Chapter 711: Chapter 477: Advantage
When Charles’s speedboat drew near, Dong Tianyu asked with a hint of confusion, "Magic City’s number three aquatic platform? Have I entered the territory of Magic City?"
"That’s not the case. We are currently within the Suzhou region."
"Then how did Magic City’s aquatic platform come here?"
"The inland lacks large shipyards and skilled boatmen, so aquatic platforms are basically built in harbor cities. Except for the far northwest where the distance makes it more practical to build locally, areas like Jing-Jin-Ji and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region all collaborate with coastal cities that have shipyards, building aquatic platforms near the coastline."
In reality, the flood will submerge the entire land, so the location of aquatic platform construction is essentially the same; it does not have much impact when the flood comes.
However, shipyards are typically found only in coastal cities. Not only do the inland cities lack the necessary machinery for shipbuilding, but they also lack technically skilled employees. In addition, transporting a large number of workers at this time would be quite problematic, so when choosing a construction location, coastal cities are generally preferred.
After understanding this, Dong Tianyu hesitated only briefly before accepting Charles’s invitation, especially since he had just emerged from the Mysterious Realm and wanted to rest for a while.
This was a good opportunity to see what the Imperial Court-built aquatic platform was like on the inside.
If the condition inside was acceptable, Dong Tianyu considered bringing his parents to live on the platform, especially now that Madeline was no longer able to control the great ship.
Rather than staying idle and enduring disdain from others along with Master Ye, Father Dong and Mother Dong might as well move to the aquatic platform. Although they knew no one there, at least the platform’s capacity to withstand risks was much stronger than Madeline’s great ship.
Under Madeline’s control, Father Dong and Mother Dong had enjoyed certain privileges aboard the great ship. Now that Madeline had lost power due to Gordon’s affair and no longer held sway on the ship, Dong Tianyu thought it better for them to move to the aquatic platform.
However, in Dong Tianyu’s mind, bringing his parents to an aquatic platform didn’t necessarily mean Magic City’s number three. He needed to give more thought to which one to choose.
Seeing Dong Tianyu accept his invitation, Charles immediately opened up to him, saying, "Your Companion Spiritual Treasure probably isn’t very fast. Why don’t you board my speedboat and we can head back together?"
Charles said this to confirm once more that the Jade Ship beneath Dong Tianyu was indeed his Companion Spiritual Treasure. The reason why Magic City’s number three aquatic platform went to the trouble of activating its power device to change course was precisely to recruit Dong Tianyu, the survivor whose Companion Spiritual Treasure had been upgraded.
If the ship beneath Dong Tianyu was not his Companion Spiritual Treasure but just an ordinary vessel, Charles would still have welcomed Dong Tianyu onto Magic City’s number three with a smile, but the treatment offered would be starkly different from the original plan.
As for Charles’s invitation, Dong Tianyu didn’t give it much thought and, without waiting for the speedboat to approach, leaped from the Jade Ship onto Charles’s speedboat.
Once aboard the speedboat, Dong Tianyu immediately stowed the Jade Ship into his Sea of Consciousness. Charles watched as the Jade Ship instantly disappeared from the water’s surface and breathed a sigh of relief internally.
After all, activating the aquatic platform’s power module came at a cost. If the Jade Ship beneath Dong Tianyu was his Companion Spiritual Treasure, that was fine; but if not, not only would the decision-making superior be punished, but even those from the lookout to him, as mere executors of orders, would face corresponding penalties.
However, the flipside was that, now that Dong Tianyu’s upgrade of his Companion Spiritual Treasure had been confirmed, once he invited Dong Tianyu onto the aquatic platform, they would all receive certain rewards.
Dong Tianyu noticed when Charles saw him deposit the Jade Ship into his Sea of Consciousness, his face first showed relief and then turned into a mix of surprise and doubt.
Observing the changing expressions on Charles’s face, Dong Tianyu didn’t think too much about it and directly asked, "What’s wrong? You look a bit odd."
As the captain of a search and rescue team, Charles had faced many different survivors, so upon hearing Dong Tianyu’s question, he guessed what Dong Tianyu might be asking.
Knowing that Dong Tianyu had already improved the material of his Companion Spiritual Treasure meant that Dong Tianyu was certainly strong, and since Charles had nothing to hide, he straightforwardly revealed the reason:
"When I successfully bring people back to the aquatic platform, my superiors assess them based on their combat strength and technical skills.
The higher the assessment my superiors give, the greater the reward I receive. Initially, the joy on my face stemmed from confirming the upgrade of your Companion Spiritual Treasure’s material, anticipating that I would receive a good reward.
However, when you vanished the little ship just now, it disappeared directly, which worried me. The ship beneath you might not have been a Companion Spiritual Treasure, just a normal vessel, and that little ship disappearing before us could simply mean it was put into a storage device.
If that’s the case, not only might the reward I was expecting disappear, but our entire search and rescue team might also face rebuke from our superiors."
