Can Yue leaned back against the villa's sofa, took a sip of Kaya's red wine, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes as he sensed the outside world.
Although he had mastered Observation Haki, he still needed to use it more often to become proficient and develop muscle memory. That way, it would not fail him at some crucial moment in the future.
In Can Yue's perception, around fifty people had arrived at the island's northern landing point, four of them with somewhat stronger presences.
Two of those presences made Can Yue extremely uncomfortable. They should be the Cat-man Brothers.
The third was naturally Jango, the current captain of the Black Cat Pirates.
The strongest presence naturally belonged to the former captain, Captain Kuro.
As for their side, aside from Usopp, whose presence was pitifully weak, the other two people and one dog were all stronger than the enemy.
As expected, there's nothing to worry about.
Having reached that conclusion, Can Yue smiled faintly, opened his eyes, and prepared to take another sip of red wine.
Just then, Nami suddenly picked up another wineglass beside him and brought it toward his, clearly intending to share a cross-cup drink.
Can Yue immediately flashed backward, causing Nami to miss.
"What's with you, woman?"
Nami snorted. "Who told you to look so cool just now? I couldn't control myself."
Just then, Nami suddenly realized something was wrong. Why was Kaya not reacting at all? That was not normal.
In Nami's eyes, Can Yue's sex appeal had already maxed out. Kaya should not have been acting like this.
So, Nami forcibly suppressed her racing heart and questioned Kaya.
"Kaya, don't you feel anything when you look at Can Yue?"
Kaya, who had been looking anxiously out the window, was suddenly pulled back by Nami's question. She glanced at Can Yue, immediately looked away, and answered stiffly with a flushed face.
"I only like Usopp!"
Not only Nami understood, even Can Yue understood.
This woman was using the ultimate technique of redirecting her attention and brainwashing herself.
Can Yue immediately told Nami, "Learn from her. Don't let instinct control you."
Nami's face reddened as she retorted indignantly, "I don't have anyone I like! How am I supposed to redirect my attention?"
Can Yue turned and headed outside.
"Come watch their battle. Use that to redirect your attention."
At that moment, Can Yue understood a principle: his charm had reached the point where he could not be alone with women.
Thus, Can Yue walked in front while the two women followed behind, making their way step by step toward the island's northern side.
At this point, Nami thought of another question and asked Kaya, "When you first saw Can Yue, how did you stop yourself from pouncing on him?"
Kaya's face turned even redder upon hearing that. She stammered, "I was behind Usopp at the time, so I pretended to be scared and touched Usopp for quite a while..."
At the island's landing point.
The Black Cat Pirates had all come ashore.
Led by Captain Kuro, Jango, and the Cat-man Brothers, the four of them stared menacingly at the three people and one dog above the slope.
When they arrived at the landing point and saw the traps all over the slope, they knew today's attack plan had been exposed.
Jango looked at the cooking oil and nails covering the slope, frowned, and raised a question.
"Captain Kuro, traps like this are keeping our whole crew from getting through."
Captain Kuro gave a cold smile and stared at Jango with killing intent in his eyes.
"Can't you use hypnosis? You have five minutes to clear the slope, or I'll make a move."
The moment Jango and the Cat-man Brothers heard Kuro's words, cold sweat dripped down their foreheads.
When Captain Kuro said he would make a move, he did not just mean killing the enemy. It included his own men as well.
Hypnotizing the entire crew and making them clear the slope would result in injuries, but compared to being killed by Captain Kuro, those injuries were acceptable.
After thinking it over, Jango made his decision.
"Men, all of you look at me! When I say 1, 2, Jango, you will gain limitless strength."
"Yeah!!!!"
Captain Kuro watched this scene with a cold smile at the corner of his lips.
He had said that to exploit Jango and the others' lingering fear of him, making them clear the traps while also causing the enemy some trouble.
Because he knew very well that if he wanted to deal with the two people and one dog on the slope smoothly, he could not waste time on such petty traps.
And the brief burst of strength from these hypnotized underlings could wear down the enemy, killing two birds with one stone.
Just then, the hypnosis ended.
Forty-six fodder pirates bulged with veins all over their bodies, rolled back their eyes, and charged up the slope.
Zoro sensed the sudden increase in everyone's presence ahead and immediately grew more serious, reminding Luffy, "Luffy, even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. Be careful."
But Luffy did not respond at all.
"Hm??"
Just as Zoro was wondering what was going on, Luffy suddenly let out a furious roar.
"Yeah!!!!"
His muscles bulged in the same way, and his eyes rolled back white as well.
Luffy charged toward the pirates ahead.
"How did you get hypnotized too, you idiot?"
Seeing this, Zoro's mouth hung wide open as he began to question his life.
Usopp also slapped his own face, complaining that he had never seen anyone so unreliable.
Just moments ago, he had been full of confidence in Luffy's strength, but now goosebumps covered his entire body.
If Zoro and Chouchou hadn't come, wouldn't I have ended up fighting all of them alone?
Usopp was frightened in retrospect, deeply frightened.
~
The unconscious Luffy had no idea that the ground ahead was covered in cooking oil and nail spikes. He charged straight onto it.
The outcome was obvious. Not only did he slip, but he was also pierced by nails all over his body, blood streaming everywhere.
But Luffy, pumped full of adrenaline, felt no pain at all. He wrestled with the Black Cat Pirates' underlings, who had likewise slipped, on the oil-covered path.
After the underlings and Luffy thrashed around, several large barrels of cooking oil were somehow wiped clean by them...
The ground was covered in everyone's blood from the nail spikes.
Of course, because all the cooking oil had been used up, the ground's friction had returned to normal, and the absent-minded Luffy's combat strength was unleashed as well.
Gomu Gomu Gatling.
Fists filled the sky, sending the fodder pirates flying everywhere. They all regained consciousness, screaming in agony.
This sight left Captain Kuro, Jango, and the Cat-man Brothers stunned.
"What? He's actually a Devil Fruit User."
Captain Kuro stared intently at Luffy and muttered, "Then I'll have to deal with him first."
At that moment, with no enemies nearby, the absent-minded Luffy instinctively locked onto Captain Kuro, Jango, and the Cat-man Brothers ahead.
"Ah!!!" he screamed as he charged toward them.
Seeing this, Jango had an idea and hypnotized Luffy once more.
"When you hear 1, 2, Jango, you will fall asleep."
"1, 2, Jango!"
Sure enough, the absent-minded Luffy became sleepy Luffy, lying on the ground and sleeping soundly.
On the high slope, Zoro and Usopp's eyes bulged so wide they nearly popped from their sockets.
"Th-this... you idiot!"
Just as the two of them were still cursing Luffy, a shocking change occurred.
Captain Kuro put on his cat-claw gloves, each claw connected to a blade nearly a meter long. In an instant, he rushed to Luffy's side, raised his claws, and prepared to slice off Luffy's head.
"This is bad, we're too late!" Zoro said as he charged forward with all his strength. But no matter how hard he tried, it seemed he could no longer stop the bloody event about to unfold.
Luffy's great crisis of death.
Before you continue