Chapter 124 The Second

Noon, twelve o'clock sharp.

The sea was calm, and the sun blazed overhead.

By this time, the headless corpse that hadn't gone deaf had become food for the sharks; while his head had been taken back to the submarine by Graybeard... presumably to be kept as a souvenir (or perhaps a decoration).

On the beach, a large pool of blood was emitting a fishy smell under the sunlight, causing the nearby pirates to frown.

But they still had to stand guard, waiting for the arrival of the twenty-two people from the island.

"Guys, heads up." Before long, a sharp-eyed pirate boss was the first to see the figures in the jungle. He immediately shouted, reminding his companions to be ready.

"Relax..." Max, standing in the back row, replied calmly, "This is a trade, not a war. They just want to leave alive." He paused. "Look... they didn't even bring weapons."

As he spoke, Glarers led the way out of the forest by the beach, with the others lined up behind him.

This formation was also carefully considered... in case the pirates suddenly turned hostile and opened fire, the area exposed to the shots would be slightly smaller, and the people in the back row would still have a chance to escape.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Glarers." Max was the first to step forward and greet the other party. "I'm a fan of yours."

"Kid... I..." Glarers looked at Max, his expression complex. "...Thank you for your support, but..."

"Heh... you don't have to say it, I understand." Max smiled and replied, "Being admired by a terrorist-like figure must be a delicate feeling for the person involved. At times like this, you don't have to comment... I won't mind."

"Yeah, that's how Arsenal deals with me." At that moment, Uncle Deng, who happened to be passing by them, interjected nonchalantly after hearing their conversation...

Glarers and Max were both stunned for a few seconds, looking at Deng's retreating figure, who had deeply hidden his merits and fame, and a sense of incomprehensible awesomeness arose spontaneously...

"Ahem... anyway..." After a few seconds, Max spoke again, "Mr. Glarers... Mr. Carbon should have already told you about the content of the transaction. I don't need to emphasize the details about boarding the ship, right?"

"Don't worry." Glarers replied, "We don't have any communication devices on us, except... this." As he spoke, he took out a tablet computer (at least it looked like one) from the bag at his side (the backpack had been replaced with a satchel). "Stephen asked me to hand this to you personally. He'll contact you through this."

"Oh..." Max responded, took the tablet, and asked, "Eh? Why is this tablet so strange? It doesn't even have a logo, and the ports around it aren't complete..."

"This isn't a tablet." This time, it was Ge Mao's turn to interject as he passed by them. He glanced at Max and said calmly, "This is just a... uh... I don't know what to call it. Anyway... I took a liquid crystal display from the toilet in your base, and after a little modification, it can be used as a tablet."

"Heh... heh heh..." Max's mouth twitched twice. "I really shouldn't have installed this thing behind the partition in the toilet stall when we were renovating..."

"Young brother, one day you'll understand that watching cartoons while taking a dump is pointless." Bu Bo, who was passing by right after him, casually stuffed a joint into Max's shirt pocket. "Keep it, you're welcome."

Watching these bizarre people pass by in splendor, Max could only mutter in his heart in agony, "What kind of people are these..."

Buzz buzz—buzz buzz—

Suddenly, a burst of electromagnetic noise sounded.

Glarers turned his head and saw that the pirates by the cruise ship were using a handheld T-shaped scanner (a device used for body searches that can confirm whether someone is carrying electronic equipment without touching the target).

"Not that we don't trust you, it's just in case." Max immediately explained when he saw Glarers' reaction.

"Ah... I know." Glarers then lowered his head, looked at Max, and said, "I also know... that from the time the deal was agreed upon until James was killed, you've already done similar checks on the entire Dolphin cruise ship and cleared all the communication equipment on board."

"Heh... so the surveillance cameras on the cruise ship have indeed been controlled by you..." Max laughed.

"Yes." Glarers said bluntly.

"You answer quite simply..." Max muttered.

"Stephen said that you must have already guessed this, so there's no need to hide it." Glarers replied.

"Tch... unpleasant guy." Max thought to himself.

Glarers then added, "I have to thank you... for not letting your men dismantle those cameras during the inspection."

"You're welcome." Max raised his eyebrows. "I also hope the transaction can go smoothly."

They both understood that the cameras on the ship had to be kept. Only in this way could Stephen Carbon, who was at the base, be sure that there were no lurking pirates or bombs hidden on board.

Originally... in this kind of transaction based on "mutual threat," there was no trust to speak of, and this was all necessary to prevent the other party from going back on their word afterward.

"Well... without further ado, I'll board the ship too." Seeing that everyone else had passed the inspection one after another, Glarers was also ready to follow.

"Bon voyage, Mr. Glarers." Max smiled and said goodbye to the other party.

Glarers couldn't smile, he just nodded and left silently.

…………

One hour later, on the deck of the Parrot.

"How much longer do we have to wait? Damn it!" Graybeard sat at a round table, holding a knife in his left hand, and nothing in his right hand... (because it was a hook), banging on the table as he shouted, "How hard is it to have lunch on deck?"

"Calm down, Dad." Max, who was sitting next to his father and also waiting for the meal, replied, "We've been busy searching the ship, searching people, executing people, and seeing off guests... the manpower is tight, so I asked the people in the kitchen to come out and help. The Dolphin set sail half an hour ago, and they just went back to the kitchen to get busy."

"Hmph... a bunch of useless things." Graybeard's attitude softened slightly after his son persuaded him, but he immediately started rambling, "When I was a deckhand on the ship, I could make a delicious meal in just five minutes."

"Sashimi?" Max said with a smile.

"Uh..." Graybeard's charm was that he was often speechless after being choked...

Squeak—shasha—

At this moment, a burst of signal interference sounded.

Max's expression tightened, and he eagerly picked up the "toilet tablet" on the table.

Unsurprisingly... three seconds later, the figure of Stephen Carbon (Feng Bujue) appeared on the screen.

He was still sitting in that base, looking leisurely at the camera.

"Hi, kid, been waiting long?" Feng Bujue smiled. "Heh heh... actually, I wanted to contact you earlier, but when I went out to mine just now, I happened to encounter an annoying parrot. It dared to attack me with bird droppings, so I grabbed a piece of ore that I had just mined and gave it a hard one." He shrugged. "Anyway... it was a little delayed."

"You... you actually left the base just now..." Max looked incredulous. "Who are you trying to fool?" He sneered. "Don't say it's you, even an idiot wouldn't leave the monitoring at a critical moment before the cruise ship sets sail to do other things... aren't you afraid that while you're taking a break, we'll kill everyone on board and rush to the island..."

"Of course I'm not afraid." Feng Bujue interrupted the other party with a blank expression. "There are two reasons why I'm not afraid." He immediately explained, "First, the right to monitor the island and the cruise ship, and the right to actively contact you and me... are all in my hands. From your side... there's no way to know whether I'm sitting in front of the monitoring screen or not. So whether I sit here or not... it can still form a deterrent to you." He tilted his head. "Heh heh... Max, it's easier to scheme against smart people like you than against foolish and reckless people like your father... because your actions are all within my expectations."

"Tch..." Max's face showed a ferocious look. "Self-righteous guy... you better pray that I'll let you die..."

"Second!" Feng Bujue ignored the other party's words, stood up directly, and walked towards the camera. "Heh heh... hahahaha..." He suddenly laughed strangely, laughing incomparably eerily. "Let me tell you in person."

At this point, the image suddenly cut off.

"Wha..." Max only had time to utter one syllable when an unbelievable thing happened.

"Second..." Jue-ge's voice actually appeared within two meters. "Let me emphasize again, I don't care about the lives of those people at all."

At this moment, fear like a pair of invisible hands tightly gripped the hearts of Max and Graybeard, and the blood in their bodies seemed to turn ice-cold.

But seeing that Jue-ge, dressed as a pirate (what was more discordant was that he was carrying a backpack), was already standing by the round table, holding a round tray in his hand.

"You... you actually..." Graybeard and Max both looked like they had seen a ghost, their lips trembling as they blurted out words, but they couldn't say a complete sentence.

"Your lunch is here, Captain." Feng Bujue looked at the Graybeard father and son with a smile, and opened the lid of the tray. "Today's main course is... Mark II hand grenades!"

Before he finished speaking, he quickly picked up the two grenades on the plate with both hands and extended them to his mouth.

"No! No—" Max roared and tried to rush forward to stop him.

Unfortunately... it was too late.

The next second, Jue-ge bit both pull rings at the same time, grinning and grinning, "Hee hee... surprise!"