"Captain, the natives say an East India Company warship was spotted east of the island—should we detour?" White suggested.
Fang Yuan waved him off. "No need."
First Mate Sakazuki hurried to flatter him. "Exactly! With Lord Black King personally leading us, why dodge a mere warship? Even if we bump into it, we can outrun it!"
After saying that, he even shot White a provocative glance.
But Fang Yuan added, "Go say hello to Becket."
Sakazuki froze. "Huh?"
Outrunning a ship and walking straight up to it are two very different concepts.
"Captain, maybe think it over again?" Sakazuki quickly double-checked.
When pirates meet the navy, the navy usually has the upper hand, so Sakazuki knew when to back down.
Fang Yuan, however, wasn't just blustering. Sakazuki and White still instinctively feared the navy, but Fang Yuan knew The Jackdaw had nothing to fear from ordinary men-of-war.
For the past six months Fang Yuan had studied sorcery in earnest, yet he hadn't let his pirates idle.
The Jackdaw now carried seventy crewmen; the extra thirty were black slaves Fang Yuan had bought and then brain-washed through trials.
These slaves were chosen from a full three hundred adult black males. Not only were they strong, but—crucially—after half a year of indoctrination they were utterly loyal to Fang Yuan; if he ordered them to die, none would hesitate.
To achieve such results in only six months, Fang Yuan's methods were anything but gentle.
Black magic plus sorcery plus Fang Yuan's advanced experience combined to let him craft his first satisfactory magical item—
the Black King Mask!
Needless to say, its prototype was Fang Yuan's own Fox Mask.
After six months of research, Fang Yuan had formed a basic understanding of this World's sorcery.
He found that, here, the most efficient way to wield supernatural power was through artifacts.
Take Blackbeard's Sword of Triton, for example.
Blackbeard was a legendary pirate who appears in countless films and shows.
Like Teach in *One Piece*.
Historically, Blackbeard died fighting the British navy in 1718, but in *pirates of the caribbean 4* he survives and somehow obtains the Sword of Triton. Combining it with sorcery he learned in South America, he resurrects his ship and crew to terrorize the seas anew.
Triton is the mythic son of Poseidon; naming the sword after him hints at its mighty power.
In fact, Fang Yuan's Black King Mask was inspired by that very sword.
Blackbeard's Sword of Triton grants complete control over his ship *Queen Anne's Revenge* and its zombie crew.
Likewise, Fang Yuan can use the Black King Mask to command the slaves he's brain-washed with sorcery.
A mask that controls black slaves—how perfectly fitting.
Thus, with a loyal crew, forty-eight cannons aboard The Jackdaw, and Fang Yuan's pinpoint gunnery, he doubted any ordinary warship could stand against them.
Still, Fang Yuan felt slightly dissatisfied: the black crewmen, though obedient, remained mere mortals.
He wanted to enchant them, boosting their combat strength, but his sorcery hadn't reached that level yet.
Not that he needed to cast such magic himself.
"Clink!"
He flicked a gleaming gold coin skyward and caught it; the skull engraved on it glittered.
An aztec gold coin.
The dream of the *pirates of the caribbean* franchise began with this tiny Aztec coin.
After Barbossa betrayed Jack and seized the Black Pearl, he happened upon a chest of Aztec coins—cursed so that whoever takes one becomes an undying wraith.
Immortal, yet robbed of all sensation.
To pirates who scorn Death, that's no terror—but losing every human pleasure is the end of the World.
Lifting the curse requires returning every coin and spilling the blood of all who stole them.
The snag: Will Turner's father, Bill Turner, was one of those thieves, but William was thrown overboard by Barbossa for protesting the betrayal of Captain Jack.
Without Bill's blood, Barbossa and his men could never break the curse, doomed to sail forever.
A fitting fate for traitors.
"In the film, the moment this coin hits the ocean it draws the Black Pearl. Should I try?"
Acting on impulse, he had The Jackdaw heave to and tossed the coin into the sea.
Per the plot, the coin's splash should trigger a reaction.
Yet after waiting ages, nothing happened.
A veteran of countless Worlds, Fang Yuan realized the issue at once.
The story hadn't started yet—it wasn't time.
"Right—if you could exploit this bug early, little Turner's plunge would've summoned Barbossa long ago," he muttered.
He then leapt into the sea, dived skillfully, and soon resurfaced clutching the coin back to The Jackdaw.
Perhaps because of his Aquaman Template, Fang Yuan found he took to water like a fish; beneath the waves he moved with ease and was even a fraction stronger than on land.
Only ten or twenty percent, but for an ordinary man that was already a huge boost.
The Jackdaw set sail again, and Third Mate White suddenly came up beside him.
Yes, White was now the Third Mate of The Jackdaw.
Since his contribution in West Africa had been the greatest—without him Fang Yuan could never have learned witchcraft or traded with the natives—Fang Yuan restored White's former rank.
"Captain, where's the Second Officer?" White asked Fang Yuan.
With a first and Third Mate, The Jackdaw naturally had a second as well.
That Second Officer was a powerfully built black man named Blake, and White, realizing he hadn't seen him for ages, made a point of asking.
He had long since given up struggling; being a pirate was fine—he couldn't escape anyway.
Don't misunderstand, White wasn't particularly close to Blake; he simply figured that if Blake were gone he might step into the Second Officer post.
"Blake didn't come aboard with us; I gave him a more important task," Fang Yuan replied.
On the west coast of Africa, Fang Yuan's group had spent half a year in the tribe.
Time rewound to the moment The Jackdaw had just weighed anchor.
Watching The Jackdaw disappear, the tribal chief heaved a sigh of relief.
At first he had truly enjoyed trading with Fang Yuan—Fang Yuan was generous and demanded far less than other merchants.
But as time passed the chief sensed something amiss: Fang Yuan was actually drilling soldiers inside the tribe.
The blacks Fang Yuan bought were not shipped to the Americas as usual; instead they were kept for witchcraft experiments in the village.
This caused the settlement's population to swell until it outnumbered the original villagers.
So the chief began to worry—if things went on, whose tribe would this be?
Therefore he secretly sent word of pirate activity here to the British East India Company… otherwise, with naval efficiency, how could they have found the place so fast and so precisely?
Don't assume the chief is an uncivilized savage just because he's black; other blacks may be wild, but anyone who can lead a tribe and trade with Westerners is no fool.
Plenty of cunning in him.
"Gone at last—and sure enough that pirate ship didn't take every slave," the chief gloated. "Now those slaves are mine again; next time a merchant comes I can sell them once—ugh!"
He was still dreaming when, turning round, a powerfully built black drove a knife straight into his chest.
"N'takukunubaman, you… what are you doing?" Blood gushed from the chief's mouth as he stared in disbelief.
"I no longer bear that name!" The big man jerked the blade free and plunged it in again. "I am now Blake, Second Officer of The Jackdaw and faithful servant of Lord Black King!"
"Puh…"
Only then did the chief realize Fang Yuan had left a failsafe, but it was too late for words.
Once the chief collapsed, Blake turned to the rest of the tribe and shouted, "From now on I am your new chief!"
The black slaves Fang Yuan had left behind voiced their support at once; though not chosen to board The Jackdaw, most had still been successfully indoctrinated—those passed over were simply deemed physically unfit.
As for those who couldn't even be brainwashed, they were never allowed to move freely.
Thus Blake smoothly became chief and began carrying out Fang Yuan's orders.
"Fetch weapons and follow me to raid other tribes!" Blake issued his first command as chief. "The Jackdaw needs more hands!"
That was precisely the task Fang Yuan had given him: train new crewmen for The Jackdaw.
Fang Yuan had already passed on the brainwashing methods; henceforth this tribe would serve as his armory, periodically producing loyal fighters.
Of course, Blake himself had been completely brainwashed by Fang Yuan beforehand.
Time returned to the present.
Aboard The Jackdaw, Fang Yuan gazed back toward Africa.
Every move the tribal chief made had been transparent to him; he simply used the occasion to depart after draining the local witchcraft lore dry.
"Captain, naval warship ahead!"
Sakazuki hurried out to make himself useful.
Fang Yuan looked ahead and spotted an England navy warship—about a Fourth-rate by the look of it.
Fourth-rates of this era mounted roughly fifty to sixty cannon and carried three or four hundred crew.
And this wasn't even counted among the navy's capital ships; no wonder pirates seldom beat the navy.
Though naturally such generalities did not apply to The Jackdaw.
"Starboard guns, elevation sixty-six degrees—let's send the navy a greeting!"