Marine-Style Resupply

Cannon fire poured down on the boats and ships chasing us.

"AAAAAGH!! The enemy's opened fire!"

"Retreat!!"

The vessels that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠took a hit went down like they'd never had any fight in them to begin with.

"This is what it means to be a Captain."

Ha. I look so damn cool.

"Wait, what?"

The instant that window appeared, I was swallowed by a pain so enormous I couldn't think.

"AAAAAAGH!!"

I hit the floor and stayed there, capable of exactly one thing: holding one leg up in the air.

"What the hell?! Captain!! You okay?"

"What's going on... Captain?"

"C-cramp!! It's a cramp!!"

Jack hoisted me onto his back and carried me to the bed. He came back with a heat pack and laid it on my leg, which was splayed out in the least dignified pose imaginable.

"Aigoo. That's our captain for you."

Jack looked down at me with a face full of pity.

D-don't look at me with those eyes!!

He tossed me the ship's manual and walked out.

"J-Jack!! C-Coulson!! I've got a craaaamp...!"

But my voice just drifted off toward the horizon.

"Tch!! Ignoring their captain... plotting a mutiny, are they?"

I rolled over and flipped the manual open.

"What's this? Did they grab the wrong one?"

Why was I looking at a company that made cars? And why did the CEO seem like the type ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who'd be suspiciously into Mars?

I flipped to the first page anyway.

I was slogging through the boring thing when something interesting finally caught my eye.

Leave it to Te■la to have self-driving.

"Oho~ So if I punch it into the nav, it rides the currents and takes the fastest route?"

Did that mean I didn't even have to steer?

I tossed the manual aside and fired up my phone. This was more than enough. I plugged the charger into the wall and started juicing it up.

True to my reputation as a gallery superstar, my story was all over every community on the internet. There was even a YouTube video about me.

There's a saying: The first rule of being a superstar is to drive both the stans and the haters insane.

Everything on the internet is true. The stories I post are mostly true. Just a little fiction mixed in.

"Hmm. That should be enough to farm some aggro, right?"

What I was doing here wasn't fabricating a story. Think of it as a pinch of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠MSG plus a light rewrite. Pirate captain became pirate recruit. Learning to drive was just facts. Deck cleaning became rolling around on the floor until it was clean. Immediate senior's gay became the crew might be gay — seriously, why else would those two always be glued together?

Write it like that and you've got a real shot at hitting realtime best. Every post I'd written since awakening had gone realtime best.

Is this the power of awakening?

I browsed the gallery until the penalty wore off. The second it lifted, I headed out to the deck.

"Oh! Captain, you all better?"

"Ohh, if it isn't my excellent slave... I mean, crewman, Coulson?"

"Captain! Are you all right?"

"Jack! I'm fine."

Coulson brought me a sheet of paper.

"So, we're pirates, right? We were thinking we should make a flag and a name. Captain, you wanna handle that?"

Right — we needed a ship name, an organization name, and a pirate flag.

"By the way, Captain, what's your name?"

"Captain! I'm curious about your name as well."

M-my name?

I haven't mentioned it until now, but my original name is Park Beom-rae. Back in elementary school, my nickname was Killer Whale — Beom-rae, orca, close enough. But I've been TS'd, so I should change my name too, right?

My nickname was orca, so... Killer Whale? That's definitely cool, but a person named Killer Whale... translated into Korean, that's just Murderer Whale. Yeah, that's a no.

Orca, then, since I'm a killer whale? Not bad. Yeah. That settles it.

"My name is Rca. Full name, Orca."

"Eh? How does a person get named after a killer whale?"

"What, you got a problem with that?"

"Well, no complaints, but..."

I grabbed the paper and drew the pirate flag. I drew it exceptionally well.

"My daughter used to draw them exactly like that."

"Ahem!!"

This was our pirate crew's logo.

"The name is the Killer Whale Pirates!"

"Captain, that's actually sick."

Why'd I name it that? First, because my name is Orca. And just like North Korea is South Korea's archenemy, our archenemy is the Wales Pirates. Wales means whale. And what's the natural predator of the whale? The orca. The killer whale. So the Killer Whale Pirates — as in, we kill Wales.

I was about to hoist my proudly drawn flag up the mast when Coulson stepped in front of me.

"What is this, Coulson? A mutiny?"

"Captain, this isn't it."

"What? Are you saying the flag I drew is childish and ugly?"

"No, no. Captain, draw it on this."

Coulson held out a sheet of black cloth.

"If you use paper, it'll melt when it rains~"

"Whoa!"

I snatched the cloth out of his hands and drew an orca on it. A cute killer whale, with two bones underneath. The cute orca was me, and the two bones stood for Jack and Coulson.

Once I finished the flag, I ran it up the mast. The pirate flag snapping in the wind looked incredibly cool.

Now that we had a flag, a ship name, and a crew name, it was time to start invading. We spread out a map and circled Busan, Korea — the far edge of Asia.

The biggest reason was that I would never forgive the Ministry of National Defense for dragging in an orphaned middle-school dropout like me — but there was one more. Korea treats ability users like garbage. Not a single member of the National Assembly is an ability user, and they live their whole lives being discriminated against. That's how bad it is — a former S-rank even deserted and became a pirate. So we would save these poor, talented souls. The technical terms are forced conscription and kidnapping.

My plan was as follows. Stop by Busan and declare war. After that, we'd gather "support" — piracy — and "save" people — kidnapping — right there in the city. Once we'd stuffed the ship full of supplies, we'd move on to another country. Do this about a hundred and seventy-nine more times and we'd be as big as the Wales ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Pirates.

"Captain, Korea's a developed country though. Will it really be that easy?"

"Korea's a famous sucker."

Korea had been a sucker since ancient times. From Gojoseon through the Three Kingdoms, Goryeo, all the way to Joseon — they'd never gone a single era without getting raided. No matter how strong Korea had gotten, I knew the truth. They were easy pickings. The coast guard had been gone for a long time thanks to the monsters, and from my time in the military, I knew the radar operators were all asleep on the job.

I punched Busan, Korea into the nav. The only potential problem would be monsters we might run into along the way, but come on — what were the odds? Most of them lived around Dokdo anyway, so we probably wouldn't see a single one.

The ship started moving on its own.

"Set sail!"

I dumped all the trivial stuff on the crew and passed out in the air-conditioned captain's cabin.

A few hours later.

Zzz...

Beep-beep-beep—!

I woke to the sound of an alarm. The moment I got up, I went straight to the nav.

I left the captain's cabin and headed out to the deck. Looking around, this was definitely Busan. But Jack and Coulson were nowhere to be seen.

"Don't tell me... they ran for it?"

Based on the evidence, that was the only explanation. The guns were gone, and so was my stun gun.

"This is why you should never take in a yellow-haired beast..."

I gave up, sat down on the sofa, and turned on my phone. The gallery was flooding with recommended posts. I was about to settle in and actually read them when—

"Huh?"