Chapter 37: Spitsbergen Islands
Translator: Kim Guo Editor: Tehm
“The destination, P146T1631W7814, has been reached.”
Each time Rolin did his job, he sounded rigid. Huang Xuan stepped on the hard ground, feeling
it much better than the rootless inside of the passage.
“Where is this?” Huang Xuan gasped and said, “It’s so cold.”
Suddenly, he felt warm.
“It is the year 1631 of the standard time zone. The location is near Longyearbyen City,
Spitsbergen Islands, close to the Arctic Circle. Present temperature, 2 °C. I have put an energy
ring on you to keep you warm, but I suggest that you put on more clothes,” answered Rolin.
“You asked me to wear fewer clothes.” Huang Xuan looked at the shirt he had put on,
considering that short sleeves would have a too strong visual impact to people. Although he
wasn’t cold anymore, he still shivered. Then he stamped his feet and said, “Find people.”
“There are a lot of human activities three kilometers away westward. Notice: you can stay in
P146 for 84 hours at most.”
“Which means three and a half days. Why did you complicate it?” Huang Xuan shrank his neck
and didn’t feel connected with the frozen soil around him. He shook his head, aimed at the
direction and walked away.
On the way, Rolin started searching information on the plane. It was the most important thing
to do because, on the one hand, they could check their security, and on the other hand, they
could decide whether to stay or move on. Before spatial and temporal oscillation, the
surroundings of the planes had been fully explored. However, it was all outdated now. They had
to put their hope on the similarity of planes. If it was also a plane that had survived a severe
spatial and temporal oscillation, it would have a high similarity, in which case, the spatial and
temporal wilderness would become an advantage. If it had been in the big plane age, there
would have no similarity, and everything would have been destroyed. If it hadn’t been so,
spatial and temporal oscillation wouldn’t have happened.
As a human habitation closest to the North Pole, the vegetation area of Spitsbergen Islands was
much too small, especially in the places near inland areas, where only moss could be seen on
the ground. Rolin said that polar bears could also be seen walking around, which scared the hell
out of Huang Xuan.
While they were walking, Rolin started to share the information on this region, which was a lot
and complex, troubling Huang Xuan very much. “If I listen to all this carefully, with a few more
time travels, I can be a historian or a geographer,” he thought.
Spitsbergen Islands were a part of the Svalbard Archipelago. In the time Huang Xuan lived in, it
was a part of Norway’s territory. Presently, it was inhabited by the Dutch.
In the 17th century, the Netherlands had been the most powerful country in the world and had
been called “the coachman at sea”. As its colony, Spitsbergen had been valued a lot.
Even the air was cold. Human sounds could be heard from afar. A fishing village could be seen
through the open wilderness.
“It seems like a fair.” Huang Xuan sped up. The energy ring worked, but he still preferred
clothes.
“What was valuable in the 17th century?” He was thinking about what kinds of clothes to be
traded for. “Polar bear fur? It sounds heavy.”
“Tulips.”
Huang Xuan was stunned. All of sudden, he remembered that he had heard something relevant:
there had been a time when the tulip trades had prevailed in the Netherlands. People had even
sold their assets to purchase the corms of tulips for reserve and vied for the newly-bred morbid
thrown out by Zheng Chenggong. Obviously, this young man didn’t know where Java Island
was. However, every Dutch knew East India Company. Hearing that Huang Xuan was so
familiar with the Dutch’s lives, the middle-aged man standing behind stepped up and said,
“You can go with us later.”
“Thank you very much.” Huang Xuan shrank his body and said, “Can I trade spice for some
clothes?”
Although spice business hadn’t made exorbitant profits since the 17th century, spice was still
expensive. But since this place was at the very north end of the Earth, spice wasn’t selling as
well as in Europe. The middle-aged man shook his head but was still willing to give Huang
Xuan a suit of clothes.
Huang Xuan took it with embarrassment because he couldn’t move a batch of grains out of the
passage at the moment. The youths were very cordial, especially after Huang Xuan had put on
the seal skin and looked like them.
The sailboats they had seen before had shipped some fish, algae, and a lot of shrimps, plenty of
which were the well-known Norwegian Scampi that was even more expensive than the shabby
boats carrying it, but now, it was just the villagers’ snack food.
Looking at the scampi thrown casually on the ground, Huang Xuan was inspired and didn’t
even feel the cold anymore.
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