Chapter 444: Taking Inventory (Two in One)

"Splash... splash..."

On the boundless sea, a large ship—dozens of meters long and over ten wide—broke through the waves, sailing rapidly in a certain direction.

Suddenly, the sailor standing at the bow with a spyglass seemed to spot something. He jumped down, rushed to the mast, and yanked the warning bell.

At the frantic ringing, dozens of shackled crew members in prison uniforms filed out of the cabin.

Men and women alike, every one of them was lean, muscled, and in high spirits—proof that this ship was doing quite well for itself in Haidu.

At the very least, everyone was eating their fill.

"What happened?"

A woman wearing a purple cloak over a qipao stepped out of the cabin last.

Seeing her, the crew bowed in unison. "Long live Captain Bobo."

The woman's purple-glossed lips curled slightly. She tossed her purple hair and looked at the sailor with the spyglass. "You're new, aren't you?"

"Y-yes!"

Pinned by the woman's gaze, the scrawny sailor trembled, throwing up an involuntary salute. "Reporting to Captain Bobo. I've spotted—spotted—an enemy ship."

"Where is it?"

The woman casually glanced at the sea, but couldn't spot the shadow of a ship anywhere.

"Where—" The sailor turned his head, wanting to point out the position, but without his spyglass, he quickly realized this was a bit difficult.

"R-reporting to the captain! That ship is a bit... too... too small... maybe use weird energy detection..." "Too small?"

Bobo's expression turned a bit strange. She glanced at the veteran weird energy detection crew members beside her.

Seeing them shake their heads slightly, she looked back at the scrawny sailor, parting her purple lips. "How small?"

"Th-there's only a cat on it, rowing the oars—"

The scrawny sailor seemed to realize how absurd it sounded. His face turned bright red as he squeezed the words out.

Sure enough, the moment the words left his mouth, the entire crew erupted into laughter.

Even Bobo doubled over in laughter. She closed the distance to the scrawny sailor in a few strides, hooked her fingers under his chin, and tilted it up. "I don't think the kitty is in the sea..." she said with a smile.

Looking at the blushing sailor, she leaned in close to his ear. "I think it's right here."

Feeling the warm breath of a woman a full head taller than him, the sailor grew dizzy. He had heard the veteran crew explicitly say their captain wasn't interested in men. How could this—

Just as he thought he had struck gold, another roar of laughter from the crew jolted him awake.

"I told you! I told you this kid would definitely pitch a tent!"

"He didn't make a move! Hurry up, pay up!!!"

"Damn it, I'm dying. This kid's all horn and no guts. His hand was hovering right over her thigh and he still didn't cop a feel!"

"Hahaha!!!"

The sailor finally realized he'd been played. He hurriedly scrambled back, but Bobo grabbed him by the collar.

She lowered her head to his ear again and murmured, "You're not bad. Your vigilance is high. But you made two mistakes. Know what they are?"

"S-sorry, Ma'am, I shouldn't have—"

"First, you shouldn't call a boat rowed by a cat an enemy ship."

Bobo cut his apology off and let go, her face returning to a calm composure. "Second, I have zero interest in men."

"Gunners!!!"

At Bobo's ringing shout, a row of burly men with muskets at their waists stepped forward. "Here!!!" they roared in unison.

"Sink that cat's ship, then bring the cat back."

The corners of Bobo's lips curled up. "We just so happen to be missing a cat. It can help catch rats."

"Yes!!!"

The squad leader led the men to the ship's rail. Rolling up their sleeves to bare their arms, they raised their muskets and aimed at the sea.

But several seconds passed.

Confused, the gunners pulled their eyes away from their iron sights and exchanged glances.

Bobo noticed something was wrong. "Did you not find it?"

She looked at the man who'd held the spyglass.

Frightened, the man waved his hands repeatedly. "There r-really is a cat, Captain."

"I can vouch for that. There really is a cat."

A raspy, duck-like voice suddenly spoke up.

Eyes wide, everyone glanced around, trying to see who had spoken.

Just then, a female crew member standing by the rail felt something furry brush against her waist.

Startled, she shuddered, turned her head, and saw a furry black paw.

Then, a round, fluffy head wearing a straw hat popped over the edge of the ship. "Excuse me, could you lend a hand?"

Yan Jing spoke very politely.

He smiled, and for some reason, the female crew member subconsciously reached out and pulled him up.

Only then did everyone finally see Yan Jing's full appearance.

He was dressed in a prison uniform and a straw hat, his tail bound in shackles, and in his right hand, he was dragging a small wooden boat.

There really was a cat!

The crew was a bit surprised.

Bobo also froze for a moment, then smiled. "Mr. Cat, boarding someone else's ship without permission isn't very polite."

Yan Jing shook the water from his fur, took off his straw hat, and smiled. "My apologies. I was originally just going to hang onto the side, but when I heard you were going to sink my boat and drag me aboard, I figured I'd save you the trouble."

"Since you've invited me, I suppose there's no reason to refuse."

"..."

The crew fell silent. They couldn't figure out Yan Jing's angle, nor were they sure what Bobo's stance on this was.

Beside Bobo, the burly first mate took a step forward, ready to order Yan Jing's capture.

But unexpectedly, Bobo reached out and forcefully grabbed his wrist.

The crushing grip startled him. He turned back, only to see fine beads of sweat breaking out across Bobo's face. Her eyes were locked in a dazed, wide-pupiled stare—fixed squarely on the straw hat in the cat's hand.

Following her gaze, the first mate finally noticed the diamond emblem on the straw hat. Almost instinctively, he swallowed hard.

Ignoring the paralyzed crew, Yan Jing hopped down from the railing. He strolled up to Bobo, tossing his wooden boat to the side. "Beautiful lady, may I ask where my room is?"

"Room 102."

Snapping back to reality, Bobo took a deep breath.

"Thank you. I'll go set my things down."

Yan Jing glanced at the first mate. "Sir, could you help me carry my luggage?"

"No problem, sir."

The first mate picked up the boat covered with a piece of canvas.

"Thank you."

Yan Jing placed the straw hat over his chest, bowed slightly, and then walked into the cabin.

Only then did the suffocating tension in the air ease slightly.

"Captain, why didn't we—"

A confused crewmate asked, but his mouth was instantly clamped shut by a flurry of frantic hands from the men beside him.

"Shh."

"Didn't you see that straw hat he was just holding in his hand?"

"That's Diamond's straw hat!"

The man whose mouth was covered widened his eyes in horror.

Diamond was one of the top five fighters beneath the Seventh Rank in these waters—a genuinely ruthless powerhouse.

"No way..." Someone swallowed hard. "You think maybe he just found it?"

"I think that's impossible," the first mate's slightly trembling voice replied.

He had lifted the canvas covering the small boat. Painted on the fabric were several gold coins.

Aside from this, inside the boat, there was another canvas with a diamond painted on it.

There was also some gold and silver jewelry—

And a pair of severed heads—one male, one female.

"Gold Coin and Diamond—"

Someone almost couldn't help screaming, tightly covering their mouth.

Looking at the scene before them, everyone gasped, turning one after another to look at the silent Bobo for instructions.

Seconds later, Bobo took a deep breath as if she had recovered. "Don't provoke this Mr. Cat. Just pretend nothing happened and keep moving forward."

This was the best solution she could think of.

With the strength he had shown, slaughtering them all wouldn't take much effort at all.

Since he could take Gold Coin and Diamond's heads, he could have easily taken their ships too, but he hadn't.

This meant that what he probably needed wasn't a ship, but—

A crew to sail it?

For now, Bobo couldn't see through his intentions either.

Just as everyone was about to disperse, they saw Yan Jing poke his head out of the cabin again.

It frightened everyone into a full-body shudder.

"Sorry, I forgot to ask earlier. What's your name?"

Yan Jing looked at Bobo.

"Bobo. You can just call me Bobo."

Bobo did her best to maintain the smile on her face.

"Ms. Bobo, where is this ship headed?"

"It's time for the monthly minor sea assembly and vanguard recruitment. We're heading to the nearest recruitment point to sign up."

"Sorry, my geography isn't very good." Yan Jing had a sheepish expression. "I wonder if Lookout Cape is far from the place you mentioned?"

"Uh..." The surrounding crew members exchanged glances. It wasn't just a matter of whether the place Yan Jing mentioned was far or not—it was in the exact opposite direction, one dead south and the other dead north.

"Not far at all."

But Bobo revealed a smile. "We happen to be going exactly there."

"Great," Yan Jing said, pleasantly surprised. "I was intercepted by two ships earlier, but unfortunately, after asking, neither of them were going the same way."

So that was the fate of not going the same way...

Everyone just felt a wave of horror creeping over them.

Only Bobo knelt down slightly. Sweeping the tail of her purple qipao back to deliberately yet seemingly accidentally reveal a flash of snow-white thigh, she smiled. "You've definitely come to the right place. Our Bobo Pirates are regulars at Lookout Cape."

"Rest well. If you need anything, just call us."

"Thank you, beautiful lady."

Yan Jing took Bobo's fingertips and gently shook them. "Then I'll see you tonight."

"Okay."

Watching Yan Jing retreat into the cabin, Bobo immediately bolted for the bow in massive strides. Directing the crew, her face contorted in an exaggerated, almost comical expression of pure panic. "Go!! Go, go, go!!! Lookout Cape!!!!"

Inside the cabin.

Yan Jing lay on the bed and yawned.

He'd finally met someone he could communicate with.

After boarding the plane back in the Surface World, he'd spent the better part of the day rowing. This had taught him a valuable lesson: you couldn't rely on rowing by hand out at sea.

It wasn't even as fast as him flying.

Fortunately, his idle mode saved him a lot of effort.

The only annoying part was constantly running into people and having to switch to the Inner World to deal with them.

It would have been fine if they could communicate, but as it turned out, not a single one understood reason.

The moment they met, they either wanted to stew his body for soup or dry him out and string him up on their ship's bow.

The only harvest was the two ships now in his Space.

"Let's see. Captain Mao Si is going to need a lookout, a first mate to take charge when I'm away, and two helmsmen. And one of them needs to know how to read a map. As for a cook... yeah, we should probably have one. Don't think we'll need a ship's doctor, though..."

Yan Jing wrote and drew on the paper, then looked at his "plan" in satisfaction and nodded.

In his previous world, he couldn't be considered a fan of One Piece; he had only watched the first hundred or so episodes. But given the chance, who wouldn't want to be a captain?

Although directly killing someone else's captain and using their crew was also very convenient, it was definitely better to gather his own people.

Lying on the bed, he then began to take inventory of his recent harvests.

Lately, he'd been bouncing back and forth between both ends, so he hadn't had the time to fully figure out a lot of the things he'd acquired.

Now that he finally had time, he was preparing to organize them properly.

Flipping the notebook to the next page, he wrote down the more important things on hand right now, and annotated them one by one:

Divine Source — Give to Xiao Xin?

Phalanx bone to steal a big one, Blood Promissory Note — cost too high, Heaven-Mending Qi — ???

Seven Stars Token — Tianji given to Tianwei, Tianxuan and Kaiyang sent to Old Sin City, Yuheng and Tianshu died (what a pity)

Tianxuan's book — find a chance to try it, Double EXP voucher — this is also quite good, Surface World harvests:

Movement Word Formula, Intuition Manual, Lotus Pond for power control, Fishball for power amplification, and a silk thread that has already been absorbed by the Lord of Execution Silk Thread.

Originally, the normal progression would have been for Yan Jing to gather all these silk threads to complete the Lord of Execution Silk Thread. Now, because it had been completed early, what changes would occur remained temporarily unknown.

Earth Soil — Seventh Rite?

Teacher Shen's path to godhood Ritual — Seventh Rite?

Finally, Yan Jing linked all the items into a single line, converging on a center, and wrote the summary:

Eighth Tier?

This was what he wanted to know the most right now: did he really possess Eighth Tier combat power?

He deeply understood the gap between the Seventh Rank and the Eighth Tier. Right now, killing a Seventh Rank wouldn't take him much effort. At most, activating the second level of his Fear Stance would definitely resolve it.

But the Eighth Tier—

Last time, fighting that heavily injured artificial Eighth Tier had cost him quite a bit of effort.

After thinking for a moment, he then started looking at the upcoming task in God Storage Land.

Finally, he still chose to use the effect of [Yi].

Everyone's tasks underwent a Mutation. Other people's tasks wouldn't be fully announced until they entered the Dungeon, and the rewards remained unchanged.

After the effect was activated:

New rule added to the ranking task:

This task will not result in death — changed to: this task has a high probability of not resulting in death. Everyone will receive a Crystal Stone that allows them to leave the task. Consuming half of the main body's weird energy when at full capacity will allow the use of the Crystal Stone to leave the main task. God Storage Land new rule added:

God Storage Land has entered revival early. Branch task Divine Soul new rule added:

Those who haven't collected any portion of the Divine Soul will gain some disadvantages. Yan Jing looked at the task introduction and nodded.

This should be about right.

Right after, he spent another hour or two using his Weird Killing Stance to run several combat simulations against that artificial Eighth Tier.

Compared to his earliest attempts, the time it took him to secure a win had been growing shorter and shorter.

But Yan Jing still felt it wasn't enough.

He was going to face the Lord of [Yueyin], someone who could mobilize the entirety of [Yueyin] to back her up. A half-crippled Eighth Tier couldn't even begin to compare.

He was just preparing to rest for a while and use the Weird Killing Stance again.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Mr. Cat, may I come in?"

Bobo's voice came from outside.

"No problem."

Bobo pushed the door open and walked in.

She had changed out of her previous outfit, donning clothes that put her excellent figure on full display.

Yan Jing looked for a few seconds and spoke. "Didn't you say you had zero interest in men?"

"..." Bobo hadn't expected to be so obvious. She blinked. "That was referring to humans. Actually, I have a special kind of affection for cats."

Yan Jing nodded.

He finally understood exactly what Papa Rat had meant by the phrase, "Power is the first principle."