Life Game In Other World
Chapter 328: The ship ahead quickly surrenders (pleading for collection, subscriptions, and monthly votes)

Chapter 328: Chapter 328: The ship ahead quickly surrenders (pleading for collection, subscriptions, and monthly votes)

In a secluded part of the harbor, He Ao placed a folded paper boat on the sea’s surface, where it bobbed up and down on the rippling waves.

The bright sunlight shone on the paper boat’s tiny tip, swaying with the wind.

The paper boat was folded from a paper bag He Ao had requested from an open-air market.

The sea breeze blew against the paper boat, sending it towards the boundless ocean.

"The coach bus is about to leave."

A figure stood behind He Ao, watching the bobbing paper boat, and chuckled, "Do you like the ocean?"

"Perhaps a bit curious,"

He Ao smiled, clapping his hands together.

He turned and walked deep into the harbor.

"If you want, you can also stay here."

Yang De smiled, "After all, you are now the honorary vice-minister of the overseas department."

He truly liked He Ao and wanted to keep him here.

"Let’s go back first, it’s been too long since I’ve been home."

He Ao smiled and continued walking forward.

"Alright, then we’d better hurry, it’s not good for the plane to wait too long."

Yang De did not insist, knowing that He Ao had his own opinions.

The two walked together deeper into the harbor.

On the way, He Ao picked up his phone and played the video that Liu Nan had sent to him.

Most of the nearly half-hour video was spent on the supply ship and tugboat setting up the steel cable.

The supply ship shot the steel cable to the tugboat, set it up, connected the pipeline, and as the two ships sailed side by side at the same speed, fuel was transferred through the established pipeline to the tugboat.

During the entire process, there was no actual contact between the people on the two ships.

He Ao had already watched the video once, and he quickly skipped to the end.

In the last few seconds, someone leaning against the ship’s railing, hidden in a blind spot of the camera, flashed by.

In the few seconds before that person disappeared, something fish-like seemed to drift by on the sea.

He Ao activated his Super Memory, reviewing the last dozen seconds of the video.

Then he discovered that the fish-like object was not a fish, but a mechanical creation disguised as one.

Someone had used this bionic mechanical creation to transfer something from the supply ship to the tugboat, which was then picked up by someone on the tugboat.

By then, He Ao had reached the coach bus. He got on, sat down next to Liu Nan, and casually asked, "Did the supply ship in that video also depart from the same port as the tugboat?"

"Hmm?" Liu Nan, who was in deep thought, was startled, "It should have departed from the nearest seaport; let me check. It left from Nuolar Port in Alano, which is the territory of the Coastline Defense Force."

The Coastline Defense Force was the arch-enemy of the Free Marines, the largest warlord within Alano’s borders, and had connections with the Research Institute. He Ao had also received a letter from their Leader before.

The Coastline Defense Force’s territory, unlike other parts of Alano, wasn’t as chaotic and had regained basic order, with the port operating normally.

"Hmm."

He Ao nodded slightly, looking out the window at the boundless sea.

The countdown in his field of vision was still slowly ticking away, the interval time still two days.

——

The yellowed paper boat gently rippled with the sun’s reflections.

It gradually drifted away from the shore, with fish swimming beneath it.

A hand covered in wounds suddenly reached out of the water, grabbed the paper boat fiercely, and retracted back into the water.

Foamy waves spilled out from the water, as if a large fish were stealthily swimming underneath.

The trail of waves extended several kilometers away, to the edge of the port.

There, a simple speedboat was docked.

The wounded hand emerged from the water, clinging to the boat’s side, then with a powerful effort, it leapt out like a nimble fish and landed on the speedboat.

It was the silhouette of a person, covered in waterproof bandages.

He wore a delicate silver earring on his left ear, a dagger hung at his waist, and he looked refined and cultured.

If Yang De were here, he would have recognized this as the fugitive he had encountered several times, the ’Ruthless Bandit’ Hu Wen.

Of course, at this moment, Hu Wen was not really Hu Wen anymore; his body was being controlled by He Ao through the Puppet Crystal Ball.

He Ao looked down at this body he was controlling, then opened his hand, in which lay the paper boat he had grasped, now soaked and wrinkled.

He unwrapped the wrinkled paper boat and, from its very center, extracted a Multicolored Ring.

This was the Transcendent ring He Ao wore on his own body, which could disguise clothing.

He Ao placed the ring on the little finger of this body.

In an instant, his bandages transformed into a wide overcoat.

He took control of the speedboat, heading into the deep sea.

······

As He Ao’s true body boarded the plane returning to Central Earth,

the body he controlled, that of Hu Wen’s, also arrived at its destination—a pirate ship disguised as a supply vessel.

The ship carried the remnants of the Free Marines— whose leader, Balan, had been killed by He Ao, leaving them without leadership.

When He Ao, occupying the body of Hu Wen, swam outside, he happened to come across this ship.

Knowing that such ships usually carried medical staff and were well-stocked with resources, he took control of the ship in the name of Daybreak.

He Ao had no connection to Daybreak, but Hu Wen was a bona fide C-level executive of Daybreak.

Since last night, Hu Wen’s body had been on board, bandaged and healing.

The ship’s pirates, who had belonged to the Free Marines, treated him with the utmost respect.

Already desperate and scattered like loose sand, when He Ao arrived, they didn’t fully understand what Daybreak was, but they saw he was a formidable boss who could surely protect them.

They were not Balan’s loyal elite Ruthless Bandits, who feared neither death nor danger, but merely fishermen coerced into piracy by Balan.

Their main task had been to transport supplies; they had had no chance to go into battle or to partake in piracy.

It wasn’t that they had no aspirations; those who charged to the front in piracy took the lion’s share of the spoils. Such lucrative positions were never theirs to claim.

For them, Balan’s decision not to exact protection money and to simply have them do hard labor—letting them go home periodically to fish for their livelihood—was considered a grace.

"Sir, you’ve returned?"

The captain of the pirate supply ship was a lean, dark-skinned old man with bare feet, white flecked beard, and cloudy eyes.

In his youth, he had studied nursing for a while at Alano’s health school, and after graduating, he worked as a nurse in a small local hospital. Alano wasn’t as chaotic then as it is now; although poor, people could at least survive.

The chaos in Alano later saw the hospital get bombed, and after returning to his village, he became a rural Doctor by drawing on what he had learned at the hospital.

Later, Balan seized control of his village. While Balan conscripted the young men into piracy, he wasn’t among the strong, yet he was taken to captain the supply ship because of his medical knowledge.

In reality, he had no idea how to steer a ship; that was all done by the younger crew.

This was the story the Elderly told to He Ao.

At that moment, as He Ao just returned to the ship, the Elderly came to meet him.

"Turn the ship around; we’re heading to Nuolar Port."

He Ao said softly.

"Nuolar Port?"

The Elderly was taken aback.

Nuolar Port was the territory of the Coastline Defense Force, mortal enemies of the Free Marines, who usually welcomed each other with ’rat-tat-tat’ from their guns upon seeing each other.

"There are no longer any Free Marines," He Ao glanced at the Elderly, "do as I say."

"Alright, alright."

It then dawned on the Elderly that since Balan was dead and the Free Marines were in disarray, surrendering to the Coastline Defense Force now might actually be welcomed.

He Ao gave the Elderly a look, then they both headed toward the cockpit together.

He Ao did not understand the language of Alano, but Hu Wen did, and could speak it naturally.

Here was an interesting problem: while He Ao controlled Hu Wen’s body, if he spoke without thinking, he could naturally speak the language of Alano.

But if he were to think hard about how to pronounce each word, he couldn’t utter a sentence; in fact, his mind had no memory related to the Alano language at all – speaking was all instinct.

The supply ship wasn’t large, and the two quickly made their way to the cockpit.

The vessel slowly turned around, heading in the direction of Nuolar Port.

In truth, after handing the C-level Puppet Crystal Ball to the Tomb Guardian, those involved should have fled or silenced any loose ends—not likely still in Nuolar Port.

But He Ao planned to go there and search for traces left by those people.

Actually, he should have started the investigation with the Liu Family’s crew, but He Ao did not do so.

First, the body of ’Hu Wen’ He Ao controlled wasn’t suitable for direct contact with the Liu Family.

Second, he had already captured the suspicious video sequence and sent it to Yang De; given Yang De’s sharpness, he should have already started the investigation.

Now as an acting deputy director of the overseas department, sending the video with an issue to Yang De was reasonable. Once Yang De had results, he would be the ’insider’ getting the intelligence immediately.

It was much easier than investigating himself.

Moreover, he temporarily did not want to involve his true self directly, as doing so while investigating might also reveal his existence. Taking a few detours was necessary.

So, He Ao was now prepared to start from Nuolar Port directly—the trail wasn’t cold yet.

Just as He Ao’s ship was nearing Nuolar Port, an unexpected radio transmission came through:

"Attention, ship ahead: this is the new Leader of the Free Marines. We have the support of the respected Daybreak. Surrender immediately and obey our commands."

He Ao: ?