Group Confrontation: Stop the Rebel Army

"Now, the moment of miracle is about to begin!"

The giant Boeing 747 passenger plane, Alubarna, suddenly began to split in mid-air, turning into a series of small white gliders that glided towards the capital of Alabasta, leaving the executives of Baroque Works, who were standing or sitting below, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"This·······"

Although they were all ability users, they were essentially just brutes crawling on the ground. Faced with this...

"Mr. 4, take them down!"

Upon hearing this, the obese and bloated Mr. 4 shouldered the rocket launcher on his back and fired a shot, releasing one rocket:

Baseball····

Boom!!

Although the shell looked comical, its power was undeniable! However, the glider in the air had already gracefully dispersed in all directions, causing the explosion to land in empty space. Faced with this situation:

"What should we do? There are two people on each of those things..."

"It's simple, we'll split into pairs."

Mr. 1, Bald Strongman man, stood up and calmly patted his pants.

"Chase after them, kill the people up there, that's it."

"Such simple thinking and work," his partner, Miss, with her blue afro, calmly puffed on her cigarette with both fingers.

"Has our work so far been anything but simple?"

After saying that, Mr. 1 took the lead and walked towards the direction of a glider. — The sharp aura emanating from it was his target.

"Hurry up, Mr. 4, let's get this work done!"

"Oh oh·····"

The impatient Miss Christmas urged the slow-moving Mr. 4 to leave.

"Then I'll take them both down by myself—"

This is Mr. von Klay, dressed in a swan costume, twirling and leaping.

As several hang gliders passed overhead, the various opponents were already assigned.

Wow, it's a huge crowd!

Meanwhile, on the other side, aboard a pure white J-20 fighter jet speeding south away from the capital, Roman looked at the rolling sea of people in the distance and stroked his chin with great interest.

Think back to my school days, when we did morning exercises, there were only about a thousand people, and it felt like a dense, surging sea of heads. But now, beneath these fighter jets, are seven hundred thousand furious troops!

A single kick from one person can stop a river from flowing and shift a mountain.

"Get ready, Vivi!"

Roman glanced back at the blue-haired princess in the 'passenger seat' and reminded her.

"This is a 'speech' in front of 700,000 people, so don't get stage fright!"

"Don't worry, Roman... Roman."

"It is my duty to stop this tragedy!"

Rumble—

Swords and spears stood tall, banners billowed like clouds, hooves thundered, and a murderous aura filled the sky! An army that stretched as far as the eye could see charged toward Alubarna, vowing to raze this place that had robbed everyone of their livelihood, their rain, and their trust to the ground! Although their hearts were filled with rage, the strange 'giant bird' in the sky still attracted the attention of many.

What is that?

"Could he be a lackey of the Royal Army, the vice-commander of the Royal Guard known as 'Chaka'?"

The leaders at the forefront frowned. Even if 'Chaka' had the title of the king's strongest warrior, facing hundreds of thousands of people like them, each one could easily crush him into a pulp!

"No, that doesn't look like a falcon," the Rebel Army leader squinted.

With short, choppy, dark tea-green hair, a scar above his left eye, a long reddish-brown trench coat, a dark green belt, orange gloves, and an extremely long sword slung across his back, the rebel leader, named Koza, gestured to the others.

"Be careful, it might be a new weapon from the Royal Army..."

Boom boom boom boom—!

As if his words were law, the moment Koza finished speaking, the giant white bird suddenly spat out a series of white bombs from above! Explosions roared, sand flew, and huge craters immediately appeared in the ground! But from the perspective of the Rebel Army:

Completely unharmed!

Yes, the bombs dropped by the white giant bird were not intended to attack the Rebel Army, but rather to create a long crater in front of them! Although they caused no damage, the deterrent effect was self-evident.

"All troops, slow down!"

Although the Rebel Army was large in number, most of them were still using walking as their mode of transport, so although it caused some chaos, the army gradually came to a stop.

After creating craters and successfully halting the Rebel Army's advance, the strange white 'giant bird' slowly descended, then disintegrated and reformed with a whooshing sound, transforming into a square platform blocking the Rebel Army's path. On it stood:

"Vivi?!"

The Rebel Army leader Koza, was taken aback. He and Vivi were childhood sweethearts. When they played fighting games as children, Koza was the leader of the kids' group called "Sand Squad," and Vivi was the vice-leader.

By the way, several of my former 'Sand Gang' members are now Rebels leaders!

"Vivi, what are you doing here now?"

Koza spurred his horse forward, his gaze towards his childhood playmate filled with complex emotions. If it weren't for the three years of drought, if none of this had happened, perhaps he and the girl opposite him would still be friends, instead of being in this predicament:

We'll be at each other's throats!

"Everyone!!! And the guild leader!!!"

Facing thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of eyes filled with anger and murderous intent, he slightly opened his arms to block the rolling army.

"Listen to me, everyone! We've all been fooled!"

"This war was orchestrated by someone else—"

"The daughter of a scumbag king!"

Don't try to fool us with lies!

"Go to hell!"

However, before Vivi could even finish speaking, scattered curses erupted from the Rebel Army! Humans are inherently social creatures, and with these curses, the furious emotions of these avengers, driven to ruin by the drought inflicted by the 'King,' began to spread throughout the army!

"Quiet! Listen to what Vivi has to say—"

As the leader of the Rebels, even though Koza was extremely disappointed in the king, he still trusted Vivi, his childhood friend, implicitly. Just as he waved to calm the soldiers behind him...

Bang!

A gunshot interrupted his movements. A bullet flew out from the chaotic army behind him, heading straight for Vivi's head at a speed of hundreds of meters per second! It was clearly an attempt to Human Annihilation.

!!

"Asshole--"

Faced with death looming close at hand, Vivi, completely unprepared, had no time to dodge and could only watch as the bullet rapidly enlarged in her pupils!

The captain of the Baroque Works, hiding among the Rebel Army, was delighted.

Success!

Brush,

Bite!

A hand reached out from the side, blocking Vivi's path. The rapidly spinning bullet tumbled and rubbed against the palm, futilely losing all its kinetic energy before falling helplessly onto the white platform.

Clang!

"Let me explain."

Roman, who caught the bullet, looked at a figure in the Rebel Army who was shrinking back, and reached out to grab him!

"Before that, get out here first."

Brush--

A figure leaped out of the Rebel Army, a white hand gripping his neck, silencing him. But the still-smoking Fire Pistol hanging at his waist clearly identified him as the assassin who had launched the attack.

"Don't be in such a hurry, people from Baroque Works."

Roman waved his hand, causing the poor fellow to be suspended in mid-air by the 'paper hand' and moved to the other side, where he stepped forward to face the densely packed Rebels.

As the saying goes, "Seeing is believing."

"Even if Vivi tells you that you've all been deceived, you'll still only believe what you see, right?"

Before anyone could answer, Roman covered his face with his hands.

"But what I'm saying is, I'm deceiving your eyes—"

With a downward pull of his palm, the desert erupted in a deafening roar!

"This is impossible!!"

"What--"

"The scumbag king..."

"Nefertari Cobra..."

As Roman wiped his face, his clothes changed rapidly in the same instant: a dark overcoat, a green bathrobe, and a belt around his waist. But what was most striking was his face: black wavy hair, a beard, and a serious, middle-aged expression...

"Nefertari Cobra!!!"

"How did you get here?!"

Facing Koza, who was trembling and had already vaguely guessed the truth, 'King Cobra' —or rather, Roman— shrugged.

"It's too easy to deceive your eyes."

"This is my Devil Fruit power, and I call this move 'Paper Dance - Painted Skin'."

"Of course, I don't have time to play any games of pretending to be a king. But coincidentally, there happens to be a Devil Fruit user in an organization called 'Baroque Works' who also has the ability to 'imitate' other people's appearance and voice."

Roman's words left the thousands of Rebels stunned! Anyone with a modicum of basic judgment would easily understand the cruel truth:

They were all used!

"Now you understand, right? The 'truth' you saw was just something others made you 'see.' Your so-called 'just revenge' is nothing but a tool in someone else's hands. Even you yourselves—"

"They're nothing more than pawns."

—Dead silence!

The tens of thousands of the Rebel Army at the front who learned the 'truth' were instantly reduced to statues of clay and wood, while the bewildered Rebel Army at the rear, after repeatedly questioning their leaders, also fell into a state of existential crisis. Only:

Snap,

The Rebels leader, a young man named Koza, stepped forward, clenching his teeth as he stared at Roman.

Where are the chess players?

"Who is the chess player!?"

Who's pulling the strings behind all this?!

"Someone will tell you, but not me," Roman said, stepping back to let Vivi behind him out after he had used force to intimidate and demonstrate the 'truth'.

"Your princess will tell you everything."