Book 4, Chapter 33

The Plan

Alert: Minor offensive content towards j.a.pan.

            "Hahaha that"s so lame!" Everyone laughed.
　　
　　     EvenBig Pot himself began to laugh hard, which made us worry that he"s too stressed becausewe laugh at him. 　　
　　     Violetnudged him. "Hey. You ok? We didn"t mean to make fun of you, sorry for that." 

　　
　　     Violetgave us a look. We all nodded quickly until we felt dizzy.

            "See, we meantno harm. We were trying to lift the mood."
　　
　　    BigPot posed a "V" at me. "Thank you for throwing me off like that!!"
　　
　　    "Didyou b.u.mp your head somewhere?" Hawk looked at Big Pot with a raised eyebrow.
　　
　　    Razorchecked all those footprints on his body. "Maybe someone broke him bystepping on his head?" 　　
　　    

            Mercilesspointed out the question. "You fell into the water right? It didn"t washoff the footprints? And, why are you not wet?"
　　
　　    "Oh yeah! That doesn"t look right." We just noticed the missing point here. Whatmade him so happy if he dropped into the moat and without any water on him?
　　
　　    BigPot looked at himself and spoke: "Wet? Of course I"m not wet! Ziri buddy, you"reawesome! I"m so following you from now on, you"re my belief!"
　　
　　    "...Whatdid I do?" Something feels creepy.
　　
　　    "Youdon"t know? You and your knights pushed like a thousand people down into theriver. It"s just a small water ditch. It was filled up with all the players! Ifell on top of a group of cute girls! They felt so soft!" 

           Ok. Is that making him happy? I don"t want to question it.
　　
　　    Hawkinterrupted his daydream. "Alright, let"s get back to business. Where"sthe crystal cannon, Zirai?"
　　
　　    "Iput it at the central plaza. Skyfire is watching. Nothing to worry about, thisplace is like a ghost city or something, I don"t see a single living thing."
　　
　　    "Youknow what, I enjoy places like this." I led them towards the plaza whilechatting about random stuff. "It"s like being the king of the entire city.I can use anything here as I like! Oh, Hawk, do you stillhave the money I gave you for selling the companion eggs?"
　　
　　    "Yeah.We don"t lose money on death anyway so I didn"t take the time to bring it tobank. You want it back?"
　　
　　    "Yes,all of it. I need to pay my debt." 　　
　　    

           "Debt?"Zirai gave me a puzzled look. "You borrow money from someone?"
　　
　　    "AnNPC. He repaired my armor last time and I didn"t have enough to pay him. Now Ihave some money so I"d better pay him fast!"
　　
　　    "NPCsallow IOUs?" Everyone opened their mouth wide, except for Wayne and Rose. They already know about my business.
　　
　　    "Whynot?" I turned to Hawk. "I"ll go take care of it. You all wait for meat the plaza. Won"t take long."
　　
　　   

           "Clark?"I rushed into his shop. Of course, no one"s here. He"s probably over at theclothing store again. 

           Sigh. This sugar guy... 

           I ran to the clothing store. Yup, asexpected.

           "Why do you run wild all day instead of looking over your ownshop? Here, 150 thousand crystals."
　　
　　    Hetook the money. "You actually got enough money all of a sudden?" 　　
　　   

           "Isold something and made a small profit. Oh, right. Do you know how to use acannon?"
　　
　　    "Cannon?You mean, the magic crystal cannon?"
　　
　　    "That"sit. We stole one of them and haven"t figured out how to get it working. Actuallywe don"t even know how should we make good use of it." 

           Clark was a chiefin the demon legion, he must know about such stuff.
　　
　　    Heheld his chin for a while. "Where is it? I need to take a look. Our troopshad mobile ones and stationed ones, they all work differently. Can"t give youanswer before I look at it myself."
　　
　　    "Followme then!" 

            I poked my head around Clark and shouted to the store mistress."Hey sister, I"ll borrow your dear husband for a bit."
　　
　　    "Ohshush you!" 

            Is she blushing??
　　
　　    

            Wewalked to the central plaza. Everyone else is waiting. Hawk drew his swordhastily when he saw us. 

           "Ziri, behind you!! A Shadow Warrior!"
　　
　　    "It"smy friend!" 

           Clark walked straight to the cannon while only sparing a smallglance at Yuri, of all people. Looks like everyone else didn"t add muchCharisma like us. 

　　
　　    Hetouched around the two-meter tall mechanism and spoke: "Good stuff. This isthe biggest sized magic crystal cannon used for military fortresses. We alsohave some here in the Lost City."
　　
　　    "Youdo?" Well I never saw them.
　　
　　    "Yeah,hidden in the river. When the Eye of Underworld opens, they"ll emerge from thewater and attack anyone who approaches. You can"t see them now. You stole thisthing from Cloudtop I a.s.sume?"
　　
　　    "Huh?"I jumped. "How did you figure that out?"
　　
　　    Clarkpulled out a giant violet crystal as big as a human head from under the cannon. 

            "The crystal still has Cloudtop"s mark on it. Look here." 

            We alllooked at it closely. There is a strange symbol on the crystal, though it seemsno one knows what it means.
　　
　　    "Thisthing is the energy source of the cannon, be very careful with it. The crystalbecomes pale after every shot, and depletes when it turns pure white." Clarkjumped off the cannon and turned to me. "Don"t throw it away when thathappens. You can sell it to me, I recycle these things."
　　
　　    "Whatfor?" 　　
　　   

           "It"sa perfect material for crafting high level armor pieces, what do you expect? Ohone other thing. You can"t shoot the cannon too fast, make sure you wait atleast 30 sec before the next shot. Otherwise the cannon may explode!"
　　
　　    "Understood!"

            I wasn"texpecting the cannon to be so complicated.

            "Where can I find extracrystals like that one?"
　　
　　    "That"sbeyond me. Go ask Domergor, that kid should know something." 　　
　　    

           "Isee. How do I operate it?"
　　
　　    "Here."Clark pointed to a handle-like part on the cannon base. "Pull that thingand the cannon will shoot. It goes back on itself when the shot is over. Don"t break it."
　　
　　    "Thankyou!" 　　
　　    

           "Noneed to. Just help me collect materials. You still have that list I gave youright? Don"t forget." 　　
　　   

           "Ofcourse brother. I"ll keep it in mind."
　　
　　    

           Hawkwent to me when Clark left. 

           "Is that an NPC? That"s really different fromeveryone else."
　　
　　    "TheNPCs in this city are all different, just try to be nice to them. So what do wedo?  Leavethe cannon here? There are still months before nation wars start."
　　
　　    "Ihave an idea." Merciless stepped up. "We use it to fight j.a.pan right?We can deploy it in naval wars first."
　　
　　    "Navalwars?" Hawk looked between us. "What do you mean naval wars?"
　　
　　    Everyoneseems lost so Merciless began to explain. "Ziri, you remember theFar Land city?"
　　
　　    "Yeah.That"s where we met."
　　
　　    "Youleft in a hurry and didn"t get a good look at it. It"s actually a port city."　　
　　    

           "Portcity? As in, a city with a lot of boats?" Pa.s.serby became excited. "It"smy dream to sail the sea! They have boats in this game? Then I"m definitelygoing!"
　　
　　    Elfyseems interested too. "Are there any seaside entertainment? Some enjoymentwould be nice!"
　　
　　    Mercilesschuckled. "Yes. There"s also one other thing you won"t be expecting."　　
　　    

           "What?"We asked that together.
　　
　　    "j.a.panesepirates!" 　　
　　    

            Ohhh! 

　　
　　    "Butnation war hasn"t started yet?" 　　
　　   

            "That"strue. But the game world is still a complete map. All countries or regionsexist on the same planet, so we"re pretty close to j.a.pan. There"s only a small distance on the sea. Same for other adjacent countries you can find on theglobe. We"re separated by mountain ranges. So, you can travel to whichevercountry you like as long as you get past a special zone. When nation war starts, travel routes will appear and we can fightwith them for real. We can"t do that now but small teams with several dozens ofpeople can still cross the border if they can manage it. So if you want to goto j.a.pan, just use a boat."
　　
　　    "Youmean those sc.u.ms can send people to us right now??" 

            Zirai seems thetypical anti-j.a.pan extremist. She gets drastic whenever someone mentions j.a.pan.
　　
　　    "Intheory yes. But they haven"t done anything big, only some random players willshow up now and then and raid the citizens who live close to the sea." 　　
　　   

           "Whatdid you say??" 

           Man, I see blood veins in her eyes. I"m really worried shemight just jump into the sea, swim there and get revenge. 

           "Have we doneanything to stop them? We just let them do whatever they want?"
　　
　　    "Someof the guilds sent patrol teams along the coastline. They usually level upthere while watching out for enemies. I even heard some richer guilds havetheir own battleships. But...you never know when those pirates will come, andwe can"t be staying on guard twenty-four-seven, so they won over us most of thetime."
　　
　　    "ArghI can"t believe this!!"

            Now Zirai looks like an infuriated bull with those steam coming out ofher nostrils. Scary.
　　
　　    "Heycalm down. Calm it!" We tried to soothe her. Or she might do somethingstupid for real! She was brave enough to steal property from the system cityafter all.
　　
　　    Itried to change the topic. "So how are we going to use the crystal cannon?"
　　
　　    "The pirates come here on boats right? So what if we sink their boats with the cannon?"Someone suggested. 　　
　　    

           "Ohnice idea!" Zirai jumped up again. Hawk and I tried to press the girl down, and we failed. "Let"s go get the cannon over to the sea!"
　　
　　    "Holdit!" Elfy stopped us. "The coastline of China is...over 26 thousandkilometers. One cannon won"t help much." (*)
　　
　　    "Ah..."We all became quiet. 

            Having a big land isn"t all about advantages it seems.
　　
　　    "Mercilessmentioned battleships. How about building one of those ourselves?" Big Potraised a very practical point. "The cannon can"t protect much area on itsown but what if we place it on a ship and move around with it?"
　　
　　    "Yes,yes, YES! Let"s do it! Quickly!!" Zirai went berserk for a third time."Skyfire, go!"
　　
　　    Wereached the Torrent Point city (with a little bit of chaos, with Zirai urgingour a.s.ses), which is the biggest port city within the Chinese game region. We"remore familiar with the Far Land city but it"s too small to hold any big vessels.Of course we can"t put that cannon on a pathetic wooden plank. 

           It"s almostevening. After some dedicated persuasion, Zirai finally allowed us to log offand rest, leaving the plan to tomorrow.
　　
　　    

           Wewent straight to the port area the next morning. And wow it looks big! Thedocking area expands more than 10 kilos along the sealine, full of all kinds ofships and boats. But I can only see a small number of combat cruisers, most ofthe rest are fishing boats.
　　
　　    The biggest sailboat attracted our attention. It"s made of wood, with tons ofpeople working on it. I can"t tell which are players and which are NPCs fromhere. A giant triangular sail hangs on the main mast, with a small flag on thetip of it. The actual size of the flag should be pretty big though. It appears to be small compared to the other parts. 

           There"s a sun on the flag, similar to the redobject on the j.a.panese nation flag. A shark is drawn beside the sun, with itsmaw wide open, ready to swallow the sun in whole.
　　
　　    Anunfamiliar voice dragged us out of admiration mode. 

           "The Ocean Might isthe biggest battleship in Torrent Point city. She already took down sevenj.a.panese ships in the past two months."
　　
　　    Iturned to look at the new face. He stands taller than average, with full blackbattle armor on his body. But it looks seriously rusted. Very common appearance. That pair of thick eyebrows gives him a heroic look.
　　
　　    Hestretched out a hand. "h.e.l.lo, name is [King Conqueror], leader of the Anti-j.a.panesea.s.sociation."
　　
　　    "Goodday. I"m Ziri!" I shook his hand. "So that boat belongs to your guild?"
　　
　　    "Aye.Our members raised all the money for this customized galley. It cost us 500 thousandcrystals! But those trophies are worth the ticket! Want to join the board, miss?Our guild-- Uh, h.e.l.lo?"
　　
　　    Iface-palmed and crouched on the ground. Not again! They"re hurting my feelings! 

           King Conqueror"s hand is still left in the air. Zirai quickly took it over."Anti-j.a.p a.s.sociation? I like that name. We need people like you!"
　　
　　    Obviouslyhe never noticed Zirai until now. He looks more than surprised. He shiftedhis gaze between us for several times before finally asking Zirai: "That"s...yoursister?"
　　
　　    Ziraididn"t answer him, "Where did you order your ship?" 　　
　　    

           "Oh,you want one too? It costs a fortune you know!"
　　
　　    "Justtell me." Getting a ship to fight pirates is the only thing on her mindnow.
　　
　　    "Ifthat"s the case...follow me ma"am." 

           He kept chatting with us on the way."May I know your name too?"
　　
　　    "It"sZirai." 　　
　　   

           "So,Ziri and Zirai? I knew you"re sisters! You look almost the same."

           Zirai gaveme a glance and smiled but didn"t help me explain. Geez.
　　
　　    Wewalked a long way to reach the edge of the docking area. There"s a giantharbour structure, separated from all the other ones. It has a roof too. 

           "Here.This is the boatyard. Go talk to the NPCs to order a ship."
　　
　　    Beforehe leads us in, someone rushed to King. 

           "So you"re here! Move it! Thej.a.ps showed up again. Ocean Might is departing!"
　　
　　    "Again?Then let"s show them who"s boss!" 

           King ran away while shoutingback to us: "I"ll be back once we rid those thieves. Will talk to you then!" 

           There he goes.
　　
　　    "That"san interesting dude." Hawk commented. "Alright, let"s go get our ownship so we can beat up some pirates too!"
　　
　　    "Let"sdo it!!" Zirai is pumped up again and dragged me towards inside. "Hurryup sister!" 

           She"s doing that on purpose!
　　
　　   

           Thereare many people running up and down in the boatyard. The keel structure of amedium-sized boat is placed in the middle, with people fixing planks onto it. Mustbe another new order they received. (**)

           I dragged a random NPC over and asked himwhere to order for a ship, and was told to go find their designer in a smallroom deeper inside. 
　　
　　    Wereached the said room in the far corner. It looks broken, and feels like aboutto come down at any moment. Still, we pushed the door open. There"s an old maninside writing something on a piece of paper. He stopped his work when he sawus. 

            Pale blue gown, a big ap.r.o.n, typical carpenter setup. He"s also wearinggold-rimmed gla.s.ses. 

           "You want to order ships?"
　　
　　    "Yes.A special one!" I spoke before everyone else. I have the highest Charismahere so I should do the talking to make thing easier.
　　
　　    "Comehere then." He opened a room and signaled us to get in. I never noticedthere"s a door on the wall...is it a hidden backdoor? 

           We walked into a placeand saw a series of giant sailboat keels lined up. 

           "These are keeltemplates. You choose which size to use based on what you want to do with theship. The smallest one is for ordinary fishing boats. You might need to choosethe bigger ones if you want to catch whales or sea monsters."
　　
　　    "Pardon me please," I stopped him from explaining further. "We need abattleship."
　　
　　    "Battleship?You should"ve said that earlier." 

            He led us around the keels and towardsanother area with even more templates. These ones are big, and they all have moreframes and beams to make them st.u.r.dier. 

            "These are warship keels. You needto choose a keel first because it decides the ship"s overall size. Equipment and everything else can be determined later. So, anyone catches your eye?" 
　　
　　    "Arethere any bigger ones than these? Truth is, we have something really bulky toload onto the ship and I think we need something extra large. The larger thebetter." 

           The biggest one I see here is about only 50 meters in length, whichmeans just a bit bigger than the Ocean Might we saw outside. The cannon isapparently too large for a ship like that, and we already saw how much kickbackit produces. I don"t want the cannon to sink our own ship first.
　　
　　    Theold man inspected us for a while. "I do have a secret collection but..."　　
　　    

           Persuasion check, successful.

           I quickly tried to flatter the old man with every commendatory word I can digup in my brain. 

           "Alright, I"ll share the knowledge since you"re such abright and mannered young man. I have another keel which may qualify as "extralarge" you mentioned." 

           He glanced around and then whispered into my ears: 

           "It"s actually the corpse of an ancient beast. Those breast bones areperfect for forging the keel of a ship. However, the beast was once a foulexistence. Its plagued aura still lingers even after it has been dead for athousand years. With those bones you can make your ship exceptionally huge, andway stronger than those ships you can see out there. But...!" 

           He stoppedwhere it"s important!

(*) This may not be a correct number.

(**) A "keel" is the base frame used to support a ship"s hull. I hope I used the right word.