"Colonel Fred, look, there are two ships over there."

"It really is Captain Barrett! Great, they're alive!"

"Huh, that ship looks like a pirate ship? Why would the captain be on someone else's ship..."

"Those are the Dawn Pirates! Heavens, it really is them!"

"The Dawn Pirates are...?"

"They are the most sincere friends and saviors of our Holy Tribunal!"

"..."

Half a day later, Suren and his crew found the ship of the "Holy Tribunal" drifting at sea.

When the two groups joined, the Dawn Pirates instantly became lively.

This time, Barrett and his men risked going to Moros City-State to rescue more than three hundred people from the slave traders, plus the previous members, for a total of five or six hundred.

This was the last of the direct descendants of the "Holy Tribunal Legion," the ace army of the once glorious Lu Ying Empire for hundreds of years.

These were all true Lu Ying royal elite knights, and their combat power was extraordinary.

However, now there was no Holy Tribunal, only the "Dawn Pirate Crew."

Now, the "Dawn Pirates" instantly became a large group of nearly a thousand people.

Three battleships were just enough to fill three squads.

Qiantiao's first squad as captain, Dr. Banks's second squad, and now Barrett's third squad.

This combat power was among the top few pirate groups in the North Sea.

Even if they had just been rescued and had no equipment, it didn't matter. The Dawn Pirates' warehouse had a large amount of equipment and supplies. These were all spoils of war from destroying several squads of the North Sea Fleet, which was more than enough to equip these hundreds of people.

Suren and his crew held a grand welcoming banquet for the newly joined comrades, offering the best wine and meat, and the most sincere enthusiasm...

This also moved the former royal knights of the Holy Tribunal to tears.

They had lost their loved ones, their honor, their organization, and everything.

The whole world had abandoned them, but now, the Dawn Pirates showed them new hope.

......

Suren and his crew wanted to catch up with the "White-Headed Eagle."

They had previously received information that the ship was carrying national gifts from the King of the North Sea to the Mafa Empire.

Now that they knew that the "Devil's Island Treasure" incident was likely a conspiracy, that ship was even more special.

Dr. Banks accurately determined the ship's location and found that it was not heading back to the Mafa Empire but was also going in the direction of Devil's Island.

This was clearly abnormal.

The three ships of the Dawn Pirates chased after it, wanting to intercept the other party before they got close to Devil's Island.

On the three battleships, everyone was preparing for battle.

Repairing ships, maintaining cannons, familiarizing themselves with equipment, and integrating new crew members...

Barrett was indeed a professional senior general, and he had very rich experience in commanding large-scale wars and training troops. He completed the reorganization of the personnel of the three battleships in a short period. Everyone determined a unified password, command, emergency plan, and reward and punishment system...

Suren thought it was pretty good, too.

The addition of professional soldiers like Barrett filled a shortcoming of the Dawn Pirates.

Although it didn't necessarily copy the Lu Ying Royal Knights, it could save the Dawn Pirates from making mistakes in future development.

In a large team, scientific management would make the team more cohesive and possess a sharp combat power.

Although the Dawn Pirates was a pirate group that advocated freedom, it would become larger and larger in the future, and these were inevitable paths to take.

......

The three battleships sailed on the sea, extremely fast.

"Mr. Humke, is there anything I can help with?"

"Oh, no, Miss Kama, leave the heavy work like hauling ropes to us giants."

"Mr. Tam, is there anything I can do? I know all the work on the ship..."

"No, Miss Kama. Washing the deck is a dirty job; let us rough old men do it."

"..."

It was Kama's first day on board.

She felt that it would be impolite to stay in the cabin on her first day.

On the deck, she went around recognizing faces and helping out, wanting to integrate and familiarize herself with the new team as soon as possible.

After getting along with everyone, she also found that everyone on the ship looked fierce, but they were actually very easy to get along with.

Kama tried hard to participate in some of the ship's work, but everyone seemed to have their own things to do, and she couldn't help at all.

However, she got to know almost everyone: the domineering Sister Qiantiao, the mysterious Miss Pandora, the reclusive Dr. Banks, the giant Humke brothers, Captain Haguro, Captain Somezaki...

After greeting everyone, she found that everyone on the ship was very enthusiastic and kind to her, and their attitude was as gentle as family.

Kama naturally knew that this was because she was Suren's disciple.

She also cherished this kindness.

As she wandered around, Kama saw Lolota practicing her sword at the bow of the ship.

She remembered that this was Sister Qiantiao's personal disciple.

Perhaps because they were about the same age, Kama felt that she was easier to get along with.

They were both orphans, and they had both been small nobles, so they had many shared experiences.

They chatted for a few words and quickly became familiar with each other.

They sat on the ship's railing, swinging their legs, with the unique innocent smiles of young girls on their faces.

As they chatted, they talked about Suren.

Kama felt that meeting Suren was the luckiest thing in her life.

But since last night, her shock had never stopped. In today's great battle, she also saw just how terrifying her teacher's strength was.

This was the Puppet Master in her mind.

But after boarding the ship, Suren had disappeared, which made Kama feel a little uncomfortable.

She asked Lolota, "Miss Lolota, is Teacher usually like this?"

Lolota smiled and said, "Yes. Mr. Suren is very hardworking. As long as he's on the ship, you basically won't see him. But if you go to the laboratory to find him, you'll definitely see him studying those strange things, mechanics, puppets, and biotechnology..."

Speaking of this, she pouted and said, "Mr. Suren is the kind of person who is already super powerful, but still works very hard. He is a role model for everyone in our Dawn Pirates. I'm always getting my old head knocked by Teacher, who says I'm stupid and don't work hard enough..."

Hearing this, Kama couldn't help but chuckle, and suddenly thinking of something, she asked, "Are Teacher and Sister Qiantiao lovers?"

Lolota rolled her eyes, "Um... hard to say."

Kama was very surprised, "Hard to say?"

Lolota didn't know how to explain, and a strange smile appeared on her face, "Teacher and Mr. Suren's relationship is quite special, and it's hard to explain in a few words. Uh... you'll know later."

Kama: "Oh..."

At this time, Tani, who was in the mast lookout tower, suddenly slid down the cable upside down, "Hey, Miss Kama, my name is Tani, nice to meet you!"

Kama was startled, "Ah... I'm Kama. Teacher introduced you earlier, I remember your name."

Lolota was obviously very familiar with him, rolled her eyes, and teased, "This is the crybaby navigator!"

Hearing this, a hint of shyness appeared on Tani's face, "Lolota, can you not mention the past..."

Lolota covered her mouth and giggled, "No."

Kama also smiled without saying a word.

The three teenagers of similar age laughed and chatted on the deck.

The crew members looked at them, and kind smiles also appeared on their faces.

The "dawn" of their Dawn Pirates would grow up quickly and burst into brilliance.

......

After the welcoming banquet, Suren stayed in the laboratory converted from the captain's room.

Before, when he intercepted the Seventh Squad, he had stripped the soul of Vasily Tyrmid, the "Thousand-Machine Puppet Hand," and gained a large amount of puppet knowledge.

Although this guy was sinister and vicious, and had murdered his master's family, he had to admit that his talent in puppetry was indeed outstanding.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to secretly learn the secret techniques of the Boyle family as a disciple in name only. Later, he also developed many of his own puppet skills and became a "Puppet Master."

Suren also had to admit that reaping this wave of experience saved him decades of hard work in honing his skills.

It also made up for his many shortcomings in puppet making, manipulation, and術式 (shushi, spells/formulas).

It even opened up some new ideas.

The line of mechanical puppet術式 (shushi, spells/formulas) also originated from the Puppet Master line, but its research on puppet precision and functionality was obviously more in-depth, and it had many amazing achievements.

For example, the 【奥义·千手】(Àoyì · Qiānshǒu, Arcane Art: Thousand Hands) skill that he stripped could allow people to control puppets to a "micro" level, more refined and more precise!

Suren directly stripped Vasily of his decades of skill proficiency, directly taking his puppet manipulation to a new level.

Coupled with the 【Puppet Theater】, the two arcane術式 (shushi, spells/formulas) complemented each other, and the combat power of the puppet legion would skyrocket.

It wasn't just these gains.

Suren found a large number of inheritance classics of the "Mechanical Puppet Master Line" in Vasily's storage ring: mechanics, puppetry, secret techniques...

In addition to the classics, there were also some inherited treasures of the Boyle family, and even two precious 【替命娃娃】(Tìmìng wáwá, Life-Substituting Dolls).

It would probably take Suren many years to digest those classics himself.

However, Vasily had been studying these classics hard, and his memory was full of knowledge, which also made it easier for Suren. The 【Reaper】 talent directly stripped him of it, and the knowledge was directly digested in his mind.

This also directly advanced the progress of another matter.

That was to repair the 【Mechanical Puppet Heart】.

Originally, Suren didn't know much about mechanical knowledge, and he had no confidence in repairing that top-level alchemical object.

Now, however, he felt that it was very likely.

Suren gained too much, and he needed a lot of time to digest it and integrate the new knowledge into his "knowledge tree."

So he had been in the cabin and hadn't gone out.

......

The speed of the "White-Headed Eagle" was a bit bizarre. The three ships of the Dawn Pirates used alchemical arrays to sail at full speed, and only then were they able to barely close the distance to dozens of nautical miles.

However, that was already two days later.

Suren was studying his puppets in the captain's room when suddenly the observer's warning came from the deck: "Attention everyone, there is a suspicious seaship ahead!"

As soon as these words came out, the shift commander's shout also came from the communicator: "Everyone prepare for battle!"

Suren glanced at the thick fog outside the window and did not continue to stay in the cabin, but quickly came to the deck.

At this moment, the deck was already full of people.

Suren walked to the bow of the ship and asked Qiantiao, "What's the situation?"

Qiantiao pointed forward and said, "There is a drifting seaship at the eleven o'clock direction. We have already signaled, but they have no response. It seems... to be a ghost ship with no living people."

"Ghost ship?"

Hearing this, a hint of doubt also appeared on Suren's face.

He took out his monocular telescope and looked in that direction.

At this moment, thick fog was floating on the sea.

This was already dangerous waters.

His eyesight was better than others, so he could clearly see that the seaship was drifting there like a ghost.

A pirate flag was hung on the seaship's mast, with a pattern of three muskets and a skull. Relevant information immediately reflected in Suren's mind.

This seemed to be a large pirate group called the "Silver Gun Pirates," and their strength was not weak.

The captain was a fifth-order professional, the "Sniper Shark" Friedrich, who had a bounty of 110 million, and had several hundred people under his command.

Suren seemed to have discovered something and jumped onto the mast. When he looked again, he immediately saw that there was no one on the seaship's deck. But on closer inspection, he could find bloodstains and some fragments of biological limbs on the side of the ship's railing.

But strangely, apart from the traces of dragging corpses, there were no traces of any fighting on the ship.

Suren's pupils shrank slightly, and he immediately said, "Tani, pay attention to the movements in the sea!"

"Yes, Mr. Suren!"

Tani did not dare to be careless and listened to the movements in the sea.

"Mr. Suren, what do we do now?"

"'Steamship' and 'Tribunal Ship' stay where they are, we'll go over!"

"Okay!"

Since they had encountered it, avoiding it was obviously impossible.

Suren and his crew approached cautiously.

With Tani's ability and the mechanical octopus swimming quickly at the bottom of the ship, they could detect any approaching sea monsters in the first instance.

......

Suren and his crew's ship approached the ghost ship.

At a distance of about ten meters, the commando team took the lead in jumping over.

"Captain, no living people found! No monsters either..."

"There are no traces of fighting in the cabin."

"..."

A perception-based professional quickly confirmed that there were no signs of life on this ship. As they had seen before, this was an empty ship.

Suren and Qiantiao also jumped over.

They observed the deck and walked into the cabin.

The supplies and equipment in the cabin were still there, and the cannons were not loaded with ammunition... All signs indicated that there had been no fighting here.

But the cabins where the crew members rested were a mess. The blankets were scattered everywhere, and there were scattered personal belongings, as if the sleeping crew members had been dragged out of their beds by something, peacefully and without any resistance.

No one spoke in the cabin, and an eerie atmosphere filled the air.

Looking at the scene in front of them, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill down their spines, as if they were being watched by some demon in secret.

Just then, someone suddenly shouted from the bottom of the cabin, "Boss, a corpse has been found in the hold!"

Suren and Qiantiao looked at each other and immediately walked down.

The hold was the storage room, and it stored a lot of tobacco, bacon, and smoked fish. The air was mixed with a strong, strange smell.

It was probably because of these strong smells that the monster ignored the corpse.

Suren glanced at the pirate "sleeping" in the pile of goods. It was obviously a sentry.

The deceased was about twenty years old, dressed as a pirate, and had no external injuries...

Suren looked at it, and then pressed on the corpse's abdomen with his hand. There was no obvious damage to the internal organs.

He himself was proficient in forensic anatomy, but this strange way of death made him frown and show incomprehension.

Seeing this, Qiantiao placed her hand on the hilt of her sword and asked, "What do you think?"

Suren thought for a moment and said, "The deceased has no external injuries and should have been killed directly by something like a mental attack, and then the corpse was taken away. Obviously, it wasn't a human who did it, but a monster. They are only interested in corpses and haven't touched any money or materials. This is the 'Musket Pirates,' and their strength is not weak. To be able to quietly wipe them out, the monster who did it is very strong."

Saying that, he added, "Tell everyone to be careful."

Qiantiao nodded in agreement.

Several captains behind them also passed on the order.

Just then, the sound of笃笃笃 (dǔ dǔ dǔ, tapping/knocking) footsteps sounded on the ship cabin, "I heard a corpse was found?"

Turning around, it was indeed Dr. Banks who had walked over.

Suren said, "It's good that Dr. Banks came, can you tell the specific cause of death of this person?"

For professional matters, it was better to leave it to professionals.

Dr. Banks nodded without saying much.

He walked straight to the corpse, observed it first, and then placed his hand on the corpse.

At that moment, everyone watched as his dark arm melted like asphalt and drilled into the corpse's mouth and nose.

Although Suren knew that Dr. Banks's methods were a bit special, his eyelids twitched when he saw this.

However, the effect was excellent. Dr. Banks sensed for a while and, as if discovering something, opened his mouth and said, "The time of death was about ten hours ago, probably late last night. The corpse's internal organs and blood vessels are ruptured, especially the intracranial tissue was damaged. That's the cause of his death."

Hearing this, Suren said in surprise, "He wasn't killed by a mental attack?"

"No."

Dr. Banks said in a very affirmative tone, "Some special frequencies of sound waves can cause this kind of large-scale visceral resonance damage."

Hearing this, Suren immediately understood something, "Are you saying that the murderer is a Siren?"

This was a sea monster that usually only appeared in legends, and very few people had seen it.

Because those who had seen it were all dead.

Legend has it that it was a human-faced, bird-bodied sea monster with a heavenly voice, who liked to eat people and usually appeared at night.

The "Song of the Siren" that people passed down was usually referring to this.

When humans heard it, they would die in that wonderful song.

In fact, the legend was very magical, but in essence, that song was actually an "infrasound wave" that humans couldn't hear.

This infrasound wave had extremely strong penetrating power, not only could it penetrate the atmosphere, seawater, and soil, but it could also penetrate obstacles.

Wooden seaships, even steel seaships, could not completely block the propagation of sound waves. It was also not easy to attenuate, and not easily absorbed by water and air.

And some frequencies of infrasound waves, because they were close to or even the same as the vibration frequency of human organs, easily resonated with the human brain and organs, causing fear and madness in mild cases; and rupture of blood vessels and death on the spot in severe cases.

Just like the death of the corpse in front of him!

The most important thing was... the auditory system of ordinary humans simply couldn't hear this infrasound wave!

Dr. Banks nodded, "Yeah."

Suren frowned as he listened, but he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

At least he had figured out the cause of death, so it would be much easier to handle.

Ordinary humans couldn't hear this infrasound wave, so they were killed silently.

But some people who awakened auditory talents could hear it.

Coincidentally, they had someone on board who had awakened the 【d-032-Auditory Enhancement】 talent.

Moreover, even if the awakener's ability was not developed enough to hear the songs of some high-level sirens, animals could hear it!

Tani could communicate with animals in the sea, and common whales and jellyfish could hear all kinds of infrasound waves!

In other words, that Siren was not a big threat to the Dawn Pirates!

Since it wasn't a threat, a thought popped into Suren's head: puppet material!

Although the Siren's song was terrifying, its actual combat power was very weak.

But their vocal cords were very precious.

No matter how superb the puppet skills were, artificially manufactured things were far less perfect than natural ones.

This [Siren's Throat] was one of the most ideal materials for making [Wailing Puppets] recorded in the classics of the Puppet Master lineage!

......

After Dr. Banks analyzed the cause of death of the corpse, it suddenly changed from a terrifying incident to a normal siren attack.

Everyone on the Dawn Pirates breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone was preparing and guarding against siren attacks.

The 【Auditory Enhancement】 ability users were on alert at all times, and Tani was also fully focused on listening to the sounds in the sea.

Just in case, all sentry posts were changed to double posts, one with their ears sealed with red wax, and one standing guard normally.

This was the only method in legend that could prevent the "Siren's Song" from entering the ears.

Suren returned to his own ship, and the look of contemplation was still hanging on his face.

Seeing his expression, Qiantiao asked, "What's wrong, is there still a problem?"

Suren pondered for a moment and said his thoughts, "We came to chase the 'White-Headed Eagle'. But in fact, this is no longer the closest route to 'Devil's Island'. Why was the 'Silver Gun Pirates' wiped out here?"

Qiantiao just didn't like to use her brain to speculate, but hearing this, she keenly noticed something and said, "Are you saying that the 'Silver Gun Pirates' were also coming for the 'White-Headed Eagle'?"

"Yeah. That's the problem."

Suren nodded.

His intelligence was passed on from Van Gogh, and it was very likely that it came from the Lu Ying royal family, or from some major power.

Now, on this "White-Headed Eagle," people with good information all knew that there were treasures that Oleg was returning to the Mafa Empire.

There must also be a group of people who would pay attention to this batch of goods.

He said his worries, "If we guessed correctly, and the 'Silver Gun Pirates' were really coming for the batch of goods from Mafa, then... why were they killed, and the 'White-Headed Eagle' is still sailing?"

Qiantiao followed the train of thought and said, "If it's not a coincidence, then those people from Mafa may have mastered a method to avoid the sirens, or prevent the sirens from attacking? Even... are they using it?"

The people of the Mafa Empire were not fools.

It was impossible that they hadn't considered the leakage of information.

Moreover, their intelligence system was not weaker than that of the Lu Ying Empire, let alone that this was the territory of the King of the North Sea.

Suren's eyes gradually deepened, and he had roughly connected all the logic in his mind.

He murmured, "Now that I think about it, it's possible that those guys deliberately spread the news, and then used the sirens in this sea area to wipe everyone out."

Qiantiao listened and啧啧称奇 (zézé chēngqí, clicked her tongue in amazement), and sighed, "What a good method."

At this time, Suren said again, "But for us, it's not entirely bad news."

Qiantiao looked over and showed a questioning look, "Oh?"

Suren stared at the sea in the distance and said meaningfully, "After all, you have to use real bait to fish."

After a pause, his pupils suddenly froze, "That 'White-Headed Eagle' must have treasures on board!"