Tapu is an ancient forbidden place, and those who have not received divine revelation are not allowed to enter. In Tubuai and the Bass Islands, there are many stories of divine punishment for those who entered Tapu without permission. Some people contract strange diseases, some become blind or mute, and many more go Madman.
Petru was skeptical. He wasn't a complete atheist, but he wasn't superstitious either. If the Tapu were altars set up by the ancestors of the natives, why were these nautical charts marked with special symbols? He believed the charterer was a great pirate, not an ancestor of the Māori living in the Southern Islands. A pirate might revere the sea god, but he would never care about a few small altars of the natives.
Furthermore, the nautical charts show that these things are distributed on islands within a radius of 1,000 nautical miles. The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Ocean are highly differentiated in terms of race and belief, making it impossible for them to have a unified religious ritual over such a large area. If the Māori or some other ethnic group once unified this area and left behind such extensive relics, then New Zealand, Australia, and even Chile should be able to find corresponding clues.
Therefore, Petru believes that these Tapu are likely not relics left by Maori ancestors, but by pirates who drew the maps. They may hold some secret, such as the location of a priceless shipwreck, a huge treasure, or a hidden pirate stronghold.
Petru deduced that the triangle in the center of the chart held the real secret, and that all the clues lay on the surrounding islands, each with its own Tapu.
These islands in the Pacific Ocean are already secluded enough, and the existence of Tapu makes even the locals afraid to approach, providing Petru with the best hiding place.
He first found a deserted island with Tapu near the Bass Islands and hid there.
At first, he only lived on the outskirts of Tapu, after all, there were so many rumors about Tapu's taboos circulating there, and he didn't want to go Madman. However, as a pirate, the clues left by his predecessors were too tempting, and driven by curiosity, Petru still walked into those messy piles of stones.
Once inside, Petru quickly understood why people who randomly entered the Tapu went Madman.
These piles of stones are like a giant array of spiritual energy. Once a person enters, their consciousness will be subjected to a powerful spiritual impact. Ordinary people who enter here are likely to lose control of their self-awareness and either become Madman or become foolish.
Even after receiving awakening training under the guidance of Pastor, Petru almost fell victim to it. It took him a long time to adjust to the mental shock. Moreover, according to his observation, the Mental Power here might come from some ancient remnant, and these Tapu must have been far more powerful and terrifying in the distant past than they are now.
He didn't know why the stones here possessed Mental Power, as if an ancient demon was buried underground. This reminded him of many things—
The Mummy that was smuggled and has now sunk to the bottom of the sea; the nautical chart that was originally placed with the Mummy and is now in his possession; a spiritual powerhouse stronger than Pastor single-handedly escorted a cargo ship...
These things, connected to the mysterious Tapu on the South Pacific islands, outlined some vague truths about the events. He knew—
The ship he robbed wasn't a smuggling vessel bound for some place in Asia; its real destination was a Ghost Island in the South Pacific, or the triangular area surrounded by that Ghost Island.
Why bring a the Mummy that has been dead for perhaps thousands of years here?
Petru felt a vague, inexplicable unease.
He wanted to leave, realizing he might have stumbled into their lair. But then he thought, perhaps the most dangerous place is the safest. Besides, since they were chasing him for the nautical chart, it meant that the chart was probably unique, and they likely didn't have the exact coordinates of this place, or at least didn't know the locations of all the Ghost Island.
So Petru continued to hide on the island. For the sake of convenience, he moved to Tubuai Island. There were more than two thousand indigenous people there, and the tourism industry was quite developed. Life was relatively convenient on the edge of the underdeveloped Southern Islands. And coincidentally, there was also a Tapu on this island, in the most desolate corner of the entire island.
He settled in a valley behind the slopes of Mount Tapu, where there was a bay where he could moor his boat. He set up many traps around it, and his hidden weapons were everywhere.
Petru didn't go into hiding because he knew that as the world's most notorious pirate, his whereabouts were unlikely to remain a secret. If people were determined to find him, they would eventually find him here. So he simply continued to use the name Petru and interact with the island's inhabitants.
Of course, he only interacted with others when necessary, spending most of his time in Tapu on the mountain. The islanders initially wanted to expel him, believing this outsider had offended their gods and ancestors, but they were no match for this King of Pirates who dared to challenge the India Navy and caused headaches for governments worldwide. Many of the island's young men had been taught a lesson by him, but he was clever and knew how to handle things perfectly. Using a strategy of "hitting you with a stick, then giving you a treat," he both instilled fear of his power and a fondness for his generosity in the natives. For the sake of money, the inhabitants of Tubuai Island stopped trying to drive him away, only whispering behind his back that he was a Madman punished by the gods, keeping the young men and children away from him.
Petru also understood the principle of having multiple burrows. In addition to Tubuai Island, he also stockpiled food and weapons on two other uninhabited islands.
After settling in, he sailed his ship between islands, hoping to find all the Ghost Island on the nautical chart and thus uncover the secrets between the Mummy, Tapu, and Mental Power.
Besides that, he hid in Tabuli, a place where no one would bother him and it was a good place to cultivate his Mental Power. During this time, his Mental Power improved rapidly. Although he didn't know what to do next because he didn't have a master to guide him, he could only practice blindly based on his intuition.
Then, during a chance shooting, he discovered that the gun and bullets that had been stored in Tabuli for a long time had also developed a faint spiritual energy, as if they had a primitive consciousness, like the earliest chaotic consciousness that was conceived in the Spring of Life at the beginning of all things.
When he aimed at his prey, the bullet seemed to calculate its own trajectory, working in conjunction with Petru's mental focus to lock onto the target. This freed him from the scope, allowing him to aim at targets at long distances with the naked eye, and with an accuracy no worse than, and perhaps even better than, that of using instruments.
Petru knew this might be an illusion, because long-range sniping isn't a simple straight-line shot. It requires precise calculations based on the bullet's mass, initial velocity, wind speed, wind direction, and air humidity, and finally, the sniper's own experience and intuition. Even if the bullet possessed primitive consciousness, it couldn't suddenly learn Newton's three laws of motion on a deserted island. It was probably Petru who locked onto the target; the bullet merely played a subtle mental bridging role, but in his conscious perception, it seemed as if the bullet automatically locked onto the target.