Barraba's expression was volatile.
The veins on his hand, gripping the knife, bulged.
His rationality told him not to fall out with Roger.
The young man's value was far more than just the gold in front of him.
But emotionally, the mountain of gold was like a devil, constantly tempting him, whispering in his ear, urging him to abandon reason and keep all the wealth for himself.
The atmosphere on the deck was extremely tense.
All the pirates held their breath, watching the two men in confrontation.
They knew that the decision of these two men would determine the fate of everyone on board.
Just as Barraba was still wrestling with his inner conflict, Roger threw out another bargaining chip that he couldn't refuse.
"Captain, actually, there's no need for us to make things so unpleasant."
Roger's tone softened, as if he were discussing with an old friend.
"I know that as Captain, you have to consider the interests of everyone."
"And I'm not an unreasonable person."
He took out a small velvet box from his pocket.
This box was found by him in the Captain's Cabin of the santa trinidad.
At the time, everyone was dazzled by the gold, and no one noticed this inconspicuous little item.
He opened the box in front of everyone.
In an instant, everyone gasped.
Inside the box, three pigeon-egg-sized diamonds lay quietly.
Under the sunlight, they emitted a dazzling brilliance, more dazzling than all the gold combined.
"This is..." Barraba's eyes widened.
As an old pirate who had been at sea for half his life, he naturally knew their worth.
Any one of these three large diamonds, if taken out, would be a priceless treasure!
Their value might even exceed the total sum of all the gold here!
In modern times, these diamonds would be trash, with only a marriage attribute bound to them.
But in this era...
These things were rare and precious treasures!
"Captain, we can make a deal."
Roger closed the box and said with a smile.
"You take seventy percent of this gold, and the remaining thirty percent will be divided among me and the brothers."
"This conforms to our pirate rules, and no one will have any complaints."
"And me," he shook the box in his hand.
"This is for you. I only want my rightful share."
"Also, what you promised me before, to help me with the handover of the sea nymph, and to provide all necessary assistance when I repair the ship."
Roger's proposal stunned everyone.
He actually voluntarily gave up those three priceless diamonds just to get a distribution plan that everyone could accept?
Gibbs and Billy became anxious.
"Brother Roger! This won't do! You're taking too much of a loss!"
"Yeah! These diamonds were found by you, why should you..."
Roger waved his hand, stopping them.
He looked at Barraba, waiting for his answer.
Barraba's brain was working at top speed.
Roger's plan, for him, was simply a godsend.
Firstly, he could legitimately take seventy percent of the gold, which was already an astronomical sum, enough to make him one of the wealthiest captains in the Caribbean Sea.
Secondly, he no longer had to bear the infamy of being 'greedy' and 'untrustworthy,' preserving his prestige as Captain.
Most importantly, Roger's trade of the three diamonds wiped out all previous grievances, and even gained him the continued cooperation of Roger, this 'living treasure'!
This deal, no matter how he calculated it, was a huge profit!
What exactly did this young man want to do?
Did he really not care about money?
Barraba couldn't figure it out.
But he knew he had no reason to refuse.
"Good!" He agreed almost without hesitation.
"It'll be as you said! Men! Open the boxes! Divide the money!"
A crisis that almost led to a firefight was thus resolved by Roger with a clever deal.
Cheers erupted on the deck again.
This time, they were genuine.
The pirates, following the new plan, joyfully divided the gold.
Although Barraba took the lion's share, the remaining thirty percent, when divided, was enough to make everyone a considerable wealthy person.
Everyone was filled with gratitude towards Roger.
They knew that if it weren't for Roger's voluntary concession, they might not have gotten a single penny today, and might even have died in an internal conflict.
Roger received his share of the gold, which was more than he had expected.
He watched Barraba carefully put the three diamonds into his pocket, a satisfied smile on his face.
He knew that from this moment on, the relationship between him and Barraba had changed from a simple superior-subordinate one to a cooperative relationship of mutual utilization and mutual checks and balances.
He used the three diamonds to buy the time and space he needed for his future development.
After returning to Tortuga, everything went very smoothly.
Barraba fulfilled his promise.
He used his connections to take Roger and officially complete the ownership transfer of the sea nymph from Clark of the Port Authority.
When Roger held the official ship deed, stamped with the Governor's seal and legally binding, his heart was filled with an unprecedented sense of security.
He also had Gibbs and Billy take a dozen trustworthy crew members to stay and help Roger.
Using the sea serpent as a tow, they exerted tremendous effort and finally dragged the dilapidated hull of the sea nymph from the water to an abandoned shipyard on shore.
After all this was done, Barraba, satisfied, left with the remaining men and treasures.
He was going to other ports to fence the goods and enjoy his new life as a wealthy man.
Before leaving, he patted Roger's shoulder and said with lingering enthusiasm:
"Brother, when I come back, we'll pull off an even bigger job!"
Roger smiled and nodded.
After seeing Barraba off, Roger stood in his shipyard.
Before him was the sea nymph, broken like a pile of junk.
Gibbs and Billy and the others stood behind him, looking at the broken ship, their faces filled with confusion.
"Brother Roger, what do we do now? Just guard this pile of rotten wood?"
"You have money now, you can totally buy a new ship!"
Billy couldn't help but ask.
Roger turned around and looked at them, a mysterious smile on his face.
"No, we're not guarding it."
He walked to the bow of the ship, reached out and stroked its rough and cold hull, his eyes bursting with astonishing brilliance.
"We're going to make it live again."
Roger didn't want to give up on his first ship.
Even if it took more effort, he wanted to repair it.
And doing it himself would make him feel more secure!
After speaking, Roger, ignoring the astonished gazes of everyone, boarded the dilapidated deck alone.
At night, the sea breeze was cool.
Only Roger was left in the shipyard.
He stood at the bow, the sound of waves gently lapping in his ears.
He took out the brand new ship deed, then sank his consciousness into his mind.
He had waited too long.
Everything he had done since transmigrating was for this moment.
He took a deep breath, concentrating his thoughts on the shimmering tech tree.
A new line of prompts slowly appeared.
"[Host has been detected to fully own the ship sea nymph, and holds a legal ship deed.]"
"[Activation conditions met.]"
"[The system is about to perform an initial scan and data modeling of the 'sea nymph', please confirm.]"
"Confirm!"
Roger's heart was in his throat.