Competitor Appears

"Hand it over! Hand over the Golden City Key!"

Out on the sea, a Fishman riding on a shark's back raised a drumstick made of red coral and roared loudly. But to the sailors aboard the ship, his voice was nothing more than meaningless gurgling...

Only Liu Zhi, who was fighting the third Tide Warrior, understood what he meant. He couldn't help but look toward the source of the voice.

Several lines of text appeared before him.

[Warning: A change has been detected in information related to the Identity Compulsory Quest. Retrieving Identity Compulsory Quest information.]

[Prompt: Identity Compulsory Quest—Curse of the Golden City. Within thirty days, use the appropriate item to discover and master a Necromancer skill. Your rating will be adjusted according to the skill's level.]

[Warning: The Novice Quest has intervened. The Identity Compulsory Quest has changed.]

[Prompt: Novice Quest—Survival Game. Survive for one hundred and eighty days in the game through your own efforts. Your rating will be adjusted according to survival time and learning ability.]

[Warning: The duration of the Novice Quest conflicts with that of the Identity Compulsory Quest. The Identity Compulsory Quest duration has been adjusted to one hundred and eighty days.]

[Warning: The difficulty of the Identity Compulsory Quest has been reduced. In accordance with Supplementary Rule DR-663, the quest difficulty has been adjusted. A Competitor has been automatically generated.]

[Prompt: Competitor. An opponent or enemy with the same objective as the player. They will sabotage the player's quest through their actions. The standard for this Identity Compulsory Quest is one ordinary-level Competitor. Within thirty days, they will not affect the player's actions. From thirty to ninety days, the Competitor will use various methods to sabotage the player's actions. From ninety to one hundred and eighty days, the Competitor will hunt the player down.]

The information made Liu Zhi understand what was going on. Just then, he saw the pair of sinister eyes belonging to the Fishman on the shark's back.

"So you're here. Go, seize him for me..."

Liu Zhi shuddered and nearly jumped out of his skin. Damn it, didn't the prompt say the Competitor wouldn't affect the player's actions? Why was he attacking already?

Under the Fishman's command, most of the Tide Warriors surged toward this ship, startling the sailors aboard. Their vessel wasn't a warship to begin with and had few weapons. Now that the Fishmen had made it their primary target, the ship's defenses immediately became strained.

The captain also realized something was wrong. He sent signals to the nearby warships while shouting orders.

"Everyone to the deck! Where's the Chief Sailor? Organize the men to work the sails and prepare for a forced charge! Notify the other warships as well—have them assist us!"

Under the captain's orders, Liu Zhi saw a large number of sailors rush up from below deck. Some were already injured and clearly couldn't join the battle, but under the Chief Sailor's lead, each of them dragged a rope and pulled it with all their strength as directed.

Strangely enough, although the wind wasn't particularly strong, the ship's speed noticeably increased as they pulled the ropes.

If the ship had been traveling at ten knots before, its speed rose to around thirty knots as the ropes were hauled.

This caught the Fishman off guard. The ship successfully smashed through the Fishmen trying to board and burst out of the Tide Warriors' encirclement.

Yet under the Fishman's orders, the Tide Warriors ignored the other warships and relentlessly chased after this one.

The warships behind them found this unexpected. Since the Tide Warriors weren't attacking them, they could calmly launch ranged attacks from their decks.

Very quickly, the situation turned into Liu Zhi's ship fleeing ahead, with Tide Warriors and other Fishmen chasing behind in twos and threes, followed by the warships slowly giving chase. The sailors aboard those warships took out muskets and ballistae, picking off the Tide Warriors pursuing them from behind.

This was a severe blow to the Tide Warriors. The few scales on their bodies could block musket shots, but getting hit still hurt. As for the ballistae, those were massive weapons used aboard ships to hunt sharks and whales. One hit meant certain death.

The Fishman riding the shark grew irritated. He tried several times to change his orders, but on one hand, the Tide Warriors had swum too far away for his commands to reach every Fishman's ears. On the other, Fishmen simply weren't smart enough to handle two things at once.

His original command had been to seize Liu Zhi. Until that order was completed, other commands had little effect on them.

So after chasing for nearly an hour, the Fishman gave up on pursuing them any farther. He beat the heavy drum tied to the shark's back, notifying all the Fishmen to abandon the operation.

As he beat the drum, the Fishman stared at the departing sailing ship and tried hard to recall the pair of eyes he had seen. "I'll find you. You won't escape."

Liu Zhi knew nothing of this. He was lying on the stern deck of the sailing ship, staring intently at the slowly receding Fishmen. A powerful sense of danger filled him. These two quests looked completely unreliable. The game was full of bug fixes, and even after fixing them, it kept setting traps. Who would play a game like this?

Just then, the captain standing by the helm shouted, "Lower the sails slowly! All sailors, follow the Chief Sailor's orders! Don't panic! A forced charge can't be stopped abruptly, or we'll capsize! Remember, you must obey the Chief Sailor's commands!"

Under the captain's orders, the sailors handling the sails gathered up the ropes one by one and stepped aside.

The ship gradually slowed, eventually returning to a speed of ten knots.

The sailors freed from their work didn't leave immediately. They sat directly on the deck, relaxing their arms. It was clear that controlling those ropes had drained far too much of their strength.

As Liu Zhi walked down, he happened to see the Chief Sailor directing the last sailor to put down his rope. He noticed that the Chief Sailor seemed to be directing the sailors' movements rather than simply telling them to drop the ropes.

Was there some difference?

Liu Zhi couldn't help looking twice.

Then that voice that liked to offer him pointers sounded again.

"That's the Chief Sailor's ability, called Coordinated Control. Only by knowing who goes first and who follows, as well as how the wind is blowing, can you avoid throwing the ship into chaos. Ordinary sailors only know how to handle sails; they have no way to coordinate control. If they act recklessly, it often causes imbalances and may even capsize the ship."

Liu Zhi nodded, only half understanding.

Just then, Liu Zhi noticed a line of text flash before his eyes.

[Secondary Profession Sailor Upgrade Tree advancement requirements detected: Sailor—Chief Sailor (deck officer, navigator, helmsman, etc.)—First Mate (chief mate, second mate, chief of staff, etc.)—Captain.]

[Description: Like primary professions, Secondary Professions provide corresponding ability and attribute increases, and may even grant a certain degree of combat ability. However, they are not combat professions, and there is no limit to how many can be learned. In theory, as long as one has sufficient energy, one can learn endlessly. At the same time, Secondary Professions will have a certain influence on obtaining and changing primary professions.]