A shiver ran through him!

Alek snapped out of his past reminisces, using his years of experience as a pirate captain to deduce that this must have been the sound of at least twenty cannons firing in unison.

The structure of warships equipped with cannons on both sides in this era determined that they could never fully unleash their firepower in naval battles. Conservatively estimated, this battleship must have at least forty shipborne artillery pieces!

"Is that battleship catching up again?!"

Instinctively, Alek struggled to sit up as a captain, but quickly realized that he was no longer the captain of the "Demon Monkey."

Moreover, even if he were still captain, his "Demon Monkey" had already been trapped by a battleship in the shallow waters near the small island, leaving no suspense about the outcome.

Poof—

He lay back down heavily on the beach, exhaling weakly. Relieved of his captain's responsibilities, Alek felt that this was the most relaxed he's ever been in his pirate career.

Listening to the rumbling artillery in the distance, he closed his eyes, for the first time finding even the sound of cannon fire not so jarring.

Perhaps just the effort to sit up had drained too much of his energy; shortly after, Alek began to snore, falling into a deep sleep...

'Is my once-treasured pirate ship about to be sunk by the Navy? Ha, who cares, it no longer concerns me, snore zZ'

Boom—

The heavy artillery easily breached the "fragile" hull of the pirate ship.

"Not good! Two hits below the waterline, the cabin is flooding!"

"Quick, quick, get the ship moving! We can't stay here!"

"..."

Just a mere kilometer away, the "Storm Horn," passing by without any concealment, was entirely unnoticed by the pirates busy with their heated crew meeting.

Because the lookout, who should have been on duty, was unwilling to forfeit his precious "democratic voting rights," he wasn't at his post at all!

By the time they realized they needed to flee after the first round of shelling, they were already blockaded by the battleship in the shallow waters near the island.

Thus, the newly "democratically elected" captain hadn't even had a chance to exercise his rights before disastrously running into Aiven's artillery, suffering the battleship's relentless bombardment!

However, at this time, even if it wasn't already on Ilya's wanted list, it probably couldn't escape Aiven's "devilish grasp"!

"Ha, the bounty is only five hundred for the 'Demon Monkey' that doesn't even have a formal Transcendent? Even a mosquito is meat.

No captives! No spoils! Close to a hundred meters, switch to 'Scorching Bullet' and fire all remaining shells at me!"

"Yes, sir!"

The officers remained expressionless; at this moment, their captain was truly terrifying. Wasn't it just a pirate ship and some possible spoils?

In comparison, the captain's mood was a bit more important...

The outcome was predictable; under the formidable firepower of the battleship, the "Demon Monkey," which lacked even the ability to counterattack and was practically a sitting duck, didn't last twenty minutes before disintegrating in the raging fire.

The pirates who managed to jump ship and escape were directly shot by navy soldiers with firearms as they were surrounded by boats.

In the end, the pirate crew was completely annihilated.

Having finally vented a bit of suppressed emotion, the "Storm Horn" retracted its searing cannon and turned its bow to break the waves and sail away.

On the sea, only the continuously burning, slowly sinking wreckage remained, along with the buried ambitions of the new pirate captain—and, of course, a barely surviving former captain...

After the battleship departed, more than half a day passed.

By dusk, the waves lapped the white sand beach, the tide surging onto the shore, awakening Alek from his slumber on the beach again.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough..."

Having not eaten or drunk anything for nearly a day, Alek was too weak to move, staring wide-eyed at the distant sea horizon where the setting sun seemed to ignite the ocean.

"How beautiful!"

Even if there was a sliver of hope to recover his health, as an old pirate, Alek would find a way to rescue himself.

But to evade the navy, he had been delayed at sea for too long, and his injuries had reached an irreversible state. Even if he wasn't exiled, he wouldn't last a few more days.

"Chirp... squeak..."

Beside him, the bewildered mixed-fur monkey Little Jack, unaware that his master's remaining life had begun its countdown, continued to play happily with a small crab, never straying far and always staying by his master's side.

Boom—

The sea suddenly exploded with a loud splash.

Seeing the new presence on the sea, Little Jack bared his teeth and let out terrified cries: "Ahh oh! Ahh oh!..."

Alek still lay on the beach without any reaction, what does anything happening in the outside world have to do with someone like him who is about to die? It's just a shame for Little Jack, hopefully there will be another monkey on this deserted island to keep it company.

It wasn't until the sound of water gradually approached, and some enormous creature "plop plop" climbed onto the beach with its tail, that Alek struggled to slightly turn his head, only to meet a pair of dull pupils marked with a black pentagram.

"Cough cough... God of Black Wings above! This way of dying is a bit too thrilling!"

A shark's gaping maw was already coming to bite him.

...

Clang.. Clang.. Clang...

On a small beach at the Gabred Military Port, the intense clashing sound of sword blades formed an unbroken line.

"Do not seek speed blindly, a precise strike is more useful than three crude ones."

Aiven wielded a blunt training iron sword, skillfully parrying Gary's swift and ferocious attacks.

In this world, Extraordinary Swordsmanship is the mainstream, even someone like Aiven who copied half of the "Shadow Library" couldn't find a technique in his storage that would allow an Axe Warrior to break through to the extraordinary.

Thus, Gary is currently majoring in "Phaletis Saber Technique (Advanced Version)", which allows him to make continuous progress on the path of the Extraordinary Knight. Just that his personal weapons now include two war axes, one long and one short, which allow him to fully exploit his strength after entering "Frenzy"!

Having now completed the extraordinary transformation and fought consecutively at sea for several months, Gary's physical data has undergone a massive transformation compared to the once green "Wild Boar Warrior."

Name: Gary Fafman

Gender: Male

Military Rank: Captain/Boatswain (Assigned to Phaletis Kingdom Third Fleet Battleship 'Storm Horn')

Identity: Official Knight

Attributes: Constitution 1.78

Strength 1.76

Agility 1.69

Skills: Advanced Phaletis Saber Technique (Beginner) Nautical Knowledge (Beginner)

Notably, on the second day after returning to port, with Milan's assistance, Gary smoothly passed the promotion exam, being elevated to Captain Officer and Official Boatswain! Others received different rewards based on their military merits.

Now, Gary has shed the various imperfections from his acquired development and the new and old injuries inside-out, his already outstanding height further extended. Instead of appearing awkward, he became increasingly more robust and heroic, even his originally plain face now appeared somewhat masculine and impressive.

That's putting other things aside.

Just the "Extraordinary Transformation" effect like an all-encompassing "beauty treatment" attracted many to flock to it, although the premise is being able to bear the cost of either death or losing control after failure!

Since Gary already possesses the essence of the extraordinary, what Aiven is doing now is quickly making up for his shortfall in swordsmanship skills due to the short training time.

After all, his flagship has been replaced with the battleship "Storm Horn", and according to convention, a battleship is equipped with two extraordinaries, so at this time Gary must quickly become capable of handling things independently.

However, even under the precise control of "Data Visualization", it took Aiven nearly two years to complete the qualitative transformation of swordsmanship level from "Beginner" to "Mastery".

Aiven does not expect Gary to complete such a qualitative change in a short time, reaching the degree of using Swordsmanship Secret Technique. But at least he must be able to fully unleash his strength and not waste "Frenzy", such a powerful combat skill.

Subsequently, the sparring of the two restarted.

Today is the third day since "Storm Horn" returned to port. Having repaired ships, replaced sails, and replenished ammunition stock at Digard Island Navy Base, the time left for "Storm Horn" was limited, so Aiven immediately ordered a return to port, coming back to Gabred at the fastest speed.

And the end date for the pirate hunting operation is two days later, as of today all the participating pirate-hunting warships have returned, except for.... those that will never return.

There are always various risks at sea, even a powerful battleship going out to sea cannot guarantee a 100% victorious return.

Besides technical limitations, it is also the harsh natural environment and the existence of various extraordinary creatures that greatly delayed the pace of human Great Navigation exploration.

The Great Navigation has been going on for nearly two hundred years, the world map humans have discovered is still very limited, they haven't even managed to complete a circumnavigation like Aiven's previous life, nor do they have a basic understanding of this world's overall appearance.

Even if the age progresses, and large-scale launch of steam-powered ironclad ships, like Aiven's previous life, humanity still might not dare to claim they have conquered the seas.

Especially hunting pirates, a task that pursues danger and death even more actively, out of the ten warships that set out from the Third Fleet, only eight returned successfully, with even three of them gaining nothing.

And even the once powerful and confident battleship before setting sail only ranked twenty-third in the Six-Nation total list. The embarrassment was such that it quickly took a new task on the New Continent line for escort duty without waiting for the final results after returning to port.

Even though Aiven's team currently ranks first with 15,300 Golden Lions, actually they only hunted down six pirate ships within the wanted range. This achievement came with the result of the Sea Bird's detection network spanning over fifty kilometers plus divination art and various fortuitous incidents.

Going around for three months without any gain is indeed not rare.

So even though there are two days left until the deadline, most people believe that the title of "Navy New Star" has been thoroughly determined.

A certain youngest captain in naval history has been crowned with laurels, becoming the biggest winner, and even a new banner for the Kingdom Navy in the coming years or even decades!

However.

Some people do not think so, at least not completely...