Blocking CP0!

"Oh, so it's you lot, little rats from CP0!"

The sudden voice made Roke jolt.

"Stay alert!"

He barked the order and looked up.

When he saw the figure sitting on a tree branch, disbelief spread across his face. Even his voice trembled.

"White Wolf Mongge!?"

Roke couldn't believe his premonition had come true. The White Wolf Pirates really were in Elbaf!

"Retreat!"

The instant he saw Mongge, Roke gave the order without hesitation.

If Mongge was here,

then where were the rest of the White Wolf Pirates?

The crew might not be as strong as Mongge, but they were no pushovers. As long as Mongge held them up, they wouldn't be able to escape.

At the same time, Roke wondered:

Why was Mongge here? Had he just arrived in Elbaf, like them, or had he stayed here ever since the White Wolf Pirates disappeared?

Roke immediately ruled out the first possibility.

It was the Winter Solstice Festival in Elbaf. At a time like this, any outsider who entered Elbaf would be treated as an enemy by the giants unless they were someone the giants trusted.

Which meant—

Had the White Wolf Pirates allied with the giants of Elbaf?

At the thought,

Roke instinctively took out his Den Den Mushi. But before he could speak, a flash of sword light came flying and sliced the Den Den Mushi in his hand in two.

"Wha—"

"Hey, trying to send a message right in front of me? You're not taking me seriously at all, are you, CP0 spies?"

Mongge rose from the branch, his sword already drawn at his waist. From the moment he spotted these CP0 agents, he hadn't intended to let them leave alive.

After all, the system had finally given him a mission again.

[Marine Era 1460, December 7. You have been staying in Elbaf for half a year and are gradually mastering Haki. But your good fortune doesn't last. You discover several members of the CP Organization who have sneaked into Elbaf, and learn that they are CP0, the shield of the Celestial Dragons.

As the world's strongest intelligence agency, every member of CP0 can take on a thousand opponents and easily defeat an adult giant.

You have only just mastered Haki. You have no chance of winning.]

[Mission: Awaken the giants and help them drive off the CP Organization members.]

[Mission Reward: Unknown (The reward will vary according to your contribution in battle)]

He ignored the option to ask the giants for help. They'd notice the fighting anyway. He just needed to deal with the CP0 agents before that happened.

"Damn it!"

Seeing Mongge make his move, Roke immediately understood that they weren't getting away.

"Sean, Ellie, stay here with me."

Roke glanced at the tall and short figures beside him, then addressed the last person.

"Milo, make sure you get the message out!"

"Understood!" x3

The three CP agents each took on a role. The one ordered to flee turned and ran without hesitation.

Mongge naturally saw it happen.

"Hmph. You think you can run?"

Parts of Mongge's body shifted into their beast forms. He wasn't the type to go easy on anyone. The moment he attacked, he went all out.

"Stop him!"

When Mongge vanished from the branch, Roke barked an order and charged toward him at the head of the group.

Mongge was fast, but as the leader of this CP0 operation, Roke was nearly as strong as some Great Pirates with bounties over a hundred million.

With his two companions, they could give even Mongge a tough fight.

But in this world,

only the strong had the luxury of choice.

Just as Roke and the other two were about to collide with Mongge, the man in midair stepped on empty space and traced a Z-shaped path through the air.

Roke's pupils contracted as he missed.

"Milo!"

But it was already too late. Everything had happened in a matter of seconds. Milo, chosen to make the escape, was by far the fastest of the four.

Even so, he couldn't outrun Mongge's sword.

"Frostfall!"

The already frigid forest seemed to be swept by another snowfall. The power of the Mythical Zoan Fruit let Mongge generate cold air inside his body, and after forty years of developing his fruit, he could control its power as easily as his own limbs.

A ring of cold air even coiled around Mongge's body.

It was a sign of Zoan Devil Fruit Awakening.

Half a year ago, Mongge would never have dared to use Devil Fruit Awakening lightly at his age. It consumed too much stamina.

But things were different now.

Mongge's strength had nearly returned to its peak. In fact, his so-called prime might not even have been a match for him now.

After all, he hadn't awakened his Devil Fruit until he was nearly sixty. His combat skills and Haki had been honed to their peak, but his physical strength—the foundation of it all—had begun to decline.

So Mongge had never truly had a peak.

But the system's arrival had reversed time. It had not only made Mongge look ten years younger, but had restored his body to the condition it had been in at fifty-five.

And his physical prime had been at forty-five!

He had kept training all this time, so the gap was already small.

Maybe—

He wouldn't even need to learn to coat himself in Conqueror's Haki to enter the ranks of the world's strongest.

"Milo!!!"

Milo was destined not to hear Roke's shout. Mongge's sword was faster. Its icy light pursued him from behind, easily breaking through the young man's desperate attempt to survive with Six Powers: Iron Body.

The sword light tore through Milo's body, and the cold froze him solid.

It took only a second.

Milo became a lifelike ice sculpture.

"Too bad."

Only then did Mongge turn to look at the three remaining CP0 agents, Roke among them. His slightly aged voice rang out slowly.

"He should've stayed. If all four of you had teamed up, you might have given me some trouble."

The terrifying pressure of Conqueror's Haki left the three CP0 agents struggling to breathe. Mongge's Conqueror's Haki wasn't especially strong, but the way he had frozen one of their comrades with a single slash cast a shadow over the other three.

Roke was overwhelmed with regret. Why had he gone and started speculating?

Now they were done for.

Mongge had no intention of giving the CP agents a chance to fight back. What if they had some other trick up their sleeves? Even the thought of it sounded like trouble.

But just as if to confirm the ominous feeling Mongge had,

a cool female voice rang out.

"Oh? What if you had me to deal with as well?"

She was completely beyond Mongge's perception, like a cold-blooded snake. By the time you saw it, it was already striking.

Clang!

Sword met sword.

And along with the clash came Roke's delighted cry.

"Admiral Scarlet Snake!"

One of the Three Admirals of the Navy, Scarlet Snake.

She made her grand entrance!