Safe City Ch.101.3

Chapter 101.3: Good Quality Merchandise

Davins’ mind was in complete turmoil when he suddenly heard the people chatting casually change the subject.

“What are we going to do with those people behind us?”

“Same as before.”

“I didn’t expect them to come right to us on their own. Now there’ll be more vacancies among the sailors. Ruolin should be able to send us quite a few more people, right?”

Alarm bells immediately rang in Davins’ mind.

What did that mean? What did they mean by ‘more vacancies’? And what did they mean by ‘send us quite a few more people’?

He thought of the Call-Singer that had been haunting the ship lately. He thought of the pirates who had disappeared one after another at night. He thought of how, whenever they encountered sea monsters, someone would always ‘accidentally’ fall overboard.

These people had also been bought by the captain because the number of crew members in the pirate crew had decreased.

Could it be… could there have never been any Call-Singer at all…?

No. He had to shout it out. He had to expose their conspiracy!

Davins opened his mouth, only to discover in horror that he couldn’t make a sound at all.

Only then did he remember. Right. There were clearly four of them, so why hadn’t the other three made the slightest sound this entire time?

Davins tried to turn his head, only to discover that he couldn’t move. He could only look out of the corner of his eye, just in time to see a pirate standing beside him, staring blankly ahead with vacant eyes.

Just as Davins was about to despair, he saw a tall figure patrolling the deck.

It was East!

East had been rescued by the captain, and he was utterly loyal to him. Even his name had been given to him by the captain.

Lord East had practically become the second-in-command of the ship. Even the first mate did not enjoy as much of the captain’s trust as he did.

Davins blinked frantically, desperately trying to make some kind of sound to attract East’s attention.

After all his effort, his hand finally gave a slight wave.

East, who was patrolling the deck, seemed to notice the movement and strode over.

Yes! Yes!

Lord East! I’m right here!

Davins was practically crying tears of joy.

Just as he had hoped, Lord East came over and stopped in front of him.

The two met each other’s eyes in the dim night.

“What happened? Did your anesthesia wear off? Why can he still move?” Lord East, the mute, spoke.

The excitement on Davins’s face instantly turned into confusion, despair, and disbelief.

They… they were in on it together?

Keshan slowly walked over. She looked Davins up and down and said,

“Maybe he has a higher tolerance for the anesthesia. But he can only move a little. He probably can’t speak.”

Those were the last words Davins ever heard in his life.

The next second, pain struck his chest.

Just as in the original plan, several people silently died during the night, all in the name of the Call-Singer.

Only, the people who died were not the ones he had planned to kill.

The next morning, when the pirate captain awoke, he once again received news that several crew members had gone missing.

Kalin irritably scratched his head.

“How many Call-Singer are there in these waters, anyway? Damn it! Those disobedient bastards—I told them they weren’t allowed to go out at night, didn’t I?!”

“Get in touch with that sl*ve trader from last time. The merchandise he had was better—good quality and obedient, too.”

—

Across the vast expanse of the sea, a sl*ve ship approached a fleet of pirate ships.

The guards aboard the pirate ship took a careful look.

“It’s the sl*ve trader Qi Wen.”

The other guards, who had been on alert, relaxed somewhat.

The sl*ve trader Qi Wen was fairly well-known on Green Billow Star. He had been in the sl*ve-trading business for ten years, and their pirate crew had done business with Qi Wen before.

Aboard the sl*ve ship, Ma Ruolin saw that the pirate ship showed no intention of attacking and began channeling her power into the puppet on the ground.

The puppet looked completely ordinary, except for a black mole on the tip of its nose.

A moment later, as the Puppet Master’s ability took effect, the puppet slowly grew human facial features. The sl*ve trader Qi Wen appeared before the Blue Sea people.

Ma Ruolin spoke, and Qi Wen spoke as well.

“This time, who among you wants to be sold?”

“Me, me, me, me!!”

“Sell me! Sell me!!”

“I’ve been waiting in line for ages!!!”

“Pick me! Pick me! I’m really good at pretending to be mute!”

The Blue Sea people immediately responded with great enthusiasm.

The puppet Qi Wen said with a smile,

“Their pirate crew is pretty big. They might need more people. Wait for good news from me.”

It slowly walked out, limping as it went and occasionally wiping the sweat from its forehead, just like the real Qi Wen, who had already been left at the bottom of the sea.

The pirates aboard the pirate crew watched as the sl*ve trader Qi Wen took a small boat by himself and came alone to their ship.

“Honored sirs… do you need any sailors? I have a batch of strong, capable men who have been thoroughly brainwashed by me.”

“I even gave them mute medicine. I guarantee they’ll be obedient~”

—

During this period, Cheng Qisheng could only watch with indescribable feelings as large numbers of Blue Sea residents infiltrated various major pirate crews under the identities of “sailors|guards who had been bought.”

The great Creator God of Blue Sea had to admit that she was impressed.

Blue Sea really was full of talented people.

Wiping out all the pirate crews and replacing them themselves might alert Kansidang and cause them to shut the “gate.”

So, from the very beginning, the divine oracle Cheng Qisheng gave was: do not wipe out all the pirate crews. Just make the Kansidang forces believe that some pirate crews had been eliminated, while some new forces had appeared in their place.

As it turned out, Blue Sea really was full of talented people.

Since they couldn’t kill all the pirate captains and take their places, the Blue Sea residents had a sudden flash of inspiration.

Why not leave the pirate captains alone and kill their underlings, then take their places instead?

That way, to the other pirates outside, the pirate crew would still be the same pirate crew, and its leader wouldn’t have changed either.

There was an idiom for this: the dove occupying the magpie’s nest.

Here, though, it was more like Old Eighth occupying the pirate crew.

The Blue Sea residents who boarded first would secretly kill some of the pirates. Once the pirate crew’s numbers dwindled and they needed reinforcements, the mechanical-type Puppet Master, Ma Ruolin, would make her entrance.

She would “sell” large numbers of Blue Sea people to these pirate crews.

The “price” paid for the Blue Sea people was still split fifty-fifty between the two sides.

Once aboard, the Blue Sea residents would seize every opportunity to keep reducing the pirate crew’s numbers, forcing them to recruit even more people.

And so, the number of Blue Sea residents aboard the pirate crews grew larger and larger, and they became more widely distributed. Then, whenever a pirate crew set its sights on a “fat sheep,” they would interfere and cause trouble.

By now, the Blue Sea residents were no longer satisfied with merely being guards or sailors.

On a pirate ship, the captain naturally held the highest position. To avoid alerting Kansidang, that position was best left untouched.

But the first mate, who ranked second, the second mate, who ranked third, and even the position of chief strategist were all positions the Blue Sea residents wanted.

As a result, Cheng Qisheng was astonished to discover that many Blue Sea residents had now begun learning the language of Green Billow Star.

All just so they wouldn’t have to pretend to be mute and could become members of the pirate crews’ upper ranks.

They were as serious as could be, and as hardworking as could be.

Many of them worked even harder than they had when they were students, and their progress was astonishingly fast. Some even went out of their way to rescue Green Billow Star natives just to create a good language environment for themselves and learn faster.

Cheng Qisheng: “…”

Old Eighth really was taking this whole battle thing seriously.

In any case, lately, many pirate captains probably felt that their luck had been pretty good.

Not only had they avoided any major dangers, but even when they encountered other pirate crews, no bloody conflicts over plunder had broken out.

That was because there were large numbers of Blue Sea people aboard both sides’ ships.

At a glance, everyone would see that the other side also had their own people, so naturally, a full-blown battle over plunder couldn’t break out.

Of course, occasionally, some Blue Sea residents would deliberately egg two pirate ships into fighting each other, after which they would attack the native pirates aboard the opposing ships.

That way, once a pirate crew had lost manpower in the battle, its captain would naturally need to buy more people from a sl*ve trader.

There were also Blue Sea residents who would deliberately lie in wait for pirate crews to start fighting over plunder, then secretly sneak into the losing side and deliberately join the winning side as “prisoners.”

Since the Blue Sea people were all sturdy and strong, with plenty of strength in their hands, they could basically be promoted to guards very quickly.

Even if they encountered people who wanted to treat them as “food,” at worst, they would simply stop pretending and take down the entire ship themselves.

Cheng Qisheng watched in utter amazement.

At this rate, all the pirate crews on Green Billow Star might as well be called Blue Sea crews.

Several months later.

—Black Adam Pirates—

The captain of the Black Adam Pirates was named Adam.

He owned more than a dozen pirate ships, and for fifty-three-year-old Captain Adam, this was the greatest achievement of his life.

“Things have been pretty peaceful lately.”

Captain Adam stood in the captain’s cabin above, looking down over the deck below.

The Blue Sea first mate beside him replied, “Yes, Captain. That’s a good thing.”

Captain Adam shook his head. “But it’s too quiet. That actually makes me feel uneasy, like there’s something wrong somewhere.”

The Blue Sea strategist immediately said, “Perhaps we’ve simply sailed into a sufficiently peaceful stretch of sea.”

Captain Adam still felt that something was off.

“Don’t you think we’ve caught too few fat sheep lately?”

“There have been a few fewer, Captain. Why don’t we take the initiative today and go looking for some fat sheep?” the Blue Sea second mate suggested.

Captain Adam thought for a moment. “Forget it. Let’s wait and see for now.”

He walked down the stairs. The Blue Sea guards he passed immediately stood at attention and stepped aside to clear a path for him.

Captain Adam looked with satisfaction at his sturdy guards.

Hmm! Not bad at all!

It was a shame they hadn’t run into any other pirate ships lately. Otherwise, if they could simply go up and plunder them, these guards he had paid a hefty price for would surely bring him the greatest possible returns.

Captain Adam took a few more steps and saw several Blue Sea sailors cleaning the deck.

They were working with great enthusiasm, looking extremely diligent.

Captain Adam was deeply convinced that his decision to promote these captured sl*ves to sailors had been absolutely correct.

Look at them! Weren’t they working for him now, overflowing with gratitude?

Captain Adam walked around to the other side. The Blue Sea carpenter aboard the ship was repairing the hull, while a Blue Sea mechanic was performing routine maintenance on the machinery.

The Blue Sea chief engineer kept his eyes on them, and when he saw the captain approaching, he immediately flashed a smile.

Captain Adam was fairly gentle toward technical personnel. After all, people with such skills weren’t something one could simply acquire whenever one wanted.

He was simply lucky enough to have captured such obedient and well-behaved technical experts.

“Don’t mind me. You carry on with your work.”

He continued on to the kitchen, where a Blue Sea chef was bustling around with several Blue Sea assistants.

“Captain, you’re here? Are you hungry? The meal isn’t ready yet. Would you like me to get you a bowl of soup first?”

Captain Adam shook his head. He was quite pleased to see the chef he had picked up during a rainstorm working so diligently, and replied with reserved composure,

“No need. I’m just taking a look around.”

Captain Adam then went to the infirmary, where the Blue Sea ship’s doctor, who liked to wear white, came over to greet him.

“Captain, are you feeling unwell?”

Captain Adam looked around the neatly organized infirmary, which had even recently acquired an operating room, and was in an excellent mood.

This doctor he had snatched from another pirate ship was truly excellent. The other crew members all said that having a ship’s doctor made things much more convenient whenever they had a headache, a fever, or some other minor ailment.

“No, I’m just taking a stroll. You carry on.”

The more Captain Adam looked around, the better he felt.

He was deeply convinced that under his capable leadership, his Black Adam Pirates were growing stronger every day.

Ah!

Since he had already toured so many places today, he might as well go check on the fat sheep too.

Captain Adam entered the sl*ve quarters, and the Blue Sea warden guarding the door came over with a smile to open it for him.

He walked in and looked them over one by one. The Blue Sea “fat sheep,” who had just received word and hurried all the way from their comfortable lounge to squat down in the sl*ve quarters, all put on standard pleading expressions as well.

“Captain, please let me go!”

“I’m willing to work like a beast for you!”

“I can do anything!!”

Listening to the fat sheep’s pleas, Captain Adam felt a surge of smug satisfaction.

Sure, he hadn’t encountered many fat sheep lately, but weren’t there still plenty of them right here?

He looked down at them from above, savoring the feeling of being in a position of absolute superiority. Only after he had enjoyed himself enough did he turn and leave.

Captain Adam carefully went over everything in his mind. After making a full round of the ship, he found that everything was perfectly normal. There wasn’t a single thing that seemed out of place.

Even after Captain Adam finished his tour and stepped onto the deck, the affiliated pirate ships following behind his vessel had pirates waving excitedly at him as well.

The Blue Sea pirates among the affiliated crews waved enthusiastically.

“Captain!!”

“Greetings, Captain!!!”

Captain Adam smiled and waved back at his subordinates.

Afterward, he returned to the captain’s cabin, where the Blue Sea guard standing outside immediately opened the door for him.

Captain Adam opened a drawer and checked the communication crystal ball and the Kansidang key sitting safely inside. Only then did he close the drawer with satisfaction and lie back down on his bed.

Before falling asleep, Captain Adam once again recalled the various sights aboard his ship, then closed his eyes in complete satisfaction.

It seemed he had simply been overthinking things.

His Black Adam Pirates were absolutely thriving.

The Pirate Conference was only a month away.

Captain Adam thought with full confidence that he would definitely bring these reliable subordinates of his along and show them off proudly to the other pirate crews.

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