Chapter 4419 — Anchored Pirates

In past editions of the Southern Continent's grand escort gathering, the favored agencies were always the same few traditional powerhouses. They ate the meat, and the rest of the agencies could only sip the thin broth. As for the small agencies ranked at the bottom, they could not even scoop up a mouthful of that thin broth—they could only stand to one side and look on hungrily.

Five years ago, the Qingtian Escort Agency had always been among those sipping thin broth. Even after it had finally clawed its way into the ranks of the five great agencies last time, it was still nowhere near as sought after as the traditional powerhouses. But this time, it had finally joined the ranks of those who ate meat!

At this very moment, a crowd had gathered around Qi Wenmo—stewards and managers from a dozen or so trading companies, large and small, and among them the most dazzling was Chai Laoshi, representing the Hong Trading Company. In both quantity and quality, they could now stand on equal footing with the other traditional powerhouses.

Such a blazing scene—not to mention the small agencies sipping thin broth, even people from the Sihai Escort Agency and the Shenfeng Escort Agency could not help feeling a tinge of envy. All of this had once been meat in their mouths, and now the Qingtian Escort Agency had suddenly risen to prominence, adding yet another competitor to snatch a bite of that meat...

Qi Mingyuan, as the chief escort of the Qingtian Escort Agency, had originally felt somewhat diminished sitting among the heads of the other five great agencies, but now he straightened his back at once, and men like Hai Wuliang and Zhao Bufan finally began to strike up conversations with him on their own initiative.

Strength decides who gets to speak. Although the Qingtian Escort Agency had been one of the five great agencies for five years, only now had it truly begun to win recognition from the other five. In this, Wei Zhao—an honorary chief escort who was essentially an outside hire—had rendered invaluable service.

After an hour of rest, once the first round of brief negotiations between the various escort agencies and the many trading companies had concluded, the second round of the competition finally began to unfold.

The agencies one and all rolled up their sleeves again. The leaders had to hold on to their advantage, and the laggards had to fight their way back up. Though many trading companies had already placed enormous orders, businessmen never put all their eggs in one basket; they still held piles of orders in their hands, and so long as one performed well in what followed, it was entirely possible to overtake the leaders from behind—and step into the ranks of those who ate meat!

"The second round is also closely tied to your work as escorts—it is hazardous-sea navigation," Hai Wuliang announced to everyone present.

At the name, the crowd nodded one after another. Escort agencies elsewhere, being on land, might never need to put out to sea in their lives, but in the various waters of the Southern Continent, without skilled seamanship one simply could not work as an escort. Every single escort run here required going to sea.

"The rules are simple. Each agency sends out one Golden Core-stage escort, who sails a boat alone through a stretch of sea route. Along the way there are miasmic fogs, hidden reefs, whirlpools, and also some anchored pirates. In short, whatever you might encounter on a normal escort run will appear in the competition," Hai Wuliang explained the rules to the crowd.

"Anchored pirates?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. The rest was easy enough to understand, but these anchored pirates sounded a little strange.

"Brother Ling, you may not know this, but so-called anchored pirates are those who habitually camp in one spot. So long as any vessel passes within their line of sight, they give chase and plunder it. Normally, most pirates are wanderers who strike and move on, but in these waters of the Southern Continent, because there is sea fog and the like for cover, such anchored pirates are in fact rather common—after all, it is far more comfortable and easy," Qi Wenmo explained from the side.

"Then these anchored pirates in the competition—are they real pirates?" Wei Zhao could not help asking out of curiosity.

"That is impossible. Escort agencies can compromise with pirates on an escort run, but this is the grand gathering of the Southern Continent's escort agencies. Whatever pirates show up, we kill every last one that comes—and besides, how would real pirates ever cooperate with our competition?" Qi Wenmo laughed and guessed, "Unless I am mistaken, these anchored pirates are probably played by people from the five great agencies. There have been similar events before, and that is how it was done."

"Since we know full well they are our own people, aren't these anchored pirates just going through the motions? Our own people could never truly strike to kill, surely?" Wei Zhao said, somewhat dismissively.

"Heh, that is where you are mistaken, Brother Ling. Look at how the first round went—killing is a rare thing in competitions elsewhere, but here it is truly routine. Even if these anchored pirates are played by people from the five great agencies, once you run into them they will certainly strike to kill. And then it will be at least five against one—meeting them means certain death," Qi Wenmo said with a sigh and a shake of his head.

"All the competing escorts from every agency will race along a newly determined sea route. No one has ever sailed this route before. Every hidden reef, every whirlpool, and the anchored pirates included, all follow no pattern whatsoever," Hai Wuliang continued explaining the rules.

The crowd below fell silent, one and all. Such a competition looked simple—one need only sail a boat out to sea, with no need to fight to the death as in the first round—but those truly in the know could already see the dangers piled high within it.

A completely unfamiliar new sea route was a tremendous challenge for any navigator. However seasoned one might be, there was always the risk of capsizing in a ditch. Beneath sea fog that blotted out the sky and sun, any hidden reef, any whirlpool, could very well be the death of a man—and if one met the anchored pirates, there would not be even a sliver of a chance at life.

"One more thing. The anchored pirates are supplied by the five great agencies. Each of us five judges selects a set of coordinates, and after the numbers are randomly shuffled and recombined, an entirely new random set of coordinates is produced. That is to say, no one—including us five judges—can predict the pirates' location in advance, which guarantees absolute fairness. If anyone still has doubts, raise them now before the crowd," Hai Wuliang said in a ringing voice.

The crowd below looked at one another, and no one spoke. Though it was still hard to say how things would actually play out, judging at least by the rules as set down, there was indeed nothing to find fault with—even the five great agencies themselves would find it hard to pull any tricks.

Of course, since the anchored pirates were made up of people from the five great agencies, if one did run into them, the competitors from those five agencies would inevitably enjoy a bit of an edge over the others—after all, the pirates had "their own people" among them.

However, once a competitor encountered the anchored pirates in this competition, their elimination was already as good as proclaimed! (To be continued...)