"But how are they communicating with each other?" someone else asked in confusion.
"Yeah, we didn't see them chatting in the Regional Channel either."
"Don't you know? They raised a type of seagull—the kind that always steals and eats your potato seeds. They can use the seagulls to deliver wooden boards and write letters on them."
"So that's how it is. They really are cunning!"
"Yeah, those seagulls can actually be trained. I thought they were useless besides stealing things."
The crowd discussed it, somewhat astonished.
They had not expected the pirates to train such seagulls for communication.
"Then how many people do they have now?"
"I'd say at least a hundred thousand?"
"Ah, that many? We only have a little over ten thousand people on our Sea Island Raft. We should've recruited more people earlier."
"Sigh, it's too late now."
"Bullshit, they have thirty thousand at most!" someone said disdainfully. "Don't just blurt things out because you see rafts covering the sea. There aren't that many people on those rafts."
"Yeah, and the soldiers on our Sea Island Raft are more elite than theirs."
"Mm, compared like that, we might not lose after all."
"That's hard to say."
For a time, all kinds of pessimistic predictions rose and fell in the regional chat channel.
Someone else said, "We train every day, but we lack actual combat experience."
"Meanwhile, they loot and kill everywhere. After defeating someone, they kill them outright."
"They have plenty of experience!"
"Damn it, if you put it that way, who the hell is going to win or lose in the end?"
For a while, everyone argued heatedly.
Some of the old-timers who had arrived at Sea Island Raft early, especially those who had gone through the first betrayal,
said disdainfully, "Hmph, what a bunch of