Super Mothership
(TL:By Rafael,valhallatls.blogspot.com)
“What? Mad Wolf is dead?”
At the base of the Red Dragon Pirate Crew, the pirate captain Red Dragon frowned slightly as he received the news.
Mad Wolf was a promising newcomer he had planned to heavily promote. His mech combat skills were top-tier, and he was already half a step into the realm of Gold-ranked warriors. More importantly, he was fearless and aggressive — the perfect candidate to become captain of the assault unit.
Although this loss wasn’t crippling, it still put Red Dragon in a bad mood.
“Useless trash. He couldn’t even break into the arena’s top hundred — what a disgrace to our Red Dragon Pirates! But even beating a dog, you should consider its owner. Knowing he was one of mine and still daring to kill him… could it be someone from one of the other Seven Great Pirate Crews?”
The Seven Great Pirate Crews were fierce rivals, and covert clashes between them were routine. In the arena, life and death were dictated by fate. If one of those crews really did it, Red Dragon would have no choice but to swallow the loss.
“No, boss. According to the informant, it was a newcomer calling himself the ‘Ghost Captain.’ I investigated him — he’s extremely mysterious. The moment he entered the Shattered Star Sector, he subdued the Goldtooth Pirate Crew, who were ranked 187th. Then he placed heavy bets and challenged arena elites. Mad Wolf was the first to fall to him.”
“A newcomer? Heh! A newborn calf that isn’t afraid of tigers? Seems he doesn’t take my reputation seriously at all.”
Red Dragon sneered, already plotting how to make this guy vanish from the world.
As for a measly pirate crew ranked 187th… who even cared?
The higher a pirate crew’s ranking, the greater the power gap. Compared with the Seven Great Pirate Crews, those tiny crews were nothing more than ants — the difference between heaven and earth.
“Leave this to you. You know what to do, right?”
“Boss… this might be tricky.”
“Oh? Does this newcomer have some powerful backing?” Red Dragon asked, surprised.
“No… it’s mainly because this guy… is very strong…” his subordinate said hesitantly.
“Very strong? How strong?”
“After defeating Mad Wolf, he challenged several top-100 arena fighters in succession. His current ranking has already entered the top twenty. That was the news from half an hour ago…”
Hearing that the man had broken into the top twenty, Red Dragon, who had been calm until now, instantly turned pale.
The top twenty was on an entirely different level from the top hundred. Anyone who reached that rank was a top-tier Gold-ranked powerhouse.
Such individuals could influence the outcome of an entire small-scale war. Every one of them was fiercely sought after by the Seven Great Pirate Crews.
In fact, nearly all of the arena’s top twenty were members of those seven major crews.
“Have the others received the news?” Red Dragon asked urgently.
“Yes. Word is already spreading. Currently, the leaders of the Dark Shrine and the Dragon Cavalry, who are in Shattered Star City, are preparing to personally head to the arena.”
“What?! Damn it! Let’s go — to the arena!”
The death of Mad Wolf was insignificant. But if a rival obtained such a powerful general, that would be a serious threat!
Far beyond the distant star sectors…
The infamous Black Sail Pirate Fleet was cleaning up the battlefield. Several captured large merchant ships and the wreckage of escort vessels floated in space — clearly, a raid had just ended.
Black Sail’s captain, Flint, gazed through the viewport at his crew working and felt extremely satisfied.
Choosing to cooperate with the Jinlok Consortium back then had truly been the right decision.
With Jinlok’s intelligence network, Black Sail could learn in advance where the “fat sheep” were along this route.
Although the consortium was insatiably greedy and demanded hefty fees for every piece of intelligence, Flint still ended up making enormous profits overall.
Thanks to this collusion between merchants and pirates, Black Sail’s power had expanded rapidly in recent years, allowing them to sit firmly among the top three of the Seven Great Pirate Crews.
Once this deal was wrapped up, he could buy more weapons and equipment from Jinlok to further expand his forces — and that plan of his would finally be ready to go… A glint of ambition flashed in Flint’s eyes.
As the saying goes: A pirate who doesn’t want to become Pirate King isn’t worthy of wearing a straw hat…
Ahem — in any case, Flint certainly had his sights set on that glorious title.
“Boss Flint, news from the Shattered Star Sector!”
“Speak!”
“Mad Wolf is dead!”
“What?” Flint turned his head, a trace of cold malice flashing in his eyes.
On the surface, Mad Wolf looked like a powerful general newly recruited by the Red Dragon Pirate Crew. But in secret, he was actually a mole planted by the Black Sail Pirates inside Red Dragon!
Each of the Seven Great Pirate Crews had histories spanning over a hundred years. Through long periods of cooperation and rivalry, their relationships had become extremely tangled. Tactics like planting spies in one another’s ranks were something everyone tacitly understood.
If your own pirate crew didn’t have at least a few spies from the other major crews, you’d be embarrassed to even call yourself one of the Seven Greats!
If nobody bothered inserting spies into your crew, what did that mean? It meant you were too safe — so safe that no one even regarded you as a threat!
As an ambitious man, Flint naturally invested tremendous effort into gathering intelligence on the other six pirate crews.
But talents like Mad Wolf weren’t something you could get in bulk. He had paid a steep price to earn Red Dragon’s trust, and just when Mad Wolf was about to start playing his role, he died for no apparent reason.
Especially since Mad Wolf was a key chess piece in Flint’s next plan — without him, the plan’s success rate would be significantly reduced…
This bad news instantly wiped out most of Flint’s good mood.
“How did he die? Was he exposed?” Flint asked coldly.
“No. He died after losing in the arena, killed by a mysterious expert who suddenly emerged.”
“A mysterious expert? What’s his background?”
“This person goes by the nickname ‘Ghost Captain.’ On the surface, he’s the newly appointed leader of a small pirate crew, but he possesses an extremely powerful and mysterious mech. He likely isn’t as simple as he appears — he may even be a pawn of some outside force.
“The time is too short, so this is all we’ve been able to uncover so far, but I’ve already ordered further investigation. We should receive more information soon.
“Also, his arena ranking has already entered the top twenty. It’s said that the captains of Red Dragon, Dark Shrine, and Dragon Cavalry have personally rushed to the arena, preparing to recruit him.”
“Ghost Captain? Interesting. A newly arrived outsider daring to act so flamboyantly… What exactly is giving him such confidence?” Flint’s gaze flickered.
“Go. Have the highest-ranking official in Shattered Star City make contact. Even if we can’t recruit him, we must find out his purpose in coming here.”
“Hey! The guy we just took down was ranked ninth, right? I’ve already entered the top ten. What rank is the Ghost Pirate Crew at now?” Nie Yun yawned as he asked.
“The data’s updating too fast. I… I’ll refresh it again…” Goldtooth swallowed nervously, his fingers trembling as he operated his personal terminal.
In just half a day, Goldtooth had watched in stunned disbelief as Nie Yun plowed through his opponents like chopping vegetables. What good was having an excellent logistics team? The guy simply didn’t give anyone a chance to enter the safe zone at all!
The Ghost Pirate Crew’s ranking on the Shattered Star Board was also changing multiple times a day. During the last update, they had already climbed to 105.
“In… into the top hundred!” Goldtooth stared at the No. 99 ranking, still feeling like he was dreaming.
Although his title now had the prefix “vice-,” in terms of prestige, being the vice-captain of a top-100 pirate crew far surpassed being the captain of some obscure backwater outfit.
His dreamed-of peak of life… had it really arrived just like that?
“So, does that mean our plan to mortgage our shares for cash can begin?” Nie Yun asked.
“Uh… theoretically, yes…” Goldtooth replied weakly.
Who on earth thought about mortgaging shares after entering the top hundred? Shouldn’t the next step be pushing forward and charging toward the Seven Greats?
Of course, that was only wishful thinking on Goldtooth’s part. For an individual to force their way into the top hundred through sheer personal strength was already outrageous. Normally, such powerhouses were all under the command of the Seven Great Pirate Crews.
Not to mention the Seven Greats — even No. 90 was far beyond what the current Ghost Pirate Crew could challenge. Even though Goldtooth knew he had latched onto an incredibly thick thigh, he still didn’t dare become that arrogantly overconfident.
“So the higher the ranking, the more shares of Shattered Star City we get?” Nie Yun thought for a moment, then asked.
“Huh? Yes, that’s right…” Goldtooth froze, then his expression changed. “Captain, don’t tell me you’re thinking—”
Hey, hey! Don’t be impulsive! We’ve already achieved our initial goal! The ones ahead are all top-tier monsters from the Seven Great Pirate Crews! If you slip up and die, our ranking will instantly reset, and I’ll end up celebrating for nothing!
Know when to be content, damn it!
“Snap!” Nie Yun snapped his fingers.
“Yep! That’s exactly the ‘don’t tell me’ you’re thinking of! Even loan sharks would say you’re an idiot if you don’t borrow when there’s money to be had! So I’m going to… dominate the arena!”
Higher ranking = more loans = faster expansion of power.
Even if the capital game collapsed, he could always justè·‘è·¯—run back to the Solar System, start over with a new identity, and do it all again. Way more exciting than slow, steady grinding, right?
Clearly, a certain captain had already decided to walk ever deeper down the highly promising career path of being a professional debtor…
Got the guts? Then blacklist my credit!
TL Note- Loan Game...
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