An unexpected turn

"This ship is mine now. Who's for it, and who's against it?"

They looked at Old Quill's corpse on the deck, and at Dunn standing there covered in blood, a long saber in hand.

Everyone aboard was utterly bewildered, unable to make sense of this turn of events.

Only a moment later did an angry roar ring out from the crowd.

"You damned bastard! How dare you do something like this!!!"

A vicious-looking brute nearly two meters tall shoved through the crowd, a steel saber in hand, and charged at Dunn with a furious roar.

Watching the brute charge, Dunn raised his saber and slashed without expression.

Clang!

Their sabers collided, and the brute's blade was knocked aside.

Under the brute's disbelieving gaze, Dunn followed up with another slash that cut him down.

The brute's name was Jack, and he was the ship's boatswain.

Although he had never used a class card to acquire a class, his innate strength arguably made him the strongest fighter aboard after Old Quill.

Old Quill had once said that Jack should have 12 points of strength, which essentially met the requirements for certain second-tier classes.

Old Quill had originally intended to train Jack into a professional after this voyage ended.

In Dunn's plans, Jack had been the greatest threat after he killed Old Quill.

After all, ordinary first-tier professionals were not all that different from ordinary people. Only at the second tier did they begin to show a hint of supernatural power.

If Jack rallied the sailors to rush him together, Dunn would most likely be done for.

Jack's mindless charge had saved Dunn a great deal of trouble.

"My God, what has he done!!"

"He actually killed the captain!!"

"What? Even Jack's been killed?"

"That's Dunn, that pretty boy!!"

"Jack actually lost when they clashed! He's even stronger than Jack!"

"How could that pretty boy possibly be so strong?"

It had all happened too quickly.

Everything was over in just a few seconds.

The crew, snapped out of their daze by Jack's roar, erupted into an uproar the instant they saw Dunn cut him down.

In the crew's eyes, Dunn, the down-and-out noble pretty boy, had always been a useless man of few words.

He was no good at anything, yet incredibly fussy.

Jack had even taught the previous Dunn a lesson.

Now he had not only killed Old Quill in a surprise attack, but had even killed Jack head-on.

It was truly hard to accept.

"Shut up!" Growing irritated by the crew's buzzing chatter, Dunn silenced everyone with an angry shout.

Having killed Old Quill and Jack in succession, Dunn had already instilled a measure of fear in the crew.

For some reason, although Jack's impulsiveness had made the plan to kill and seize the ship go unexpectedly smoothly,

Dunn kept feeling as though he had overlooked something. But there was no time left to hesitate.

"I said this ship is mine now. Surely no one still objects?"

With Old Quill and Jack dead in succession, no one aboard had both the ability and the standing to rally the sailors to fight Dunn to the death.

For the sailors who had endured this harrowing day, a change of captain was not particularly hard to accept.

Even if the man taking over was the pretty boy they had once looked down on.

The people of this world were highly accepting of the law of the jungle, especially these men who risked their lives at sea.

"Then from this moment on, I'm your new captain."

Seeing that no one spoke, Dunn swept his gaze around before fixing it on a capable-looking young sailor.

"Karl, what do you think?"

Karl had the first-tier class [Navigator], making him the only first-tier professional aboard apart from Dunn.

He was the prospective first mate Old Quill had carefully groomed, and was also widely acknowledged as Old Quill's chosen successor.

The [Navigator] class was indispensable to anyone sailing the seas.

In Dunn's simple, brutal plan, Karl was the hardest part.

The difficulty had nothing to do with fighting. The [Navigator] class provided no combat bonuses.

In terms of fighting ability, Jack, who had no class, could trounce Karl.

A [Navigator]'s main abilities were reading nautical charts and plotting a course.

If Karl did not genuinely submit, Dunn would most likely become lost and perish in the vast ocean even if he advanced to a second-tier professional.

After all, without specialized study, an ordinary person could not even read a nautical chart.

So, at least until they reached the next island, Dunn had to make Karl obey.

Hearing Dunn call his name, Karl looked at him gravely.

Had today's events not occurred, Karl would soon have become the ship's first mate, with a chance of becoming captain within a few years.

Even if he had followed Old Quill into piracy, he would still most likely have taken over the ship from him a few years later.

But Dunn's sudden rise had shattered Karl's dreams.

He had not only killed Old Quill, but had also stolen the ship that belonged to Karl.

Karl was undoubtedly a clever man. After all, [Navigator] was a class with intelligence as its secondary attribute.

People had an inclination to submit to the strong.

That was especially pronounced in this supernatural world.

After Dunn killed Old Quill and Jack in succession, most of the crew's desire to oppose him by force had already faded.

Even if Karl could use his standing to rally some of the crew against Dunn,

judging by Dunn's performance in killing Jack alone, even if they ultimately defeated him, Dunn might still take Karl down with him.

Karl feared death. He feared it very much.

So even though he knew he was important to the ship, so important that everyone who wanted to survive could not afford to let him die,

he still did not step forward to contest Dunn's ownership of the Giant Tooth.

After all, a navigator could hardly be considered a minor figure aboard most ships.

Even if he could not become captain, he could still live very comfortably.

Now it was time to negotiate terms.

"Of course there's no problem. The strong rule supreme. No one would disagree with that..."

"The strong rule supreme? Well said. Since this fellow, who's only at the first tier, counts as 'strong' to you, I imagine there should be even less objection to a second-tier professional like me becoming captain."

A cool, pleasing female voice suddenly came from behind the crowd.

It cut Karl off forcefully.

The words she spoke made everyone pale with shock.

In an instant, everyone, Dunn and Karl included, turned toward the voice.

The crowd parted of its own accord, and two figures, a man and a woman, slowly approached.

At the sight of the pair approaching, Dunn's expression changed drastically. He finally remembered what he had overlooked.

These two had boarded as passengers before the crossing of the Storm Sea. Merchant ships commonly picked up private business along the way, and sometimes even dabbled in piracy.

None of that was anything new.

The woman who had spoken looked like a beautiful young noblewoman, with dazzling long blond hair. Her name was Annie Bole.

She had reportedly paid Old Quill a considerable sum when she boarded.

The man was her bodyguard, and was believed to be a second-tier professional.

Now, from what Annie was saying, she was a second-tier professional as well.

Dunn stared at the pair before him, his face ashen.

Because he had begun acting immediately after merging with the original owner's memories,

he had not fully absorbed the less important memories.

He had actually overlooked such vital information.

Two second-tier professionals, for Dunn, who had needed a surprise attack even against an old and weakened second-tier professional,

were a deadly threat.

The situation had already slipped beyond Dunn's control.

Or rather, Dunn had already lost the right to control the situation.