In the small mirror he carried with him, Martha emerged from a cloud of black fog, and her voice broke into Lawrence's ears: "Do you see the lights in the distance?"
“I see,” Lawrence nodded, looking up at the incredible scene ahead—a large patch of inky black phantom floating on the sea, vaguely resembling the outline of a city-state, but no details could be seen in it, and under the water was reflected the brightly lit port docks and various buildings on the edge of the city-state. The White Oak was gradually approaching the inverted light and shadow without anyone controlling it. Countless shadowy ships were floating on the sea in the distance, as if they were engaged in a fierce battle. In this confused vision of light and shadow, reality and illusion, he even felt that even he himself had become illusory. “What an unimaginable sight... It turns out that observing the world from one side of the mirror looks like this...
"The light and shadow are reversed in your vision, but in my eyes it is a normal scene - but soon, everything will be reversed again," Martha said with a smile on her face, "Go and get ready, I will dock soon, at an abandoned pier in the southern corner of the East Port Wharf. I will try to get the boat close to a sewer inspection port. Bring your mirror, and I will guide you all the way to the second waterway."
"Then... the other fakes will react, right?" Lawrence still had some concerns. "If you really can't win, you can retreat with the White Oak and the Black Oak. At our current speed, those fakes will definitely not be able to stop us."
Martha rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'm not stupid. My mission is just to send you here and delay the time a little. I don't plan to rely on two twin ghost ships to wipe out the entire Mirror Frost fleet. They can't be killed completely."
Anomaly 077 was squatting on the deck, fiddling with a rope he had found from somewhere. He would occasionally look up to observe the chimney and flagpole of the White Oak, looking quite troubled.
"Is it no longer popular among people of your time to hang sailors who have made mistakes on the mast?" the mummy muttered in confusion.
"Are you still thinking about your noose?" Lawrence raised his eyebrows and said in a bad tone, "Put down the rope and go to the first mate to get a machete and guns and ammunition. We are ready to go ashore."
"I fell asleep when I put it on my neck before, why doesn't it work..." Anomaly 077 was still mumbling in confusion, and then suddenly realized, "Ah? Going ashore?! Are you going to take me with you this time?"
It is appropriate for a strange anomaly to deal with a strange city-state," Lawrence said seriously, "We are going to enter the depths of the frost through the second waterway - don't waste time, go and get your weapons.
The sailor was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and immediately stood up: "Yes, Captain!"
The White Oak gradually approached the darkness where reality and illusion were reversed, and the lights reflected on the sea. An elite and powerful marine team had gathered behind Lawrence.
First mate Gus was not in the team, but was arranged by Lawrence to stay on the ship.
The old captain made arrangements with a serious face: "There will be a fierce battle later. All the fake warships near the port will react and attack the White Oak and Black Oak. You have to stay on the ship and command the battle - try to delay it as long as possible. If you can't delay it anymore, retreat with Martha."
"I understand," Gus nodded, but still looked at the "sailor" who was fiddling with his new weapon behind Lawrence with some concern. "But... is he really reliable?"
Lawrence looked back and saw Anomaly 077-Sailor looking up. The mummy had a machete on his waist, but threw his rifle and ammunition bag onto a wooden barrel. He muttered, "I only need the machete. I don't know how to use this thing."
"It's up to you. If you think a scimitar is enough to deal with the second waterway of the Mirror City-State," Lawrence said casually, "it will only have the opposite effect if someone who can't use a gun gets a gun."
The sailor thought about it and decided not to touch the rifle. Instead, he went to a box where weapons were stored and took out a scimitar and hung it on his belt.
Lawrence didn't say anything, but just lowered his head and looked at his palm.
He is slow
He slowly exerted force, clenched his fists, and opened them. He adjusted his breathing, and vaguely sketched in his mind the phantom of a ship burning with ghostly flames and spirit sails flying high, recalling the feeling of being burned by the flames and his body being transformed in the flames.
After a long time, he saw a hint of faint green emerging in the lines of his palms, and tiny flames slowly flowed in the lines.
There was a slight vibration on the deck beneath my feet, and the White Oak began to brake. The hazy darkness outside the ship was approaching, and Martha's voice came from the small mirror on my chest -
"Pay attention, the boat will soon dock, and then I will reverse again and cancel the twin projections. You jump onto the dock from the left side and go straight. I will show you the way."
"I'm ready." Lawrence breathed softly and slowly walked to the side of the ship.
"I'm ready too!" Abnormal 077 followed closely behind the captain, his hoarse and dark voice carrying a hint of excitement and anticipation, "Go ashore! Fight! The pirates are coming!"
“We are not pirates,” Laurence glanced back at the mummy. “We are honorable seafarers.”
"Dock," Martha's voice came from the mirror almost at the same time, "three, two, one... reverse!"
In an instant, light and shadow changed, and reality and illusion were interchanged.
Everything around Lawrence seemed to flash violently, and then the reflection in the sea rose up, and the darkness in front of his eyes reversed, as if he had passed through an invisible mirror in an instant. The frosty pier and pier appeared in front of him, and the damp and cold feeling that had always lingered around, as if soaked in the sea water, also disappeared in an instant!
The next second, he saw a black shadow suddenly appear on the sea next to the White Oak, and the silhouette of the Black Oak quickly emerged from the black shadow.
After the light and shadow were reversed, the Black Oak and the White Oak both stopped reflecting each other and appeared on the sea as twin battleships, ready to cooperate with their sister ships in combat.
In an instant, lampposts appeared on the dock, sirens blared in the distant streets and alleys, chaotic winds howled and wailed in the port, and the sound of warships hastily firing came from the distance, like chaotic thunder.
The reaction came so quickly?!
Lawrence was startled, but his reaction was not slow at all. He kicked the rope ladder down and rushed out first: "Let's go!"
A marine team consisting of a dozen elite sailors rushed onto the dock and headed towards the distant intersection along the route indicated by Martha, with Lawrence leading the way.
The cold wind whistled in my ears, and the sound of sirens and gunfire in the distance had a discontinuous and distorted texture. In the chaotic and dim sky, Lawrence, holding a revolver in one hand and a sword in the other, ran wildly in this mirror-distorted ghost city, and Martha's voice kept coming.
"At the intersection ahead, turn left and go around the sentry box... Go straight and take the alley on the right. The entrance is at the end...
Behind him are the hurried and chaotic footsteps of the sailors, in his hands are trustworthy weapons, and in his ears are the sounds of his lovers working in perfect harmony.
Lawrence ran faster and faster. In a trance, he seemed to feel that all the old age and fatigue accumulated over the past few decades had gone away from this body. He felt his heart beating like a young man, and his veins were rushing with the same blood as when he was young and strong - those unbridled and high-spirited years returned to his mind.
They are back. They are all back.
He took a step forward, swinging his arms, and a faint green flame appeared behind him like a phantom. Beside him and behind him, green flames began to appear on the bodies of the sailors, and their flesh and blood bodies were reflected in the flames with a ghostly and illusory texture.
Anomaly 077's voice, like the howling of ghosts and wolves, sounded from the side: "Captain! I'm scared!"
"If you're afraid, stay close to the team!" Lawrence grinned, with an inexplicable joy in his voice. "This city
You can’t stop us!”
Anomaly 077 continued to howl as he followed Lawrence and ran forward: "I'm afraid of you!"
"Then you just try to adapt - I'm not retiring, and neither should you!"
Lawrence spoke loudly and happily. He didn't mind at all that his voice would reveal the whereabouts of the team, and he didn't worry about this careless person walking on the street.
Running headfirst will attract the "guards" of the city-state.
Because from the very beginning, this could not be an "infiltration" - the moment the uninvited guest stepped into this mirror city, this living city had already reacted.
The street was slowly filled with fog, and in the strange and dim fog, something shadowy seemed to be emerging.
"It's foggy in the streets!" he shouted. "Martha, is this normal?"
"Fog is a sign of a critical point. It is the hardest to tell the difference between reality and illusion in a foggy mirror. Keep moving forward. Don't pay attention to the fog that is spreading from the real world. It is right in front of you."
"good!"
Lawrence responded loudly and led the sailors towards the fog. In the fog, one shaky and twisted figure after another stood up. They had deformed bodies and the wrong number of eyes. They roared and whispered in the fog and staggered towards them.
Lawrence raised the muzzle of his gun, but before he and the sailors fired, a series of dense gunshots rang out from the other side of the fog.
A spider-like steam walker suddenly appeared in the fog. The fully armed city-state guards built barricades around the walker. The rifles in the soldiers' hands and the gun turrets on the top of the steam walker spewed flames, instantly tearing the monster in the fog into pieces.
Lawrence ran past the edge of the battle zone. He looked in astonishment at the city-state guards who suddenly appeared. However, the next second, those soldiers and steam walkers disappeared in the thick fog, leaving only a pile of messy rubble in their place.
"We're here, the entrance to the sewers. There's an elevator at the end that leads directly to the second waterway!"