Spoils of War

The baby-faced girl's eyes went wide.

Not fleeing at a time like this, but sailing openly in public waters—and with that mysterious skeleton at the helm, plus the skull pattern on the sail...

Ling Chu's identity was practically screaming itself out.

No way, no way—the pirate who took out four people and scared the entire nearby channel into silence was actually a girl?!

Ling Chu caught the baby-faced girl's gaze. She must have noticed that Teach was a skeleton—would she scream and run away in terror, or panic and attack? She waited quietly for her reaction.

But to her surprise, the baby-faced girl cupped her cheeks, her eyes sparkling as if she'd spotted some novel toy.

"That skeleton... is it your summon? That's way too cool!!!"

"Uh..."

Ling Chu really hadn't expected this reaction. Then again, she did think Teach looked pretty cool herself.

She nodded. "Sort of. I've got some things to do, can't chat long."

She only had ten minutes to stay in public waters, and she was in a hurry.

[Cuttlefish Ball has sent you a friend request.]

Cuttlefish Ball... wasn't that the verbal warrior who'd taken on the whole channel?

Ling Chu had a favorable impression of her too, so she accepted the friend request.

Cuttlefish Ball watched Ling Chu sail away. When Ling Chu had approached earlier, she'd been on guard too. As a special class, she had her own unique survival tricks.

But her gut told her Ling Chu wasn't a bad person—or at least, not someone who'd kill indiscriminately.

Her instincts had never been wrong.

Still, a pirate who could summon a skeleton minion was way too cool. She suddenly felt her astrologer class wasn't all that great anymore.

Ling Chu sailed openly through public waters, making no effort to hide her fluttering pirate sail.

She was already famous in the nearby channel anyway. Flaunting her identity now would actually scare off any players thinking of lingering.

The effect was obvious. Players who'd stayed behind to dig up more sea urchins, upon spotting her bold sail, immediately lit up with white light, practically teleporting out of public waters on the spot.

Ling Chu first found an unmanned raft—likely belonging to the first person who'd ambushed her.

[You have dismantled an unmanned raft, gaining 10 Wood, 2 Cloth.]

[The raft's storage contains: Wheat Bread*200g, Cabbage*2, Rotten Fish Meat*100g, Mineral Water*1 Bottle, Seaweed*13, Wood*21, Cloth*15, Old Grappling Hook*1. Automatically transferred to your ship's storage.]

That poor?

No wonder that guy had ambushed her—he must have been desperate.

Ling Chu took the rotten fish meat out of storage and tossed it. That stuff was really polluting her hold.

With no other players' sailboats interfering, she quickly found the remaining three small sailboats.

[You have dismantled a Small Sailboat, gaining Wood*20, Cloth*5, Seagrass*10, Iron Ore*1, Dull Pearl*1.]

[The sailboat's storage resources have been automatically transferred to your raft's storage.]

With less than a minute left before she'd be kicked out, Ling Chu hurriedly dismantled all three small sailboats, then teleported out of public waters.

The sudden pitch-black sky and the violent waves beneath her feet told Ling Chu she'd been transported to an unfamiliar sea.

Ling Chu first placed the Pom-Pom Sea Urchin decoration she'd gotten this time inside her cabin. It was a simulated plush toy, soft to the touch, and could even double as a pillow.

Her ship's durability had also reached 13, which gave her a strong sense of security.

Ling Chu took out the Mysterious Fruit she'd earned from the public challenge and ate it.

This Mysterious Fruit was a yellow she'd never seen before.

Of the six character attributes, the only ones she hadn't eaten fruits for were Constitution and Charm.

Can't find the book by title? Try searching by author—maybe it just changed names!

She took a bite. The taste was oddly similar to a fruit called "physalis" from the north, and it was pretty good.

[You have consumed a Mysterious Fruit. Constitution +1.]

Ling Chu's Constitution was the lowest of her attributes, sitting at just 5 points. After eating, it reached 6—the passing grade for an ordinary person.

In common terms, she was fragile and couldn't take a hit.

Ling Chu felt this attribute wasn't as important as Agility or Strength. If you had enough power to one-shot an enemy, or enough speed to dodge attacks, why bother tanking hits?

Too bad the Mysterious Fruit couldn't be chosen for its attribute; otherwise, she definitely wouldn't have prioritized Constitution.

After eating the fruit, Ling Chu began tallying the spoils she'd confiscated from those three unlucky bastards' ship storages. Small sailboats were bound to be richer than rafts.

Four pieces of Iron Ore, over three hundred each of Wood, Seagrass, and Cloth, over a hundred each of Charcoal and Glass, five Dull Pearls, over a hundred Pom-Pom Sea Urchins, and over a hundred Crown-of-Thorns Starfish.

For food, there were over a dozen Wheat Breads, five Tomatoes, seven or eight ordinary Sea Fish, two Squid, one Smoked Ham, two baskets of Cherries, two baskets of Peaches, and one basket of Eggs.

Compared to fish she could catch herself or staple foods like Wheat Bread, Ling Chu valued fruit more. Aside from getting lucky with islands, fruit could only be pulled from system blind boxes—it was rare.

What surprised her even more were two fruit saplings—one Cherry Tree Sapling and one Banana Tree Sapling.

On top of that, there were two blueprints and one recipe.

[Automatic Fishing Platform Blueprint]

[Place fishing rod and bait to automatically fish; after catching a fish, the rod must be manually recast.]

[Crafting requires 30 Wood, 20 Seagrass, 10 Cloth.]

[Automatic Fishing Net]

[Installed on the deck edge to automatically collect floating debris from the sea surface; stack limit 50 units.]

[Crafting requires 30 Wood, 30 Seagrass.]

[Paralysis Potion Recipe]

[Effect: Induces a brief paralysis upon use; duration depends on potion quality and the user's physique. Can also be applied to weapons.]

[This recipe requires the ordinary profession Herbalist or the special profession Alchemist to view and craft.]

Ling Chu remembered that the first two blueprints seemed to have been obtained from dismantling one of the small sailboats, so dismantling a sailboat had a chance of yielding blueprints for installed equipment?

The third one was a recipe requiring specific professions to use—no wonder they'd left it in the warehouse untouched. Ling Chu first stored the recipe in her ring, planning to find a trustworthy Herbalist later to craft it.

The materials needed for the first two items were a drop in the bucket for a resource tycoon like Ling Chu.

She immediately crafted ten Automatic Fishing Nets and two Automatic Fishing Platforms. She had the Lucky Frozen Octopus Fishing Rod and a Novice Fishing Rod on her, so two platforms were just enough.

She took out two Planting Pots, planted the Cherry Sapling and Banana Sapling in them, and placed them alongside the Ghost Thorn Seedling. Both the Cherry Tree and Banana Tree showed a maturation time of fifteen days.

Ling Chu assigned Titch, her Henchman, the task of watering the three saplings daily and regularly collecting whatever the nets hauled in. The net's stack limit was only 50, so exceeding it would be wasteful.

"Understood, Captain."

Titch agreed without hesitation.

The Public Challenge had been exhausting. After sorting through her gains, Ling Chu was so hungry she felt like her chest was stuck to her back.

She directly took out two Supreme Wagyu Pizzas to eat. In her Ring Space, the pizzas were still warm. She also brought out some Cherries from this haul, washed them with Freshwater, and opened two Pompom Sea Urchins to eat as sashimi.

The pizza was warm and filling, the Cherries plump and bursting with juice at every bite, and the Pompom Sea Urchin was deliciously fresh, melting on her tongue with a single press.

Her current warehouse held nearly eight hundred Pompom Sea Urchins. Even eating them daily, she could last a year, but since they were so tasty, Ling Chu had no intention of selling them. She'd noticed that creatures here seemed to grow in specific zones—what if she never encountered a Pompom Sea Urchin zone again and craved this taste? Better to stockpile.

She also had over two hundred Long-spined Sea Stars on her. She wouldn't want to eat them even if offered, but she didn't know what else they were good for, and tossing them felt wasteful. Since her Ring Space was large, she just piled them in a corner.

Before she knew it, the sky had darkened.

Full and satisfied, Ling Chu was about to take advantage of the Double Luck effect still active to open her Blind Boxes and Treasure Chests. She'd just taken out a chest when a system prompt suddenly appeared.

[Congratulations to all players for safely surviving the three-day Novice Protection Period. Game difficulty, the probability of encountering abnormal creatures, and the probability of Public Challenges will significantly increase.]

[A Sea Storm will descend in ten minutes. Ships with a Durability Value below 5 points will be destroyed by the storm. Players, please take protective measures.]