A Powerful Helper

Loguetown Marine base warehouse.

Ten million Beli in crisp banknotes were stacked neatly in front of a group of pirates, forming a most tempting rectangular prism.

Besides Captain Smoker of the White Smoke Pirates, there were more than a dozen East Blue pirates who, either confident in their strength or consumed by greed, had accepted the task of intercepting the Marine detachment.

They were gathered around that pile of Beli, greed and violence written all over their faces.

"This is the deposit; the remaining twenty million Beli will be paid to you after the job is done."

Lieutenant Charles said in a gentle tone, but deep in his eyes lurked a thick disdain and ruthlessness.

"Wait a minute..."

"Intercepting Marines is no small matter."

A pirate with a ferocious smile on his face bargained with Charles:

"There are so many of us here; thirty million Beli doesn't seem like enough, does it?!"

"No problem!"

Charles' expression didn't change, and he readily offered the pirates an empty promise:

"After it's done, Commander Hammer will give each of you an additional five million in commission."

"As for these thirty million, just consider it your bonus!"

With a flick of his tongue, Charles suddenly increased the pirates' wages several times over.

"Hahaha!"

The pirates laughed in satisfaction:

"Good! We'll take care of those Marines' heads!"

Smoker silently smoked his cigar, without saying a word.

But the angry, suppressed emotions in his heart fermented with the rapidly burning cigar and the increasingly thick smoke.

A cold smile also crept onto the corner of Lieutenant Charles' mouth:

He never intended for those pirates to get their hands on the money.

These dregs from the weakest sea were just scapegoats he had prepared for Commander Hammer.

Once Commander Hammer's assassination plan succeeded, Charles would trick this group of weaklings into walking to the execution ground themselves.

Amidst the pirates' boisterous laughter, another discordant voice emerged:

"Then how should we divide this extra thirty million in bounty among so many of us?"

The atmosphere became strange once again, and more than a dozen pirates looked at each other, their eyes filled with insatiable greed.

"I have the highest bounty here!"

A three-meter-tall man wielding a large axe said unceremoniously, "Of course, I should get a bigger share!"

"Heh..."

Another pirate with a mochi-like body and stick-like legs sneered:

"A high bounty doesn't necessarily mean you're strong."

The pirates argued and cursed over the distribution of the thirty million bounty, and the warehouse, which had been quiet for a moment, was soon plunged into a noisy uproar again.

Smoker naturally wouldn't pay attention to this group of greedy and reckless human-shaped garbage.

Until...

"Everyone!"

A pirate with a sinister smile suddenly spoke up:

"I think we should divide this thirty million bounty like this—"

"Whoever kills the most Marines later gets the most money!"

"Good!"

The pirates' eyes lit up, and someone echoed:

"Let's calculate the money based on the Marines' heads!"

"Whoever cuts down the most, whoever..."

Before he could finish his sentence, that hideous smile was completely frozen on his face.

Because he had already collapsed to the ground like a dead pig.

Smoker casually waved his jitte, leaving a pool of fresh blood on the ground.

"W-What do you want to do?!"

Another pirate pointed at Smoker in horror.

Smoker completely ignored him, simply exhaling a thick smoke ring.

That gloomy and stern face, shrouded in the misty smoke, was as terrifying as a demon.

The sound of air being torn apart echoed once again through the vast warehouse, stirring up waves of whistling reverberations.

"Ah!"

The pirate who suggested dividing the money by the number of Marines was smashed to the ground by Smoker amidst a miserable scream.

Smoker slowly retracted his blood-stained jitte, casting a cold glance at the other pirates.

"That guy wanted to kill us and take all the money for himself!"

One of the pirates shouted in fear:

"Don't just sit here and wait to die!"

The remaining dozen or so pirates swallowed nervously, exchanged glances, and finally mustered the courage to stand before Smoker with their respective weapons.

This sudden infighting left Lieutenant Charles somewhat dumbfounded.

But Smoker didn't hesitate in the slightest.

Black and white reversed, justice trampled, demons and monsters flaunting in the streets...

Smoker was already furious to the extreme because of this distorted reality.

He didn't use his Devil Fruit ability, but instead employed the most instinctive and unrestrained method of humans, using the power of his body to charge at the group of pirates.

And those self-righteous pirates were no match for Smoker at all, even though Smoker hadn't even brought out his trump card yet.

Before long...

The arrogant pirates who clamored to exchange Marine heads for money became cripples collapsed on the ground, wailing powerlessly, each soaked in large patches of scarlet blood.

Smoker stood in the middle of this pool of blood, turning back to glance at Lieutenant Charles.

Charles' expression immediately turned extremely ugly:

Judging from the other party's performance just now, the strength of this unheard-of White Smoke Pirates captain was far above his own.

He originally wanted to find some weak pirate chickens to be scapegoats for "murdering a Marine Headquarters Captain," but he didn't expect to find a genuine tough nut to crack.

Seeing the scarlet bloodshot eyes of Smoker, Charles' attitude softened immediately:

"B-Brother!"

"The commissions of those pirates, I-I'll give them all to you!"

Smoker, however, was unmoved, unwilling to stop as if he had become addicted to killing.

Charles was immediately scared out of his wits.

At this moment, a messenger rushed in, not caring about the bloody and terrifying atmosphere of the scene, and said to Charles:

"Lieutenant!"

"A fight has broken out in the conference room, Commander Hammer is asking you to quickly bring people over to support!"

Smoker was slightly stunned, and the killing intent in his eyes immediately diminished a lot.

"What?!"

Charles' face instantly turned ashen, his mood a hundred times more panicked than when he was stared at by Smoker earlier.

The key condition of their self-preservation plan was that Commander Hammer could take advantage of the other party's carelessness and successfully assassinate Marine Headquarters Captain Smoker.

And the fact that Commander Hammer was fighting with Smoker meant that the assassination plan had completely failed.

Then...

What they had to face was an angry Logia-type Devil Fruit user, a Marine Headquarters Captain.

"Crap..."

Charles gritted his teeth, subconsciously wanting to escape.

However, Commander Hammer's control over his core subordinates had always been strict and terrifying, basically achieving a situation where they either prospered or suffered together.

Property, family, evidence...

Commander Hammer held too many chips in his hands, and Charles hesitated for a long time but still didn't have the courage to disobey Hammer's orders and escape alone.

Charles secretly comforted himself in his heart:

Since Commander Hammer could still fight with that Smoker, it meant that the other party must have suffered considerable injuries during the assassination, otherwise, with the invincible attribute of a Logia-type, Commander Hammer would not have had the spare energy to send someone over to request support.

In this way, his side still had a chance to turn the tables.

"..."

Charles pondered for a moment, finally making up his mind.

He gritted his teeth and adjusted the weapons on his body.

Finally, Charles suddenly thought of something...

He turned his head to the powerful, bloody, violent, and unruly "great pirate" and said:

"You come with me and kill that Marine Headquarters Captain together!"

"You can have as much money as you want!"

Commander Hammer's situation at this moment was extremely frustrating, just like Steel Cutlass's back then.

His complete suppression of Garen's strength only delayed that frustration.

The wounds on his body were constantly bleeding, his stamina was constantly being depleted, and sweat quietly soaked through his clothes.

This was the first time Hammer had fought such a marathon battle.

But the opponent he was racing against remained unscathed and full of energy.

Hammer desperately wanted to run, but it was too late.

His over-depleted stamina could no longer support the use of high-speed movement techniques like Shave, and his faintly weak legs couldn't outrun that strange guy who could suddenly accelerate.

At this point, Hammer, who had always thought highly of himself, finally remembered to use the lives of his subordinates to wear down the enemy.

But the average corrupt Marines were too weak to withstand Garen's blade.

And Tashigi, who had been waiting for news, also heard the sounds of fierce fighting within the base and had already led her subordinates in through the gate, tying up most of the forces under Commander Hammer's command.

Hammer could only struggle to hold on while secretly hoping that his confidant, the highly capable Lieutenant Charles, would come to his aid.

"Fatal Strike!"

Garen raised his shiny greatsword high for what felt like the hundredth time, and then chopped down on Hammer's head.

A familiar clang of metal resounded, and Garen's blade was barely blocked by Hammer.

But Hammer's hands, which he used to parry Garen's greatsword, were already shaking uncontrollably, and the muscles in his arms were aching unbearably.

"Commander Hammer, I'm here to support you!"

Lieutenant Charles's voice suddenly rang out from the side:

"I even brought a powerful pirate to help!"

Hammer immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"More help?"

Garen's heart sank. He had only been able to entangle with Commander Hammer by relying on his digitized body and health regeneration passive.

He had finally managed to wear down Hammer's stamina little by little, and Garen couldn't afford another "powerful helper" to pop up.

So, Garen looked over in the direction of the voice with some trepidation.

"Ugh..."

Garen's expression immediately became very strange:

"Your helper is really powerful..."