to it long ago, or their sense of smell was completely destroyed.

The short distance on the map is negated here, and the subjective feeling of time is infinitely extended.After a long period of torture, their eyes suddenly became clear, and they stopped in a small open space.

"Are you sure this place is a red algae well?" Kraft looked at the pile of rocks in front of him.

On this rare open space, a messy pile of stones was placed in the middle, which had nothing to do with the well anyway.

"It used to be a well, yes."

"before?"

"Just like its name, the water inside is as bitter and salty as sea water, and there are red seaweeds." The skinny man kicked the stone on the ground, "It's completely useless after hitting it out, and some people are sealed up after falling in the middle of the night gone?"

This explanation is quite reasonable, as the low-lying offshore area and the long-term flooding of sea water make it strange that there are several normal wells in the salt tide area.

"So can you give me the money?"

Kraft took out a black silver coin and handed it to him, ending this short employment relationship.

Then he had to visit suspected cases in this area of ​​​​indeterminate size.Surrounded by dilapidated and moldy buildings, they didn't know where to start.

He reached out to help Lucius, and he could hear heavy panting through the heavy mask, "I dare say this is the worst place I know."

"Who says no, do you want to find a place to sit before continuing?" Kraft took the box from him, patted his back, and helped him breathe.

The Salt Tide District was a bad place, but this place made him feel even worse. An indescribable sense of incongruity appeared from a certain moment, but he hadn't thought of what was wrong.

At first, he thought it was the deteriorating environment that stimulated his senses. However, after gradually getting used to it, the sense of disobedience still persisted. Instead of making him feel more comfortable, stopping his steps made this feeling even stronger.

"How long do you think it will take us to find it?" Lucius bent over, his hands on his knees, the bird's beak almost poking into his chest.

He heard no response from Kraft.

Kraft was silent for more than a full minute, and he discovered where the sense of dissonance was, not the stimulation of the senses, but the lack of a certain feeling.

At this time, the sun was much higher than the roof, and they knew it was eight or nine o'clock in the morning without the reminder from the bell tower, but they stood in unreasonable silence, without even the faint sound of collision or conversation.

【I work as a hired worker at the pier. I have to find work every day, and I usually get up very early...】

"It's not too early."

　The author has a paper to write, maybe updates will be affected...

　　(iДi)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)