Hitman with a Badass System

Meanwhile, back in the forge, Michael finished forging everything he needed to use the torpedoes and prepared to leave. He put out the fire in the furnace while Elidyr put the torpedoes in the space ring. To snuff out the flames, Michael had to pull the lever beside the furnace down. As soon as he pulled it down, a chilling stream of frost fired out of the ancient ice core and put out the flames.

"Let's go," Michael said. Elidyr nodded and walked toward the portal to leave the forge. After they entered the portal, a strange sensation ran through their bodies. The sudden drop in the temperature affected their bodies and minds. It took Elidyr a few moments to feel normal. On the other hand, when they stepped out of the portal, Michael saw Gaya was waiting for them with Azazel.

"We have a situation," Gaya creased her brows. She didn't even bother to inquire with them about the portal or the forge. Michael knew something was amiss.

"What happened?" Michael asked.

"Do you remember the ghost ships that's been attacking our ship in the southern continent?" Gaya asked Michael as he nodded. Corey complained about these ships at the gathering. Apparently, these ships were using hit-and-run tactics with the backup of killing themselves in case someone managed to capture them. Before leaving for the demons grave, Michael ordered Corey to get to the bottom of it and unwrap the mystery behind those unknown ships. But judging by the look on Gaya's face, he could tell these ships had appeared once again.

"They sank one of our ships a few minutes ago," said Gaya.

"You should see this, my lord," Azazel handed over the tablet-sized mirror in his hand to Michael.

The mirror flickered for a moment before showing Michael a calm sea from the point of view of someone near the rudder.

"Captain, we have spotted a ghost ship," Michael saw a dark-skinned man in the mirror.

"After a few attacks, Corey asked me for Spyders so she could monitor every captain under her command," Gaya explained to Michael why the ship captain was wearing a Spyder. He totally focused in the mirror, searching for the ghost ship.

"Ghost ship spotted!" Michael saw the pirate atop the crow's nest pointing at the horizon. Soon, the pirate captain turned his gaze toward the direction the pirate pointed.

"Get to the good point," said Gaya and slid her fingers through the mirror as the feed in the mirror played faster. She removed her hands from the mirror when a gray ship sailed beside the pirate captain's ship. The feed was not stable as he was covering down from cover. Still, Michael was able to pause the feed and take a clear look at the hostile ship.

This frigate in the mirror had a grayish hull, sails with no crest or emblem, and a crew completely covered from head to toe. If Michael wasn't a blacksmith, he would have missed the complex build of the ship. Although it looked like a typical frigate, the ship was built differently. For example, the hull had tiny holes the size of a fist under every hull cannon. On top of that, the cannons on the upper deck were different from typical cannons. They were built in a rectangular shape instead of a conical shape.

"I AM NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!"

Michael saw the pirate captain standing up and running toward the rope despite the bombardment. He grabbed the rope, swinging toward the ghost ship. The feed distorted in the mirror before everything turned blue.

"When did this happen exactly?" asked Michael.

"Five minutes ago. Big Bertha was sailing nearby, so I ordered them to head to the ambush location," said Gaya. Her eyes glimmered with killing intent, and one could literally feel the cold murderous aura around her.

"They will pay for what they did," Michael calmly said.

He extended his palm toward Elidyr as the elf removed the space ring containing the torpedo from his finger and placed it on Michael's palm.

Without uttering a word, Gaya stepped closer to him and waited for him to activate the teleportation. Thanks to the runic teleportation, Michael was able to directly reach the Big Bertha in a blink of an eye.

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"Full sails, full sails!" Short was running around Big Bertha's upper deck, ordering his crew around. As a quartermaster to the temporary captain of Big Bertha, Corey had quite an authority among the pirates. Shorty didn't earn his position by simply being cute or bootlicking but through his hard work. Michael and Gaya were impressed when he completely stopped drinking and cultivated diligently for the past year. The olympus around Shorty's wrist was a symbol of his hard work and a painful reminder to anyone who dares to mess with him.

Usually, the Big Bertha would be anchored at Corey's island and rarely sailed the seas. However, when Corey heard about another attack and the Dark Queen's order, she sailed to where the ambush happened. Since they were alone, Gaya hoped the ghost ships might try to attack Big Bertha. Unlike Fairbank's crew, the Big Bertha crew was trained to be on guard always. Among the pirates, they lived the longest and had the most battle experience. Coupled with Corey's talents in the rudder, Big Bertha could be ranked as one of the most powerful ships in the world.

"Captain, I can see some debris on the water," Shorty came running to Corey and said.

"Lower the sails," Corey's order surprised Shorty and the crew. They were certain that Corey would order them to raise the sails to gain maximum speed. But on the contrary, she ordered them to lower the sails. Despite the shocking order, Shorty nodded as the crew pulled down the ropes, lowering the black sail with a crimson red skull painted on the center.

The ship gradually lost its speed, and since the wind was against them, they almost came to a halt. Meanwhile, the crew loaded the cannons and the mortar on the front of the deck. Once they could see the ghost ship, they would bombard it with all the firepower they had. As they slowly sailed toward the sea, where Corey noticed black smoke emanating. Big Bertha sailed toward the debris at a snail's pace.

Suddenly, Corey felt a strong gust of wind blow past her. She quickly turned around to see the Dark lord appear out of thin air with the Dark Queen.

"My lord, my lady," Corey quickly bowed toward Michael and Gaya.

"Captain is onboard!" Shorty roared as he ran toward Michael and Gaya. He smiled from ear to ear, looking at them. Michael acknowledged Shorty with a friendly nod.

Corey was about to say something when Michael ascended into the air and landed on the crow's nest.

"Let's see where you are," Michael muttered to himself as his pupils shrunk to the size of a tiny dot. His perception swept across the sea. Michael closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on the Environmental Scanning. A few seconds later, Michael's eyes abruptly opened. He slowly turned around to see a ship far away on the horizon. The ship was too far for normal eyesight or even for the spyglass. But Michael could see the ship sailing with no crest or symbol on its sails. It was the same ship that sank Fairbank's ship. There was no doubt in Michael's mind.

Michael's eyes completely turned pitch black, and then his pupils glowed like rubies for a moment.

"Turn around the ship and sail to the southwest," Michael's voice echoed through the ship.

Following Michael's order, Gaya ascended into the air and floated to Michael's side.

"Did you find it?" asked Gaya, her eyes glimmering with intense murdering intent.

Michael nodded.

"I'll see how they hit and run this time," Michael snickered.

"Just sail toward it as slow as you can. Let them come to us. I have a surprise for them,"

Gaya nodded as Michael leaped from the crow's nest into the water. Under the water, everything turned dark blue. Michael willed the APD to inject a pill into his bloodstream that would allow him to breathe underwater.  He moved through the water like a shark until he reached the very bottom of Big Bertha. His eyes turned black, shooting dark beams at the hull. Countless bubbles appeared around the dark beams as the beams vaporized the water in an instant.

Deep orange lines appeared in the black hull everywhere the dark beams touched. Michael cut a three-meter long and two-meter wide piece of hull and took out a tubular pipe from his space ring. The silver metal pipe perfectly fitted into the hole Michael had just carved out. After placing the pipe into the hole, Michael closed the hole once again with the wood and swam to the other side to repeat the same process. Michael spent the next fifteen minutes moving along with the ship and fitting Big Bertha with the torpedo gun.

Now that he had finished installing the guns, Big Bertha had two unique shots, the mortar, and the torpedoes. Compared to the mortar, the torpedo had five times the range. Plus, when aiming at the target using the mortar, it created a red spotlight which was called the red death by the Itholan people. Contrary to the mortar, the torpedo had no indicators visible to the enemies. Any ship that was unfortunate enough to meet the torpedo would get obliterated without even knowing what hit them. This made the torpedoes the perfect weapon to use against the ghost ships.

Back on the upper deck, Shorty and some of the crew kept staring into the ocean, wondering how in the hell the Dark Lord was staying in the water for so long.

"Hey look," the pirate next to Shorty pointed at the horizon, where Shorty noticed a lone ship.

"Wait for the Dark Lord's orders!" Corey shouted when she saw the crew agitating to man the cannons and bombard the ghost ship to pieces. Even Corey had a difficult time rotating the rudder instead of firing the mortar. However, the Dark Queen ordered them to stay calm and let the ghost ship attack them from a safe distance. If what Gaya learned about these ghost ships were true, they wouldn't dare to enter into close combat with Big Bertha. They knew about the red death. Therefore, they would try to hit and run while keeping themselves out of the mortar's range.

As they were sailing toward the ghost ship, Michael shot out of the water and landed right beside Corey.

"Put these on," Michael handed over black goggles to Gaya and asked her to wear them.

"Okay," Gaya had no idea what it was, but she wore them as everything around her dimmed due to the black glass. Then, Michael gave her a conical wooden piece with a button on top. Gaya grabbed the wood and placed her thumb on the button.

"Time for some payback," Michael cracked his neck, looking at the ghost ship in the distance.