Meanwhile, as Chu Guang passed the problem from the south back down the line, Awei and her group in the game had yet to receive the long-awaited email, and didn’t have the time to check, either.

At that moment, in the surging southern seas, a cargo ship of less than 5,000 tons was rising and falling with the waves in the darkness of night.

Its design was bizarre, the steel hull, lined with rivets, was rimmed with ironwood planks used to ward off mutants, and its tall chimney spewed gray smoke from incomplete combustion. Though the ship incorporated many modern design principles, its overall appearance screamed steampunk.

What was even more remarkable wasn’t just its look but the arsenal it carried.

On its wide deck stood six wheeled short-barreled 100mm field guns, one New Alliance-made 155mm cannon, and two quad-mounted 20mm autocannons on tow rigs.

In addition to them, the ship was also armed with various harpoon guns and depth charges, but compared to its strange array of heavy firepower, these more conventional weapons seemed hardly worth mentioning.

The flag of the Order of the White Bear fluttered wildly in the roaring sea wind, though its mighty roar now sounded rather pitiful.

For less than 10 nautical miles behind them, two warships flying the green twin-blade flag, along with over a dozen assault boats, were in hot pursuit. Predictably, those troublemakers had run into trouble of their own.

“Sisi! Go faster! The pirates are catching up!” Standing at the stern, Tail planted one foot on the railing, peering through her monocular telescope toward the faint shadows in the distance. A red bandana, the symbol of freedom, was tied around her head. The twin curved swords on the enemy’s flag almost made her look like a pirate captain herself, in both image and spirit.

Their pursuers were soldiers of the Xilande Empire, the newly united ruler of the Poro Province, in other words, they were a proper army.

However, since that Empire had been founded rather hastily, its sailors were mostly landlubbers, and their warships, like the cargo ship, had been purchased from the Camel Kingdom, quite possibly even built at the same shipyard.

As a result, the two sides had been trading shots clumsily across hundreds of nautical miles, without so much as scratching each other’s paint. Still, at the helm, Sisi dared not relax for a moment. Her nerves were on edge. She had been piloting ships for some time, but it was her first real naval battle against a proper army.

“This is already our full speed! Damn it, we’re carrying too much stuff! At this rate they’ll catch up sooner or later!” She heard that sailing with the tide and wind could boost speed, but she didn’t have time to tab out and ask the forums. The throttle was welded permanently to maximum, yet the enemy was still closing in.

Frowning at the approaching shadows, Tail turned sharply toward the huge white bear at the stern, and the 155mm cannon it was manning. “Roro, ready yet?”

“Almost loaded!” After struggling for a while, the bear finally shoved the shell into the breech and locked it shut with its clumsy paws. Seeing this, Tail shouted excitedly to Sesame Paste, “Fifteen kilometers! Or close enough to it!”

“Roger that!” Sesame Paste took a deep breath, adjusted the firing parameters according to the range table, and her catlike pupils narrowed to slits. Though her innate talent boosted hearing, her eyesight had also become unusually sharp with level growth, especially in the dark.

Staring at the bobbing silhouettes across the sea, she made the final adjustments and gave Tail a quick nod.

Clenching her fist, Tail swung her arm forward. “Fire!”

“Fire!”

Sesame Paste yanked the lanyard and clapped her hands over her ears as the cannon roared like thunder over the sea, shaking the deck beneath them.

Though a land-based field gun was barely more than a toothpick at sea, the 155mm still outmatched the enemy’s 100mm by far. Unsurprisingly, the shell landed at least five kilometers off target.

The orange tracer, intended for the rear warship, instead exploded in front of the chasing assault boats.

The massive splash nearly scared the sailors out of their wits, curing even their seasickness in the process.

Watching from the bridge, the enemy captain took it as a provocation and barked furiously, “Fire back!”

The adjutant at his side relayed the order at once.

Three 100mm guns were rolled to the front deck and fixed in position. Six cannons from the two warships roared together, their orange tracers streaking through the night toward the cargo ship.

Their accuracy was just as bad, the shells flew high or splashed short, missing the large target entirely.

The two sides traded fire across the stormy waters, shells crisscrossing through the waves, while the poor sailors and fish caught in between suffered most.

“You useless idiots! What the hell are you even aiming at?!” the captain cursed, gripping his telescope so hard it nearly broke.

If only his warhorse could swim, he would’ve led the charge himself to tear those smugglers apart.

His trembling adjutant muttered cautiously, “Captain, the waves are too rough. Our guns can’t aim accurately from this range. I suggest we close the distance before firing again.”

Their ammunition was running low anyway, and he feared they might hit their own boats ahead. Though the captain fumed, he eventually cooled down and raised his hand. “Cease fire!”

After ten minutes of relentless cannon fire, silence finally fell. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The sailors in the assault boats sighed with relief, praying to their diesel engines and the Ox God of the Sun to help them reach the target before the fuel ran out. Their officers had promised that anyone who boarded the enemy’s deck first would receive a bounty of 1,000 Dinars, five slaves, and 30 days’ leave.

The contraband and stowaways on the cargo ship would be their spoils, and by their usual practice, whoever boarded first got first pick.

Meanwhile, at the stern, Tail suddenly realized something, through her monocular she saw that after the long exchange, the dark shapes that had been visible moments ago had vanished completely into the night waves again.

It hit her all at once.

“GIAO! Roro, it’s the recoil! Keep firing!”

Sesame Paste gave a helpless smile. Although she wasn’t a physics teacher, she felt that relying on recoil alone to push a cargo ship with a displacement of nearly 5,000 tons was a bit far-fetched. The reason they had managed to open up distance was probably that the enemy’s cannons hadn’t been properly aligned, the firing sequence had gone wrong, and the recoil had caused their ship to veer off course. The other side clearly realized that too, which was why they had stopped firing.

If they kept shooting, it might actually have the opposite effect.

Just as Sesame Paste was about to point it out, Sisi suddenly shouted through the comms from the bridge. “Forget those two warships, Awei! Their assault boats are almost alongside us!”

As she spoke, she flicked on the searchlight mounted on the bridge and aimed it toward the stern.

“Holy crap?!”

Startled by her tone, Tail quickly lowered her telescope and looked toward the water, and sure enough, she saw shadows of assault boats emerging between the waves. The closest one was less than 600 meters away!

The enemy sailors had already fixed bayonets onto their rifles. The ones at the front of the boats were setting up light machine guns with drum magazines and chambering rounds. Under the harsh beam of the searchlight, Tail could even see their feral grins, and the vomit residue still clinging to their beards.

They had been chasing and puking the whole way, and now that they were finally about to catch their prey, every one of them was pumped up, itching for a fight. The soldiers of Poro Province prided themselves as invincible!

Aside from the Wislanders and those endless clone cannon fodder, they feared no one. Yet the excitement wasn’t only theirs.

Standing at the stern, Tail grew equally thrilled. “WAHAHA! Roro, bring up our close-defense gun, it’s time to go fishing!”

“Got it!” Roshan roared in response, galloping on all fours toward the middle of the deck.

Moments later, she dragged back a quad-mounted anti-aircraft cannon assembled from four Light Cavalier 20mm autocannons.

This weapon was a masterpiece of New Alliance military engineering, a legendary grass-cutting tool that had shined during the Bonechewer Clan’s battle. Though the model was outdated back in the New Alliance, it remained wildly popular in the underdeveloped regions of the wasteland.

“Flatten the angle! Load armor-piercing incendiaries, Roro, military tribunal grade!” Tail chanted excitedly as she spun the winch with all her strength, depressing the gun’s barrels a few degrees downward.

Roshan brought over an ammo box, pulled out a belt of rounds, and handed it to Sesame Paste, who clipped it into the receiver and shouted at Tail, “Loaded and ready!”

Just as the quad mount finished loading, the Xilande Empire sailors crouched in their assault boats finally noticed the gun bristling over the enemy ship’s railing.

Their grins vanished in an instant. The centurion leading them screamed in horror, “Open fire! All of you, open fire!”

On the open sea, there was nowhere to hide.

Though 500 meters wasn’t the ideal range, there was no time left to hesitate. If they couldn’t destroy that cannon, they were all as good as dead.

Gunfire erupted almost instantly. A storm of bullets raked across the rolling deck, sparks flying as rounds pinged and ricocheted off the heavy gunshield.

“OHOHO! Taste this!” Tail revealed a wicked smile as she finished aiming and pulled the trigger.