She forcibly swallowed the food in her mouth with water, exhaled a long breath, and looked up to meet Claire’s worried gaze.
Sules forced a smile, making an excuse, “My appetite isn’t great; it might be an after-effect of fainting earlier. You go ahead and eat; don’t worry about me.”
With that, she took another bite of the salted fish, a look of resigned determination on her face.
Sules knew very well that her meals would likely be this simple from now on.
She couldn’t possibly go without eating forever, so she would have to adapt sooner or later.
These two types of food, having been around for a long time, actually had their merits in terms of taste.
It was only because she was unaccustomed to them that they made her feel so bad.
After a few more bites, Sules felt much better and could swallow normally.
Claire saw Sules’ expression improve significantly and finally relaxed, chatting with her idly.
“Sules, I wonder what talent you’ll awaken.”
At her mention, Sules also started to feel a longing.
A captain’s talent, that was something to look forward to. In this world, everyone could go to the Sea God’s Temple at the age of fourteen to test if they could become a captain.
If so, then by the age of eighteen, they could awaken their captain’s talent.
“Captain’s Talent” was a clever little design in “Voyage Home,” deliberately added to increase the game’s difficulty for players.
That’s right, this setting wasn’t for the players’ benefit, but to make the NPCs more powerful.
Because the player’s captain’s talent was fixed — giving crew members a 5% combat bonus when the captain was present.
NPC captains, however, had diverse captain talents.
When players fought, they needed to choose the appropriate lineup based on the opponent’s talent.
The very beginning of the game’s storyline was the protagonist, controlled by the player, awakening their talent on the mainland, then being provoked by cannon fodder NPCs, and using Claire and their own captain’s talent to deal with the cannon fodder and successfully unlock the guild function.
Although players could also establish guilds independently, generally no one would waste the money.
Because “Voyage Home” had a very large game setting, while players could grow quickly through quests, the power of NPCs could not be underestimated.
Regardless of the sea area, guilds established by NPCs were the true major guilds.
How could a guild established by a player compare in resources and foundation to an NPC guild that had stood on Mercury for many years?
In this regard, the official “Voyage Home” was still very respectful of realism.
Getting off topic, in short, the fact that she hadn’t awakened her captain’s talent yet was a pleasant surprise for Sules.
If this was a real world and she hadn’t awakened it yet, could she expect a truly unique captain’s talent of her own?
However, Sules quickly became worried again.
While the protagonist’s inherent talent in the original game wasn’t particularly amazing, it was at least decent.
Combat bonuses and such were very useful for captains who enjoyed dungeons.
What if she awakened a very useless talent?
Wouldn’t that mean a disastrous start to her journey?
Sules’s worries stemmed from the diverse range of NPCs set up in “Voyage Home.”
Even when not directly involved in the plot, the NPC designs were very well-developed.
Because of this, she had once marveled at the game’s excellent production quality and enjoyed looking up NPC data.
Sules remembered the most useless captain’s talent she had ever seen: it allowed any fish to call out “Mommy.”
At the time, she was so amused and praised the game designer’s creativity.
Now, thinking back, only a bitter smile remained.
If she were to awaken such a talent, it would truly be a joke.
She stopped dwelling on these irrelevant thoughts.
Sules’s main task now was to clearly understand the current situation.
Like other large web games, “Voyage Home” also had battle zones.
However, unlike others, here they were called sea areas, and there were a total of four.
In the game, Sules had chosen the Morton Sea Area, or East Sea for short.
The reason she chose it at the time was that the core idea of this sea area was freedom, with no restrictions on gameplay, making it more enjoyable.
But now Sules only hoped that she wasn’t truly an East Sea person like in the game, because the East Sea was notoriously chaotic and the only sea area among them without beginner protection.
If she really was in the East Sea, then she would be miserable.
Thinking of this, Sules carefully interjected, “If we could be taken in by the Albatross Guild, then we wouldn’t have to worry.”
The Albatross Guild was one of the NPC-established guilds in the East Sea, and also one of the largest.
Claire’s face was full of longing, “Yes, if we could be accepted by the Albatross Guild, our backing would be solid. We wouldn’t have to worry about being bullied either.”
It’s over!
Hearing Claire’s reply, Sules’s heart sank.
They really were in the East Sea!
It wouldn’t be easy to survive in this sea area, but in the game, she could revive infinitely, while in reality, she only had one life!
Sules pulled a long face, “What if my awakened talent is bad…”
Claire immediately interrupted her, “Sea God, don’t say discouraging things at a time like this. In any case, whether the awakening is good or bad, there are always people who manage to survive. Sules, you don’t need to worry too much about this.”
Sules sighed, “I’m just afraid that if my talent isn’t good, and no guild is willing to take us in, we simply won’t survive on this crazy East Sea…”
Eh?
Wait!
She suddenly had a great idea!
Sules still remembered that there was an auto-upgrade button on her system panel.
It was grayed out now because of insufficient resources.
Once she collected enough resources, she should be able to upgrade the ship directly.
To some extent, this was also a very powerful ability!
After all, for a typical ship to be built to a higher level, it required a lot of manpower and materials, and it also took a lot of time.
Most importantly, repairing ships was inherently an unreliable matter.
If the hired mechanic was unqualified, it could even have adverse effects.
But with her system, she could perfectly avoid these problems.
After all, the system definitely wouldn’t cut corners, and it also saved time and labor costs.
Sules curled the corners of her mouth, making up her mind.
If her captain’s talent wasn’t good enough, she would present the auto-upgrade ability as her talent.
This ability was definitely not bad; at least it had great potential.
Surely a large guild would be willing to take her in.
Thinking of this, her mood improved significantly, and she no longer resisted the food in front of her as much.
By this time, Claire had finished eating.
As she cleared the dishes, she reminded, “Oh, by the way, Sules, we need to salvage some more cargo before we reach the mainland, otherwise we might not even be able to afford a few days’ stay on the mainland.”
“Salvage cargo?”
Sules’ heart jumped, and she immediately realized something was amiss.
She understood what the term meant: to catch some seafood and sell it ashore to earn travel expenses.
But understanding was one thing; she had no idea how to do it! In the game, to salvage cargo, she only needed to assign a sailor to do it.
But this was the real world, and there were only two of them on the ship, so Sules would definitely have to help.
But if she helped, wouldn’t it immediately expose the fact that she knew nothing?
How would she explain that then?!
Before she could come up with an excuse, Claire smiled and said, “Alright, Sules, I know you’re definitely up to some mischief again. Don’t I know you? You just need to help me out a bit then, that’ll be enough.”
Upon hearing this, Sules immediately relaxed.
It seemed that her original body, just like her in person, or rather, like the situation in the game, was not skilled at fishing.
With that, she felt relieved; at least she didn’t have to worry about breaking character.
As night deepened, Claire returned to the room to sleep first, while Sules stayed alone on the deck, leaning against the side of the boat and watching the scenery.
Probably because this world had little pollution, the bright moon and stars rising above the sea were clearly visible.
The clear moonlight added a faint mist to the sea surface, like milk floating on top.
The night sea breeze was chilly, making Sules involuntarily shiver.
She wrapped her arms around herself, lowering her gaze to the sea.
The shock that she couldn’t vent all day finally found a moment to breathe.
She wasn’t on Earth anymore…
Sules thought in a daze.
Her parents had both died in a car accident when she was seventeen, leaving her an old house and a bank card.
Of course, besides that, there were relatives eyeing her assets greedily.
Sules spent a full two years dealing with those relatives, then used her parents’ money to open a venture capital company.
With good foresight and some help from her parents’ old friends, although she went through many twists and turns, she eventually succeeded in battling the financial market and gaining a foothold.
At that time, she was already thirty-two years old.
Speaking of which, this body she transmigrated into was only eighteen, so she had gained some years.
But even so, Sules still preferred to be on Earth.
Not for the assets she had created, but simply because Earth felt more secure.
Here, on Mercury, about which she knew almost nothing, Sules felt lonely.
This world seemed to be out of sync with her.
She never expected that she, a venture capital company owner, would switch careers to become a captain.
This was indeed a novel experience.
After blowing in the sea breeze alone for more than ten minutes, Sules finally turned and went back to the cabin.
Because the boat was small, she and Claire were actually sharing one bed.
Claire thoughtfully moved closer to the wall, leaving enough space for Sules.
Sleep in this foreign world was not peaceful.
Sules struggled until three or four in the morning before barely falling asleep, only to be woken up again at eight the next day.
It was early April, and the morning temperature was still a bit low.
After eight o’clock, the seawater wouldn’t be too cold, making it a good time for fishing.
Sules stood aside, watching Claire skillfully prepare the fishing net, then give a forceful toss, sending it out in a beautiful arc.
The net spread to its fullest extent, landing smoothly on the water.
After casting several nets in one go and finishing everything, Claire clapped her hands and handed Sules a rod, “Slap the water to make the fish come up.”
Sules nodded and worked with her as instructed.
After a while of slapping, the two of them reeled in their rods.
About two hours later, Claire and Sules reeled in the nets together, pulling up a net full of lively, jumping fish.
Claire laughed, “Thank the Sea God! It seems we’re lucky today; there are so many fish even in this wild sea not occupied by any guild. Now we don’t have to worry about expenses once we get ashore.”