Endless Ocean: Escape Starting from a Canoe

Chapter 23 The Four Abilities of a Canoe
As night deepened, the chilly sea breeze caused the temperature on the deck to drop sharply. After surveying the drifting ship, Shi Ming returned to the captain's cabin.

After several days of turmoil, I can finally rest.

He entered the captain's cabin and locked the door from the inside. Since using the gold-level key to crack the ship's system and becoming its sole owner, Shi Ming had the highest level of access to the ship; no one could enter any room without his permission.

Similarly, he can freely enter and exit any part of the ship.

Call ~
Lying on the soft, brand-new boat, Shi Ming felt every pore on his body begin to relax. The muscles that had been brimming with power due to awakening were now relaxed. This feeling was indescribably wonderful!

Since being reborn into this world, he hasn't had a single peaceful night's sleep!
The first two nights were spent in a dark, damp, and foul-smelling slave cell; it was only thanks to Shi Ming's good adaptability that he was able to endure it. The third night, however, was spent in an artificial cave on the island, where Shi Ming spent the entire night on guard against the bloodthirsty moths and didn't close his eyes once.

Fortunately, the Xuanwu blood he bathed in during his awakening replenished his body with energy and vitality; otherwise, he would have fallen into a deep sleep long ago.

"No, I can't sleep yet. I need to study that gold-class drifting ship first! I'll sleep after I've finished studying it!"

Faced with such a treasure, he could resist even the strongest drowsiness!

Furthermore, he was extremely curious as to why a seemingly dilapidated canoe was actually a Gold-level drifting vessel. It lacked any facilities, and even food couldn't be guaranteed! Keep in mind, their current drifting vessel, with its relatively complete facilities, was only Silver-level!
A canoe that can reach the gold level must have something special about it!

Now is the time to reveal what makes it special!
The captain's cabin was quite furnished, but there was still enough space to accommodate a canoe. Shi Ming cleared some space and placed the canoe, which he had stored in the system's inventory, in an empty spot in the captain's cabin. Then he picked up a magnifying glass from the nautical table and began to examine it closely.

Although it was late at night, the lights in the captain's cabin were very bright, many times brighter than those in the slave quarters, allowing Shi Ming to clearly observe every detail of the canoe.

He ran his hand over the weathered surface of the dugout canoe, took out a few sea crystals, and embedded them in a very inconspicuous place inside the hull as a power source to start the drifting boat.

呲味——

A floating screen appeared at the bow of the canoe, its strong sense of technology clashing with the dilapidated hull.

[System restarting... Restart successful... Loading...]

【Loading successful.】

The drifting ship hadn't been used for a long time, and it needed to wait a while before it was first powered up. Fortunately, the time it took wasn't long, and soon new content appeared on the floating screen.

It was a smart little assistant, similar to an Android robot, blinking its electronic eyes back and forth on the screen.

"Hello, Captain, I'm your assistant, Moss."

A cold, emotionless, synthesized voice entered Shi Ming's head.

moss?

As expected of a gold-class drifting ship, it even has an electronic captain's assistant! But does this thing have the intelligence of a human assistant?

Shi Ming looked at the assistant in front of him and noticed that it had brought up a pop-up window offering various options:
"Moss, please select the drifting boat mode: A. Basic mode, B. Diving mode, C. Defense mode, D. Surfing mode, E. Stealth mode." Modes? There are other options?

"Let me introduce the various modes, Moss!"

Since he is the captain's assistant, he must be able to understand what the captain is saying, so communication should not be a problem.

"Okay, Captain!"

"First, I will introduce you to the basic mode. In the basic mode, the drifting boat is in the most ordinary canoe state, which does not consume any energy. You can ride this canoe to drift on the sea, fish, and enjoy the free and easy time of going with the flow."

"When switching to diving mode, the drifting boat will activate its waterproof shield, allowing it to dive below the ocean surface to a depth of up to 8000 meters. In diving mode, you only need to bring your own oxygen. The drifting boat will handle all underwater pressure and other emergencies for you. Depending on the diving depth, this mode consumes 10-100 sea crystals per hour."

"Defense mode is typically used to deal with sea monster attacks. The drifting ship will activate a defensive shield. It consumes 30 Sea Crystals per hour! But please be aware that many giant sea monsters can swallow this small drifting ship whole, so please switch modes wisely!"

"Once surfing mode is activated, the drifting ship will speed across the boundless ocean at its maximum speed, reaching up to 300 kilometers per hour! At its highest speed, it consumes 50 sea crystals per hour!"

"Stealth mode allows the drifting ship to disappear from the sight of sea beasts and humans. However, this level of camouflage cannot fool the detection capabilities of general-class and king-class drifting ships, nor can it fool powerful sea beasts that use special methods to detect their prey! Stealth mode consumes 10 sea crystals per hour!"

After listening to the introduction and consumption of the different modes, Shi Ming finally understood why this drifting ship, despite being so small, could become a gold-level vessel!

The four modes are extremely practical and can handle most unexpected situations encountered during navigation, but the energy consumption is terrifying!

Fortunately, it's relatively small. For one thing, its stealth mode and surfing mode are god-like skills for exploring the ocean, extremely useful for both escaping and exploration. However, placing it on a large, drifting ship would consume an enormous amount of energy!
Shi Ming felt incredibly lucky, as if he had stumbled upon an amazing bargain!
The two S-class abilities that awakened on the island are very powerful, but due to the inherent characteristics of Xuanwu, their defense is more than enough, while their attack is somewhat passive.

With this ship, he now has a truly powerful trump card!

If you can't beat them, run!

Just like sea monsters, when they can't beat humans, they turn around and dive into the sea, leaving ordinary ships helpless!
Who can stop me?

More advanced drifting ships may have countermeasures.

But Shi Ming didn't believe that those extremely rare "General-class" and "King-class" drifting ships could be found everywhere like watermelons on the roadside! You should know that the Japanese country where the former captain was located only managed to build two General-class drifting ships with the entire nation's resources!
A gold-class drifting ship is already quite remarkable!

In a good mood, he packed up the gold-class drifting ship and lay down on the soft surface.

Having only been in this world for three days, he was already the captain of two ships!

So comfortable!

(End of this chapter)