Chapter 384 - 67: New Labor Force
If hearing that the natives were playing and messing around with his fishing rod still kept Chen Zhou emotionally stable,
then learning that there was a person among the newcomers suspected to be from the Civilized World, he could no longer remain calm.
Someone who also possesses firearms and has knowledge slightly beyond what the natives understand might find it easier to deceive them than he does.
After all, these people are born robbers and charlatans.
If no outsider pokes through this "window paper," he can forever stand over the natives, looking down on them from a higher position.
But these sailors from the industrially advanced regions of the 17th century could very well shake his rule.
Of course, as the backbone for the two natives and the nominal "controller" of the island, despite the emotional turbulence within, Chen Zhou’s expression remained unchanged, with even a more peaceful tone in his inquiries.
"God" doesn’t panic over such trivial matters.
Ruining the grand image in the natives’ minds due to poor performance would make it hard to manage them later.
...
Chen Zhou’s disguise was flawless; Sunday did not notice any emotional change in him, merely stood in front and spoke slowly, articulately narrating everything he’d observed.
As Sunday failed to identify the exact number of natives upon their immediate arrival on the island, he was unsure of their precise count.
Based on the number of visible individuals and the size of the canoe, it is estimated there were at least 14 natives, at most 18.
All were male, except for the one in clothing, the rest were naked.
Their weapons were primarily wooden spears, but there were exceptions.
Sunday mentioned he observed that two of the natives seemingly held metal tools, resembling the Iron Blade Chen Zhou had given them for grass cutting.
...
Cold Weapons posed a negligible threat to himself; Chen Zhou was not concerned.
After Sunday finished telling this, he asked two questions he was most concerned about—
Apart from this canoe, were there other ships at sea? Unique large ships in design.
The person wearing clothes, was he blonde, red-haired, or black-haired; did he carry any firearm-like weapon?
...
Sunday, upon hearing the questions, closed his mouth, thought seriously for a while, then provided his answer.
He hadn’t really noticed if there were other ships at sea; he was too occupied counting people and checking their weapons, though one thing was certain: there definitely weren’t any large ships near the coast.
Regarding the hair color of the clothed person, he didn’t observe it, as the person wore a hat.
As for the weapon, Sunday could only vaguely say, "It seems not, I didn’t see it."
...
In the original "Robinson Crusoe", Robinson was never mentioned to have encountered sailors suspected to be from the Civilized World on the island in the third year.
Faced with this situation, the predictive foreknowledge Chen Zhou relied upon lost its effectiveness.
He had to consider whether his actions of rescuing captives and disrupting the Great Tribe’s rituals brought variables, causing the current scenario.
However, since Sunday said this group of natives were slightly different from those of the Great Tribe, it might also be due to other reasons.
No matter what, now that "guests" have knocked on the door, as the host, he must go out to check.
Friend or foe, kill or keep, there must be a decision.
...
Instructing Sunday to call Saturday back, so together they could head to the foot of the mountain later.
Chen Zhou estimated these island-landing natives were probably unaware that someone had detected their presence, so he planned to initially focus on observation.
Once fully understanding the natives’ distribution and uncovering the "civilized person’s" details, he would decide what stance to take and when to act.
Aware that he would not launch an attack immediately, nor take risks to get close to the natives, thus triggering their alertness.
Chen Zhou did not wear heavy Vine Armor; he only carried a backpack, a Hand Axe, and the first officer’s telescope, as well as his newly made rifle that hadn’t seen battle yet and over thirty freshly loaded Mini Bullets.
While waiting for Saturday and Sunday to return, to ensure safety, he also tucked the revolver into his waistband.
Only if he himself isn’t recklessly approaching the "civilized person" within 200 meters but maintaining a distance of 400~500 meters, could he hold a stable position.
Actually, the 200-meter range is too conservative.
The 17th-century matchlock gun, although theoretically effective at 100 meters, practically had an effective range of at most 60 meters.
More accurately, beyond 50 meters, whether a matchlock gun’s bullet can hit the target is entirely a matter of chance.
Not to mention he kept a full 400-meter distance.
Even standing within 200 meters wouldn’t necessarily result in being shot dead by a matchlock gun.
If he were truly shot dead, with such rotten luck, it seems he would’ve died accidentally long ago.
...
Before long, the panting Saturday and Sunday returned to the cave together.
Gathering Lai Fu who was napping by the wall, the three humans and one dog departed for the foot of the mountain.
To accommodate the two young men who just completed intense activity, Chen Zhou deliberately slowed his pace, giving them plenty of time to recover their strength.
As they proceeded, Chen Zhou felt somewhat uneasy in his heart—
Ever since first seeing natives land on the island, he habitually believed that natives would only land from the northeast corner, subsequent experiences validated this notion, leading him to deploy most of the defensive facilities and camouflage works at the northeast corner.