The steel battleship was quietly anchored in the port of Pland. Above the battleship, the flag representing the Sea Fog Fleet fluttered in the wind under the sunlight. The pattern on the flag was a cluster of ice crystals as sharp as knives, with a crack in the middle of the ice crystals - the ice crystals were the mark of frost, and the cracks symbolized the self-exiled "rebels".

After the famous pirate captain left with his entourage, no one left the warship anymore. The Sea Mist was like an iceberg in silence, quietly anchored. Its tall and majestic sides and bow blocked the sight of all those curious looking at it at the dock. At the same time, a city-state guard came from a nearby station and blocked the entrance to the pier to prevent unauthorized persons from approaching.

After the sheriff stepped in to disperse the crowd, the curious people who had gathered near the dock finally dispersed.

First Mate Aiden stood on the bridge of the Sea Mist, silently watching the movements on the dock.

He did not go ashore with Tirian - when the captain left the warship, he, as the first mate, had to stay on the ship and temporarily assume the captain's power to prevent any trouble.

"Those city-state guards look nervous," a sailor muttered nearby, "Are they afraid that we will go ashore to plunder? I thought the city-state guards of the Pearl of the Sea, Plande, were better than those idiots on the cold sea."

Aiden said without looking back: "If they don't come out to maintain order, you will say that Plande's guards don't even have the courage to go out to the streets to block the roads - if I really ask you to fight their steam tanks, will you go?"

"...I won't go. I don't want to be carried back to the deck in a bucket again," the sailor shook his head hastily, and then raised his head to look in the direction where the steam walkers had just left. "The captain followed them... Is he okay? That tall woman doesn't look like someone you can mess with. I don't think the captain can beat her..."

"We are not here to fight. We are here by invitation. Do you understand?" Aiden finally couldn't help but glance at the sailor. "You and all of you, can you adjust your mindset? Have you forgotten the captain's usual teachings? We are now the Sea Mist Venture Capital Company. Robbery is not sustainable. Doesn't doing business make money faster than robbery?"

"So when are we going to rob?"

Aiden thought for a moment, a ray of sunlight reflected on his shiny forehead: "Of course, it's when the other party is unwilling to do business..."

Several undead sailors nodded in agreement, expressing their appreciation for the first mate's opinion. After a few seconds of silence, one of the sailors, whose left half of his head had shrunk completely, could not help but look towards the city-state and began to mutter, "Can we go ashore and take a look? Pland, I heard that this city..."

"Don't even think about it," Aiden interrupted the subordinate. "The captain has ordered that you are not allowed to leave the Sea Mist without permission. You guys will definitely scare people if you go ashore. Plunder is not the North. Few people here have ever seen a talking corpse."

"So the captain only picked a few guys who looked the most like living people to go ashore, right?" The sailor with a shrunk head said resentfully, and raised his hand to support his head. "Actually, I think I look okay. I used half a shell to cover this part, and then put on a hat..."

"Shut up! No one is allowed to go ashore without the captain's order!" Aiden glared at the sailor who was talking nonsense. "If you really have nothing to do, go to the cabin and see if those unlucky guys who were stuck on the deck are still alive. If they are, let them report..."

A slight clicking sound suddenly came from not far away, interrupting Aiden's instructions.

Everyone on the bridge heard the slight clicking sound, and several eyes turned in the direction where the sound came from. The sailor who spoke first was the first to discover the source of the sound.

Next to the captain's seat, there is a strange machine composed of many gears, connecting rods and compass needles. The machine is now quiet, but its several pointers are still trembling slightly, as if indicating that it had suddenly started running a moment ago.

"Did this thing move just now?" A sailor who was closest to the machine cautiously approached the intricate and complex machine and stared at its compass needles which had now calmed down.

Aiden also came over, his eyes fell on the small hemispherical bowl in the center of the machine - there was a little dried blood left there, which was left by Captain Tirian when he last used this device.

The bald first mate's brows furrowed slightly.

As the captain's most trusted subordinate, Aiden is very familiar with this device.

Anomaly 203, the Bloodseeking Compass, is a brass machine of complex structure and unknown principle, once a collection of the Frost Queen, and now owned by Captain Tirian.

This machine should be considered as one of the more "positive" ones among the "anomalies" with rankings. The small bowl in the center can hold blood, and after absorbing the blood, it uses a series of compasses to indicate the location of the user's "blood relatives". The priority of its indication is related to the closeness of blood relationship, distance, and the user's wishes.

Compared to most anomalies that are directly malicious and can be fatal if simply stored improperly, the Blood-Seeking Compass is relatively safe in terms of "storage" and does not require any special sealing conditions - but on the other hand, once this device is activated, it will show its sinister side.

Firstly, once blood is injected into it, the user will be constantly tempted by the compass and will have the urge to continue injecting blood into it. Those with weak minds may even kill themselves from the continuous bleeding. Secondly, although the blood-finding compass can indeed help the user find "blood relatives", it will often "bring bad luck" in the process, and constantly lead things to the bad side as the user gets closer to their blood relatives.

As far as Aiden knew, Anomaly 203 had once guided a father to find his long-lost son, but when the two met, they accidentally killed each other.

However, these negative effects have never mattered to Captain Tirian - the captain's will is strong enough to resist the "blood donation temptation" of the blood-seeking compass, and as for the bad luck tendency when the blood relatives approach...

First, the Captain and Miss Lucrecia would never meet while Anomaly 203 was in effect. Second, Abnomar and his son were always kind and filial.

Even the Blood-Seeking Compass couldn't create a more "plague-like" reunion scene than two cursed warships meeting and then covering each other with fire.

Over the past half century, Captain Tirian has often used the Bloodseeking Compass as a kind of "alert device" to determine whether the Lost Homeland has returned to the real world.

Aiden and the sailors gathered around Anomaly 203, with several pairs of eyes fixed on the several quaint compasses decorated with intricate patterns surrounding the brass device.

The gears and pointers have become completely silent.

"...Maybe it just wants to move around," a sailor with a hole in his forehead said cautiously, as if trying to ease the atmosphere, "After all, this thing usually doesn't move..."

Aiden glared at the sailor and said, "If you don't know how to joke, you don't have to."

"How about... we wipe off the remaining blood in the middle?" Another sailor who looked as shriveled as a mummy asked, "Otherwise I always feel like this thing is going to wake up at any moment."

"No," Aiden shook his head. "The captain has said that the blood in the center of the compass cannot be wiped off manually. We have to wait seventy-two hours for the compass to absorb it all by itself."

"…What will happen if I wipe it in advance?"

"No one knows. It's already difficult enough to summarize the correct way to use 'Anomaly'. Who would bother to test various incorrect operations?" Aiden said casually. "Why don't you try it? You'll be making a contribution to human civilization."

"No, no, no, that's what I said."

Aiden snorted.

“Ka-ka—”

At this moment, the blood-seeking compass suddenly heard the slight sound of its mechanism operating again, and the conversation between the first mate and the sailors was instantly interrupted. Aiden looked at the machine for the first time. He saw that the gears of this thing began to vibrate gradually, and several compass needles on its edge also shook violently. Then, all the needles suddenly pointed to Pland...around.

The Blood-Seeking Compass fell silent again, and this time it seemed that there would really be no more movement.

All its pointers avoid Plunder.

Aiden and the sailors looked at each other.

"...I just said this thing just wanted to move around..."

“Shut up.” Aiden interrupted the sailor, but his eyes were still fixed on Anomaly 203, while his mind was recalling what he had just seen.

All the pointers turned to a random direction outside Plande, but he was sure that at a certain moment just now, there was definitely a moment when the needles of the blood-seeking compass pointed in the same direction - pointing to the city-state of Plande!

But that moment was extremely brief, so short that one would suspect it was just a coincidence of the irregular rotation of a few needles. But in Aiden's view, it was as if several pairs of "eyes" of the compass had just fixed their eyes on their target and then shifted their gaze in horror.

Now that all the pointers of Anomaly 203 are pointing to the sea near Plande, Aiden thinks that this has become a case of "making things more obvious by trying to cover them up."

He suddenly thought of a sentence the captain once said to him -

[“Anomaly 203 occasionally exhibits the characteristics of a “living thing”. It does not always operate mechanically.”]

This thing is scary.

"Something's wrong... There's something wrong with this city-state!" Aiden suddenly realized, "We need to tell the captain about the situation here."

"But didn't the captain order us not to go ashore?"

"Send a message first," Aiden said quickly, looking at a sailor, "Go, bring Perri over!"

The sailor ran away quickly, and soon he ran back to the bridge - a huge parrot with colorful tail feathers stood on his shoulder, grinding its beak on the exposed skull at the back of the sailor's head.

"Perly, I need you to deliver a message." Aiden said loudly.

The parrot immediately stopped bullying the sailor, raised its head and stared at the first mate: "Perly, you can pass the message."

"Go to the city-state cathedral, look for the captain's presence, and tell him that the blood-seeking compass points to Plander, and the city-state is not safe!"