Chapter 303 - 282 Trapped in a Predicament
(The following is an English translation of the given Chinese text.)
The nature of pirates had one characteristic: before a fight, each one was as sly as a fox, refusing to suffer even a little loss. But once the battle began, and their eyes turned red with rage, they couldn’t control themselves and wouldn’t stop until they killed to their heart’s content.
Thus, the first batch of over a dozen pirate ships surrounding Da Fei became enraged after being fooled by him and turned around to pursue recklessly. At the same time, Blood Sea Wave stuck close to Da Fei’s fleet and continually fired flares to signal the Barak Fleet as it departed the port. A larger encirclement was about to unfold!
Now, Da Fei could see his old acquaintance through the telescope! It was Blood Sea Wave, indeed! This took Da Fei by surprise—so he was mingling with the Desolate Barbarian Pirates! Someone had even seen him appear in the main city, right? How did he manage that as a pirate? Could he be the legendary undercover pirate? No matter what, seeing an old acquaintance evoked nostalgia, so Da Fei decided to greet him.
—Regional Channel [Da Fei]: When will the cycle of revenge end, why must you do this? Is it worth it?
—Regional Channel [Blood Sea Wave]: You’re full of crap! Try being me for once!
—Regional Channel [Da Fei]: If I were you, I definitely wouldn’t bother with a normal player. I’d focus on the present, look to the future, work hard to develop a studio, earn money to support my family, spread positive energy, and contribute to societal development.
—Regional Channel [Blood Sea Wave]: Screw you, you garbage liar and traitor! There should be a limit to shamelessness! If I don’t finish you off today, I’m not Blood Sea Wave!
—Regional Channel [Da Fei]: You’re not well, you should take your medicine!
—Regional Channel [Blood Sea Wave]: Your whole family should take medicine! Your whole family should just die!
—Regional Channel [Da Fei]: Crazy dog! Your whole family should die!
...
Damn it! Da Fei regretted greeting this bastard. Of course, Da Fei had seen many like him in the past. The way to deal with him was simple, just piss him off until he’s fuming and can’t sleep! So you want to finish me off, huh? Well, I’m not going to let you!
Da Fei gritted his teeth and asked, "Can we escape?"
Catherine said solemnly, "It will be difficult! While we have a slight speed advantage due to our navigation skills, pirate ships are fast, light-armored vessels with a natural advantage due to their design. Unless we throw overboard all the cargo to lighten the load, we could potentially escape!"
Da Fei was astonished, "Throw the cargo? Is it always the cargo?"
Catherine said seriously, "Then there’s only a second way, hold out until night, anything is possible at night!"
Da Fei looked up at the sky, the red sun was directly overhead! That meant he’d have to hold out for at least an hour in real-time! But obviously, the pirate net was already cast, they wouldn’t give him that time.
Da Fei asked, "Does the advantage of pirate ship speed mean their blood defense is weak?"
Catherine nodded, "Exactly, which is why pirate ships never engage in cannon battles with the Kingdom Navy! We must avoid boarding battles from happening! But I believe, even in a state of misfortune, we can still handle boarding should it occur!"
Da Fei resolved, "Then let’s fight!"
Da Fei opened his long-unseen attribute bar:
Level 37, Strategic Attack 57 points (Personal Attack 57 points), Strategic Defense 29 points (Personal Defense 59), Magic Power 0, Knowledge 1, Damage 15-17, Health 356, Free Skill Points 3, Unallocated attribute points, 45 points!
He hadn’t seen wrong, he had saved up 45 free attribute points! These points were a result of his leveling, navigator, and treasure appraiser bonuses, accumulated to such a large amount! He recalled adding an attribute point in the Pool of Radiance once then never adding more, not because he forgot, but because he was so awesome he didn’t feel the importance of attribute points nor had he decided on the future growth direction, so he forgot. Okay, he forgot!
Now, with few people and even fewer troops, he had no choice but to personally go into battle and had to allocate the points!
What should he add? Initially, he thought of relying on the crossbow cannon for combat and didn’t consider personally fighting. In complementing the all-attack Vice Heroine, Catherine, he chose to add defense. And now, with few people and troops, it didn’t really matter what he added, so there was no debate in continuing to add defense! Higher defense meant being tougher, giving Serbia more room to heal.
—System Prompt: You have allocated 45 free attribute points to defense attribute, your Strategic Defense is now 74, Personal Defense is 104!
Defense! Da Fei couldn’t help but take a sharp breath! This defense was higher than that of ordinary medium-sized ships! Using ’thick as a city wall’ to describe it wasn’t an exaggeration, he was the main tank in the instance carrying the boss! Since he increased defense, the defense skill should graduate too, with 3 skill points left!
—System Prompt: You used 2 Skill Points to learn Master-level Defense Skill!
—Master-level Defense Skill: Hero and the hero’s units take 50% less melee damage.
The last skill point, it goes without saying, since pirates excel in flying axes, then the defense and arrow skill combination sub-skill "Arrow Evasion" had to be learned.
—System Prompt: You used 1 Skill Point to learn the Defense Skill combination sub-skill "Arrow Evasion"!
—Arrow Evasion: Hero and hero’s units take 10% less ranged damage, while hero and hero’s units have a 15% chance to completely evade ranged damage!
Oh yeah, all unallocated attribute skill points were used up, finally leaving no more worries.
And then, there was Catherine, at Level 36. At level 30 when joining the team, she had Master-level Navigation Skill sub-skills incomplete, and all Master-level Pirate and Master-level Attack Skill sub-skills complete, accompanied by Intermediate Leadership Skill. Over the years, she only comprehended Master-level Navigation Skill and then learned a pilot skill from it, but never really got to add points... so, how should she distribute them?
Attribute points would certainly go to all attack, but what about the remaining 5 skill points? Adding magic skills was definitely out, and combat skills overlapped with him, so should she add Leadership Skill? Damn, they didn’t even have soldiers, what’s Leadership Skill good for!
Suddenly Da Fei’s brow twitched, why hadn’t Catherine advanced to God-level Navigation Skill after having had information on it for so long and experiencing so many divine adventures?
Back then Catherine could advance to Master-level Navigation Skill because the pirate profession had bonuses to sailing skills, allowing him to gain a key insight for comprehending the master level—that skills close to grandmaster level (god-level) make it easier to comprehend. This was also why he unhesitatingly chose Luck Skill for his talent specialty. So, what if Catherine doubled as a Navigator?
Damn! It made sense, Catherine’s combination of Grandmaster Navigation Skill and Master-level Pirate skill made her most suited to be a navigator, so why hadn’t he thought of that before? Obviously because her point allocation was so pure, it was hard to bear ruining it!
In an instant, Da Fei was conquered by his sudden inspiration. Since everything else felt off, why not train her to be a navigator too? His whole family would be navigators!
Da Fei hesitated no more. He took out the skill book, flashes of golden light appearing continuously!
—System Prompt: You spent 1 Free Skill Point of Catherine’s, and Catherine learned Basic Arrow Skill!
—System Prompt: You spent 1 Free Skill Point of Catherine’s, and Catherine learned Basic Logistics Skill!
—System Prompt: ... and Catherine learned Basic War Machine Science!
—System Prompt: ... and Catherine learned Basic Defense Skill!
—System Prompt: ... and Catherine learned Basic Reconnaissance Skill!
What was still missing? Luck Skill had already been hit level 1 after encountering the Mermaid Saint, so he was only short of a Navigator beginner’s certificate! Just as well, he’d go ask Makar for it! Originally, the graduation certificate was meant for Anlicia, but since she was already fiddled with up to intermediate level, she obviously didn’t need it, so perfect for Catherine! Wahahaha, he really was too smart!
Now there was only Anlicia left, this ragtag group member, who he didn’t even know what to give her, so he wouldn’t give her anything, leaving her at the Observatory. The Observatory itself would come equipped with a sniper special skill doubling damage, and under normal circumstances, the sniper’s special skill has a low occurrence rate, but under absolute misfortune, anything could happen.
In some sense, absolute misfortune was really just absolute luck; it all depended on how you used it.
Now with everything ready, Da Fei prepared himself for the pirate’s siege. At this time, the pirate fleet didn’t rush forward but drew out two long snake formations parallel to Da Fei’s fleet, with dozens of ships in the fleet!
Catherine was suddenly shocked, "It’s Uncle Barak! What on earth is happening?! Messenger, inform him that I am Catherine!"
After a while, the messenger returned with a message, "First Officer, they replied that for Catherine’s sake, people can leave, but goods must be left behind!"
Catherine was greatly shocked, "Could Uncle Barak have betrayed us?"
Da Fei felt a tightness in his chest. There was no need to say more; it had been abnormal from the start until now. It must be Blood Sea Wave up to his tricks! Only players were the source of pushing game storylines forward.
Catherine’s forehead started to sweat profusely, "This is Barak’s wolf pack hunting method. The inner layer is responsible for attacking, the outer layer for intercepting. He’s waiting for the most suitable formation and wind direction. Once the time comes, the fleet from the head and tail of the long snake formation will speed up and encircle the head and tail of our fleet, thus avoiding the crossbow cannon strikes from our ship’s side, effectively boarding. If we broadside to face, it will mean abandoning speed, thus falling right into his trap and becoming a trapped beast in the net!"
Da Fei asked in shock, "Then how do we break the siege? Can the fog still work?" Even Da Fei found this question laughable given the massive two-layer encirclement; what was the small-scale tactical fog going to confuse?
Catherine said in a deep voice, "There’s still one way, the Octopus can spearhead a breakout with its speed, while our Radiant Wings can stealthily sail away in the fog!"
Da Fei asked in shock, "What about Spielberg’s Whale Hunter?"
Catherine said gloomily, "Abandon it!"
Abandon it! Da Fei felt a tremendous shock in his heart! That was 2000 cabins worth of cargo! He had labored so much along this route for it, and now he had to give it up again? Spielberg, why were you so frustrating?
And just then, the ship shook violently!
—System Prompt: Your Vice Hero Serbia has used Master-level Light Magic "Storm Attack"!
(Continued in the next installment. If you like this work, please go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)