Hell’s Handbook 75: The Prince’s Sailors

The salty sea breeze blew against Su Jin’s face. He was now moving along a vast beach. The sea waves seemed to go on forever.

“Well, now that we’re here – my name’s Su Jin and this is my fourth Challenge. What are your names?” Since they were going to work together, the very least he could do was to get to know them.

The girl answered first, “My name’s Ning Meng and this is my second Challenge.”

“My name’s Gu Ming and this is my third Challenge. Erm…is this really only your fourth Challenge? You’ve survived just one more Challenge than I have? Can you tell me how you activated your Spirit Power?” Gu Ming stared at Su Jin and simply couldn’t understand how someone with just one more Challenge completed than he did could have obtained Spirit Power.

But if Su Jin had an answer to that question, then both Kano Mai and Yang Mo would have been able to activate theirs by now. He could only shake his head and say, “I’m really sorry but I’m afraid that there isn't anybody with an answer to that question. The activation of Spirit Power is not within our control at all. You might have to ask a fortune teller or something.”

Gu Ming was very disappointed to hear this answer. Out of the three Challenges he went through, he had met a veteran during his first two. He still couldn’t forget how powerful that veteran had been.

“So, what should we be doing next?” Ning Meng didn’t know as much about the Handbook as Gu Ming did, but she knew that she had to do something.

Su Jin said, “We’re in the Little Mermaid’s story and the treasure is her fish scales. So clearly, that’s our aim.”

“Do we have to go into the sea? But I don’t know how to swim!” said Gu Ming anxiously. He couldn’t even swim in a small stream, let alone the vast sea waters.

Su Jin said, “It might be a bit too difficult for us to go around looking for the Little Mermaid, so I thought it would be better to look for someone who would definitely come into contact with her.”

“Are you referring to…Prince Charming?” Gu Ming realised what Su Jin was driving at. The Little Mermaid’s meeting with Prince Charming was the driving point of the story, so if they could find Prince Charming, they would eventually find the Little Mermaid.

“But where do we go to find him?” asked Ning Meng puzzledly. The sea was so vast. Trying to find the prince at sea was just like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Su Jin looked into the distance and saw that a gigantic naval fleet was slowly approaching them. They looked like kings of the sea, as the countless small boats moved in one formation.

“Looks like we don’t have to go looking for him!” Su Jin laughed and said, “Let’s go! Since the boats are headed this way, there must be some harbour nearby. We’ve got to find a way to get ourselves on those boats.”

The three of them left the beach and headed towards where the boats seemed to be going. It didn’t take them long to arrive at a port city that was bustling with people.

From a distance, Su Jin already noticed that everyone in the port city ahead were dressed in western mid century clothing. If the three of them tried to approach these people without changing their clothes, they would look very out of place.

“We’ve got to find a way to get our hands on some of these clothes, otherwise it’ll be hard for us to get around,” mumbled Su Jin to himself.

“Would these do?” Immediately after Su Jin muttered those words, Ning Meng retrieved some clothing from her Handbook. These clothes did look like what the people here were wearing.

She saw the strange looks on their faces and said a little awkwardly, “Well, I…my Personal Hell Domain offered me a Wardrobe of Wonders, so I exchanged my points for that.”

“Women!” Gu Ming shook his head. To him, points were very precious in this universe. It was the best way for an owner to make himself more powerful besides getting Spirit Power. He couldn’t believe Ning Meng would waste it on an item like that.

But Su Jin didn’t think the same way. There were times where a Wardrobe of Wonders would be useful, like the situation they were in right now. If they didn’t have any clothes to change into, they would stick out like a sore thumb and quickly become a target. That would make things very difficult for themselves. With the right clothes, they would be able to blend in with the crowd and move about unnoticed. In fact, if this Wardrobe of Wonders didn’t cost too much, Su Jin was considering getting one too.

After they got changed, the three of them looked at each other and tried not to laugh. They now looked more like they were about to put up some theatre production. The clothes looked so strange on themselves.

“Ning Meng, do you have something more…suitable for commoners? These clothes look like the type that only nobles and aristocrats wear, so I don’t think they’d be any better than our own clothes!” remarked Su Jin as he let out a laugh.

Ning Meng was rather apologetic about her selection and quickly retrieved another three sets of clothing. These clothes looked a lot more ordinary, so they quickly got changed.

They finally started walking towards the port city after they had changed a second time. This city was extremely busy and was filled with all sorts of people. Judging from their clothes, most of them were probably merchants or sailors.

But the three of them were stopped right outside the city gate. It turned out that they needed to pay taxes before they could enter the city, but none of them carried the currency of this city.

Ning Meng and Gu Ming didn’t know what to do. On the contrary, Su Jin glanced around, then walked towards a merchant who looked fairly wealthy. After walking around that merchant, Su Jin walked back to his two companions with a large pouch of money in his hands.

“Wow! Mr. Su, you’re…really incredible!” Gu Ming exclaimed.

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Su Jin rubbed his nose a little embarrassedly. He wasn’t some regular pickpocket, but his body was now at a level of agility and speed that surpassed an ordinary human’s. If he wanted to become a pickpocket, he would be a grandmaster of pickpockets. Stealing a bag of money was a piece of cake to him.

They paid the necessary tax and finally made it into the city. Compared to the bustling port area, the city itself was a lot more orderly. There were even soldiers patrolling the city to ensure public safety.

There was a noticeboard near the city gate that had several notices pinned to it, but none of them could understand what the notices said. The words on the notices looked like English, but not quite.

Thankfully, Su Jin had a Translation Watch on hand. After he had spent 100 points, he was now fluent in this language.

“These are recruitment ads?” Su Jin looked carefully at the notices and realised that they were mostly ads looking for workers. There were ads for everything from bartenders to waiters. Also, there were no requirements or qualifications needed. As long as you could do the job, it didn’t matter if you were a bandit or a robber before this.

“This one is hiring sailors!” Su Jin’s eyes lit up. This particular ad had been put up by the prince. He was looking for sufficient sailors to search for treasures in the sea. But this prince was rather stingy and the benefits were even worse off than the ad for a cook. There was one clause that was extremely attractive though. The prince promised to share the loot.

“This prince is more like some shady salesman, making people slog for him for possibly nothing in return.” Su Jin shook his head. But the three of them had no choice but to take up this job.

“My friends, do the two of you get seasick?” Su Jin asked Gu Ming and Ning Meng with a cheeky grin.

Su Jin took note of the address on the notice and led the other two towards the place where the recruitment exercise was being held. Gu Ming sighed and said, “Mr. Su, I agree that this is a good plan in theory. But I don’t know how to swim! How can I become a sailor at this rate?”

“Mr. Gu, you just don’t have enough confidence in yourself. Luffy doesn’t know how to swim either, but he aims to become the King of the Pirates!” said Su Jin gleefully.1

“Who’s Luffy?” Gu Ming looked completely confused.

“You don’t read comics?”

“Uh…I’ll read some when we’re done with this Challenge…” said Gu Ming a little embarrassedly.

“Ooh! I’ve got a pile of recommendations for you! I’ll give you a list later!” Su Jin was a typical otaku who got really excited when it came to his hobbies.

Before long, they arrived at their destination. The man in charge of the recruitment exercise looked like a typical scrivener you would find in a children’s book – a skinny man with glasses hanging off his nose.

“Esteemed sir, my siblings and I would like to become part of His Highness’ fleet,” said Su Jin very politely to the scrivener.

Su Jin was a little apprehensive about this whole thing because in most cultures around the world, women on board a ship was generally regarded as bad luck and could bring disaster.

But this didn’t seem to be an issue here. The scrivener nodded without any hesitation and said, “Thank you for your interest. It will be your greatest honor to become part of His Highness’ fleet, but whether you become a sailor for His Highness or not depends on whether you’re someone he needs.”

“Esteemed sir, the three of us are very capable, so I’m certain that His Highness would need us,” said Su Jin with a big smile.

“That’s not a decision for you to make. Men!” The scrivener gave a low shout and three men dressed like sailors walked over. They were extremely muscular and looked like they were good at fighting.

Gu Ming and Ning Meng immediately gasped and took a step back, which were signs that neither could fight. But while it made sense that as a new owner, Ning Meng didn’t know how to fight, Su Jin was surprised that Gu Ming didn’t know how to either.

“Good heavens, didn’t you even try to level up your fighting abilities for future Challenges?” Su Jin hissed quietly at Gu Ming.

“I leveled up my archery skills!” Gu Ming whispered through his teeth without moving his lips, as if he were a ventriloquist.

“Esteemed sir, the three of us are good at different things. I am good at fighting, my brother is good at shooting, while my sister…” Su Jin glanced at Ning Meng.

Ning Meng quickly piped up, “I’m good at cooking! I can cook the most delicious food in the world and I’m sure His Highness will enjoy it.”

The scrivener frowned and said, “Each one of you has to defeat one of His Highness’ bodyguards. That is the rule that His Highness set. If you can’t do that, then I’m afraid I can’t let you join the fleet.”

“Sir, do you think we could approach this differently? Why don’t you let me take on all three of them by myself?” Su Jin came close to the scrivener and secretly put the bag of money he had stolen earlier in the scrivener’s hands.

“Hmm…well, there’s nothing wrong with being flexible at times and His Highness does like clever servants. I’ll let you take them on by yourself then! But you have to fight all three of them at the same time.” The scrivener had to give in a little since he had accepted a bribe from Su Jin, but he didn’t think the skinny looking Su Jin could possibly defeat the three bodyguards. This arrangement worked out very nicely for the scrivener. He could keep this money without going against the prince’s rules.

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