A shipwright would not be insulted

Zhao Yuechuan pushed up his glasses irritably.

"Arrogant brat! Even God himself couldn't fix this ship. It'll sink within two weeks at sea! Kid, stop pretending you know what you're talking about."

Qin Mao shot back provocatively, "Just tell me whether you dare."

Zhao Yuechuan almost laughed in anger.

He wasn't stupid. Seeing that none of the three captains beside him spoke up to stop this, he knew they were all using him as a whetstone to test whether the kid's skills were real.

"Fine, let's do it!"

"Tell me! How are you going to fix it? What materials do you need?"

"Let me make this clear first: this isn't a shipyard repair shop. We don't have a lot of the materials or heavy equipment."

"And we can't give you too much time, either. The weather at sea is unpredictable, and we might run into weird creatures. Don't think you can drag this out for ten days or half a month."

"No need. The lumber and sheet metal piled up here will do."

Qin Mao spoke calmly, as though fixing a ship was as easy for him as brewing a pot of tea or drinking a glass of water.

"About ten minutes. If I can't fix it, I'll jump in and feed the sharks. If I fix it, you'll be my live bait for an hour. Very fair."

"All right, kid!"

Zhao Yuechuan gave a vicious grin, his temper flaring too. He would have to teach this youngster a lesson shortly, to make him understand that big talk came at a price.

But then again...

The kid sounded so certain and dared to demand so much. Could he really fix it?

He'd better not be some supernatural hiding his strength!

Just as he was wavering, Su Miaomiao covered her face and delivered the final straw with words full of hatred.

"Brother Zhao, bet against him! He won't give up until he hits a dead end. He doesn't know the first thing about ship repair, and he doesn't have that many supplies. He's bluffing!"

Qin Mao thought, What a venomous woman. Well done!

Sure enough, Zhao Yuechuan's breathing grew heavy. After hesitating for a few seconds, he gritted his teeth.

"Fine! You've got a bet. Ten minutes!"

"Don't think you can fool us! Engineer Xu will judge. You have to fix it so it doesn't leak and can make normal long-distance voyages at sea!"

"Oh, no problem."

Qin Mao nodded indifferently in agreement.

"All right, you can start."

The hesitation on Zhao Yuechuan's face quickly faded, replaced by a serious expression.

He didn't believe anyone could repair the [Yaximu], damaged by an Eight-Eyed Ice Weird Spider, under these apocalyptic conditions.

Ten minutes? What a joke!

That wasn't even enough time to nail two planks together!

Surely he couldn't pull out Dora-A-Cat's Time-Wrapping Cloth, Repair Beam, or some kind of powerful glue!

As for supernaturals?

The fleet already had three supernaturals, and none had done anything about this hole.

That proved supernaturals weren't omnipotent, either!

Thinking this way, Zhao Yuechuan immediately felt much better, his confidence returning all at once.

He wanted to see how this kid would get himself out of this mess!

He would also use this opportunity to tell everyone: a shipwright would not be insulted!

"Hey, why haven't you started? Don't know where to begin?"

He demanded viciously.

"You're not worthy of watching me repair a ship!"

Qin Mao snorted, hefting the Ram's Horn Hammer in his hand as his gaze swept over everyone in the cabin.

"None of you are!"

"You!"

Feeling insulted, Zhao Yuechuan was about to explode when Yang Fan interrupted him.

"Come on, Engineer Zhao. Let's wait outside."

With that, Yang Fan led the way out.

Ye Xuanyin and Yan Qi followed with calm expressions.

Every supernatural had their own secrets. It was perfectly normal not to want others to see them.

Seeing all three captains leave, the others didn't dare stay any longer and hurried out too.

"Kid, ten minutes! Just ten minutes! I'll be back after a smoke!"

"I'd like to see how you fix it!"

Zhao Yuechuan threw out those harsh words and was the last to leave.

On deck, Yang Fan and the other two stood with the people from the [Yaximu].

Around forty or fifty people crowded the deck, making it rather cramped.

"Captain Yang, can he fix it in ten minutes?" Ye Xuanyin asked.

Yang Fan frowned in thought.

"Every Sequence has its wonders. We still know too little about them. But I think ten minutes is still asking too much... After all, supernaturals aren't omnipotent, unless they're a high-level Sequence..."

"Hey, my friend, he only left the ship a week ago. He's been awakened for a week at most. There's no way he's Sequence 2 or Sequence 3. Even the eagles of Tianshan can't fly that fast!"

The three talked as they waited, passing those ten minutes.

Suddenly, Yang Fan cried out, "Oh no! This is bad!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"What's wrong, my dear friend?"

Yang Fan's expression changed abruptly as he spoke anxiously.

"Do you remember what he said earlier? He said the pirate ship he was on exploded!"

"Right, so?" Ye Xuanyin asked blankly.

"Think about it! The ship exploded, but he was perfectly fine!" Yang Fan explained urgently.

"And now he's told us to wait on deck for ten minutes!"

"Ah, my friend, you mean he wants to..." Yan Qi's mouth fell open.

Ye Xuanyin immediately caught on too.

"He wants to use the same trick to blow us up! And take our supplies!"

Yang Fan nodded vigorously.

"It's possible! He might not even have awakened the [Apocalypse Shipwright] Sequence, but some highly offensive Sequence like [Demolitionist] or [Pillaging Pirate]!"

"Quick, get the survivors onto the other two ships, then move the [Rose] and the [Hope] farther away so they don't get caught in the blast!"

"In any case... you can never be too careful in the apocalypse!"

Under the sunlight, on the Azure Moon Sea.

A hurried population transfer began on a stretch of water.

The survivors were rapidly transferred to the two ships beside them, making the vessels sit much lower in the water.

Then they sailed several dozen meters away, keeping well clear of the [Yaximu].

Qin Mao knew nothing of this.

Right at the start, when he had examined the damage with his hammer in hand, he had already used the system to check how many Kill Points the repair would require.

[Ding-host's Kill Points balance detected: 2,650. Spend 700 Kill Points to repair the vessel?]

"Repair!"

This hole was much like the one on Wang Tai's ship, except that it was in a trickier spot, on the bottom of the hull. It didn't require many Kill Points, either.

He genuinely intended to join this fleet, so naturally he couldn't leave any hidden problems in his teammates' ship.

He didn't skimp on a single Kill Point.

He, Qin Mao, was only ruthless toward his enemies, and ruthless in order to survive.

But he was still very friendly toward friends and people who hadn't provoked him.

Besides, this was his first time putting his skills to use since joining the Hope Fleet.

He had to do a beautiful job and leave a deep impression on everyone!

[Repairing...]

A gust of wind rose out of nowhere at the bottom of the ship.

Then came the sounds of sawing planks, hammering nails, tearing steel... countless sounds rang out at once.

Amid a clattering symphony, the damaged section of the [Yaximu]'s cabin rapidly transformed, like an edited video sped up over a hundred times, or an unbelievable scene from a cartoon.

In less than a minute, the hull was fully repaired.