Iron Balloon

Sky Island, God's Island.

The divine palace where the former Sky God Gan Fall once resided now bore a new plaque—the Thunder God Palace.

Just as he finished a day of training, Seven's ears rang with a series of ding ding ding sounds.

"Ding, your consigned item: Flash Shell, purchased by Warhammer User. You have earned 900 points. Current point balance: 16,866."

"Ding, your consigned item: Image Shell, purchased by Warhammer User. You have earned 450 points. Current point balance: 20,016."

Seven let out a long sigh of relief. The platform's richest man, Warhammer Bro, had finally placed an order.

As expected of the platform's top spender—even a shell like the Image Shell, which was basically no different from a camera, was bought without hesitation.

"So this is Warhammer Bro's world?"

He didn't treat points like they mattered at all, unlike Seven, who had to sell everything he owned just to buy an Iron Balloon, waiting desperately for a rich guy to place an order.

With the points in his account, Seven's drowsiness vanished.

"Purchase Iron Balloon."

"Ding, purchase successful. The Iron Balloon will modify your physique over 90 days. Increasing training intensity, along with sufficient eating and rest, will shorten the modification period."

"Current point balance: 16."

Staring at his pitifully empty point balance, Seven immediately flipped out of bed and ran three more laps around Sky Island.

The trinity of Big Eater, Innate Divine Strength, and Iron Balloon allowed Seven to completely shed his reputation as a physical weakling and ascend to the top-tier talent level of the seas.

Big Eater handled digestion, quickly replenishing and storing stamina, accelerating body recovery. Even if severely injured, enough food could rapidly restore his energy and wounds.

It was the ultimate in endurance.

Innate Divine Strength, as a conceptual passive, meant that even against the Giant Race, Seven's strength was still considerable.

Iron Balloon, meanwhile, boasted astonishing defensive power.

Take Charlotte Linlin, for example. A Giant Race blade struck the five-year-old Linlin and shattered instead, and even a hail of bullets couldn't leave a single scratch on her.

With such power, Seven wished he could jump into the sea and swim a few laps right away.

After a full twelve hours of extra training.

Dragging his exhausted body, Seven downed a breakfast meant for thirty people in one go. He couldn't help but start wondering: at this rate, would he eat Sky Island into a food crisis?

Before coming to Sky Island, his daily consumption was roughly equivalent to twenty people.

After settling in Sky Island and starting his training, that daily consumption increased by half.

One person equaled thirty Skypieans.

For Sky Island, which lacked sufficient land resources, this would inevitably cause some impact.

"I'll make a trip to Sabaody Archipelago when I get the chance and exchange the gold in the system space for a Devil Fruit."

There was no second Warhammer Bro on the Trading Platform. This chance to earn large amounts of points quickly by selling shells was a one-time deal.

Seven had already seen many posts on the Trading Platform begging to buy shells at low prices.

[Buying: 200 points for a Laser Dial. Guys from the Pirate World, don't throw out random prices.]

[Buying: 300 points for an Octopus Balloon. Big bro from the Pirate World, can you give back Dream One Heart? Price is negotiable.]

"This old man bought Dream One Heart fair and square."

"Why should I give it back?"

Seven was unapologetic. To buy Dream One Heart, he had traveled all the way from Loguetown to Sky Island just to snag that bargain.

Give it back? No way.

If they had the guts, let Raiden Ei come to the Pirate World and catch me.

Not only did Seven refuse to return it, but he immediately took out an Octopus Balloon, accepted the commission, and submitted the item in one smooth motion.

[Ding, congratulations on completing the commission. You have earned 300 points. Remaining monthly platform commissions: 9/10. Current point balance: 316.]

"If only there were more of these simpletons."

To be fair, Dream One Heart's listed price of 88,888 tons of gold was actually quite a lot.

Take Earth from his past life, for example. The top five countries in gold reserves were 8,133 tons, 3,350 tons, 2,452 tons, 2,437 tons, and 2,333 tons respectively.

Added together, they didn't even reach 20,000 tons.

Unfortunately, that giant pillar in Shandora was an exception. It just so happened that Seven had followed Captain Roger to Shandora before, so he got the chance to snag the deal.

You could only say Seven was lucky.

And that simpleton from Teyvat was unlucky.

Days passed like this. During the integration of the Skypieans and the Shandia people, occasional conflicts broke out, but they were all forcefully suppressed by the Thunder Cloud Guards.

Seven rarely showed himself.

Still, he unwaveringly maintained a weekly training session for the Thunder Cloud Guards, each time sweeping through hundreds of them with overwhelming dominance.

That was precisely why the Thunder God's rule was even more stable.

Marine Headquarters, Marineford.

After a full three months of leave, the Hero of the Marines, Garp, returned to Marineford aboard his beloved dog-headed warship and headed straight for Sengoku's office.

Bang.

The office door was kicked open. Garp picked his nose as he barged in, shouting, "What's so urgent that you had to call me back in such a hurry?"

Already exhausted from taking care of a pregnant woman at home, and now dragged back by Sengoku like his life depended on it, Garp took out his frustration on Sengoku's stash of snacks.

Sengoku gritted his teeth, barely holding back his anger, and tossed a document to Garp.

"After Roger's death, Douglas Bullet, the Devil's Descendant and former member of the Roger Pirates, has attacked over a dozen Marine bases and destroyed countless merchant ships from Affiliated Nations."

"The World Government has ordered the Marines to launch a Buster Call, capture Bullet, and lock him away in Impel Down."

Garp muttered, "Is he just rampaging aimlessly out of grief because Roger's dead?"

So he wasn't the only one lost after Roger's death.

"By the way," Garp said, as if remembering something.

"What about the rest of the Roger Pirates? Is Bullet the only one causing trouble?"

Sengoku pulled out a few more files from his drawer.

"Pluto Rayleigh, one of the Wings of the King, is making a living coating ships on Sabaody Archipelago. Gaban, the King of the Pirates' left arm, has vanished without a trace. The other members are keeping relatively quiet..."

"Barzeb Seven attacked CP9 a while back and stole a prisoner from the World Government."

"By the time Borsalino arrived, all that was left was debris from the pirate ship. Barzeb has disappeared without a trace since then."

"What?!" Garp's eyes went wide.

"Debris? He's dead?"

Given that white-haired brat's recent stunts, someone like that was bound to be a menace—there was no way he'd fall so easily.

"Most likely dead," Sengoku said.

"This Buster Call will be signed by both you and me. Once Intelligence finds Bullet, we'll set out."

"Alright," Garp agreed.

In the time after Roger's execution, Garp had indeed felt lost.

But after spending a month back at his old house in Foosha Village, Garp finally found a new hobby: locking Barzeb Seven up in Impel Down.

That kid was too much of a menace, acting entirely on his whims with no moral compass.

Someone like that, across the entire sea, would either be a great disaster or a savior.

Yet, Garp could never have guessed.

Barzeb Seven had vanished without a trace from then on, as if he had truly fallen.