Chapter 592 - 557: The Spectated "Salvage" Operation
At 1:30 in the morning, the fully-prepared Radiant Wings and Spielberg’s Whale Hunter slowly departed from the harbor. At this moment, the Octopus, owned by the guild’s member Da Bing, was already waiting in the harbor bay. Although Da Fei had also given the fragile Narwhal rowing ship to Brother Hao, that ship was too frail, and it was better not to risk using it in such a challenging operation.
At this time, the guild channel was abuzz with excitement and lively discussion.
"True to Brother Fei’s style, chased by the Sea Monster the night before and now immediately heading back out with a big ship to settle scores!"
"Everyone keep your eyes peeled, the Royal Family has bought up dozens of medium ships at high prices, and they’re all out there. Be careful they might come and cause trouble."
"Pfft, Brother Fei already trampled them with a medium ship the day before yesterday, do they dare to try out his large ship this time?"
Da Fei asked in surprise, "What’s this about the Royal Family buying up dozens of medium ships?"
Da Bing hurriedly explained, "The day before yesterday, the Royal Family organized over a hundred medium ships to attack us, and after the event was over, they started recruiting these shipowners with high salaries to join their guild, and several dozen shipowner players agreed to join. They even formed a fleet called the ’Royal First Fleet’, and now they’re running trade routes between Elorin and Tarolan."
Well damn! A bunch of medium ships and they dare to give themselves such a pompous name? Da Fei reacted with a nonchalant "Oh," adding, "They really act like tycoons."
Brother Hao said disdainfully, "As long as Brother Fei is willing, I am ready to lend my support to recruit as many people as possible."
Da Fei quickly shook his head, "No, no, let’s not have Brother Hao spend unnecessarily. What I want are brothers who are truly willing to follow me, not those who are only looking at the money."
Da Bing immediately said, "That’s our Brother Fei for you. With Brother Fei’s reputation as the top player in China and the head of the world’s number one guild, are we afraid we can’t recruit people? By the way, Little Wei went to invite the campus belle to join the guild yesterday at noon."
Campus belle? Da Fei is interested! He quickly asked, "Where is she?"
The others in Da Bing’s group let out a long sigh.
Da Wei lamented, "Don’t know, she just said she’d consider it."
Da Fei snorted, "That means there’s no hope then. Take it or leave it, I’m not fussed."
Everyone else chimed in, "Exactly, take it or leave it. If the level of our guild’s missions gets out, who knows how many fools it would scare off. Once they get to high levels, they’ll understand the benefits of our guild."
...
Meanwhile, at the Royal Club. Da Fei’s high-profile appearance in Elorin and the conspicuous dispatch of his large ships from the harbor were all under the watchful eyes of the Royal Family.
Royal Blade immediately made a phone call to wake up the sleeping boss, Royal Dominator: "Big bro, both the large and small ships from the Da Fei Guild have set sail! If only the large ships went out to sea, we wouldn’t know what they’re up to, but now that they’ve also brought along the small ships, they’re definitely taking lower-level guild members to do quests. Shall we take action?"
The Royal Dominator suddenly became fully alert, shaking off all drowsiness: "Well, well, Da Fei, you’ve just finished off the Dragon Slayer and you’re thinking of going out to sea again? Let our First Fleet follow him and take action at the first opportunity! This time we have to sink his large ship no matter what!"
Royal Blade replied, energized, "Understood, I’ll immediately contact all the ships in the area to gather!"
The Royal Dominator smirked, "The more flamboyantly Da Fei carries himself, the more he gets treated like a street rat—just one day’s time and he’s managed to offend several of the big guilds in the China Region. I’d love to see how he’s going to keep playing in the game!"
For the Royal Family, the ships themselves were not important; even if they were sunk, it would cost merely 50 to 100 thousand Gold Coins. What mattered was recruiting a large number of people with enough prestige to sail medium ships. The Royal Family had spared no expense to scoop up 60 medium shipowners, undoubtedly some of the best in the China Region.
Such talented individuals could, of course, be developed by a large guild as well, but grinding for prestige and leveling up often could not be achieved at the same time, just as going to sea could not be combined with leveling up. The reason why the strategies of China’s three major guilds—Star Dragon Slayer and Ninth Heaven—focused on staying on land from the beginning was to continuously kill monsters and complete quests, maintaining an absolute level advantage. Of course, the Royal Family also focused on land. However, stealing this batch of talents before Star could, was a proud achievement of the Royal Family.
...
Now, the Radiant Wings leading the Whale Hunter set sail slowly out of Elorin Harbor, aiming for the Andria Sea area where the safe was salvaged last time. That area is the most likely place to encounter Electric Eels.
Since Da Fei took a detour from the North Sea to the Nether Sea last time, it’s been a while since he boarded this ship. It seems like only yesterday—damn, "only yesterday" my ass, it was literally three days ago!
It has to be said, these past three days have indeed seen a flurry of events, truly feeling like three months have passed. Indeed, the so-called Masters and ordinary players are simply not on the same level in terms of using their time.
At this moment, the retrofitted Whale Hunter has thick, pointed steel plates nailed to its hull and keel, resembling a floating spiky hedgehog in the water.
This was the final solution that Spielberg came up with after fiddling and failing for half a day. These spiked steel plates are not a single entity but assembled from small spiked nail plates specially manufactured by blacksmiths. If any Sea Monster dares to attack the hull or keel, it will suffer retaliatory damage from the spikes.
Such a whaling ship, wrapped in thick steel plates, of course, moves at a pace frustratingly slow, rivaling fully laden cargo ships. Without Master-level Navigation Skill leading the way, it would be impossible to even set sail. Right now, the entire fleet’s speed is dragged down by it.
Also, precisely because the whaling ship completely sacrifices speed, chasing Sea Monsters is out of the question. The only tactic is to wait for the Electric Eels to bite the bait themselves. Therefore, after a discussion, the Divine Storm Tower was installed on the Whale Hunter’s mast. Of course, if this time they weren’t dealing with, theoretically, self-baiting Electric Eels, this ship would probably not be able to catch any Sea Monster and would have to return to the shipyard for further tinkering.
Now, Da Fei is controlling Little Fei to patrol around the fleet, ready to implement the lure-and-kill plan the moment Electric Eels are spotted.
And at this moment, Da Fei notices several small ships trailing behind the fleet. Are these curious players following and watching? Or are they disreputable trackers with ulterior motives?
If it’s the so-called "First Fleet" from the Royal Family following, that’d be quite troublesome! Although under normal circumstances Brother Fei isn’t afraid of them, getting backstabbed while fighting a BOSS could spell disaster, recalling how Brother Fei used this tactic to overturn many an expert!
No, one can only prey on others, how could Brother Fei be preyed upon by others? Da Fei spoke up in the guild channel: "Someone is following our fleet; if they have malicious intentions, Da Bing, clear the field."
Da Bing immediately responded: "Roger that, Brother Fei!"
One Sword Eastward stated: "Brother Fei, this Electric Eel is no trivial matter, we can’t afford the slightest slip-up. Perhaps it’s better to be safe than sorry and clear them out straight away."
Holy shit! You’re ruthless and straightforward enough, but the cost of going red is just too great, especially when the Octopus isn’t particularly advantageous against ships of the same size. Da Fei thought for a moment and then said: "Warn them first when the time comes; if they don’t take the hint, then we’ll talk."
"Got it, Brother Fei."
Better safe than sorry huh? Yo-ho, I highly appreciate that!
At this time, fearing that Da Fei wouldn’t be ruthless enough, and eagerly anticipating chaos in the China Region, Ono Shinichiro chuckled to himself and secretly logged into a forum with a puppet account, posting a thread "Da Fei Guild’s large ships mobilized in full force, very likely diving for Divine Artifact Level underwater treasure in the Andria Sea, title needs to be long"!
The post had only been out for a few minutes when responses clouded the thread, and players from the Harbor Cities of Elorin, Tarolan, and Rodana in the surrounding seas were all stirred up.
That’s right, the more onlookers appear around, the more difficult it is for Da Fei to slay the Electric Eel, and the scene may completely get out of control. Besides, Da Fei doesn’t trust anyone at all, can his main goal of killing the Electric Eel be believed? At any rate, Ono Shinichiro doesn’t believe it. In short, Ono greatly looks forward to the majesty of the large ships blasting in every direction.
...
At two o’clock in the morning, Da Fei’s fleet reached the area where the safe was originally salvaged. Little Fei hadn’t seen a single Electric Eel along the way, but the number of players’ ships in the vicinity was increasing. What was even more annoying was that the fleet’s speed was hindered by the ironclad Whale Hunter, making it impossible to shake off the few tails following them.
Just then, Da Bing reported: "Brother Fei, someone posted in the forum, they think you’re here to salvage treasure!"
Holy crap! Salvage your sister’s treasure! Weren’t you lot miserable enough last time? Da Fei replied irritably: "Fine, let them say whatever they want!"
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