A Sudden Outbreak of Attack

Noah, Shiryu, and Rosinante.

Unlike their colleagues who were struggling under the pressure of being surrounded and forced to retreat, the three of them strolled down the street with swagger, making no attempt to conceal their tracks.

Such an arrogant demeanor was even more eye-catching than fireflies in the dead of night.

Naturally, this meant there was no shortage of people coming to catch the bugs.

Sometimes it was three or five, sometimes seven or eight, and at most, they encountered nearly a hundred, led by officers with bounties of several million Beli.

Unfortunately, under the combined efforts of the three, the threat posed by these pirates was truly limited; often, within a few rounds, they were slaughtered, their formations broken, and they fled in disarray.

Noah's style was fast, accurate, and ruthless. With his Red and White Twin Blades drawn, he was as fierce as if he were mowing down grass once he charged into a crowd, leaving only streaks of afterimages behind.

His methods for ending lives were also simple and sharp, so much so that many pirates didn't even realize what was happening before they lost consciousness, receiving a painless departure from this world.

Thus, along the way, the proportion of pirates who died by Noah's blade was the highest, exceeding the combined tally of his two friends.

"...I really feel like I was happy for nothing. I should have just let you stay on Gulu Island and miss this assessment."

Shiryu watched helplessly as an officer he had been eyeing was snatched away and finished off by Noah, his tone turning heavy.

"Just thinking that my and little Rosi's rankings might be overtaken by a guy who showed up thirty-six hours late gives me a deep sense of humiliation. I can't even taste the tobacco in my cigarette anymore."

Whenever he spoke with a gloomy face, his upturned triangular eyes sent a chill down one's spine, making people wonder if they might be cut down on the street by this guy at any moment.

From that perspective, perhaps being a jailer in the sunless Impel Down was indeed more suitable for him than serving as a Marine on the front lines.

"That's why I told you to smoke less. See? You've smoked your tongue numb."

After Noah skillfully finished off his latest target, he turned his head to look at him, saying with feigned heartbreak:

"Also, why are you so dark-minded? We're brothers, do we really have to rank ourselves against each other? You should know that when I found out I couldn't participate in the assessment back on Gulu Island, I was silently wishing you both well in my heart, hoping you'd get great results!"

"If you really thought that, I'd start quitting smoking right now."

Shiryu replied expressionlessly, "But unfortunately, I'll never be able to quit in this lifetime, so by that logic, you're full of crap."

"Reasonable," Rosinante chimed in.

These two were really no fun.

Did they have to point it out? There was zero sense of atmosphere. Did they not know what the bonds of friendship meant, or what it meant to grow stronger together, carrying my share until our names echoed through the heavens?

While Noah lamented the decline of human nature, he opened his system attribute panel with his mind and took a stealthy peek at the progress of his weapon slot.

[Wind Sword/Yone's Sword: Upgradable, current progress as follows]

[Points: 0/50000]

[Blood of the Sinful: 273/1000]

Two hundred and seventy-three.

This number was roughly the same as the number of pirates he had killed so far. In other words, contrary to his previous guess, the "Blood of the Sinful" required for the upgrade wasn't just about staining the blade; it required ending their lives.

Noah felt that replacing "Blood" with "Soul" might be more appropriate.

This was originally a very harsh condition, but along the way, his progress had grown rapidly. At this rate, even if he couldn't fill the upgrade bar during this field assessment, covering a good portion of it wouldn't be a problem.

One could only say that while there were indeed good people with uncorrupted consciences in the pirate profession, the villains who had committed unforgivable crimes would always make up the vast majority.

If you were to randomly pick a thousand pirates from the sea to kill, how many could truly be called innocent?

Perhaps you couldn't even find ten.

After finishing off another batch of unlucky fools who had delivered themselves to their door, the three rested for a moment before continuing down the main street.

Along the way, they encountered other recruits from their batch, most of whom were in a sorry state, though occasionally there were one or two who could move with ease amidst the pursuit and siege, even occasionally counterattacking to hunt down lone pirates who exposed their weaknesses.

Recruits with this level of strength were basically the tough guys who had consistently stayed in the top ranks during the daily assessments.

In Noah's estimation, their rankings in this field assessment wouldn't be low either.

"Speaking of which, how come none of those captains have come looking for us yet?"

After walking for a long time and clearing out several more batches of pathetic pirates, Noah began to mutter to himself, "If I don't take them out, the pressure to catch up from behind and take the top spots is still quite high..."

This shouldn't be happening.

They had caused such a huge commotion; surely a decent officer should have come to check it out by now. He had even intentionally let a few small fries go to spread the word...

Whoosh!

At that very instant, an extremely faint, almost imperceptible sound of wind being pierced suddenly came from the night.

Noah faintly heard the sound. As he interrupted his thoughts and instinctively turned his head, he happened to see a yellowish-orange bullet piercing the sky, rapidly enlarging in his field of vision—

His pupils instantly shrank into dangerous pinpricks. There was no time to think; his accumulated combat experience allowed him to react in a split second.

He exerted his Intermediate Kami-e to the fullest, tilting his head slightly backward in sync with the subtle shift in airflow.

Swish!

Noah watched as the bullet grazed his scalp, finally embedding itself into the wall behind him.

BOOM!

Accompanied by a deafening roar, the wall behind them suddenly shattered, sending countless shards of stone and brick flying.

The power was truly astonishing. Noah glanced back with lingering fear, thinking that if he hadn't reacted in time and been hit by that shot, he might not have been decapitated, but he would have at least ended up severely wounded.

"There's a sniper!"

The two people beside him were also startled. Shiryu drew his blade instantly, his gaze sharp as he looked toward the direction the bullet had come from, shouting angrily, "Who's there! What kind of skill is it to sneak attack from behind? Get out here!"

On the other side, Rosinante also drew his weapon, standing guard in front of Noah with a face full of vigilance.

"Brother Noah, are you alright?" he didn't forget to turn and ask.

"I'm fine."

Noah had already quickly regained his composure. He gripped his Red and White Twin Blades, his eyes narrowing slightly as he, like Shiryu, searched the ruins for traces of the enemy.

With his current level of strength, ordinary flintlock pistols could hardly pose a threat to him, but that shot just now was clearly unusual.

It was obvious that both the gun and the bullet had been specially modified; not only did it have a near-silencer effect when fired, but the bullet's speed was extremely fast, and its explosive power was almost on par with a grenade launcher.

If he weren't careful, he really could have been caught off guard.