Mars walked down a short hallway with ugly brown walls and a faded red carpet.
He then stopped in front of a door with the number 112 written in black letters.
Shadow moved underneath the door, and some muffled whispers came from the other side.
Mars’s heart stayed calm as he slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open. It was strangely unlocked, and when the door was completely open, a loud boom reverberated across the room, and something solid struck Mars’ chest, sending him crashing into a wall.
He stumbled off the wall, his vision blurring as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.
Once his vision cleared, he saw armed pirates in the room, and with them was a cannon with its barrel smoking.
“So, you are the fool who tries to steal from me?” The lanky man straightened his sleeves and smirked. “My name is Gudbrand, the captain of Treasure Pirates. I am a man worth 678 thousand silvers. How dare you try to steal from me?!”
“Never heard of you.” Mars looked at his destroyed suit with a cold look. ‘They were expecting me. I am sure it’s common that these ‘pirates’ try to steal from others, but the way he phrased it, it sounded like he knew I was going to try to steal.
‘This sounds like someone is plotting against me. That does not matter. The heart is mine.’
Mars stepped through the doorway, his voice oozing with venom. “Give me the heart, and I might spare your lives. However, there is a 99% chance I won’t, but I suggest taking that 1% chance.”
“You are a suicidal fool!” Gudbrand screamed. “Fire another cannonball at him!”
“Yes, captain~” His crewmate lit up the fuse and launched the cannonball towards Mars.
Mars put his hand forward and caught the cannonball as if it were nothing but a tennis ball.
“You’re making this too easy for me.” Mars juggled the cannonball in his hand and grinned at the pirates. “Mind telling me how you knew I was going to come here?”
‘How is he doing this?’ Gudbrand asked himself in shock as he watched Mars juggling the cannonball as if it weighed nothing.
‘He isn’t even using Inner Power, so he is doing this just purely out of his physical strength!’
“Not answering?” Mars shook his head and smirked. “I am impatient.”
He raised the cannonball over his shoulder, leaned slightly backwards, and then took a powerful step forward. He then slung the cannonball over his shoulder and threw it at the pirates with even greater strength than with a cannon.
The pirate’s eyes widened in shock, but he had no time to do anything as the cannonball smashed through their bodies, shattering all their bones and crushing their skulls.
Boom—the wall of the inn room exploded, and the pirates were sent flying across Haventown.
Loud screams resounded from the streets as the Haventown residents heard the loud explosion clearly.
In the inn room, only destruction remained, and weak-willed Gudbrand survived the cannonshot only because Mars wasn’t aiming at him.
He was sitting on the ground, his trousers wet with piss and his face sweating.
To survive in Pirate Battleground, he had to learn to kiss the asses of powerful pirates to gain their protection. In the end, he became an ally of the Sea King, and he trusted him with his life.
Now that the Sea King told him that someone was trying to steal his purchased item, he thought it was some weak pirate, and the Sea King trusted him to take care of the issue for him.
But now he realized that it was someone at the same level as the Sea King, and there was some scheming going on, and unfortunately, he was caught in the middle of it.
“Well, mind telling me now?” Mars crouched in front of Gudbrand and playfully patted his cheek, causing him to flinch like a frightened rabbit. “Who told me I was going to come here?”
“T-t-the Sea King!” Gudbrand whimpered.
He realized that he shouldn’t trust in the Sea King to rescue him, as he had already done nothing as his crew was murdered right in the middle of his territory.
He hoped that by just telling the truth, Mars would give him a 1% chance of survival.
“I see.” Mars rubbed his small black beard, grabbed Gudbrand’s throat with his other hand, and snapped his neck.
The pirate captain worth 678,000 silvers fell to the floor—dead.
Mars stood over the body and walked over to the small wooden box, then opened it slightly. Inside was the beating heart of the Nymn Tree.
“Finally, I’ll be unstoppable!”
Kaboom—the building suddenly exploded into a fiery cloud of inferno and debris.
The frightened nearby townsfolk scurried away as the pieces of debris rained down on the town.
It was like a scene from a war-ridden battlefield.
Inside the burning inferno, a figure with scorched upper body and tattered trousers stumbled out of the wreckage, his hair smoking and his eyes filled with a mix of shock and disbelief.
On his hand were the remnants of the box, and inside was the destroyed heart of the Nymn Tree.
“What the fuck…” Mars dropped the box and stomped on it till it turned to ash.
Clap, clap—at that moment, loud clapping reverberated around the destroyed burning and the burning infernor.
Following that, mocking laughter came from hundreds of Sea King pirate members, ridiculing Mars as if he were nothing but a clown.
At that moment, Tyrannus walked from the alleyway of a nearby building and clapped his hands loudly.
“Thank you for proving to us just what kind of clown you are, Mars.” Tyrannus smiled with ridicule. “You were too poor to purchase the item, so you resorted to stealing? Tch, how pathetic of you.”
“You just made a big fucking mistake,” Mars said venomously.
“No, you did.” Tyrannus smiled and raised his hand.
At that moment, hundreds of cannons peeked from the windows of nearby buildings, all aimed at Mars.
“Fire!”
Boom—hundreds of cannons shot cannonballs simultaneously.
“Grr…” Mars growled like a lion and crossed his arms.
As the cannonballs struck his sturdy body, a large explosion shook the ground and sent debris flying in all directions.
However, once the dust cleared, they saw Mars standing with scratches across his body and burning from the explosion.
“Argh…” Mars took a step forward and growled like a wild animal.
“Hmph.” Tyrannus smiled and turned to his crewmate beside him. “Tell Adam, Arkham, and Dreadnought to prepare.”
“Uhm, sir, I spoke to their subordinates, and they said they hadn’t seen them for a few hours.” A pale-faced crewmate stuttered. “They were supposed to give instructions to them, but they couldn’t find them anywhere.”
“What?” Tyrannus turned to him, his eyes narrowing into a glare. “And why did you tell me this now and not before?”
“I-I thought they were with you.” The crewmate stuttered.
“Where the fuck are they?” Tyrannus clicked his tongue. “Fine, tell the generals to take control of the men and prepare for frontal confrontation.
“A-about that, the generals also didn’t show up.” The crewmate gulped dryly. “T-they are also nowhere to be found.”
Tyrannus’ eyes turned close, and he then smashed his battleaxe across the crewmate’s head, swiftly killing him.
“Where the fuck are everyone!”
…
“W-w-why?” An injured man tried to crawl out of the door, but his legs were broken and his fingers were shattered. “L-Lord… Adam… w-why…”
In the middle of the room, Adam sat in the middle of a dozen corpses, sipping wine while his clothes were stained with blood.
The corpses were generals of the Sea King’s fleet!
“W-we are on the same ship as you…” The injured general whimpered through pain. “W-we are also under the slave contract… w-why are you doing this to us?”
Adam stood up and slashed through the general’s throat with his sword.
“Any person that might compromise the success of the mission needed to be eliminated.” Adam sheathed the sword and walked out of the house into the dark night, where he saw the pillar of smoke coming from the middle of Haventown.
“Today, it’s either you or me that dies, Tyrannus.” Adam coldly whispered.