The Lin Yuan's First Crew Member

"Do I look like I have a ship?" Lin Yuan was exasperated by Lilia's question.

"You don't have a ship?!" Lilia's jaw component clattered to the ground.

She hurriedly picked up her jaw and fitted it back into place, then looked at Lin Yuan with pity.

"You mean you're an unlucky bastard who doesn't even have a ship, and you've swum all this way across the sea on your own?"

"Then you're even worse off than I am. At least I have a coffin to lie in."

"Forget it. Since I answered the call, I won't hold your poverty against you. Bring out the contract."

Those few remarks made Lin Yuan's face darken.

This woman wasn't very smart or very strong, but she really knew how to make people want to punch her.

Wasn't she afraid someone would hit her?

Oh, right. She could resurrect endlessly. She really wasn't afraid.

Fine, you win.

"Never mind that. About that contract..."

Lin Yuan wisely refrained from arguing with her and instead tried to explain that he didn't know anything about a contract either.

Suddenly, he sensed something, and a thought stirred in his mind.

Inside the "Lin Yuan Blueprint" scene, something happened to the mysterious box at the very center of the treasure collection room.

Without Lin Yuan doing anything, the box's lid opened a crack on its own, faintly revealing seven-colored light swirling inside.

A wisp of light flowed through the gap and condensed into a scroll in midair.

Four large characters were written on it-Contract of Fate.

Once the contract had formed, the mysterious box closed automatically. No matter how hard Lin Yuan tried, it showed no sign of opening again.

"What exactly is this box? My name is clearly engraved on it, but it won't follow my commands. It's like it has plans of its own."

Now that he thought about it, the call Lilia had sensed had probably come from this mysterious box too.

He didn't know what the box wanted to do, but inexplicably, he felt he could trust it from the bottom of his heart.

Feelings were one thing, but Lin Yuan still read the contract carefully from beginning to end.

The contract was very brief.

Just as Lilia had declared earlier, once she signed this contract, her fate and Lin Yuan's would be linked forever, inseparable.

As a crew member, Lilia would have to follow Lin Yuan's orders and harbor no thoughts of betrayal.

In return, she would permanently receive the status of a crew member aboard the Lin Yuan.

There were also a few detailed clauses, but none affected the overall arrangement.

The more Lin Yuan read, the more it looked like a contract for unpaid labor.

The sort that would get even a capitalist an earful from the wage slaves if they offered it.

Was being a crew member aboard his Lin Yuan really worth that much?

At least, Lin Yuan himself couldn't see it.

After some thought, Lin Yuan handed the contract to Lilia anyway.

"It took you that long just to find a contract? Why do you seem a little dim?"

Lilia took the contract, grumbling as she wrote and drew on it with her finger.

"Why don't you read the terms... Forget it!"

Lin Yuan silently reminded himself not to stoop to arguing with an idiot.

Although he didn't understand why Lilia was willing to sign what looked like a contract for unpaid labor, she was free labor he was getting for nothing, so Lin Yuan decided to put up with her infuriating remarks.

Once signed, the contract disappeared automatically, and Lin Yuan felt a mysterious connection form between himself and Lilia.

Inside the "Lin Yuan Blueprint," the previously empty crew cabin also became "Crew Member Lilia's Living Quarters."

Lin Yuan understood that he couldn't recruit any more crew until he upgraded the ship and built new crew cabins.

"In that case, the other players should be the occupants of their own cabins, so they can't recruit crew until they upgrade their ships later."

"And are crew members natives of this sea, or can players become other players' crew members too?"

"What benefits are there to becoming a crew member?"

Lin Yuan sank into thought.

Seeing this, Lilia nudged Lin Yuan's uninjured arm with her elbow.

"One-armed captain, what are we doing now?"

Lilia's words snapped Lin Yuan out of his thoughts, and he suddenly remembered something.

"I'm being such an idiot. If I have questions, I can just ask her!"

Wasn't his newly recruited crew member already proving useful?

Lin Yuan immediately turned his head.

"Lilia, I have a few questions for you."

"Oh? What don't you understand? Ask away. Lady Lilia will tell you anything she knows~" Lilia planted her hands on her hips, seemingly quite pleased that she could answer Lin Yuan's questions.

"Why did you insist on becoming my crew member?"

"Huh? Do I need a reason to become a crew member?"

"...Yes."

"Well, I can't really explain it either. After that summoning voice woke me up all groggy, I just felt that was what I should do." Lilia spoke as she struggled a little to think.

"Besides, I have a feeling that if I don't have a ship of my own and can't become a crew member on another ship in time, something bad will happen."

That could happen?

Lilia's words made Lin Yuan's heart skip a beat.

People who weren't particularly smart often had the most accurate instincts. What she said could very well be true.

It seemed that "ships" were far more important in this mysterious sea than he had imagined.

Thinking of it that way, his fusion with the ship panel seemed even more troublesome.

"By the way, how much do you know about this sea?"

"Huh?" The puppet girl looked blank. "The sea is just the sea."

"I mean the things about this sea that defy common sense, like the layers of the underwater world, or Transcendent Creatures and such."

"Uh..." The puppet girl thought for a moment, then thumped her head, making hollow knocking sounds. "That's strange. I feel like I should know all this, but somehow I just can't remember."

"Maybe I'm muddled from sleeping too long!" she finally concluded.

Lin Yuan rolled his eyes, immediately feeling that he had expected far too much of this unreliable crew member.

But Lilia scratched her head again.

"Still, speaking of Transcendent Creatures, aren't you one yourself?"

"How am I a Transcendent Creature? I'm human..." Lin Yuan stopped halfway through, suddenly feeling uncertain.

In his current state, was he really still human?

But Lilia's focus was elsewhere.

"Human? Aren't humans Transcendent Creatures too? Oh, I suppose some aren't? But everyone becomes a Transcendent Creature eventually. Those who don't can't survive long at sea."

"Besides, are you really human?" Lilia looked Lin Yuan up and down, disbelief filling her eyes.

"A... human who can blow me apart barehanded, attack the coffin without dying, keep swimming around at sea without a ship, and even sign a crew contract with me?"

"Ahem, let's leave that aside. Speaking of Transcendent Creatures, I ran into something huge earlier..." Not wanting to dwell on the subject, Lin Yuan began describing the dark shape he had first seen.

That encounter had left him unsettled ever since, and he was desperate for any information about it.

"Sounds like something from the Main Sea. There are lots of things like that there. Nothing unusual." This time, Lilia finally provided some useful information.

"The Main Sea?"

"The Shallow Sea, the Main Sea, the Deep Sea, and the Abyssal Sea. The farther down you go, the more dangerous it gets."

"How many meters down does the Main Sea start?"

"Anywhere from a hundred to a thousand meters counts. Below that is the Deep Sea."

"That deep? Then that thing must be really powerful!" Lin Yuan's brow twitched as he listened.

The human-faced fish he had encountered twenty meters down was already quite bizarre. A being from a hundred meters down, or even close to a thousand... Lin Yuan hardly dared imagine it.

"Not really. Only things from the Deep Sea and below count as powerful, but they can't get here."

"They can't get here?"

"Uh, I'm not too sure either. I just vaguely feel that this sea is a little special. Things below the Deep Sea can't reach it, and even things from the Main Sea have a very hard time getting here."

Was that why this sea was called Paradise?

Lin Yuan pondered this.

But if Lilia was right, things from the Main Sea could actually reach Paradise. It would just take time and effort.

That was why the dark shape had disappeared back then.

"By the way, you said that thing wasn't powerful. How strong is it, exactly?" Lin Yuan asked curiously.

"Oh, things from the Main Sea are all trash. At most, they're only a hundred times stronger than you, Captain," Lilia said casually.

"...Lilia."

"Hmm?"

"You should really be grateful you can resurrect endlessly, and that you have a coffin that can't be smashed apart."