Pirate Kingship.

Chapter 479: Male One and Male Two, the Curtain Opens (6600)

While Byron and Violet, two heavyweights among the Bay Pirates, were busy with sea trials.

[Wild Hunt] "Byron Lancaster" is still diligently causing trouble in the Bantaan Islands with his pirate fleet.

The [Wild Hunt Servant] Swordmaster Hermann, who has activated cognitive correction, and the [Guardian Knight] Bruch are responsible for temporarily taking over the duties.

They did not continue to squeeze on Violet's ship, the Flaming Rose, but instead picked a less conspicuous level 4 ghost ship from the ghost fleet to serve as the fleet's flagship.

Other living people have no way to pass through the "trapdoor" during the non-window period, but the ghost ship, which is responsible for transporting the dead, is not included.

The ship was delivered to Byron early on.

With the addition of the rare warship named "Dreadnought" sent by the "Kingmaker" Earl Warwick, the Wild Hunt's assets finally no longer seem so shabby.

Coordinates: The northern edge of the "World Serpent·Celestial Circulation Belt".

A ghost ship with dark and slightly tattered sails is leading a group of pirate ships with different flags to hunt down a small Castilian ocean-going fleet.

Probably in order to highlight their status as a maritime power, most Castilians did not go to the Great Bear Islands under the Pioneer Colonial Trading Company, but instead developed an exclusive distribution center in another direction.

They don’t even let Xifeng Express make a profit on the shipping fee. Isn’t this intentional bullying of the poor?
Can Byron tolerate this?
Therefore, in addition to attacking the royal party who are preoccupied with their own affairs, the Black Sail Pirates have recently also often ambushed Castilian merchant ships passing by here.

Real business wars are so simple and efficient!

"How dare these bastards fire back at us, relying on the escort of warships?

If we let them go like this, and others follow their example, how will we be able to do our jobs in the future?

Come on, follow the old rules, raise the blood flag, and leave no one alive!"

Byron, whose consciousness descended upon the Wild Hunt Servant Swordmaster Herman, issued the order in a casual tone.

"Yes, raise the blood flag!"

"Board the ship and seize it!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

The other pirate ships also raised bloody flags at the same time, gathered into groups like hungry wolves, and rushed towards the Castilian warships together.

Over the past month, the Black Sail Pirates, who had always been scattered, have gradually tasted the benefits of fighting in a group.

Many targets that they dared not or could not snatch in the past are now within their grasp.

Don’t be too comfortable with the days when you can rob anyone you want.

Even if you find that the target is difficult to tackle and you cannot tackle it for a while, you can still call for support continuously, and the gains will be much greater than in the past.

During this period of almost non-stop looting, the various pirate groups in Black Sail Harbor were constantly working together, and were barely able to be molded into a whole by Byron.

Finally, we can avoid accidentally injuring friendly forces during group combat.

Now it is completely enough to send out a large force to scare people.

During the battle, the ghost ship [Dreadnought] was in the center of command, helping out from time to time, and its prestige was gradually built up.

Especially after fighting with a fourth-level pirate warlord, it was more effective than thousands of words. After all, whatever the strong said was right.

Moreover, all the operatives who joined the treasure hunting alliance signed the "Faustian Contract".

As long as Byron can lead Blacksail Port to achieve great things.

Not only would the Black Sail pirates each give him 51% of their loot, they would also acknowledge his leadership in Pirate City, making him the Pirate King without a crown for the time being, with a % stake.

Byron also knew that the constraints within the pirate group had always been relatively loose, and the biggest role of the nominal "Speaker" was just to decide where to plunder and get a bigger share of the spoils than others.

In order to enhance his own strength, he waved the rebellion funds supported by the [Kingmaker] and recruited the elite among the Bay People and other free pirates.

Similar things have been done once at the International Port, so it is natural for us to do it again with ease.

It was too easy for the superiors in this era to show favor. A slogan that would sooner or later lead them to launch a "war to steal the country" attracted a large number of participants.

This is the hidden influence of Lancaster's "strong claim to power".

There are few pirates in the world who can refuse the possibility of being cleansed and returning to shore, or even becoming the new nobility of the kingdom. It may not be convenient for them to retire, but their descendants can have a better life.

As a result, the direct forces of the Wild Hunt are expanding rapidly like a snowball, and their strength is growing every day.

This was also a watershed in the fate of the pirates.

[Puppet King] wants Byron to take advantage of the situation and plan something for him, and Byron also wants the pirates of Black Sail Port to fight for him.

As long as we can attract Castile's attention, we will win. If you are not one of us, you will only be cannon fodder.

Anyway, the main force led by "【Sea Hunter】 Byron Tudor" equipped with new battleships and bolt-action rifles is the ultimate killer.

Byron observed the battle situation and saw a warship led by Castile preparing to break out at all costs. He waved his hand casually:

"Dreadnought, charge!"

The first mate Bruch, who was in charge of the defense, gave the order: "Musketeers, line up, and the Marines, get ready to board the ship!"

The tattered sails of the [Dreadnought] were immediately inflated, and it accelerated towards the side and rear of the enemy ship.

Stab it--!
Circles of invisible force fields surrounded the hull, rotating at high speed with the protruding bowsprit at the front as the axis, and making a piercing sound while entrained in water mist.

The force field ring at the rear pushed the sea water to allow the warship to continue to accelerate, and a long crack was torn on the sea surface wherever it passed.

Title ability [Heavy Force Field]:
“Go forward bravely, no one can stop you.

Turning on the force field is like being a fierce general who can take the head of an enemy general in a sea of ​​millions of soldiers.

Even if there are many warships surrounding it, they will be forcibly pushed away by the force field on its body.

It can even constrain the force field wall to form a collision angle, allowing it to crash into the target with unstoppable force.

Limit: Duration one hour per day. ”

Unlike the "Golden Hind" which only applies to sailing ships, Byron feels that the name "Dreadnought" can continue to be used even in the future era of whale oil-powered ironclad battleships.

Boom!

With a loud bang, a hole was hit in the Castilian warship, and the two sides completed the boarding.

After a round of musket fire, Deathwing's pirates and the undead crew on the ship, either pulling ropes or swinging hooks, all rushed to the enemy ship.

There was no suspense in the ensuing battle.

Led by Byron and the Dreadnought, the pirates captured the fleet loaded with specialties from the southern continent in just a few hours with their overwhelming numerical advantage.

Just as Byron personally killed the captain of the enemy ship, wiped off the blood from the gun tip and prepared to hand over the task of collecting the spoils to Bruch, and returned to the [Dreadnought] to stop multitasking and reduce consumption.

But suddenly he discovered that there was also an invisible puppet thread in the cabin of this battleship.

It's just much thinner than the thread that fell on the Golden Deer.

If it weren't for the upgrade of [Logbook], the ability to spy on secrets would be effective as long as the senses can reach it, I'm afraid even a fifth-level legend would accidentally overlook it here.

And when Byron looked over, he discovered that the silk thread had been trembling for who knows how long.

This means that the fate of the "puppet" anchored by this silk thread is being modified by the [Puppet King] Louis!
Byron's eyes sparkled.

“Is this directed at me?
No, it should be said that they are coming for the [Dreadnought] and [Wild Hunt].

Whoever wears this vest will be found by this thing due to a series of coincidences of fate. "

Thinking of this, he took the lead and strode into the lower cabin where rum, drinking water, sailing biscuits and other daily necessities were stored.

Just as Bruch was about to light the whale oil lamp, an oak barrel that seemed to be used to store wine suddenly fell over and rolled to his feet.

The unsealed barrel lid was knocked open and rolled around on the ground.

Then a beautiful girl in a dance dress and gorgeous clothes, looking very embarrassed, climbed out of the barrel in a daze.

When she looked up, she saw more than a dozen black gun muzzles pointing at her. She subconsciously raised her hands and exclaimed:
"Do not kill me!"

Byron looked her up and down with great interest, and the more he looked, the more curious he became.

Some people describe a beautiful girl as being as delicate as a doll, but the girl in front of me who can talk and move is a real doll!

There is a faint wood texture in the white skin, the joints are strangely spherical, the facial features are still delicate but appear very stiff, he can't laugh or cry, he is a complete three-nothing.

Only a pair of eyes that had turned into glass moved slightly, and there were still traces of the emotions of a human girl in them.

If any crew members from the Dream Castle were here, they would be able to recognize it at a glance.

This puppet girl was the dancer who was turned into a puppet on the spot by the [Puppet King] Louis because the laces of her dancing shoes suddenly broke, disrupting the order of the queue (Chapter 447).

Two months later, her soul was still trapped in this puppet's body, unable to live or die.

The girl's glassy eyes rolled around, and she had already guessed the identities of Byron and his party.

He mustered up his courage, pretended to be very familiar with this kind of situation, and tried to straighten his chest, and asked the leader Byron:

"Sir, are you pirates?"

There was a canary-like innocence in her tone, and it was obvious that before she met with misfortune, she had not experienced much human suffering in the dance troupe founded by the Puppet King.

But it also makes it easy for people to lose their vigilance towards her and naturally develop trust in her.

Byron waved his hand, and the guards behind him immediately put away their muskets and gestured to her to stand up:

“As you can see, beautiful lady, we are indeed pirates.

What about you? Why are you hiding on this ship? "

Miss Puppet stood up and performed an impeccable lady's greeting. Perhaps Byron's gentle attitude had infected her, and she was no longer so nervous:

“Mr. Pirate, my name is Tracy, and two months ago I was a dancer serving Louis, the Puppet King, on the Dream Castle.

As for now, I am just a puppet whose life is worse than death."

When he said this, his clear eyes couldn't help but flash with a trace of sadness, a trace of fear, and a deep-hidden hatred.

After a slight hesitation, as if he had made up his mind, he suddenly looked up, looked directly into Byron's eyes and asked:
“Mr. Pirate, it doesn’t really matter who I am.

The important thing is, I have a huge fortune here, do you want it?"

In order to enhance the persuasiveness of his words, he directly stated his own experience:

“After I was turned into a puppet by Louis, the Puppet King, I became a maid doing odd jobs on the ship.

Two days ago, when I was cleaning the Puppet King's room, I accidentally heard a big secret. In a communication, the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering [sailboat collector] Morton Gray said that the king had been waiting for two months, and the situation in the country was becoming more and more tense. His Majesty could not wait any longer for that thing.

The Treasure Fleet's return voyage, originally scheduled for late October, has now been brought forward to early October.

By the way, Morton also sent a black box to the Puppet King, saying it was an "Information Black Box" that stored route data. "

Then he looked directly into Byron's eyes and said solemnly, word by word:
"I've seen what was in that box."

Byron raised his eyebrows and thought to himself:

"That's it, here it comes!"

But his first concern was not the secrets in the "black box of information", but he asked:
"Excuse me, but since you hold such a secret, it shouldn't be so easy for you to escape from the Castilian colony, right?"

Since the puppet girl named Tracy has revealed the shocking secret, there is naturally no need to hide the details.

He told all to this pirate who might be able to avenge himself and his companions:

“We had no chance of escaping the Dream Castle.

However, with the recent development of the colony in the southern continent, the supply of "artificial lantern men" has been tight, and many puppets serving on the Dream Castle have also fallen into Louis' hands.

Although I am a dancer, my extraordinary profession is the first-level [Navigator] of the Lighthouse Sequence.

In other words, ever since the Puppet King started developing the 'artificial lantern man', many of the extraordinary people he has trained are of the Lighthouse Sequence.

A few days ago, Louis untied the puppet strings of me and several other companions, and sent us to the workshop together to prepare to make us into "artificial lantern men".

We escaped from the Dream Castle by taking advantage of an unexpected incident when the [Puppet King] left the battleship and went ashore to personally deal with a totem god.

But most of my companions were captured and only I found a chance to sneak into the cargo leaving the South Continent and came here with the fleet.

Mr. Pirate, you have never been to the Southern Continent, so you have no idea how miserable the low-sequence [Lantern Man] is.

Crazy and deformed, it turned from a human into a puppet, and from a puppet into a pile of disgusting corrupted flesh, and it remained alive until it rotted into corpse water.

This is the evil thing that [Puppet King] Louis is doing.

He will go to hell one day!"

Tracy raised her expressionless face, but her eyes were filled with misery:

"Mr. Pirate, I want to avenge my companions, but I don't have the power.

But if the Kingdom of Castile could lose a large sum of money from the Treasure Fleet, the [Puppet King] would probably also feel the pain, right?
This is the only way of revenge I can think of.

Even if you don't have the power to rob the treasure fleet, I would be grateful if you could help me pass the information to powerful people."

Byron and the pirates around him felt very sympathetic towards her plight.

Listening to this experience makes sense.

If Byron had not clearly seen that the silk thread above her head was still trembling and had not completely escaped the control of the [Puppet King], he would have almost believed that this encounter was really a coincidence.

However, perhaps this drama secretly directed by "Puppet King" still has some minor flaws.

But as long as the benefits are big enough, it is an open conspiracy that is not afraid of others not participating.

Byron only raised his vigilance towards the fifth-level puppet king, and nodded to the puppet girl in front of him:
"Well, Miss Tracy, as you wish, deal!"

On the other side, the Golden Deer, which had just completed sea trials, also returned to Island No. 1 of the Centaurus Archipelago.

Here, Edward, the "Red Beard", who had been dissected for three whole months and was known as Mr. 135 and Ms. 246, finally breathed his last.

There is no need to feel sad for him/her.

More than a month ago, Red Beard had turned into a fool who could only make "Aba Aba" sounds because he could not stand the stimulation of men and women.

In the end, it looked like a very painful death, but in fact it was not peaceful at all.

What a joy.

Fortunately, his/her death was not in vain. When Byron met the great wizards of the Flayed Church again, they had just completed the compilation of the autopsy records.

The former high priest [Murderous Doctor] Robert Liston showed Byron the anatomical data that condensed all the hard work of the entire black wizard cult.

"Hahaha, High Priest, the great [Father of Medicine], please look.

Surgeon! The prerequisite knowledge for becoming a surgeon has finally been formed, and those of us who violated the rules by stealing corpses can finally be promoted again.

I will publish them in your name to the Key of Omniscience, so that the whole world can usher in a new era of doctors!"

As soon as he finished speaking, because Byron made outstanding foundational contributions, his exclusive title "Father of Immunology" was automatically upgraded to "Father of Modern Medicine" because of his great achievements.

In addition to the original title ability [Immune Blood], a new ability called [Surgical Operating Table] has been added:
“A spherical operating table with a diameter of three meters can be unfolded.

Within this range, a series of surgical operations such as anesthesia, resection, suturing, transplantation, injection, etc. can be performed on targets that have no ability to resist.

This operation comes from concepts, and can interfere with various tangible and intangible things, and even remove various negative states that affect human health, such as curses. "

Although it was not a combat ability, it still made Byron's eyes light up.

Because the application of this medical ability is so widespread.

For example: cutting off the invisible puppet threads of the puppet king; curing the magic [uselessness of flesh and blood] on the puppet; removing the curse brought by knowledge on cousin Salant
Even though the latter two may not be able to do so in the middle sequence, they should be no problem at all in the high sequence.

With such ship doctor skills at hand, the survival rate of the Golden Deer crew will surely rise sharply when they sail to the Eastern Continent in the future.

Everyone praised the doctors of the Flayed Order and promised to build a hospital in the territory to provide them with the necessary resources for job transfer.

He also met with the remaining staff.

Especially James [Hawkeye] who stayed here as a trade agent. Let him run the trading company that has the potential to become the "second Treasure Fleet" and stabilize this source of income.

After saying hello to Dad, I was about to return to the Bantaan Islands.

Clank, clank.
Suddenly, through the giant wolf Fulechi who stayed on the Old Golden Deer, the sound of dice shaking was faintly heard on the other side.

"Again?"

Recently, he could hear the sound of dice shaking every now and then.

As time went on and they observed more, they discovered that when the dice rolled, sometimes the strings tied to the Golden Hind and the Treasure Fleet flagships would tremble, interfering with their fates.

It not only interferes with the material ship, but also affects everyone who has a connection with the ship in a mysterious way.

But most of the time when the dice sound is heard, the two puppet strings will not move.

He soon realized that the Puppet King had far more than one thread in his hand, and that he was most likely adjusting the fate of other "puppets".

The "Puppet King" is most likely directing a heavyweight puppet show with a large number of actors.

If he didn't have the strength of the fifth level, or a treasure like the [Ship's Log] that could see through the puppet's threads, he would have been used as a puppet by him and died without knowing it.

Boom!
On a cargo ship that was loading and unloading at the dock, a box suddenly rolled down from the gangway, revealing an "artificial lantern man" twisted into the shape of a human nail.

Before being transformed into a puppet, he was a second-level [Navigator]. Even though all his facial features were removed, he still retained his [telepathy] ability.

Noticing the fourth-order brilliant spiritual glow on Byron, he immediately cried out in his spiritual world as if grasping at a life-saving straw:
"Save me, I'm willing to share a big secret with you."

At about the same time, the Wild Hunt in the north of the celestial circulation belt also heard the same words from the puppet girl Tracy.

Byron was startled for a moment, then a strange smile gradually appeared on his face:

"Is the Puppet King planning to sell one treasure to two parties, let us kill each other, and then you will be the one who gets cheated?

Do you also want to learn my ancestral offshore balancing technique?
However, as a continental country on the Pyrenees Peninsula, Castilian people do not seem to have any talent trees in this area.

I am on both sides of the scale, how can it be balanced?
The scales can’t be balanced just because you want them to be balanced! "

Immediately, the unlocking density of [Secret: Crisis of the Treasure Fleet, Historical Influence 28] rose to 38%.

at the same time.

The [Dream Castle] was also leaving the colony on the southern continent and beginning its return journey.

Since they cannot wait until the next window period at the end of October, the Treasure Fleet will return.

[Puppet King] If Louis wants to do something personally, he must take advantage of this window of opportunity to leave the southern continent. Once he misses this window of opportunity, it will be too late.

The distinguished prince of Castile sat at his desk, a glass of wine in his hand, admiring the gradually receding southern continent through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

He also waved from time to time to greet the colonial officials and officers who came to see him off.

Suddenly, the vague voice of his elder sister-in-law, former Queen Joanna, came from under the table:
"Louis, um. Didn't you already choose that Sea Hunter?

Why do we need to find the Sea Hunter's mortal enemy, the Wild Hunt?"

The Puppet King looked down from above, and in his eyes he saw the beauty's typical gourd-shaped figure with hips wider than shoulders. She was as fascinating as a ripe peach, even more charming than the scenery outside, and made him want to conquer her.

He sighed, shook the wine glass gently and said:
“It is precisely because they are mortal enemies that they are deliberately brought together.

There will be no need for us to take action ourselves. After they have robbed the treasure fleet, they will fight each other until they are bloody.

[Dream Castle] just needs to be responsible for the final cleanup and pick up the bargains.

That final Lancaster jumped out just in time.

It was a good job to kill [Conqueror] Cortes in the Royal City of Azk.

How dare the son of a mere nobleman overestimate his own abilities and want to use the [Golden Code] to become the vice king of the kingdom and be on equal footing with me?

I would rather give the treasure to the direct descendants of Emperor Reinhard of the North Sea Empire than let it fall into the hands of such a lowly little person.

And now, when I needed a troublemaker the most, he showed up again.

[Wild Hunt] and [Sea Hunter] are the puppets in my hands, and they are also the two leading actors in the following puppet show, the leading male and the second male.

It is so exciting to manipulate the fate of two of the best young people on the continent in the past decade.

It turns out that I, the [Puppet King] Louis, am born to be a ruler. Even the [Creator] is helping me in the dark.

Life is easy for me, hahahaha"

The leading and supporting actors of the puppet show appeared on stage one after another, and the stage was the "palm" of the puppet king.

He was just one step away from singing a song. How lonely it is to be invincible.

(End of this chapter)