Counterfeit Hero

Fatty naturally had never been a pirate.

He simply yearned for it.

When he was young, watching movies, Fatty never cared for those so-called good guys or heroes. On the contrary, those pirates traversing the universe gave young Fatty countless dreams—doing nothing but killing men, robbing money and women, eating big chunks of meat every day, weighing out gold evenly, gambling, drinking, and playing with women, swearing, spitting, peeing whenever he wanted. Damn, that’s the life!

Except for the fact that pirates would often pull out their knives and stab wildly and the danger of being caught by the police and spending a lifetime in prison or even being executed, everything else about them appealed tremendously to this guy with a messed-up worldview and outlook on life.

Yearning for something is one thing, actually becoming a pirate is another. Cowardly and afraid of death, Fatty had always rationally fixed his future as a small landowner bullying men and dominating women under the sunset, flaunting his power with money and a group of thugs. Taking personal risks was not his thing.

But the moon waxes and wanes, and things in the world cannot always go as desired. Fatty never dreamed that he would become a pirate, driven to this point by this damn war! He couldn’t go home, was constantly on edge, and watched his homeland being destroyed by shellfire—when a rabbit is cornered, it bites!

If one day Leray truly fell, Fatty couldn’t imagine or didn’t dare to imagine what life would become.

In short, it would be a nightmare he never wanted to experience.

Locked in the elevator, after conducting the most difficult deduction of his life with a piece of paper and a pen, Fatty grabbed the last straw—The Free World!

Whether being a pirate or a bandit, Fatty didn’t care. The Leray people had been pushed to the brink, and the nation’s string was now a thread stretched extremely tight and fine! If they couldn’t hold out for a year, everyone was doomed.

Moreover, this war wasn’t only about Leray; it had actually swept over the entire human society.

No one could escape this whirlpool. Not a single one! Those famous generals commanding armies to conquer cities and traverse the universe would send this world to hell! That’s what they learned, to them, all lives were just increasing or decreasing numbers.

They wouldn’t think about the lives behind those numbers or the families connected to them. Not at all. If they did, they wouldn’t sleep well or have much of an appetite.

Thinking of Sobel, thinking of Hastings, and the famous generals on the leaderboard, Fatty gritted his teeth in hatred. If not for these people, he would already be holding a village girl with floral clothes and a full chest high up, walking towards the sunset with another bully’s wails echoing!

Anyone who disrupted that peaceful life, that beautiful scene, had to pay a price!

Gathering the forces of the Free World sounded simple. It only required two things—strength and money.

With these two, the desperadoes of the Free World would work for you without hesitation! Because you’re stronger than them and they can get what they want from you.

It’s merely an equal exchange!

Of course, confronting national military power was not something most people could accept. The people of the Free World were very realistic and cunning; unless you had enough strength, everything was negotiable. They loved money, but they weren’t fools who’d throw their lives away casually.

Only when you had enough power to suppress them would they submit under pressure and temptation.

The logic was simple, like a lion saying to a wolf, ”Brother, there’s a tiger over there, I want to eat it, help me out.”

Under the lion’s intimidation, the wolf would obey. After all, the chances of winning looked pretty good.

But if a rabbit, eyes red and fists clenched, said to the wolf, ”Brother, there’s an elephant over there, I want to screw it. Help me out!...”

The result would be self-evident.

Becoming a lion instead of a rabbit was Fatty’s first step.

Pirate organizations, although treated like street rats in mainstream human society, were a deeply rooted legitimate force in the Free World.

The Free World didn’t recognize laws, only strength. In this naked world of survival of the fittest, nothing was impossible. If a pirate force was strong enough, you could rob the entire world, overthrow all forces including the government in Free Port, and become the enforcer yourself, purging evil, and no one would say you were wrong.

Of course, no pirate force yet had completed such a feat. In this world gathering all restless groups from various nations and societies, even the military of Free Port usually didn’t dare to act rashly against anyone.

Super corporations, black societies, mercenary armies, pirates, commerce groups—the power was too huge. So huge that ordinary people couldn’t imagine.

Likewise, because of this great power, Fatty had his eyes fixed firmly on them.

Starting by taking down a tiger or screwing an elephant was obviously impossible. So, at the outset, Fatty had to rely on the reputation of the Redbeard Pirate Group to carve out a small territory in this world. Only when you were living the high life and leading those who depended on you to make big fortunes would you have enough attraction.

This deadly allure would lead one profit-seeking group after another to be devoured by you. As you led them to do more outrageous things and grew stronger, to the point where they couldn’t resist, they would have no way back.