High Seas Escort: My Mercenaries Can Level Up

In the Gulf of Aden, piracy is a legitimate career. With the second-lowest GDP per capita in the world, a pirate can earn seventy-nine thousand dollars a year—an unbeatable return on investment. Get in early, enjoy life; die early, find peace. Zhang Hai transmigrates into the chaotic world of 2008 as a private maritime escort PMC. His saving grace: he can use the US dollars he earns to upgrade his team members. Physical fitness, tactical awareness, marksmanship, command skills, negotiation tactics—all clearly priced, fair and square. In this business, some rely on experience, others on sheer grit. Zhang Hai? He feeds his entire team with cold, hard cash. In the world's most dangerous pirate alley, he learns to tell the difference between two types of AK gunfire—"da-da-da-da-da" means a greeting, while "da, da, da" means they want you dead. He learns that a fishing boat never carries fish—it carries RPGs. One day he kills a warlord's son, the next he steals a deal from an intelligence broker, and soon he discovers that Somalia's murky waters also hide European "fishing" oligarchs, Middle Eastern arms dealers, and a host of "international friends." From the Gulf of Aden to the Gulf of Guinea, from the Strait of Malacca to the Caribbean Sea, Zhang Hai plows through every dangerous pirate lane on the globe. He progresses from repelling hijackers to monopolizing high-risk escort contracts. His motto: "Need escort services? Cargo value under twenty million—skip. Tourist routes—skip. Penniless pirates who can't even afford RPGs—skip. We only run the most dangerous routes and fight the most profitable battles." Industry conscience, quality guaranteed.