Ever since the failed ambush on the Amidal transport ship—where they missed capturing the two princes and the Slave Girl “Death-Life Ruler”—Molly had ordered the crew to remain on high alert. She had rerouted their course, turning what was once a half-day journey into a two or three-day voyage.
The pirates did not complain. They understood the gravity of the situation. Evading Amidal’s retaliation had been a pre-arranged topic of discussion. Molly, their leader, had claimed that as long as this raid was a grand success, they would only need to lay low for a while before she could grasp the power to rival Amidal. Having witnessed the strength Molly used to subjugate them, they believed her without question.
The reality, however, was that the three targets Molly cared about most had all escaped her grasp. The wealth gained from the raid had been used entirely to compensate other allied pirates for the damage caused when her powers spiraled out of control. All they had to show for it was a single Slave Girl and several other girls who might qualify for that status, all currently locked in iron cages and stripped bare.
For the allied pirates, despite the unpleasant appearance of the tsunami, the raid was considered a success. They had obtained treasure, weapons, food, and slaves. The reparations paid by Molly’s Sea Dragon ship left them satisfied.
Molly, however, knew she was standing on the edge of a precipice, where a single misstep would send her plunging into the abyss. She would have gladly traded all that wealth for Rinne Tenki. The racial talent of the Slave Girl “Death-Life Ruler” was the key to her leverage against Amidal. Without Rinne Tenki, this attack had done nothing but enrage the organization. At the thought of retaliation from that man, Molly felt a wave of exhaustion and dread.
This was a massive failure. She had underestimated Rinne Tenki’s strength.
‘I thought I had far surpassed her, yet I was nothing more than a ridiculous clown.’ At that moment, Rinne Tenki could have killed her, but she had suddenly stopped and left. Perhaps, to the other girl, she wasn’t even worth killing.
‘Molly is invincible…’ She no longer had the confidence to say such words. Even on the sea, where she held the geographic advantage, she was no match for Rinne Tenki. Rinne Tenki’s designation was 004, which meant there were at least four other Slave Girls more powerful than herself.
If Amidal wanted to execute her, they only needed to send one of them. Molly knew she would be a sitting duck, forced to wait for death.
However, that was only true if Amidal’s people could restrict her movements.
Molly’s final trump card was the ocean itself. She possessed the power to roam the seas freely. No matter who it was! No matter which Slave Girl it was! None of them could trap her!
‘The sea is formless! It has never known restraint!’ Molly firmly believed this.
If it came to that, she would simply stay at sea forever, never setting foot on land again.
Though it was a sorrowful fate, it was a reality she had to accept.
Due to the pressure from Amidal, Molly had been in an extremely irritable and gloomy state for the past few days. She was suspicious of every little movement, and today was no exception.
When she heard that her subordinates had found a suspicious person in the treasure vault who might be an Amidal spy, Molly’s first thought was to have them kill the captive on the spot. She didn’t even want to bother with an interrogation.
Her subordinates followed orders, but they returned within five minutes. Behind them followed a white-haired girl.
Molly narrowed her eyes as she looked at Shiro. It was an unfamiliar face, not one of the crew. Therefore, she had to be the suspicious person.
This was the largest cabin on the Sea Dragon. Aside from Molly, Vice Captain Raymon Hiroya, Chief Mate Pengpeng Rachel, and several other high-ranking pirates were present. Molly had gathered them to discuss how to handle Amidal’s retaliation, listing various strategies for a vote. Shiro appeared at the door like a discordant note in a musical movement.
After Shiro appeared, the noisy discussion fell silent.
Facing over a dozen cold gazes, Shiro didn’t feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. Instead, she calmly pulled up the status panels to check the information of the pirates present.
[Status Window]
Name: Pengpeng Rachel
Age: 44
Origin: Land of Woeful Calamity
Race: Human
Mana: White rank
Battle Qi: Diamond rank
Health: 99,998/100,000
Status: Healthy as an ox, severe obesity
Battle Qi: 100,000/100,000
Mana: 10/10
Martial Arts: [Flesh Bullet Tank] (Palatial Grade · Skilled) — Fat is power! Curl into a ball and roll at high speeds, triggering up to three ricochets. Possesses impact force greater than a steel cannonball! Damage multiplier increases with weight; minimum multiplier 100, maximum multiplier 5,000.
[War Roar] (War Grade Fragment · Skilled) — Battle only inspires greater courage! Within a 30-meter radius, the strength of all allies is doubled for 30 seconds.
Magic: [All-Hearing Ear] — The opposite of its name; this is a transmission spell! Very clear voice transmission. Consumes 0.1 Mana per person.
Favorability toward Shiro: 0 (You’re an eyesore)
[Status Window]
Name: Raymon Hiroya
Age: 43
Origin: Twin Wheel Demon Sea
Race: Human
Mana: Pseudo-Bronze rank
Battle Qi: Diamond rank
Health: 100,000/100,000
Status: Peak condition!
Battle Qi: 100,000/100,000
Mana: 100/100
Martial Arts: [Flame Flint Bullet] (Palatial Grade · Master) — Firearms are a man’s romance! Both hands harbor surging flames, forever in a state of readiness. Each finger can fire a flame bullet. Each shot consumes 100 Battle Qi. The same finger cannot fire consecutively within five minutes. Forcing a shot during cooldown will melt the finger into juice. Firing four bullets in succession (within 10-second intervals) turns the fifth shot into a Flame Flint Bullet. Flame Bullet damage multiplier: 5,500. Flame Flint Bullet damage multiplier: 20,000.
Magic: [All-Hearing Ear] — Voice transmission spell. Consumes 0.1 Mana per person.
Favorability toward Shiro: 0 (Is she an enemy? Is she an enemy?)
The basic information of the two strongest pirates—the only two Diamond-rank powerhouses—was displayed in golden text within gold-rimmed boxes. Shiro had many complaints she wanted to vent, but before that, she pulled up Molly’s character panel again.
[Status Window]
Name: Molly Cynthia
Age: 13
Origin: Twin Wheel Demon Sea
Race: Human/Sea Dragon Hybrid (Slave Girl)
Health: 9/10
Status: Mentally exhausted
Battle Qi: None
Mana: None
Magic: None
Martial Arts: None
Racial Talent: [Sea’s Royal Sacred Beast] — The supreme sovereign of the oceans; controlling the sea is inevitable!
If not for the status of Slave Girl, Shiro would have really thought Molly was just an ordinary girl, because an ordinary person without cultivation has a life force of 10.
After using the information panel ability multiple times, it wasn’t hard for Shiro to discover that for every rank a practitioner advanced, their life force—along with Mana and Battle Qi—increased tenfold. A Diamond-rank powerhouse was four ranks above an ordinary person, meaning their life force was 100,000.
Despite this, the pirate ship was still led by Molly. A 13-year-old girl was the captain, while two Diamond-rank powerhouses were her subordinates. Thus, for a Slave Girl, combat power was entirely unrelated to life force.
In the combat power column, Molly’s power was listed as “Unknown.” The other pirates had combat power exceeding twice their life force. Combat power naturally accounted for many aspects; besides constitution, there were factors like strength. Combat power represented the ability to survive—the survival of the fittest.
In Shiro’s view, the personal combat power formula was basically: Combat Power = Life Force + Strength. Equipment bonuses were disregarded for now.
Life force also had its own set of bonus formulas, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.
Calculated this way, her own combat power had exceeded 4; it was 14. Her current life force was 10, and her strength was 4. Using only strength to estimate combat power had been her mistake; she wasn’t a “scouter-breaking” weakling with less than 5 power after all.
Though compared to the pirates here, who had at least 100 combat power, she was still quite the weakling.
Shiro ended her thoughts and noticed the rising anger of the pirates. Given that her racial talent was useless here, any pirate in the room could take her down. If she couldn’t handle this situation, her end would likely be disastrous.
But there was no need to worry. To expose herself today and dare to come alone, Shiro naturally had a foolproof plan.
“I’m here to join up.”
Shiro pointed her thumb at herself, while her other hand lowered the cutlass she had been holding against the spine of the messenger lackey.
“Thanks for the hard work, little guide.” Shiro waved and smiled at the lackey as he scrambled away. She then turned her gaze back to the others. “So, the Sea Dragon Pirates’ attitude toward newcomers is to go straight to killing? That won’t do. That’s the worst way to run a business.”
Molly only needed a moment to realize what Shiro was referring to—it must have been her order to kill the suspicious person on sight.
“Who are you?” Vice Captain Raymon spoke on Molly’s behalf. Among the pirates present, his authority was the greatest, second only to Molly.
He saw through Shiro’s strength. She wasn’t even Bronze-rank and wasn’t enough of a threat to anyone in the room. However, just to be safe, he used eye contact and hand signals to alert everyone. If Shiro did anything suspicious, they would kill her instantly.
“My name is Shiro. Shiro Ifill Chlororm. That’s my current name.” Shiro felt that accepting her identity was beneficial for the plot’s development. “The basic introduction is half over. Next is my background. I used to be a noble, not long ago I was a slave, and now I want to be a pirate!”
Shiro finished with a very happy smile, making it seem as though she truly, sincerely wanted to be a pirate.
The reason for Shiro’s smile was simple. She was a lolicon—the terminal kind. The pirate leader, Molly, was a loli. She was sitting right in front of her, looking at her with a dark expression. In the future, she would have to get along well with this pirate loli. The thought alone made her feel incredibly cheerful.
Molly only thought Shiro’s gaze was disgusting. After hearing the introduction, she was even more convinced that Shiro was a weirdo.
Molly gestured to a few of her men to take Shiro away and subject her to the “seabed dragging punishment.” She didn’t want another freak bothering her at a time like this.
“Can you tell me the reason for the rejection?” Shiro asked, remaining calm as she watched the ill-intentioned pirates approach her.
Raymon and Pengpeng took note of this. Their first impression of Shiro was that she was a sufficiently calm person with a mature aura that didn’t match her appearance.
Hearing Shiro’s words, Molly felt like the girl was never going to stop. She was amused by the sheer audacity. “Why would Molly let a suspicious person onto the ship just because they said they wanted to be a pirate? There’s no way things can be that casual or irresponsible! Are you an idiot? Do you not understand such a simple concept?”
“In that case! Then I’ll just be the one to set the precedent!” Shiro complained dissatisfiedly. At the same time, she allowed herself to be captured as two pirates grabbed her arms and began dragging her toward the door.
“Where did this fool come from?” Molly let out a cold laugh and refused to pay Shiro any more attention. She called out to the high-ranking pirates to continue their previous topic and discuss their strategy against Amidal.
Shiro was dragged out of the cabin and taken straight to the bow. Several pirates prepared to tighten the ropes, binding her hands and feet, and reached out to shove her into the sea.
‘Declaring my intentions directly and joining easily… that plan has to be discarded,’ Shiro thought.
‘Time for Plan B.’
‘I’ve been eating for free for so many days. It’s time to help out.’
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