Despair

Hawkins, the new subordinate Dunn had just taken in, came over. "Captain, are we really not going after Feishman?"

"If he gets out first and joins forces with the other pirates, our mates and Miss Navigator will be in danger."

"And there's that deep pit we crossed earlier. If he cuts the rope, with Engels already dead, we'll be completely trapped in here."

At that moment, Hawkins genuinely had Dunn's interests at heart. After all, if they ended up trapped here until they died, what would have been the point of sacrificing his dignity to join Dunn?

Dunn merely smiled at Hawkins's reminder and paid it no mind. Still, they had already taken everything of value, so there was no point staying any longer. "Hey, Green, how's your recovery coming along? Will you have any trouble making the trip back?"

"No trouble, Captain." Green stood and nodded, indicating that he could move without any problems. After all, they were only flesh wounds. Though they still affected his fighting ability, they posed no problem at all if he only needed to travel.

"Then let's head back. Stay too long and we'll have our Miss Navigator worried."

"Oh, and bring that Orb."

Nothing unexpected happened along the way. With the Orb lighting their path, they did not even need torches. Dunn and the others soon reached the deep pit. Sure enough, Fisherman had already cut the rope.

Although he had expected it, Hawkins could not help looking despairing when actually confronted with the situation. He was about to say something when he turned and saw that everyone else looked completely relaxed, as though their current circumstances posed no trouble at all.

Just as Hawkins began wondering whether despair had driven them out of their minds, Dunn grabbed the rope and leaped, making several successive frog-like jumps through the air before landing easily on the other side.

Hawkins's expression instantly turned to horror. He rubbed his eyes hard, as though he had seen something inconceivable.

Fisherman, who had crossed the deep pit ahead of them and cut the rope, was in excellent spirits. A gap of several dozen meters was certainly beyond what a second-tier professional could cross. Now, as long as he took control of the situation outside, Dunn and the others would be trapped inside for good with no one to help them.

Although it was a pity he had not obtained the treasures in the ruins, getting the other captains' possessions would be quite good too. Besides, after waiting six months or a year for Dunn and the others to die inside the ruins, he could come back for the treasures.

Thinking of how he would have six pirate ships under his command in the future, enough to count as a small fleet, he would surpass most third-tier pirates in might even if he was not yet a third-tier professional himself.

Imagining his wonderful future, Fisherman quickened his pace. He soon emerged from the cave. The torrential rain outside had still not let up and continued pouring down, but the pirates outside were still busy doing something.

Still lost in his daydreams, Fisherman did not look closely and simply shouted, "Dunn and his gang attacked the other captains inside! I was the only one who escaped. All the other captains died at his hands! Everyone, join me in taking out Dunn's lackeys first!"

He then charged toward the crowd. Halfway there, however, he realized something was wrong. Looking closely, he saw that not a single pirate had moved. They were all staring at him as though he were an idiot.

Fisherman finally realized that something was not quite right, but he could not work out exactly what the problem was.

Just then, Annie emerged from a house. At the sight of Fisherman, she gave a soft laugh. "Oh my, isn't this Captain Fisherman? What brings you out here?"

"You!" The moment he saw Annie, Fisherman knew things had gone wrong. But he had no time to think about it. He immediately lunged toward her like a tiger. He understood the principle of capturing the leader first.

His best option now was to seize this beautiful, captivating Navigator first, then ask what had happened outside while they were in the ruins.

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle cut through the air as Lewis slashed at Fisherman with a cutlass.

This forced Fisherman to stop and deal with Lewis. After only a few exchanges, Fisherman sent Lewis flying. Although Fisherman had performed rather poorly against Dunn and Green, he was still formidable.

Among the fighters aboard the five ships, Fisherman could rank third no matter how one looked at it.

After driving Lewis back, Fisherman was about to lunge at Annie again when more than a dozen pirates suddenly stepped forward and blocked his path.

"A mere dozen or so ordinary pirates think they can stop me?"

Fisherman looked at the pirates before him with a trace of disdain, then charged like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey. Imagining that he would knock each one down with a single punch, he realized something was wrong the moment they exchanged blows.

With his fighting ability, even trained non-professionals would have struggled to withstand a single move from him. Yet every one of these pirates could trade a couple of blows with him and still retreat unscathed.

After fighting for quite some time, he had not achieved a single thing.

These people were all professionals?

Fisherman was stunned by this discovery.

In this world, it was difficult to identify professionals below the legendary level unless they fought. Only professionals with transcendent perception could roughly identify them by sensing their physical strength and the energy within their bodies.

Now, seeing these dozen or so professionals, Fisherman finally understood what had happened outside.

Judging by these professional pirates' fighting ability, he was confident he could defeat even five or six of them. But there were more than a dozen here!

A look of despair crept onto Fisherman's face.

Not long after Dunn and the others left, Annie had led her subordinates in an attack on the other pirates.

With the element of surprise and the fighting strength of more than a dozen professionals, they had subdued these pirates without paying much of a price.

Back in Cutlass Harbor, Dunn and Annie had already seen that Grant had ill intentions. After all, his and Engels's acting had been far too clumsy. But they had confidence in their own fighting strength and their twenty-odd professionals.

Dunn had still chosen to plunge into this obvious trap. After all, while they had set their sights on Dunn, had Dunn not also set his sights on them?

But no one had expected that the Ancient Pirate King's ruins, the most obviously fake part of this trap, would actually be real.

That had nearly brought Dunn down.

After all, who could have imagined that second-tier professionals could actually find the Ancient Pirate King's ruins, and even dare to openly gather people to explore them? Even the current Pirate Kings would go wild if they discovered the Ancient Pirate King's ruins.