Starting from Zero

"3! It\'s 3!" Coin exclaimed first.

"Shinryuu figure it is." I nodded.

"Hum. Good enough." Hawk agreed.

Zirai is the most happy since she always insisted on this choice. "Told you. Even lady luck agreed with me! This is our best symbol when fighting with the Japanese!"

We made a tetrahedral dice using the wet dirt from a flowerbed nearby, to determine which figurehead to use based on which side lands on the ground. A "3" means we\'ll buy the eastern dragon one.

We went straight to the Taoist Guild to talk business. Well this place looks really odd among all the other mage guilds. The old taoist is pretty generous. He even gave us a 20% off when he learned we\'re going to fight invaders. So we only paid 400 thousand for the merchandise. The remaining 100 thousand is just enough to go buy supplies such as water and medicine.

It\'s too late now so we planned to meet again tomorrow morning. It will be Saturday, and there\'s a good chance that more Japanese pirates will appear. The first serve when our ship goes into the sea!

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Everyone arrived early the next morning. They must be all excited to see our very own ship.

Our first stop is to go to the Sailor Union to accept the crew. And wow, 8,000 NPCs standing on the square is quite a view! King Conqueror is also here to pick up his supplement. He was immediately attracted by our business.

"For the-- Ziri, what the hell? Eight thousand??"

"Yup. Our crew. I didn\'t expect them to look so impressive though."

That\'s true, I was astonished as well when I first saw the scene.

"What kind of ship are you getting? That\'s enough people to fight a war! Ocean Might only has like 1k3 manpower at peak!"

"I have no choice! We need all these people or there\'ll be empty rooms all over the ship, wasting."

"Ugh, never mind. I got work to do."

When King is gone, we led the parade towards the siege shop. Our 600 cannons are still waiting there.

We all summoned our companions to help carrying the giant weapons. The NPC sailors also formed up several teams as transport. These Bastion Cannons each needs 20 sailors to carry, barely. They\'re too big!

Lucky and Zirai\'s Skyfire are acting as MVPs here. Lucky can carry four cannons using his claws plus another one in his mouth. Skyfire did the same. And the pair of Titans can keep eight cannons balanced above their heads!

It\'s almost 11 at noon when we moved everything to the port. For some reason the old designer won\'t let us into the boatyard. He only allows the sailors to get in. I asked Hawk to command 7,000 of the sailors to help load the cannons onto the ship, while Rose and I took the other 1,000 men to the city market, spent 100 thousand crystals to buy every last bit of food for sale and carried the food back. Then we used the last 5,000 crystals to buy 10 thousand barrels of freshwater. The system stuffed the barrels in the center of the market, now I can only look at the mountain-sized pile helplessly.

In the end, Rose decided she will ask the sailors to run around moving the water, while I go back and check if our ship has been released.

I saw a crowd from far away, with Gale and Red Moon standing in the middle. Right, they said their guild also has a new ship coming out today.

"Hey Gale!" I walked over to him. "Where is your ship?"

"Any time now!" He looked towards the closed boatyard in the end of the port.

"That geezer doesn\'t allow anyone to look when they build ships. They even sealed the ceilings!"

"Well that\'s good."

"Why?"

"A bigger surprise!"

"But I can\'t wait!" Gale let out a deep sigh.

"Is something wrong?"

"The fleet of Goddess Alliance was ambushed by Japan this morning. Our ships are already on the way, and I\'m waiting for this ship to help them!"

"Ambush?" That\'s not expected. "What the situation now?"

"I don\'t know!"

"Huh?"

"I mean, I really don\'t know. You can\'t send messages to someone farther than 8 kilometers when sailing on the sea. Basically I\'m completely cut off from our men right now."

"Then how did you know about the ambush?"

"Here." He took out an...adorable white pigeon. "This is an Ocean Carrier Pigeon, you can use the bird to send messages, but with a delay. The last one I sent hasn\'t--"

Another pigeon came down and landed on one of Gale\'s stretched hands. He took out a small paper roll from a container on the bird\'s leg.

"How’s it?" Red Moon has been sitting aside, now she quickly came to see the paper. Looks like something really serious is going on because this woman doesn\'t have time to annoy me anymore.

"...17 ships from Goddess Alliance were involved. 13 gone, 4 badly damaged. 21 reinforcement ships from Righteous League is still fighting with the enemies."

Red Moon stepped back, dazed, almost falling into the sea. Several girls quickly caught her.

I whispered to Gale: "I guess that fleet is super important to her?"

"Her life depends on it!"

"...What do you mean?"

Gale explained: "Red Moon had a bet with father, that she can organize an entire fleet to go to Japan and occupy one of their cities for a day before nation war."

"What\'s at stake?"

"Red Moon can receive 50% share of the family company and decide her own life. Otherwise, father will appoint a fiancé from another big clan for her, and she won\'t be having any family shares. Cliché much huh?"

"Definitely. That kind of plot has been showing up in TV dramas for a century."

"But you have a big family too I assume?"

Yup, I\'d expect Gale to be able to catch a glimpse about my identity.

"There\'s a ship! Is that yours or mine?" I changed topic.

"Mine, of course."

"You sure?"

"I ordered the ship before you. And look, your people are still moving stuff. They can\'t send out your ship with the crew staying on the land!"

The grand-looking ship slowly approached us. Those high mast poles and the glimmering golden figurehead make it look like an art! The figure looks familiar too, it\'s one of our rejected selections--the Virgin. Gale sure knows how to make things look good.

As soon as the rope ladder dropped down, Red Moon rushed onto the 100-meter long vessel without another word.

"Excuse me now, Red Moon can\'t wait any longer. I\'ll have to look at your ship the next time." Gale said.

I dragged him. " Tell me the cords, I\'ll go help once our ship is ready."

He considered for several seconds and gave me a chart. A simple sea map. "Give this to your second officer. He\'ll know what to do."

"Got it! I\'ll go as soon as I can."

I watched as Gale\'s ship disappeared into the horizon. Now I\'m feeling a little sorry for Red Moon. She\'s been mean to me but apart from that, she seems decent. At least she knows how to strive for survival on her own, instead of keep complaining the world or seek free shelter from other men.

"Ugh! Finally." Rose came behind me, with a big water barrel in front of herself. From all the sweat on her forehead, I can see she rolled this barrel all the way from the market to here!

"I\'m tiring myself out with work and you\'re here enjoying the sea view?" She complained.

"So...who\'s taking care of the supplies now?"

"Yuri is there. The others too. So I came back."

"Do you have to do it yourself? We have labors now you know."

"I want to finish it faster!"

"...Here, let me help." We pushed the barrel to the loading area just outside the boatyard. I saw the designer and called to him. "Is it done yet?"

"Yes. But you have too many cannons, we\'re still working on them!"

"Make it fast then! Oh right, do you know where I can buy those pigeons?"

"I have them right here. You want them?"

Oh that would save me the effort of running around the city again.

"Yes of course!" I quickly responded. "How much for one?"

"You must buy them in pairs. And different types cost differently. I\'ll just give you a pair for free, since you already ordered a wonderful ship. Wait here!"

He ran inside the boatyard and returned soon, carrying a cage in his hand containing two white carrier pigeons.

"This is the best pigeon I have. 600 kilo travel range, and round-trip time for max range is only 3 hours."

That\'s...not very fast. But I didn\'t say anything. (*)

"Good. Good! Thank you sir!"

"Ah! They’re so cute!" Yuri showed up behind me and was attracted by the birds in my hand.

"Finished?" I just noticed the giant pile of supplies on the loading area, as well as Hawk and everyone else, who are panting heavily. "That\'s pretty quick."

"Yeah right." Zirai threw herself onto one the barrels very un-ladylikely. "Says the slacker. Ouch, I can\'t feel my hands..."

"Yeah. The captain asks the workers to do the hard job, while he go somewhere and plays his birds." Coin mocked.

"I\'m not slacking. I just heard we need these birds to communicate on the sea so I\'m here to buy them."

"Yeah yeah, never mind. Let\'s get these in there." Hawk interrupted us and ordered the NPCs to start loading supplies.

I took the time to ask the designer for how to use the birds. Pretty simple. You took out the paper inside the small bamboo container on the pigeon\'s leg (the paper respawns itself), use your finger to write something on it. But you can only send less than two thousand characters each time. Tell the pigeon the name of the recipient and release it. The other person can write a reply in the same way, and the pigeon will fly back to you on its own. Convenient enough.

I tested it by sending something to Gale immediately. "Almost ready, how\'s your end? Will be there fast! --Ziri"

I threw the pigeon away and helped command the workers. There are many barrels and sacks but unlike cannons, they can be easily moved with just two sailors each time.

The old man came to me again. "Where\'s your figurehead?"

"I have it."

I told Phiona to carry the giant object to the ground. The designer ordered eight NPCs to carry it away, but he still stared at me.

"What?"

"The other two?"

"Two what?"

"Where are the ship\'s emblems?"

"Emblems?"

"You don\'t know?"

"Should I?"

He made sure I\'m not joking and explained: "Apart from the figurehead, a ship also has two emblems symmetrically placed on the railing where they stand out most. They also buff the ship, just not as strong as the figurehead. So you don\'t have them?"

"I can\'t buy something I don\'t even know about! Quickly, tell me where. I’m not sure if I have enough money left."

"No, forget it." He stopped me. "I have two spare Lunar Emblems here, use them. Geez young men these days..."

I sighed in relief when the desigher left. If I knew it in advance I\'d have asked more funding from Gale.

We loaded everything onto the ship when it\'s 1 pm. King\'s ship departed at noon, when he told me that some "blah blah union" fleet from Japan appeared near our territory, about 200 of them, any available ships in Chinese region all went to join the battle.

All sorts of activities went on in the port the entire noon. Countless warships left the docking areas in teams or batches. Even some small fishing boats went after them. I don\'t know, are they planning to fight the Japanese using their fishing spears and nets? Those small wooden barges would probably break apart easily if a bomb lands near them.

The boatyard gate finally opened when the clock reached 1:20 in the afternoon. A huge shape slowly moved out of it, and everyone working and running around the port stopped in their tracks. Gale\'s ship is about 130 meters in length and it already surprised enough people. Now no one know what to say when they are literally looking an iceberg approaching the docks.

We forgot to breathe! It\'s, huge! More than huge! We haven\'t learned the exact number but that won\'t be necessary now.

The imposing figure of a five-clawed golden dragon on the forebridge makes the ship exceptionally intimidating. Those shining mythril platings around the outer deck indicate that the beast is as powerful as it looks!

I\'m lost in admiration, I don\'t even notice when the designer came behind me. "Now this is your ship, the Bi-Lin. 378.3 meters from tip to tail, 59.8 meters across, 13.6 draught, 9.2 draft above water. Main mast is 62 meters high and 2.1 in diameter. 57.4 and 1.6 for the secondary masts. 750 long oars and 600 cannons in total. Satisfied?"

I heard none of the old man\'s speech because my brain is still stuck!

"Hello? Are you there?" He noticed my trance.

"Oh, yes!" I wiped off a drop a saliva under my mouth.

The designer didn\'t complain. He dragged me to the side of the ship. I saw some embossed letters. The biggest ones are: "Bi-Lin the Warship" with another line of smaller words under them: "Masterpiece from Torrent Point Boatyard!"

That must be the advertisement. The words are quite small compared to the ship but they are still a meter in height! Of course everyone would notice them.

The designer nodded towards the advertisement in satisfaction. Then he recalled something and pointed at the bridge tower in the center, with two crescent badges installed on the sides. "Those are the Lunar Emblems. I wasn\'t planning to sell them to anyone but I gave them to you! They can create fog on the sea, especially at night. It will give all kinds of buffs to your ship."

"I see. Much appreciated!" I quickly flattered him.

Then I walked to Zirai and nudged her awake. "Come on, take Skyfire and carry the crystal cannon here. It\'s in the woods outside the city. My Phantom Knights guarded that thing for a day and night now. You remember where we hid it right? Be careful don\'t break it."

"On it!!" Her reply came from the sky. She already moved.

Zirai hasn’t return after 20 minutes, instead, my pigeon showed up first. Gale replied!

"Critical! Help ASAP!"

That\'s all he wrote on the paper, which is enough to tell me the urgent situation. I can only wait anxiously for Zirai, while taking the chance to move around the ship and familiarize myself with it. The designer followed behind and explained anything I don\'t understand.

When we came to where the emblems are placed, I noticed something strange.

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(*) This is 3+ times faster than the fastest racing pigeons in real time.