The next day, the wind and rain stopped, and the sky finally cleared. By the time a ray of sunlight fell on Ye Chen, he had reached his limit.
His eyelids felt as though a massive stone were weighing them down. At last, he could no longer keep them open. Yet even after he passed out, his right hand remained clamped around Lucci like a vise. The two drifted with the waves, with no idea what fate awaited them.
After an unknown stretch of time, a Small Boat approached from the distance. Two men sat aboard, one fat and one thin. They had scars on their faces and steel blades at their waists. Neither looked like a law-abiding civilian.
"Rand, we've been out here so long without running into a single pirate. We're almost out of money. At this rate, we'll starve to death."
The two were Bounty Hunters who usually targeted Pirates with small bounties. But after months at sea, they had managed only one job between them: killing a minor Pirate worth 500,000 Beli. The money was nearly gone. They stared out at the vast sea with long faces, heads drooping as they sighed.
The thin Pirate, Yas, suddenly cried out in excitement. "Hey, look over there! I think there are people in the water."
"Yas, what nonsense are you talking about? There isn't a soul out here. How could there be people?"
Rand grumbled irritably. Hard was about to take a drink to ease his weariness, only to find his flask empty.
With a helpless sigh, Rand slumped onto the Small Boat. "Good grief. If we don't find a pirate soon, we'll have nothing to live on."
"There... there really are people! Wake up! We might be rich! If they're shipwrecked Pirates, all we have to do