Chapter 1714: Code: Touch Grass
Jack watched with a fond smile as the crew all chatted around the room for some wholesome fun. Of course, for this crew, wholesome fun meant watching the Crystal alligator and Goldilocks try to convert the same piece of furniture into their respective elements, all the while gambling on it. The bets were things along the lines of being dangled overboard the ship by Longbeard’s beard, being used as shark bait in the case of a particular hamster, or being on Goldilocks duty.
Jack had seen such scenes countless times already, but it just felt different now. Though they were all idiots, of that there was no doubt, they weren’t actually dumb. Each and everyone of them understood that Jack had been warning them that what lay ahead was even more dangerous than anything they had experienced so far. Not only did none of them leave, they confirmed their place in the crew with a binding ritual of sorts.
Jack used his fairy magic, broken as it was, and the others contributed in their own ways. Neither Jack nor Lex felt comfortable forcing others or placing any kind of compulsion on them, but neither of them underestimated the necessity of proper precautions.
The purpose of the ritual was not to force them to stay within the crew. Instead, it was to protect them in case any of them faced external pressure to betray one another. If Jack were more coldhearted, he would have added measures to ensure that they could not reveal each other’s secrets regardless of the situation, and would have forcibly bound them to the crew.
But he wasn’t, so even though he was smart enough to know the risks involved, he didn’t do it. Instead, he would just live with the risks. Given his current power level, it was impossible to completely protect the crew and his secrets if they ever faced an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, and he accepted that, so creating forceful bindings in an attempt to protect his secrets would just be a betrayal of his conscience and character for small gains.
The better way to do it, however, was just hide the core of his secret, and only reveal what the crew needed to know, which is what he would do.
"Alright guys, enough fun and games," Jack said as he put on the hamsters’ parrot feather captain hat. He didn’t like the hat - he was just still ticked off at Pebbles and wanted to annoy him some more. "I’m setting a deadline of four days. We need to get our hands on some sharks, so we’re going fishing. After that, we’re going to leave Artica. Our next destination is a little place called the Fantasia realm. The coordinates to that realm are readily available, so getting there shouldn’t be a problem. From there... well, we’ll see about that."
As the crew took their positions aboard the massive ship, Jack returned to the helm and considered the details of his plan.
To locate the Nexus, he would need to make preparations, and that involved traveling to multiple realms across the universe. He also needed to get a handle on the exact timing of the Nexus event, as well as get his hands on the necessary materials to build the Midnight Castle.