Fish-Men's Conspiracy

Ling Donglai was not a pirate who had to sail the Grand Line, so the Navy's most serious threat did not exist for him.

Besides, the Navy's main forces were all stationed around the Grand Line. Even if he killed Captain Nezumi, so what?

It was not as though they could send an admiral to wipe him out.

Still, if he did not take the Grand Line, traveling to other seas would be somewhat troublesome.

But with enough strength, that would not be a problem.

"A mere pirate dares not kneel and beg for mercy at the sight of the Navy? Get him! Capture him!"

Captain Nezumi stared at Ling Donglai. After giving the order, he immediately ran back to the ship. The marines had long grown accustomed to their captain's mannerisms and pretended not to notice his actions. Grinning viciously, they raised their muskets at Ling Donglai.

Bang! Bang, bang, bang...

A dense barrage of bullets shot toward Ling Donglai.

"Can such feeble attacks really put me under pressure?"

Ling Donglai continuously twisted and turned amid the hail of bullets, predicting and evading them. Even when he could not dodge in time, he simply caught them with his bare hands.

He closed in on a marine and punched him in the head, making the man's eyes roll back as he fainted on the spot.

Then came the roaring Azure Thunder. Amid flashing arcs of electricity, the densely packed musket formation collapsed at once.

"Was the only reason Arlong sent you here to show you how strong I am?"

With a light leap, he landed on the Navy warship. Before Captain Nezumi could react, Ling Donglai had already seized his wrist and twisted hard.

"Aaaaah!"

Captain Nezumi let out a heart-rending scream, and the Seastone handcuffs fell to the ground.

"I'm a Navy captain! You dare lay a hand on me?"

"Is that so impressive?" Ling Donglai dislocated his other arm, then threw him into the sea.

"Then I'm scared. I won't dare touch you."

"Seastone handcuffs..." Ling Donglai casually stripped several marines of their clothes and wrapped them around his hands before picking up the Seastone handcuffs.

Seastone handcuffs came in many styles. They contained some kind of factor from the sea and could deprive Devil Fruit users of their powers.

This deprivation was more like an interruption. It could not suppress things that had already been altered by a Devil Fruit, but it could rob their users of their strength.

For example, after Luffy ate the Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit, his body became rubber. Seastone handcuffs would only leave Luffy without strength; his body could still be stretched however he pleased.

Ling Donglai grabbed the Seastone handcuffs with his other hand, the one not wrapped in cloth, and his body once more became weak and sluggish.

The feeling was like a fish-man attacking him remotely with seawater, inflicting something like a 460 debuff on him. It seriously interfered with his control.

Ling Donglai had indeed trained his resistance in this regard long ago, but when he truly encountered something that countered him in battle, he still felt extremely uncomfortable.

It was like playing a game on a high-performance computer, only for the network connection to start lagging.

"I still need to train my resistance in this area." Letting go of the Seastone handcuffs, Ling Donglai wrapped the thing in cloth.

This could serve as a training tool. As a Human-Human Fruit user, the Devil Fruit's inherent effect on him was merely that he could not swim.

As for enhanced physical abilities, that was basically the standard trait of Zoans.

In other words, when restrained by Seastone, the only effect Ling Donglai suffered was physical weakness. Current Drive itself would not be affected by Seastone.

Given enough time, even Seastone handcuffs would be unable to interfere with his electrical discharge, because Current Drive was similar to Haki—a bodily ability.

As for why he alone had succeeded, it was probably because the Human-Human Fruit gave him greater control over his body.

Training in the pirate world all began from the outside, but with the aid of the Human-Human Fruit, he had started from within. Combined with the Zoan's enhancement of his physical constitution, that training had succeeded.

That was why he could cultivate Current Drive, and why he was certain that even seawater and Seastone would be unable to completely restrain him in the future.

He was simply too weak right now, which was why he was being so thoroughly restricted.

"Alright, how should I deal with this Navy warship?"

Ling Donglai looted a large pile of Beli from the warship and obtained the Navy's sea chart before he began considering where to go next.

After pondering for a long time, Ling Donglai's gaze fell upon Cocoyasi Village on the chart.

"Arlong, I'm done playing!"

"It's over. I'm going to die. Wasn't that guy only worth ten million Beli? Why was he so powerful... Arlong, you lied to me!"

Captain Nezumi had both arms broken by Ling Donglai before being thrown into the sea. Having lost his arms, he could not swim to the surface on his own. He could only watch silently as he sank bit by bit toward the dark depths of the ocean.

"Damn it, that guy wasn't afraid of the Navy at all. If I'd known... if I'd known, I wouldn't have bothered with him..."

Something seemed to move in the dark sea. A pair of hands seized Captain Nezumi by the collar and sped through the water.

Who was it...

Captain Nezumi's consciousness gradually sank away.

"Hey, wake up! Wake up... Humans really are trash. You can't even breathe freely underwater!"

Arlong forcefully stomped on Captain Nezumi's abdomen, making him vomit out all the water he had swallowed.

"Ar... Arlong!"

The captain weakly opened his eyes and saw the ugly fish-man.

"That's right, it's me. If I hadn't kindly sent a fish-man to follow your warship, my partner might have been killed by that human pirate. That would have given me quite a headache."

Seeing Captain Nezumi come back to life, Arlong turned around and lay on a sun lounger, lazily crossing one leg over the other.

"Damn it, that human's strength was nowhere near as weak as you said!" Remembering something, the captain's eyes filled with fury.

"Is that so? I forgot. For a human, his body is indeed very strong. But I'm a fish-man, Captain." Arlong was unconcerned.

"Captain, I saved your life. Now, you should go back and take revenge on that human pirate!"

Thinking of Ling Donglai's face, fear welled up in the captain's heart. After experiencing death firsthand, he was already terrified.

"That guy is a monster who will kill his own kind without hesitation. There isn't a shred of humanity in his heart! He actually dared attack the Navy!"

The captain roared in fury, using it to conceal the fear in his heart.

"Have you forgotten the Navy's special methods, my captain?" Arlong sneered, offering a reminder.