Robucci's Insect Army

"Spare me, sir! I surrender, I pledge my allegiance! From now on, I'm your man!"

The bald man was brought before Hawkins and immediately began begging for mercy, terrified that Hawkins would kill him without a word.

A real man knew when to bend and when to stand tall. He knew his strengths and weaknesses well. If the fight had been underground, he would not have feared even a hundred Hawkinses. The problem was that Hawkins had the power to flip the table, dragging both him and Mark out from beneath the earth.

It was like a fish leaving the water—no matter how capable it was, it could never outplay the fisherman.

Mark sneered. "Weren't you acting all high and mighty just now? What was that about, thinking that holding a Cursed Relic meant you could do whatever you wanted? Looks like you're the same. So, can you still do whatever you want with a Cursed Relic now?"

"No, no, of course not. We can count it as no fight, no friendship. Let's be friends. My name is Xiao Yaojin!" the bald man said with an awkward laugh.

Mark smacked Xiao Yaojin's bald head and said flatly, "What kind of ridiculous name is that? And... who said I'm your friend?"

"Hehe, aren't we acquainted now?" Xiao Yaojin rubbed his head and smiled ingratiatingly.

Hawkins could not help laughing. Wasn't the pronunciation of that name just "little fairy"?

Although the two were not homophones in this world, that did not stop Hawkins from finding it funny.

Actually, the meaning of Xiao Yaojin's name should have been "Steadfast Treasure Mountain," an extremely masculine name. But transliterated, it became Xiao Yaojin, though "little fairy" could also be used as a transliteration...

"Alright. Since you've fallen into my hands, you may be spared from death, but you won't escape punishment. As for how to deal with you, I'll think about it after I deal with Black Market Island," Hawkins said lightly as he looked at little fairy—no, Xiao Yaojin.

Xiao Yaojin still wanted to beg for mercy, but Hawkins directly threw him into a ripple.

After dealing with Xiao Yaojin, Hawkins carried Mark down to the ground as a great amount of dirt rained down from above, filling the enormous pit.

"Captain, is that it? What about the mastermind behind all this?" Mark asked as he looked at the corpses on the ground.

Hawkins looked toward the tallest building on Black Market Island and smiled. "Hasn't the answer already revealed itself?"

"Who is it?"

Mark felt as though he could not quite keep up with Hawkins's train of thought.

Hawkins slowly walked toward the Dalton Hotel, explaining as he went, "Who do you think on all of Black Market Island could mobilize every killer and assassin to encircle and suppress us?"

"Robucci!" Mark answered with certainty.

Hawkins suspected that Mark was playing dumb, but seeing no flaw in Mark's expression, he smiled. "Although Robucci has immense control over the killers, he is ultimately only a middleman. The one who can truly make killers excited enough to charge forward without regard for their lives is..."

"Women. Vanessa!" Mark immediately blurted out.

Hawkins fell silent for a moment before continuing, "The answer is money. Why do killers become killers? Naturally, for money. And who on Black Market Island is the richest, capable of making every killer risk their lives to hunt us down?"

"Vanessa. She's a smuggler, so she must be insanely rich!" Mark insisted.

Hawkins knocked Mark on the head and said flatly, "It's Dalton!"

The careless chatter of those killers earlier had inadvertently revealed plenty of information, such as the prices placed on his head and Mark's head. There were definitely not many people who could afford that sum.

Whether Robucci or Vanessa, both had the ability to pay it, but it would surely leave them badly wounded financially. Thus, Hawkins had immediately ruled them out.

At that moment, Hawkins stopped walking.

Mark looked ahead and saw a middle-aged man in a red trench coat emerge from an alley in front of them, blocking their path.

"Robucci?"

Hawkins was not entirely sure.

He knew there was someone named Robucci, but he had never met him.

Robucci raised his head and said gloomily, "Son of Pirates Hawkins, do you know how much effort I spent cultivating those worthless fools? Yet you dared to kill every last one of them!!"

"Was I supposed to stand there obediently and let them take my head?" Hawkins could not help laughing.

"Alright, I'm busy. If you just want to trade insults, sorry for the trouble, go find someone else. If you're looking to die, then make your move," Hawkins said, losing interest in Robucci.

Robucci sneered. Suddenly, dense swarms of cockroaches, centipedes, geckos, ants, and bees surged in from all around like rolling waves.

These insects had originally been hiding behind the buildings lining the streets. Clearly, Robucci had prepared for this long ago.

"Help! I have trypophobia!" Mark cried out when he saw the insects flooding toward them.

If these insects had merely been ordinary insects, Mark would not have needed to worry with Curse Power protecting his body. But there was something wrong with them. Mark could sense that every one of these insects carried curses.

Just how had they been cultivated?

Hawkins was also shocked. As mentioned before, the larger a creature's body was, the stronger its resistance to curses.

Conversely, the smaller its body, the weaker its resistance to curses would certainly be.

A Cursed Relic that was Good Grade on a human might be Death-Tier on a small animal. Seeing the densely packed cursed insects, Hawkins was genuinely stunned.

But this was not the time to stand around in a daze.

Hawkins grabbed Mark by the clothes and directly threw him into Eternal Space. Then the air around him suddenly compressed, creating a violent gale.

Though these insects carried curses, they were ultimately too small. Under the biting gale, they were all blown away.

Hawkins took the chance to close in on Robucci and drove a fist into his abdomen. Yet Robucci revealed a strange smile, opened his mouth, and spat out a long centipede that immediately coiled around Hawkins's arm, its venomous fangs piercing into his flesh.

In an instant, one of Hawkins's arms was corroded by venom, and all the curses beneath his skin liquefied.

"Son of Pirates, you are no match for me.

"I have operated in the Black Market for twenty-five years. This is my territory. Even if a lord came to the Black Market, he might not be my match.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're special, just like those lords, aren't you?

"I discovered long ago that people like you seem to possess some invisible power capable of defending against every attack. Even most Cursed Relics cannot harm you, so I have always been thinking: if my enemies were special people like you, what should I do?" Robucci looked at Hawkins and smiled slowly.

Understanding dawned on Hawkins. Robucci clearly did not know about Curse Casters, but he knew of their Curse Power-protecting trait, so he had specifically devised a way to break through that defense.

"So... what did you do?" Hawkins asked as he looked at Robucci.

A large number of poisonous insects crawled out from Robucci's body. He placed a spider on his index finger, watched it, and said, "I can control insects. I discovered a secret."

"What secret?" Seeing him pause, Hawkins followed along with his words.

Robucci suddenly laughed. "You think I'll tell you? I said all that nonsense only to buy time, so I could summon more poisonous insects. And now... even if you sprout wings, you cannot escape... Die!"

An extremely high-pitched vibration sounded from every direction.

Thirty seconds later, a sky-covering swarm of flying insects swept in—locusts, bees, flying ants, cockroaches, mantises, and even many insects unique to this world.

For example, flying centipedes with wings, as well as a kind of snake-like worm even more disgusting than centipedes.

The densely packed insects directly wrapped the entire street into a circle.

Just as Robucci had said, even if Hawkins sprouted wings, he could not escape now.

All these insects were tainted by curses. The effects of those curses were not yet clear, but since they bore curses, they surely possessed some sort of ability.

Thinking of how a single bite had directly crippled his arm, Hawkins guessed that it was probably related to poison.

A venom capable of breaking through Curse Power?

Hawkins's heart stirred. The next moment, electric currents gathered behind his back, forming a halo.

He rose from the ground and said flatly, "If these insects are your only means, then I'm very sorry, but killing me may be a little difficult."

Honestly, without the Mother, dealing with so many cursed insects would have been quite troublesome.

But with the Mother's computing power, Hawkins had no shortage of methods.

As the insects approached, their wings suddenly caught fire one after another. In the blink of an eye, they fell to the ground and swiftly burned up.

Hawkins looked at Robucci and smiled. "Can you tell me what that secret is now?"

"What is in the air?"

Robucci said nothing. His eyes continuously swept over the surroundings, but he could not find the culprit behind the insects catching fire.

He did not know what high-frequency electromagnetic waves were, so he could not make heads or tails of Hawkins's methods.

However, seeing that the insects had died from burning, a thought struck him, and many heat-resistant insects rapidly rushed over.

At that moment, his pupils suddenly contracted. Hawkins's arm, which had just been corroded by venom, had actually grown back.

"Don't want to tell me? Then I'll have to see for myself!" Hawkins suddenly said.

The next moment, he appeared at Robucci's side. His hand struck Robucci's neck in an instant. In Hawkins's eyes, Robucci was simply too slow. Once Hawkins became serious, Robucci had no way of defending against his sneak attack.

Before Robucci could react, his eyes rolled back and he directly fell unconscious.

His unconsciousness caused all the insects to go berserk, but as long as they entered a certain range around Hawkins, they immediately caught fire and died.

Hawkins could create magnetic fields, so naturally, he could also create microwave fields.

If he had not deliberately controlled it, even Robucci would have been instantly burned, perhaps even burned alive.

At that moment, strands of Hawkins's hair pierced into Robucci's cervical spine. Before long, he had read a great deal of information, and a smile gradually appeared on his face.

Robucci's method of raising insects was actually somewhat similar to raising gu.

Simply put, it was survival of the fittest, victory through sheer numbers.

He placed a vast number of insects atop Cursed Relics. The insects that died became food, while the insects that survived continuously reproduced, thereby creating insects capable of surviving under curses.

These insects possessed the abilities of Cursed Relics. Under his control, they spread across Black Market Island, and no one who landed on the island could escape his eyes.