After they separated, Sules finally had time to sort out her thoughts properly.
The first thing she could be sure of was that Anthony was lying.
This old fox definitely wasn’t telling the whole truth—most likely, it was seventy percent truth and thirty percent falsehood.
Perhaps it was true that he was forced onto the ship and wanted to escape.
But Sules didn’t believe that this old fox couldn’t handle Captain James on his own.
Both of them clearly knew that the best plan was for Sules to jump off the ship first to escape, and then Anthony would teleport afterward.
Yet he gave up on this plan simply because he felt he couldn’t deal with James.
That was very strange.
Moreover, if a person doesn’t trust themselves, how could they trust others?
Sules didn’t think Anthony would believe that this rookie captain was better suited to handle James than he was.
So in this regard, he must have had some other scheme.
But that didn’t matter.
With a meeting of force, she could respond accordingly; with the water comes earth.
With her captain’s talent, she was almost invincible at sea.
Even if Anthony wanted to do something, she had no fear.
The storm lasted only one day.
By the next morning, the outside was already calm.
Sules and the others returned to their ship under the light drizzle.
Storms always stirred up some dangerous presence deep beneath the sea.
This was a fact Sules came to realize later.
At the time, she only received a long-missed system notification—
“Ding, congratulations player for activating a system task. Please check the system panel for details.”
Sules raised her brows, handed control of the ship to the system, then immediately opened the system panel.
Sure enough, at the very bottom, the task list had been updated.
Task: Successfully defend the ship; ensure no one aboard is injured (mandatory)
Success reward: Obtain one random treasure
Failure penalty: Death
No, wait.
After reading the task, Sules twitched at the corner of her mouth.
Aside from the fact that the reward and penalty were totally unbalanced, there was no danger right now.
Why was she asked to guard the ship?
“Captain! Two sharks are speeding towards us from not far away!”
Before Sules could think it over, the second mate’s anxious voice came from outside.
Sules immediately contacted the main ship.
“Captain James, there are two sharks—”
“No! Captain! We found a third shark! We’re now surrounded by three sharks!” the second mate’s panicked voice interrupted.
Sules was silent for a moment, then continued reporting, “We’re being surrounded by three sharks—”
Before she could finish, an even more desperate voice interrupted, “Damn! There’s a thresher shark too!”
She knew what a thresher shark was, a species of shark named for its long tail.
As the name implied, its tail was its most lethal weapon—a single lash could easily capsize a second-tier ship.
The problem was, her ship was only fourth-tier!
Sules finally couldn’t hold it in anymore, revealing an incredulous expression, and mentally asked the system, “Was this on purpose?”
The system immediately responded to the accusation, “Please do not slander the system, player. The system assigns tasks based on the current situation and does not actively create dangers.”
Alright, Sules chose to trust it for now.
After quickly finishing her report, she asked, “Captain James, what should we do now?”
Captain James didn’t expect such a situation either.
Those sea monsters posed no threat to his sixth-tier ship, but to Sules’s small fourth-tier ship, they could cause devastating damage.
The problem was, since those sharks were so close to Sules’s ship, he couldn’t order the crew to fire cannons yet—otherwise, they would risk hitting her ship by mistake.
Captain James was silent for a moment before replying, “You’re surrounded. I have two plans.”
Sules felt reassured hearing this.
This captain, commanding a sixth-tier ship, was experienced and seemed quite reliable.
Then she heard him continue, “The first plan is for you to use your excellent piloting skills to break through the sharks’ encirclement and come over here.”
That was impossible.
Compared to sharks, ships were far too clumsy.
Since they were already surrounded, there was no way to break through.
If she tried to force her way through, the sharks could easily bite through the hull and sink the ship.
Captain James knew this plan was unfeasible too.
“The second plan: don’t you have cannons onboard? You also have gunners. Just shoot those sharks to death. As for the thresher shark… maybe you can fire at it multiple times?”
Listening to this almost joking order, Sules was about to curse out loud.
Multiple times?
Had his brain been flushed too many times?
Otherwise, she doubted it was clean inside.
Didn’t he know the skill level of his gunners?
Were they marksmen who never missed?
Twelve cannonballs, hitting three sharks, and then hitting the thresher shark three or four times in a row.
To a mediocre gunner, this was pure fantasy.
Good grief, two plans and not one was useful.
Seeing the captain’s attitude, it seemed he intended to give up on their ship and let them fend for themselves.
After all, they were cannon fodder paving the way; dying early was just a waste but wouldn’t cause much impact.
Sules turned on the broadcast and calmly ordered, “Gunner, fire one cannon at a shark to test your accuracy.”
The gunner immediately loaded and fired.
With a loud “Bang,” the cannonball predictably veered off target.
Sules clearly saw in the cockpit that the distance between the splash and the target shark was a full five meters.
She was wrong.
Sules thought, she only knew the gunner was inaccurate but didn’t expect it to be this bad. It was absurd.
The gunner’s voice came, apologetic and fearful, “Captain, I missed. What do we do now?”
Sules closed her eyes and exhaled.
Fortunately, she had known the gunner was unreliable and had already devised a solution overnight.
Otherwise, she’d truly be helpless facing this problem.
“Listen to me. Can you shoot straight lines? Fire straight ahead. Are our cannons instant fire?”
Sules asked.
“It takes five seconds from loading the shell to firing,” the gunner replied.
Sules nodded, “Okay, I’ll tell you when to fire. You fire exactly then. Now, everyone else, go to the cabins and find a safe place to stay. No one is to come out.”
Her eyes sparkled brightly.
“Now, it’s my turn to show up.”
With the system’s power backing her, Sules instantly mastered all the sailing techniques perfectly.
She had long aligned her thoughts with the system, achieving a relatively stable piloting mode.
Her mind would lead; the system would execute.
Grasping the helm, she turned sharply, and the entire ship drifted with her movements.
As the cannon port neared a shark, Sules shouted, “Fire!”
This time, the gunner didn’t mess up.
The cannonball was loaded, ignited, and shot out.
At the same moment, Sules steered the ship so the cannon aligned perfectly with a shark.
“Bang!”
Direct hit!
“My goodness! This is amazing!”
The doctor on the main ship watched in disbelief, unable to close his mouth in shock.
Next to him, Old Jack was clearly surprised too but quickly composed himself and smiled, “See? I told you! This little girl’s sailing skills are incredible.”
The two of them watched the ship spinning in place on the sea.
Such a trajectory was an immense test of a captain’s control.
In some ways, it was a rare spectacle.
“This really is remarkable.”
The doctor admired, “I’ve only seen such skill from sixth or seventh-tier captains. Didn’t expect such a young girl to be this strong. Truly, heroes emerge young.”
Old Jack, hearing his recommendation praised by an old friend, felt as happy as if he himself were complimented, his face beaming.
But soon his smile faded, replaced by seriousness.
The doctor beside him was the same.
After a while, he said, “This young captain you recommended is in trouble now. I recall their ship only has twelve cannonballs. How many have they used?”
Old Jack’s voice dropped, “Eight, but the thresher shark is still alive. And now at this distance, even if they wanted to fire more cannonballs, they can’t. We can only hope that after the ship is destroyed, she manages to swim to safety. May the Sea God bless you, my child.”
“May the Sea God bless.”
Indeed, due to a lack of coordination and Sules’s first time practicing this tactic, the gunner still missed a few shots.
After killing all three sharks, only four cannonballs remained.
Meanwhile, the most dangerous thresher shark had already reached the side of Sules’s ship.
She tried to retreat but there was no time.
She had fallen into an extremely passive position.
The thresher shark raised its silvery tail, nearly half the size of the ship, and slammed it heavily onto Sules’s vessel.
In an instant, Sules felt as if the sky shook and the earth trembled.
She lost control and was thrown from the helm, slamming into the wall.
“Ugh!”
Pain stabbed her back as she hit the wall.
Sules struggled to get up but the next second, violent shaking tossed her to the side again.
The thresher shark began its fierce assault.
Sules barely lifted her head and saw from the control panel that the shark had stopped using its tail and was now tearing the hull with its sharp teeth.
The planks were riddled with holes, barely holding on—looking like they wouldn’t last much longer.
She couldn’t stay on this ship.
Sules clearly remembered that one of the system’s tasks was to defend the ship.
If the ship was destroyed, no matter what happened with the thresher shark, she only faced certain death.
With that thought, Sules resolutely got up, left the captain’s room, took off her coat, took a water-repellent pearl from her pocket, placed it in her mouth, then jumped straight into the sea.
She had to kill that shark before it destroyed the ship completely.
As for how to kill this shark, which was several times larger and extremely dangerous…
Sules already had a plan.
With a thought, the seawater beneath her feet twisted into a small whirlpool, propelling her forward at high speed.
If anyone could see this scene, they might think she had a propeller attached to her feet!
Sules pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, her eyes flashing with fierce determination.
Like they say, in the sea, she was invincible.