Dawn.
With the salty sea breeze and a hangover headache.
Roger woke up.
He didn't know where the ship had sailed to.
The deck was strewn with human-shaped trash from last night's revelry, lying haphazardly.
Gold coins, wine bottles, and someone's prosthetic leg were mixed together, forming a magnificent, pirate-esque tableau.
Buck, the newly appointed 'Royal Relative,' was the second to struggle to a sitting position.
He rubbed his throbbing temples, looked around blankly, and then, he froze.
"Holy shit!"
A thunderous roar startled half the pirates on the ship awake.
"What are you screaming about! You almost rattled my bones apart!"
Billy, with two dark, hollow eye sockets, growled irritably.
"The ship! Look at the ship!"
Buck tremblingly extended his bony finger, pointing towards the ship's side.
The gaping holes left by the dauntless's heavy cannons yesterday had now vanished without a trace.
the explorer's hull was smooth as new, entirely black, reflecting a deep, obsidian-like sheen in the morning light.
It was as if last night's intense cannon fire was just a collective hallucination.
The entire deck was silent.
The pirates, including Hector, all had their jaws agape, wide enough to fit a coconut.
"Sea… Sea God above!"
A new pirate dropped to his knees with a thud, frantically kowtowing towards the mainmast.
"This is a miracle! The Captain is the Sea God incarnate!"
"Captain is awesome! (Voice cracking)!"
The fervent atmosphere was reignited, and a large number of pirates instantly knelt on the deck.
Roger walked out of the Captain's Cabin, yawning, and saw this large-scale cult-like worship scene.
"What are you all doing? So early in the morning, putting on performance art?"
He had slept very well last night, and Elizabeth had been very 'cooperative,' making him feel physically and mentally refreshed.
[Ding! Detected that 'the explorer' has completed self-repair! 'Kiss of Night' ability has been perfectly triggered!]
[Host, you now possess a ship that you never have to worry about battle damage. Don't you feel awesome?]
"Keep it low-key, basic operation, no need to be impressed."
Roger replied in his mind, but his face wore the calm and detached expression of a master.
He walked to the side of the ship, pretending to tap the brand-new hull, which produced a dull, solid resonance.
"A good ship will lick its own wounds; that's common sense."
Roger said with his hands behind his back, in a tone as if imparting divine secrets.
"Look at you all, making a fuss, as if you've never seen the world."
The pirates looked at him, their adoration almost materializing in their eyes.
See, that's the Captain!
Miracles, in his mouth, were as common as eating and drinking!
What is vision?
This is it, vision!
Hector, the old pirate, looked at the ship, then at Roger.
Suddenly, he felt that his hundred-year indenture seemed… not such a bad deal after all?
[Ding! Hector Barbossa's loyalty +5! Current loyalty 105/100! Status: Starting to doubt life and feels the boss has something special.]
Roger ignored these details.
He clapped his hands, attracting everyone's attention.
"Alright, stop bowing!"
"Even if you keep bowing, the ship won't drop gold coins for you!"
"But your Captain can drop gold coins for you!"
"Now, meeting!"
"Our first all-staff mobilization and spoils distribution meeting after getting rich!"
Two faint green flames instantly ignited in the pirates' eyes.
It's here!
The most anticipated part for all pirates under the heavens!
On the huge deck of the dauntless, chests full of gold coins were opened, and the gleaming yellow light made people's bones feel dizzy.
The pirates surrounded the mountain of gold, their mouths watering, almost drooling onto the coins.
Roger stood on a raised platform, cleared his throat, looking exactly like a startup boss about to paint a rosy picture for his employees.
"Brothers! This trip to Port Royal, we gained a lot!"
"This fully proves that as long as we are united, there is nothing we can't plunder... bah, there is no wealth we can't obtain!"
"Now, I announce the money distribution plan!"
All the newly joined pirates craned their necks, afraid of missing a single word.
Roger held up three fingers.
"I get seven, you get three."
"..."
The air solidified.
The fervor on the new pirates' faces instantly turned to stunned blankness.
Seventy-thirty split?
This chicken neck is too dark!
We worked so hard, risking being torn into pieces, and you take the lion's share?
"Cap... Captain..."
Buck, as the new employee representative, bravely stepped forward.
"This ratio... isn't it a bit..."
"A bit what?" Roger glanced at him.
"Do you think I'm taking too little?"
"I think so too. Next time, I'll take eight, and you take two."
Buck: "?"
"Captain, you can't do that!"
"There's no reverse operation like that."
"We risked our lives!"
"Exactly! This isn't fair! This isn't piracy!"
The new pirates began to clamor, their emotions running high.
Old employees Billy and Hanson, however, watched the show with their arms crossed, looking like seasoned veterans thinking, "Young people are still too naive."
"Quiet!"
Roger roared, silencing all voices.
He walked down from the command platform, pacing back and forth among the gold piles, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Short-sighted! Incredibly foolish!"
Roger pointed at the troublemaking pirates, heartbroken.
"Do you think I take these seventy percent of the gold to eat, drink, and be merry?"
"To buy pretty clothes, or to keep ten or eight concubines?"
"No!"
Roger waved his hand, his tone resolute.
"This money is the research and development fund for the explorer!"
"It is the necessary strategic investment for our Explorer to go from good to excellent, from excellent to perfect, and from perfect to ultimate!"
The pirates were all bewildered.
R&D? Funding? Investment?
What are all these things?
How come they didn't understand a single word?
"Think about it!"
Roger began his great deception.
"Why can we stand here now?"
"Because we are immortal!"
"And why are we immortal?"
"Because we have the cortez's heart!"
"Who brought you the cortez's heart?"
"It was I, your Captain!"
"Then why can our ship repair itself?"
"Because we merged with the black pearl!"
"How did we get the black pearl?"
"It was still I, your Captain, who got it!"
"And all of these are technology!"
Roger pointed to his head.
"We are new-era pirates who live by wisdom!"
"Not those old-era fools who only know brute force!"
"Now, we have the opportunity to acquire even more powerful technology!"
"An ultimate weapon that will leave our enemies with not even ashes!"
"With it, we won't even need to board ships for future robberies! We can just sail past and melt the enemy's ship!"
"Tell me, should this money be invested?!"
Roger's speech was highly inflammatory, and the pirates were completely taken in by his bluffs.
It seems... there's some truth to it?
Melt the ship?
Sounds pretty badass!
"But Captain... what about our gold coins...?"
A pirate asked weakly.
"Good question!"
Roger snapped his fingers.
"In this investment, every one of you is a shareholder!"
"When we earn more money with the new technology, your dividends will be ten times! A hundred times what they are now!"
"I, Roger, am leading everyone to common prosperity!"
"And you are still only staring at this small amount of money in front of you?"
"Where's your vision! Where is your vision!"
"Roar!"
"The Captain is right!"
"We must be pirates with vision!"
"Invest! Must invest!"
"For common prosperity!"
In less than five minutes, the tide had completely turned.
The pirates howled one by one, eagerly stuffing gold coins into Roger's arms.
They were afraid they would invest too little and miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get rich.
Roger not only didn't need to pay these pirates wages, but some pirates even emptied their life savings.
Just for more dividends in the future.
Elizabeth was at the cabin door.
She watched Roger completely fool a group of stupid pirates.
She watched Roger turn an impending internal conflict into a successful fundraising roadshow with just a few words.
She looked at those pirates who were sold out but still helped count the money.
For the first time, she deeply doubted the word "wisdom."
Do these pirates really have no brains?
Roger looked at his skyrocketing account balance with satisfaction.
[Gold Coins: 57832]
Got rich!
He unhesitatingly opened the tech tree.
[Medieval Ship Technology]
He directly clicked on the [Weapon Systems] category, his gaze precisely fixed on the name that had haunted his dreams.
[greek fire Projector: Once unlocked, a device that can spray terrifying flames that cannot be extinguished by water can be installed on the bow of the ship.]
[Requires 50,000 gold coins to unlock.]
"It's you!"
"Pi... System, unlock it for me! Immediately! Now!"
[Received! Unlocking greek fire Projector for you! Gold Coins - 50,000!]
[Automatic construction function has been activated.]
With a huge amount of gold coins in hand, the System no longer cared about the material costs and directly completed it for Roger with one click!
The next second, at the bow of the explorer, the golden cortez's heart suddenly lit up.
Countless golden energy threads surged from the heart, frantically intertwining and wrapping around the bow.
Accompanied by a grating sound of metal friction and wood deformation.
A hideous bronze projection device, like the mouth of a giant beast, materialized out of thin air under everyone's horrified gaze!
Its surface was covered with ancient and complex runes, emitting a chilling aura of destruction.
[Congratulations, Host! 'greek fire Projector' has been installed!]
[You can now unleash the flames from hell upon any target you dislike!]
[Consuming currency automatically replenishes fuel!]
Roger felt the savage power of the warship beneath his feet, intrinsically linked to the new weapon.
He walked to the bow, stroking the cold bronze nozzle.
Then, he glanced at his remaining 7,832 gold coins.
His heart was utterly calm.
What is money?
Money is scum!
If it's gone, you can just rob more!
But this feeling of building happiness on the enemy's cremation ground was priceless!
He spread his arms, feeling invincible.
Then, he saw Elizabeth at the cabin door, looking at him with the eyes of someone staring at a monster.
Roger's face broke into a benevolent smile.
It was time to give this student with unstable loyalty another vivid practical lesson.
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