This ship was so large that it nearly blocked out the sunlight here. After it docked, it cast a gigantic shadow onto the beach.
Chloe rarely felt curious, but she took a hard candy from Anderson's hand and put it in her mouth, asking: "What is that thing? Do harbor city ships get that big?"
Qin Huaibei put away his puzzle and frowned: "No, even harbor cities rarely have ships this large docking. This ship is an exception."
"That's strange then. What did this ship come to do?" Chloe was interested as she looked at the ship and said, "I've never gone onto a ship to play yet."
Anderson was the first to understand her implication: "Does the little miss want to go take a look?"
Chloe was very satisfied with his cleverness: "Don't you?"
Anderson did not actually want to, but after he glanced at Chloe he finally said: "I want to as well."
Qin Huaibei heard their entire conversation and disapprovingly shook his head: "No, if you sneak on board, won't you just become petty thieves?"
If this matter spread, the reputation of the No. 1 Military Academy would be ruined.
Chloe blinked her eyes: "But I really want to go play on board."
"It's just a ship," Qin Huaibei said, "Aren't vampires very wealthy? When the time comes you can buy one for yourself and go play on it."
His words were logical, but Chloe did not like hearing them.
She shook her head resolutely: "No, a ship I buy myself and a ship I hijack on the road could not be the same!"
As she spoke, Qin Huaibei paled in fright: "You want to hijack this ship?!"
Chloe smiled at him: "Of course not, I was just joking. What I meant is that I want to secretly sneak on board and take a look."
Was there really a difference in essence between these two? One was to be a bandit and one was to be a thief.
Just as Qin Huaibei was about to dissuade her further, Daniel next to him cut in: "I think we can do it. Let's take action now and pull off a huge heist!"
If you didn't know better, you would think they really were about to commit armed robbery.
Qin Huaibei: "No...reconsider this carefully, this matter is disgraceful after all."
"What disgrace is there?" Daniel interrupted loudly, "I'll listen to whatever Chloe says anyway. Don't tell me you're too scared?"
Qin Huaibei: "..."
He gritted his teeth and threw a punch at Daniel's belly, calm as he said: "Who said I was scared? But we can communicate with the ship's crew first to see if they'll let us on board to take a tour."
That would still be better than sneaking on board.
Daniel punched back at Qin Huaibei in retaliation.
After long consideration, Chloe finally compromised: "Fine."
She nudged Anderson, "Go on up."
And so Anderson went, followed by three other vampire children.
They saw the blonde boy with green eyes walk up to a crew member and slap down a thick stack of cash, asking:
"Can we go on board and take a look?"
Even Chloe was stunned by this.
Such a simple and crude negotiation!
Seeing the thick stack of money, the crew member swallowed, thinking to himself that he didn't know there were young masters on this island who were this wealthy.
He happily stuffed the cash into his pocket, calculating to himself that he should at least privately embezzle a bit from this much money. Then, pretending to hesitate, he said: "Young master, strangers boarding the ship need to report to the owner...with just this bit of money, I'm afraid I can't accomplish that..."
This was just a bit?!
The others recalled the money Anderson had taken out earlier, sporting various complexions.
But Anderson didn't notice as he turned back to look at Chloe: "Add more money?"
Chloe, clinging to the ship's entrance railing, lifted her head to peer inside as she asked: "What are you transporting on this ship?"
The crew member realized the one in charge amongst this group of young masters was likely this little girl. He fawned: "All kinds of things, miss. After you pay, you can go on board and take a look yourself."
Although the master had expressly forbidden casual trespassers from coming aboard, these were just a few vampire children. Letting them come aboard briefly shouldn't cause too much chaos.
And that stack of cash...just thinking about it made the crew member's heart itch.
He rubbed his hands eagerly, asking impatiently: "Have you decided yet, miss?"
Chloe licked her fangs and finally nodded at Anderson.
So Anderson took out another thick stack of cash and handed it to the crew member.
The crew member's face lit up in delight. He took out his terminal and pretended to send off a notification message, then brought the four children aboard.
He carefully stowed away the money: "You can go look at anything on the ship, but you can't touch anything. If you damage something, I'm afraid you'll have to pay for it."
Chloe thought to herself that there couldn't be anything the esteemed little vampire miss couldn't afford to replace. But she still nodded and vocalized her understanding.
Then, leading the other three, she strode onto the deck and swiftly headed deep into the ship's interior.
It was Chloe's first time boarding a ship. She felt the floor swaying under her feet and her head grew somewhat dizzy, but the sense of novelty never faded away. It spurred her to tightly grab Anderson's arm to steady herself as she felt around here and there.
Daniel was even more excited as he ran all over the deck.
For some reason, there wasn't a single person on the ship's deck, only leaving that crew member guarding the entrance. The atmosphere was unusually desolate.
Chloe's gaze fell upon the enormous opening to the ship's hull: "That looks like an ion cannon muzzle."
As she spoke, she released Anderson's arm and tiptoed, trying to touch it.
But she was too short to reach.
Somewhat annoyed, she simply spread her wings and let herself fly upwards.
The dark red bat wings could nearly wrap Chloe's entire body within them, containing a kind of eerie, absurd beauty.
Daniel was startled: "So those are vampire wings? They're completely different from the elves!"
Qin Huaibei, standing beside him, looked at the small barbs on Chloe's wings and said: "The elves' wings are the grace of the heavens above, only used for flight. But the vampires are different—these are weapons they were born with."
His eyes flickered with astonishment. Humans did not have the strength of other races. Their physical fitness could only be improved through later training. Now, seeing another race's weapons up close for the first time, it was false to say he didn't feel envious.
The ship was massive and so was the ion cannon's muzzle, opened very high up.
Chloe carefully stretched out a hand to touch the muzzle.
It felt ice cold to the touch—it likely hadn't been used in quite some time. But the muzzle was very clean, clearly regularly wiped down by someone.
After thinking for a moment, Chloe landed back down and retracted her wings.
"This ship is probably used to transport military arms," Chloe said. "An ordinary cargo ship wouldn't be outfitted with such advanced ion cannons."
Qin Huaibei's eyes shone:
"Military arms? The only place on this island that needs military arms is the No. 1 Military Academy! Could the goods here all have been purchased by the No. 1 Military Academy?!"
