Chapter Summaries

After crossing into the body of the captured pirate Hawkins, an immortal consciousness found itself imprisoned aboard the Vidalya Glory. Hawkins challenged two marine guards’ beliefs about the island’s unequal system and offered each ten gold coins to help him escape, leaving them tempted but unsure whether to trust him.

• The consciousness spent billions of years alone through the universe’s decline, then used its memories to cross into another world.
• Hawkins awoke in a prison cell aboard the Vidalya Glory after the Blackblade Pirates were defeated and captured.
• Hawkins spoke with two marine guards, including Tom, and argued that poverty and noble exploitation had pushed the original Hawkins toward piracy.
• Hawkins offered each guard ten gold coins in exchange for helping him escape, and the marines began considering the offer.

Chapter Summary: “Thought Virus”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins negotiates with the two Marines guarding him, offering Gold Coins hidden in his braided hair in exchange for help escaping.
• Tom accepts the bribe and promises to free Hawkins later, while the pockmarked Marine, James, demands more money and threatens to let Hawkins be hanged.
• Hawkins recognizes that both Marines intend to betray him. He calmly accepts their decision, warning that their choices will lead to different fates.
• A storm approaches, causing the Vidalya Glory to rock violently. During the darkness, Hawkins reveals that he implanted “Mind Viruses” in Tom and James through physical contact when they accepted the coins.
• James’s consciousness has already been overtaken. Under Hawkins’s control, he steals the cell key and returns to free Hawkins.
• Hawkins activates the virus in Tom as well, turning both Marines into his puppets. He explains that he does not consider their consciousnesses truly dead, believing they continue to exist in alternate possibilities.
• James releases Hawkins’s former subordinates—the first mate, second mate, and boatswain—who also appear to be under the virus’s influence.
• Taking advantage of the storm and the Marines’ absence from the corridors, Hawkins and the others reach the deck.
• A sailor spots their escape and shouts an alarm, but the storm drowns out his warning as Hawkins calmly waves and heads toward the stern.

Character Developments

• Hawkins is shown to be patient, manipulative, and technologically or mentally superior. Rather than reacting angrily to betrayal, he quietly prepares a more powerful form of control. His calmness and belief in parallel universes reveal his detached, almost godlike worldview.
• Tom appears more cunning and socially experienced than James, but his deception ultimately fails. His attempt to keep Hawkins calm only delays the inevitable.
• James, initially blunt and greedy, has weaker resistance to the Thought Virus and becomes Hawkins’s first puppet.
• Hawkins’s former crew are freed but appear to have been mentally controlled, raising questions about whether their actions are genuinely their own.

Significant Themes

• Betrayal and consequences: Tom and James accept Hawkins’s money but refuse to honor their promise, triggering the punishment Hawkins had prepared.
• Free will versus control: The Mind Virus turns people into extensions of Hawkins’s will, challenging the meaning of choice and personal responsibility.
• The power of consciousness: Hawkins views the mind as an operating system and ordinary human consciousness as primitive. His beliefs about consciousness surviving across parallel universes allow him to see domination—and even death—in unconventional ways.
• Fate and choice: Hawkins believes every decision creates a different possible outcome. Tom and James were given opportunities to become his allies but chose betrayal instead.
• Human corruption and social decline: Hawkins reflects bitterly on a world where people betray others for money and security, suggesting that ordinary humans are driven by limited, self-serving calculations.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins attempts to establish a bargain with Tom and James, treating them as potential allies rather than immediate enemies.
• Tom pretends to support Hawkins while secretly planning to keep the money and abandon him.
• Hawkins confronts Tom psychologically during the storm, exposing his awareness of James’s transformation and making Tom increasingly fearful.
• James, controlled by the Thought Virus, obediently addresses Hawkins as “Captain” and assists in the escape.
• Hawkins remains polite and even affectionate toward his controlled crew, calling them his “dear subordinates,” while exercising complete authority over them.

Chapter Summary: “My Bride”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A sailor discovers that Hawkins, the “Son of Pirates,” has escaped his confinement. Unable to find help from the drunk first mate, he informs Captain Jordas.
• Jordas is introduced obsessively polishing and speaking to a beautifully decorated curved blade, which depicts a praying bride. He calls the weapon “my bride” and treats it almost as a beloved person.
• Furious at the escape, Jordas slaps the boatswain and orders him to gather the crew. He assumes Hawkins is attempting to return to the Black Knife across the iron chain connecting it to the Vidalya Glory.
• Hawkins leads his companions across the violently swaying chain during the storm. The boatswain and second mate fall into the sea and disappear, while First Mate Jon barely manages to cling to the chain.
• Jordas pursues Hawkins and confronts him. Hawkins casually waves back, unintentionally provoking Jordas further.
• Jordas summons the supernatural entity within his blade, calling it “my beloved bride.” A translucent woman in a wedding dress emerges and targets Hawkins.
• Hawkins senses that the Bride represents a form of absolute, unavoidable death—something beyond the ordinary dangers he has experienced.
• Using his puppets, Tom and James, Hawkins places them between himself and the Bride. His mind enters an overclocked state, allowing him to perceive events in extreme detail.
• The Bride moves too quickly to follow and instantly pierces both Tom and James, annihilating their consciousnesses.

Character Developments

• Jordas: Revealed as elegant but cruel, domineering, and deeply unstable. His obsession with the blade and its Bride suggests a disturbing emotional attachment to his supernatural weapon. He maintains an outward desire for composure but quickly resorts to violence when challenged.
• Hawkins: Demonstrates confidence, adaptability, and strategic thinking under extreme pressure. Although he initially treats the escape almost casually, the Bride forces him to confront a threat that may cause genuine, irreversible death.
• The Boatswain: Shows fear and helplessness under Jordas’s authority. He obeys despite being terrified and ultimately risks his life crossing the chain.
• Tom and James: Their role as Hawkins’s puppets becomes crucial when he sacrifices them as shields against the Bride. Their deaths show the terrifying effectiveness of Jordas’s summoned entity.
• First Mate Jon: His drunkenness contributes to the escape and reveals his unreliability. He survives the initial jump only by clinging desperately to the chain.

Significant Themes

• Obsession and possession: Jordas’s relationship with the blade is disturbingly intimate, blurring the line between weapon, companion, and lover.
• Absolute death versus survival: Hawkins’s belief in parallel possibilities and the Final Anthropic Principle is challenged by the Bride, whose attack seems capable of eliminating consciousness entirely.
• Power and hierarchy: Jordas rules through fear, while the crew members are portrayed as powerless “sheep” beneath him.
• Chance and inevitability: The chapter questions whether every possible outcome includes survival, or whether some beings can encounter a truly unavoidable death.
• Humanity confronting the supernatural: Hawkins, who usually explains strange phenomena scientifically, encounters an entity that appears to defy his understanding of reality.

Character Interactions

• The sailor reports Hawkins’s escape to Jordas, highlighting the captain’s intimidating authority.
• Jordas humiliates and threatens the boatswain, forcing him to participate in the dangerous pursuit.
• Hawkins and Jordas exchange a brief, antagonistic gesture: Hawkins waves casually, while Jordas interprets it as deliberate provocation.
• Jordas commands the Bride to kill Hawkins, establishing the supernatural entity as an extension of his will.
• Hawkins responds tactically by sacrificing Tom and James to intercept the Bride’s attack, leading to their immediate deaths.

Chapter Summary: “Magic Sea Chart”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins’s Mind Virus had controlled Tom and James rather than truly killing them. Bride’s attack, however, annihilated their consciousnesses completely, constituting true death.
• Hawkins realizes that Bride’s existence is linked to Jordas, who keeps his blade raised while activating the ability. He suspects Jordas is Bride’s weakness.
• As Bride attacks him, Hawkins uses the electromagnetic cannon embedded in his ring to blast Jordas’s head apart. Jordas dies, causing Bride to vanish immediately.
• The attack severely damages Hawkins’s left arm, but he is unconcerned because he can regenerate it.
• After reaching the Black Knife, Hawkins discovers that many bound pirates have died from hunger and cold. He recognizes that he needs a crew to operate the ship.
• He enters the sleeping quarters and uses Mind Viruses to take control of the surviving marines.
• In the captain’s cabin, Hawkins treats his wounds and examines the ship’s mysterious Magic Sea Chart.
• The chart identifies the location of successive treasures, but its ancient geography is inaccurate. Hawkins determines that the treasure the original Hawkins sought on Vitalia Island is actually located on nearby Little Will Island.
• Hawkins embraces the prospect of continued exploration and hopes to find companions capable of making his adventures more interesting.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates rapid strategic thinking, using his scientific knowledge and electromagnetic abilities to identify and exploit Jordas’s weakness. His willingness to sacrifice an arm shows his confidence in his regenerative abilities.
• He becomes increasingly comfortable with his new identity and body, while retaining the original Hawkins’s memories and skills.
• Hawkins is revealed to be highly pragmatic and controlling: he values the survival of the crew primarily because he needs people to operate the ship, then forcibly subjugates the sleeping marines.
• Despite his immense abilities and detached attitude toward death, Hawkins retains a strong curiosity and genuine enthusiasm for exploration.
• Jordas is exposed as the key to Bride’s power and is killed before he can threaten Hawkins further.
• Bride is shown to be dependent on Jordas; once he dies, she disappears.
• Tom and James suffer irreversible annihilation, emphasizing the severity of Bride’s attack.
• The original Hawkins is indirectly characterized as scholarly rather than merely violent, based on his books, charts, and carefully maintained captain’s cabin.

Significant Themes

• Death versus annihilation: The chapter distinguishes ordinary death, after which consciousness may continue in the quantum realm, from true annihilation, which permanently destroys consciousness.
• Control and autonomy: Hawkins’s Mind Virus functions like a computer hack, allowing him to dominate bodies and minds. His own fear of annihilation contrasts with his casual control of others.
• Scientific power in a supernatural world: Hawkins combines brain overclocking, electromagnetic weaponry, and biological regeneration to defeat an apparently spiritual enemy.
• Curiosity and adventure: Hawkins values discovery over wealth, status, romance, or divine power. The Magic Sea Chart represents an endless source of mystery and exploration.
• Adaptation and identity: Though he is not the original Hawkins, he inherits the man’s memories, ship, crew, and possessions, gradually making the new life his own.
• The unknown: The inaccurate chart and supernatural phenomena suggest that the world operates according to mysterious rules that Hawkins is eager to investigate.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins analyzes Bride and Jordas as a linked pair, concluding that attacking Jordas is more effective than directly confronting Bride.
• Bride attacks Hawkins after annihilating Tom and James, but Hawkins counters by killing Jordas through a long-range electromagnetic blast.
• Hawkins regards the surviving crew as necessary resources rather than equals, forcibly controlling them while they sleep.
• His relationship with the original Hawkins is indirect: through inherited memories and possessions, he discovers the former captain’s scholarly nature and unfinished treasure hunt.
• Hawkins imagines gathering “interesting souls” to accompany him, suggesting that future relationships and crew dynamics may become important to his journey.

Chapter Summary: “Rebellious Marines”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Hawkins kills the noble Jordas aboard the Vidalya Glory, Marine Aig realizes that everyone responsible for protecting Jordas will likely be executed under Vitalia Island’s laws.
• Aig and Lawrence persuade the other Marines that returning home means certain death. They decide to rebel, flee beyond the Seven Seas, and become pirates.
• To protect their families, Aig proposes staging the incident as an attack by the Blackblade Pirates. They plan to kill the ship’s first mate, Jordas’s guards, and Hawkins, then claim that the Glory was sunk and everyone aboard died heroically.
• Aig’s faction murders the first mate and the Marines who refuse to join them. They leave some sailors behind to keep the Glory afloat and cross to Hawkins’s ship, the Black Knife, using a rope during the storm.
• Aig pretends to submit to Hawkins and asks him to confirm that the Blackblade Pirates killed everyone aboard the Glory. Hawkins agrees, but Aig immediately betrays him by throwing a knife and ordering an attack.
• Hawkins easily dodges the knife, identifies Aig’s deception through his scent and facial expressions, and kills the attacking Marines in a brief, precise battle.
• Afterward, Hawkins laments that they could have lived peacefully together. Exhausted by his weakened body, he returns to sleep while the controlled Marines from the other rooms clean up the bodies.

Character Developments

• Aig transforms from a Marine into a ruthless rebel leader. Fear for his own survival and his family drives him to murder his comrades and organize an attack on Hawkins.
• Lawrence supports Aig’s plan and helps persuade the Marines, showing that desperation overrides his former loyalty.
• Sas hesitates because he fears for his pregnant wife, but ultimately joins the rebellion to protect his family.
• Hawkins remains calm and perceptive under pressure. His ability to detect lies, combined with his combat skill and mental overclocking, allows him to defeat the Marines despite his physical weakness and missing arm.
• Hawkins also shows a degree of compassion or at least a preference for peaceful coexistence, expressing regret that the Marines chose betrayal.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus loyalty: The Marines abandon their duty and comrades because they believe obedience will lead to execution.
• The corruption of oppressive authority: Jabus’s cruel laws force ordinary soldiers into rebellion and mass murder simply to save themselves and their families.
• Fear and desperation: The Marines’ actions are motivated less by greed than by terror of punishment and concern for their loved ones.
• Deception and perception: Aig relies on lies and staged appearances, but Hawkins sees through him by observing physical and emotional clues.
• Moral compromise: The Marines justify killing others as necessary for survival, but their plan rapidly turns them into the very criminals they fear being labeled as.

Character Interactions

• Aig challenges the Marines to choose between certain death and piracy, persuading them through their shared fear of Jabus.
• Sas voices the central concern about family consequences, forcing Aig to create a plan that protects the rebels’ relatives.
• Aig presents himself to Hawkins as a grateful new ally, but his false submission is immediately exposed when he attacks.
• Hawkins uses Aig’s own body and weapon against the other Marines, turning their coordinated assault into chaos and demonstrating his superior control of the battlefield.

Cursed Relic — Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the battle at sea, Hawkins uses the Mind Virus to control marine bodies remotely while their own consciousnesses remain suppressed.
• He crosses from the Black Knife to the Glory to retrieve Jordas’s strange curved blade, suspecting it contains a secret.
• Hawkins rescues Jon, who has been stranded in the water and threatened by sharks after being swept overboard.
• Jon warns Hawkins that Jordas’s blade is a Cursed Relic, capable of corrupting its wielder.
• Ignoring Jon’s warning, Hawkins takes the blade. Its curse manifests as the image of a woman—the Bride—and overwhelms the marine’s mind with obsessive love. The marine commits suicide by stabbing himself with the sword.
• Hawkins quickly transfers his consciousness to another marine, narrowly avoiding the curse’s destruction of the controlled body and its consciousness.
• Hawkins and Jon search the Glory, confirming that its crew is dead and beginning to inventory its supplies.
• Jon explains that nobles possess special blood that allows them to resist Cursed Relics and use their powers. This may explain why Jordas could wield the blade without killing himself.
• In Jordas’s cabin, Hawkins finds drawings, poems, and a notebook devoted to the Bride. One entry reveals that a “Family Curse” prevented Jordas from giving his heart to her, though he remained deeply in love with her.
• The chapter ends with Hawkins questioning the nature of Jordas’s Family Curse and how it interacted with the blade’s curse.

Character Developments

• Hawkins becomes increasingly interested in supernatural relics and noble powers. His curiosity overrides caution, but his ability to transfer consciousness saves him from the blade’s lethal effect. He also begins considering Jordas’s body and blood as subjects for research.
• Jon is revealed to have past experience as a noble family guard, giving him knowledge about Cursed Relics and noble blood. Though frightened and physically weakened, he proves useful by identifying the sword and explaining its dangers.
• Jordas, despite being dead, is developed through his belongings. His drawings, poems, and diary reveal an obsessive love for the Bride and suggest that his survival depended on a separate hereditary curse.
• The controlled marine demonstrates the terrifying power of the relic’s curse, losing his free will and willingly killing himself.

Significant Themes

• Power and class inequality: Nobles possess supernatural advantages through their blood, explaining why they can exploit ordinary marines without fearing rebellion.
• Curses and inherited fate: The blade’s curse and Jordas’s Family Curse show how supernatural forces can shape identity, desire, and survival.
• Obsession and destructive love: The Bride’s curse transforms love into fanaticism, ultimately compelling the victim to die.
• Consciousness and identity: Hawkins’s remote control of bodies raises questions about free will, mental invasion, and whether consciousness can survive physical death.
• Knowledge versus danger: Hawkins’s desire to understand the relic repeatedly leads him into peril, but his analytical nature may eventually uncover its secrets.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins rescues Jon, creating a practical alliance despite Jon’s fear of the Cursed Relic.
• Jon repeatedly tries to stop Hawkins from touching the blade, but Hawkins ignores him and proves the warning correct.
• Hawkins questions Jon about his knowledge, and Jon reveals more to him than he initially did, recognizing Hawkins’s authority and interest.
• Through Jordas’s writings and possessions, Hawkins indirectly encounters Jordas’s relationship with the Bride and begins investigating the connection between the two curses.

Chapter Summary: “Pursuit”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jabus learns through Jennie’s dream that Jordas, the “Son of Pirates,” killed in battle, was slain by the Son of Pirates using a Cursed Relic that sacrificed one of his arms to fire a devastating white beam.
• Seeking revenge and hoping to eliminate a future threat, Jabus orders his nephews, Joyce and Julian, to kill the Son of Pirates and display his head at Jon Harbor within a week.
• Joyce departs by transforming into countless paper figures, while Julian disperses into a swarm of bats.
• After the storm, Hawkins and Jon transfer supplies from the Glory to the Black Knife. Hawkins gives Jordas a sea burial but preserves a bottle of his blood for later study.
• Hawkins claims the mysterious Black Knife sword, which has remained undamaged through three generations despite being made of an unknown material.
• The Black Knife sails toward Little Will Island. Hawkins begins rebuilding and modifying his body, dissatisfied with its human limitations.
• He discovers that the marines’ coarse bran cakes provide poor nutrition, so he makes a fishing net and catches a large quantity of fish. He then eats enormous amounts of food to fuel his physical transformation.
• Hawkins’ body rapidly changes: his weight doubles, his muscles develop, new organs form, his damaged arm regenerates, and his teeth, scars, eyes, and pupils change.
• Jon becomes terrified, believing Hawkins has been possessed by an evil spirit. He abandons Hawkins and escapes toward the Glory in a lifeboat.
• Hawkins plans further genetic modifications, including electric generation, underwater breathing, and accelerated healing. He also worries that his Mind Virus may not work on people protected by Cursed Relics.
• Two days later, Joyce locates Jon through the connection to Hawkins’ Mind Virus. Surrounded by paper figures, Jon reveals that Hawkins is aboard the Black Knife but claims not to know its location.
• Joyce considers Jon useless and kills him by slicing his throat with one of the paper figures.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Continues transforming from a physically weak human into a powerful, genetically modified being. He demonstrates pragmatism, scientific curiosity, and restraint by allowing Jon to escape rather than punishing him. His altered appearance increasingly convinces others that he is no longer truly human.
• Jon: Initially feels grateful and hopeful after receiving food and escaping starvation, but his fear of Hawkins’ transformation overwhelms his loyalty. His attempt to flee ultimately leads to his death.
• Jabus: Reveals himself as calculating and ruthless, treating Jordas’ death both as a blood feud and as a strategic threat requiring immediate elimination.
• Joyce: Shows loyalty to Jabus and confidence in her abilities. Her paper-based transformation gives her a frightening and lethal method of pursuit, and she kills Jon without hesitation.
• Julian: Is introduced as Joyce’s companion and an agent of Jabus, though he does not yet directly participate in the chapter’s events.

Significant Themes

• Humanity versus transformation: Hawkins’ physical and genetic modifications raise questions about whether power and survival require abandoning ordinary human limitations.
• Fear of the unknown: Jon interprets Hawkins’ changes as supernatural possession because he cannot understand the scientific reality behind them.
• Power and vulnerability: Cursed Relics, the Mind Virus, genetic alterations, and Joyce’s paper ability all represent different forms of power, while also carrying risks and limitations.
• Revenge and pursuit: Jabus’ response to Jordas’ death initiates a hunt that places Hawkins under growing pressure.
• Class exploitation: Hawkins recognizes that the marines’ inadequate food reflects the nobles’ disregard for ordinary soldiers, emphasizing social inequality.
• Survival and adaptation: Hawkins constantly adapts—acquiring supplies, improving his body, and preparing defenses against enemies who may resist his abilities.

Character Interactions

• Jabus receives the report of Jordas’ death from his butler and gives Joyce and Julian orders to pursue Hawkins.
• Hawkins and Jon cooperate in transferring supplies and sailing the Black Knife, but their relationship deteriorates as Jon witnesses Hawkins’ transformation.
• Hawkins’ physical changes cause Jon to fear and abandon him, demonstrating the collapse of their trust.
• Through the Mind Virus connection, Hawkins indirectly witnesses Joyce interrogating Jon.
• Jon attempts to protect himself by revealing Hawkins’ location, but Joyce kills him when he cannot provide further information.

Chapter Summary: “Hardware Hacker”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jon is killed by mysterious paper figures, who easily slice his throat and remain unaffected by bloody water. Hawkins begins investigating their origins and wonders whether fire might harm them.
• Hawkins modifies his body further by incorporating silicon-based biological structures. Over three days, he consumes enormous quantities of fish to obtain the necessary elements.
• The modifications give him superconductive structures throughout his body, allowing him to control electrical and magnetic fields. He successfully fires powerful balls of lightning into the sea and can unleash sustained electrical attacks using his stored energy.
• Hawkins’s body also contains electricity-generating cells, energy-storage cells, solar-hair structures, and microscopic “cores” capable of modifying organisms and reading memories. His enhanced eyesight allows him to see bacteria and viruses.
• Preparing for the possibility that the paper figures may resist both fire and electricity, Hawkins considers transferring his consciousness into bacteria as an alternative means of survival.
• A swarm of bats arrives at the ship. Their leader, Julian, identifies Hawkins as the “Son of Pirates” and threatens to have him executed in Jon Harbor.
• The bats attack, but Hawkins effortlessly cuts down more than a hundred of them with the Black Knife. Julian realizes that Hawkins is far more powerful than an ordinary pirate and likely possesses a Cursed Relic.
• When Julian attempts to escape, Hawkins strikes him with lightning and captures him. His Mind Virus fails against an unknown force within Julian, revealing that the bats possess powers Hawkins cannot perceive or understand.
• Hawkins uses microscopic metal needles in his hair to connect directly to Julian’s nerves, performing a “hardware intrusion” into his brain. The chapter ends as Hawkins begins extracting Julian’s memories.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Becomes increasingly transformed into a hybrid biological-machine weapon. He gains electrical powers, enhanced physical abilities, microscopic vision, and advanced methods of gathering information. His attitude remains calm, analytical, and pragmatic, even after Jon’s death. Rather than relying on a single power, he actively develops backup plans, including consciousness transfer.
• Jon: Dies at the beginning of the chapter, reinforcing the dangers of the supernatural forces pursuing Hawkins.
• Julian: Introduced as the leader or representative of the bat attackers. He is fanatically loyal to the nobility and protective of the Family Curse’s secrets. After witnessing Hawkins’s strength, he recognizes him as a serious threat but remains defiant.
• The paper figures: Remain mysterious, but their lethal cutting ability and resistance to water make them a continuing danger.

Significant Themes

• Power and adaptation: Hawkins continually modifies himself to survive unfamiliar threats, treating his body as a device that can be upgraded.
• Knowledge versus ignorance: Although Hawkins possesses advanced scientific abilities, he recognizes that his perception is limited. The unknown force protecting Julian demonstrates that there are aspects of reality beyond what his senses can detect.
• Science and the supernatural: Biological engineering, electricity, neural hacking, curses, and Cursed Relics coexist, blurring the boundary between technology and magic.
• Redundancy and survival: Hawkins refuses to depend on one defense, preparing multiple options—including electricity, microscopic organisms, and consciousness transfer.
• Class conflict and forbidden power: Julian’s contempt for Hawkins reflects the nobles’ belief in their superiority, while Hawkins’s abilities challenge the powers and secrets reserved for noble families.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins indirectly confronts the legacy of Jon’s death by analyzing the paper figures and their weaknesses.
• Julian and Hawkins exchange threats and questions: Julian condemns Hawkins as a lowly pirate who has stolen forbidden power, while Hawkins probes Julian about the Family Curse.
• Hawkins battles Julian’s bat swarm, demonstrating his overwhelming superiority.
• After capturing Julian, Hawkins attempts to infect him with the Mind Virus, but the attack is neutralized. He then shifts from software-based manipulation to direct neural extraction, using his hair-based nanotechnology to read Julian’s memories.

Chapter Summary: “Relic Grades”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Black Knife continues sailing toward Little Will Island, located in the distant Sylvia Sea, the seventh of the Seven Seas.
• Hawkins considers three possible routes:
  • A long detour through several sea regions, which would take at least a year.
  • Passing through the Vesipus Strait between Yazhong and Vitalia Islands, risking attacks by naval forces.
  • Traveling beneath Vitalia Island through the dangerous Black Sea, filled with hidden reefs.
• The ship chooses the Vesipus Strait route.
• Julian, transformed into a small bat by his Bat Necklace, is held captive on the ship. He repeatedly demands that Hawkins kill him, but Hawkins refuses.
• Hawkins reveals that he implanted a biological virus in Julian’s brain. The virus can influence Julian’s thoughts and act as a substitute for the Mind Virus, exploiting a weakness in Julian’s immunity caused by his Cursed Relic.
• Hawkins explains how his Mind Virus controls the naval soldiers: it replaces their intended thoughts with commands, causing them to believe they are acting voluntarily.
• Hawkins reflects on Joyce, who appears nearly invincible in his paper-figure form. However, Hawkins suspects Joyce must possess some undiscovered weakness, since he is not among the highest-ranking subordinates of Jabus.
• Julian’s memories teach Hawkins about the classification of

Cursed Relics

• Fine: Curses are generally nonfatal.
• Dangerous: Curses are extremely lethal without proper countermeasures.
• Fierce: More severe and difficult to counter.
• Death-Tier: Curses are virtually impossible to overcome and may destroy entire bloodlines.
• Hawkins begins suspecting that the Black Knife and the mysterious Sea Chart may themselves be Fine-grade Cursed Relics inherited from his father.
• He notices that the original Hawkins experienced an unusually severe bout of bad luck once every thirty days after inheriting them, suggesting that one of the relics may carry a curse.
• The chapter ends with Hawkins examining the Black Knife, still unable to determine its power or curse.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates increasing control, intelligence, and caution. Rather than simply killing or enslaving his enemies, he prefers manipulation and nonlethal control, though he remains willing to eliminate anyone who seriously obstructs him.
• He becomes more suspicious of his inherited possessions and begins investigating their possible supernatural costs.
• Hawkins also shows his growing strategic awareness by analyzing Joyce’s apparent invulnerability and searching for hidden limitations.
• Julian is revealed to be deeply prideful and humiliated by his defeat. His desire for death appears to stem more from wounded pride than from a genuine wish to die.
• Joyce is established as an overwhelmingly powerful figure whose abilities remain mysterious and potentially exploitable.
• The original Hawkins’s past becomes more important, especially through clues about his luck and inheritance.

Significant Themes

• Free will and manipulation: The Mind Virus alters people’s thoughts so subtly that they believe imposed commands are their own ideas.
• The hidden cost of power: Cursed Relics grant abilities but always carry consequences, even when those consequences are difficult to detect.
• Pride and humiliation: Julian’s demand for death reflects how defeat can damage identity and dignity.
• Knowledge versus apparent invincibility: Hawkins believes no power is truly without weaknesses and relies on investigation rather than accepting appearances.
• Moral ambiguity: Hawkins seeks peaceful coexistence and avoids unnecessary killing, yet he uses invasive biological and mental manipulation when it benefits him.
• Uncertainty and inherited fate: The unexplained pattern of monthly misfortune suggests that Hawkins may be bound to dangers passed down through his father’s relics.

Important Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Julian engage in a tense exchange in which Julian challenges Hawkins to kill him. Hawkins rejects the request, accurately interpreting Julian’s suicidal words as an expression of humiliation.
• Their relationship is fundamentally one of captor and captive, but Hawkins’s implanted virus gives him an additional, hidden form of control over Julian.
• Hawkins’s reflections on Joyce are based on information extracted from Julian’s memories, linking the captive’s past experiences to Hawkins’s preparation for future conflict.
• Hawkins also interacts indirectly with the naval soldiers through the Mind Virus, controlling their behavior while leaving them unaware that their thoughts have been altered.

Chapter Summary: “Mark”

Plot Points and Events

• After half a day of unsuccessfully studying Black Knife, Hawkins gives up trying to understand its mysterious properties, concluding that it is extraordinarily durable and resistant to heat, electricity, and damage.
• Two days pass without wind or waves. Joyce still has not found Hawkins, while Julian continues angrily threatening revenge over Hawkins’s earlier humiliation of him.
• Hawkins rescues a ragged man floating in the sea. The man introduces himself as Storm-Mark, or Mark, claiming to have survived in the ocean for about a month.
• Mark is delighted to discover that Black Knife is a pirate ship and immediately asks to join as a fighter, despite Julian’s warnings that becoming a pirate would disgrace his ruler.
• Hawkins welcomes Mark, gives him dry clothes and food, and offers to hire him for ninety days at one silver coin per day.
• Mark eats an unusually large amount of fish, including the bones, revealing his abnormal physicality. He later retires to the cabin to rest.
• After Mark leaves, Hawkins explains through his observations that Mark is clearly not an ordinary civilian. Mark, meanwhile, recognizes that Hawkins is also unusual and may even possess greater physical strength than himself.

Character Developments

• Hawkins remains calm, observant, and pragmatic. He accepts that Black Knife cannot currently be understood, handles Julian’s insults with humor, and recruits Mark despite recognizing the danger and mystery surrounding him.
• Julian remains bitter and humiliated, repeatedly threatening Hawkins and attempting to make him suspicious of Mark. His efforts have little effect.
• Mark is introduced as a mysterious, physically powerful wanderer. He is polite and grateful but unusually composed, perceptive, and unfazed by Julian’s talking-bat form or Hawkins’s puppet-like marine soldier.
• Both Hawkins and Mark begin secretly assessing one another, recognizing that the other is far more capable than he initially appears.

Significant Themes

• The limits of persistence: Hawkins accepts that not every mystery can be solved through determination alone.
• Appearance versus reality: Mark looks like a starving castaway but displays extraordinary endurance and strength; Hawkins looks more like a nobleman than a pirate.
• Mutual suspicion and hidden identities: Both Hawkins and Mark conceal their true abilities while carefully observing each other.
• Chance and fate: Mark views his rescue and meeting with Hawkins as meaningful, suggesting that being cast out may lead to more interesting opportunities.
• Found family and recruitment: Hawkins’s willingness to accept a mysterious outsider hints at the formation of a diverse and unconventional crew.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins repeatedly dismisses Julian’s threats with sarcasm, treating him like a noisy talking parrot.
• Julian tries to turn Hawkins against Mark by emphasizing Mark’s suspicious behavior, but Hawkins already recognizes Mark’s abnormal nature.
• Hawkins and Mark interact politely and cautiously, with Hawkins offering employment and Mark expressing gratitude while studying his new captain.
• Their mutual curiosity establishes a relationship based on potential respect, suspicion, and future rivalry or partnership.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The following morning, Hawkins finds Mark watching Julian, who remains tied up with his mouth stuffed with a rag. Julian is weaker and hungrier than the previous day, suggesting that transforming into a Bat slows but does not eliminate his physical needs.
• Hawkins and Mark discuss the Seven Seas. Mark reveals that he did not originate there, prompting Julian to accuse him of lying because crossing the deadly Mist Sea or Black Sea is considered nearly impossible.
• Mark explains that he comes from the Red Sea, a region of countless closely spaced islands. He claims that his Lineage is associated with storms and that he was blown into another sea region by one.
• During breakfast, Hawkins detects paper figures gathering in the clouds. Joyce and the Vitalia Island nobles have arrived to attack.
• Mark volunteers to fight Joyce as a “fighter of the Black Knife.” He leaps to the crow’s nest and effortlessly destroys Joyce’s paper constructs without Hawkins even seeing how he attacks.
• Joyce’s paper figures cannot injure Mark, despite possessing enough cutting power to slice through steel. Mark concludes that Joyce and the other nobles only use Cursed Relics superficially.
• Mark kills Joyce by splitting his body in two with an invisible force, then returns to breakfast. Hawkins praises his swift victory and asks whether Cursed Relics have deeper or more advanced applications.

Character Developments

• Hawkins remains amused and pragmatic. He recognizes both himself and the Vitalia nobles as morally compromised, but distinguishes his present identity from his former self. He also becomes increasingly intrigued by Mark’s origins and abilities.
• Mark is revealed to be extraordinarily powerful and highly knowledgeable about Cursed Relics. He is humble or dismissive about his strength, attributing his victory mainly to his opponents’ poor mastery. His status as a wandering noble from the Red Sea remains mysterious.
• Julian is physically weakening and remains hostile, loudly challenging Mark’s story. His fear and astonishment at Mark’s power show that Mark’s abilities surpass what Julian expected.
• Joyce is shown to be confident in his paper-based powers but completely outmatched by Mark. His belief in the effectiveness of his Cursed Relic vanishes when Mark resists and destroys his attacks.

Significant Themes

• Power and mastery: The chapter contrasts superficial use of Cursed Relics with genuine understanding and control. Mark’s abilities suggest that power depends not only on possessing a relic but on learning how to truly “digest” or use it.
• Uncertainty and hidden origins: Mark’s story introduces the wider world beyond the Seven Seas and suggests that unknown sea regions, Lineages, and powers exist beyond familiar boundaries.
• Moral ambiguity: Hawkins acknowledges that neither pirates nor the Vitalia nobles are purely good or evil. The conflict is framed less as justice versus wickedness and more as opposing groups of dangerous, compromised individuals.
• The limits of known geography: The deadly Mist Sea and Black Sea establish the Seven Seas as an isolated region, while Mark’s arrival challenges accepted beliefs about what is possible.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Mark develop a friendly, conversational relationship, discussing geography, Lineages, and Cursed Relics over breakfast.
• Hawkins treats Julian impatiently, silencing him whenever his insults become disruptive, while Julian continues trying to expose Mark as a fraud.
• Mark respectfully accepts Hawkins’s command and eagerly takes responsibility for confronting Joyce.
• After the battle, Hawkins openly praises Mark, while Mark responds modestly and prompts a deeper discussion about the true potential of Cursed Relics.

Chapter Summary: “Curse Caster”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Mark explains to Hawkins that Cursed Relics originate from the Dream Realm, a chaotic world formed from the daydreams and desires of living creatures. Objects imagined strongly enough there can potentially appear in the real world.
• Curses can be used to counteract other curses, making them an essential tool for Curse Casters.
• Mark describes how someone becomes a Curse Caster:
  • Possessing at least three Cursed Relics.
  • Obtaining and consuming powdered Qi-Suppressing Stone.
  • Enduring the effects of three or more evil curses simultaneously.
  • Temporarily entering or connecting with the Dream Realm without suffering a mental breakdown.
  • Successfully sensing and controlling Curse Power, thereby becoming a First-Rank Curse Master.
• Qi-Suppressing Stone is also primarily from the Dream Realm. Powerful Curse Caster Lineages can obtain it, while ordinary people must rely on chance. Mark advises Hawkins to join a strong Lineage if he wishes to become a Curse Caster.
• Hawkins doubts that the Seven Seas possess an accessible Curse Caster Lineage, since the ruling powers of the Six Great Islands would likely keep such knowledge and power for themselves.
• That night, Hawkins records Mark’s explanation and reflects on Curse Casters. He learns that Curse Power automatically protects its user through an ability called Curseguard, blocking attacks from anyone who lacks Curse Power.
• Hawkins then investigates the unknown curse attached to him, focusing on the Black Knife and the Sea Chart. He knows the Sea Chart reveals treasure locations, while the Black Knife’s abilities and curse remain unclear.
• His investigation leads him to memories of his father, Huo Blackblade’s death. During a brutal pirate battle, a strange sea mist appeared and resurrected the dead as Ghost Corpses, causing both crews to continue slaughtering one another even after death.
• Hawkins escaped aboard the Black Knife after cutting down numerous Ghost Corpses. Huo Blackblade, unable to return to the ship, threw the Black Knife to him before being lost in the mist.
• Mark believes the phenomenon was simply caused by an animal using a Cursed Relic to hunt for food, but Hawkins remains unconvinced.

Character Developments

• Mark demonstrates extensive knowledge of Curse Casters, the Dream Realm, and Curse Power. His explanations reveal both the advantages and severe risks of the profession, including the curses that afflict entire Lineages.
• Hawkins becomes increasingly interested in the structure and nature of the Dream Realm, approaching it analytically and comparing possible relationships between worlds. He also begins seriously considering the origins of his own curses and the truth behind his father’s death.
• Hawkins is shown to be skeptical and investigative. Unlike Curse Casters, who accept bizarre events as the work of Cursed Relics, he refuses to accept Mark’s explanation without further evidence.
• Huo Blackblade is portrayed through memory as courageous and selfless. Even while trapped in the deadly mist, he ensures that Hawkins receives the Black Knife.

Significant Themes

• Power and sacrifice: Becoming a Curse Caster requires exposure to multiple curses and the risk of mental collapse. Power is inseparable from danger and lasting consequences.
• The unknown and the limits of knowledge: The Dream Realm is nearly impossible to understand, and even Mark possesses only a partial awareness of it.
• Rational explanations for supernatural events: Curse Casters interpret every mysterious phenomenon as the result of a Cursed Relic, while Hawkins questions whether such explanations are always sufficient.
• Inheritance and hidden legacies: Curse Caster Lineages control access to vital resources, while Hawkins’s own inheritance—the Black Knife, the Sea Chart, and his father’s unresolved death—continues to shape his path.
• Survival and moral ambiguity: The pirate battle shows how the struggle for wealth and influence can continue even amid supernatural horrors, while survival sometimes requires abandoning others.

Important Character Interactions

• Mark and Hawkins: Mark openly explains the origins of Cursed Relics, the Dream Realm, Qi-Suppressing Stone, and Curse Power. Hawkins listens carefully, asks probing questions, and challenges the implications of Mark’s claims.
• Hawkins and Julian: Hawkins refers to Julian while considering whether a powerful Curse Caster Lineage might exist among the Seven Seas, suggesting Julian is involved in his broader plans or discussions.
• Hawkins and Huo Blackblade: Their relationship is revealed through the memory of Huo’s final act. Huo does not blame Hawkins for escaping and instead throws the Black Knife to him, allowing his son to survive and continue onward.
• Hawkins and the mysterious sea mist: Though not a person, the mist functions as a central unresolved threat connected to Huo’s death, the Ghost Corpses, and possibly the curse on the Black Knife.

Chapter Summary: “Blast Them All Sky-High”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins and the Black Knife arrive at Pliskin Island, a small island with two fishing villages: Puli Village in the south and Jinsi Village in the north.
• Hawkins recalls being driven away from Puli Village five years earlier when villagers from both settlements united to defend the island against his pirate raid.
• Hawkins and Mark go ashore, accompanied by several marines, intending to explore the island and purchase supplies rather than attack or plunder.
• Hawkins explains that he has accumulated enough wealth to live comfortably without piracy, revealing that he once planned to retire at thirty, build a manor, marry several women, and raise a large family.
• Mark admits that he wants to experience acting like a villain and suggests raiding the villages. Hawkins discourages him, warning that abandoning one’s moral boundaries is dangerous.
• At the bridge leading to Jinsi Village, Hawkins and Mark find armed villagers blocking the way. Rather than force their way through, Hawkins uses bacteria he has dispersed through the air to gather information.
• Hawkins learns that the two villages initially grew closer after jointly repelling his crew, but later became enemies because of competition over their profitable shellfish trade. Their hostility has escalated into violent clashes and deaths.
• Before Hawkins can fully explain the situation, he notices an enemy ship several kilometers offshore. A scarred woman directs a massive, fat man wielding a meteor hammer.
• Following the woman’s instructions, the man throws the glowing weapon toward Hawkins and Mark, shouting that they should be blasted into the sky. The chapter ends as the attack begins.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: He is shown as far more reflective and restrained than a typical pirate. Although he once lived as a raider, he now rejects unnecessary violence and tries to guide Mark toward maintaining a moral foundation. His past connection to Pliskin Island also becomes relevant to the current conflict.
• Mark: Mark enjoys the freedom of his new identity and expresses a desire to indulge in villainous behavior. However, his comments appear partly experimental, as he is “trying” the pirate lifestyle rather than genuinely committed to cruelty. His teasing also highlights his skepticism toward Hawkins’s moral advice.
• The scarred woman and the fat man: They are introduced as hostile attackers. The woman appears to be the strategist, using a Spider Ring to aim or direct the attack, while the enormous man provides the physical force with his meteor hammer.

Significant Themes

• Morality and personal boundaries: Hawkins warns that isolation and a lack of belonging can make someone feel free to act without limits. The chapter emphasizes how difficult it is to preserve one’s principles.
• Identity and transformation: Hawkins no longer resembles his former self and no longer behaves like the pirate he once was. Mark, meanwhile, is experimenting with the identity of a pirate and villain.
• The consequences of past actions: Hawkins’s earlier raid indirectly shaped the relationship between Puli and Jinsi Villages. Their initial unity was created by opposing him, but their later collapse has left the island divided.
• Piracy versus humanity: The characters question whether being pirates requires cruelty and plunder. Hawkins rejects that stereotype, while Mark finds the idea of behaving like a villain entertaining.
• Conflict born from prosperity: The villages’ hostility stems from competition over valuable shellfish, showing how shared economic interests can lead to resentment and violence.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Mark engage in a playful but philosophical exchange about piracy, villainy, and morality. Mark challenges Hawkins’s authority by pointing out that Hawkins himself is poorly suited to lecture anyone about proper behavior.
• Hawkins attempts to mentor Mark, warning him not to mistake freedom from social ties for genuine moral freedom.
• Hawkins chooses investigation and restraint when the villagers block the bridge, while Mark is more willing to consider forcing his way through.
• The chapter closes with the first direct confrontation between Hawkins’s group and the newly introduced attackers, setting up an imminent battle.

Chapter Summary: “Hawkins’s Poison”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Hawkins defeats Jordas, captures Julian, and kills Joyce, the island nobles begin targeting the Blackblade Pirates. They believe Hawkins possesses a powerful Cursed Relic and fear the threat posed by a pirate crew capable of wielding one.
• A group of attackers ambushes Hawkins and Mark. A fat man uses a devastating Meteor Hammer, which Mark attempts to catch with his bare hand.
• Mark is catastrophically injured: his arm is shattered and the hammer’s spikes pierce his chest. Hawkins rescues and stabilizes him by using his hair to connect with and control Mark’s nervous system.
• The Meteor Hammer returns repeatedly, each strike producing enormous explosions and pillars of fire. Hawkins repeatedly uses his extreme speed to evade the attacks while carrying the unconscious Mark.
• The attack destroys much of the forest, kills wildlife, damages Puli Village, and terrifies the villagers. Hawkins estimates that the hammer’s power is equivalent to nearly 8,000 tons of TNT.
• Hawkins realizes he misjudged the weapon by relying on old knowledge from his previous world. He acknowledges that assuming Mark could withstand the blow nearly resulted in disaster.
• Mark awakens and identifies the weapon as a Fierce-Tier Relic approaching Death-Tier power. He is shocked that it bypassed his Curseguard, which had previously protected him from ordinary attacks.
• Hawkins deduces that the attackers deliberately targeted Mark, likely knowing about his Curseguard and using a specialized Cursed Relic to cripple him first.
• The female attacker uses a Spider Ring to track Hawkins, but his speed repeatedly causes her finger to twist painfully as she struggles to maintain her aim.
• Hawkins releases modified germs into the wind. A long-haired man on the attackers’ ship senses an approaching deadly threat but cannot distinguish Hawkins’s germs from ordinary airborne microorganisms.
• The poison spreads throughout the ship. The fat man, the woman, and the rest of the crew gradually suffocate and die within minutes, leaving the entire attacking party dead.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Becomes more cautious and self-critical after realizing he underestimated the Meteor Hammer. He demonstrates both extraordinary speed and strategic intelligence, adapting from evasion to biological warfare. He also reveals a practical understanding of the limits of “invincibility.”
• Mark: Initially overconfident in his Curseguard, Mark attempts to stop the Meteor Hammer directly and suffers devastating injuries. His experience teaches him that Curseguard is not absolute and that specialized Cursed Relics can bypass it.
• The female attacker: Shows persistence and tactical awareness by repeatedly tracking Hawkins with the Spider Ring. However, Hawkins’s speed frustrates her, injures her fingers, and eventually forces her to consider a direct assault.
• The fat attacker: His Meteor Hammer is revealed to be extraordinarily powerful, but his reliance on repeated long-range attacks leaves him vulnerable once Hawkins deploys an unconventional countermeasure.
• The long-haired man: Possesses a danger-sensing ability, but its limitations prevent him from identifying Hawkins’s invisible biological attack.

Significant Themes

• The danger of overconfidence: Mark assumes his Curseguard is impenetrable, while Hawkins initially assumes the Meteor Hammer’s power based on outdated knowledge. Both learn that past experience cannot guarantee safety.
• The limits of invincibility: The chapter challenges the idea that Curse Casters are truly invulnerable. Their defenses have weaknesses, and even apparently untouchable powers can be circumvented.
• Adaptation and scientific thinking: Hawkins survives not by overpowering the Meteor Hammer but through speed, observation, calculation, and the use of modified germs as a weapon.
• Knowledge versus unfamiliar threats: Hawkins’s miscalculation emphasizes the danger of applying familiar scientific assumptions to unknown relics and a different world.
• Asymmetric warfare: The attackers rely on overwhelming destructive force, while Hawkins wins through mobility, deception, and an attack they cannot perceive or defend against.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins immediately prioritizes rescuing and treating Mark after the first strike, showing his responsibility as captain.
• Mark questions Hawkins about the nature of the attack and warns him to flee once he recognizes the Meteor Hammer’s power.
• Hawkins and Mark discuss the supposed invulnerability of Curse Casters, with Hawkins taking a more skeptical and analytical view than Mark.
• On the enemy ship, the woman coordinates the attack and relies on the fat man’s Meteor Hammer, while the long-haired man provides warnings through his danger-sensing ability.
• The attackers fail to recognize Hawkins’s poison because it carries neither curses nor Curse Power, allowing it to bypass both their awareness and their defenses.

Chapter Summary: “Qi-Suppressing Stone”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins reveals that the Masha Virus, an extremely lethal artificial virus, has been modified to remove its contagiousness while retaining its deadly toxin. He considers the virus too dangerous to release in a world with poor sanitation and decides against using it.
• The Black Knife approaches the wooden sailing ship where five members of an enemy team have been killed by Hawkins’s invisible attack.
• Hawkins and Mark board the ship and inspect the bodies. Mark cannot determine how they died, but he realizes that Hawkins possesses a method capable of bypassing Curse Power protection.
• Hawkins asks Mark to examine the enemy’s Cursed Relics. Mark confirms that he can handle such relics temporarily because his own Curse Power partially offsets their curses.
• Mark identifies several relics:
  • A ring that can track prey.
  • An artificial eye that can appraise relics, though it must be removed and implanted to function.
  • A tooth necklace that transforms its wearer into a Crocodile Man.
  • A wooden cane that manipulates roots.
  • The Meteor Hammer, an exceptionally dangerous relic with explosive force and powerful upward-rushing currents.
• Mark concludes that the enemy team was highly versatile, possessing tracking, intelligence-gathering, defense, close-range offense, battlefield interference, and long-range attack capabilities.
• Hawkins asks Mark to inspect the Meteor Hammer, but Mark refuses, judging it to be above Fierce Grade and close to Death-Tier.
• While examining the fat man who wielded the hammer, Mark discovers a multicolored gemstone embedded in a metal ring within the man’s chest.
• Mark identifies it as a Qi-Suppressing Stone, which weakens the curses of Cursed Relics and explains how the fat man could survive using the Meteor Hammer.
• However, Mark realizes that the Qi-Suppressing Stone alone should not have been enough to fully protect the fat man, suggesting that another secret or factor may be involved.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates his ruthlessness and caution. Although he possesses the Masha Virus, he refuses to use it recklessly because of its potential to exterminate much of the world’s population.
• Hawkins’s mysterious power becomes even more intimidating to Mark, particularly because it can apparently bypass Curse Power defenses through an invisible, lethal attack.
• Mark recovers rapidly from his injuries, revealing his unusually strong constitution. His confidence in confronting Hawkins has diminished now that his Curse Power protection has proven ineffective.
• Mark remains useful as a specialist who can safely handle and analyze Cursed Relics, though he is cautious about exposing himself to powerful curses.
• Mark’s fear and curiosity are both evident: he refuses to touch the Meteor Hammer but eagerly investigates the Qi-Suppressing Stone.

Significant Themes

• The danger of unchecked power: The Masha Virus represents an apocalyptic weapon that Hawkins deliberately restrains, emphasizing the moral responsibility associated with overwhelming power.
• Invisible threats: Hawkins’s attack and the Masha Virus are both unseen dangers, reinforcing the idea that the most terrifying weapons may be those victims cannot detect or defend against.
• Power and protection: The chapter explores the relationship between Cursed Relics, Curse Power, and suppressive artifacts such as the Qi-Suppressing Stone.
• Fear and uncertainty: Mark’s inability to understand Hawkins’s abilities creates a shift in their power dynamic and makes their alliance uneasy.
• The value of specialized knowledge: Mark’s ability to identify and assess relics is essential, showing that knowledge and technical expertise are as important as raw combat strength.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Mark discuss what makes an attack frightening, with Mark recognizing that an invisible, deadly attack is more terrifying than a visibly destructive one.
• Hawkins tests Mark’s willingness to handle dangerous relics, while Mark complains humorously that his salary is not worth the risk.
• Mark’s respect and apprehension toward Hawkins grow as he realizes Hawkins can defeat protected opponents with an unknown method.
• Hawkins encourages Mark to examine the Meteor Hammer, but Mark refuses because of its overwhelming curse.
• Together, Hawkins and Mark investigate the fat man’s body and discover the Qi-Suppressing Stone, deepening their understanding of the relic system while raising new questions about how the Meteor Hammer was safely used.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Mark reveals that the Qi-Suppressing Stone is extremely rare and realizes Hawkins already meets the requirements to become a Curse Caster.
• Mark’s attitude toward Hawkins changes. He had previously viewed Hawkins as a temporary pirate ally whom he might eventually eliminate, but Hawkins’s strength and mysterious abilities lead Mark to regard him as one of his own kind.
• After the battle, Hawkins and Mark return to the Black Knife with five Cursed Relics taken from the enemy. Mark examines the Magic Sea Chart and confirms that it is a Cursed Relic whose ability is to reveal hidden treasures.
• The Sea Chart’s grade cannot be determined because its curse is a delayed, trigger-based form of misfortune. Hawkins realizes this curse may have caused the deaths of both Huo Blackblade and the original Hawkins by attracting powerful enemies.
• Mark examines the Black Knife but cannot identify its abilities, assuming it may be a weak Fine-grade Cursed Relic. Hawkins privately suspects that its true power is much greater.
• Hawkins decides to become a Curse Caster using the Qi-Suppressing Stone. He selects a false-eye Cursed Relic as his third curse and removes his own eye without hesitation to install it.
• The false eye allows Hawkins to perceive supernatural information and classify the powers of objects. By processing this information through his own mental “program,” he discovers the Black Knife’s true ability: Eternal Fixation. Its curse suppresses the wielder’s bad luck and releases it at a fixed time each month.
• The Black Knife’s seemingly impossible properties cause Hawkins to question the laws of entropy and wonder whether eternal, unchanging objects—or even worlds—can exist.
• Convinced that the Dream Realm may offer a chance to fulfill his deepest wishes, Hawkins decides to enter it. To reduce the danger, he chooses a normal amount of Qi-Suppressing Stone powder rather than an excessive dose.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Becomes increasingly interested in the Dream Realm and begins to hope that it may allow him to reconnect with what he lost in the past. His scientific curiosity expands into genuine emotional longing. He also demonstrates remarkable control and fearlessness by removing his own eye and adapting immediately to the false eye.
• Mark: Develops greater respect and loyalty toward Hawkins. He sincerely wants Hawkins to grow stronger and hopes he will become a Curse Caster, though Hawkins remains cautious about Mark’s motives.
• Hawkins and Mark’s relationship: Their partnership becomes more trusting and cooperative. Mark is now treated as a knowledgeable adviser, while Hawkins begins to see him as a potential companion rather than merely a disposable subordinate.

Significant Themes

• Trust and belonging: Hawkins’s decision to ask whether Mark wants to become a Curse Caster reflects his gradual acceptance of Mark as an equal.
• The cost of power: Becoming a Curse Caster requires accepting additional curses, while greater use of the Qi-Suppressing Stone brings both greater rewards and greater danger.
• Misfortune and fate: The Magic Sea Chart and Black Knife both manipulate bad luck, suggesting that seemingly accidental disasters may be the effects of supernatural curses.
• Science versus the supernatural: Hawkins analyzes Cursed Relics through observation, logic, and mental computation, attempting to understand phenomena that challenge conventional physical laws.
• Hope amid loss: The possibility of the Dream Realm revives Hawkins’s hope that he may one day recover or reunite with what he lost, despite having previously accepted the universe’s inevitable decline.

Character Interactions

• Mark explains the risks and conditions of becoming a Curse Caster, while Hawkins tests how much Mark truly trusts and supports him.
• Mark appraises the Sea Chart and Black Knife, but his limited understanding contrasts with Hawkins’s deeper, more analytical investigation.
• Hawkins’s effortless self-surgery shocks Mark and reinforces the enormous gap between Hawkins and ordinary Curse Casters.
• Their conversation about the Qi-Suppressing Stone establishes a cautious but genuine cooperation as they prepare for Hawkins’s first journey into the Dream Realm.

Summary of “Dream Realm?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins swallows powdered Qi-Suppressing Stone, causing the three curses inside him to gather around his heart and transport his consciousness to the mysterious Dream Realm.
• While Hawkins is unconscious, Mark considers killing him before he becomes a Curse Caster. However, Mark ultimately loses his nerve, realizing that his hesitation has already cost him the opportunity. He accepts Hawkins as his captain if Hawkins survives.
• Hawkins’s consciousness enters the Dream Realm and absorbs enormous amounts of energy, taking on a complete form. His existence is so information-dense that an elderly Curse Caster who looks directly at him suffers fatal mental overload and explodes.
• The Dream Realm asks Hawkins what he desires. He answers that he wants to make up for his regrets, including regrets involving family, home, adventure, and games.
• The chapter explains that new Curse Casters must endure not only Mental Shock but also a soul trial based on their desires. The greater and more complicated the desire, the more dangerous the trial. Curse Caster lineages often suppress their descendants’ emotions to make this trial easier, though this repression can later produce instability and destructive urges.
• Hawkins’s three Cursed Relics—the Sea Chart, Black Knife, and false eye—fuse into a single black Sea Chart. The Dream Realm declares that his wish will be fulfilled if he survives.
• Hawkins awakens atop a strange, viscous black sea that resembles but is not identical to the legendary Black Sea. He realizes that his physical abilities have not carried over and that he must investigate the realm’s dangers.
• A black hand attempts to ambush him, but Hawkins reacts quickly and stomps it away. A grotesque, pale man with a sewn-shut mouth and a ghostly face growing from his abdomen then emerges.
• Hawkins attacks without waiting for an explanation. Drawing on centuries of warfare and combat experience, he overwhelms the creature, breaks its neck, and kills it.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Begins his transformation into a Curse Caster and confronts the deepest desires and regrets of his long life. He demonstrates exceptional awareness, adaptability, and combat skill, while remaining uncertain about the Dream Realm’s rules.
• Mark: Reveals that, despite his doubts and previous rebellious impulses, he is unwilling to betray Hawkins. His hesitation marks a decisive loss and confirms his acceptance of Hawkins’s authority.
• The elderly Curse Caster: Serves as an example of the overwhelming nature of Hawkins’s consciousness; merely perceiving Hawkins proves fatal.
• The grotesque sea creature: Acts as Hawkins’s first apparent trial opponent, testing his ability to react and fight in an unfamiliar, powerless environment.

Significant Themes

• Trust and betrayal: Mark’s hesitation highlights the fragile nature of trust and shows that failing to act can be as decisive as betrayal.
• Regret and desire: The Dream Realm forces people to confront what they truly want. Hawkins’s wish is rooted not in power but in repairing the losses and regrets accumulated over a long life.
• Suppression and psychological instability: The chapter criticizes the practice of suppressing desire, suggesting that denied emotions can later erupt in unhealthy or violent ways.
• Experience versus innate talent: Hawkins is not naturally gifted at combat; his strength comes from centuries of hardship, war, and accumulated experience.
• Survival and transformation: Becoming a Curse Caster requires enduring both psychological and physical trials, with survival serving as the condition for having one’s deepest wish fulfilled.
• The unknowable nature of reality: The Dream Realm operates according to obscure rules, challenging Hawkins to gather information while facing dangers he cannot yet understand.

Character Interactions

• Mark silently weighs whether to kill Hawkins, but Hawkins’s earlier trust and Mark’s own hesitation prevent betrayal.
• The Dream Realm effectively confronts Hawkins through its question about his desire, forcing him into introspection.
• The elderly Curse Caster attempts to investigate Hawkins but is destroyed simply by perceiving the vastness of his consciousness.
• Hawkins faces the sea creature directly, asking whether it is his enemy before deciding that its hostile behavior justifies immediate violence. Their brief encounter establishes Hawkins’s decisive, battle-tested approach.

Chapter Summary: “Pros and Cons”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins defeats a strange man whose body dissolves into black specks absorbed by the Eternal Sea Chart, revealing that the chart grows stronger by absorbing such beings.
• He fights successive waves of opponents emerging from the Black Sea. The enemies increase in number with each wave, and Hawkins learns that they are dead individuals trapped by their own desires.
• These trapped beings can escape only by killing Hawkins and taking over his body; if Hawkins kills them, the Sea Chart absorbs them and destroys them permanently.
• Hawkins realizes the trial is governed by the Dream Realm’s balancing mechanism: the more extraordinary his wish, the more difficult the trial becomes. Since his wish is nearly impossible, the trial may continue indefinitely.
• At the hundredth wave, an opponent explains that countless enemies remain. Before Hawkins can continue, his body begins to fade because he used too little Qi-Suppressing Stone powder. The trial ends before he can fulfill his wish.
• Hawkins awakens aboard the Black Knife, where Mark has been waiting. He has successfully obtained Curse Power and become a Curse Caster.
• The Eternal Sea Chart now contains only one tiny dot, while Hawkins gains a curse that rapidly drains his life force, increasing his aging, hunger, and fatigue. He considers the drawback manageable through genetic modification or transformation.
• Mark explains the hierarchy of Curse Casters:
  • First Rank: one Natal Relic
  • Second Rank: doubled Curse Power
  • Third Rank: a second Natal Relic
  • Fourth Rank: tenfold Curse Power
• Hawkins tests his Curse Power and reveals an astonishing range of 330,000 meters, giving him 330,000 points—far beyond Mark’s 100 points.
• Hawkins realizes that his overwhelming starting power also makes advancement difficult, since reaching Second Rank requires doubling it to 660,000 points.

Character Developments

• Hawkins becomes more determined and optimistic as the trial grows harder, interpreting its escalating difficulty as proof that his wish may truly be possible.
• He demonstrates overwhelming combat ability, emotional composure, and a willingness to endure nearly endless battles.
• After becoming a Curse Caster, Hawkins shows his characteristic practicality by treating the life-draining curse as a minor inconvenience rather than a serious threat.
• He also begins analyzing the Curse Caster system strategically, inferring how Natal Relics and advancement work.
• Mark shifts from a potential enemy to a fearful subordinate. Witnessing Hawkins’s immense pressure and Curse Power destroys his confidence that he could ever oppose him.

Significant Themes

• The cost of ambition: An extraordinary wish demands an extraordinary trial, with Hawkins forced to risk endless combat and eventual death.
• Desire and imprisonment: The opponents are trapped by their own desires, suggesting that obsession can become a prison even after death.
• Power and consequences: The Eternal Sea Chart and Curse Power grant tremendous strength but impose drawbacks, particularly Hawkins’s accelerated aging.
• Persistence versus limitation: Hawkins possesses seemingly limitless stamina and immense power, yet the trial ends because of an external time limit and insufficient Qi-Suppressing Stone powder.
• Power creating new obstacles: Hawkins’s enormous Curse Power makes him nearly unbeatable but also makes advancement to the next rank extremely difficult.

Important Character Interactions

• Hawkins dismisses the early opponents as insignificant and kills them without allowing them much opportunity to speak.
• The hundredth-wave opponent speaks with Hawkins rather than fighting, revealing the endless scale of the trial and the limited time remaining.
• After awakening, Hawkins questions Mark about Curse Caster ranks and relics, treating him as a source of information.
• Mark explains the ranking system and measures Hawkins’s power, becoming horrified when the red thread of Curse Power extends beyond sight.
• Hawkins’s display of 330,000 points of Curse Power permanently convinces Mark that opposing him would be futile.

Chapter Summary: “Madness”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter explains the three methods by which Curse Casters increase their Curse Power:
  1. Natural growth over time.
  2. Consuming Qi-Suppressing Stone powder and entering the dangerous Dream Realm.
  3. Killing other Curse Casters and absorbing the Curse Power released from their bodies.
• Hawkins decides that killing weaker Curse Casters is pointless because his existing Curse Power vastly exceeds theirs. His main concern is developing the Eternal Sea Chart and confirming whether his wish has truly been fulfilled.
• By injecting Curse Power into the Eternal Sea Chart, Hawkins awakens its Curse Spirit, an illusory humanoid figure that functions as both the artifact’s consciousness and a projection of Hawkins’s soul.
• Because the Sea Chart absorbed too little power in the Dream Realm, only three abilities are currently available:
  • The Curse Spirit can fight or defend.
  • It can consume other Cursed Relics to upgrade the Eternal Sea Chart.
  • Its eyes can overlap with Hawkins’s vision, allowing him to inspect other Cursed Relics.
• Hawkins tests the artifact by feeding it the Spider Ring. The Curse Spirit devours and assimilates it, revealing a path for further growth. Hawkins realizes that he must gather more Cursed Relics and is encouraged that his progress is still possible.
• At Flatwave Fortress, Alva and several maidservants go to prepare Jabus for the morning. They discover the bedroom door open, violating the fortress’s strict rules.
• Inside, they find Butler Cook and another maid brutally dismembered. Jabus stands among the corpses, visibly deranged and bloodthirsty.
• Jennie wakes from what appears to be a prophetic nightmare and warns her attendant that Jabus has gone mad and killed the people inside the fortress.
• The attendant is revealed to be Dulisa, the mother of Thomas, a man whose death resulted from one of Jennie’s earlier dreams. Dulisa blames Jennie for exposing Thomas’s theft and causing his execution.
• Dulisa attacks Jennie and breaks her fingers, intending to kill her, but Qiao Si arrives and kills Dulisa with a thrown dagger.
• Qiao Si helps Jennie escape while Jabus continues slaughtering everyone in Flatwave Fortress. Once no living beings remain, Jabus destroys the fortress gates and dives into the moat, whose waters become stained red and carry the blood toward a nearby village.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Demonstrates patience and strategic thinking. Rather than pursuing meaningless increases in Curse Power through killing, he focuses on understanding and upgrading the Eternal Sea Chart. He becomes hopeful after discovering that consuming Cursed Relics can restore the artifact’s incomplete functions.
• The Eternal Sea Chart’s Curse Spirit: Emerges as a distinct but connected entity, acting as the Sea Chart’s guardian, weapon, and means of evolution. Its abilities establish the artifact as a major source of future power.
• Jabus: Is revealed to have descended into violent madness. His transformation from a powerful, disciplined master into a rampaging killer creates a major threat to everyone around him.
• Jennie: Remains frightened and dependent on others, but her prophetic dreams continue to have serious consequences. Her past actions also create enemies, as shown by Dulisa’s hatred.
• Qiao Si: Acts decisively and loyally, rescuing Jennie and killing Dulisa before she can finish the attack.
• Dulisa: Reveals her identity and long-held resentment toward Jennie, showing how Jennie’s dream-related abilities have caused suffering beyond what Jennie herself fully understands.
• Alva and the maidservants: Their helplessness highlights the oppressive and dangerous environment of Flatwave Fortress, where servants live under Jabus’s strict control.

Significant Themes

• Power and evolution: Growth comes through patience, danger, or violence, while Hawkins discovers that Cursed Relics provide another route to advancement.
• Madness and loss of control: Jabus’s sudden transformation demonstrates how quickly authority and restraint can collapse into monstrous violence.
• Consequences of supernatural abilities: Jennie’s dreams affect real lives, and even actions she considers justified can lead to death, revenge, and guilt.
• Oppression and fear: The rigid rules of Flatwave Fortress and Jabus’s godlike authority create a culture in which everyone lives under constant terror.
• Hope amid danger: Hawkins finds a viable path forward, while Jennie and Qiao Si seek escape from an unfolding massacre.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins communicates with the Curse Spirit through the Eternal Sea Chart and experiments by feeding it the Spider Ring.
• Alva and the other servants obey the fortress hierarchy, with Alva reluctantly investigating Jabus’s open bedroom door.
• Jennie confides in the elderly attendant, only to discover that the woman is Dulisa, an enemy seeking revenge.
• Dulisa confronts Jennie over Thomas’s death and attacks her, but Qiao Si intervenes and rescues Jennie.
• Jabus has no meaningful dialogue in the massacre; his actions instead communicate his complete descent into murderous insanity.

Chapter Summary:

A Woman Betrayed by a Woman

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Black Knife continues toward the Vesipus Strait after being delayed while Hawkins studied his newly acquired Curse Caster abilities.
• Hawkins tests Curseguard, discovering that it can automatically defend against most physical attacks as long as he has enough Curse Power. His immense reserves make even extremely powerful attacks ineffective.
• Julian, once arrogant and defiant, becomes completely hopeless after witnessing Mark kill Joyce and Hawkins demonstrate overwhelming strength.
• Mark detects two ships battling nearby. Hawkins investigates and identifies several Cursed Relics among the combatants.
• On one ship, Qiao Si is defending Jennie from Jennie’s cousin, Qiao Lak, who wants to seize Jennie and exploit her valuable Cursed Relic and intelligence-gathering ability.
• Qiao Lak orders his poisoned warriors to attack Qiao Si. She is wounded by a Hundred-Ring Snake venom-coated blade and begins to succumb to the poison.
• As Qiao Si prepares to make a final sacrifice to protect Jennie, Jennie suddenly stabs her in the waist and flees to Qiao Lak, claiming that Qiao Si acted alone.
• Hawkins arrives at the scene, startling everyone. Jennie identifies him as the Son of Pirates, and Qiao Lak realizes that Hawkins may be connected to Jabus’s downfall.
• Hawkins approaches the dying Qiao Si and reflects on her betrayal, recognizing it as similar to an experience from his own past.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates vastly increased power and control as a Curse Caster, particularly through Curseguard. However, his inner development is more important: he has become reflective and regretful about past actions committed in anger.
• Mark remains a reliable and perceptive subordinate, detecting the battle and assisting Hawkins.
• Julian has lost all hope and arrogance after seeing Joyce killed and realizing that resistance against Hawkins is futile.
• Qiao Si is portrayed as loyal, brave, and willing to die for Jennie. Even after being betrayed, she does not respond with hatred; instead, she feels disappointment in her own weakness.
• Jennie appears frightened and psychologically damaged, but her betrayal reveals her instinct for self-preservation. She abandons Qiao Si to secure her own safety.
• Qiao Lak is ruthless, possessive, and manipulative. Although he speaks gently to Jennie, he primarily values her for her abilities and the strategic importance of her Cursed Relic.

Significant Themes

• Betrayal and self-preservation: Jennie betrays the person protecting her when Qiao Si can no longer guarantee her safety, raising questions about whether betrayal is morally wrong when motivated by fear.
• Strength and protection: The chapter emphasizes that people often remain loyal only when someone is strong enough to protect them. Hawkins connects Qiao Si’s failure to his own past inability to provide others with security.
• Regret and moral reflection: Hawkins remembers killing the woman and people who once betrayed him. Although revenge once satisfied him, he now believes that retaliating against them caused him to betray his original purpose of saving them.
• Power and exploitation: Qiao Lak treats Jennie as a valuable asset rather than a person, showing how individuals with rare abilities become tools in political and supernatural struggles.
• Hope versus despair: Julian’s collapse contrasts with Hawkins’s growing power, while Qiao Si’s acceptance of her fate demonstrates dignity even in apparent defeat.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Mark work together as captain and trusted subordinate, with Mark alerting Hawkins to danger.
• Qiao Lak attempts to manipulate Jennie by presenting himself as a capable successor to Jabus, while concealing his greed and possessiveness.
• Qiao Si openly defies Qiao Lak, remaining loyal to Jabus’s order to protect Jennie.
• Qiao Lak’s warriors fight Qiao Si with poisoned weapons, exploiting the limitations of her powerful but ship-unsuitable combat abilities.
• Jennie’s betrayal completely reverses her relationship with Qiao Si, transforming her protector into a victim.
• Hawkins speaks to Qiao Si not merely as an observer but as someone who shares her experience of betrayal. His reaction reveals sympathy, unresolved guilt, and a changed understanding of revenge.