Chen Changan wasn't in a hurry to enter Ten Miles Raft Village. Instead, he bit a piece of seaweed to kill time and carefully observed the situation of the raft village in the distant sea.
On the raft that stretched for 10,000 meters, all kinds of buildings were scattered, including dirty and messy shacks and gorgeous hotels.
Richness and poverty mixed together without any signs of urban planning. In high school terms… This was an urban sprawl!
Chen Changan waited for half an hour and finally saw a fishing boat returning from the distant sea and stopping at the edge of the raft village.
Dozens of boats of various sizes were parked there, including the lowest-end rafts and two sailboats more than 20 meters in length. This was obviously the docks, where the villagers parked their boats and went out to sea.
"Alright, it's time for me to take action!" Chen Changan spat out the seaweed in his mouth and took out a round wooden barrel from the trading market. Then, he carried the round wooden barrel toward the docks.
At the pier.
The crew of the fishing boat moved hundreds of big fishes out of the cabin.
Many children came to watch the fun. A few merchants from their village also came forward, hoping to buy a batch of fresh fish.
The dozen or so crew members on the fishing boat walked off the deck, pulling the abundant fish out of the cabin. In the end, a muscular man with a muscular body walked off of the boat with his upper body bare. He was carrying a tiger-striped shark that weighed more than 500 kilograms as he walked toward the dock.
All the villagers were excited; the crowd cheered.
"Welcome back, Sir Warship!"
"Fish! What a big fish! It's a tiger-striped shark!"
"I really want to touch Sir Warship's chest hair!"
"Turtle, there's also a big turtle!"
While the crowd was still active, Chen Changan swam into the dock with a round wooden bucket in his arms. He thought to himself, 'The natives speak Chinese too? Their accent sounds like that of Cantonese. This saves me the trouble of learning languages.'
Compared to the fully-loaded fishing boats, Chen Changan's appearance was naturally unnoticeable.
He successfully completed the first step of his plan—going ashore.
Chen Changan was very clear that his background identity was related to Mazu and that he was currently a wanted man. If the Ximen clan's influence had expanded to Ten Miles Raft Village, exposing his identity would be tantamount to suicide!
On the contrary, a few children noticed Chen Changan's miserable appearance and surrounded him as they laughed. "Long-haired brother, why are you carrying a wooden bucket? Where's your boat?"
Chen Changan touched his hair that hadn't been taken care of for more than ten days. He squeezed out some oil and sighed. "Brother's ship is broken. Is there a merchant in your village who sells ships? Brother wants to buy a ship."
The children did not suspect anything; they pointed at a sharp-faced, middle-aged man in the distance and said in unison, "Uncle Ge! Uncle Ge has a boat for sale!"
Chen Changan didn't really want to buy a boat. He just casually asked about the raft village's basic information and changed the topic. "Do you know of a man named Wang Jiu in the village? I want to buy a boat from him."
The children immediately became quiet. They shook their heads like a rattle drum and said that they had never seen anyone called Wang Jiu.
Chen Changan felt a little discouraged. He looked at the peddlers who were bargaining with the fishing crew, trying to guess who Wang Jiu was. 'To be able to be called a wealthy merchant, Wang Jiu must be one of the richest people in the village. Either that, or he's hiding his identity. If it's the latter, it won't be easy to find him~'
Most of the children got distracted easily. Seeing that Chen Changan didn't say anything, they decided to go somewhere else to play.
Chen Changan called out to them. Suddenly, like magic, he took out two carefully grilled salmon from his empty hands.
The rich aroma of the fish whetted the children's appetite, and they all shouted, "Wow, does big brother know magic?"
"Amazing!"
"Show it again!"
Chen Changan smiled and said, "Hey, little guys. Do you want to eat something?"
The children stared at the fragrant grilled fish and gulped. They replied in unison, "Yes!"
Chen Changan smiled and said, "If you answer whatever I ask later, you can have the grilled fish."
With the temptation of the two grilled fish, Chen Changan successfully obtained some basic information.
There were about 300 families in Ten Miles Raft Village. Most of them lived on fishing, and some of them lived with the fishing team, Old Ge, and the village chief.
Only one thing made Chen Changan shudder: The real foundation of this raft village wasn't only those fishing families—there were also slaves!
Behind the seemingly rich raft village, there were thousands of slaves in ragged clothes. It was their daily work that brought peace to the raft village.
The children said in innocent tones, "A slave should be a slave for life!"
Chen Changan had heard of the slave society and did not think much of it. But when he heard the children speak in an innocent tone, he felt a chill run down his spine.
He thought of the other humans who had transmigrated with him.
Raven had long proved one thing with sufficient sample data—over time, the waters that humans lived in gradually merged with the Deep Sea World.
If the Deep Sea World was a society dominated by a slave economy, most humans wouldn't have the chance to become slave owners. They could only become servants of this world.
Chen Changan entered the forum and searched for words like 'slaves,' 'natives,' 'raft villages.'
After half an hour of searching, there were indeed a few posts that were drowned by the sea of information. These pieces of important information that concerned the fate of humans were like stones thrown into the sea, and no one cared about them.
The thread owners claimed to have been captured by the natives and imprisoned in their shacks. They had to bear heavy labor every day.
As for women…
Tsk!
Chen Changan's heart burned with anger, and the way he looked at these children became slightly unfriendly.
'Counting the time, it's already the tenth day since we came to the Deep Sea World. It's only been ten days, yet there's already a village of natives merging into the human sea. In another 20 days…' Chen Changan's mood was rather solemn.
When the rabbit dies, the fox mourns!
Chen Changan could vaguely foresee the future. As the human sea areas and the Deep Sea World fused faster, more humans would become slaves of the foreign races.
[Fourth, do not underestimate your background and identity. Your background determines the future of most people.]
Chen Changan understood the true meaning of this sentence: "If one's background isn't good, and one cannot develop enough combat power to protect oneself in 30 days, it is almost inevitable that humans will become slaves in the future."
"Billions of slaves. There might be individuals who betray the slave owners, but if expanded to the slave owners, whoever is late to plunder the population will be left behind. Those who are behind will be beaten!"
When the Deep Sea World and the human sea areas merged to a certain critical point, countless slave owners would definitely rush out to capture the humans in one go.
Chen Changan had the intention to post a thread to reveal the truth, but he didn't know how to begin.
This was the most desperate thing in the world. He clearly knew the future of mankind, but he couldn't stop it from happening with his own power.
Whoever dared to resist would be crushed to death!
Just in this ordinary raft village alone, there were more than ten experts with extraordinary power. One of them was the village hero—who had just carried a tiger-striped shark—Warship!
His greatest act of heroism wasn't hunting tiger-striped sharks but suppressing humans.
He single-handedly suppressed a ship's slave riot.
Perhaps in the near future, Warship would achieve new heroic feats and enjoy the villagers' admiring gazes.
For example, bringing a ship full of human slaves to the raft village.
…
Human survivors:
5,523,457,829/8,023,442,354