Chapter 1042

Lin Cheng laid out his bargaining chips; the terms could be considered generous, and at the very least Lin Cheng felt he was showing plenty of sincerity.

In his conception, the Adventurer's Association's adventure teams would be divided from top to bottom into five ranks—S, A, B, C, and D—with S-rank corresponding to the current standard of the royal crews.

Given the Bai Huzi Pirates' present situation, pegging them at S-rank was a stretch, but Marco and Ace both had tremendous potential, and being the first to pledge allegiance, Lin Cheng would grant them the corresponding respect.

"Cast off the identity of pirates and become a profession that lives in the sunlight." Lin Cheng said with a smile to the two of them: "You should be clear too that the terms I'm offering are fairly generous; I hope you'll consider them seriously."

Marco and Ace fell into thought. If Bai Huzi were still alive as before, they wouldn't have given these matters a second thought.

But Bai Huzi was dead—died far too suddenly—and the problems he left behind were simply too many.

Whether it was Marco or Ace, neither had the confidence to restore the Bai Huzi Pirates to their original scale, and they even had to guard warily against being swallowed up by the Beasts Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates.

This heavy burden was not something Marco and Ace could bear. Now that a comparatively good way out had appeared, the two of them were deeply tempted.

Marco glanced at Ace and saw a hint of hesitation in the other's eyes; beneath that hesitation lay an exhaustion beyond words.

"I need to know what we have to give up." Marco said with a wry smile: "I trust this kind of good deal isn't just a matter of changing a name, right?"

"Indeed, joining the Adventurer's Association means abiding by the Association's rules." Lin Cheng began: "I haven't fully thought through the specific regulations yet, but they'll roughly be set up along the following points."

"First, anyone who joins the Association may not burn, kill, loot, or plunder civilians." Lin Cheng explained: "I don't intend to turn you into something like the Seven Warlords—constraining yourselves is a must; the bad habits of pirates cannot be brought over."

"Of course, given the current situation at sea, pirates are not covered by the first restriction."

The core members of the Bai Huzi Pirates had very high personal moral standards and had always disdained plundering commoners, so Marco and Ace had no objections to this clause.

Based on their past experience, plundering pirates and turning on one another was the fastest way to strike it rich.

Seeing the two had no objections, Lin Cheng continued: "When the time comes, the Association will issue some missions, and these missions will affect the adventure team's rank."

"Of course, these missions all come with payment; the Association will only take a ten percent service fee, to be used for maintaining its own operations."

In truth, Lin Cheng was lying on this point—that ten percent wasn't for the Association's operations, but was used to pay the Celestial Dragons' heavenly tribute on behalf of these adventure teams.

To be a person who lives in the sunlight, taxes are always an unavoidable issue.

For a high-paying profession like an adventure team, the Celestial Dragons' heavenly tribute is a fixed sum, so skimming ten percent is enough to pay protection money for these fellows.

The reason Lin Cheng framed it as the Association's operating costs was to spare Ace and Marco's feelings.

Paying money to the Celestial Dragons is an extremely shameful thing.

Of course, even with Lin Cheng's cover story, Marco and Ace both knew perfectly well that this money was meant to go to the Celestial Dragons.

This is the price that has to be paid for going legitimate; the two of them understood this and, with great tacit understanding, did not expose Lin Cheng's bluff.