This raft was just enough to carry the seven of them—but only if they threw away their leather armor and weapons, and didn't bring any supplies at all.
But without food and fresh water, they wouldn't survive anyway. The seven immediately looked at each other, faces pale.
In the end, someone couldn't hold back and struck the person beside him. The seven mercenaries fell into a chaotic brawl, and even the slaves on the ship began to join the fight.
At a moment of life and death like this, all the ugliness of human nature was laid bare. For the sake of survival, people would stop at nothing.
Meanwhile, Jack in the sea set his sights on an old man. He had already noticed this white-bearded elder back when they were still on the ship.
Not only had the old man been helping move cargo, but he also had a nautical chart tucked at his waist. He looked like a navigator.
Although he was a slave, Jack didn't care about his status.
Moreover, this white-bearded old man had been among the first batch to fall into the sea.
Jack picked up a piece of floating wood and swam over to the old man, then handed it to him. The old man immediately understood Jack's intention and clutched the wood tightly.
Before long, half of the Purple Grape merchant ship had sunk beneath the sea. Dozens of people were still on board, desperately fighting over the raft.
With the Heart of the Ocean, the gills behind Jack's ears continuously supplied him with oxygen. Moving through the water was even less exhausting than standing on land.
So Jack wasn't in a hurry to harvest lives. Instead, he stayed close to the merchant ship underwater, searching to see if there was any cash or treasure to be found.
When the amount of algae and the light intensity in seawater reach a certain level, a normal person's visibility becomes extremely poor.
But the Heart of the Ocean solved that problem, allowing Jack to retain a certain degree of vision even in the deep sea.
Jack searched through the ship's hold. Many wooden crates were being swept back and forth by the currents. He opened several in a row—every one of them was filled with spices.
Spices were valuable, but once soaked in seawater, they were worthless. What Jack wanted was cash.
After several minutes of searching, perseverance paid off. Jack found a silk pouch tucked into a slave's arms.
The slave had already passed out from drowning, yet he was still clutching the money pouch tightly to his chest.
As if, even in death, he had to protect his master's property. Truly touching.
But touching or not, Jack didn't hesitate. He pried the slave's fingers open and took the pouch.
Opening it, he found a pile of gold coins inside. A sharp gleam burst from Jack's eyes—there were at least fifty gold coins in this bag!
His old man's Sea Dog pirate crew had only ever reached a peak worth of seventy silver coins—and that had lasted just one day before it was all spent in the city.
Just then, Poseidon swam over to Jack with something in his mouth, his face full of a "praise me" expression.
Curious, Jack took the stone from Poseidon's mouth. The entire stone was a deep crimson, covered in countless raised patterns that looked like snake scales.
"This is… a dragon egg fossil?"
"No wonder, no wonder they hired seven mercenaries. So there was a dragon egg on board!"
Jack's face was filled with shock. Not because of the dragon egg fossil itself—after all, he even had Godzilla, and living dragons were something he'd seen plenty of times in American TV shows.
What truly shocked him was the value of a dragon egg.
A single dragon egg fossil could sell for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of gold coins.
In the original story, Daenerys's second brother, Viserys, planned to steal the dragon eggs and build his own army to invade Westeros after realizing his sister was no longer under his control.
Although Jack believed that an idiot like Viserys would still fail to reclaim the Iron Throne even with the Dothraki khalasar, it didn't diminish the dragon egg's value at all.
With this dragon egg fossil, Jack could buy several large ships and form a massive pirate fleet.
Of course, just how massive would depend on how much this dragon egg could sell for. Something like a dragon egg was more of a collector's item—how much it sold for depended entirely on how much of a sucker the buyer was.
And in truth, the biggest sucker—no, the most suitable buyer—would be Daenerys after conquering Slaver's Bay. She would definitely be willing to pay a huge price for this red dragon egg.
If her luck was good enough, she might even gain another red dragon.
After putting the dragon egg into his bag, Jack swam over to the white-bearded old man and dragged him toward the Sea Dog.
As for the others… he could only apologize. If they were lucky enough to encounter a passing merchant ship, they might survive.
If not, they would only become fish droppings. After all, Jack had just seen the raft shattered into pieces during the struggle.
After bringing the old man aboard his Sea Dog, Jack spoke directly, "Are you a navigator? Can you read sea charts?"
"Of course. Otherwise, a slave as old as me would've been sunk into the sea and fed to the fish long ago." As he spoke, the old man even took out a parchment nautical chart.
Hearing this, Jack immediately abandoned the thought of throwing the old man back into the sea. It was clear that this old man was capable.
Jack had originally planned that if the old man wasn't a navigator, he would simply toss him overboard.
After all, the food on the ship was only just enough to last him until the next supply point.
And because he had gotten lost and wasted an entire week, supplies were already tight.
These days, he was surviving entirely on fishing. Thankfully, Poseidon's atomic breath could also be used to start fires—otherwise, Jack might really have ended up eating raw sashimi.
Under these circumstances, Jack would absolutely not keep an extra useless elderly slave.
Jack used his knife to cut off the slave collar around the old man's neck. "What's your name?"
The old man showed a thoughtful expression and said uncertainly, "Rat? Bug? Or Old Dog, I think. I forgot. Just call me Old Dog. That's what they all called me."
"No, no, no. I won't call you Old Dog. That name is far too insulting. Otherwise, why would I bother cutting off your slave collar?"
"There are no slaves beneath the red flag!"
Jack said casually, talking nonsense as he pleased. Beneath the red flag, there are no slaves—only useless ones.
The old man looked up, but didn't see any red flag. He didn't understand what Jack meant. Why were there no slaves beneath a red flag?
"You'll be called Newgate from now on. Not a bad name, right?" Jack said.
The old man froze for a moment. He hadn't expected Jack to actually give him a name.
Slaves were generally unworthy of having names—only lowly labels like Bug or Rat.
"Thank you. I never thought I'd survive, let alone be given a human name," Newgate said gratefully.
That single name made him feel a trace of what it was like to be human again, rather than a lowly slave treated like livestock.
"Master, where do you wish to go?"
"Don't call me master. Call me Captain. We're going to Slaver's Bay," Jack corrected him.
"Yes, Captain. I understand," Newgate replied. He was well aware of why Jack had saved him—nothing more than the need for a navigator.
Even so, Newgate still felt fortunate. After all, being alive was better than anything.
He was already fifty years old, which among slaves was equivalent to a free man living to a hundred.
For him, every extra day of life was a blessing from the gods.
(End of Chapter)