Chapter 1: Metal Chunks Falling from the Sky

The weather is clear and the sea breeze is blowing. For the residents of Windmill Village living on the peaceful island, today is undoubtedly a good day to go out and relax.

Village chief Up Slab sat by the door of the village's most popular tavern, leaning on a creaky lounge chair and basking in the sun leisurely.

The laughter of the drinkers in the tavern reached my ears.

In this quiet moment, there is a bit of human noise.

"…Didn't he go out to sea a few days ago? He even knocked the King of the Near Sea away with one punch."

"Oh! That's right, look at my brain, I thought Luffy was a little brat."

"Who isn't? We all watched him grow up...Ah, time flies."

Listening to these discussions, the village chief's brows furrowed more and more.

It wasn't until someone asked worriedly, "I wonder if Luffy is doing well?" that he finally couldn't stand it anymore.

"Enough, shut up!" The strong and vigorous village chief jumped up from the recliner, grabbed his walking stick and waved it in the air angrily.

"Luffy, Luffy! That brat went out to become a pirate, you guys——"

His angry voice stopped abruptly.

Instead of getting angry, the patrons in the pub burst into laughter.

"Village Chief, you didn't sprain your back again, did you?"

"Hahaha, it's not like Luffy wanted to be a pirate for the first time."

"Why do I remember that you were the one who cried the most sadly when that boy went out to sea?"

In the past, the village chief would have rushed into the tavern and given a loving beating to anyone who dared to tease him.

But this time, the village chief did not rush in, nor did he angrily refute them.

It was quiet outside, with only a... very strange, indescribable sound coming in.

The tavern owner, Makino, opened the trapdoor of the bar and ran out quickly.

"Village chief, did you really sprain your waist?" The drinkers also stood up one after another, equally worried about the village chief's condition.

However, outside the tavern, the village chief did not seem to be in any trouble.

He just stood there as if petrified, with his crutch still raised in the air, staring blankly up at the sky with his mouth open in surprise.

Makino followed the other person's gaze and looked up at the sky, then she was also stunned.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise, and in her trembling pupils was a burning, rapidly enlarging flaming meteorite.

The strange sound they heard was the sound of the meteorite breaking through the air when it fell.

…

It's getting bigger and bigger!

“Run—!”

Someone shouted, and everyone screamed and rushed back home, or ran directly into the forest farther away.

"Don't worry about your property, saving your life is more important!"

"Run! Run! Hold the child and watch your step!"

Makino and the village chief did not run away immediately.

They rushed to every household and guided the villagers who were almost at their wit's end.

But the meteorite was moving much faster than they could evacuate.

Before they could run out of the village, the meteorite had already crashed into the sea near Windmill Village.

The expected loud bang did not occur.

The fall of the meteorite did not even cause a tsunami. It just sank quietly into the sea, making a "sizzling" sound as it cooled down and evaporating pure white mist.

"this……"

The villagers stopped in surprise and looked at each other. They could see the horror and lingering despair in each other's eyes.

Logically speaking, such a large rock, whether it falls into the sea or on land, should not have such a great impact.

Confused like this, the villagers waited for a while.

The white mist quickly dissipated, revealing the true appearance of the meteorite after it cooled down and shut down.

It was then that everyone realized that it was not a meteorite at all, but a huge spindle-shaped metal block that looked neither like a common ship nor a submarine.

It was floating on the sea very close to the windmill village. Its bright silver metal shell had traces of being charred by a powerful force - this was probably why it fell.

Although it was more than large enough to hold an entire village, it did not appear heavy as it swayed gently with the waves.

After being alert for a while, the villagers gradually became bolder.

Some young people began to get restless.

"Let's get it ashore. Maybe we can sell it for a lot of money."

"Aren't you afraid of danger? This thing fell from the sky. What if it's a monster?"

Everyone was arguing and the final decision could only be given to the village chief standing in the front.

This village chief, who is a little bow-legged but still very dignified, had demonstrated his reliability when he was escaping just now.

At this time, his proud back standing with the help of a cane also convinced the villagers.

"Village chief, please make a decision!"

"Yes, we all listen to you!"

With his back to the eager gazes of the crowd, the village chief closed his eyes mysteriously and shed a few crystal tears.

"Makino, call a doctor, I sprained my waist..."

Villager: “…”

Villager: "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

After a chaotic first aid, the revived village chief raised his crutch and gave the most reliable advice.

“Don’t touch it!”

The young people were greatly disappointed.

"What are you doing, Village Chief? Just let it drift on the sea?"

"Maybe it's worth a lot of money, or it fell from the sky. Even if we sell it as scrap, it will be enough for our entire village to live in peace in their old age."

These words immediately moved those who were originally hesitant.

But the village chief hit the man hard on the head.

"Idiot! Do you think we're the only ones who can see this? Be careful, you might as well take it but not spend it!"

…

The village chief was right. Only half an hour later, a team of soldiers from Wangguo Gao Town blocked the port of Windmill Village and began to discuss the big guy... which could be considered a ship.

The villagers of Windmill Village were stopped outside the cordon.

A soldier who looked like a superior asked the village chief about what happened at that time in a rude manner.

The village chief told the truth.

After explaining everything, the officer entered the cordon and took a small boat to get closer and observe the strange ship.

This is a bright silver spindle-shaped metal ship. On both sides of the middle of the spindle, there are two things like cannon barrels, and the tail is like a tail fin like a fish.

The most amazing thing is that its shell is a whole piece. Although it is full of detailed patterns, there is actually no trace of welding or assembly.

"Amazing, so amazing." The soldier commander raised his hand and touched the smooth surface of the iron shell, stroking and admiring it.

This is simply a miracle. How can there be such perfect and smooth lines and such exquisite craftsmanship? The king will definitely be happy, as he is worried about not having good things to offer to the world's nobles.

Thinking of this, the officer finally couldn't help himself and tapped the surface of the metal shell a few times with his fingers.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

For a huge ship-borne spacecraft, the sound of the small ants knocking cannot be transmitted into the interior of the spacecraft at all.

The knocking sound came from the ship's main console and echoed continuously in the huge space inside.

A dark figure squatted in front of the maintenance window on the main console, which was crackling with electricity, and kept knocking on the frame next to the window with the maintenance tools in his hand.

After each tap, the window will shake, and then more error messages will pop up.

"The inner wall of the third energy acceleration pipeline is broken, and energy leakage has occurred. Please repair it as soon as possible!"

"Area B reactor is malfunctioning. Please repair it as soon as possible! Operation has been suspended and backup energy has been activated."

"Error code: wif4dqn1xp0, do you want to restart the system?"

"Restart! Restart!"

A hand wearing a black half-finger glove slammed down on the main console, pressing the only red button on the table accurately.

This is the emergency restart button and the only physical button on the spacecraft.

All other buttons are virtual and can be controlled directly by voice, or by the spacecraft's onboard elves.

But due to a sudden electromagnetic storm, all these functions were affected by electromagnetic interference and became ineffective.

As the restart button was pressed, the bright lights in the spacecraft went out one by one, and finally only a few lighting modules with independent power supplies were still on.

The dark shadow stood up.

He also seemed to be the only living person on the spacecraft.

"Restart successful."

"Authentication passed."

The lights lit up one by one, and a palm-sized virtual projection floated above the main console.

It looks like a specialty of Larke Star—a single-eyed fur ball that looks very cute but has an extremely fierce personality.

Of course, this is just a custom skin for the shipborne elves.

Its customized personality is quite polite.

"Respected Captain Yale, multiple damages have been detected on the spacecraft. Should we activate the self-repair program?"

"start up."

The man called Captain Yale gave the order in a deep voice, but his eyes were not even focused on the elves on the ship.

He was looking at the projection outside the ship that was turned on synchronously after the restart - this was a real-time monitoring system with free adjustment of angle and distance.

At this time, the projection screen was divided into several parts, one was the boundless blue sea, and the other was the seabed with fish swimming around.

Then there are the buildings and natives on the island, as well as the more advanced-looking natives who are bold enough to approach the hull.

"A planet where intelligent life has evolved." The man raised his hand, and a search screen popped up on the simple silver bracelet on his wrist.

After a very quick search, he stared at the results displayed on the screen thoughtfully. "Unregistered?... Maybe that electromagnetic storm sent us to a good place. I just don't know what the resource reserves are like."

But the view of the endless sea alone is quite good.

In the interstellar world, water is also a very precious resource.

While he was speaking, the system self-repair was completed.

However, only some system problems caused by interference can be repaired, and mechanical structures damaged by electromagnetic storms require engineers to take action personally.

Unfortunately, Yale positioned this ship as his own personal transport vessel.

In other words, his purpose of leaving the pirate group on this ship was just to take a stroll in space, digest his food, and spend the private time that a perfect captain should have.

Who wants to keep a boring engineer company while they enjoy their personal time?

The author has something to say:

Good luck in starting the article.

I've been stuck on writing "The Sentinel" for more than half a month (approximately) and haven't finished writing many chapters. I'd better switch to another book that gives me some inspiration.

I would like to apologize to my friends who have collected the copy of "The Sentinel". I am really sorry.

This book takes the villain route, I hope you enjoy reading it.

If you are not happy with the article, please do not tell me if you want to abandon it. Thank you very much!