"Rather than hurt yourself with a knife, prove yourself with a gun."
Wang Shi grabbed Nami's right hand, which held the knife, took the bloodstained dagger from her, and casually tossed it to the ground.
As Nami stared back stubbornly, a Golden Flintlock suddenly appeared in her hand.
"Come on. I'll teach you how to kill Fish-Men."
Wang Shi drew Nami close and wrapped his right hand around her gun-holding right hand.
"Raise your hand. Pull the trigger..."
Guiding Nami's finger, he fired.
With a bang, a Fish-Man suddenly appeared, then immediately fell to the ground.
The charging body was struck by the tremendous power of the Golden Flintlock. The force of the bullet blowing his head apart and the momentum of his charge collided, sending the Fish-Man crashing down in a grotesque pose.
Blood slowly spread across the ground.
Nami, who had been on the verge of breaking down, was so frightened by her own "accomplishment" that she froze in Wang Shi's arms, too scared to move.
She'd killed someone?
She'd killed a Fish-Man with her own hands!
"You see? Instead of letting your mind torment you, go crazy and kill your enemies."
Watching Nami quiet down, Wang Shi spoke calmly.
Then, still holding her hand, he adjusted her aim.
"No~"
Bang!
At Nami's startled cry, the Golden Flintlock fired again.
Another Fish-Man appeared and fell straight to the ground, blood splattering everywhere.
"Double Kill!!"
"Congratulations! You've achieved a double kill!"
Ignoring the turmoil in Nami's heart, Wang Shi smiled and congratulated her.
Nami had indeed stopped crying. She'd even forgotten about the pain in her left arm...
She kept repeating that she'd killed two Fish-Men.
"You said the Fish-Men killed your mother."
"Now I'm giving you a chance to avenge her."
Wang Shi released the dazed Nami, reloaded the gun, and walked over to Nojiko, who was just as shocked.
By the time Nojiko came to her senses,
Wang Shi had already drawn her into his arms, holding her in the same position Nami had just been in.
Nojiko felt the weight of the Golden Flintlock in her hand.
"Your Majesty Wang Shi, I..."
Enjoying the warmth and breath of his embrace behind her, Nojiko spoke in a flustered voice.
Like Nami, she'd inherited Bell-mère's kind nature.
Neither of them could bring themselves to kill someone.
Bang!
But after the gunshot, the trembling Nojiko gradually calmed down.
Just as she'd seen, another Fish-Man appeared and fell to the ground.
She'd also fired the gun and killed a Fish-Man with her own hands.
Even if Wang Shi had been holding her hand when she fired.
"All right. You've proven yourselves. From now on, you're my citizens."
Wang Shi had used this method to erase the Arlong Pirates' influence from the lives of the sisters, Nojiko and Nami.
Once she'd recovered, Nojiko looked at Wang Shi gratefully.
But after leaving his embrace, she felt strangely reluctant to let go.
Remembering that Wang Shi was a noble king high above her, even the resilient and warmhearted Nojiko couldn't help but feel inferior. She silently pushed her feelings down.
At that moment,
the Goa Kingdom's fleet finally reached the territory of the "Arlong Empire."
A large group of guards hurried ashore to protect their great king.
Van Augur and Eric, along with the other mercenaries and bounty hunters, all made an eager show of themselves, afraid Wang Shi might pin some blame on them.
"Eighty-eight Fish-Men. All banished. His ability's range must be at least 200 meters..."
Van Augur looked at the dozen or so Fish-Man corpses on the ground. Most of the rest had been banished by Wang Shi.
Thinking of the "Five Hundred Kills" legend that circulated around the Goa Kingdom, Van Augur knew Wang Shi could banish at least five hundred people at once, perhaps within a range of five hundred to a thousand meters.
Based on Wang Shi's earlier choice to use a cannonball to launch himself into the air,
his ability's range probably didn't exceed 1,500 meters.
Thinking of how Wang Shi could banish someone from a kilometer away,
Van Augur felt a chill run down his back.
What an absurd Devil Fruit ability.
There was no way to resist it.
The only option was to stay away from Wang Shi.
This only strengthened Eric's resolve to leave the Goa Kingdom and get as far away from Wang Shi as possible after completing this mercenary job.
Wang Shi's ability did indeed have a range of around a kilometer.
Trafalgar Law's Op-Op Fruit could cover an enormous area too.
Not only could it lift and hurl a warship over a hundred meters long, but the range of ROOM was several times the length of a warship.
Later, Law even remotely swapped the hearts of members of the Straw Hat Pirates and stole Smoker's heart from a distance.
He'd even covered the entire Punk Hazard research facility, slicing Vergo, the facility, and the snow mountain clean in two.
The range was terrifying.
At Onigashima, he could even teleport Zoro, Luffy, Kid, and the others inside the castle from a distance, and send the Nine Red Scabbards—whom Beast Kaido had beaten near death—out of Onigashima.
In the future, Wang Shi's [Time Domain] wouldn't be any smaller than Law's ROOM.
It could easily cover an entire small island, reaching several thousand meters.
"Your Majesty, where are the enemies? What should we do next?"
Van Augur stood humbly in front of Wang Shi, head bowed as he awaited orders.
"Your Majesty, release those Fish-Men and let us take care of them."
Eric eagerly tried to curry favor with Wang Shi, hoping to finish this mercenary job and leave quickly and safely.
Wang Shi didn't answer either of them. He slid the Golden Flintlock back into his belt, then casually beckoned with his left hand, making a gesture much like Brother Sum of the Axe Gang's signature move.
A Guard Army captain, quick to understand, promptly handed him an ornate golden cannon.
"This Fish-Man den of Arlong's actually dared to call itself the Arlong Empire. It's got me in a bad mood. What do you think we should do?"
Wang Shi hoisted the golden cannon onto his shoulder and spoke unhurriedly.
"Obviously, we kill him."
As Wang Shi pointed the golden cannon's sight toward the shore, Eric and Van Augur answered at once.
At the same time, Van Augur decisively raised his sniper rifle, Flintlock, and aimed at the spot where Arlong had vanished, ready for Wang Shi to make his move.
Eric tensed all over too, gathering blade after blade of wind into his hands and aiming in the same direction as Wang Shi and Van Augur.
"Three, two, one—fire!"
Wang Shi pulled the trigger of the golden cannon, and Van Augur fired in perfect time with him.
Eric could only summon more Wind Blades with all his strength, adding to the damage dealt by Wang Shi and Van Augur.
Boom!
Bang! x3
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~
Arlong had only just reappeared on the sea when the golden cannon struck him. The Celestial Dragons' specially made cannonball, powerful enough to blow apart a small sailboat, blasted Arlong into a bloody mess.
The three sniper bullets that followed also buried themselves in Arlong's body.
The flurry of Wind Blades that came next carved streaks of blood and sprays of water across Arlong and the sea.
Nami and Nojiko stared at the bizarre scene unfolding on the water, dumbfounded.
"Fish that Fish-Man out!"
Wang Shi casually tossed the golden cannon to the Guard Army captain beside him, then ordered the other guards into action.
Before long,
they hauled up a mangled Fish-Man who'd stopped breathing.
Sure enough, in this world, the power of guns and cannons was a matter of Schrödinger's firepower.
When it was your time to go, even a single flintlock shot could kill a top-level expert.
Haki masters like Ashura Doji and Pedro had been killed by explosives.
Kuina, who was even stronger than Zoro, had been killed by a staircase and a whetstone.