Chapter 296: Opponent

"Sure."

Hearing Lita's invitation, Yun Mu agreed without the slightest hesitation.

She was idle anyway, so a sparring match would be nice.

She could just treat it as exercising her body.

The two stood on the relatively spacious deck of the Xiangyang, and the surrounding crew members gathered around one after another after noticing the commotion.

The Captain wanting to spar in Swordsmanship with Miss Lita was a rare form of entertainment for the crew, whose only recreational activity on the ship was playing cards.

How could they miss it? "Hmph, you guys."

Yun Mu gave a light huff, though she had no intention of driving them away.

She was quite familiar with the crew, and showing off her martial prowess appropriately wouldn't be bad.

Besides, the deck was so large that even if she drove them away, it would be of no use; if they couldn't watch openly, couldn't they just watch secretly?

Doing that would have no benefits.

"Hoo, Miss Yun, I'm coming!"

Taking a deep breath, Lita held the Wooden Sword used for training and lunged toward Yun Mu in one stride!

Clack!

The Wooden Swords collided, emitting a crisp sound; just from one exchange, Yun Mu noticed the gap in their Swordsmanship.

Lita's Swordsmanship was more refined than before, even a cut above her own! If it weren't for her character stats crushing the opponent, this spar likely wouldn't have been this easy.

Well, physical fitness is also a part of Swordsmanship, don't blame me, Lita.

"Heh heh."

Yun Mu increased the speed and power of her sword swings, instantly pushing back Lita's offensive.

Feeling the force transmitted from the sword, which almost made her weapon slip from her grip, Lita couldn't help but grit her teeth, struggling to defend against Yun Mu's attacks.

It wasn't just the force, but even the speed of the swings; even though Lita's level of Swordsmanship was more refined than Yun Mu's, she could only struggle to hold on under her attacks.

"Hey, Captain, aren't you being a bit of a bully!"

"That's right, you should at least go a little easier on the young lady."

Seeing this, a few of the surrounding crew members couldn't help but speak up.

Of course, they didn't really hope that Yun Mu would show mercy; they just didn't want the spar to end like this.

If it ended after such a short time, what would they watch? "Hmph, Salosi and Maierka, I've remembered you two; since you like watching so much, why don't you come and spar with me later?"

"Uh..." Hearing Yun Mu's words, the expressions on the faces of the two who had spoken earlier instantly froze.

"Hahaha, the Captain wants to personally instruct you, isn't that a good thing?"

"I'm truly envious of you two, hahaha."

Seeing the expressions on the two men's faces, the surrounding crew members began to tease them one after another.

"Sh-shut up, if you're so envious, then you go!"

"..."

Tsk tsk tsk, Yun Mu looked at the bickering crew members, shook her head helplessly, and then stopped paying attention to that side.

Her spar with Lita wasn't over yet, and now was not the time to be distracted.

Doing so would only make it seem like she didn't value this spar.

"Haa!"

Lita thrust her longsword out in a desperate gamble, but Yun Mu easily dodged it by turning to the side; the next second, the wooden training longsword was pressed against her chin.

"Hoo, I lost."

Withdrawing her attack stance, Lita lowered the Wooden Sword with slightly trembling hands.

That series of intense exchanges had clearly caused the muscles in her hands to operate beyond their capacity.

"After all, I am the Captain!"

Yun Mu first smiled with a hint of smugness, then walked up to Lita, reached out to take her palm, and asked with concern: "Is your hand alright? I still have some medicine in my room."

"Ugh, it's not like it's my fault, Miss Yun, you used too much force..." Lita looked at her with some resentment: "Aren't you of the Painter profession? Why is your strength so great?"

"Hahaha, after all, I am an Expert-level Transcendental, so it's normal to have a bit more strength," Yun Mu said, brushing it off casually.

"Liar..." Lita said in an extremely small voice.

"What?" Yun Mu looked at her with some confusion.

"No, it's nothing." As if thinking of something funny, a faint smile appeared on Lita's face.

"What's the situation..." Yun Mu looked blankly at Lita, who had suddenly laughed out loud, not knowing what she was happy about.

In fact, even Lita herself didn't know why she was laughing.

Heral Calendar year 4243, November 19th, weather sunny.

After 27 days of sailing, the Xiangyang finally arrived at the Beastkin Federation's seaport city—Falanaka.

In the Federation language, this term means "city by the sea."

"Is that the Federation's city?"

At the very front of the Xiangyang's deck, Lita gazed at the Shadow gradually emerging in the distance, her expression excited.

Having sailed on the sea for so many days, she was bored to death; now that she had finally reached her destination, she couldn't help but start looking forward to the scenery of the Federation.

"It really is astonishing..."

Yun Mu stood in front of the Xiangyang's helm, controlling the direction of the ship's progress.

Her eyesight was much stronger than Lita's, and she could already see that bustling seaport in the distance.

Huge mechanical arms danced in the air, continuously unloading cargo from ships; shipping containers made of metal were densely stacked together, and the towering buildings made Yun Mu almost think she had returned to Earth in a daze.

"Is that the Federation's Magic Technology?" she said.

"What of it? Our Kingdom has that kind of mechanical arm, too," Brenna said, standing beside her and curling her lip. "It's just that the relevant legislation hasn't been planned yet, so it hasn't become widespread."

"Hehehe," Yun Mu chuckled twice and said nothing more.

"Hey, Amangu, look at that ship over there."

On the docks of Falanaka, a male Beastkin with fish scales on his skin and gills hidden beneath his neck pointed toward the distant sea with his mechanical left arm and said to his companion beside him.

"What is it, Luosite?" The Beastkin named Amangu also had fish scales on his body; hearing his friend's words, he followed the direction of the other's finger and looked toward the distant sea.

"Hey, hey, no way."

As if seeing something strange and bizarre, Amangu's pupils suddenly dilated significantly: "It's actually a sailboat?"

"It's rare, isn't it? This is the first time in my life I've seen one," Luosite said with some surprise.

He was thirty-five years old this year, and as a senior employee of Falanaka Port, he had seen countless ships.

However, this was the first time he had seen an actual physical example of such an ancient wooden sailboat, powered by sails, which had been phased out long ago.

After all, even cargo ships coming from the Frost Kingdom should be those steam cargo ships that were constantly belching black smoke.

"Something's not right," Amangu stared blankly at the sailboat approaching from afar, the numbers related to speed constantly refreshing on the retina of his left eye.

"Are you kidding me? That sailboat's speed is actually 28 knots!?"

"It's 3 knots faster than the Nautilus!"

The Nautilus was a relatively well-known ship model within the Federation, famous for its sailing speed; its top speed could reach 25 knots per hour, which was 2 knots faster than the Peter, the fastest steamship of the Frost Kingdom.

And what had he just seen? Oh, my God, a ship powered by sails, and its speed was actually faster than mechanical ships powered by Magic Energy and steam engines? "I think I might need to change my prosthetic eye," Amangu said blankly.

"No, Amangu, your prosthetic eye isn't malfunctioning, look!" Luosite pointed behind the wooden sailboat, where two cargo ships powered by Magic Energy were desperately chasing the wooden sailboat in front.

It was as if they couldn't believe they would be left behind by such an old model.

However, no matter how much they accelerated, the figure of that wooden sailboat continued to pull away from them.

"Could it be an Elf?" Amangu thought of something at this moment and said to Luosite somewhat mysteriously: "I heard that Elves can use magic; it would be normal for them to make a sailboat run faster than a Magic Energy ship."

"Oh~ long ears, I know them. I heard those Elves are all very beautiful."

"If that really is an Elf ship, we'll know once it docks."

"Hey, you two, what are you whispering about!?" At this moment, a supervisor with a shark fin on his back and almost his entire upper body replaced with machinery came behind the two and questioned them in a cold, mechanical voice.

"N-nothing!"

"We're going to work right now!"

As a higher-ranking race than ordinary Fishmen, Sharkmen naturally carried a certain sense of oppression, and with that guy having replaced almost his entire upper body with machinery, it was truly somewhat frightening.

The two immediately stopped chatting and started to work, though they turned their attention to the distant sea from time to time.

It wasn't until the Sharkman supervisor left that they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That one must be a new arrival. He's ruthless; the degree of his Mechanical Modification must exceed forty percent."

"He is ruthless, indeed. Not to mention the money spent on the modification... to be modified to that extent, is he really not afraid of something going wrong?"

"Hmph, if he didn't modify himself to that extent, how could he get a job as a supervisor? At the end of the day, he's just a worker like us."

"That's true..."

The two chatted as they dismantled the cargo transported down by the mechanical arm and then moved it to the designated place.

In fact, a fully automated dock would have higher efficiency, but the maintenance costs were also significant, which was why dock workers existed.

Only if they were willing to accept lower wages and pay for their own body modifications to adapt to harsher work and achieve higher work efficiency would the dock owner hire them.

Because if they didn't undergo Mechanical Modification, the lost efficiency would make it better to just use a fully automated dock—but the meager wages, the maintenance after Mechanical Modification, the risks, and even the problems that arose during work all had to be handled by the dock workers themselves.

Insurance?

Insurance companies wouldn't open policies for people without money, and as for things like workers' compensation, if such things existed, who would still hire people to do the work?

In the entire dock, only people like Amangu and Luosite, who didn't need to support a family and also lacked ambition, would have the leisure to chat.

No, it couldn't be said they lacked ambition; it was just that the paths for advancement were all sealed off, and effort was useless, so why bother? Should they learn from that supervisor, take out all their savings, modify their bodies into that state, and then land a job only slightly better than before?

Better to forget it.

"Woohoo, finally ashore."

Yun Mu steered the Xiangyang to dock at the berth of Falanaka Port. As soon as she got off the ship, she encountered a gray fox-person wearing an unknown gray-black uniform, a tall hat, and a monocle over one eye.

Well, it was truly a gray fox, the kind with a fox head; it could probably be considered a furry.

It is said that this is related to the blood purity of the Federation; the higher the purity of the Beastkin, the closer their appearance is to humans (referring to the appearance of the Beastkin God), while the lower the purity, the more they lean toward beasts.

But because the Federation is a country established after overthrowing the rule of the Beastkin God, blood purity has become irrelevant.

At least on the surface, this is a country that emphasizes racial equality.

"Hello, guests from afar, I am the tax officer here." The gray fox-person put his hands behind his back and began to explain to everyone:

"According to the Federation's legislation, your ship needs to pay 5,000 Federal Currency per day to dock here."

"Of course, as long as you pay, we will send professional personnel to help you maintain and repair the ship; even for this, um, old model, we can take responsibility."

"How much is five thousand Federal Currency?" Hearing the tax officer's words, Yun Mu asked Brenna beside her.

"Uh, according to the current exchange rate, one Gold Frost Coin is equivalent to 180 Federal Currency, which is about 28 Gold Frost Coins," Brenna answered without hesitation.

Twenty-eight Gold Frost Coins a day!? Is this port made of gold? So expensive? Yun Mu raised her eyebrows almost subconsciously.

"So, you are from the Frost Kingdom?" Hearing their conversation, the tax officer showed a look of slight surprise on his face.

"I noticed earlier that the speed of this sailboat was extraordinary. May I ask if this is the Kingdom's new technology?" he asked curiously.

Does this tax officer even care about such questions?

Yun Mu looked at him with some confusion, thought for a moment, and replied: "This ship was designed this way out of my personal hobby. As for the reason it can go so fast, it's just because of the effect of a Supernatural Item."

"Oh, I see..." The tax officer's enthusiasm dissipated by more than half.

Supernatural Items were basically impossible to replicate; instead, some kind of technology that could make a ship's speed exceed existing ships was what he had originally been interested in.

Come to think of it, if there really were such a thing, the Kingdom wouldn't have shown it off so easily.

"Do you all need to process entry procedures?" After a moment of silence, he squeezed a smile back onto his face and said.

"Of course, please lead the way." Yun Mu nodded and said.

"Ah, you few over there, please wait a moment!" Just as the group was preparing to head to the office to process their entry procedures, a woman's voice suddenly rang out behind them, calling them to a halt.

"This lady, I am just about to take these guests..." The tax officer turned around, but halfway through his sentence, he suddenly froze in place.

"Lady Vivian, you, how could you be here!?"

(End of chapter)