Chapter 1 Pirates Plunder

The pirates swarmed into the city, looting like madmen. Only a small squad was left guarding the entrance to the Black Tower in the Duke's mansion.

The bursts of fire erupting all over the city looked to them like fireworks at a festival, signaling the start of a wild carnival.

To these pirates, the bustling city of Old Lingdun was nothing short of a glittering gold mine, guarded by a bunch of "greenhorns."

Several pirates, bored out of their minds, gathered around a poker table, playing pirate cards.

As they played, they grumbled about their discontent.

"Bah! What rotten luck! The other squads are living it up in the city while we're stuck guarding this damn tower."

"Yeah, the strongest professionals in this underground city are only Tier 3. The Captain can crush them with a flick of the wrist. It's practically a freebie... Unlike outside, where there's a territory as big as this city, and Tier 6 or 7 professionals everywhere... I don't know what's so important about guarding this place. Besides, Ga'er is guarding the outside, who could possibly escape?"

"Who told me to have such bad luck drawing lots? Forget it, no use complaining. At least we'll get a share of the loot. Just treat it like a break."

"Captain, the money's one thing, but Plank just sent a message saying the women in this underground city are so smooth and tender, even better than those noble ladies outside. The upper floors of those buildings are crawling with noble wives and young ladies, more than a man can handle..."

"Adams, can you shut your trap? The more you talk, the more frustrated I get."

"Don't worry, we'll definitely take a batch of 'good stuff' on board when we leave. You can play with them to your heart's content on the ship."

"Hehe, we'll take this batch of 'good stuff' to Pirate City, guaranteed to be good business..."

"..."

The pirates got more excited as they talked about women.

They completely forgot about patrolling and being alert.

...

Old Lingdun had a complex sewer system. In the Shadow Alley's underground black market, there was a secret passage that led directly to the inner city center.

Even with the inner city's eight gates controlled by pirates, Mister Mirror led Suren and the others safely into the inner city.

The Reis family and other forces Mister Mirror had cultivated in the city had received the message and were already waiting in a secret underground warehouse.

The pirates were busy looting the wealthy districts in the upper city, so the lower levels were relatively safe.

When Suren and his group arrived, the warehouse was already packed with three or four hundred people. Adding the people brought by other members of the Mirror Organization, there were nearly five hundred in total.

Suren brought Kai and the apothecary Danny, as well as Shabina and a few of her confidants. He also saw Chuck, the "Arbiter" and leader of the Cross Society, and several core members. Even someone as strong as Chuck was only a prospective member of the Mirror Organization.

No one spoke, and the atmosphere was extremely tense.

When Mister Mirror arrived, the group left the warehouse without delay, one after another.

Old Lingdun was, after all, a large city with dense and intricate buildings.

Ten thousand pirates scattered throughout seemed very dispersed.

Moreover, the pirates were busy robbing, and no one paid attention to the team shuttling through the dark alleys in the lower levels.

These people knew Old Lingdun far better than the foreign pirates. Soon, the group arrived near the Duke's mansion.

The Duke's mansion was at the foot of the Black Tower. To show status and maintain secrecy, there were no other buildings nearby.

The main force hid in the buildings in the distance, while eight people in golden-patterned cloaks quietly sneaked to the moat of the Black Tower, hiding next to the tower of the corridor bridge, their figures perfectly concealed by the walls.

The cloaks were high-level alchemical products that could block perception and aura, so the pirates didn't notice anyone approaching.

At that moment, a ripple flashed in the air, and a lurking assassin appeared, reporting to Mister Mirror: "Leader, there are fifteen pirates guarding the tower in total. One Tier 5, one Tier 4, and four Tier 3..."

The defense wasn't too strong.

"Mm."

Mister Mirror nodded and said, "The current situation is that most of the pirates are looting in the inner city. There are still about a thousand people guarding the ships outside the tower, with a few Tier 5 squads and the Tier 6 Frost Troll, Ga'er Popov. Getting out will also be a fierce battle. We need to act quickly and try to seize a ship and escape before the pirates in Old Lingdun can react."

Everyone listened quietly, nodding in agreement. "Mm."

"Prepare to move."

Mister Mirror's tone turned stern. "We must kill these pirates in front of us quickly. If we don't let them send a signal, we'll have more time to escape."

Everyone: "Yes!"

As soon as the words fell, eight of the nine cloaked figures vanished instantly.

A distance of a hundred meters was but a blink of an eye for a Tier 4 professional.

And the only one left was naturally... Suren, a Tier 2.

Suren's face twitched slightly as he watched the disappearing figures around him. Although he was half a step slower, he still rushed forward.

After all, he wasn't there to slack off.

...

The pirates guarding the tower were playing cards absentmindedly, not expecting anyone to come back and attack.

But after all, there was a Tier 5 professional among them. Just as Mister Mirror and his group launched their sudden attack, the Tier 5 squad leader reacted.

Sensing the overwhelming killing intent, he immediately realized something was wrong and stood up abruptly. The word "bad" was about to escape his lips when he suddenly felt the air around him solidify.

"Tier 6 spell!"

Feeling the crisis of approaching death, the squad leader's expression changed drastically. He reacted quickly, instinctively trying to pull away. Lowering his gaze, he saw a purple chain of lightning quietly locked onto his feet, and a wave of numbness instantly swept through his body.

With Mister Mirror personally controlling the situation, how could he have a chance to break free?

In that moment of stiffness, before he could react, a dark spatial rift appeared on his neck.

Looking again, he saw that it was Suren who had made the move, still tens of meters away.

When it came to killing, as long as the target was controlled, Suren's scythe was the fastest!

With the Tier 5 squad leader instantly killed, the other pirate grunts were quickly slain by the Mirror Organization's encirclement.

As soon as a notification was sent out, the main force in the distant buildings rushed over.

Suren walked over, eagerly devouring the soul fragments floating from the corpses of the dozen or so pirates.

[Acquired Severino Connery's memory fragment *4]

[You obtained the information: 'I'm going to get rich this time. After this haul, I'm going to have a good time...']

[You comprehended a fragmented Tier 5 Water Law.]

[You learned the skill: Diving Proficiency.]

[You mastered: Basic Navigation.]

[Combat experience +122]

[Mental Strength +6.3]

But as soon as he devoured the Tier 5 squad leader's fragments, Suren's expression turned strange. "What the hell? That's all the knowledge a Tier 5 has??"

Aside from the very fragmented Water Law fragment, which was a small surprise, the other fragments were of very limited value.

Diving, navigation... A common sailor could have those extracted. They weren't worthy of a Tier 5 professional's "output."

Other than women and pleasure, the guy's brain contained very little useful alchemical knowledge.

The quality was vastly different from the Tier 5 professionals he had extracted before.

But after a moment's thought, Suren understood.

The one he extracted before was the Duke's guard captain, a bona fide graduate of the Royal Luin War College, with an astonishing amount of knowledge. The one before him was just a pirate, similar to an outer city gang member in Old Lingdun. It was good enough that he knew some practical combat skills. How could he be expected to have systematic knowledge?

Suren casually harvested the "gray mist" from the other pirate corpses.

He harvested things like [Quick Cannon Reloading Technique], [Sailing Ship Handling Technique], [Ocean Current and Wind Direction Identification]... mostly exclusive pirate skills.

However, it seemed that they would be useful soon, so Suren thought they were okay.

...

After killing the pirates guarding the tower, the group rushed into the Duke's mansion and then entered the towering Black Tower.

Since the pirates had already destroyed the tower's mechanisms and restrictions, their journey was very smooth.

Except for Mister Mirror, everyone was entering the interior of the Black Tower for the first time.

The Black Tower was just a passage to the landmark, nothing special. The interior of the tower was like the spiral rifling of a gun barrel. The walls had stone steps circling around them. There was no elevator, so they could only climb the stairs. The estimated vertical height was about three or four kilometers.

Fortunately, almost everyone was a professional, so their climbing speed was very fast.

The Mirror Organization members led the way, as only they were qualified to be at the front.

They encountered a wave of pirates carrying stolen goods along the way, and they disposed of them casually, leaving behind the corpses.

Suren couldn't keep up with the pace, and he didn't think he was qualified to fight those Tier 4 and Tier 5 pirates head-on, so he followed the main force in the back.

As he walked on the steps, he noticed that the texture was very hard. After appraising it, he found that the material of the walls actually had a name: Asgard Stone.

He casually tried it with a sharp knife and found that he couldn't leave a mark on the stone.

Then, he tried it with the Black Scythe.

To his surprise, the spatial rift that could cut through anything was ineffective this time!

For the first time, Suren encountered a material that even the Black Scythe couldn't cut.

Even the thought of cutting a piece to take with him...

Just as Suren was curiously trying, Mister Mirror, who was guarding the rear, walked up.

She had just set up some spell restrictions in the area they had come from.

Seeing Suren curious about the stone, she explained, "The Black Tower is actually a building that existed since the Dawn Era, and it wasn't originally here. This black stone is also not a material from this plane. Legend has it that it was taken from a mountain called Asgard in the mythical era. It is one of the hardest materials known, and even god-level experts may not be able to destroy this Black Tower. My father moved it here and connected it to the underground spatial passage to reinforce the cracks in the passage..."

"Oh."

Suren understood after hearing this explanation.

So, Sir Isaac had moved it from somewhere else?

The thought of the Black Tower collapsing accidentally and seawater pouring in died down.

Naturally, a building used to guard a spatial passage would not be so easily broken.

Mister Mirror didn't say much else, but suddenly frowned. "They're fighting outside! I'll go ahead, you be careful!"

With that, her figure disappeared from the spot.

Hearing this, Suren's expression also became serious. Without stopping, he spread out his Eight-Armed Spider Spear and rushed quickly towards the ground.

...

The battle was also expected.

In the original "tower assault" plan, after breaking through the defenses of the underground Duke's mansion, they would encounter resistance from the garrison after coming up. Just like the uprising in Old Lingdun fifty years ago, it was bound to be a fierce battle.

The top of the Black Tower connected to a secluded stone house, which looked like a basement.

The pirates' attack on the Black Tower this time had cleared a lot of trouble for them.

The mechanisms and heavy cannons in the original bunkers had all been destroyed, and the pirates had no intention of garrisoning or repairing them. They just lazily guarded the entrance to the passage without any tactical plans.

This led to Suren and his group directly engaging in close combat with the pirates guarding the passage as soon as they came up. The ones on duty were pirate grunts, and the elites were all on the ships and underground. With Mister Mirror and the others taking action, they were quickly cleared out.

At least, they didn't let the group assaulting the tower get blocked in the underground.

Five hundred people rushed out of the Black Tower, and the second part of the plan was perfectly achieved.

Suren rushed up and happened to see a few corpses in the basement.

The soul fragments were still clear, so he harvested them casually and learned more about the "North Sea King" pirate gang.

Moreover, he also discovered a slightly unexpected fact: although these pirates were at least Tier 1 professionals, the quality of the colonial equipment and career change materials condensed from their corpses was very poor.

In Old Lingdun, "black iron" materials were already the worst.

Unexpectedly, "inferior grade" white board equipment was even identified on these pirate corpses.

The attribute buffs brought by this kind of career change material and colonial equipment were very low, but correspondingly, the advancement conditions were even lower.

It could be said that as long as one practiced breathing techniques, anyone could advance to a professional!

After thinking about it, it was understandable.

The development of Old Lingdun was based on "archaeology." Many of the materials for professionals to advance were exquisite products left over from ancient times.

Because of the harsh living environment, the dark magic lineage absorbed dark spiritual power, which could cause distortion at any time. This led to a small base of professionals, but correspondingly, the advancement materials were relatively high-end.

After all, their material source was the entire "Old Lingdun Ruins."

Therefore, in terms of combat power at the same level, the professionals in the underground city were, on average, even stronger than those on the surface.

At least, stronger than the pirates who had not undergone systematic training!

...

Suren didn't stay in the basement and rushed out with the main force.

A fierce battle had already broken out outside, and the sound of artillery fire was deafening.

Not all of the pirates were high-level professionals; Tier 4 and Tier 5 were in the minority.

Moreover, the vast majority of the pirates' elites were robbing underground.

The people stationed outside were caught off guard, and Mister Mirror led a group of people to charge out!

This was a Gothic castle, a standard military fortress. Everywhere in the castle were high walls, arrow towers, dense gun emplacements, and a "U-shaped harbor" where countless ships were docked.

Suren had long known from the extracted memories that the Black Tower was on a solitary island called "Black Fort Reef," and there was a military fortress on the island.

But the others didn't know.

They had never walked out of the underground, and they didn't know that there were other cities in the world besides Old Lingdun.

In fact, even the elite guards cultivated by the Reis family didn't know what they were going to do this time before they started moving!

The time outside was also midnight.

Tonight, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, and the night was beautiful.

The moonlight shrouded the castle in a faint silver glow.

The bright stars in the sky twinkled, endlessly deep.

The waves rhythmically lapped against the shore, swishing, swishing...

The refreshing sea breeze, carrying a hint of salty moisture, brushed against their faces, making people feel comfortable all over.

Everywhere, people breathed in the air of freedom.

When the people from the underground rushed out of the ground, everyone was shocked by the scene before them.

Like prisoners who had been trapped for generations, they suddenly gained freedom. Even though they had been mentally prepared, they couldn't help but feel turbulent waves rising in their hearts.

The only light source in the underground was lamplight. It was the first time they had seen the bright moonlight, the first time they had seen the boundless world, and the first time they had seen the stars.

"Look... that's the legendary moon! Is this the sky... how high is it?"

"Wow... the moon is so beautiful."

"This is too exaggerated, you can't see the end at all. Is this the sea? I thought it was just like a slightly larger underground lake..."

"Oh my god, the world outside is so big..."

"..."

Everyone's faces were filled with shock, as if their world cognition had collapsed, and their eyes were shining brightly.

But before they could be stunned for too long, a stern shout came from the communicator: "Don't stand there! Twelve o'clock direction, seize the ship! Get on board!"

The hundreds of people instantly regained their senses.

Listening to the direction indicated by the commander, they rushed out of the castle towards the harbor where the ships were docked.

The pirates in the city were instantly scattered, and they rushed into the harbor.

But looking at the more than a hundred ships in front of them, they hesitated again.

There were two types of ships docked in the harbor: one was a traditional wooden sailing ship with a "mace and skull" pirate flag hanging on it.

The other was a steam-powered ironclad ship emitting billowing white smoke, mostly painted with the Rafael family's exclusive noble crest pattern.

There were even two small steam airships floating in the sky!

Someone asked anxiously, "Commander, which ship should we seize?"

Someone immediately responded, "Seize the wooden ship!"

Although no one in the underground world had seen a ship, they didn't consider the ironclad ship.

Even if they seized it, they wouldn't be able to figure out how to operate it for a while.

Although no one had ever operated a sailing ship, there were records in ancient books, and they had thought about it before. At a glance, they roughly knew the principle.

But,

There were also seventy or eighty wooden ships, with all kinds of strange shapes: two-masted ships, three-masted ships...

It gave people a feeling of not knowing where to start.

Hearing this, Suren thought of the memories he had extracted before and decisively said in the communicator, "Everyone, seize the 'Windrider', the one with the black sails. That's the fastest ship in the pirate fleet!"