Silvers Rayleigh

At this moment, Haku was slightly troubled, because the system's latest task didn't have a clear boundary.

He had no idea what level of completion would count as finishing the task.

Just as he was about to reach up and remove his Hollow Mask, his hand suddenly paused on it.

Then, he transformed into a bolt of lightning and flew toward a certain spot on God's Island.

It was as if something on that island was drawing him in.

Outside God's Island, all the Shandia warriors and Gan Fall stared blankly at the island, which was nearly destroyed.

The Grand Line.

Haku looked at the mountain of gleaming gold piled up on the deck of the Ark Maxim.

For a moment, he fell into deep thought.

From the time he left the White Sea and arrived on the Grand Line, it was already nearly midnight.

Of course, there was a reason for his contemplation. He was thinking about what he had done before he took off his Hollow Mask.

Even now, his System Space was stuffed to the brim.

Half a day ago, before he removed the mask, the thought had crossed his mind: Since I'm here, why not check out the Golden City?

It was the word "gold" that triggered something inside him.

Driven by desire, he had run off to Skypiea to collect gold.

Along the way, he had even encountered an attack from the Lord of the Sky, which ended with Haku easily electrocuting it.

After gathering the gold, Haku, still wearing the Hollow Mask, piloted the Ark Maxim back toward Marine Headquarters while counting and polishing the gold on the deck.

It seemed that this time, the Hollow Mask's side effect was amplifying his greed.

At the very least, Haku had taken a significant amount of gold from Skypiea. If not for the Ark Maxim's load capacity, there would have been even more gold on the deck.

With that recollection over, the current problem was what to do with all this gold on the deck.

Haku couldn't possibly bring all of it back to Marineford. If Fleet Admiral Sengoku asked about it, he wouldn't have a good answer.

Haku wasn't arrogant enough to think his intelligence could match Sengoku, who was known as the "Wise General." Lying to him would be useless.

No choice. Haku had to change his destination. There were only two places where he could quickly offload this gold.

One was the Celestial Dragons' backyard, Sabaody Archipelago.

The other was the Gran Tesoro, controlled by the man known as the "Golden Emperor," Gild Tesoro.

Finding the Gran Tesoro wouldn't be fast.

So, Haku set his sights on Sabaody Archipelago.

With that decided, he steered the Ark Maxim toward his target.

Sabaody Archipelago, between Groves 50 and 59.

This was the shipyard and coating area of Sabaody, where all kinds of pirate ships, big and small, were docked.

A coating craftsman hanging from a ship's mast stared wide-eyed as a flying ship slowly drifted into the harbor.

He shouted in shock, "G-Guys! Come look! There's a flying ship!"

Someone replied, "Stop joking! How can a ship fly?"

"But I'm not wrong! That ship just flew into the harbor!"

Everyone turned to look, and like the first person to spot the Ark Maxim, they all stared dumbfounded as the floating ship slowly entered the harbor.

A young coating craftsman stammered, "A ship! A flying ship!"

The pirates and craftsmen couldn't take their eyes off the slowly approaching vessel. But when the Ark Maxim fully entered the harbor, they got a clear look at it.

Splash!

The sound of the ship hitting the water snapped all the guarding pirates and craftsmen back to reality.

In their sight, a kid wearing a Marine uniform and a stylish white coat jumped down from the ship.

???

Someone muttered, "Strange, how can such a big ship only have one kid on it?"

In front of Haku, a group of pirates surrounded him.

No help for it—the gold on the deck was just too dazzling. It was impossible not to notice.

A scar-faced, rather ugly pirate blocked Haku's path.

With a tone of arrogance and greed, he said to Haku, "Kid! I, Captain Dom, am taking the gold on your ship and this flying vessel!"

"I don't think you have any objections, do you?"

His crewmates joined in, shouting along.

From every angle, Haku looked like the weaker party. The shipwrights and coating craftsmen at the dock watched in fearful silence, none of them stepping in to help.

Clearly, they recognized this group of pirates!

Haku looked at the pirates before him, shook his head in exasperation, and said, "You bunch of dumbasses, don't you know who I am?"

Dom tilted his head and asked, "Who? Are you famous, kid?"

Haku almost lost his composure at that line!

After all, his current image was pretty distinctive—a sharp, clean hairstyle paired with striking brows and piercing eyes. He wasn't some top-tier handsome guy, but he was still quite pleasant to look at!

On top of that, he wore a purple suit jacket and a conspicuously eye-catching white Marine coat draped over his shoulders, elevating his presence by several notches!

And yet? A pirate captain who'd made it all the way to Sabaody Archipelago didn't recognize him? And he wanted to rob him?

A small crew member rushed over to Dom and said nervously, "Captain! That guy looks like a Marine Admiral! Purple Blade!"

"What? This little brat?" Dom shouted.

Meanwhile, whispers had already started among the people in the dockyard! Some had recognized Haku as the newly promoted Marine Admiral from half a year ago.

"An interesting young man."

Among them, an old man with white hair watched Haku with keen interest as he stood surrounded by pirates.

Because Haku had already eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, his Observation Haki had reached the highest level.

The moment that old man with white hair spoke, Haku immediately noticed him—a bespectacled, white-haired elder.

"Silvers Rayleigh, huh? Didn't expect to run into him so easily?" Haku murmured to himself.

Just then, the pirate captain named Dom blustered, "Hmph! So what if the kid's a Marine Admiral? At his age, his strength can't be that great!"

"Listen up, everyone! Cut down this brat and take all the gold from his ship!"