"We... won?"
Gibbs stammered, looking at the spanish warship that had crashed into the reef, constantly spewing black smoke.
He simply couldn't believe his eyes.
The entire process, from engagement to conclusion, took only a little over ten minutes.
The sea serpent had merely scraped off some planks on the reef, while that once-invincible Spanish patrol ship was now completely crippled there.
"We won! We won!"
After a brief silence, thunderous cheers erupted on the deck.
The pirates threw their cutlasses and hats into the sky, shouting and jumping with excitement.
"Roger!"
"This is what I call a sea battle!"
Billy rushed to Roger, his face flushed with excitement, and hugged him tightly.
"Brother Lin Ye! You're simply a God of War!"
"I, Billy, have never admired anyone in my life, but today I do! Completely!"
Captain Barbossa stood by the helm, his body trembling slightly with excitement.
He looked at the stranded spanish warship, then at Roger, who was surrounded by everyone, and his heart was filled with nothing but shock.
He had been a pirate for half his life, fighting at least eighty, if not a hundred, battles.
But he had never seen, or even imagined, that a battle could be fought like this!
Not by relying on the number of cannons, nor by boarding and close combat, but by using the terrain, the ship's maneuverability, and fighting with brains!
Roger's tactics completely overturned his understanding of naval warfare.
"Take the ship over."
Roger pushed away the excited Billy and issued a new order.
"They are ours now."
The sea serpent slowly approached the stranded warship.
The Spanish sailors on board had completely lost their will to fight; some jumped into the sea to escape, while others knelt on the deck, throwing down their weapons and choosing to surrender.
"Gibbs, take men up there and move everything usable over here!"
"Cannons, ammunition, food, fresh water, don't miss a single thing!"
Barbossa immediately ordered, his voice filled with the excitement of having survived a disaster.
"And those officers, tie them all up; we can extort a ransom later!"
The pirates cheered as they jumped onto the deck of the spanish warship, like a pack of greedy wolves, frantically scavenging for spoils.
Roger did not participate in the scavenging; he merely stood at the bow, calmly watching it all.
This battle not only resolved a huge threat but, more importantly, it once again proved his irreplaceable value to Barbossa and all the crew.
He believed that after this battle, Barbossa's little schemes to cheat him out of money should be reined in a bit.
The scavenging continued for an entire afternoon.
The pirates' haul exceeded everyone's imagination.
That spanish warship was practically a mobile armory and supply station.
They emptied the enemy's ammunition depot, equipping all the cannon positions on the "sea serpent" with brand new cannons.
Food and rum filled the cargo hold, enough to last them several months.
What pleased Barbossa the most was that they also found a chest full of silver coins in the Captain's Cabin.
That was the warship's payroll, totaling over a thousand coins.
"We're rich! We haven't even found the treasure yet, and we've already struck it rich!" Barbossa hugged the money chest, grinning from ear to ear.
After dealing with the spoils, they did not linger.
Roger commanded the sea serpent to continue sailing towards the Razor Reef ship-hiding spot.
With this victory, the crew's morale was unprecedentedly high, and they executed Roger's orders even more meticulously.
Finally, in the afternoon, they arrived at the sea area from Roger's memory.
"It should be around here."
Roger said, looking at the surrounding environment.
He closed his eyes and activated the newly unlocked skill.
[Shipwreck Structure Analysis].
In an instant, he seemed to possess sonar-like abilities.
Invisible ripples spread out from him, sweeping across the bottomless seawater.
Soon, the outline of a huge shipwreck appeared in his "vision."
It lay quietly at the bottom of the sea, over a hundred meters deep, its hull mostly covered by coral and seaweed.
But its massive hull and three thick masts still proclaimed its former glory.
The santa trinidad!
Found it!
Not only that, under the scan of [Shipwreck Structure Analysis], the entire internal structure of the ship was clearly presented in Roger's mind in the form of a 3D model.
He could even "see" that in the most heavily guarded cabin in the mid-to-aft section of the hull, there were a dozen huge chests piled up.
That was where the treasure was located!
This system was simply too powerful, even more powerful than radar!
"Found it."
Roger opened his eyes and pointed to a seemingly unremarkable patch of water ahead, "It's down there."
"Really?" Barbossa excitedly leaned in.
"Prepare to dive."
Roger said.
"The treasure is in the reinforced cabin in the mid-to-aft section of the hull."
"Entering through the damaged section on the starboard side of the hull is the shortest route."
His words stunned both Barbossa and Gibbs.
"Brother... how do you know so clearly?"
"You... can you see the bottom of the sea?" Gibbs stammered.
"I told you, an old friend of mine told me."
Roger, without changing his expression, once again attributed the credit to that fictional "old friend."
Although no one believed him, no one dared to press further.
The mysteries surrounding this young man were already so numerous that they filled them with awe.
Salvage work began immediately.
The pirates were all excellent swimmers; they took turns diving into the deep sea, and following Roger's precise instructions, they quickly found the reinforced cabin located in the mid-to-aft section of the hull.
The cabin door was securely locked, but under the pirates' repeated assaults, it was eventually forced open.
When the first pirate to enter the cabin surfaced, bringing up a heavy gold coin, the entire sea serpent erupted.
"Gold! It's real! It's all gold down there!"
The pirates went wild, one after another, scrambling to jump into the water.
One heavy treasure chest after another was dragged up from the seabed with ropes.
When the first chest was pried open on the deck, and the blinding golden light burst forth, everyone held their breath.
Gold coins, gold bars, golden chalices, scepters adorned with jewels... priceless wealth was thus laid bare before them.
"We're rich... we're incredibly rich..."
Barbossa knelt before the treasure chest, his hands trembling as he scooped up a handful of gold coins, letting them slip through his fingers.
His eyes gleamed with a nearly insane avarice.
He looked at the mountain of treasure chests, then at Roger, who stood not far away, his face calm.
A thought began to wildly grow in his heart.
So much money... so much money... why should he share three-tenths of it with them?