Life Game In Other World
Chapter 270: Acting Captain (Major - Please Favorite, Subscribe, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 270: Chapter 270: Acting Captain (Major Chapter Please Favorite, Subscribe, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

"So, you’re going to save them?"

He Ao looked at Yang De before him.

"Yes."

Yang De nodded gently.

He Ao now had a rough understanding of what had just happened.

Balan had contacted Yang De through radio and satellite phone, demanding the surrender of the Transcendent items on the cruise ship. If they were not relinquished, he would kill all the hostages on board.

He gave Yang De half an hour to think it over. If Yang De didn’t agree, he would kill one person every five minutes until no one was left.

The cruise ship was from Central Earth, and both the tourists and the crew were citizens of Central Earth.

They were using the lives of Central Earth citizens to blackmail the Research Institute into handing over all the Transcendent items recovered from the ruins.

This was no longer a provocation; it was essentially trampling on the Research Institute’s face repeatedly.

This was something you couldn’t back down from.

It wasn’t just about the lives of the citizens onboard that ship.

If the other party succeeded this time, then holding Central Earth citizens hostage would become profitable, and all Central Earth citizens abroad could potentially be in danger. Moreover, it would damage the prestige of the Research Institute among all Transcendent organizations worldwide.

An organization’s prestige is not just about face; it also affects the loyalty of the many fence-sitting forces dependent on the organization.

In a ’peaceful’ order where force cannot be relied upon to determine distribution, ’face’ or ’influence’ can sometimes significantly affect the allocation of interests.

For example, with this seaborne ruins passage discovered in international waters, if some small organization found it, regardless of how valid their reasons, they would inevitably have to yield and share the discovery by forming alliances with some larger organizations.

But the Research Institute could blithely swallow it whole and enjoy the exploration opportunity alone.

So Balan had to pay a price for this incident, and the kidnapped tourists had to be rescued.

But Balan was a C-level after all—not just any small team could complete this mission.

The closest C-level with the ability to carry out the mission was Yang De.

So the matter, after going full circle, came back to Yang De.

Yang De needed to guard the Transcendent items on the cruise ship, and even though they were already in a safe area, these Transcendent items still needed a C-level to watch over them.

That was when Yang De thought of He Ao.

Although He Ao’s displayed combat ability was somewhat erratic, he had indeed killed the C-level Psychologist and could resist attacks from the C-level Hu Wen.

Considering the overall power, He Ao counted as a C-level.

But the problem with He Ao was that he wasn’t on the Research Institute’s payroll and had no obligation to help the Research Institute.

"So I’m planning to entrust you with the role of acting captain of this ship, to protect it temporarily until support from the Research Institute arrives."

Yang De looked at He Ao, "This time the higher-ups have approved a reward of ten thousand points for the mission, which, along with the fifteen thousand points from before, will be credited to your account immediately, without any formal procedures."

Ten thousand points was roughly the starting price of a C-level Transcendent item.

Support from the Research Institute would be arriving in just over an hour.

Just over an hour as acting captain in a safe sea area, for a C-level Transcendent item.

And immediate account credit, at that.

The Research Institute seemed genuinely furious this time.

However, He Ao knew that if it had been someone else, they probably wouldn’t have been offered this price.

After all, when he had just turned back to support the cruise ship and faced the Psychologist, he hadn’t mentioned any compensation.

The reward was something Yang De brought up afterwards.

Trust is mutual.

And this mission was almost equivalent to entrusting He Ao with all of the Research Institute’s gains from this expedition.

"But the money isn’t that easy to earn. Even though the likelihood of danger occurring now is small, and support from the Research Institute will hurry over, still,"

Yang De watched He Ao closely, adding softly, "we don’t know what kind of tricks the enemy might pull. The mission does have risks. What do you think?"

He Ao pondered for a moment and nodded gently,

"It’s doable."

He would need to rely on the Research Institute’s power afterward; the stronger and more prestigious the Research Institute, the easier it would be for him to borrow its strength later on. Helping others is helping yourself.

"Heroes emerge from the young!"

Yang De laughed heartily, "Rest assured, we won’t let you be at a loss."

At this point, he changed the subject, "But in all things, it’s best to be cautious. If you encounter a strong danger, wait for the Research Institute’s support to arrive before doing anything."

He Ao nodded lightly.

The two then discussed some simple administrative details.

The more they talked, the happier Yang De became. He only explained some basic ship knowledge and said that they could leave it all up to He Ao to decide, before asking Ye Feng to bring Nini in.

The little girl looked around somewhat bewilderedly, then turned her gaze to Yang De, who was seated at the center.

Yang De didn’t look very kind; instead, he seemed rather serious and fierce.

Upon seeing Yang De for the first time, Nini shrank back toward He Ao.

Yang De squatted down, looking at Nini, "Uncle will go help Nini find mommy and daddy soon, but I need Nini to do a favor that might hurt a little. Is that okay?"

Nini looked up at He Ao, then back at Yang De, and then nodded gently.

"Then Nini, close your eyes."

Yang De said softly.

Obediently, Nini closed her eyes and nodded.

Yang De took a small red box from a nearby cabinet, opened it slowly to reveal the object inside.

It was a lifelike finger, seemingly severed just moments ago from a human body, floating above a circular, bright red base and seeming to point in a certain direction.

As Yang De moved the box, its direction rotated slightly, and the finger slowly moved, rotating back to its original direction.

No matter how Yang De moved the box, the finger always pointed in the same direction.

Yang De signaled Ye Feng to lift the little girl’s hand, extend her index finger, and then took out a small silver knife. With a swift flash of silver light, a thin line of fresh red appeared on the little girl’s index finger.

This fresh red converged into a drop of blood, falling onto the bright red base, completely merging into it.

The moment the blood dropped onto the base, the entire box vibrated briefly, then the lifelike finger trembled, slowly rotating and pointing in a direction diagonally behind the cruise ship.

Yang De rotated the box. No matter how much he changed its position, the finger pointed steadfastly in that one direction.

Then Yang De closed the box and put a band-aid on the little girl.

Throughout the process, the little girl did not cry out even once.

"Now you can open your eyes."

Yang De whispered.

The little girl opened her eyes and huddled behind He Ao.

"This item can find people; it requires a drop of close kin’s blood to point to the whereabouts of the person with the nearest blood relation."

Yang De set the box aside and explained softly.

Since the goal was to rescue people, the position of the pirate mother ship was actually no longer important—it was enough to locate the kidnapped tourists.

According to the pirates, all the tourists were being held together.

Afterward, Yang De went to gather the crew and announced that He Ao would temporarily be in charge of the ship.

The crew didn’t resist this news, after all, He Ao’s military achievements and prestige were well established, plus it would be for just over an hour.

Then Yang De, accompanied by several field agents, quickly set off in a speedboat.

However, he left Ye Feng behind with He Ao, to serve as his assistant.

Given that the two had already cooperated once, working together again made perfect sense.

When all was said and done, coming and going took only about fifteen minutes, and Yang De, controlling the speedboat, disappeared into the night.

Lil’ Nini was holding He Ao’s hand. She looked at the band-aid on her hand and then up at He Ao, "Big brother, can we really find mom and dad?"

"We definitely can."

He Ao let out a smile, crouched down, and ruffled Nini’s head.

"Mhm."

Nini looked at the open cabbage bag bobbing on He Ao’s head in the sea breeze, "Big brother, why doesn’t your bag blow away in the wind?"

"Because big brother is a Magician," He Ao placed his hand on the paper bag, "Watch this."

The paper bag suddenly transformed into a monkey mask, and then into a pig mask.

The little girl’s gloom was briefly dispersed by this ’magic,’ and she watched He Ao’s transformations with surprise and curiosity, exclaiming "Wow wow wow."

At that moment, a figure approached under the lights.

The Speech Master also gathered around, staring dumbfounded at He Ao’s varying appearances.

"This is magic, right?"

She blurted out, a little flustered.

"It’s magic!"

The little girl raised her hands.

He Ao showed the Multicolored Ring worn on his left pinky finger and mouthed the words ’Transcendent item.’

"Oh!"

The Speech Master suddenly understood.

Following that, He Ao changed into an Ultraman Leather Suit, a humanoid armor suit, an Adam model one suit, an Adam model two suit, and so on.

After playing with Nini for a while, the Speech Master took Nini to her room to sleep. Stretching lazily, He Ao stood on the deck at the bow of the ship.

A gentle breeze lifted strands of his hair.

In the depths of the night, the twinkling lights belonging to ships flickered on and off.

Ye Feng came out of the cabin at some point and stood behind He Ao, both gazing at the quiet night.

The number of ships around them was increasing, meaning they were getting closer to the harbor.

"What do you think," He Ao suddenly asked after a while, "would someone use the same strategy twice in a short span of time?"

"They probably wouldn’t,"

Ye Feng pondered a bit, "After using it once, the other side would definitely be on guard, using it a second time wouldn’t be effective."

"Right," He Ao looked at the slowly approaching lights in the distance, "Got night vision binoculars?"

"I’ll check."

Ye Feng ran into the cabin, and after a while, he came out with two pairs of binoculars, handing one to He Ao.

He Ao, with the binoculars in hand, looked toward the light, which came from a massive coal carrier flying the flag of the Tia Empire, slowly pushing through the waves.

"Check the broadcasted information from their Automatic Identification System for anything unusual," He Ao said softly.

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is used to assist maritime safety and communication among ships and between ship and shore, relaying information such as position, speed, course, and ship name to nearby vessels, preventing collisions.

Most vessels in regular operation are equipped with this system. Pirate ships usually do not have it, and if they do, it’s typically from hijacked vessels. Their voyage records are likely to be irregular, but they can use the received signals to obtain other ships’ navigation information.

The Research Institute’s cruise ship had been followed possibly because of such signals.

This was one of the pieces of information Yang De briefly shared with He Ao before he left.