Chapter 281 - 261: Confronting Misfortune
Now, the entire fleet starts bustling into action. Catherine personally directs the sailors to secure the greatly tilted hull of the Whale Hunter with ropes and reorganize and tighten the cargo on board, both to reduce the pressure on the cracks and to correct the ship’s leaning condition.
Indeed, when a ship is about to sink, balance is of utmost importance, otherwise it will sink even faster. Sailors typically stand on the tilted end to weigh down the ship, and they throw all the cargo overboard. Now, without throwing away any cargo and still ensuring balance, it truly is a considerable mental challenge. I have to admit, Da Fei acknowledges he could not do it himself.
As for the new captain of Selvia, she is full of enthusiasm and the first thing she does is to mobilize several sailors from the Octopus to thoroughly clean the entire ship, even using various Purification Technique magic to cleanse the cabins.
Now the cargo of the Whale Hunter is piled high on one side of the ship’s cabin, jutting out above the deck, making it look like an aircraft carrier. And the tilted ship body is also slowly being righted, giving the whole team a huge sigh of relief. For now, at least, it isn’t going to collapse immediately.
However, water is still seeping into the ship through the cracked hull, so the sailors of the Whale Hunter must scoop water out relentlessly in shifts. Of course, this cannot last long, and an island must be found to dock at to unload all the cargo for a thorough repair.
And the only island Da Fei knows about is Miracle Island in the Nether Sea! Now Da Fei can only pray that the Whale Hunter will last until it gets there.
In any case, all emergency repairs are ready, and the fleet sets sail again, but at the speed of a crawl! Da Fei’s heart tightens; at this rate, it would take a month to arrive! All he could do was pray for encountering a small island along the way to unload the cargo and make extensive repairs.
As the silver moon in the sky waxes and wanes, the first day in the Nether Sea passes. This day, Da Fei is more anxious and conflicted than he ever has been before! Even more than in the Floating Ice Sea!
A crescent moon rises in the sky, marking the start of a new day.
——System Prompt: You have explored uncharted waters and drawn a Sea Chart, you and your Vice Hero have received +400 Experience for Expert-level Navigator, and an additional 40,000 exploration Experience!
——System Prompt: Anlicia’s Junior Navigator skill grants 100 Experience to all heroes and an extra 10,000 exploration Experience!
——System Prompt: Coltner’s Intermediate Navigator skill grants 200 Experience to all heroes and an extra 20,000 exploration Experience!
——System Prompt: Catherine has acquired information on the Master-level Pirate!
Da Fei’s eyebrows twitch in surprise at the sudden flood of messages! Uncharted? Drawing a Sea Chart? Extra Experience?
Da Fei quickly checks the Navigator attribute description!
——Expert-level Navigator: The hero’s ship gains an additional 40% speed on the sea, which stacks with Sailing Skill. Every 2 levels, the hero receives one free attribute point for Secondary profession. The hero and their Vice Heroes gain an additional 400 Experience points on the sea each day.
points! Expert-level gives 400 points, Junior gives 100 points, Intermediate and Advanced give 200 and 300 points, respectively. These bits of Experience, which were always seen as trivial and ignored, have been multiplied by 100 times here?
Alright! Although the 70,000 Experience each person gets every day is a mere trifle, after a month, it’s two million Experience, and everyone could level up. Having some is better than none.
What about drawing a Sea Chart? Da Fei hastens to open the current map, only to see a pitch-black screen; in the middle of the darkness, a short blue line indicates the trajectory of his fleet, with the bright point on the line’s arrowhead representing their current location. Is this the map he has pioneered in the Nether Sea? And the direction the arrow points towards is the distant Netherworld Miracle Island, which is also a small bright point.
Lighthouse, oh lighthouse! Da Fei can’t help but sigh with emotion. If he hadn’t left a troop building there, he really wouldn’t know where to go.
Just then, the ship shakes thunderously, and a loud bang resounds, a red glare exploding before Da Fei’s eyes!
——System Prompt: Fire alarm! An explosion and fire have occurred in the storage compartment on the second deck of the Radiant Wings! Please extinguish the fire immediately!
Explosion! What is going on! Da Fei, shocked, runs out of the Cockpit to see thick smoke and blazing flames soaring into the sky behind the stern. Da Fei is heartbroken! Shit! This is the first time in his sailing career that he’s faced a fire!
"Quick, put out the fire!"
The sailors on the ship were all busy for a moment, finally extinguishing the fire. Now, the entire stern was blown to shreds, and the cargo hold was blackened by smoke.
Gazing at such a scene, Da Fei was astonished and stunned, "Is this the power of misfortune?"
Coltner, with his face covered in soot, sighed, "Although misfortune is a good excuse, to be honest, it’s my responsibility. It’s a safety hazard I left when I arbitrarily modified the cabin."
Catherine sighed, "It seems Mr. Coltner stacked the lamp oil used for searchlights together with the canvas materials for ship repairs. Luckily the cargo on the ship is all ore, which is fireproof; otherwise, the loss would have been much greater."
Coltner sighed, "Originally, I wanted to expand a music banquet hall on the ship, so I squeezed into the cargo hold’s space. All the miscellaneous items had no extra space to be stored, they could only be squezed together; nothing had happened until now, but to think it would cause trouble today!"
Da Fei suddenly had a revelation!
Whether it was the breaking of the Whale Hunter yesterday, or the fire today, none of it was without reason or evidence! In other words, as long as there is a safety risk, no matter how unreliable or unlikely to occur, Absolute Misfortune can immediately turn it into an accident!
So that’s how it is!
Da Fei urgently said, "Safety inspection! The fleet will conduct a safety inspection to eliminate all potential hazards! By the way, what are the safety hazards that the fleet might encounter?"
Catherine was momentarily taken aback, "There should be rodent infestations, too many rats can also spread plague. In short, exterminate rodents and maintain cleanliness! Of course, this is a bit difficult for sailors."
Coltner said, "Cargo collapse! Our ships are carrying minerals, which are heavy for the bilge. If it collapses, it could damage the deck, and the consequences are unpredictable!"
Da Fei hurriedly asked, "What else? What else?"
Catherine was momentarily wooden, then sighed helplessly, "I can’t think of any more. In summary, prevent fires, rodents, and collapses, especially on the Whale Hunter, must be highly vigilant!"
Da Fei waved his hand and shouted into the megaphone, "Attention all ships in the fleet! We are in the Nether Sea, the environment is treacherous. In order to survive this ordeal, all sailors must enhance safety inspections, and all Captains must ensure proper supervision and implementation..."
For a time, all the ships were bustling with action. The Whale Hunter, in particular, was of the utmost importance, and Da Fei specifically assigned 10 sailors to go there for rodent extermination and cleaning. Since the towing was already slow, it didn’t matter if a few people were missing from the flagship. The entire day was spent in cleansing and sweeping.
The next day, another string of sailing information filled the screen.
Having been bitten by a snake once, Da Fei was afraid of well ropes for ten years and again launched a fleet-wide safety inspection. The effect of the arranged inspections was immediately visible, and the day passed without incident.
Very good, I shall do this every day, for the entire day! Going all out on "Struggling hard for the great Captain’s grand sailing endeavor for thirty days" campaign!
Consequently, the next two days did indeed pass without any trouble.
Da Fei vaguely felt he had grasped the knack for countering misfortune!
As the saying goes, poverty invites ghosts; flies do not bite a seamless egg. Why do some people always have bad luck? Stepping on dog poop when leaving the house, encountering pickpockets on the bus, getting scolded by the boss at work, getting hit by a car after leaving work, all of these can actually be attributed to objective reasons!
Don’t stay up masturbating late into the night, maintain good spirits, and the next day you will naturally be more alert and your eyes will naturally be brighter. You won’t step in dog poop, pickpockets won’t think you are drowsy and an easy target, you won’t be late for work because you lost your wallet and get scolded by your boss, you won’t leave a bad impression on your boss and lose the chance to be promoted, thereby not ruining your future!
This means misfortune is actually the accumulation of trivial little issues that ultimately affect one’s fate!
Conversely, misfortune is not invincible; as long as you are strict with yourself and leave no blind spots or hidden dangers, you can resist misfortune to the greatest degree! In fact, looking at those successful world figures, isn’t every one of them self-disciplined with a regular routine?
Suddenly having understood this, Da Fei was brimming with confidence! Bring it on, Absolute Misfortune, right? I shall battle with you for thirty days. Unless you rig the game and have the heavens strike me with lightning, there will be nothing I can say. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)