Gunshot

Blood.

Slowly filled the iron-gray deck.

Arne couldn't help but shiver.

He wasn't some rookie pirate.

He had followed the previous captain to burn towns and plunder merchant ships!

When he set sail, he had thrown his conscience into the sea to feed the sea kings. They were thieves, and burning, killing, robbing, and plundering were all common occurrences!

If they didn't rob others, others would rob them!

But the bloody method before him still made him tremble with fear.

When he tore open his wound, took out the small knife inside, and threw it to the clown who looked a bit funny...

"I'm truly sorry."

Buggy turned his head and casually flicked his hair. "I just got too happy and couldn't help myself."

"How does that saying go, ah yes, I am a lover of peace."

He casually tucked the small knife to his waist, ignoring the mess of flesh behind him.

It seemed his name was... Little Dog Musa, he really talked too much.

It disturbed his eyes.

He picked up the other hand that had fallen on the ground.

To break free from the Sea Prism Stone handcuffs that targeted Devil Fruit users, one naturally had to pay a price.

He had sawed off his own hands.

As long as he didn't touch the Sea Prism Stone handcuffs, Buggy's immortality ability would naturally return.

Then he could reattach his severed hands.

"The Chop-Chop Fruit is truly interesting."

He licked his lips, the severed ends of his arms and palms touching, and they joined together like building blocks.

Before trying it, he hadn't known if it would work.

The original Buggy wouldn't have dared to try something like this.

However, Jack, who came from Arkham Asylum, had plenty of courage.

Ah, he hoped his dear doctor and those lovely fellow patients wouldn't miss him after his departure.

Especially that cute little bat!

He had more fun now!

"Devil Fruit... should I get another one to try? I heard eating a second one will cause your body to explode and die, but I can already explode myself, so how can I explode further?"

"Or, I could feed it to another ability user."

"Yes, yes, this is called experimentation."

Buggy thought about various interesting things from his memories, his eyes growing brighter. His previously tied-up hair loosened, complementing his eccentric expression.

He was the Joker... a madman, whom the good people of Gotham City would never mistake!

"Bu... Lord Buggy."

Besides the bad habits of pirates, Arne also possessed their good qualities, such as quickly recognizing his position on a ship.

Of course, the current situation was beyond his prediction.

The reason he had given Buggy the knife earlier was simply because he thought the other party was just a pirate with a bounty of 15 million Belly, and shouldn't be too ferocious...

Damn it, did the Navy even use their brains when setting bounties!

This level of ferocity, even a pirate with a bounty over 100 million wouldn't be any different?!

"Don't worry, don't worry."

"I'm in a much better mood now."

He saw Buggy wave his hand, his body splitting into pieces, and then calmly walk out of the cage of the vicious dog Musa.

The curse of the sea, the power of the Devil Fruit.

It should be Paramecia.

After all, he was a pirate from the Grand Line; Arne wasn't completely ignorant.

"Your hands...?"

Buggy's two hands had minds of their own.

One used its index, middle, and ring fingers to alternately exert force and climb towards the cabin above.

Another palm floated up on its own, reaching into the depths of the deck cabin they were currently in.

The three of them combined weren't worth even a hundred million Belly, so they didn't have the audacity to warrant a Marine warship for escort.

It would take a whole deck of pirates to be significant enough.

Dozens?

Or perhaps hundreds?

Buggy didn't remember, only that there were more than two hours between being loaded onto the ship and when it started to sway.

Also, this feeling of simultaneously controlling three separated body parts was surprisingly simple.

Perhaps it was because he now had three brains.

The original Buggy didn't have such smooth control.

"Busy, all busy." He shook his head, the remaining torso acting like a lonely old man left behind. "It's good to be busy."

He looked like a lunatic!

Outside the ship's cabin.

The sea was dark.

Only the dark green camouflage warship pushed out ripples that shimmered with milky white scales.

It was late at night.

But as a Marine officer on the escort ship, Sergeant Jacques was still diligent.

He patrolled back and forth in front of the ship's building with a few first-class privates, their leather boots making footsteps that were as light as possible while still having enough presence.

Lightness was to avoid disturbing the rest of the officers, while presence was so that Brigadier General Brownie, who might occasionally wake up, would realize that outside the warm cabin, the loyal Sergeant Jacques was doing his best to fulfill his duty.

Only when he was a little further from the officers' resting room did Sergeant Jacques's footsteps become more relaxed.

He lit a cigarette casually.

"We'll reach the Gate of Justice in about an hour. Everyone, let's push through a bit longer. Once we're inside, we won't have to patrol so hard."

He patted a first-class private on the shoulder, confident that he hadn't found anything unusual throughout the night.

What Sergeant Jacques didn't know was that when he turned his head, a slightly dirty but diligent little hand quickly brushed past him.

If one looked closer, they would also see that this hand was stained with a rolling eye and an ear.

Not long after.

The diligent little hands brought more and more things back to Buggy.

Gunpowder, swords, guns, nautical charts, keys, and a certain officer's diary...

This guy is definitely not serious.

He casually flipped through them.

The diary's entries were trivial and detailed, a lot of rambling about the officer's various thoughts and daily affairs, as well as a large amount of complaints about his current job...

Quite boring.

But Buggy read it very seriously.

It allowed him to understand the real side of this world better.

As for the nautical charts, he also flipped through them.

En...

He couldn't understand them.

The Joker of Gotham City had a high IQ and was highly educated. While it couldn't be said that the college student moonlighting as a clown had a high IQ, they certainly possessed the qualities of higher education.

But this didn't mean they could immediately understand the professional sea charts of another world.

Especially those drawn by the Navy, which had their own set of standards for nautical charts.

As for the original Buggy...

He was good at reading all sorts of riddle-like nautical charts, but seeing the professional Navy version would easily make him clueless.

There were too many annotations!

"I can read nautical charts, Lord Buggy!"

Arne seized the opportunity and quickly spoke up.

His hands were still shackled, and no one had helped him unlock them yet.

Although the nautical charts of the Grand Line were like the answer keys at the end of some test books.

He skipped everything you wanted to see.

However, it was still good for understanding the situation around various islands.

"Very good."

"Looks like I already have a candidate for the navigator on my future pirate ship."

Buggy cackled, drawing a grand picture with a wave of his hand.

"Yes! Yes!"

Arne's face was filled with excitement, and it wasn't faked. When you're out in the world, the captain you follow is very important.

His previous captain, with a bounty of seventy million Belly, couldn't even last three rounds against a Devil Fruit user Marine.

"Next..."

Buggy raised his arm and called back Little Right, who was busy. Little Left had even more important things to do.

He picked out a brand-new-looking pistol from a sack of miscellaneous items in front of him, hooked his finger through the trigger guard, and spun it a few times.

Then, he grabbed it and fired three shots at Arne's cage.

All three shots were accurate, two hitting the handcuffs and one hitting the iron bars.

Gunshots roared, and the sound of bullets hitting iron was piercing.

Arne clutched his aching wrist, but a sudden, extreme panic surged within him. "Are you crazy? We're still on a Navy ship!"

The Marines might be a bit foolish, but they weren't deaf!

"Wow, you guessed that pretty accurately."

Buggy grinned and praised him.

Those who came out of Arkham Asylum were indeed lunatics.

"So, next, we don't have much time left to pick our crew members."

He casually tossed the sack to Arne.

Humming an unknown melody, he walked towards the depths of the ship with a swagger that defied all reason.

"Crazy, you damn lunatic!"

Arne stomped his feet anxiously, but still hurried after him with the sack.