Chapter 10 The Queen Anne's Revenge

After a brief exchange, Billy prepared to lead Feng Bujue and the others into the hidden space within the stone door.

But as Brother Jue walked to the door, he found the scene inside very familiar…

“This is… on a ship?” he wondered, looking at the deck and masts on the other side of the door.

“Yes,” Billy replied. “I think… you’re no stranger to this place, are you?”

Before he finished speaking, Feng Bujue had already realized what the scenery in front of him was: “The Queen Anne’s Revenge?”

“Heh…” Billy smiled, the answer self-evident. “Please.”

Since he had already said “please,” Feng Bujue didn’t bother with further ado, taking the lead and stepping through the door.

After passing through the door, he saw the entire ship in full view. That’s right… this was the deck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Looking back from “this side,” the stone door behind them was naturally a visible entity. The huge “stone door frame” was fixed to the deck with wooden stakes and ropes, and a circular magic circle was drawn on the deck below it.

A few seconds later, Brother Jue turned his head to look outside the ship's railing, and immediately found that there was no water under the ship… The Queen Anne’s Revenge was currently “floating” in the void. All around the ship was a gray haze, with faint rays of light similar to moonlight shining through the gray matter. But with only this light, the naked eye could barely see, so many glowing lanterns were lit on the ship to provide illumination.

“We meet again, Feng Bujue.”

Just as the three players, Old Wang, and the Billy brothers successively passed through the doorway, a hoarse voice suddenly rang out.

Brother Jue looked in the direction of the voice and saw a familiar face—Blackbeard.

“You…” Although Feng Bujue could still recognize that it was Blackbeard, the latter’s change was really a bit too much. “…What happened?”

“Hehehe…” Blackbeard let out a slightly bitter laugh, and leaning on a crutch, limped out of a cabin a few meters away. “Isn’t it obvious?” he said, tapping his crutch on his leg, which was no longer working. Two dull thuds sounded from his lower leg, clearly… what was inside his pant leg was no longer flesh and blood, but something like wood. “I got crippled.”

Feng Bujue didn’t bother to ask “Didn’t your self-healing ability work?” because the answer was self-evident… If there was a way to heal it, Blackbeard wouldn’t have to wear a prosthetic leg and use a crutch.

“Then…” Brother Jue thought for a moment, then looked around. “Your crew…”

He had felt something was wrong just now. Why was there not a single pirate on the deck besides them?

“Heh…” Blackbeard let out another dry laugh, raised a bottle of rum in his hand, took a swig, and then said, “…What do you think?”

Feng Bujue didn’t want to say, and didn’t want to laugh.

He still clearly remembered the first time he saw the other man… At that time, Blackbeard had a strong gait, a voice like thunder, and every gesture exuded the air of a maritime overlord. He only needed to stand tall to silence dozens of fierce pirates.

But now, what appeared before Brother Jue’s eyes… was like an old and defeated drunkard, not only with a voice that was hoarse and grating, but also with a gaze that was completely lacking in momentum. If he didn’t have a crutch, it seemed he couldn’t even walk.

Zzzzzz…

While they were talking, Bill had already dragged the stone door and closed it again. Looking from the lava cave on the other side of the door, the place where the door had been had turned back into an empty space.

“It looks like you already know each other, so you can do the introductions,” Billy said to Brother Jue at this time.

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue pondered for a moment, then turned his head to gesture to the two players behind him. “This is Xiao Tan, you basically all know him already. This one here… is Xu Huai Shang, a famous figure among us Interdimensional Travelers. I think you should have heard of her.” He paused, then tilted his head towards Bill. “Billy, a godly existence who took over the Court of Justice after Ragnarok, I don’t know why he’s only a head now… Bill, Billy’s brother, used to be an administrator under Brother Zun, but now…” He shrugged, without commenting, then pointed and said, “Old Wang and Brother Zun are the legacy of the previous era and the demi-god of this era of Thriller Paradise, respectively, originally in control of the extra dimension ‘Detective Club’ in the main universe, and now… you’ve all seen it.” He paused for another half second, and then shifted his gaze to Blackbeard. “Captain Blackbeard, the great pirate who returned from the Sea of Chaos, his strength no less than that of the Four Pillars Gods… As for what’s happened to him now…” He changed his tone, and said directly to Blackbeard, “Captain, why don’t you tell us about it?”

“Let Billy start,” Blackbeard said, actually leaning against the mast and sitting down, looking lazy. “It’s best to tell this story from the beginning.”

Hearing this, the players all looked at Billy again, or rather… the wooden head inside the glass case in Bill’s ribcage.

“Ah… where to begin?” Billy’s voice came through the glass. “In terms of time, the beginning of all this… should have happened when you left the Island of Chewing Demons.”

The “you” in his words undoubtedly referred to Feng Bujue.

“The first thing Twenty-Three did was to greatly weaken your data strength, making it impossible for you to be matched into scripts related to the core figures or events of the main universe for a considerable period of time,” Billy continued.

…………

“I’m sorry… if possible… I’d like to ask you to leave Thriller Paradise for a while.”

…………

In that instant, the last words Twenty-Three had said to Feng Bujue on the Island of Chewing Demons flashed through the latter’s mind.

“After ensuring that you wouldn’t participate and stir things up, a ‘war’ began,” Billy paused. “Of course, saying ‘war’ is mainly to pay respect to those who died in battle. In reality… because of the disparity in strength between the two sides, it’s more appropriate to describe it as a ‘purge’ or ‘massacre.’”

“Twenty-Three launched an attack on the entire main universe?” Feng Bujue reacted quickly, and followed the other man's train of thought and asked.

“It wasn’t aimed at the entire main universe, but at everything in the main universe that she thought should be eliminated…” Billy replied.

“What was her basis for distinction?” Brother Jue asked again.

“Then you should go ask her yourself,” Billy replied. “Anyway, as far as I know, apart from Dou Mo, the various forces of the main universe, including those present here… are all on her ‘purge list.’”

“What about Dou Mo?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Unfortunately… he’s already joined forces with her,” Billy replied.

“Whoa, whoa… that sounds super bad,” Xiao Tan said. Although he didn’t really understand those overly complex settings, he still had some understanding of the strength of Twenty-Three and Dou Mo.

“Yeah,” Billy replied. “For people other than them, this is naturally bad news.”

“What’s the reason for them joining forces?” Feng Bujue said. “Did Twenty-Three subdue Dou Mo with ‘power’? Or do they have a common purpose?”

“Don’t know,” Billy replied frankly. “But I think the possibility of ‘having a common purpose’ is higher… Leaving aside whether Twenty-Three can suppress Dou Mo in terms of power, even if she could, Dou Mo is definitely not the kind of existence that would submit to power. Therefore, they should have reached a consensus on certain things.”

“Hmm…” Brother Jue’s mind raced, and after a few seconds of silence, he continued, “Counting from when you were on the Island of Chewing Demons, in terms of time here… how long has this war lasted?”

“It’s been quite a long time from your human perspective, about two years or so…” Billy replied. “But in our opinion, this is definitely a ‘blitzkrieg.’” Speaking of this, he turned his gaze to Zhuan Xie Zun, who had flown to the ship’s railing, and said, “Brother Zun, you can talk about the next part.”

“Okay,” Zhuan Xie Zun nodded and continued, “First of all, I’d like to talk about the increasingly bad social atmosphere in the main universe recently.” For some reason, he adopted a tone like a leader giving a speech. “Everyone has seen that even very outstanding young people like Billy are casually calling me ‘Brother Zun’. The main universe used to not be like this, but in recent years, everyone’s bottom line seems to be constantly plummeting. Many young people who were originally very cultured are now spouting nonsense and acting with less and less principle. In the end… I think Feng Bujue should be held primarily responsible for this.”

“Agreed!” When Brother Zun said this, Blackbeard picked up the wine bottle next to him and shouted loudly, his expression seeming to indicate that he deeply agreed with this.

“Hey… you’re getting off topic. Why are you suddenly talking about me?” Brother Jue complained.

“Lightening the mood,” Zhuan Xie Zun spread his wings and waved them. “Don’t you think the conversation was a bit depressing just now?”

“I don’t know if you’ve succeeded in lightening the mood…” Feng Bujue said, squinting. “But I’m pretty sure… you’re one of the people whose bottom line is plummeting…”

“Ha!” Unexpectedly, Brother Zun took on an attitude of “dead pigs aren’t afraid of boiling water.” “If your home was razed to the ground, your form was restricted to that of a cat-owl, and you had to rely on eating brains to maintain your magic power and divine sense… I suppose you wouldn’t be very interested in considering your integrity anymore.”

“Oh…” Feng Bujue put on an indifferent face. “Then let’s tentatively start talking about the point of your ‘home being razed to the ground,’ how about that?”

“Sigh…” Brother Zun sighed deeply, and said thoughtfully, “Actually, things aren’t complicated… That day, Billy came to the Detective Club for tea. I and Dian He Wang sat with him and chatted for a while. At that moment, without any warning… Dou Mo barged in.”

“What do you mean by ‘barged in without any warning’?” Feng Bujue said.

“Of course, it’s just the literal meaning,” Old Wang said at this time. “If someone had greeted you in advance, could it still be called ‘barging’?”

“I mean…” Brother Jue said again, “With the abilities of you guys, didn’t you feel anything when Dou Mo approached? Didn’t you set up defensive magic circles or anything like that inside and outside the Detective Club?”

“You’re right about everything,” Brother Zun said again. “Logically speaking, a super demon king of Dou Mo’s level, not to mention ‘approaching,’ as long as he exists in the same space as us, even if he’s 180,000 miles away… we can roughly sense which direction he’s in. In addition, defensive magic circles and things like that… of course, the Detective Club has them, and they’re set up very strongly, so strong that even an existence at the level of the Four Pillars Gods would have to spend a certain amount of time to break through…”

“I guess there’s going to be a ‘but’ here,” Xu Huai Shang had already guessed what the other man was going to say next, so she interjected.

“But…” Zhuan Xie Zun didn’t disappoint her. “As long as there’s the ‘Blast Tunnel’ technology, the above two points… become meaningless.”

“Isn’t that origin’s exclusive technology?” Xiao Tan wondered. “Could it be that Lute also…”

“No,” Feng Bujue denied his inference. “It has nothing to do with Lute. It’s Twenty-Three…” He paused. “For the current her, whether it’s ‘Sandbox,’ ‘Blast Tunnel,’ or other technology… it’s not difficult to replicate.” He stroked his chin, thinking and muttering, “Hmm… With this technology, as long as you can determine the enemy’s coordinates, Dou Mo can ignore all kinds of external defenses in a very short time and directly break through to the target’s face.”

“Yes, and at that time, we knew nothing about this…” Zhuan Xie Zun continued. “After Dou Mo barged in, he didn’t bother chatting with us. He punched through Bill’s body with his right hand, and at the same time used telekinesis with his left hand… crushing Billy’s body. With what he did in those two seconds, he made his intentions clear…”

“Seeing this situation, Zhuan Xie Zun immediately used all of his magic power, connected to the magic energy reserve device in the Detective Club, and borrowed this vast magical resonance power. He successfully suppressed Dou Mo’s next move.” At this time, Dian He Wang took over the conversation again and said, “In the next few seconds, I grabbed Billy and Bill and activated the rune array for emergency escape that I thought I would never use.” He paused for a second, and said in a deep tone, “Until the four of us were teleported out, Zhuan Xie Zun suppressed Dou Mo for a total of eight seconds. These eight seconds… have caused permanent damage to the magic source in his body, so he can only maintain this relatively ‘easy’ physiological form, only in this way… will his condition not deteriorate further.”

“And we…” At this time, Billy interjected in a timely manner. “You’ve all seen… my remaining head replaced Bill’s destroyed energy core, and his body solved the problem of my inability to move. Fortunately, my brother and I can communicate through some kind of sense that outsiders can’t hear, so there’s no obstacle in terms of communication.”

As he spoke, Bill’s display screen face also made an expression like (￣^￣), with an ambiguous meaning…

“However…” In the next sentence, Billy changed the topic. “The Court of Justice, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky… According to what I learned later, at the same time that Dou Mo attacked the Detective Club, the Court was also attacked. Attacking that side was a legion of redundant soldiers that had been improved by Twenty-Three…”