Chapter 98.2: The Major Pirate Groups
The cruise ship was large enough to carry more supplies and weapons as well. In this battle against the pirates, the Little Blue Sea unsurprisingly ranked first according to the internal war points.
Whether it was fishing or salvaging ordinary items, its operating range was larger than that of the other ships, so naturally, its haul was greater as well.
Not to mention that she had a mechanic teammate like Toya. If Toya’s supernatural ability advanced to a sufficient level one day, he could also modify the cruise ship and make it better suited to all kinds of apocalyptic worlds.
Toya’s abilities were practically a perfect match for Song Xi’s. Toya had also joined Little Blue Sea Country first, so after returning to Blue Sea, Song Xi immediately appointed him as a vice president. He received not only a high salary but also a share of the guild’s earnings from collective operations.
She even went through the motions of getting the other two vice presidents to vote on it. Wang Moning and Shen Jinyang, who were also vice presidents, had gradually shifted from their original makeshift-operation mindset toward wanting to build the guild into something bigger and stronger, so naturally, they both gave the proposal their wholehearted support.
From then on, Toya was firmly tied to the Little Blue Sea Guild. He had suffered from an inferiority complex about his combat ability since childhood, and he never could have imagined that after joining Blue Sea, he—the weakest child in his family back then—would actually become the highest earner among them.
For a while, the newly appointed Vice President Toya was full of energy every single day.
Even though he couldn’t suddenly transform the luxury cruise ship into a spaceship, he certainly wasn’t sitting around doing nothing.
Just like now, that grand theater was being gradually transformed into a Blue Sea training arena through Toya’s painstaking efforts day after day.
The next plan was to create more planting areas, with the goal of making the Little Blue Sea self-sufficient when it came to vegetables, so they wouldn’t have to make regular trips back to the temple to buy dried vegetables.
If they could be self-sufficient out there, wouldn’t that save the temple’s food reserves?
Our God would surely be pleased!
Thinking of this, Song Xi could hardly wait to earn a great achievement right now, exchange the points for more materials, and directly build a cultivation bay aboard the Little Blue Sea.
And now, an opportunity to earn a great achievement was right in front of her.
Song Xi smiled, and her expression toward Yuan Moshu became even warmer.
“Take your time. There’s no rush.”
She looked around at everyone else in the conference room.
“Once the meeting’s over, nobody leave. Let’s go eat at the ocean-view restaurant.”
She could be proud of her ship and feel honored by it, but treating everyone to a meal was still out of the question.
She added, “Bring your own rations.”
The Blue Sea residents readily agreed.
If someone was willing to treat them, of course they would be happy. If not, then so be it. It wasn’t as though they couldn’t afford their own rations.
Being able to make use of the Little Blue Sea’s chefs and eat in such a beautiful, comfortable ocean-view restaurant was already a pretty great deal.
One Blue Sea captain immediately stood up—the sort who had hated sitting still to study back in school, hated sitting at work after getting a job, and, after the apocalypse, hated sitting around listening to the Pirate Capture Theory Class.
“My rations take quite a while to cook. I’ll go get them first. When I come back, I’ll just read the meeting notes.”
By the time these captains returned, Yuan Moshu had already composed himself and shared a great deal of information.
He had never had any normal communication with the pirates, and he didn’t even know about the Pirate Assembly, so naturally, he couldn’t say which pirate groups possessed Kansidang Keys.
But the Blue Sea people hadn’t asked him to provide that kind of information in the first place. All they needed was for Yuan Moshu to name every major pirate group on Green Billow Star that he knew about.
The Blue Sea residents’ logic was very straightforward: all pirates wanted to participate in the Pirate Assembly, which meant they had to compete, which meant only the winners could obtain the keys, which meant the stronger a pirate group was, the more likely it was to possess a key.
Therefore, all they needed to know was which pirate groups had a reputation for being formidable.
“As for the major pirate groups, the ones I know are the Hesse Pirate Group, the Tuka Pirate Group, the Purple Rosewood Pirate Group…”
Yuan Moshu, who had been pursued by these pirates in the past, had never imagined that one day he would be able to rattle off the names of these pirate groups as casually as reading off a menu.
And the Blue Sea people sitting in this conference room really were listening as though he were reading out a menu, attentively taking in the names of one pirate group after another.
“The Purple Rosewood Pirate Group’s emblem is a flag bearing a purple piece of wood. The Prisoner-Watcher Pirate Group’s emblem is a skull, but it’s not a Green Skull—it’s a Black Skull…”
The many Blue Sea captains listened intently. Information continued piling up on the large screen, while the amount of handwritten information filling the little notebooks in the captains’ hands grew larger and larger.
The meeting lasted a full five hours.
Yuan Moshu’s mouth had gone completely dry from talking. Fortunately, the Blue Sea people were very considerate and kept bringing him precious fresh water.
Although drinking so much water meant making several extra trips to the bathroom, the clean, modern restroom gave Yuan Moshu another round of shock. Even with his throat gone hoarse, he somehow felt it was all worth it.
When the meeting ended, everyone stood up.
“Alright, then let’s split up tomorrow and see what luck brings us. Same rules as always.”
“Sure. Whoever finds one of these pirates gets to claim them.”
“Then let’s hold an extra Competition Meeting tonight and see whose ship Captain Yuan is willing to sail with.”
The Blue Sea captains were immediately filled with anticipation.
In their eyes, Yuan Moshu, who could attract the attention of large numbers of pirates, was practically a points-and-supplies multiplier, making him extremely valuable.
Touching his throat as he got to his feet, Yuan Moshu went, “?”
As he looked at all the enthusiastic gazes directed at him, he suddenly realized something profound.
On Green Billow Star, being bait was basically equivalent to being abandoned.
But in Blue Sea, it seemed… he was actually pretty popular?
And that wasn’t all. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he had the distinct feeling that the Blue Sea people were actually looking forward to the battle that was about to come.
—Yuan Moshu had personally experienced just how terrifying those major pirate groups could be.
Looking at the Blue Sea captains, whose eyes held nothing but excitement and anticipation, without a trace of caution or vigilance, he couldn’t help feeling somewhat worried.
The pirates on Green Billow Star who had managed to develop into major pirate groups had all built their reputations through sheer strength and plunder. There were quite a few pirate groups even stronger than the Green Skull.
If all these Blue Sea ships joined forces and acted together, they would naturally have a good chance of winning.
But judging from what they were saying, they actually intended to split up and act independently, each relying on their own abilities?
Two words appeared in Yuan Moshu’s mind:
Underestimating the enemy!
Even now, he still believed that these Blue Sea people had come to Green Billow Star through a rift in space-time.
Perhaps there simply weren’t this many dangers in the world the Blue Sea people originally came from, which was why they didn’t think much of the battle that was about to begin.
Yuan Moshu tried to hold himself back.
He really did.
But in the end, he couldn’t.
He had completely thrown his lot in with Blue Sea now. If something happened to Blue Sea, would the Inkshadow be any better off?
He quietly asked one of the Blue Sea captains who had been sitting beside him earlier:
“You really plan to split up and deal with the pirates separately? Wouldn’t it be better to cooperate? After all, you’re all from the same place, and everyone seems to get along pretty well.”
Yuan Moshu vaguely remembered this particular Blue Sea captain. His ship was about the same size as the Inkshadow, and he seemed to have around a hundred crew members as well.
As for the captains of those ships with only a handful of crew members—or even just a single person—the conference room simply wasn’t large enough to accommodate them all. So he had heard that the compiled list of pirate groups and the detailed meeting notes would be printed out later, and those captains could come collect their copies themselves.
So the captain he had chosen was someone who had just barely qualified to attend the meeting alongside the captains of the larger ships, while still being relatively weak in terms of strength.
And during the meeting just now, of the ten times cups of water had been pushed toward him, this captain had been the one to push five of them over.
Yuan Moshu felt that the two of them had become at least a little familiar with each other, so asking him seemed like the safest choice.
The Blue Sea captain he had approached was extremely friendly and familiar by nature.
The moment Yuan Moshu started talking to him, the captain assumed that this local native must have a pretty good impression of him. Otherwise, with so many people around, why would he have singled him out to talk to?
The Blue Sea captain cheerfully slung an arm around Yuan Moshu’s shoulder, and the two of them walked out together like old buddies.
“Were you not paying close attention during the meeting just now? A single Kansidang Key can only bring in a thousand people. If we cooperate, how are we supposed to divide up the keys we capture?”
“He wants one, I want one. Even if we divide them according to the war points ranking, Green Billow Star is so huge. If we move together, the chances of running into a pirate ship are tiny. And even if we finally manage to fight one, the key we get will only be enough for one ship. How long would it take before everyone could get a key?”
The Blue Sea captain chuckled.
“But it’s different if we search separately. Once everyone spreads out, the chances of running into pirate ships naturally go up.”
“Besides, if the Pirate Assembly is full of pirates and is being held on someone else’s turf, then it’s obviously going to be even more dangerous. Rather than fighting as a group and slowly figuring out how to distribute the keys, it’s better to let everyone divide up the keys they capture themselves. Those strong enough can make it into the assembly, while those who aren’t strong enough can avoid getting injured by going in. That’s a screening mechanism in itself.”
Yuan Moshu: “…”
He actually thought the other man made a lot of sense.
He hurriedly shook his head, forcing himself to come back to his senses.
“But—but aren’t you afraid that you’ll be wiped out if you encounter a pirate group on your own?”
The Blue Sea captain replied, “Probably not? If we think we can’t beat them, we’ll just run away. And if we can’t escape, well, that’s fine too.”
Yuan Moshu breathed a sigh of relief.
So that meant the Blue Sea people still had a trump card if they couldn’t escape, right?
Yuan Moshu looked at him expectantly.
The Blue Sea captain said, “If we can’t escape, Our God will protect us.”
Yuan Moshu: “…”
Ah. So that was their trump card?
The protection of Our God?
No, wait.
The Blue Sea people had managed to obtain this many ships and become this powerful. Their trump card couldn’t possibly be nothing more than a breezy “Our God will protect us.” There had to be something else.
He did his best to remain calm.
“And after God protects you?”
The Blue Sea captain thought for a moment.
“After Our God protects us, we’ll be saved, of course.”
Yuan Moshu: “…”
He consoled himself that he had probably just happened to ask a fanatical believer from their homeland.
After thinking about it, he changed his approach.
“What if another ship runs into danger? What will they do if they can’t escape?”
“Wouldn’t they do the same thing?”
The Blue Sea captain randomly picked out another captain and patted him on the arm.
This captain was from Dazzling Star. After being tapped on the shoulder, he stopped and turned around, looking at them in confusion.
“What’s up?”
The Blue Sea captain said, “Quick-fire question. If you run into pirates, can’t beat them, and can’t escape, what would you do?”
The Dazzling Star captain, with silver hair, pale eyes, and fair skin, answered without hesitation:
“Seek Our God’s protection and pray for Our God to send down companions.”
The Blue Sea captain gave Yuan Moshu a look that clearly said, ‘See?’
Yuan Moshu: “…”
The Blue Sea captain then turned to the Dazzling Star captain.
“Thanks. What’s your name? I’m Jinfan Gang. Let’s be friends.”
The Dazzling Star captain smiled.
“Sure. My name is Serra.”
Yuan Moshu, standing beside them: …
So you two didn’t know each other before this?
The way he had greeted him so naturally, Yuan Moshu had assumed they were already friends!
As for what Yuan Moshu was thinking, Jinfan Gang had no idea.
He had already taken it upon himself to mark both Serra and Yuan Moshu down as friends he had just made.
Then he extended an invitation.
“You like looking at ships, right? Want to come hang out on my ship later?”
“When we get to the restaurant, I’ll take you to eat the ingredients I brought! I guarantee they’ll taste amazing!”
Yuan Moshu felt as though his entire worldview was being relentlessly overturned.
He decided to stop thinking about it for the moment. After accepting the other man’s friendly invitation, he figured he might as well go to the restaurant and eat his fill first.
Fifteen minutes later—
Yuan Moshu stared at the ingredients Captain Jinfan Gang had brought.
His ship was about the same size as the Inkshadow, and he had roughly the same number of crew members.
And in front of them was—
A sea monster tentacle that was a full two meters long and one meter thick.
Just looking at it, Yuan Moshu could tell it would be incredibly difficult to cook through. It was so huge that he couldn’t help imagining just how enormous the sea monster it had come from must have been.
Captain Yuan Moshu, who likewise commanded a medium-sized ship with more than a hundred crew members, pointed at it with trembling fingers, even the corners of his mouth twitching.
“This thing… your ship caught this?!”
