“Young adventurer, trust me, nobody else would be willing to take you to the sea except me. The Navigators here are too conceited. You’re a Warrior, not a Navigator. Although it seems that you have a lot of choices, in fact, it’s just me.” Pleater hugged Lin Jie’s shoulder and laughed out loud. The smell of rum mixed with the air, making Lin Jie uncomfortable.
“Look, at these job-seeking humans from the alternate realms. They have been lingering around for months. No Navigator is willing to take a group of humans, who don’t cherish their lives to the sea, but I’m different!” Pleater waved his hand, looked at the end of the vast sea, and shouted out loud, “As long as you are willing to help me avenge my brothers’ death, I will let you board the ship! Or even give the ship to you!”
His shout attracted countless players.
In The New Age, there were many kinds of jobs. Navigator, which was also called “maritime merchants” by the players, was one of them. Sometime before the opening of the game, many players with a dream of navigation would choose Navigator as their job. However, they had only found out that the NPCs here did not care about them at all when they had come to the port.
This was all because of something that had happened last time!
The NPCs in The New Age had their own lives, and once they died, they would disappear. Navigation was a job with very high mortality. It was told that the first player who had come to the port had the privilege to follow a fleet to the sea and trade with a distant maritime kingdom. However, there had been a storm during the voyage, and the captain had immediately called all the ships together to resist the storm.
Unfortunately, nobody could have known that the dumbass player would rely on his advantage of being able to revive as alternate realms human, climb up the sail and shout things like. “Let the storm come more fiercely…”. He had eventually been blown to death by the storm, but his body had crushed the sail and almost led to the death of the whole fleet! Luckily, they had met a group of kind mermaids who had sent them back. The captain had expressed great anger towards the humans, and since then, the players had lost their qualification to board the ships.
At the port, one could see a large number of players who were bowing down and smiling obsequiously to NPCs. Their mission was to gain the NPCs’ favorability towards them until they were allowed to board.
Similar to other Living jobs, Navigators needed proficiency points to level up. Once they reached Middle-Grade, they were allowed to steer small ships for some maritime trade activities. However, before this, they could only gain proficiency points through hitchhiking the NPCs’ ships.
For the entire two months, these players had been still working hard to get a chance to go out to the sea. They had finally understood the difficulties of going to the sea. Hence, as soon as they heard Pleater’s yell, their eyes were shining, and they crowed up to recommend themselves.
Pleater waved his hands impatiently and said to Lin Jie, “You, go and pick a group of sailors. It’s better to hire a group of experienced sailors from the Guild of Marine Freedom, but you have to bear with the cost.”
After that, Pleater went on to find a corner and enjoy his rum.
Ding~
—”You have accepted the mission [Finding Sailors].”
Mission Description: You are trying to go out to the sea to kill Stray Emilia. Pleater, the famous young Navigator, has accepted your request, but you have to find 50 sailors.
In Lin Jie’s previous life, he had only been to the sea four times, three of which had been simply for the sake of enjoying the scenery. For the remaining time, he had to travel to complete an epic mission by a fully loaded ship. This journey had lasted for a month, and Lin Jie had been feeling very uncomfortable due to the shaking of the ship. At the moment when he had stepped on the ground, he had sworn that he would never go out to the sea again for the rest of his life.
Alas, for the sake of the job mission, he had to bear with it!
It was not hard for Lin Jie to look for sailors as there were a bunch of players looking at him eagerly. Occasionally there would be several players receiving special missions in the port, which would allow them to board the ship with one or two other players! If they could board the ship and travel for one or two days, their proficiency level could increase by about 20%!
Lin Jie smiled and said, “Epic navigation mission, expected to navigate for one week, and now recruiting 50 sailors!”
Boom—
Everyone was excited! The players rushed towards Lin Jie crazily. Several players squeezed in one small area and pushed each other madly. Many players’ faces were out of shape when they came to him as if they were trampled by thousands of riders…
“Recruit me! Me! I’ve abundant navigation experiences from Navigator Brunca!”
“Big brother, big brother, you must be in need of a chef on the ship. I specialize in navigation food such as lemon beef. I definitely could help!”
“Do you need a gunner? Free! Free!”
“I’ll pay you one gold coin, please recruit me.”
At this rate, the navigation would last for a whole week! Hundreds of people surrounded Lin Jie. If they performed well, could it be possible for them to break through to the Middle-Grade directly? At that time, they would be able to trade by themselves! This kind of opportunity was so rare that one might not even get in a thousand years.
Lin Jie started to choose sailors, as for choosing from the Guild of Marine Freedom? Ha, an experienced sailor, cost 800 gold coins there, and a sturdy newbie was also worth 150 gold coins. If the voyage lasted for more than a week, he had to buy them additional Mermaid Insurance which cost 60 gold coins each, who could afford this?
(P.S. About the Mermaid Insurance, the Guild of Marine Freedom had signed a special agreement with the mermaids after the former rescued the sailors, which was mentioned in the last chapter. They would give the mermaids pearls, fruits, and flowers as remuneration. If they bought the so-called “Mermaid Insurance”, the mermaids would send them back to the shore safely if the ship exploded. Of course, remuneration was required.)
It was better to choose from these players. They had corrected their attitude during such a long wait. Not to mention that as players, they could revive unlimitedly. Even they could level up once they died, but they would not do so. Because they would damage the interests of the entire gamer group if they continued to regard navigation as a trifling matter. If they did anything bad, they had to be ready to be a street mouse.
Lin Jie recalled his memories of his previous life carefully and picked only 35 sailors who were well-known in his previous life. In addition, he chose 4 chefs. These chefs could make dried beef, cheese, and various lemon dishes. And these were essential during navigation.
Besides that, he recruited some gunners to fight against the pirates.
“That’s about it. There’s only one quota left.” Lin Jie touched his chin. The players became crazier, and some people even wanted to offer him some cash to get this opportunity, which shocked Lin Jie greatly.
“Friend, friend.” At this moment, a middle-aged man of about 30 years old came up, bowed respectfully to Lin Jie, and said, “Hello, friend.”
“Damn, it’s you!”
“Why do you still have the face to come out? Would we have been so miserable if it hadn’t been for you?”
“Scram!”
The more violent people just hit this man’s face with their fists directly.
“Stop it!” Lin Jie said with anger. He supported this middle-aged man up, smiled, and said, “What’s the matter?”
This middle-aged man was named “Wu Dongdong”. He looked very ordinary but had a strong body, and was wearing a sailor cap on his head. Having been condemned by everyone, he bowed his head and said, “My name is Wu Dongdong, and I’m the first player to have been out to sea.”
That’s right. The player who had followed the NPCs to the sea, idled around and hadn’t taken life seriously, which eventually led to the collective expulsion of players by the NPCs, was him.
However, in Lin Jie’s previous life, he had another nickname, Sea Emperor!
A year later, Wu Dongdong would become the first player to own a ship independently. And at that time, the plague would break out in The New Age. Human life would be like trifle, and the price of necessities would be soaring.
In his previous life, Wu Dongdong had decisively taken out all his savings and recruited a group of survivors who had only been seeking for survival. They had been to Yandu, and as he had been buying salt, he had secretly sent these people to rob salt as well. They had smuggled a large amount of salt back to The New Age and had become famous overnight! At the peak of his strength, he had even controlled a fleet alone, killed whoever was blocking his way, dominated the sea, and was known as Sea Emperor.
But now, every time he appeared, he would suffer from the players’ contemptuous looks, or even beating. Every day, after silently finishing the work for NPCs to gain favorability points, he would wander around the port aimlessly, trying to find an opportunity to go out to the sea.
“I promise that I have richer experiences than this group of people in navigation. I’ve been through storms, and I know how to withstand them. Please make sure you hire me!” Wu Dongdong ignored the murderous eyes around him and said firmly, “I promise that I can escort your voyage!”
“What bullsh*t!”
“Scram, you f*cker.”
“He’s the one who caused everyone to lose the chance of boarding the ship! Bro, you’ll get into trouble if you hire him!”
The players were trying to persuade Lin Jie while squeezing Wu Dongdong out of the crowd.
As Wu Dongdong’s face was turning gloomy, Lin Jie grabbed him and laughed. “Come with me.”
“Thank… thank you,” Wu Dongdong said gratefully. He packed his luggage quickly and followed Lin Jie.
“This man is an idiot!”
“Damn it, traveling for a week is something that I can’t even dream for! It’s such a pity.”
“Why doesn’t he want me? I’m so pretty, isn’t it good to have a beautiful woman on the ship?”
“Hahaha, only need a beautiful woman on the bed.”
“Unfortunately, the opportunity was given to this f*cker.”
The players pointed fingers to Wu Dongdong and left as they had no other choice.
Wu Dongdong took a deep breath. Although he was used to this kind of life, it was hard for him to hear the players wag their tongues. His face was dull as he said to Lin Jie with a bitter smile, “Thank you for your willingness to recruit me anyway.”
“I think highly of you. Prepare your necessary equipment and get on board with me.” Lin Jie left a sentence, turned around, and walked away.
Wu Dongdong looked at Lin Jie’s back, his fists clenched tightly, and his eyes were firm.
Soon after, Lin Jie went to the Guild of Marine Freedom and bought a navigation permit using the currency that Reggie had given him. He led the 50 players to Pleater and said seriously, “Everyone’s here.”
“A group of humans from the alternate realms?” Pleater spat to show his disdain, but said sadly, “Right, you’re not afraid of death. Follow me, sailors.”
“Sailors?” This group of players felt excited on hearing this word.
