Chapter 203 - 178: Boss Rowan Rhodes Has the Absolute Advantage

Chapter 203: Chapter 178: Boss Rowan Rhodes Has the Absolute Advantage

With the aid of the Water-Repelling Pearl, Rowan Rhodes quickly returned to the surface of the sea. Once above water, she quickly climbed onto her raft. However, as soon as she boarded, she found that her little companions were nowhere to be seen.

She wondered where they could have gone. Though puzzled, Rowan wasn’t worried. She knew very well that they wouldn’t stray too far from the raft. As for what they were up to, she figured it had to do with Harold Thompson’s group. Were they taking advantage of Harold’s absence to loot his resources?

Rowan felt she knew her pets like the back of her hand. As for Void Beast Atticus, it was a bit naive. Precisely because of that innocence, it would definitely just copy whatever the others were doing. It might even fan the flames just for the fun of it, using its ability to aid Seabird One and the rest.

Perhaps it was exactly because of Void Beast Atticus’s Space Ability that Seabird One’s group had left so decisively. It had to be said that Rowan had read Seabird One and the Seagull Family like a book. Sure enough, they were currently using Void Beast Atticus’s ability to steal everything they could from Harold’s raft.

The players left behind to keep watch were focused entirely on what was happening beneath the sea. Confined to their own rafts, they were completely oblivious to the situation on the other rafts. Seabird One’s group hadn’t just taken numerous Storage Boxes; they had even hauled away several pieces of Equipment. They specifically targeted the items they had seen Rowan use before. While they were busy hauling the loot, they had the youngest, Seabird Three, stand guard.

Keeping watch, Seabird Three quickly noticed Rowan returning to her raft and hurriedly flew down to one of the targeted rafts.

"The master has returned to her raft. The others might be back soon, too," it reported.

"The master is back? Did they force her to retreat?"

"If they forced her back, hasn’t she suffered a massive loss? We need to grab more to make up for it!"

Seabird One and Void Beast Atticus chimed in with one another, cloaking their robbery in a noble-sounding excuse. The others listened and nodded in agreement. Consequently, Void Beast Atticus’s Speed in collecting the Equipment immediately increased.

Finally, upon spotting Harold and his men returning, and with Seabird Three’s urgent warning, the Seagull Family started heading back. Void Beast Atticus was the fastest to flee.

SWISH! Its figure instantly appeared on Rowan’s raft. Seeing Rowan, it leaped into her arms and cheered happily, "Rowan, I brought back a lot of good stuff for you!"

With that, it presented a massive pile of items to her.

SWISH SWISH SWISH! A wide variety of resources and Equipment popped up on Rowan’s interface. Looking at the sheer quantity, it was an absolute haul. Truth be told, Seabird One and the others had completely lucked out this time. Although Space Stones had already appeared, players who had expanded their inventories as massively as she had were still extremely rare. Therefore, the majority of players, including Harold’s group, mostly stored their resources in Storage Boxes. When they went underwater to gather resources, they would leave a large amount of their existing goods on their rafts to free up slots in their backpacks. This made them sitting ducks for the pets.

Void Beast Atticus’s use of the word "brought" was truly a masterpiece of understatement. Hearing its words, Rowan knew her guess had been spot-on. Even though she was the beneficiary, she still shed a tear of sympathy for Harold and his men. If they had just left immediately upon running into her, they wouldn’t have suffered such a catastrophic loss.

"Did I do something wrong?" Void Beast Atticus couldn’t help but ask after noticing Rowan’s expression. Rowan’s reaction was different from what it had expected, leaving it feeling a bit anxious. It worried that this might be considered bad behavior. But hadn’t Seabird One and the others said it was fine? The other party had struck first, after all.

"You did nothing wrong. They provoked us first, so this is just us taking compensation with our own hands," Rowan said righteously. Harold’s group had been offending her for quite some time now. Under such circumstances, she was perfectly justified in demanding compensation.

After a moment of thought, however, she added, "But if people have no history with us and harbor no ill intent, don’t do things like this."

Reward kindness with kindness, and avenge wrongs with wrongs. Doing so would prevent a lot of unnecessary trouble.

"Mhm, mhm! I’ll listen to you!" Void Beast Atticus instantly felt entirely relieved. It trusted Rowan with all its heart.

Meanwhile, Seabird One and the others were flying over the sea area with a chorus of SWISHes. Upon spotting Harold and his men in the water, the birds deliberately circled overhead a few times, then swiftly flew away, looking incredibly smug.

Naturally, Harold and Simon Quinn noticed the Seagulls. The moment they saw the birds, their hearts involuntarily skipped a beat.

"Did you guys clearly see which direction they came from?" Simon asked urgently. He had noticed that they seemed to be flying from the exact location of their rafts. What were Rowan’s Seagulls doing near their rafts? Did they do something to them?

A wave of anxiety washed over the group. After Rowan had left, they had circled the location of the sunken ship on the seabed multiple times, confirming one grim fact: Rowan had completely looted the entire sunken ship. Even the structural frame of the shipwreck had been fully dismantled and salvaged. Aside from coming up empty-handed, they now had a much deeper understanding of Rowan’s formidable power. Not only had this operation been a total failure, but they had likely further antagonized Rowan in the process. To surface and immediately see something so suspicious made them genuinely worried. While Rowan wasn’t the type to kill without reason, she was definitely not someone with a gentle temper.

"Rowan just returned to her raft, so she couldn’t have had time to order these Seagulls to do anything! Plus, even though these Seagulls are a bit on the larger side, it’s not like they can do much damage. Besides, don’t we still have people keeping watch?" Harold analyzed, trying his best to convince himself as much as the others. The rest remained silent, merely increasing their Speed as they swam back toward their rafts.

However, once they climbed aboard and saw their completely bare rafts, they were utterly stunned. Where was their Equipment? Where were their Storage Boxes? Where did everything go?!

"My things are all gone!" Harold roared as he stepped across his raft.

"Mine too!"

"Same here!"

"..."

Simon, Elias Ziegler, and the other players chimed in one after another. Their faces were incredibly dark.

"It had to be Rowan’s Seagulls! She ordered them to steal our entire fortune! This is too much! It’s absolutely outrageous!" Harold fumed, completely enraged. Was it easy for them to save up these resources? It was not easy at all! Not only had they failed to gain any resources from the sunken ship, but they had also lost their original stockpile. It was a devastating loss! Rowan had truly crossed the line! This was practically a death sentence for them!

In the next moment, throwing all caution to the wind, Harold began a furious tirade in the District 122 world chat.

"Harold Thompson: @Rowan Rhodes, by the time we got to the sunken ship, you had already looted all the resources. We have no complaints about that. But why is it that after your Seagulls took a stroll around our rafts, all of our resources and Equipment vanished? To take without asking is theft. Are you not ashamed of stealing when you’re supposed to be a top-tier player???"

Harold’s message was fueled purely by grief and indignation. It carried a reckless, almost mad intensity. Anyone would go mad if this happened to them.

The server’s player base instantly perked up, energized as if they had just been fed a massive piece of gossip. Wow! It seemed a winner had already been decided. As expected, top-tier player Rowan held all the advantages!!! They wondered if she would respond.

As for whether the players believed Harold’s accusations, the denizens of District 122 indicated that they only believed half of it!