Chapter 96

After waiting a few minutes while six men gathered fruits from low-hanging branches, three pirates began jumping onto the branch. Seeing this, Bill felt even more confident, and when the three of them were airborne, he attacked.

Moving faster than lightning, Bill grabbed the first man and forcefully pulled him down, breaking his nose. Then, with smooth movements, he kneed the second pirate, knocked down the third with a powerful right hook, and finished the fourth with a vicious left uppercut. He skipped the fifth, who talked too much, and concluded the series with a wet headbutt to the last pirate.

The sixth received the most damage as he was caught in the path of Bill's movement through the entire group. Thrown a few body lengths away, Bill turned to face the pirate and grinned wildly.

"Buddy, we're going to have a little chat now."

Seeing only a blur of motion and then his fallen comrades, the pirate, whether they were dead or not, turned pale and, upon hearing Bill's words, collapsed to the ground.

Quickly peeling an orange with his teeth, Bill looked at the man he was interrogating while eating the orange whole. The citrus taste was just what he needed.

According to the man, who was so scared that Bill almost regretted knocking him out, he learned that this pirate convoy consisted of three different crews led by a great pirate named Demaro Black. Bill had never heard that name, but the pirate's legs stopped trembling only when he talked about the "Golden Rookie" and said that if Bill knew what was good for him, he'd better run.

"Rookie?"

Bill had never heard pirates referred to that way, and it didn't sit well with him. In his understanding, these people were robbers and murderers, not professional athletes.

Hearing this, Bill became more aggressive, and in less than five minutes of physical interrogation, he got the information he needed. It turned out this island was known among pirates as being remote enough to lack a Marine presence yet fertile enough to make for good plunder.

When Bill asked who started the fire, the pirate spat angrily and said it was the locals who caused the forest fire that killed some of their people. That's why they're now taking revenge by burning the village to the ground.

Bill didn't immediately understand whether this pirate was foolish for admitting to his crimes or simply didn't grasp the concept of revenge. In Bill's mind, retaliation couldn't be justified against actions taken in self-defense. People had the right to protect themselves.

This was the last thing the man said before Bill knocked him out. Of course, people don't have switch-offs... unless you press hard enough... so Bill did it carefully.

Now that Bill had the information, he had to decide whether to wait for reinforcements. After weighing his options, he ultimately decided to move forward. This Demaro Black might be strong, but if this pirate convoy was intent on killing, he couldn't stand by if there was even a ten percent chance to stop them.

Seeing how easily he dealt with these men and knowing he could escape if necessary, Bill decided the risk was justified. The man didn't know how many people were in the other pirate crews but claimed that his crew had one hundred and twenty members. Of course, not every pirate could be onshore at the same time. Bill quickly deduced that each ship left part of their team on board to guard their treasures. After all, these crews weren't allied, and trust between them was impossible.

Nonetheless, he estimated that he might face over two hundred pirates. As he pondered his next move and whether he could simply storm through the crowd of pirates and deal with them, Bill felt uncomfortably weak for the first time.

Bill had never dreamed of great achievements; it never occurred to him to become the "best" or "strongest" in anything. However, he had seen many powerful people and knew deep down that this world was fundamentally different from Earth.

On Earth, a strong man would almost always lose to three ordinary people. Since the difference between people wasn't that significant, numerical superiority played a significant role. In this world, though, a strong man could easily pass through a multitude of ordinary people, as one person could be exponentially stronger than another.

What frustrated Bill the most was that mere numerical superiority should have tied his hands! He thought about what his father would have done in this situation.

The answer was simple. In Bill's mind, his father would have directly confronted these criminals and captured them. This temporary feeling of weakness intensified because, although Bill knew that his father was strong, he was clearly not the most powerful man at sea. If his father could do it, why couldn't he?

Age or experience were not excuses for him. Now he stood on an island under attack; his abilities made it clear that he should help, yet they also restricted his actions.