Ever since Jack Sparrow heard about Roger's "glorious deeds" from Gibbs, his attitude towards Roger had undergone a complete 180-degree change.
He no longer looked at Roger with the cynical, slightly provocative gaze he used to.
Instead, his gaze was now a complex mix of curiosity, scrutiny, and a hint of wariness.
He began to wander around the ship like a ghost.
When Roger was studying charts in the Captain's Cabin, he would pretend to pass by, peeking in from the doorway.
When Roger was instructing the crew on cannon drills, he would pull up a rum barrel, sit beside them, drink, and observe with keen interest.
When Roger was using a sextant to measure latitude and longitude at the bow, he would stand not far away, mimicking Roger, holding a rum bottle up to the sun, muttering to himself.
He was like a highly curious cat, trying to uncover the secrets of the "magic" within this young man from Roger's every move.
"Hey, I say, Lin."
This afternoon, Roger was teaching Billy and a few new gunners how to calculate projectile trajectories and lead.
Jack ambled over again.
He had already changed his address for Roger, from "Captain Roger" to the more familiar "Lin," all on his own.
"When you hold that shiny thing up to the sun every day, are you communicating with the Sun God?"
Jack asked in an exaggerated tone.
"I'm determining our current position."
Roger replied indifferently.
"Position? Isn't determining position just looking at the stars, or the color of the sea?"
Jack looked puzzled.
"I know an old sailor who could tell how far we were from land just by smelling the sea breeze."
"The grass on your old sailor's grave should be three feet high by now, shouldn't it?" Billy quipped unceremoniously from the side.
"Shut up, you brainless lump of muscle!"
Jack glared at him, then sidled up to Roger with a playful grin.
"Seriously, Lin, is your method... scientific?"
He used the new word he had learned from Billy again.
"Very scientific."
Roger nodded.
"It allows us to pinpoint our location to within every nautical mile."
"Every nautical mile?!" Jack was shocked again.
Navigation in this era relied entirely on experience and intuition.
Being able to keep the error within dozens of nautical miles was already considered top-tier navigation.
Accurate to every nautical mile?
To him, it sounded no different from magic.
"Then... then will you teach me?"
Jack's eyes darted, and he immediately thought of secretly learning.
"Sure."
Roger was quite generous.
"However, before you learn this, you'll need to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and trigonometry."
"Tri... trigonometry what?" Jack looked bewildered.
Roger looked at his foolish expression and chuckled inwardly.
Want to learn my modern navigation techniques?
In your next life.
Jack saw that Roger didn't seem to be joking and knew that secretly learning was out of the question.
He then turned his attention to the crew of the explorer.
He began to frequently drink with old pirates like Hanson, trying to win them over with his "legendary" experiences and personal charm.
"Hanson, my old friend."
Jack put his arm around Hanson's shoulder and handed him a bottle of rum.
"Back in the day, when I was sailing the black pearl, I plundered a Spanish treasure ship; the gold coins nearly covered the entire deck!"
"Captain Roger is also very formidable!"
Although Hanson had been drinking, his mind was still clear.
"He led us to the santa trinidad's treasure; now that's what you call mountains of gold and silver!"
Jack: "..."
He then went to find another new crew member.
"Hey, brother, what do you think of this gun of mine?"
"I snatched it from a British general; it even has his wife's teeth embedded in it!"
"Wow, that's amazing! But our Captain Roger is even more awesome!"
"He took down a spanish warship with just a dilapidated ship; we got to pick any cannons and guns we wanted from that ship!"
Jack: "..."
After several attempts, Jack was depressed to discover that...
The crew on this ship seemed to have been brainwashed by Roger.
No matter what he said, they would always steer the conversation back to "how awesome Roger is."
The fanatic adoration in their eyes when they looked at Roger was even more exaggerated than when the black pearl's crew looked at him back in the day.
What kind of bewitching potion had this Roger given them?
Jack was utterly baffled.
He sat alone at the stern, drinking in gloom.
He watched the young man at the bow, discussing the route with Gibbs and Billy, surrounded by everyone like stars around the moon.
For the first time, he felt a sense of defeat.
He, Jack Sparrow, who roamed the Seven Seas, relied on his unparalleled personal charm and silver tongue.
He could trick the most loyal naval soldiers into becoming his crew.
He could also make the most arrogant noble ladies fall head over heels for him.
But now, all his charm and tricks were ineffective in front of this young man named Roger and this group of "tamed" crew members.
He felt like an aging rock star who had met a currently popular superstar idol.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't steal a single fan from the other person.
This feeling was terrible.
"Hey, drinking alone here doesn't seem like the legendary Captain Jack Sparrow."
Roger had walked up to him at some point, also holding a bottle of rum.
This cheap rum, after drinking it for a long time, had a unique flavor of its own.
Jack glanced at him, huffing ungraciously.
"What? Come to laugh at me?"
"Of course not."
Roger sat beside him and took a swig of rum. "I just wanted to tell you that we're almost there."
"Almost there?" Jack was taken aback.
"That's right."
Roger pointed to the distant horizon. "If my calculations are correct, we should see the lights of Port Royal before nightfall."
"Now, I need you, our chief honorary consultant, to tell me how we should get in."
Roger looked at Jack, a playful smile on his face.
"It's time to show your true worth, Captain Jack."
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