Five minutes later, a figure slowly appeared in York and Fenriel's field of vision from the direction of the stilt house.

It was the snipers of the Matsuura Commercial Club team who came and went, and the sniper's eyes quickly searched around, and soon, like York, locked onto the hornet that was still hovering and flying in the air.

He took off the Barrett M82A1 anti-materiel sniper rifle that sold for as much as $70,000 in the international arms market and loaded the magazine with a 127-millimeter calibre, which was a few points thicker than an adult's finger, and weighed 47 grams of M33 standard sniper bullets. Raising the muzzle of the gun, it directly locked onto the hornet that still hovered and flew in the air without knowing the danger was coming.

"He's not going to use such a gun to fight a tiny hornet, is he?!"

This thought that made Fen Lier feel incredible just emerged from the bottom of her heart, so dull that the roar of a bazooka fire pierced her eardrums at a speed of 300 meters per second, and the flames sprayed from the muzzle of the gun were pulled out of the air more than three feet long, under Fen Li's stunned gaze, she could not move after being stung by a wasp just now, and she could even leave with the team without saying a word, as if nothing had happened to the sniper, and she really shot in a half-kneeling position!

Even as a "little white" in the military, Fen Lier can see that the Barrett M82A1, an anti-materiel sniper rifle that is 1.5 meters long, weighs more than 10 kilograms, has an effective range of up to 1,850 meters, and the bullet can fly more than 6,000 meters at most, is absolutely not suitable for shooting at the sky in a standing or half-kneeling position. Of course, no one will use this weapon to shoot a hornet less than ten meters away from them!

There was a peculiar smell of burnt flesh in the air, and when the smoke from the muzzle of the gun cleared in the wind, the hornet vanished. After doing all this, the sniper quietly hung Barrett's anti-materiel sniper rifle back on his shoulder, took a few steps to pick up the shell and put it in his pocket, bowed to York and Fenriel, who had been standing there watching what was happening, and then walked away without looking back.

Everything was calm again, as if nothing had happened just now.

York suddenly asked, "If such a person tells you that you are their 'closest friend', do you believe it?" ”

Fenriel didn't hesitate: "I don't believe it. ”

York smiled, and he said leisurely, "I don't believe it either." ”

When the fifth team was about to land on the island, York didn't immediately leave to greet him, his eyes fell on Fenriel's neck, "Can you tell me if you are wearing that small gold cross, is it an ornament, or do you have a religious belief?" ”

Feeling the doubt in York's gaze, Fenriel didn't talk nonsense, reached out and plucked the golden cross from her neck and threw it into the trash can at her feet.

"It's good not to have a religious belief, otherwise, you may be very disappointed and even sad to know the details of this pirate group."

York looked at the little gold cross that Fenriel had thrown into the trash can, and said softly, "Have you ever heard of the name 'Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta'?" ”

As a native of the United States, Fenrill had certainly heard the name: "They were the forerunners of the 'Horse Other' Hospitallers. ”

The Knights of the Independent Military Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta were founded in the twenties of the 12th century with the main mission of providing medicine and medical assistance to pilgrims and crusaders who went to the holy city of Jerusalem. As a medical force, they also possessed great military prowess and gradually grew into one of the three major orders of the Crusaders.

Such a knightly order established with the original intention of curing the sick and saving people should have adhered to the chivalric tradition and treated people with knightly creeds such as justice, fraternity, and compassion, but unfortunately, they were "paladins" with faith, so in that era of religious wars, they also had another black mission...... Hunt down Muslim ships and plunder!

The members of the Knights Hospitaller formed a pirate fleet on the seas, and with the zeal of religious fanatics, they attacked all the Muslim ships they could see on the seas, whether they were merchant ships, passenger ships, or warships.

As a "faithful" pirate group, they were supposed to launch the most crazy and bloody attack on the "infidels" on the sea, but the Knights Hospitaller did not do this, they preferred to force the target to stop sailing in a bloodless way, and obtain a complete ship and all the cargo and passengers, so they paid more attention to the number and power of the guns on the pirate ship to form a sufficient deterrent.

There is no need, these other knights and pirates who exercise the "power" of pirates in the name of God will never easily slaughter the passengers on the ship, because for them, the passengers are the most important wealth, the passengers of the rich families can be redeemed at a place designated by them in the Mediterranean, and the passengers who have no money can also bring back the horses and auction them off through the slave market.

The Knights Hospitaller, who had committed robbery in the name of God, lived steadily and prosperously until 1798, when they encountered their greatest predator...... Napoleon, the invincible commander who once led France across Europe!

Napoleon had always disliked "religious warriors", believing that the Knights Hospitaller was a good place for the children of the French nobility to idle and become pirates, and decided that if the French did not occupy the Knights, it would sooner or later become a base for the British.

With this in mind, in June 1798, Napoleon ordered an attack on the Knights Hospitaller, which had been in Malaysia for more than 200 years.

The other Knights Hospitaller were mortally battered and lost their territory, and a group of unwilling knights were forced to take to the land to find their direction in life. While they were missionaries in Germany, they became acquainted with Russell, a student of Yale University in the United States in 1833, who was very interested in the ideas put forward by the Knights Hospitaller, and preferred the Knights Hospitaller, which had absorbed too many French nobles in their 200-year history, and the ritualization, strict hierarchy and mystical nature unique to the Religious Order.

When Russell returned to the United States, he was disappointed to find that all the societies he could contact in the United States were dwarfed by those of the other Knights Hospitaller. In addition to his disappointment, Russell lobbied to gather all the best students from Yale's 1833 class to form the famous "Skull and Bones Society".

Since the "Skull and Bones Society" was created under the influence of the Knights Hospitaller, this Skull Guild is also known as the "Death Knights".

Such a secret organization that exists in the most famous universities in the United States only admits fifteen third-year college students every year, and the people who are qualified to stand out in the most famous universities in the United States and join the "Skull and Bones Society" must be super elites, although only fifteen people can join the club every year, and the number of members of the Skull and Bones Club who can live no matter what time it is, but the power that these people have is absolutely terrifying...... In less than 200 years of history, the Skull and Bones Society has produced three U.S. presidents, two Supreme Court officials, and countless cabinet members and lawmakers.

Today, the White House, the Cabinet, Congress, the Supreme Court and the CIA, the figure of Skull and Bones members are almost everywhere, for example, former US President George W. Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry fiercely compete for the US presidency, these two candidates come from different parties, have different political views and governance ideas, but they have the same background...... Members of the Skull and Bones Society!

John Kerry joined the Skull and Bones Society in 1965; Bush, on the other hand, joined the Skull and Bones in 1967, two years later.

Such a mysterious organization that has become a star by now, attracting countless elites to want to join, once joined, it is equivalent to getting a ticket to the top of the American power, their headquarters is set up on the Yale University campus, a three-story building with Greek temple architecture from the outside. The outer walls of the brown stone building are coiled with rattans, which looks almost eerie. Members who are eligible to enter and exit this small building affectionately refer to it as the "Tomb"

On the side wall of the "tomb", there is also a famous quote engraved, from which you can read the anger and resentment left behind by the Knights Hospitaller when they were attacked by Napoleon and lost their last stronghold: Who is the idiot and who is the wise? Whether it is a beggar or a king, the final destination is death!

By the way, at the beginning of the creation of the Skull and Bones Club, there was such a harsh and strange rule when recruiting members: members must be the children of wealthy families in the eastern United States, preferably immigrants from England, with aristocratic blood.

Now there are people who are debating whether the Skull will open the door to students who immigrate to the United States and be admitted to Yale University because Britain and France are feuding, in the Anglo-French War that broke out between 1756 and 1763, Britain won the victory, and countless British nobles have contributed to the country in that war.

If you hate the French, then like and treat their enemies well!

This way of thinking is indeed the same as that of the Paladin pirates of the other Hospitallers!

Relying on the "Skull and Bones Society", the "Horse Other" Hospitaller pirates, who had been fatally hit and should have perished together in human history due to the end of the Age of Discovery, miraculously survived to this day with the support of the students of the past realm. And in the United States, it has a pivotal position in the field of biomedicine and military industry.

Although they had not been in the "business" of piracy for two hundred years, the Knights Hospitaller still maintained the tradition of establishing the "Pirate Order". For them, the income from being a pirate is no longer worth mentioning, and what they value is the honor and responsibility of the other Knights Hospitaller, otherwise, how can their skeletons be called "Knights of Death"?!

(To be continued)