Extortion

The 1.5-second silence effect added by Fatal Strike had not shown anything particularly unusual when Garen fought Steel Cutlass before, yet when used on Buggy, a Devil Fruit user, it achieved a true "fatal strike."

His Devil Fruit Ability was instantly sealed, and his mental control over his Chop-Chop Fruit body was forcibly interrupted.

Unlike the tangible weakness caused by seawater and Sea Stone, the effect of that sword strike made it seem as though Buggy's Devil Fruit Ability had vanished into thin air. No matter how hard he tried, he could not regain the feeling of using it.

Such a bizarre phenomenon instantly plunged Buggy into a fear several times stronger than before, and he shamelessly wore a comical pleading expression before Garen.

But before Garen could respond, Captain Buggy suddenly discovered that his Devil Fruit Ability had returned!

He immediately controlled the scattered parts of his body on the ground, sending them soaring into the air as he fled more than ten meters away.

Only after making sure that greatsword could not reach him did Buggy finally stop flying.

Before he could wipe away the cold sweat frightened out of him, Buggy, who had just been groveling for mercy, turned back toward Garen and flashed an exaggerated smile that was fierce on the outside but weak within.

"Ha ha ha!"

"You creepy brat! Let's see how you're going to cut me now!"

"Hmm."

Garen looked at Buggy's face, twisted by laughter until it resembled a flat pancake, then silently raised his empty left hand.

"You flew so far away that I really can't cut you."

"But you were in such a hurry to run that you left something behind."

"Nani?"

Buggy went pale with shock.

In Garen's raised left hand, he was tightly gripping a strangely wriggling human foot.

It was Buggy's foot.

The Chop-Chop Fruit had one fatal flaw: the separated parts of his body could not move more than two hundred meters away from his feet, while those feet were the only part of Buggy's body that could not fly through the air.

Garen knew this, so when Buggy's ability failed and he collapsed onto the ground earlier, he had quietly grabbed one of Buggy's feet.

"This..."

Buggy's arrogant expression froze on his face once more, while cold sweat streamed down his forehead at an absurd rate.

Garen, meanwhile, calmly confronted Buggy for several seconds.

When the cooldown ended, Garen raised the greatsword in his right hand. "Fatal Strike!"

The greatsword suddenly blazed with brilliant light of justice.

Then Garen lightly tapped the Buggy foot clenched in his left hand with the glowing blade.

The pieces of Buggy's body flying high in the air once again fell from the sky like hailstones, crashing heavily onto the deck.

"It's over!"

Buggy, sprawled across the deck as scattered pieces for the second time, had finally fully understood his situation.

His weakness was in Garen's grasp. Not only could he not escape, he could not even return to his normal body.

And his opponent could easily use some creepy method similar to Sea Stone to restrain his Devil Fruit Ability, turning him, while separated, into a pile of parts whenever he pleased.

This was undoubtedly a desperate situation with almost no chance of survival.

The 1.5 seconds of silence quickly passed, and Buggy regained control over his separated body. However, he no longer dared to make any rash moves.

Buggy's underlings had suffered countless casualties, and the few remaining grunts had long since lost all courage, trembling as they huddled along the edge of the deck.

Of the two elite officers, one was clutching his pet lion and shivering, while the other stood rigidly to one side with his hand braced on the katana at his waist in a drawing stance—except no matter how hard he tried, he could not draw it.

The Buggy Pirates had now been completely wiped out.

Garen casually held Buggy's foot, while the greatsword in his hand remained ready to deliver another Fatal Strike at any moment.

Wallace, who had been hiding at the edge of the battlefield and filming the scene, finally worked up the courage to step closer and take a close-up shot of Knight of Justice Garen's victory over the great pirate Buggy.

Nami, meanwhile, eagerly walked up beside Garen, her eyes shining as she stared at Buggy's head, which had just flown up from the ground.

"This red nose is worth fifteen million?"

In Nami's eyes, the great Captain Buggy had already turned into a thick stack of cash.

"Yeah."

Garen followed Nami's lead and started doing the math.

"With this red nose included, we can collect twenty-five million Beli in bounties when we get to Loguetown."

Buggy's expression immediately darkened.

They were openly discussing collecting his bounty. They had to be some powerful Pirate Hunters who had appeared out of nowhere.

For pirates, being defeated by Pirate Hunters was even worse than being captured by the Marines.

Unless they had unbelievably bad luck and were personally caught by big-shot Akainu, pirates captured by the Marines could generally keep their lives, with food, clothing, and shelter guaranteed afterward.

But if they were defeated by Pirate Hunters who traded heads for bounty money, then ninety-nine percent of the time, they were as good as dead.

"..."

Nami understood something from Buggy's suddenly changed expression.

She rubbed her smooth, slender chin, and a sly gleam suddenly flashed through her eyes.

"Garen, if we go to Loguetown to claim the bounty..."

"Should we bring his head, or bring him alive?"

"Uh?"

Garen froze slightly.

Buggy, however, was so terrified that another layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead. He hurriedly flew his head over to Nami and smiled ingratiatingly.

"Beautiful lady!"

"Take me alive! Take me alive!"

"My wanted poster says 'Dead or Alive.' You can claim the bounty for me alive too!"

"Oh?"

A dangerous look gradually emerged in Nami's light orange eyes.

"Escorting a live pirate to claim a bounty carries considerable risk."

"Who should bear those potential losses?"

Nami's dangerous, icy voice echoed beside him, and Buggy immediately felt as though a greedy demon had seized him in its palm.

He frowned deeply in anguish, his bright red nose twitching nonstop.

In the end, Buggy shouted as though he had made an extremely difficult decision.

"I've got treasure on my ship worth one million Beli!"

"One million?"

Nami, who had spent years stealing pirate treasure and knew the typical pirate's wealth like the back of her hand, immediately revealed a mocking yet indifferent smile.

"Garen, we'll take the head!"

"Got it!"

Garen understood the situation as well and immediately raised his greatsword, preparing to chop down on the Buggy foot in his hand.

"Wait!"

Buggy was scared out of his wits and immediately changed his offer. "I have five million! Treasure worth five million Beli!"

"Five million Beli?"

Nami narrowed her eyes slightly, then spoke to Garen in an even more dissatisfied tone. "Do you think that's enough?"

"How could five million possibly be enough?"

Garen cooperatively showed a disdainful expression.

"That's barely enough to buy a toilet. There wouldn't even be enough left over for renovations!"

After paying Tai Ri Tian for sex, paying for his own meals, and buying sailing supplies at the market, Garen had roughly figured out the purchasing power of the currency known as Beli.

Judging from the prices of various goods, the Beli used throughout the seas was almost equivalent to the Japanese yen.

Of course, because of differing market supply and demand conditions, the prices of many goods in the two worlds differed as greatly as heaven and earth.

For example, sailing ships were toys only the rich could afford on Earth, yet in this pirate world, they were as common as bicycles.

Meanwhile, dirt-cheap real estate that could not be sold at all in the pirate world was so expensive on Earth that it could force people to labor for banks for thirty years.

The five million Beli Buggy had promised was less than three hundred thousand yuan. It really was only enough to buy a toilet.

And Buggy himself, with his fifteen-million-Beli bounty, was only worth a bedroom.

Friends in first-tier cities could casually sell a commercial apartment, convert the money into Beli, and buy a Pirate Empress. They would even have enough left to pick up a dozen or so Dark King Rayleighs as bonuses at the Sabaody slave auction.

"Pah!"

Lord Buggy's face turned livid with anger at Garen's words.

"Five million Beli isn't even enough to buy you a toilet?!"

"Do you live in Holy Land Mariejois like one of those Celestial Dragons?"

Nami silently shot Garen a reproachful look as well.

Even if he was exaggerating to intimidate Buggy, claiming that five million Beli could not buy a toilet was far too outrageous.

If housing prices were really that high, wouldn't the residents there all be forced to sail out and become pirates?

"Celestial Dragons? Now that you mention it, that's not wrong..."

Garen, however, started telling a joke cold enough to freeze people to death.

"I am indeed a descendant of the dragon of the great Celestial Empire..."

"Huh?!!"

Wallace's eyes lit up.

"Lord Garen, you actually have such a background?!"

"Hey, hey."

Garen hurriedly stopped him.

"I was just joking. Why are you taking out paper and pen?!"

"Stop trying to make big news all the time!"