The watertight compartments were a huge success!
The crew also breathed a sigh of relief.
Now, let alone Roger telling them to dismantle the ship.
Even if Roger told them to fly the ship to the sky, they would probably believe him without hesitation and try to build a pair of wings.
The crew's trust reached an unprecedented peak.
Roger, striking while the iron was hot, immediately began the next phase of modifications.
The weapon system was fully upgraded.
"Billy! Get all the gunners over here!"
Roger stood in front of a newly secured 12-pound naval cannon, shouting at Billy, who was grinning foolishly.
"Aye, Captain!"
Billy scurried over, and soon gathered all seven or eight of the ship's initially trained gunners.
"Brothers, look what this is?"
Roger pulled out a few exquisitely crafted small brass gadgets from his 懷.
It was a simple sight composed of a foresight and an adjustable scale.
"What...what is this? Looks like a small toy."
"Just like the ones the tavern women use."
A gunner said curiously.
Other pirates also let out meaningful laughter.
"A toy?" Roger smiled.
"From today on, it will be your eyes!"
A pirate exclaimed in horror.
"Ah? This isn't good!"
Roger shook his head, completely speechless with this group of pirates.
So Roger personally took action, steadily installing a sight above the barrel of the 12-pound cannon.
"Come, Billy, come here."
Roger waved to Billy.
"You, using your usual old method, fire a shot at the largest barrel five hundred meters away!"
"Alright!"
Billy excitedly rubbed his hands.
After a few days of training, he now had considerable confidence in hitting a target five hundred meters away.
He skillfully adjusted the elevation and depression of the cannon, then squinted one eye, aiming by feel and experience, lining up the three points.
"Ready, Captain!"
"Fire!"
"Boom!"
With a loud bang, the black solid cannonball whistled out, tracing a parabola over the sea.
With a "splash," it landed about ten meters away from the barrel, kicking up a large spray of water.
"Damn! A bit off!"
Billy annoyingly thumped the cannon's body.
"Not bad, Billy! To hit like that at this distance is already much better than those navy lads!"
Hanson consoled him from the side.
"Strong my ass!"
Roger, however, was not polite.
"A deviation of more than ten meters, you think that's accurate?"
"What I want is absolute precision!"
Roger walked to the cannon, pointing at the sight he had just installed.
"Now, everyone, watch closely!"
He had the crew reload the cannonball.
Then, Roger squatted down, his eye pressed against the small scale.
His movements were completely different from Billy's just now.
He didn't rely on feel, but quickly turned a knob on the scale, muttering to himself at the same time.
"Wind speed level three, crosswind, wind deflection correction... got it."
"Distance five hundred and ten meters, wave height half a meter, hull sway period... got it."
"Trajectory correction... got it."
The gunners didn't understand a single word he muttered.
They only saw Roger's fingers rapidly adjusting the small sight.
Like the most precise craftsman, fine-tuning his work.
A few seconds later, Roger stood up.
"Alright."
Roger said to Billy.
"Now, you, don't move anything, just aim the crosshairs at the barrel."
"Just...just that simple?" Billy looked incredulous.
"Less talk! Hurry up!"
Billy approached with a mixture of doubt and belief.
Through the small notch, he saw the distant barrel firmly locked by a clear crosshair.
He felt as if he had never seen a target so clearly before.
He was so careful that he even held his breath, steadily placing the center of the crosshairs over the barrel.
"Alright... Captain."
"Fire!"
"Boom!"
Another loud bang.
The cannonball whistled out again.
But this time, its trajectory seemed much straighter than before.
Under everyone's gaze, the black cannonball was like a precisely guided meteor.
Without deviation, it hit the target dead center!
"Bang!"
The huge barrel was instantly blown to pieces.
"..."
The entire deck once again fell into a deathly silence.
All the gunners stood frozen in place, as if their souls had left them.
Their mouths were wide open, eyes staring like brass bells, fixed on the floating splinters of wood on the distant sea.
One...one shot hit?
Five hundred meters away!
This goddamn... is this still a cannon?
"My...my Sea God..."
Billy was the first to react.
He lunged at the cannon, caressing the small brass sight as if it were a lover.
His hands were trembling, and his voice was choked with tears.
"A miracle... This is simply a miracle!"
"With this thing, I'll be a Cannon God!"
"A master gunner!"
"A hundred-percent accurate God of Cannonry!"
The other gunners also awoke as if from a dream, surrounding him like madmen, scrambling to see what the magical sight looked like.
"Don't push!" Roger kicked Billy away.
"This thing, eight cannons, one for each person!"
"And, this is just the beginning!"
Roger pulled out a few new items from his 懷.
They were things wrapped in paper rolls, looking like large firecrackers.
"These are my newly developed standardized gunpowder charges."
Roger unwrapped one, showing them the granular gunpowder inside.
"From now on, when loading gunpowder, you don't need to scoop it in with a spoon little by little. Just shove this in! The speed will be twice as fast!"
"And this!"
Roger then took out a strange-looking cannonball.
The tip of the cannonball had a fuse wrapped in wood and oilcloth.
"This is called a shell! Inside, it's not a solid iron lump, but explosives and countless small iron pellets!"
"See this fuse on top of the cannonball?"
"We can set when it explodes after it flies out!"
"Imagine, when this thing explodes above the enemy's deck, what a wonderful scene that would be?"
Roger's words made all the gunners shiver involuntarily.
They seemed to already see the bloody scene of countless red-hot iron pellets, like a rainstorm, tearing the enemy's deck and crew to shreds.
Too terrifying!
Too damn exciting!
And too damn piratical!
"Captain... You... you are simply a devil..."
Billy looked at Roger, sincerely praising him.
"Thanks for the compliment."
Roger smiled.
Roger then distributed these new pieces of equipment to every gunner.
"Now, you have an afternoon to familiarize yourselves with these new toys."
"Before dinner, I want to see you accurately hit a moving target three hundred meters away with the shells!"
"Yes, Captain!"
The gunners, as if they had received their most beloved toys, erupted in thunderous cheers.
They immediately threw themselves into a new round of training.
Meanwhile, Jack Sparrow, who had been hiding in the corner, silently observing all this, unconsciously let the rum bottle in his hand slip to the ground.
He looked at the cheering gunners, then at Roger, who was patiently instructing them on how to set the fuses.
Jack's eyes became more serious than ever before.
He had originally thought that Roger's "magic" was only in navigation and shipbuilding.
But now he realized that he was wrong again.
This man's mastery of weapons was ten thousand times more terrifying than the talent he displayed in navigation!
Rifling, sights, standard gunpowder charges, shells with controllable fuses... any one of these things, taken out, would be enough to change the outcome of a naval battle.
And Roger, like an arms dealer, casually pulled out a whole bunch of them!
Who exactly was he?
What kind of force with terrifying technology was hidden behind him?
He looked at Roger's face, puzzled.
Jack Sparrow shook his head.
He was more inclined to believe that Roger had tinkered with all these things himself.'
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