Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 48 Meeting
In front of the little troublemaker was a nearly abandoned shipyard, with rusty gantry cranes and some cables so old that their copper cores were exposed.

Su Ming looked up and saw that the old ship listed for sale had been raised high, and half of the hull had been repaired.

He found a spot to hide the troublemaker and let Miao Xin go in to investigate. It was indeed a steamship, but the engine room had been dismantled into pieces, and the propulsion system had serious malfunctions—meaning that the ship was actually a scrapped vessel.

Su Ming carefully examined the fault and found that although it was serious, it could be repaired by him. The ship was indeed very old, well over ten years old, but that didn't matter—civilian-grade steam engines, apart from being troublesome to control, didn't necessarily have any other advantages.

After assessing the situation, Su Ming made some plans.

He split his view, looking at the dock with his left eye and returning to the Zhiyuan with his right, and began to make a list on his laptop.

The white skeleton prepared breakfast and carried it to the control room.

"Good morning, Violet!" Su Ming greeted the scholar who followed behind.

"Good morning. I found some sea grapes, I'll give you something different," said Violet. Su Ming turned around and saw the skeleton carrying a plate piled with small green balls.

Su Ming tasted it; it still tasted like seaweed, but the texture was crisp, and it popped like a pea-sized bubble.

The radar beeped a few times, and Su Ming turned to look. "Airborne targets, three dragon eagles are coming."

Zijin assessed whether her suit dress was suitable for fighting, then added another layer of enhancement magic to it before walking onto the deck and looking around.

She noted down factors that could be exploited, such as wind direction, sea conditions, cloud cover, and the sun's position, and modified several magic arrays on the ship.

Su Ming understood Zi Jin's actions. Sure enough, someone who could survive such an encirclement and pursuit by enemies couldn't be simple.

The scholar waited a while, until the three dragon eagles flew closer, before releasing a signal flare to inquire.

"We can't reveal our true aerial detection range," she explained to Su Ming.

"...I think you should just let me be a war idiot."

“Don’t underestimate yourself; you’re very talented,” Violet said. “Have you really never had any real combat training?”

Does "Hell on Earth" count? Does "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" count?... Su Ming internally complained.

After several signal flare communications, Zijin told Su Ming, "The liaison officer from the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce flew over directly."

She walked to the aft deck and inscribed landing guidance runes.

"This spot is quite spacious, suitable for the dragon eagle to land." Violet found this design strange, as it wasn't necessary on a normal ship.

“It’s a helicopter deck,” Su Ming explained, since the initial ship design was copied from the Type 056A. “Don’t you need to wait in the lounge?” he asked.

“Orderliness is the greatest form of dignity; there’s no need to pretend,” Violet replied.

****
With a gust of wind from flapping wings, the three dragon eagles landed one after another on the aft deck.

"Good day, Chestnut Owl Scholar!" A young man in formal attire jumped down from the dragon eagle first, followed closely by two guards. The three of them placed one hand on their chests and bowed. "I am Charles Kegan, Vice President of the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce."

"Good day, President Charles." Violet nodded slightly in return, her expression indifferent. The scholar led him to the audience room and sat down at the head of the long table.

The two guards did not enter; Charles walked straight to the side of the table and sat down, without choosing a seat opposite them.

He took out an exquisitely packaged gift box and placed it on the table. "Nice to meet you. These are Toyohachi strawberries from Long Island!"

"Thank you for your trouble." Zijin accepted the gift box.

A white skeleton servant served tea—green seaweed tea—with some crumbs of instant noodles as a snack.

Charles subtly pursed his lips when he saw the seaweed in his teacup, but when he saw the skeleton servant, he felt it looked familiar. After taking a closer look, he was so frightened that he almost dropped the teacup.

He set the cup down, forcing himself to appear nonchalant, took out a rolled-up nautical chart, and turned to face Violet. "Scholar Chestnut Owl, please allow me to get straight to the point?"

"This isn't the style of the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce as rumored." Zi Jin leaned back in her chair, a hint of amusement in her eyes. "Aren't they going to go through the usual formalities of pulling and arguing?"

“I’m here today to ask for help, not to do business.” After receiving permission, Charles stood up and spread out the drawings. “I do not represent the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce.”

Su Ming also stood up and looked at the map, which was a nautical chart of the nearby sea area, with a large number of dense markings on it.

Su Ming looked at one of the newly written entries: "September of Star Calendar 272, Quail merchant ship, 2500 tons, sunk." He scanned the rest of the text and found many similar entries, more than 30 in total! The total tonnage of the damaged ships amounted to a staggering 9 tons!
Su Ming even saw several armed warships, all of which sank within the last three months.

Violet reached out and touched the map. "It completely severed maritime trade between the eastern and western continents—what exactly is that?"

“According to witnesses, it’s a marine creature with enormous tentacles.” Charles took out a painting depicting a wrecked cargo ship entangled by seven or eight enormous tentacles emerging from the water. The tentacles were covered in mottled patterns, and some had already reached into the cabins, dragging a large number of sailors into the sea. “This was a recreation by a psychoanalyst based on the survivors’ impressions.”

"Is there no way for the magician team to handle this?" Violet asked. "What about the navy?"

“We’ve tried them all.” Charles pulled out a stack of documents. “These are detailed records of eight tracking operations and five raiding operations so far.” He handed the documents to Violet.

Zi Jin didn't speak. She opened the file, which was filled with dense battle records. Su Ming also came over to look at it together.

"To put it simply, all attempts failed. The target has very high magic resistance; conventional attacks are ineffective, and they can dive down at any time," Charles said.

The underwater burst speed approached 20 knots, and Su Ming saw a line of text on the record. Considering the unique agility of living beings, this was indeed beyond the reach of sailing warships.

"so?"

"Your recent series of impressive actions have given us hope in our predicament," Charles stated directly, revealing his purpose. "I am here on behalf of all the affected forces to request your assistance!"

Zijin continued flipping through the documents without replying; clearly, she needed to process the information in her hands.

Charles glanced at Su Ming, who was huddled next to Violet, looking at documents together. He was wearing a shirt with many pockets, and there was a faint smell of engine oil on him.

Charles concluded that he must be the ship's mechanic. The man's background was completely unknown, and he looked far too young.

(End of this chapter)