With curiosity in her heart, Nova silently pulled up on the helicopter’s control stick. Only then did she realize that, without noticing it, she had already returned to the air above the deserted island and was getting ready to land.

And just as Kevin’s group successfully pulled back, the Survivors on the eighteen ships that had stayed in that sea area still could not believe what they had just seen.

"I’m not seeing things, right? That armed helicopter pulled someone out of the sea, and it was even a human saved by the Eldritch Entities."

"That scene just now was insane. The armed helicopter and the drone swarm bombed those sea snakes together. Damn, that felt good."

"If we could have that kind of firepower too, we’d count as a strong force in this terrifying sea."

Raphael looked in the direction where the armed helicopter had disappeared, constantly calculating the direction with her pencil.

Soon, she drew a circle on the map, and the location happened to match the deserted island where Kevin was.

Seeing this, Raphael’s eyes went wide. "It really is them! Nova, Celula, Monchhichi... who exactly are you? Why are you so powerful, but your names have never appeared on the battle ranking?"

Putting aside weapons like the armed helicopter and the drone swarm, just that ability to release dark green smoke and command the Eldritch Entities to fight was already beyond most Survivors.

"Toti, this is way too strange." Raphael suddenly thought of a possibility. "Do you think it’s possible that Celula and Monchhichi are only messengers in charge of passing on information? The one who really led that battle just now might be someone else."

Toti shook her head, just as confused. "Raphael, you’re smarter than me. If you suspect it, then go check it."

At that moment, a Spectral Corsair Vessel suddenly appeared in this sea area.

Keston stood at the bow and looked at the terrible scene before him. His brows instantly tightened. "My god, did a huge battle just happen here? Why are there sea snake corpses everywhere... I wonder if they can be eaten."

Keston picked up a complete section of sea snake and brought it close to sniff it. A foul stink suddenly rushed into his nose.

[Sanity -3]

Pfft!

Pah!

Keston was choked by the stink and coughed again and again. He immediately threw away the sea snake corpse and cursed, "Pah! That fucking stinks!"

After saying that, he turned his head and looked at the ocean fishing vessel closest to him, then shouted at the Survivors on the deck, "Hey! Did any of you see a Two-Masted Sloop?"

Raphael heard the shout and quickly walked to the window.

She looked at the Spectral Corsair Vessel that had suddenly appeared and frowned. How did this guy show up?

With doubt in her mind, Raphael quickly glanced through the regional channel.

To her surprise, she found that among the dozen or so ships around them, not a single Survivor had noticed a Spectral Corsair Vessel passing by.

Still full of questions, Raphael called out on her own, "Who are you? Why are you looking for a Two-Masted Sloop?"

When Keston saw that someone had answered him, he raised his head on his own and took two steps back. "Woman, I can’t tell you my name. You’re too pretty. Get someone uglier to talk to me. Otherwise, Bella will have a problem with it."

Hearing this, Raphael directly rolled her eyes. "This guy must have some serious problem."

Annoyed, Raphael grabbed Toti and pulled her to the bow.

Toti stared at Keston from hundreds of meters away for a long while, then finally hollered, "Young man, before you ask questions, you should tell us your name."

Keston spotted Toti and gave a wide grin. "Old man, since you’re kinda ugly, I’ll tell you my name. I’m Keston, straight off the leaderboard."

Crack! Toti nearly stumbled backward, and the bottle by his side smashed to pieces.

He was angry about his looks getting roasted by a kid, but at the same time, he was blown away by just how strong this guy really was.

If Kevin was the clear leader, far ahead of all other Survivors, then Keston was the true frontrunner of the top tier.

The reason the Survivors split them up like that was pretty simple.

No one thought they could ever catch up to Kevin’s record.

Because of that, Keston had become the target everyone else was trying to chase down.

A lot of people looked up to him as a hero, while others saw him as the guy they needed to beat.

Soon, the Survivors on the deck started rushing to the front of the boat. They were super curious to see what their "hero" actually looked like.

A spotlight swung over and locked onto the Spectral Corsair Vessel.

Keston was wearing a lace stocking tied with a bow on his head. The whole sight left everyone completely stunned.

The crew members started muttering under their breath.

"This guy has to be nuts, right? Is that really Keston?"

"That’s the wildest outfit I’ve ever seen. No contest."

"I’m telling you, not even those Taliban guys look as wild as he does."

"Holy crap! What is even that outfit? Paris Fashion Week couldn’t be half as fancy as him."

The crew kept gossiping, and even the ships nearby started turning around to get a better look.

Since a lot of the Survivors were too far away, they climbed up the lookout towers, grabbing binoculars to stare and really see what Keston looked like.

But his look was just too much for anyone to handle. Pretty soon, the Area Channel turned into a massive roast session for Keston’s outfit.

The thing was, Keston was listening to the Area Channel too. As he read all the jokes about him, the veins on his forehead started popping out.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. Blue flames flared up all over his body, and his head twisted into a glowing skull shape. "Shoot down everyone who’s making fun of me!"

At his command, Survivor after Survivor suddenly stood up behind him.

Their faces were blank, their bodies stiff, but their moves were perfectly in sync.

They all raised their guns at the exact same time, aimed, and fired.

In one quick volley, seven or eight bullets flew straight for the lookout tower of a ship in the distance.

Bang! Blood sprayed everywhere. The Survivor standing on the lookout tower got his head blown clean off by a single bullet.

The moment they saw that, every Survivor in the area went completely silent.

The guy who just got headshotted was a full kilometer away from Keston’s ship.

To get a headshot with a rifle from that far away meant Keston’s crew were all elite marksmen.

Raphael never expected Keston to have so many tough guys following him. She instantly dropped her anger, her face turning serious. "Toti, tell him about the Two-Masted Sloop. We really need to avoid making enemies with him."

Toti stood at the front of the boat. He kept his nervous crew back while puffing out his chest and looking at Keston. "Hey kid, that look of yours is pretty wild. I’ll give you info on the Two-Masted Sloop, but can you tell your men to stop shooting?"

Keston heard the compliment and gave a satisfied nod.

Right after that, the Survivors behind him dropped their muskets.

That’s when Raphael noticed a Survivor’s elbow sticking out, showing a bare piece of bone.

Raphael’s eyes went wide, and she covered her mouth in shock. "Wait, are those marksmen behind him even alive?"

The thought sent a chill down her spine.

Meanwhile, Toti filled Keston in on the huge fight between the Two-Masted Sloop and the Mist Phantom King.

As soon as Keston heard the Two-Masted Sloop had sunk and the survivors were picked up by an armed helicopter, he panicked. "Damn it! Stephanie isn’t on that ship, is she? Kevin, if you dare leave Stephanie behind to save your own skin, I’ll kill you!"

The more he thought about it, the more nervous he got. He was terrified that Bella would take her anger out on him if something happened to Stephanie.

He put out the blue flames on his body, turned around without a second thought, and steered the Spectral Corsair Vessel in the direction the helicopter had flown.

Only now did the other Survivors notice the eerie blue flames flickering all over Keston’s ship. The huge sails weren’t pushed by the wind at all; they were being driven forward by actual ghosts.

After seeing that, no one dared to mess with Keston anymore. Even Toti had to admit to himself, "This kid is seriously hardcore."

Raphael walked over to stand next to Toti.

Standing at the bow, she watched the ship disappear and let out a sigh. "Yeah, he’s seriously ruthless. The only reason he’s ranked second on the leaderboard is probably because he killed his whole crew."

Hearing that, the other Survivors’ eyes nearly popped out. "Wait, what? He went insane? Those ghosts pushing the sails were his crew?"

Raphael just sighed. "Believe me. Those marksmen standing behind him were all zombies. They’ve been dead for a long time."

Her expression turned grim. "Stop staring and get to work. We need to bail out of this damn sea zone before dawn, and stay the hell away from Keston."

On the sandy beach of the deserted island, Nova guided the armed helicopter down for a slow landing.

She and Luna worked together to carry Kevin out of the cockpit.

That’s when Amelia, who had been waiting on the Two-Masted Sloop, showed up with Celula and Monchhichi. They crowded around right away.

Seeing Kevin out cold, Amelia didn’t bother calling Luna out on her messy clothes. She just asked, "What happened to him?"

Nova shot Luna a quick look and gave an awkward explanation. "Guess he was just... really tired."

Amelia rolled her eyes at that.

She had slept with Kevin plenty of times before.

Once she saw the marks all over Luna’s body, she figured it out.

The armed helicopter had been hovering for a full forty minutes. It was pretty obvious what Kevin and Luna had been doing up there.

Not wanting Amelia to drag this into another teasing conversation, Luna stepped in to explain. "Kevin got cursed by an Eldritch entity down in the ocean. I forced him to drink three bottles of Holy Spring just to hold the curse back, but he still isn’t fully himself."