"Oh?" Balazs turned his head, looking curious. What interesting things could one encounter on Broken Island?
"You didn’t co this ti, so you don’t know. A Pirate Gang landed on the Island, and their target was us."
"According to the information we obtained from interrogation, so of your recent shipnts supposedly included valuable items, unlike before. However, I don’t think that’s enough to make them go to such lengths. Perhaps so of your crew provided information they shouldn’t have."
Hearing Alka’s words, Balazs frowned.
"A Pirate Gang, huh... Among the traitors, there was indeed one person connected with a group of pirates. Did their captain have a scar running from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth?"
Alka nodded. The captain he had eliminated did indeed have such a feature.
"The Bone-Crushing Pirates. Just a bunch of cowardly scum without any real skill."
"I’m sorry. It was our issue that put you in danger," Balazs apologized earnestly.
Alka waved his hand, indicating it was nothing. "It didn’t cause any real danger. Nothing to worry about."
Besides, Alka had only needed to give the captain a little thought; the other pirate mbers were simply trash.
Just then, Balazs suddenly thought of sothing. Slowly raising his hand, his Pocket Ring flashed gently, and half a Human Skin Map appeared in his grasp.
"Did you get this map from him?"
Alka looked at the map. He hadn’t expected the other half to be with Balazs. Quite a coincidence, indeed.
He, too, revealed the other half-map he possessed.
Seeing this, Balazs looked pleasantly surprised and said with a smile, "Well, this is interesting." He then explained, "The traitor connected with this Pirate Gang because their leader had taken a fancy to this half-map I possess."
"I didn’t pay it much attention at first. I never expected such a coincidence."
Alka listened, sipping his drink, his finger gently tapping on the Human Skin Map. The map was currently face down, its front covered by Alka on the table.
The atmosphere between them grew quiet. Balazs seed to have sobered up a little, and he was contemplating sothing.
"Well then, friend, any interest in collaborating?" Balazs asked, pushing his half of the map forward.
Alka looked at him and asked directly, "If you don’t mind, could you tell a bit about this map?" As he spoke, Alka turned over his own map, aligning it with the one Balazs had pushed over.
Seeing Alka’s sincere gesture, Balazs no longer held anything back. "This Human Skin Map," he said, "was peeled from the body of a Pirate Gang leader twenty years ago. He was quite infamous in the Broken Sea Region around Southern Cross Island. He was utter scum, specializing in looting rchant ships and attacking immigrants on various islands. Yet, this activity also garnered him astonishing wealth."
"He was cautious and ruthless. To avoid revealing his whereabouts, he often destroyed entire ships and sank them. The number of lives he took was countless."
"Even after being caught, he refused to reveal where he hid his Treasure, right up to his death. Intriguingly, his entire body was covered in tattoos."
"After his death, two patches of skin mysteriously vanished from his corpse, from different locations." As he spoke, he pointed to the two pieces of the Human Skin Map on the table.
It was clear that although the map pieces fit together, there were obvious differences in their drawing style, skin tone, and texture, indicating they weren’t from the sa area of skin.
"One of these skin map pieces ca as a complintary gift when I acquired a certain Treasure. I was quite interested in it at first, but I could never find the other half, so I eventually gave up."
"This wealth might compensate for my losses, or even allow my trading firm to grow further." Balazs looked at Alka, awaiting his response. He thought Alka probably wouldn’t refuse. After all, they were a Treasure Hunting Team, weren’t they?
Alka appeared to be in deep thought, his fingers gently tapping on the map. In fact, he had already identified the Treasure’s location on the map with a re blink. There was only one point. A golden pillar of light... according to the system’s information, this definitely wasn’t just a single Treasure. It would surely co with significant additional wealth. And the place his finger tapped was precisely this golden spot.
[Bloody Treasure]
[Difficulty: Seeker (Third Stage)]
[Fa: 86,000]
[Treasure Information: A Treasure hidden by a despicable pirate. This was his life’s haul—ill-gotten gains stained with the blood and souls of innocents. The Treasure is hidden in an unexpected place, a location secure enough that only he knew of it.]
Since it was a golden light, Alka was definitely going for it. The problem was, the information he currently had was insufficient. He didn’t even know the pirate’s na. And most importantly, he didn’t know which Island this map pointed to. Even with the two pieces joined, the map only depicted a small area, giving no clue as to the overall shape of any Island. The golden point of light was clearly marked within a very specific section of this area. Without that marked point, it would be impossible to discern anything from this map. As for the Treasure Information stating it was hidden in an ’unexpected place’—if it was so clearly marked, how unexpected could it truly be? The only real concern was determining which Island this map fragnt belonged to.
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