If You Fall Behind, You’re Dead! (1)
Crash—!
Huge ships cut through the Yangtze River in a long line, carving white streaks across the dark water as they surged forward.
The sky was clear beyond belief. A cold river wind blew past. Even the fleet driving ahead, kicking up foaming spray, made for a splendid sight.
On the surface, it was a magnificent scene.
In truth, it was anything but beautiful.
“Row faster, you idiots!”
“Do you bastards want to go for a swim in this water? No, wait—do you want to hang upside down from the ship?”
Bandits.
The big, brutish men who should have been avoiding water and loving the mountains and forests were standing aboard the ships, barking at the water bandits.
“Row harder! If the ship falls behind, the flames will spread to us too!”
“Beat the drum! Pick up the pace!”
“Grrrrrrrgh!”
On the floor of the cabin, the water bandits were pulling their oars with twisted faces. Every time they moved, the muscles across their bodies bulged as if they were screaming.
Thanks to that, the ships were slicing through the Yangtze’s rough current and surging forward with frightening speed.
“Ahh. That’s refreshing.”
Chung Myung smiled faintly as the wind struck his face. He usually preferred mountains to rivers, but on a day like this, even river wind didn’t seem so bad.
Of course, this “wind” was less something the river made and more something people were forcing into being.
“Hmmm. Nice… Hmm. Nice…”
The easy expression on Chung Myung’s face slowly tightened with irritation. And then, all at once, it warped in outrage.
“Hey! Did you idiots not eat for a week? Why the hell are you so damn slow?”
“...I think this is already fast enough.”
“When I was steering, this was at least five times faster.”
“...For normal people, this is the limit.”
“Seriously, these days people have no grit. No grit! Can’t you go faster?”
From behind, one of the Green Forest bandits who had been watching the mood carefully spoke up hesitantly, his face cringing.
“W-well... we are squeezing the water bandits dry, but there are too many injured ones. We don’t have enough people.”
“What are you talking about? Not enough people?”
“I mean, during the battle...”
“No, that’s not what I meant!”
“Pardon?”
Chung Myung fixed the bandit with a meaningful stare.
Feeling that gaze, the bandit tilted his head in confusion.
“You mean us?”
“Then who else would I mean?”
“...We’re bandits, you know?”
“What, bandits don’t have hands? You can’t row with them?”
“Ah, of course we have hands, so we can row.”
“Huh?”
At the brisk reply, Chung Myung blinked. Why were these bandits being so cooperative all of a sudden...?
“If we weren’t in this state, anyway.”
“Uwaaaaaaaagh!”
“Kyaaaaaaak!”
“Grrrr... my stomach... my stomach is coming up...”
“S-save me...”
“...”
The bandits were all leaning over the rail, vomiting what was inside them.
“No, what kind of so-called martial artists are you...”
“...Seasickness is a different matter.”
“Tch, weaklings! Where’s the Green Forest King?”
“He’s right there, isn’t he?”
“Where?”
“There. Among the ones throwing up.”
“...”
And indeed, among the broad backs hunched over the railing, there was one comparatively small-looking back jammed in the middle.
“Uwaaaaaaaagh! Cough! Cough! Guh... my lungs again... cough! cough! Uwaaaaaaagh!”
Chung Myung lost all strength and turned his head away.
“One and all...”
Not a single one of them was normal.
“Heh heh. We’re mountain people to begin with, so we don’t usually have reason to ride boats. And even people who do ride boats would have a hard time if the ship shook this much.”
“Or maybe you’re just weak?”
“No, look over there.”
“What?”
“The other side.”
Chung Myung’s gaze shifted to the opposite side of the railing, where Im So-byeong and the bandits were clinging.
“Uwaaaaaaaagh!”
“Kyaaaak!”
“I-I’m dying! I’m really going to die at this rate!”
The disciples of Mount Hua were all gripping the railing and emptying their stomachs for dear life. Chung Myung covered his face with both hands.
No, fine, forget those idiots.
Why the hell was that bald bastard throwing up too? It was enough to make his head throb!
“Uwaaaaaaaagh!”
Then Jo Gul, who had been rocking so violently it looked like he might spit out his own guts, slammed his head against the railing and muttered like a madman.
“Ugh... my head. I’m dizzy... sahyung... at this rate I’m going to die before we even fight.”
“I-I don’t think it was this bad before.”
“Tell them to slow down! Slow down!”
“Soso. Don’t you have anything like motion sickness medicine?”
“...Do you think I would?”
“Grrr.”
You were supposed to get used to boats after riding them, weren’t you?
Unfortunately, the people gathered here were Sichuan natives, where rivers were a rarity even if you searched with your eyes peeled open, and Shaanxi natives, where there was nothing but mountains as far as the eye could see.
As martial artists, they could endure a mild case of seasickness. But on a ship that rocked violently enough to make seasoned sailors suffer, there was nothing they could do.
“An island! Where the hell is that damned island?”
“Please... please let me fight.”
“If I can just get my feet on solid ground, I can do anything! Please!”
People only realized how precious something was after they lost it. The disciples of Mount Hua were longing for the ground they had always taken for granted with all their hearts.
“Grrrr...”
At that moment, Im So-byeong, pale even by his standards and now turning blue with misery, lurched unsteadily toward Chung Myung.
“You...”
“Yes?”
Startled by his gesture, Jo Seung sprang to his feet, fearing a stray blow might fly his way. Im So-byeong asked in a voice that was rapidly fading away,
“The island... where is it? Is it far?”
“The exact location is... even I’m not entirely sure...”
“You don’t know?”
“N-no, I do know, but...”
At that halfhearted answer, bloodshot veins bloomed in Im So-byeong’s eyes.
“Want me to skin you and sprinkle salt on you? Then maybe I’ll see how well you dance.”
“P-please spare me!”
Only then remembering that this man was the Green Forest King, Jo Seung turned ashen and shook his head violently.
“No, it’s just that by now it should be visible... Th-there! There it is! Over there! W-wah! I see it!”
“Grrr. Where?”
“There!”
With his life on the line, Jo Seung pointed frantically ahead.
Sure enough, something small could be seen floating out in the middle of the river ahead.
“...That’s an island?”
“It looks small because it’s still far away, but it’s definitely not small. It’s actually bigger than the place where our stronghold used to be.”
“What?”
“I said it’s actually bigger...”
“No, before that. What? It’s still far away?”
“...”
“Ugh! Ughhh!”
“Hey! Don’t puke here! Disgusting!”
Chung Myung hurriedly grabbed Im So-byeong by the back of the neck and flung him toward the railing. Then he dusted off his hands and looked toward the island far away.
“Hmm.”
The inside couldn’t be seen clearly because dense reeds had grown all over it, but at that size, it looked like it could easily hold a whole stronghold and still have room to spare.
“Interesting. An island in the middle of the river.”
Chung Myung muttered, rubbing his chin, then suddenly stopped.
“Hm?”
A sly smile crept onto his lips.
“Hey, Water Ghost.”
“...Yes, sir!”
“Looks like they’ve come out to welcome us.”
“Pardon?”
Jo Seung craned his neck and looked toward the island.
“Ah?”
Sure enough, small dots began to appear around the island in the distance. If they were dots floating on the water, it wasn’t hard to guess what they were.
As they drew closer, the dots gradually took on the distinct shape of ships.
“Th-those are enemy ships! Prepare for battle!”
“Battle?”
“Here?”
The bandits’ eyes went wide.
An upset stomach—well, even if it was ugly, you could still fight while throwing up. But what were they supposed to do about the headache and dizziness? They could barely stand straight.
“Grrr. We’re screwed.”
Only then did the bandits realize just how advantageous the previous battle had been. Fighting water bandits on land was no different from fighting a shark dragged onto shore.
You didn’t even need a tiger. Even a cat could leisurely tear into a flailing shark.
But if the battlefield was the river, the situation flipped. Even a tiger would only be a shark’s meal in the water.
So this is why you can’t mess with the Water Bandit Sect carelessly.
“Grrr. I still don’t understand. That place is basically a natural fortress.”
Im So-byeong, who had somehow staggered over again, said with a pale face.
“Why would the bandits leave a place like that alone?”
“That’s not a place a stronghold should be built in.”
“Why not?”
“For one thing, it sticks out too much.”
“...Fair enough.”
“And the currents around it are all over the place because of the island. The flow is at least twice as fast, and the waterway is tangled enough that whirlpools can form in an instant. Even the most skilled helmsman would flip over if he made one careless mistake. How are you supposed to build a stronghold in a place like that?”
“But they did it, didn’t they?”
“...Even I’m not sure about that one.”
Jo Seung scratched his head with a blank expression.
“So those bastards it is, huh?”
Chung Myung’s eyes lit up with murderous intent.
“Let’s turn them all into fish food first and think after that! Everyone, prepare for bat—”
BOOOOOM!
“Huh?”
And then, at that moment, with a sound like thunder cracking overhead, the ship beside them exploded apart.
“Can... canons?”
Chung Myung’s eyes flew wide as he whipped around toward the ships approaching from the other side. Black and white smoke billowed and spread clearly into view.
“They’re using cannons? Have those bastards lost their minds?”
Gunpowder was a weapon forbidden by the court. In other words, the moment you used it, you became a target of government pursuit. Salt and gunpowder were among the things the authorities chased most fiercely; you absolutely weren’t supposed to touch them lightly.
That was why even water bandits only mixed small amounts of gunpowder into mechanical devices to launch harpoons and the like. But that, no matter how you looked at it, was a real cannon.
“That... looks like a White Thunder Cannon, maybe.”
At Im So-byeong’s words, Chung Myung snapped his head around.
“White Thunder Cannon? What the hell is that?”
“It’s... a cannon made by the Thunderbolt Gate, a sect that was famous a long time ago.”
“...A sect? Thunderbolt Gate was a sect?”
“Yes. A sect that primarily used gunpowder.”
“Are they insane? And the authorities just let those bastards exist?”
“Why would they have let them? That’s why they were wiped out.”
“...”
“But the cannons and bombs they manufactured are still being traded in secret. Those water bandits probably got their hands on them...”
BOOOOOM!
The bow of yet another ship was blown away in one shot.
“Aaaagh! We’re sinkingggg!”
“Gah! Gah! Save me! I can’t swim!”
“S-someone watch the water! The water bandits might come after us! Grab a plank, anything! Get onto another ship if you have to, you idiots!”
In an instant, total chaos erupted.
“Harpoons! We have harpoons too, don’t we?”
“...No use. They can’t reach that far.”
Jo Seung, who had been waving his hands helplessly, blinked.
“Huh? They’re slowing down.”
“What?”
“Looks like they’re planning to keep their distance and blast us apart one by one.”
“What? Those bastards, fighting like cowards! If you’re martial artists, fight fair and square!”
“...They’re bandits.”
That demand for fairness only appeared when it was convenient, and even then it was meaningless in front of the water bandits.
BOOOOOM!
“Aaaagh!”
The moment another ship was blown apart, Chung Myung’s eyes rolled back in his head.
“These bastards are really asking for it, aren’t they?!”
“Oh?”
Im So-byeong turned to him with a faintly moved expression.
The disciples of Mount Hua were only on this ship. The ships being destroyed were carrying bandits alone. And yet Chung Myung was still getting this angry—didn’t that mean he really did think of the Green Forest men as comrades?
“We’re fine—”
“Do you know how much those ships cost, you bastards?!”
“...”
Ah. So he’d already filed them under assets.
How admirable. As a thief, I’m ashamed.
“Fine! So you want to fire cannons, huh?”
At that moment, Chung Myung sprang up and leaped over the railing.
And then—!
“I’ll teach you that a ship has a head too! Here I come!”
BOOOOOM!
He kicked off the railing, shattering it as he launched himself into the air like a fired cannonball.