Counterfeit Hero

Next, the engineering project began. The [Blue Rose] was pulled into the dock and dismantled into a complete mess in no time. Along with it were two armed merchant ships and a shell of a [Wild]-class cruiser, which Redbeard Pirates bought from Tatania military at Free Port.

Helen couldn’t understand why this Fatty had such a fascination with junk. It was one thing to pilot a rundown Mecha before, but now as a pirate, he had managed to make such a broken warship.

Never mind the [Blue Rose], those two [Queen Taylor]-class armed merchant ships, and that [Wild]-class cruiser shell with only its basic devices, at least initially appeared to be neat and shiny.

How did they turn into such an unbearable pile of junk as soon as they landed in Fatty’s hands, patched together by him?

”Just wait!” Chekov gritted his teeth beside Helen: ”If this guy doesn’t come up with something after dismantling my ship, I’ll dismantle him!”

Chekov made a fierce declaration and turned around to leave.

Helen blinked as she watched him leave, understanding that this Federation Fleet Colonel simply couldn’t bear it any longer. Regardless of how those Mechanics, ship experts, and Fatty described it in grandiose terms, the fact remained—it was a pile of junk!

The warship known as [Magic Cube] stood quietly at berth number three.

Barbarossa commanded his subordinates to place the newly modified parts from the processing area onto the maintenance racks one by one based on their numbers.

While issuing commands, Barbarossa continuously glanced back at this still unformed new warship.

No one could know the shock within him. If before, he found Fatty’s idea of becoming a pirate laughable and joined the Leray people reluctantly, now Barbarossa was utterly awestruck by all he witnessed.

Apart from shock and fear, Barbarossa’s heart had a trace of uncontrollable excitement.

He had never imagined that in this world, someone could be more suited to being a pirate than himself! That Fatty was simply born to be a bandit. From this ship, he had already gathered together the essence of piracy—this was truly a pirate ship!

Coming and going like the wind, assembling and dispersing unpredictably!

Seeing this broken-down warship before him, Barbarossa had to admit that Fatty was a madman and a genius!

As someone who had spent nearly a lifetime in space, dealing with all kinds of ships, shuttling daily on the most dangerous routes, skimming between life and death, Barbarossa could see at a glance the formidable power of this never-before-seen warship.

To put it into words, Barbarossa could be considered half a ship engineer. The high-speed raiders of the Redbeard Pirates were all retrofitted under his command based on purchased schematics combined with pirate combat tactics. But he never imagined that a warship could be modified this way.

What lay before him was a multi-body cruiser!

If word got out, those ship experts at Free Port would probably laugh heartily. They would mock and ridicule: ”Combat ships made into multi-body, the designer’s brain must have been smoked by farts!”

Multi-body ships were not rare in this era; commercial ships and exploration ships had multi-body forms. The most common ones among them were tugboats and barges.

Most of these ships were catamarans or trihull ships. Ships with more than four hulls were rare. The reason for making them multi-body was primarily that such ships didn’t need funds wasted on structure and were meant to gain sufficient ship space or platforms.

The weakness of multi-body ships was their slow speed, large targets, and lack of agile maneuverability. Therefore, such ships usually navigated main routes as heavy-load merchant ships or exploration team headquarters. Tugboats and barges were even less worth mentioning.

Such ships naturally couldn’t be used as combat ships.

However, the multi-body ship before his eyes was truly a six-hull ship.

Its structure was not parallel but overlapped six bodies. From the surface, it looked like a whole cruiser-class warship, with the bow, midsection, and stern blending seamlessly. Its six main bodies were combined into one.

In Barbarossa’s view, this wasn’t just creation anymore; it was a total subversion of the shipbuilding industry and pirate realm! Have you seen a Magic Cube? This ship was a giant alien Magic Cube!

In combat, it was a cruiser with its appearance, size, armor, energy shield, main propulsion, and steering propulsion, all indicating its cruiser identity.

But when escaping, or when needed, this supposed cruiser was no longer a cruiser. Instead, it became a main ship slightly smaller than a destroyer and five subordinate ships of varying sizes! It could split rapidly in one second!

Others did not understand the benefits of this split, but a lifelong pirate like Barbarossa knew it all too well. When pirates faced stronger enemies, scattering was the most practical escape rule in the cosmos. In nebulas, asteroid belts, and various obstacle areas needing agile evasion, a cruiser could never be as nimble as these six combat ships.

More importantly, Fatty had fully utilized all of this ship’s functions. Not only did he cover the ship with an extremely ragged appearance, but he also set numerous light effect installations and props at the interfaces.

Barbarossa still remembered everyone’s dumbfounded expressions when they saw the computer simulation.

On the virtual screen, the cruiser fell apart, flames and explosions erupting. The wrecked hull shattered into various sizes of debris, tumbling in all directions. Meanwhile, limbs, parts, even the ship’s computers, tables, beds, pillows, blankets, were constantly tossed into space...

Damn it, how did this Fatty come up with this?

To the enemies, this ship was seen as destroyed. Next, there were only two situations. One, the enemies continued their journey, then suddenly, the six wolf-like ships launched surprise attacks on the enemies’ critical main propulsion... The other, under the strong threat of the enemies, everyone would flip and flee.

To take down a cruiser head-on, it was always some large ships. When [Magic Cube] split, those few minutes of the enemies’ shock were enough for it to speed away. These large warships could never catch up with the high-speed ships after they split, especially in obstacle areas—it’s simply out of the question.

In large-scale battles, the costly [Magic Cube] might not serve much purpose. However, as a pirate ship, nothing could be more suitable!

This was truly coming and going like the wind, assembling and dispersing unpredictably and regrouping in a flurry! Unless provoking large military fleets, Barbarossa couldn’t think of any shortcomings this ship would have against other pirates, smugglers, and small military ships in the Free World.

Had that Fatty been a pirate before?

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. A new month is a time to tighten up, asking for monthly tickets!

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. (To be continued, for more details on what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com, more chapters available, support the author, support genuine reading!)