Roger stood at the bow of the explorer, even having the leisure to pick his ear.
"Oh, getting impatient already? Young man, no need to be so fiery."
No sooner had he spoken than...
"Boom!"
A deafening roar.
A thirty-six-pound solid cannonball, trailing the whistle of death, accurately struck the deck of the explorer.
Holy cow!
They're serious!
Wood splinters and bones flew, wails and laughter mingled.
Roger felt a violent tremor beneath his feet, and the entire ship let out a painful groan.
The group of skeleton pirates still swaggering on the deck were instantly blown to pieces.
A pitch-black skull spun through the air and landed with a 'thud' at Roger's feet.
Its two dark eye sockets stared at him, and its mandible opened and closed, as if trying to say something.
"You're really ugly, you're ruining my mood."
Roger kicked the skull away, in a posture exactly like a powerful kick at a goal.
The next second.
Those skeletons, blown into component parts, had their scattered bones on the deck begin to move on their own.
A shinbone was breakdancing on the deck.
A hand bone, walking with an arrogant stride, was searching for its body all over the floor.
Hanson's head was attached to Billy's neck, and the two skulls stared at each other, creating a very awkward scene.
"You f*cking put my head on backward!" Hanson's head roared.
"What's the rush? They're all bones anyway, does it make a difference?" Billy's head retorted.
Damn it!
Roger felt his blood pressure soaring.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The cannon fire from the dauntless showed no sign of stopping.
More cannonballs rained down, further pulverizing the skeletons that had just begun their "self-reconstruction."
One unlucky fellow had just reassembled himself when a cannonball severed him at the waist; his upper and lower halves tearfully parted ways, crawling in two different directions.
This wasn't a battle.
This was clearly a large-scale Lego disassembly site!
[Warning! the explorer has detected an attack by weapons of mass destruction! 'Undead Crew' skin is undergoing emergency repair! Repair progress 30%... 50%...]
The system's prompt sounded in Roger's mind, with a sense of network lag.
[Friendly reminder: Host, although your crew members will not truly die, repeated disassembly and reassembly may lead to missing parts or incorrect installation, affecting the secondary use experience.]
"I f*cking thank you for your friendly reminder!"
Roger roared in his mind.
He looked at his brand-new explorer, its hull already blasted with several large holes, especially the destroyed giant cannon, and his heart bled.
This was all money!
He wondered if it could automatically repair itself!
"Stop f*cking around, all of you!"
Roger grabbed the tin megaphone and yelled at the skeletons still piecing themselves together.
"Keep messing around and there won't be a ship left!"
"Everyone! Charge!"
"Target, that biggest, most badass ship over there!"
"Turn their ship into our ship!"
Roger's baton pointed distantly towards the brightly lit dauntless.
"Roar!"
The skeletons instantly perked up.
Reassembly speed instantly doubled.
In less than ten seconds, over fifty skeletons, of various shapes, missing arms and legs but radiating fierce momentum, were reassembled.
"Go!"
They swung down the ropes to the dock, launching a suicidal charge towards the dauntless.
The Royal Navy soldiers were dumbfounded.
They watched wide-eyed as a skeleton had its head blown off by a cannonball, then its body precisely caught its own head in mid-air.
After reattaching it, it even flipped them the middle finger.
How could they fight this battle?
The other side was cheating!
"Hold the line! Everyone, hold the line!"
Norrington was still frantically shouting orders.
However, when the first skeleton climbed onto the deck of the dauntless via the anchor chain, the psychological defenses of all the Navy soldiers completely collapsed.
It was a skeleton with only an upper body; it scurried across the deck with its two bony hands, emitting a bizarre "giggle, giggle" sound.
"Holy Mother Mary!"
A young soldier shrieked, dropped his musket, and turned to run.
Panic is contagious.
The entire dauntless instantly descended into chaos.
And more skeletons were continuously pouring on board.
This battle was never on the same dimension from the start.
The skeleton squad led by Hector and Buck performed a highly efficient moving service in the warehouse district of Port Royal.
They ignored the symbolically resisting soldiers; chests of gold coins and barrels of supplies were carried on their shoulders, as they lined up to transport them onto the explorer.
Occasionally, a cannonball would fly over, blasting a skeleton pirate into a mixture of bone fragments and gold coins.
Then, those bone fragments, mixed with gold coins, would writhe on the ground, continuing their advance towards the explorer.
This scene made Norrington, watching from afar, twitch his eyelids wildly.
This was robbery?
This was a natural disaster!
Just then, he suddenly felt a chill on his head.
He instinctively touched it.
His carefully groomed white wig, symbolizing his identity and status, was gone!
He whirled around, only to see a skeleton standing on the masthead behind him, holding his wig and performing a comical curtsy.
It was Billy!
This fellow had sneaked up at some point and completed an "S-rank hidden mission."
"Here you go!"
Billy let out a "giggle" and tossed the wig into the air.
The wig traced a graceful arc in the air and accurately landed in the sea.
Norrington stared blankly at the wig bobbing on the sea, then touched his own smooth, chilly scalp.
An unprecedented wave of humiliation and anger surged to his head.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
Norrington let out a bestial roar, not sounding human.
He drew his saber and charged at Billy like a madman.
However, Billy responded with a stylish backflip, leaping directly into the sea.
Moments later, a thunderous burst of laughter erupted from the explorer in the distance.
"Norrington's head is smoother than my grandpa's head."
"It's practically reflective!"
Roger stood at the bow, watching Norrington's exasperated, almost collapsing expression, and nodded with satisfaction.
"Jack, Hector, bring our ships out!"
"Prepare to withdraw!"
At Roger's command, the dauntless, now occupied by skeletons, and several other frigates slowly turned their bows and raised their sails.
Under the despairing gaze of all the Navy soldiers in Port Royal.
This mixed fleet, composed of a ghost ship and a dozen Royal Navy warships, brazenly sailed out of the harbor, enduring their own people's cannon fire.
The dock was in ruins, leaving only a bald commodore shivering in the cold sea breeze.
On the deck of the explorer, the atmosphere was as lively as a cult ritual.
Soaked to the bone, Billy held the dripping wig high, basking in heroic cheers.
"Captain!!"
Billy ran to Roger, offering the wig with both hands.
"Well done."
Roger took the wig, distastefully shaking off the water.
"Go to finance later and get a double bonus."
He casually tossed the wig to Jack next to him.
"Jack, try it on, I think this thing suits you well."
Jack Sparrow held his arch-nemesis's wig, his pinky finger curled higher than the sky.
Roger, meanwhile, contentedly opened the system panel.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for successfully completing the 'Zero-Dollar Purchase' event!]
[This event yielded: one Tier 1 sailing warship 'the dauntless', six Tier 5 frigates, fifty-three thousand gold coins, various supplies...]
[Ding! Detected that Jack Sparrow's fleet promise has been overfulfilled, his loyalty +30!]
[Ding! Your pirate group's prestige has greatly increased, Hector Barbossa's loyalty +15!]
[Ding! Due to your humiliating victory, Elizabeth Swann's loyalty -5!]
Roger:?
Didn't he win?
Why did this woman's loyalty drop?
He looked back and saw Elizabeth leaning against the cabin door, looking at the raving madmen with the eyes of someone watching a lunatic asylum.
Roger suddenly remembered, Elizabeth was Weatherby's daughter.
Weatherby was the Governor of Port Royal, he represented the authority of the Eagle Kingdom's royal family in the colony, and was the highest official in charge of local administrative and military affairs.
Roger messing with Port Royal was messing with her father.
The loyalty drop was not unwarranted.
Never mind, it's not a big problem.
Roger looked at his soaring gold coin balance and showed a satisfied smile like a capitalist.
He could just make it up to her in the next practical lesson.
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