MMORPG: Crowd Control

When Candice heard the orders of Lei Zhen, she quickly left the Steering Room and made her way to the ship deck.

At the ship deck, Howard was busy chatting with the crewmen and talking about their backgrounds.

This was Howard's attempt to build up a good and harmonious relationship among the crewmen, a tactic and strategy he had learned during his time in the military.

"So you used to be a navy soldier in the past, Emmanuel. Never expected you to be one." Howard was slightly astounded to hear that from a crewman.

"Yeah, I was a navy soldier, but then during a naval war one time, I injured my legs. The doctor said it was some L3 fracture and even with healing magic, I would not be able to return to my top form. Hence, I was forced to retire early." Emmanuel smiled bitterly.

While they were discussing Emmanuel's pitiful past, they saw Candice rushing toward them.

"What's the matter, Candice?" As an elite imperial guard, Howard had long noticed her arrival.

"Um, Master wished to see you," Candice said despite the stares from numerous crewmen. She was used to being stared at by the high elves men in her clan, so she didn't mind the stares from the crewmen either.

It was just that she was surprised by the serene gaze of Lei Zhen which caused her to have a misconception about other human males.

Of course, the crewmen only dared to have some lustful glances from time to time and didn't actually make a move or even bother to do anything to her.

After all, they weren't stupid enough to touch someone that Lei Zhen owned.

Since it was Lei Zhen asking to meet with Howard, he didn't dare to stay idle and stood up.

"Lead the way, Candice," Howard said.

Sometime later, Candice brought Howard to the Steering Room and Lei Zhen quickly pointed at the screen in front of him.

"What do you think of that shipwreck, Howard?" Lei Zhen asked.

The ship ahead of them seemed to have crashed into something and there was a flagship of some kind that was barely visible. He didn't recognize the flag or its symbol, but Howard might know about it.

Hence, Lei Zhen asked for his presence, and depending on who the flag belonged to, he might or might not conduct a rescue operation.

Howard took a few steps forward, squinted his eyes slowly, and focused on the flagship on the broken ship.

"It seemed to be a flag from the Atheia western country," Howard said.

And he continued, "Atheia is one of the neutral western countries, but does not have any dealing with our Yors Castle."

Lei Zhen rubbed his chin, seemingly in deep thought.

Based on Howard's explanation, Atheia is a country that doesn't have any relationship with Yors Castle.

In other words, there is no reason for them to rescue them, but at the same time, he could possibly establish a relationship with them by rescuing them.

When Howard saw Lei Zhen pondering over, he decided to give his opinions, "Although Atheia is a neutral country, it is also not an evil country. It would offer assistance to other countries when they require help, and it was mainly when a tyrant country is trying to conquer a weaker country."

"Since you have already said it like that, then conduct a rescue team operation to see if there are any survivors. Also, make sure to stay on guard since no one can tell for sure if Atheia is really a neutral country or not." Lei Zhen responded.

Howard nodded his head and dismissed himself, most likely heading back to the ship deck to gather the crewmen to begin looking for any survivors.

Once Howard was gone, Lei Zhen turned toward Candice and asked if she could communicate with the wind regarding the situation.

Alas, Candice only shook her head in silence. Communicating with the wind is a unique ability, but there are also limits to it.

It was not an omnipotent ability that would give constant information to Candice. Otherwise, her clan wouldn't have been so helpless during the invasion which resulted in her being captured.

"No worries, just make sure to remain on guard." Lei Zhen reassured her that it wasn't a big deal to be unable to communicate with the wind for information.

After all, it was Lei Zhen who discovered a shipwreck ahead whereas Candice remained clueless about the situation until he said something. That was when he knew her ability was limited at times and could not be utilized constantly.

Time slowly passed by, and Howard along with some of the crewmen boarded some mini lifeboats to search for survivors at the sea.

As for Lei Zhen, given that he's their employer.

He was doing what any employer does best: laze around and let the employees work their hardest while taking their credits.

Leaning at the back of his chair, Lei Zhen watched the entire process of his employees jumping through the sea, searching for any survivors to bring up to their mini lifeboat.

"Howard, you might want to check a little at the back. I saw some shadowy figure moving there." Lei Zhen clicked on a button near the control panel that echoed his words aloud.

The function was similar to a microphone and since it wasn't built-in software but a hardware, the mechanism of it was not affected. Thus, Howard heard Lei Zhen's words loud and clear.

Naturally, Howard quickly got to work the moment he received the order and paddled his mini lifeboat more toward the back, searching for the supposed shadowy figure.

A few minutes later, Howard indeed saw an old man clad in some uniform clutching onto a wooden plank tightly.

Though Howard was able to discern that the old man's consciousness didn't seem to be clear, and he appeared to be clutching onto the plank through instinct alone.

And with that done, the rescue operation was considered to be completed.

"Ahh, it's tough to be a commander," Lei Zhen placed his hands behind his head and muttered softly.