When Da Fei went online again, the radiance from Sanctuary of God disappeared and the remains of the pirate ship and the corpse of the Great White Shark were still present. As expected of a divine item that could stop time.
—System Message: A new day on the sea has started, you obtained sea EXP +100.
This was probably the daily free EXP from the Voyager profession. Speaking of which, Voyager and Nautical Skill were quite similar in meaning, but it was the difference between a profession and a skill, they weren't of the same level. In this case, would there be a hidden profession for Attack Skill like attacker profession and defense profession for defense skill? Ha.
Whatever the case, SV Fly started drifting on the sea again.
There wasn't anyone pulling the ship for him now, how long would he need to drift on the sea? He had already completed the Trial Mission, right? From now on, whatever he encountered would be the real thing. Without any assistance and hidden trump cards now, it would depend on God's will whether he could keep his ship if he met any obstacle.
A day had passed in the game world. Da Fei didn't sleep well the night before and he drank beer this afternoon, so he was feeling sleepy now. He turned on the System alarm to the highest volume and took an afternoon nap.
Not sure how long later, the System alarm woke Da Fei up!
—System Message: Warning from the Reconnaissance Skill! Three unidentified ships are approaching! Please be alert!
Da Fei was instantly alarmed and took out his binocular to take a look. Pirates! Again! He was done for, he wouldn't be able to prevent his ship from being seized this time!
Da Fei smiled bitterly and shook his head. In the end, the reward of getting a ship from the Trial was just a gimmick, the system wasn't so generous as to really give him such a large ship, right? It was finally time to take back the ship, it was really just a fake surprise.
Fight with his life? That would be futile! The most important thing now was obviously to bring the ballista with him and prepare to escape. He should try to preserve as many things as he can.
Da Fei hurriedly went to disassemble the ballista. In the meantime, the pirate ships were getting closer and closer. Finally, with a shake of the ship, the ships got into contact! The pirates flocked onto his ship yelling and shouting.
Sounds of footsteps came from upstairs as Da Fei finally disassembled and kept the last piece of the ballista.
Thud! Thud! The pirates came down into the cabin. Seeing this, Da Fei sighed, then waved his hands and said, "Kill me if you want to! I'm the Captain of this ship!"
A few pirates came up and held their blades against his neck, then shoved him up onto the deck. Huh? Why didn't they just kill me directly? Their names are in red, obviously meaning that they are enemies, right? Could it be that I encountered another story plot?
A tall and bulky man with a long beard glanced at Da Fei and coldly said, "Which division are you from?"
Da Fei's eyebrows jumped! Which division? Was this a code to see if he was a pirate too? Did he look like a pirate to them? Was this another Trial? It shouldn't be, there shouldn't be so many Trials. It was not like the system was a welfare home or something.
Da Fei could only say, "I'm just a newbie, not from any division." Just speak the truth and leave the rest to fate.
A cold light flashed in Big Beard's eyes. "This is your ship?"
Why waste time asking, it's going to be your ship immediately! Da Fei could only say, "I'm the Captain."
Big Beard asked again, "You're the one who killed the shark?"
Da Fei numbly said, "Yes, I killed it."
Big Beard laughed loudly and said, "Tow the ship away!"
Thus, the three pirate ships used metal chains to tow Da Fei's ship and started to return to where they came from. They also took control of his ship and managed the sails. The ships instantly sailed away in the sea.
It was really different once there were enough members to manage the ship. But Da Fei was even more puzzled now. They didn't seem like enemies, did they? Did he really trigger another story plot? He should ask questions to find out, although he knew that he would probably be beaten for talking too much.
He asked, "Where are you guys taking me?"
Big Beard laughed loudly and said, "You will know soon." Then, he waved his hand and a pirate instantly covered Da Fei's head with a black sack. Fine, I get it. You guys are bringing me to your base, right? Looks like I really am not in danger. If not, they could have just killed me and saved the trouble.
Since I can't see anything now, I might as well go to the official website and check for information on pirates.
There were many islands on Hero Continent, the ideal places for pirates to build their bases. Therefore, there were a lot of pirates around this area. Players who focused on developing on the sea wouldn't need to worry about leveling spots. As for the pirates, there were a few major factions amongst them, which were the Innocent Pirates, Blood Raider Pirates, Bloodsail Pirates, Barren Pirates, and the New Caribbean pirates led by Pirate King Red Beard, who established his power in the New World. The bases of these major factions were all very secretive, even the navy forces of the big nations didn't dare to easily attack them.
The pirates were the common enemies of everyone who sailed the sea. Between the different pirate factions, they would also have quarrels and fight amongst themselves. In such a situation where Da Fei was captured but not killed, it would probably be that he really triggered a story plot. He had no choice now but to take things as it came and see how it went.
After a long time, he could hear noises, and loud waves of laughter could be heard from outside the area of their ships. Da Fei could see again as the sack was removed from his head. In front of him was an island port, in which many pirate ships were parked. The shore was littered with wooden cabins closely built together. Da Fei looked around and saw that other small islands surrounded this island too. This was probably the pirates base?
Big Beard laughed loudly and said, "Newbie, welcome to Barren Island. I shall bring you to see my leader, Captain Rock. When he asks you questions later, just answer him no matter what he asks if you don't want to suffer, hahahaha!"
Captain Rock! Barren Pirates! This is a major faction! What the heck, what's going on?
The pirate fleet lowered the sails and docked at the port. The pirates onshore all excitedly gathered around and snickered. "Haha, you guys actually robbed such a big ship!"
"Barak is going to make a fortune this time!"
"Huh, such a large shark?"
Big Beard waved his hand at the crowd and said, "Drag the shark up, peel the skin properly!"
The crowd all responded excitedly, "This shark skin is definitely of top-quality! It can definitely be made into high-quality sharkskin armor!"
Big Beard and the rest of his people brought Da Fei with them onshore and proceeded to the streets. Da Fei looked around the town curiously. There was a shipyard, a blacksmith shop, an equipment shop, a tavern, and everything else necessary. Especially the many taverns on the streets, he could hear coarse waves of laughter and music coming from them.
Although small, this island had all the essential things a town required.
Shortly later, Da Fei was brought in front of a large house. Big Beard didn't knock and directly pushed him inside, at the same time shouting, "Boss, I brought you something fun."
Once he went in, Da Fei could see a big-sized man with a naked upper-body whose face was covered in scars. A few beautiful ladies thinly dressed were serving him beer and massaging his legs. Compared to this large-sized body that was comparable to a bear, those petite women were totally like… The difference in body size, were they really usable…
This scar-faced man was naturally the leader of the Barren Pirates, Rock. This information could be found on the official website too. Without question, he was an Epic-level Hero.
Rock laughed loudly and said, "Barak, I heard that you robbed a large ship?"
Big Beard shook his head and said, "I haven't robbed it yet, I only met an interesting fellow—this guy."
Rock stared at Da Fei and laughed, then said, "Kid, you have quite a promising future, creating so much havoc and having a large ship at such a young age. It will really be a pity if you don't become a pirate. How is it? Join us, I will groom you to become one of the best pirates in the world and live the most carefree and unrestrained life in the world!"
—System Message: Pirate Leader Rock is giving you a hidden profession advancement "Pirate", do you agree?
—Junior Pirate: The uncrowned king who controls the ocean. Each level increases the unit's sea damage by 10% and the ship's speed by 5%. The effect directly stacks with Attack Skill and Nautical Skill. Each level gains a free attribute point and an automatically assigned Attack attribute point.
—Professional expertise: Able to train the unit type, Pirate Warrior. Learning this expertise requires a Skill Point.
—Pirate Warrior: Attack: 10, Defense: 2, Damage: 6-10, Health Points: 35, Attack Speed: 14, Movement Speed: 12, Special Skill: Boatmanship, Flying Axe, Sensitive Dodge, War Looting.
—Novice Guide: Once you advance to the Pirate profession, you will become the enemy of the kingdom. Please choose carefully.
Da Fei finally understood! The reason they didn't kill him was that he was a newbie who hadn't made any advancement yet, plus the fact that he was an infamous Red Name, meeting the conditions for advancing into a Pirate! He didn't expect that players could advance into the Pirate profession too, he thought that this was only reserved for the NPCs. During the open beta, although there were many players who robbed others on the sea and claimed themselves as pirates, they weren't really pirates, only normal Red Names.
This was troublesome. This was the main professional, not a sub-profession like Voyager. The Red Name could be slowly washed away, but once he became a Pirate, he could only be a Pirate for life!
He didn't want to become a Pirate, that would really be making an enemy of all the NPCs and players other than pirates. Although this was what he loved most in the past, he was planning to become a professional gamer in order to earn money now, not for fun. Other things aside, if he became a Red Name Pirate, how was he supposed to trade his gold coins to the intermediary customer service? Ask the Level 1 customer service newbie to come to meet him in a secret spot on the beach? That was not possible.
Also, being a pirate meant fighting all day and constantly repairing this and that. The money robbed from others wouldn't even be enough for him to spend! Were pirates really carefree and chic? If they really were, they wouldn't need to be stuck on this island. The African lions were the kings of the grasslands, but they still starved most of the time. Prey wasn't that easy to catch. The number of lions that died to the horns of African bison was more than the number of African bison that were eaten by lions. When a lion got injured, it would be akin to starving to death. Similarly, pirates that depended on ships for a living would end up terribly once their ships got destroyed.
Not to mention that he still had an Epic mission to complete. If he became a pirate, he wouldn't be able to enter the cities anymore, not to mention meeting Duke Markal. His Epic mission would directly be wasted.
In short, he wouldn't become a pirate, there wasn't any future in it. He was a good citizen filled with positive energy, that was for sure.
Da Fei instantly rejected and said, "I won't become a pirate." At most, they could only kill him. He didn't believe that NPCs wouldn't directly kill him all the way to Level 0.
Big Beard was furious and said, "Kid, how did you think you preserved your ship! Don't be too full of yourself!"
Rock waved his hand and laughed loudly, then said, "It's fine, let him take a look around first. He will naturally come and find me after he thinks it through."
Big Beard coldly humphed and said, "Yes, Boss. Boss, continue to enjoy yourself." Saying so, he grabbed Da Fei, got out of the room, and then threw Da Fei on the ground like throwing rubbish and walked away.