Shi Ming watched the captain make his desperate gamble and smiled.
He had already learned from the system's [Newbie Info Pack] that when the Wandering Era began, everyone who boarded a Wandering Ship to survive—regardless of their status as captain, crewmember, or even a slave or laborer—was required to have a Celestial Net Chip implanted in their body.
Only then could they gain the Wandering Ship's "approval" and be added to its whitelist.
This was the core logic of the Wandering Ships' original design.
The Celestial Net Terminals used to control the chips were divided into four categories: King, General, Gold, and Silver.
Unlike the Wandering Ship tiers, there was no lowest Bronze level.
The device in the captain's hand was a Silver Terminal, which corresponded to a Silver-level Wandering Ship. It was the lowest-grade control terminal, and its authority extended to everyone on the ship except the user.
With this small, phone-sized cube, the captain controlled the fate of everyone on the entire ship. No one dared to defy him.
But his fate, in turn, was in the hands of those in higher positions.
And so it went, layer after layer.
In what seemed to be a free age of wandering, everyone's fate was inextricably woven into a single web. The Celestial Net.
But Shi Ming wasn't afraid.
No one could control his fate.
He sheathed his broadsword and watched indifferently as the captain pressed the "Execute" button.
Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.
The captain's expression darkened. He slammed the red button again, but there was still no response.
'Is it broken? No, that's impossible!'
"You didn't actually think this piece of junk could control my fate, did you?" Shi Ming said.
"Impossible!" The captain was growing frantic. He fumbled wildly with the terminal, desperate to make it work. Suddenly, his eyes landed on an exploration team member cowering to the side. An idea struck him. He switched to a different ID number and viciously slammed the red execute button.
THUD.
The poor, innocent exploration team member's eyes went lifeless as he suddenly collapsed.
"It's not broken! It's not broken! It still works!"
"So why are you the exception?"
As if conducting an experiment, he switched to another ID and pressed the death-symbolizing button once more.
Just for the sake of a test, another exploration team member collapsed! The ones still alive could only watch in horror, completely at a loss.
"Why are you the exception? Why? In this world, there's no one without an implanted Celestial Net Chip! Even my own uncle's fate is controlled by another!"
"...No, that's not right. This identity isn't yours!"
"Who the hell are you, masquerading as that slave?! What are you trying to do?!"
The captain lost his usual gloomy composure, his demeanor becoming frenzied.
The black markings on his body began to fade, a sign that his Awakened ability was wearing off.
Moreover, Shi Ming noticed that the captain's previously ethereal form was slowly solidifying into a tangible body.
'It seems that "trump card" of his—the one that makes his body ethereal—can't be sustained for very long. Once its duration is up, he can no longer maintain the state. A trump card this powerful must also come with severe aftereffects.'
'It's about time.'
"You want to know? Go ask the person who implanted your chip. And don't worry about your ship and crew. I'll take over your Wandering Ship after you're dead. As for everything else, I'll handle it for you."
The moment the captain's body solidified, Shi Ming swung his broadsword without the slightest hesitation.
"No, wait! I can give you all of my—"
Shi Ming paid no heed to the captain's useless words. He watched, unblinking, as the gleaming arc of his blade sliced through the captain's newly solidified head as if it were tofu, kicking up a spray of blood.
CLUNK.
The four surviving team members watched their captain's head hit the floor and, to their own surprise, breathed a collective sigh of relief.
But their relief immediately turned to renewed tension. This "slave" before them, who had so thoroughly outclassed the captain and played him for a fool, clearly wasn't someone to be trifled with. 'Is this it?' they thought. 'Are we really doomed to die here today?'
They didn't dare flee, so they could only remain rooted to the spot, awaiting Shi Ming's verdict.
Shi Ming ignored them. He simply collected the Celestial Net Terminal from the captain's feet, picked up the Awakened's corpse, and turned to leave.
He left them with a few words.
"You have two choices."
"One: follow me back to the Wandering Ship and take your orders from me from now on. Two: leave and be free."
"If you want to return to the Wandering Ship, keep up. I won't wait long."
'He called it two choices, but there was really only one.'
'The captain was dead, so this Wandering Ship was his for the taking. While it was probably just a Silver-level vessel, not even comparable to a simple canoe he could find on the shore, it held a considerable amount of resources. Besides, to survive on the ocean, a crew was a necessity.'
'Shi Ming had no desire to be the captain, a sailor, a handyman, and the cook all at the same time...'
'Besides, he needed someone to help explain the "cause of the captain's death."'
'History is written by the victors.'
The crewmembers, who had just been certain of their impending deaths, all fell in line behind Shi Ming without exception, marveling that they had truly escaped with their lives. Their former captain had gone mad, trying to kill them all just to prevent a potential spy from infiltrating. He was completely unhinged!
...
「On the Wandering Ship.」
After using a Gold key to successfully claim authority over the Wandering Ship, Shi Ming naturally became its new captain.