Chapter 13

Veya glanced at Carnes' smiling face on the large ship and then looked at her destroyed wooden boat.

She felt the malevolence emanating from Carnes and sensed the malevolence from the world itself.

But at this moment, she had no way to retreat.

The boat was already destroyed, and she only had one way out now.

Suppressing her fear, Veya mustered a trembling smile and spoke in a tremulous voice, tinged with flattery.

"Yes... Yes! I've always believed that you would be good people."

Upon hearing Veya's insistence on this claim, Carnes didn't immediately respond, but his smile remained unchanged.

Anyone facing the current situation would probably say the same thing if they wanted to stay alive.

After quietly observing Veya for a while, Carnes spoke with a smile.

"Do you want to stay alive?"

"Yes!" Veya responded without hesitation.

Carnes said, "Become a member of my crew, and I will save you."

Upon hearing Carnes' invitation, Veya visibly paused, finding it hard to believe her ears.

But considering her current situation, Veya didn't hesitate for long before immediately accepting.

"Alright!"

When Carnes heard Veya's acceptance, he didn't immediately lower the gangplank for her to climb aboard. Instead, he opened the system panel and checked his influence value.

As expected, his influence value, which was originally 135, became 136 after Veya agreed to join him.

However, when Carnes looked down at the total number of crew members, he found that it remained at 26. It didn't increase to 27 because of Veya's inclusion.

"Only crew members recruited through the system are counted in the total number?" he thought to himself, looking down at Veya below.

"I'll leave her to you."

After giving this instruction to the surrounding crew members, Carnes turned and left the ship's side.

Demiurge also glanced at Veya below before following Carnes and leaving the ship's side.

The other crew members lowered the gangplank, allowing Veya to board the ship.

Once Veya successfully boarded, a crew member with a smile on his face approached her and said, "The captain has entrusted you to us."

"Let me tell you about the rules on the ship so that you don't make mistakes."

"There aren't many rules, just one."

"The captain's orders are everything, remember that well."

Upon hearing this, Veya appeared visibly surprised.

But she didn't dare to speak or ask questions.

"Can I have something to eat...?"

The crew member nodded and smiled. "Of course, the mess hall is on the second floor. I'll take you there."

....

Meanwhile, Carnes had already begun planning how to quickly increase his influence value.

At present, the known and confirmed way to increase the power value is by increasing the number of crew members. However, recruiting them one by one would not only be slow in increasing the power value, but also more troublesome.

Additionally, incorporating the indigenous people of this world would not increase the total number of crew members. This fact was confirmed when Veya joined, and the total number of crew members did not increase.

Without the ability to increase the total number of crew members, the model of the Eternal Gale would remain unchanged.

If there were too many natives of the pirate world and the model of the Eternal Gale could not be modified, it would undoubtedly result in overcrowding.

In that case, they would have to prepare additional ships for them, which would be troublesome.

With these thoughts in mind, Carnes looked up and gazed at the ceiling. "It seems we have to resort to our old ways and recruit members from other pirate crews."

"Yes, this time we'll capture both people and ships."

This method is currently the simplest and most convenient way to increase power value—capturing people boosts the power, and capturing ships prevents overcrowding on the Eternal Gale and the need to prepare new ships. It's a win-win situation.

...

Sailing on the vast ocean, Carnes and his crew went several days without encountering anything significant. Apart from a few islands, they hadn't even come across a single ship. The peaceful and quiet days passed by one after another.

Until a marine warship on patrol appeared.

Carnes and his crew finally faced disturbance after nearly half a month of tranquility.

"Open fire!" shouted a marine officer wearing a white naval coat, raising his hand.

Upon receiving the command to fire, the marines stationed by each cannon aimed at the nearby silver-white ship and ignited the fuses.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

As the cannons fired in unison, flames erupted from the muzzles, and countless cannonballs rained down on the nearby pirate ship.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh..."

"Thud! Thud! Thud..."

"Boom!"

The target of their attack was none other than the Eternal Gale, flagship of Carnes' Gale Emperor Pirate Crew!

On the bow of the marine warship, stood a man and a woman.

The man held a cigarette in his mouth, with short silver-white hair, and a weapon made of seastone strapped to his back.

He was none other than Smoker, a renowned marine officer at Marine Headquarters, holding the rank of Vice Admiral.

Beside him stood a woman with black hair, glasses, and a long sword hanging from her waist. She was his subordinate, Tashigi, a marine Lieutenant at Marine Headquarters.

"Phew," Smoker exhaled a puff of smoke.

As he gazed at the pirate ship not far away, his brows slightly furrowed, and he murmured in confusion, "They're not retaliating or running away. Instead, they're sailing towards us?"

"What are these pirates up to?"