Chapter 27: Mutiny?

Paul was holding Khan’s lapels and shaking him back and forth, angry.

He was shaking Khan with all his might, but the difference in their strength and power stats was so great that it was as if Khan was standing still and only Paul’s body was shaking back and forth.

[Ugh, I hope I don’t get reported…]

No matter how much he shook, only his own body swayed, so Paul quickly gave up and leaned his head on Khan’s chest, whining.

Hearing that, Nicholas also thought to himself, ‘Right, that was too much,’ and agreed.

Paul tilted his head back sharply and looked up at Khan as if glaring at him.

Through the mask, his glassy, greyish eyes met his.

[Do you think I’ll let you off just because you look at me so cutely?! Of course I will!]

At that part, Nicholas burst out laughing unexpectedly.

It was a reaction he hadn’t anticipated.

[Hmph, I’ll have to write a letter when we get to the kingdom.]

Paul grumbled and straightened the wrinkled robe he had been holding with his pale hands.

The sight was so cute that Nicolas couldn’t help but smile.

***

“Hey, you with the mask!”

“Yes?”

Paul answered reflexively.

The only people wearing masks here were Paul and Khan.

“No, not you, him over there. The tall one! What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Why did you throw a person into a perfectly good situation and ruin our work?!”

“…Ah.”

The owner of the sudden outburst was one of the explorer players.

The explorers were flustered when the sirens disappeared, but they soon turned their anger on them and approached.

“We would have handled it ourselves if you had just stayed put! It was a chance to discover a new underwater city! How are you going to take responsibility for this! Huh?!”

‘Really, what kind of nonsense is this?’

Wouldn’t everyone here have thought the same?

The explorer’s words were that absurdly far-fetched.

Surely they themselves knew that, so were they just trying to vent their anger for no reason?

It seemed they were acting even more recklessly because Paul and Khan were easy to mistake for newbies just by their appearance.

They probably thought that some clueless newbies had wandered into a place like this after seeing their plain clothes.

“Excuse me, please calm down first…”

Paul sighed and stood in front of Khan.

He was trying to save the explorers, but for some reason, their angry gazes turned to Paul.

It was just as the explorer was about to say something.

Slam—!

The firmly closed cabin door burst open, and a person shot out from inside.

“Those, those insolent things…!”

It was none other than the captain of this ship, Roland Pamp!

The captain’s face was beet red as he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Seeing a sailor following behind him, it seemed that the sailor had informed him of the situation on deck a little while ago.

“What are you all doing! Throw those things off the ship!”

At the captain’s shout, the sailors on deck all drew their weapons at once.

Sailors who navigated the seas always had to be wary of plunderers.

If they let their guard down for even a moment on this vast sea, pirate ships would often appear and attack, so it was only natural for them to be armed.

“D*mn it, we got caught sooner than I thought!”

“What about the ship that was supposed to follow us?!”

“They said not yet!?”

“Ah, d*mn it, my infamy stat is on the edge…!”

“The penalty for dying is better! The infamy stat is hard to lower!”

While the explorers were in a state of confusion, the sailors rushed at them with their weapons drawn.

Clang! Squeak!

In an instant, the deck turned into a battlefield.

Weapons clashed, and someone’s curses were mixed in between.

In the beginning, the explorers, flustered by the sailors’ angry stance, were busy defending, but they soon came to their senses and launched a counterattack.

Then, it was the sailors who were being pushed back.

It seemed they were players with a certain level.

Perhaps there were not only explorers but also combat classes mixed in among them.

“D-D*mn it! What are you doing, you can’t even catch one of those guys! Do you think I fed you, housed you, and paid you to be on this ship for this?!”

Seeing the tide turning, the captain kept fuming and tearing at his hair.

However, he didn’t do the foolish thing of jumping in himself.

He just stood at a distance and vented his anger.

In the meantime, the odds were increasingly in favor of the explorer group.

Just as the thought that they might hijack this ship crossed his mind, the sailors’ injuries began to increase one by one.

Seeing that, the captain seemed to have decided that he couldn’t let it go on any longer and shouted at the spectators who were watching the situation from a distance.

“I will give money to anyone who helps turn those guys into shark food!”

At the same time, a system message and a quest window appeared in front of the players.

Ding!

[System: A surprise quest has arrived!]

□ [Bounty Hunt!] [C] (NEW!)

▼ [Client: Roland Pamp]

Roland Pamp, angry at the insolent explorer group who completely fooled him, wants to throw them off the ship and make them shark food. But the explorer group is surprisingly persistent. At that moment, you, who have been idle, catch his eye. Roland Pamp makes you an offer.

If you give even a small amount of help in kicking out that wicked explorer group, he will surely reward you appropriately in the name of Roland Pamp, the captain of this ship!

※ When undertaking a bounty hunt, your infamy stat will not increase even if you attack the bounty.

※ If you refuse, you will incur Roland Pamp’s displeasure, and the probability of being expelled from the ship will increase.

Reward: To be settled later depending on your contribution.

It was only natural that the players all drew their weapons at once.

They were bored anyway, and they were tired of this situation where they were dragged into the mess because of those guys’ greed.

Besides, if their infamy stat didn’t increase even if they attacked, and they even got a reward as a bonus, it couldn’t be better.

And there were more of them on this side.

“Now this is a different story.”

“I didn’t like them anyway.”

And in front of the explorer players, a message with the same content but the opposite stance appeared.

“What? F*ck! Is this really something to issue a hunting quest over?!”

“Sh*t, we’re really screwed.”

“Why aren’t the guild members contacting us!?”

The explorers hesitated.

Things had gotten more complicated than they expected, and the thought of ‘wouldn’t it be better to just jump into the sea on our own?’ naturally came to mind.

But this sea had more monsters than other seas.

If they didn’t have skills to fight underwater, they would become monster food in an instant.

And as for using a teleport scroll…

While they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, the players who had been pretending to be spectators joined the fight.

Once the purpose became clear, it was only a matter of time before the fight intensified.

Clang! Boom!

As the sound of weapons clashing echoed on the deck once again, complaints erupted here and there at the fire magic shot by the magician class.

“Fck! Who’s using magic!? Are you fcking crazy!?”

“Hey, you! Stop with the magic! Are you trying to sink the ship!?”

“Ah~ who doesn’t know that! I just shot a really small one, okay?! Do you think I’m a crazy guy like Ian! Besides, if it burns with just this, is this even a ship? It’s a piece of paper!”

Since the guys who had been playing separately had gathered, it was a veritable bedlam.

Meanwhile, Paul, who was watching the scene from a distance, was lost in thought.

“Hmm, I don’t really like this kind of thing…”

Even as he said that, Paul diligently took out a crossbow from his bag and loaded a bolt (crossbow arrow) into it.

He thought that his usual bow would be too conspicuous, so a small and simple crossbow would be better.

It was also easy to aim.

Just hitting one shot would satisfy the quest condition.

If he just stood by and did nothing, he might incur the captain’s displeasure, and the mess happening in front of him might turn to this side.

So he had to make a show of doing something.

‘I’ll just hit one shot and then hide.’

Clang, clang!

Watching the people fighting in a tangled mess, clashing their weapons, Paul stealthily moved with Khan.

He lightly leaped, grabbed the railing, and landed silently on the deck.

Looking down at the messy first-floor deck, Paul quietly raised his crossbow.

In a situation where everyone was tangled up and it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, he stealthily closed one eye and aimed the crossbow.

The target is the person closest to the railing.

At the same time, the passive skill [Hawk Eye] was activated.

His vision focused, and the target appeared as close as if it were right next to him.

Adjusting the sights here and there, Paul spotted a weak point.

Weak point.

It’s literally what it means.

A vital spot that all living creatures have.

Head, neck, heart, eyes, and so on.

It was no different in <Arcana Chronicles>.

Any place where a slight blow could cut off one’s breath at once could be called a weak point.

No matter how much HP a monster had, if you could just cut off its neck, it was possible to defeat it regardless of level.

However, to cut off a neck in one fell swoop, you needed immense strength and a weapon with high durability that could withstand that power.

In other words, it wasn’t easy unless you were a skilled person.

So, other than that, a place that could hinder the opponent’s actions becomes a secondary weak point.

Shoulder, leg, wrist, side, stomach, knee, heel, and so on.

Paul aimed at the shoulder of the moving target, timed it, and fired the loaded bolt.