After the Battle of Roaring Bay, the docks of the Sea House were not calm, but busier.

At least nearly a hundred pirate ships ply the area between the Whisperer Strait and the sea, out of the need to count the battlefields in the Strait. In the Battle of the Whisperers Strait, except for the warships in the Papal Hall on the first day, Franklin and the others were almost completely destroyed. In the ensuing battle, in order to save resources and firepower, even if he attacks the battleship, Franklin's primary goal is to paralyze its functions.

Thus, when the Papal Hall was evacuated, the Order also threw down dozens of warships that were only moderately or lightly damaged.

These warships are the most abundant supplies for the Sea House.

The warships themselves are of high quality, and they can be put into service as soon as they are pulled back to the Sea House for repairs. In addition to this, the turrets, ammunition, and military supplies on the warship are all a great asset. Although it was not enough to make up for the supplies consumed by the pirates in this war, it was also replenished by four or five percent, which is quite good. Moreover, the quality of military supplies has always been good, and those pirates who make a living by robbing warships know this very well.

After all the supplies were transported to the dock, under the supervision of Mr. X, they were all sent to a warehouse on the Sea House, where they were stored separately. Through the Poseidon Order, Zero has integrated all the pirates and has become the master of the Sea House. These materials are naturally regarded as zero property, and if anyone wants to steal one or two of them, Mr. X doesn't mind teaching these short-sighted guys a profound lesson.

It's just that Poseidon has made Zero chill the pirates, and the Battle of Roaring Bay has earned their respect and loyalty, so no one dares to make a decision about supplies. Pirates are unruly creatures, and it wasn't easy to earn their loyalty, but Zero managed to do it. This is a base point for him to gain a foothold in the Western Continent, but this base point is obviously not enough, so expansion is an inevitable and imminent problem.

Zero was waiting, waiting for them to heal their wounds. Then it will be the day to set sail again. On that day, their destination will be the Western Continent itself.

While the pirates are busy, Billy and his Jishu team are not allowed to sit idle. From the battlefield in the Whisperer's Strait, the pirates salvaged several paladins and griffons with only minor damage. For Billy and his team of specialists, these mechs were even more of a grabber attraction than the massive supplies. Billy asked Zero for these mechs, and then he and his team worked day and night to deconstruct the structure, systems, equipment and other elements of the mechs.

The number of capable people in the Western Continent is far less than that of the Central Continent, but their technology, especially in terms of power mechas, is far superior to that of the Central Continent. Taking the raiders of the Green Capital as an example, they are already very cutting-edge mecha jishu in the Central Continent. But here in the Western Continent, the raiders are at most equivalent to the jishu content of the paladin mecha. The Paladin Mecha is the original mecha of the Pope Hall, which belongs to the inventory. There is no need to occupy an area, and the damage will not be too painful for strategic materials.

As for the lightweight griffin knight, it is a qualitative leap for mecha Jishu. It involves the processing of materials, more sophisticated operating systems, fuels, and flight systems, and other problems that are not involved in the Central continent. As for the Knights of the Round Table brought back by Mamilo, it is a terrifying meat grinder that can be called a war puppet.

It is no exaggeration to say that even if you let an ordinary person drive the Knights of the Round Table, you can beat a dozen people with abilities below the eighth order. As for ordinary soldiers, I'm afraid that there will be thousands of battle-damaged units. Of course, the Knights of the Round Table's operating system itself is not customized for ordinary people, it requires the incomparable quick reaction and rich combat experience of high-level abilities to fully exert the combat effectiveness of the Knights of the Round Table.

However, in Billy's view, if the Knights of the Round Table can be mass-produced, then the use of the operating system can be completely reduced. After all, ordinary drivers can be trained, and one less high-level death is a resource that is difficult to regenerate.

For turbulent times, resources are everything!

When researching the first and second generation mechas, Billy also mentioned the idea of studying the Knights of the Round Table. Zero knew that he wanted to conquer this set of jishu and return to the Middle-earth continent when the time came. Even if Billy can't innovate, a scaled down version of the Knights of the Round Table would be a formidable fighting force if it could be mass-produced. So Zero went to Mr. X and tactfully expressed his wishes.

The next day, Mamilo drove the Knights of the Round Table to Billy's makeshift workshop, an island on the edge of the south side of the Sea House. Upon seeing Mamilo's Knights of the Round Table, Billy immediately plunges into a frenzy of deconstruction. His main research is the power system and operating system of the Knights of the Round Table, which are the core of the Knights of the Round Table.

The former solves the power problem of driving the big guy, while the latter deals with the control error between the driver and the mech. It can be expected that when Billy returns to the Middle-earth continent with this set of jishu, a new type of mecha force will quietly appear in Zero's camp. Even with enough resources and factories here in the Western Continent, he could build such a force.

But for now, it's just the envisioning stage.

The problem remains with resources.

It's not that there are no resources on the sea house, but they can't make ends meet. After all, now and then are completely different things, in the past, pirates moved around, fought on their own, and basically lived a safari-like life. But now, once these things are thrown into war, they are not enough for one or two wars. War is very money-burning, and of course it is also very profitable, but Zero can't make money with it right now.

And to confront the Pope's Hall, and even finally remove Sauron from power, is not an ordinary burning of money.

The sea house has just won a battle, looking at the scenery. But as long as you do it again, Zero is almost certain that the pirates will not be able to hold on. So now, he needs income, a lot of income!

Only then did he know the difficulties of being in charge. In the past, when I was in the middle continent, the scale of the company in the early stage was small, which could not be reflected. Later, he became an invisible leader of the alien race, and Ademili helped with the finances, so naturally he didn't have to worry about it. After fighting again, to establish the City of Dawn, simply piggyback on the Black Rose. With Beonrith's means and the family staff behind her, the construction of Dawning City is going very smoothly, not to mention that there is nothing to do.

It wasn't until now, when he regained his position by integrating the pirates as their leader, that he realized that it was nothing more than running an adventuring team. The difference, far away on this side of the Western Continent, there is no talent like Adesili or Beonise to help him, so he can only rely on himself.

War is a money-burning machine, and at the same time war is the creator of great wealth. The difference is that the time chosen and the object of the battle are different, which is related to whether a war will burn money or make money.

Zero wants to remove Sauron from power, and of course he can't show off his might at sea. Therefore, attacking the mainland of the Western Continent is a necessary and necessary expansion act, so the next problem is the choice of targets. Choosing Zero this time around must be cautious, as the pirates will probably only support another battle of the magnitude of Roaring Bay. Therefore, in the choice of target, it must be the kind that can make money after attacking.

With income, the consumption of war can be replenished, and zero can achieve the goal of expansion.

The Western Continent is not an iron bucket, on the contrary, Zero believes that under Sauron's high-pressure policy, there must be enough opposition voices in the Papal Chamber. It's just that these voices don't dare to make a sound, and what Zero has to do is to poke a big enough gap in the seemingly solid, but actually fragile barrier of the Pope's Hall. Let these voices be vented, and as long as there are internal discontent, and there are people who desire a reorganization of power, then Zero will be able to get enough funders.

It would take too much time to run on your own with nothing and run until you could completely fight Sauron. He didn't plan to spend ten or eight years in the Western Continent, so he had to seek as many funders as possible and tie them to his chariot. For this to happen, the second campaign is crucial.

After the victory of Roaring Bay was transmitted back to the Western Continent, Zero could expect to form a huge influence. But that wasn't enough, after all, it was in Roaring Bay, on the home turf of the pirates. Zero needs another victory, and this time it must be on the home turf of the Papal Chamber. Only if he proves that he has enough strength to slap Sauron on home turf will the unspeakable funders consider throwing an olive branch of goodwill at him as a stranger.

Under the combination of these factors, it seems that the first battle of Zero's attack on the Western Continent is very important.

He had to choose a goal that was weighty and could increase his income as his choice. The former proves its strength, and the latter can develop into a shili fulcrum that encroaches on the Western Continent.

Just as Zero was holding the map of the Western Continent and thinking about his next target, Orlan arrived.

On the harbor of the Sea House, led by Zero, Manshan and Cinderella are separated from each other, and behind them are hundreds of pirates. Pulling out this huge team was just to meet Orlan the Watcher, one of the rebel triumvirate, and Zero could be said to have given the female leader enough face. As for the others, Hook recovered from his serious injuries, while Su and the others were Zero's secret trump cards, and Zero was not generous enough to reveal all the hole cards for others to visit.

With him, two legendary captains and hundreds of pirates, such a welcoming party is enough to be sincere. Especially at the moment when Ista was defeated and there were no new wins, even Orlan couldn't find anything wrong no matter how picky he was.

To zero surprise, the arrival of Oran this time also brought a batch of supplies. The supplies are mainly ammunition, and food and medicine are the secondary, which happens to be the most scarce thing at the moment. On the docks, the pirates assisted the rebel soldiers in unloading the supplies from the ships to the docks, where they were handed over and confirmed before being transported to the warehouses of the Sea House.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Oran, Zero said directly, "Forgive me for taking the liberty of respecting Lady Oran. Isn't it time for Ishtar to shift tensions, how do you still have time to go around Roaring Bay? ”

Orlan smiled lightly, and said to Zero by her name, and said, "I heard that you have done a big job on Roaring Bay, and I think it is very necessary to congratulate you and send some friends to help you from the position that we all have a common enemy." ”

"Then I thank you for your generosity. Zero smiled slightly and said, "I guess, Oran, you came this time, it shouldn't be as simple as congratulating and sending supplies, right?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Oran replied with a smile.

Zero wasn't surprised at all.

In the past, pirates were like scattered sand, and there was no cooperation with the rebels at all. Moreover, Ishtar was strong in the past, and there was no need to cooperate with pirates who were labeled as arrogant and undisciplined. But now it is no longer what it used to be, Istta's Shili has shrunk considerably, and the pirates have become a real powerhouse under the integration of Zero, and then the new victory in the Roaring Gulf has finally established the cornerstone of cooperation between the two.

Cooperation can be carried out on many levels, from the most direct money trade to the deployment of troops, all of which are cooperative projects, so Zero is still quite anticipating the arrival of Orlan. Since they wanted to talk about cooperation, they naturally couldn't negotiate in a place like the dock, and Zero needed a place that was quiet enough and not easy to be disturbed, so they went to Mr. X's bar.

The basic framework of the bar has been rebuilt, and the only thing that is missing is the necessary decoration. Now, there's no one in the bar, so it's a good meeting place for a few people.

In addition to Zero, there are also Cinderella and Manshan in the bar. In addition, Oran, a table for four people, after Mr. X asked people to bring beer and food, he blasted out all the irrelevant people, leaving space for them.

Then, as Zero had guessed, Oran brought the word "cooperation" to the table. So Cinderella and Manshan watched a different kind of battle, and the battlefield was on this small table, and Olanro listed dozens of items that could be cooperated with Zero, among which Zero was the most important arms deal, which was currently lacking in this aspect of pirates.

Attacking the Western Continent is not like a naval battle, a land war means enduring the all-out artillery fire of the mechs of the Pope's Hall. In this way, the group of high-level abilities alone is no longer enough to suppress, which means that Zero's side needs strong fire support. But the pirates' equipment is not comparable to the Papal Chamber, and even the rebels are inferior. The pirate's advantage is that there are enough people of ordinary ability, but that advantage is not enough to reverse the situation in which the equipment and technology of the Papal Hall are far superior to theirs.

In order to open up the situation, it is necessary to have enough firepower, so the arms and equipment provided by Orlan is naturally the top priority of all cooperation projects. In the list of arms available for trading listed by Oran with his brain, all kinds of electromagnetic grenades, mines, and electromagnetic pulse firearms that can counter or even threaten the mecha unit have attracted zero attention.

Although Ishtar can't produce powerful power mechs like the Pope's Hall, he has accumulated enough countermeasure experience over the years. The last time Sauron was able to use King Arthur to blow up almost the entire Istta, in fact, he still took advantage of the sneak attack. If Ishtar is properly prepared, not to mention one King Arthur, even a few more Knights of the Round Table may not be able to get the advantage.

And now, Zero's eyes naturally fall more on these electromagnetic weapons. Then he began to bargain with Orlan about these electromagnetic weapons, and it can be seen that Orlan really wants to make change and cooperate, so the price offered is not high. It's just that Zero is not rich now, based on the principle of saving if you can save, Zero is almost an inch of land to cut down the price of zuihou. Oran also generously said that these weapons will be delivered to the Sea House in the near future, and as for the question of repayment, considering Zero's current financial situation, Oran can let him use a loan.

This means that Zero has more room for turnaround.

This was followed by secondary armaments, such as machine guns, mines and anti-armor missiles, which went much more smoothly. This part is traded in cash, and part of it is bartered. Overall, Orlan is fully supportive of Zero-sum pirates, and a lot of things are half-buy-and-half-give. Oran is indeed very generous, generous to the extent that there are zero accidents.

But then, Orlan said another piece of news that surprised Zero even more.

"Funders?"

"Yes, that's right. Oran took his head and said, "I think the three of you should be able to see that the transaction we talked about just now gave you about only three to forty percent of the market price. Of course, I appreciate the performance of Mr. Zero and the captains, and I am willing to help you or trade in some way. But there will definitely be no electromagnetic weapons involved, after all, it is our cutting-edge product. Even if you trade, you can't sell it to you at such a low price. To be honest, the amount of our transaction is not even worth the cost. The reason for this is the request of our funders. ”

"I wonder who is the patron behind Ishtar?" asked Cinderella.

Again, this is a question of zero want to know.

As he had deduced before, the rebels could not have started from scratch on their own, let alone stood up to the Papal Chamber for so long. Of course, the pinning down of pirates is one of the reasons why the Papal Chamber is unable to wage an all-out war against them. But more importantly, there should be a person behind Ishtar, or a group of big people of sufficient weight, who are funding them.

"We're sorry, but due to the depth of our cooperation and the protection of our funders, I can't give you specific information. Oran organized a rigorous wording: "What can be revealed is that our funders are not weak. His recent activity has attracted considerable attention from you, and he is interested in cooperating with you to a deeper extent. ”

"But our ultimate goal is not just any big man in the Papal Chamber, but the head of the Grand Master who wields real power, Sauron. So, our funders would like to see further performance from you. At least let him see that there is a chance to defeat Zoro, even if there is only a 50% chance, he will fully fund you, and even consider the possibility of our two Liliang merging!"