Never Expected the Loudspeaker Trick

Ruidio's surroundings changed, and once again he was transported from a remote little village in the East Blue to the desert kingdom on the Grand Line.

Fortunately, Rain Dinners, the casino where Crocodile was based, stood in Rainbase, a large oasis city in the desert. Its climate wasn't all that different from the East Blue's.

This time, however, Ruidio didn't appear in Crocodile's mysterious office. Instead, he found himself in the bustling casino lobby.

All around him was a cacophony: excited shouts, ecstatic laughter, angry roars, the electronic sounds of slot machines, the clatter of dice...

Ruidio's sudden appearance out of thin air startled a gambler who happened to be passing by.

But the people here were ordinary folk with little experience of the wider world. With so many extraordinary people out there, they would only assume their eyes had played tricks on them and they hadn't seen how an expert had moved in front of them. That was all. Ducking their heads, they stepped aside.

Ruidio paid it even less mind. He looked around, spotted a burly, two-meter-tall man in a suit standing beside a gaming table like a bodyguard, and beckoned him over. "Get your boss."

The casino was so big. How was he supposed to remember where Crocodile had hidden his office?

The burly bodyguard looked at him and whispered a few words to his companion. The companion left, and soon a casino manager came over with a practiced smile plastered across his face. "May I ask who you are, sir...?"

The burly bodyguard's feet suddenly left the floor, and he flew into the air in terror.

Ruidio swung the man around with one hand, sweeping the smiling manager and a whole crowd of gamblers and bodyguards away as if he were clearing out trash. Bang, bang, bang...

"Are you deaf?" He kicked a giant slot machine flying. "I said get your boss, the Shichibukai Crocodile."

The slot machine flew with such force that it buried itself deep in a stone pillar in the lobby, spraying tokens everywhere with a clatter. But not one of the people swept aside dared step forward to pick them up.

Could anyone who dared wreck a Shichibukai's place be ordinary?

Everyone present fell silent and watched.

Behind Ruidio, a beautiful eye with a faintly purple iris gazed at him from afar, set in another stone pillar adorned with gold and silver. Soon, the lovely eye quietly broke apart into pink petals that drifted gently away.

Before long, another team of men in professional black suits parted the growing crowd of onlookers and politely escorted Ruidio away.

"Please, the boss's office is this way." People politely pointed out the way throughout the journey.

Ruidio strode straight in and pushed open the ostentatious doors at the end of the corridor, which for some reason looked as though they'd just been hastily repaired. The moment they opened, an endless torrent of raging sand howled toward him.

An ambush!

Crocodile knew what it meant to be a pirate. Once he decided to deal with a target, he didn't care whether his methods were honorable or underhanded. Lying in wait behind the doors, he opened with a deadly attack from his Logia Sand-Sand Fruit. He intended to wrap this ignorant brat in a mass of sand and squeeze him into a lump of minced meat while he was still alive!

But what answered him was the shadow of a staff swinging straight at him.

Bang!!

The staff shot out and slammed into Crocodile, whose entire body had turned into thick yellow sand. It actually struck his physical body squarely. Caught off guard, Crocodile spurted blood as he was whipped backward, crashing through his luxurious solid-wood desk inlaid with gold and silver.

"Seastone?!"

Crocodile lay somewhat disheveled on the shattered desk, glaring at the Three-Section Staff in Ruidio's hand at the doorway. "You're not a Devil Fruit User?" he said coldly.

"Let's keep things civil, all right?" Ruidio said. "Crocodile, I really did come to negotiate."

Chapter 24: Never Expected the Loudspeaker Trick

"You're not an honest man, so..."

They sat in chairs facing each other. Ruidio held one section of the Seastone Three-Section Staff and tossed the other end to Crocodile, whose expression was less than pleased and whose eye was twitching slightly.

Crocodile gripped the section of the Three-Section Staff with his only remaining healthy hand, his right.

Seastone contained the energy of the sea, and as a Devil Fruit User, he immediately felt weak all over.

But he couldn't possibly show weakness in front of the brat across from him. Forcing himself to maintain an imposing air, he clenched his cigar between his teeth and said impatiently, "If you want the drought across this entire country to end, save your breath. It's impossible."

Ruidio smiled faintly. "What about ending the drought in just one town?"

"Which one?"

"Yuba."

"That place..." Crocodile glanced due south. The former oasis town lay directly south of Rainbase, where they were now.

After a moment's thought, he said calmly, "That depends on how credible your information is. Why should I believe you know where the Ancient Weapon is?"

Ruidio shook his head. "Why all the hemming and hawing? What's wrong with you? You've seen what I can do. Would I sell you false information? Don't I have a reputation to maintain? Who are you, Crocodile, to deserve a lie from me? The fact that you're willing to sit down, hold this piece of Seastone, and negotiate with me already shows where you stand. Why go through all this? Has running a casino rotted your brain? Do you really think you're a businessman now?"

"..."

Crocodile's face darkened, and he nearly bit through his cigar. He stared at the brat across from him, who really did seem utterly confident. "What makes you so sure I won't turn on you once I have the information?"

Ruidio smiled. "And you say you don't believe me. You're already worried I'll be afraid of you turning on me and won't dare hand over the information, aren't you? Don't worry. You might be after this Pluton, but I don't care about it. If you turn on me, then forget it. Do you think I care that much?"

It was a four-star mission. He did care quite a bit, actually.

But if he couldn't finish the mission this time, at worst he could spend a couple of years growing stronger, kill Crocodile in a head-on fight, and complete it then...

And if he failed to amount to anything and really couldn't beat him, he'd damn well call the World Government and report him! With an Ancient Weapon involved, surely the Five Elders would be willing to take care of it despite their busy schedules.

Being looked down on by a junior left Crocodile in an awkward position. If the brat were an enemy, he'd kill him no matter what and drain him dry with his right hand before he felt satisfied. But the brat knew something about an Ancient Weapon... He had to endure it!

His face was full of displeasure. "All right! You can tell me where Pluton is."

Why don't you beg me? At least that might trigger a mission.

Ruidio thought it over. Crocodile looked as if his temper was about to explode, so Ruidio decided not to push him any further. He took out the rough map of the terrain he'd drawn at Kaya's house earlier.

"..."

Crocodile pinned the paper down with the Golden Hook on his left arm, turned it around, and glanced at it. A mountain was surrounded by two... by a ring of high walls, with the interior submerged in seawater.

He looked up at Ruidio.

"This is a cross-sectional map of Wano Country," Ruidio said. "The level at the top of the walls is present-day Wano Country, and at the very bottom of the water are the ruins of old Wano Country from a past era. The Ancient Weapon Pluton you're looking for is hidden in those ruins."

Crocodile studied it, his cigar between his teeth. "It's that simple?"

Ruidio laughed. "You're pretty cocky. Don't you know whose territory Wano Country is now?"

Hearing that, Crocodile truly looked at the brat across from him with newfound respect. He was so young and didn't seem all that strong, yet he knew about Kaido?

"Just Kaido!"

Crocodile leaned back and blew out a cloud of cigar smoke. "Is he such a big deal?"

Impressive. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were one of the exalted God's Knights.

Ruidio solemnly gave him a thumbs-up.

"Does Kaido know?" Crocodile couldn't resist asking.

How am I supposed to remember such a trivial detail from the manga? It's impressive enough that I could draw the map!

"Do you really think I know everything?" Ruidio said disdainfully. "You're so cocky, go to Wano Country and ask Kaido yourself. Ask him if he knows Pluton's hidden in his territory. I wouldn't dare ask him, anyway."

Crocodile was silent. For some reason, being snapped at like that actually reassured him a little. Instead, he found the brat's words far more credible.

"All right, that's that."

Ruidio stood up, still holding the Seastone Three-Section Staff in his left hand. Smiling, he said, "Since we've reached an agreement, we people of the sea won't bother signing some useless contract. Whether we keep it depends entirely on whether we have any shame! Come on, let's shake on it."

With that, he extended his right hand to Crocodile.

"..."

Crocodile was holding the Seastone in his right hand. He looked at his left hand, which he'd lost years ago and replaced with a golden hook.

"Haha, just kidding." Ruidio patted Crocodile's right hand, which was holding the Seastone Three-Section Staff, with his own right hand.

Three, two, one.

[Name: Crocodile]

[Overall strength: ★★★★]

You really are four-star strength?

Your name really is Crocodile???

What happened to Ivankov changing your sex and you changing your appearance to hide your true identity? Everyone online said so. That's what we agreed on!

Or... does the system only recognize the name someone identifies with?

With that small doubt in mind, Ruidio once again used a winding-path jump and returned to the peaceful East Blue, the peaceful Syrup Village, and the peaceful home of the local wealthy family.

Of course, Crocodile couldn't possibly let him touch him for a full thirty seconds. So whether Crocodile knew Haki would have to remain a mystery this time...

"Mr. Ruidio, where did you go? It's time to change your dressings."

The butler, Merry, found him and breathed a sigh of relief. Ruidio was this household's greatest benefactor. If nobody could restrain him, they would have made him stay in bed until his wounds had healed completely, without a single scar, before allowing him to get up.

He let Merry change his dressings and wrap fresh bandages around his body.

"Your wounds have really almost healed already," Kaya said in surprise. She seemed very interested in medical care. "Ruidio, your body is amazing."

No, it's not me. It's the supreme big bandage.

Ruidio smiled and leaned back on the bed. After Merry and Kaya had both left, he closed his eyes and rested for a while. Then he used the Three-in-One System to get some food, clapped his hands, and selected Robin's mission again.

I refuse to believe it won't work today. Transport me!

Grand Line, Alabasta—

The outskirts of the oasis city of Rainbase—

"Where have I ended up this time?"

Ruidio looked at the buildings before him. He couldn't identify their style, much less tell where he'd been transported this time.

You naturally evil Devil Child, why are you wandering around for no reason?!

But she had to be somewhere nearby.

That was what he'd learned from being transported for other ultra-long-distance missions.

Ruidio didn't want to make another trip for nothing. As he walked along the streets on the outskirts, looking at the few scattered passersby, an idea suddenly came to him.

A few minutes later, Ruidio used the power of money to hire several passersby and hauled them up to the roof of a fairly tall building.

They gathered around him, and he handed them several loudspeakers he'd just shaped from sheet metal with his bare hands.

"What exactly does the thing you want us to shout mean?"

One of the passersby who'd taken the money was puzzled. The person beside him elbowed him. "Who cares what it means? For this much money, I'd even imitate a Kung Fu Dugong."

"Good point, haha." The others laughed and raised the handmade loudspeakers to their mouths. Each took a deep breath and shouted at the top of their lungs:

"Dereshishishi!" "Dereshishishishi!" "Dereshishi!" "Dereshishishi!" "Dereshishishi!" "Dereshishishishishishishi!" "Dereshishishi!" "Dereshishishishishi!"...

The voices gradually began to resonate, merging into one across the surrounding outskirts and assaulting everyone's ears.