Preparations

In fact, fifteen minutes after Hawkins landed on Black Market Island, every faction had already received the news.

Black Market Island was a tangled den of dragons and snakes, filled with assassins, pirates, spies, wanted criminals, and deranged serial killers. Managing the island required not only immense strength, but also ruthless methods.

Dalton Hotel was the largest hotel on Black Market Island.

Its main building stood dozens of meters tall and covered an area of 560,000 square meters. With more than 2,500 guest rooms, it combined casinos, brothels, entertainment, fine dining, and leisure into one establishment. It was the biggest money pit on Black Market Island.

As long as one had money, Dalton Hotel could provide almost any service its guests desired.

The owner of Dalton Hotel was named Dalton. Though his reputation was not as resounding as that of the Three Great Families, he wielded an extremely terrifying force on Black Market Island.

At that moment, Dalton reclined halfway on a leather chaise lounge. One maid massaged his shoulders while another massaged the soles of his feet.

Opposite Dalton, a man wearing a black silk mask sat quietly. He held a cup of black tea in his hand and elegantly blew on the rising steam.

"Son of Pirates is on Black Market Island. Does Lord Aldrich want me to take him down?" Dalton asked lazily.

The masked man unhurriedly took a sip of black tea and smiled. "As expected, Lord Dalton truly knows how to enjoy himself. This black tea is of even higher quality than Lord Aldrich's private collection."

"Since you won't say it, I'll just pretend I know nothing." Seeing the masked man beat around the bush, Dalton closed his eyes.

The masked man continued drinking his tea, and the room immediately fell silent. A faint sheen of sweat appeared on the foreheads of the two maids, yet neither dared stop moving her hands.

"Enough. You may leave," Dalton suddenly ordered the two maids.

The two maids gave slight bows, then carefully withdrew from the room and shut the door behind them.

Dalton looked at the masked man. The masked man said, "His Lordship means for you to capture Hawkins if possible, but it would be best to act after he leaves, lest Black Market Island be damaged."

"Son of Pirates is that strong?" Dalton asked, slightly surprised.

The masked man nodded. "He is stronger than we estimated. If he truly intends to cause destruction, the entire Black Market Island will be thoroughly wiped out by him."

"Hehehehe, you great figures always want to control everything in the Seven Seas. Now it seems... you've failed rather miserably.

"A mere pirate has actually grown to the point where even your lords fear him. Don't you find that ironic?" Dalton could not help laughing.

The masked man replied neither humbly nor arrogantly, "That is why we are correcting our mistake. Son of Pirates... must die. This is the unanimous view of all Lords!"

Dalton put away his frivolous expression. He knew very well how terrifying it was when all the Lords reached a consensus.

No force in the Seven Seas was stronger than the Lords. Even the Pirate Queen did not dare openly provoke all the Lords. In fact, the Pirate Queen had some murky alliance of interests with Ironcloth Island behind the scenes.

And once all the Lords united, any force targeted by them would have only one road left: death. There was no second possibility.

"Then how do you need me to cooperate? Money, or men?"

Dalton looked at the masked man, picked up a small knife forged from gold, and asked as he peeled an apple.

He knew very well who the true master of Black Market Island was. Since the masked man had come knocking, he must need Dalton's strength.

Before the masked man could speak, however, a knock sounded outside the door. Dalton frowned slightly, glanced at the masked man, and said displeasedly, "Come in."

A man dressed in red entered the room. His gaze remained calm throughout. He stepped forward and said, "Members of the Blackblade Pirates killed someone on the island. The Red-Clad Team went to arrest them, but the entire team has already been wiped out. They are now heading toward Red-Clad Headquarters."

"What are they trying to do? Establish their prestige?" Dalton took a bite of his apple and asked calmly.

There was not much wealth in Red-Clad Headquarters. Even if Hawkins conquered it, he would gain no real benefit. The only thing he could possibly gain was a vicious reputation.

But did Son of Pirates lack a vicious reputation?

The answer was no.

Though the title "Son of Pirates" was far less renowned than Pirate Queen, Hawkins had rampaged across the Pras Sea for years. Anyone who had gone to sea had heard, more or less, of his fearsome name.

So what did Son of Pirates want?

"Lord Dalton, we know very little about the power Son of Pirates possesses. I do not know his purpose," the masked man answered.

Dalton set down the apple in his hand and said mildly, "Then let's settle this my way."

"What does Lord Dalton intend to do?" the masked man asked.

Dalton bared his teeth and smiled. "Of course... we'll bury him under Gold Coins!"

Below the Lords, no one was richer than him.

Hawkins and Mark walked down the street. The once bustling road was now completely deserted.

After Mark slaughtered the Red-Clad Team members who had come to arrest him, all the residents quickly went into hiding.

"Captain, can this really lure out the master of the Black Market?" Mark asked as he walked.

Hawkins smiled. "It definitely will."

In truth, he had always had three suspects in mind.

The first was Robuchi, the owner of Tea House.

He possessed extremely deep connections on Black Market Island. More than ninety percent of the assassins were willing to follow his orders. On Black Market Island, no one was willing to offend him, because once they did, they might be assassinated at any moment.

The second was Dalton, the owner of Dalton Hotel.

The third was Vanessa, president of the Black Sail Trading Company.

The Black Sail Trading Company was actually a smuggling organization specializing in rare resources that the various islands did not sell publicly.

Hawkins understood this world's power structure very well. Without the tacit approval of the Lords, Vanessa would have died a miserable death if she dared smuggle goods. Thus, Vanessa was even more suspicious than Dalton.

At the very least, Hawkins was certain that Vanessa had some sort of connection with several Lords.

"Robuchi, Dalton, Vanessa... which one is it?"

Hawkins glanced at the tallest building in the distance, then revealed a faint smile.

In truth, he was not in a hurry. Black Market Island was right here and could not move away. Besides, he still needed some time to confirm several guesses. Otherwise, even if he slaughtered everyone on Black Market Island, he still would not be able to take the island away.

"Wait, Captain, did you get taller?"

Mark glanced at Hawkins from time to time. In the end, he increasingly felt that something was off, so he asked.

Hawkins smiled. "When you have time, take a look at the Exchange Page. It has everything!"

"You can even grow taller?"

Mark was slightly surprised, then opened the Exchange Page.

Though he was quite confident in his own height, it would be even better if he could grow to about the same height as Hawkins.

After flipping through a few pages, he indeed found the Height Adjustment exchange option. It turned out he could not only grow taller, but even become shorter. Every additional centimeter of height required ten thousand exchange points, and becoming shorter cost the same.

Mark grumbled inwardly, then looked at Hawkins again and found that Hawkins seemed to have grown taller once more.

He decided to forget it.

Hawkins was almost two meters tall already. Mark had no desire to become that tall.

Who knew? He might have to spend exchange points to become shorter later. After all, Jennie was only around 1.6 meters tall.

In fact, Hawkins was not merely getting taller. His body fat percentage was also increasing, while his muscles and everything else continued growing.

He was conducting an experiment.

The purpose of this experiment was simple: to determine how an ordinary person's physique affected curses.

He needed to know whether, aside from Dream Realm monsters, an ordinary person with a sufficiently massive body could resist curses.

And now, he already knew the answer.

Body size was indeed related to the strength of curses. When his body grew to two meters tall, the curse within him clearly weakened. Moreover, he had made a new discovery.

The size of the Spatial Passage had nothing to do with the amount of Curse Power he possessed. Instead, it was related to his own physique.

The larger his own body became, the larger the Spatial Passage became as well.

If I want to swallow the entire island whole, I'll need to grow to at least a thousand meters tall. But that's simply impossible to achieve in a short time, unless... Hawkins pondered as he walked.

The growth of any living creature had to obey the conservation of energy. If he wanted to grow to a thousand meters tall, he would need enormous amounts of food and sufficient time.

At that point, the enemy would only need to throw ten or twenty Death-Tier Cursed Relics at him. If he failed to evade them in time, he would drop dead on the spot within minutes.

"Mark, let's return to Eternal Space first!"

Having made his decision, Hawkins directly opened the Spatial Passage.

The moment the two entered Eternal Space, a group of assassins rushed over from all directions. Yet when they saw the empty street, every one of them wore a bewildered expression.

Just five minutes earlier, Dalton had issued a bounty across the entire island.

Whoever could take Hawkins's head would receive five thousand Gold Coins, while Mark's head could also be exchanged for three thousand Gold Coins!

In other words, the two heads together were worth eight thousand Gold Coins, equivalent to eighty million dollars!

All the assassins on Black Market Island had gone red-eyed. Forget just two people— even if they faced an army of a thousand troops and ten thousand horses, they would dare give it a try.

Unfortunately, they had arrived one step too late. Hawkins and Mark had already left.

"That ship is still underwater!"

An assassin suddenly had an idea and immediately turned to run back.

This world never lacked clever people. Many others thought of the same thing and rushed toward the docks.

In Eternal Space, Hawkins appeared on Yazhong Island.

With a thought, he poured vast Curse Power into Yazhong Island. Every building vanished one after another, while huge amounts of grass sprouted across the island. In the blink of an eye, the entire island had become a flat grassland.

Countless particles danced in the air. He poured Curse Power into the air, and the particles rapidly formed atomic nuclei before becoming individual atoms.

Under his control, these atoms combined once more into countless molecules.