East Blue, Orange Town.
This once-bustling port town was now shrouded in choking smoke and deathly silence.
In the town square, a band of pirates dressed in bizarre circus outfits were busy looting, their raucous laughter echoing through the ruins.
"Captain Buggy! We've cleaned out every last bit of treasure from the town vault!"
A pirate underling riding a unicycle shouted his report.
At the center of the square, a man with a conspicuous red nose and a heavy captain's coat sat in an ornate chair, tossing a few gold coins in his hand.
"Good work! Get every last thing of value onto my ship!"
Buggy the Clown grinned smugly, ready to order a retreat.
"Step... step..."
Just then, steady, oppressive footsteps sounded without warning from the ruined street at the edge of the square.
Buggy paused. As a pirate who had once roamed the Grand Line, he had an unusually sharp instinct for danger. He whipped around and stared down the street.
Through the swirling smoke, two tall, imposing figures slowly emerged.
The one in front was a terrifying man standing two and a half meters tall.
He wore a dark red coat. His enormously broad shoulders and explosively powerful muscles gave him a suffocating presence. His deep, cold black eyes calmly looked down at Buggy, seated in his chair.
Beside him stood Sabo, just as tall at two meters and forty centimeters, dressed in a dark blue tailcoat and holding an Alloy Staff.
"Who are you?! How dare you meddle in the affairs of the Buggy Pirates!"
Cabaji, the Buggy Pirates' chief of staff, drew his sword and shouted. Beside him, the beast tamer Mohji patted Richie, the giant lion as large as a house, and the beast let out a threatening growl.
"Open fire! Turn those two fools into pincushions!"
Dozens of nearby riflemen immediately raised their flintlocks, ready to pull the triggers.
Surrounded by dozens of men, Ace didn't draw his sword. He didn't even slow his stride.
He merely glanced casually around the square, and a streak of dark gold flashed through his deep black eyes.
There was no sound, no raging wind.
But in that instant, a terrifying pressure, as tangible as if it could crush the entire sky, burst out from Ace and swept across the square like a tsunami crashing over everything in its path!
Conqueror's Haki!
After two years of honing his power, Ace's aura as a born king had reached a terrifying level. He could control it at will, and even make it exert physical pressure.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
As if an invisible hand had clamped down on their hearts, the dozens of pirate underlings holding guns rolled their eyes back and collapsed, foaming at the mouth before they could even cry out.
Then Cabaji, Mohji, and even Richie, the giant lion weighing several tons, let out a whimper under the irresistible pressure. Their massive bodies crashed to the ground, and they lost consciousness completely.
In just two seconds,
the entire pirate crew, over a hundred strong, had been wiped out in Orange Town's vast square.
Except for Ace and Sabo, the only one left in the square was the Red-Nosed Clown, barely seated in his chair, his legs trembling like a sieve.
"Conqueror's Haki?!"
Buggy's eyes flew wide with terror, nearly bulging out of their sockets. As an apprentice who had once been aboard the Pirate King's ship, he knew this power all too well!
But how could a monster with the kingly disposition found in only one person in a million appear in the East Blue, known as the Weakest Sea?!
"Hey, Red Nose."
With his hands in his pockets, Ace walked up to Buggy. His massive frame towered like a wall, completely blocking the sunlight above Buggy.
"My ship could use a housekeeper to handle odd jobs. Starting today, you're working for me."
"Don't make me laugh! I'm the man who's going to find Captain John's treasure! Chop-Chop—"
Consumed by fear, Buggy made a desperate move. His body instantly split apart, and his hands, each holding several sharp daggers, tried to stab Ace in the neck from his blind spot.
But Ace merely tilted his head slightly.
His innate Observation Haki had already locked onto Buggy's real body. Ace raised his right hand, his palm instantly coated in black Armament Haki. Ignoring the flying body parts, he grabbed Buggy by the collar with brutal precision!
"Bam!"
Ace put his strength into one hand and slammed Buggy onto the hard stone paving of the square. Shards of stone flew everywhere.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!!"
Without giving Buggy a chance to use his Devil Fruit powers, Ace expressionlessly raised his Haki-coated fist and hammered Buggy's face and body in a flurry of blows.
He didn't use Divine Fire. Even pure physical strength alone left Buggy bruised and battered, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"Stop, stop! I surrender! I'll be your housekeeper! I'll do it, all right?!"
Already terrified of death and utterly lacking in backbone, Buggy didn't last ten seconds before curling up to protect his head and bawling his surrender.
Ace stopped punching and shook out his wrist. Looking down at Buggy, who lay sprawled on the ground like a puddle of mud, he let a meaningful glint pass through his deep black eyes.
Sabo came over to Ace and looked down at the ridiculous clown, frowning slightly. "Ace, this guy's pathetically weak. His Devil Fruit ability is kind of interesting, but is he really qualified to be our crewmate?"
"Sabo, you can't judge someone by their strength alone."
A faint, secretive smile curved Ace's lips.
He looked at Buggy in silence.
Who would have thought that this ridiculous clown, bawling to save his own skin, would one day become a Shichibukai and even rise to the throne of one of the Four Emperors?
Ace was determined to bring Buggy aboard for a reason, and it certainly wasn't his fighting ability.
It was the absurdly good luck he possessed, the kind that could even make the will of the world step aside!
In Ace's memories from his previous life, even after becoming one of the Four Emperors, this man had faced death threats from Crocodile and Mihawk, the World's Greatest Swordsman. Yet he still held tight to a Den Den Mushi and declared to the whole world, "Won't your lives cry out?!"
His almost supernatural ability to escape the most desperate situations, his baffling power to persuade countless vicious prisoners to follow him with unwavering loyalty—that was exactly the kind of exceptional talent an emperor needed to build a vast empire!
Let Buggy handle the chores, fool his subordinates, take the blame, and even use his absurd luck to turn the tide at critical moments.
There was no one in the world more perfect for the job than Buggy the Clown.
"Listen, Red Nose."
Ace snapped out of his thoughts and looked coldly at Buggy on the ground. He pointed at Cabaji, Mohji, and the giant lion, all unconscious nearby.
"I'm not going to kill your crew. But from here on, we're heading for the Grand Line, and maybe even the brutal New World. If these weaklings can't even stand up to a single look from me, then following you will only get them killed."
Buggy froze. He looked at his subordinates lying on the ground, unconscious but still breathing, and a complicated glint flashed in his eyes. He feared death, but he did have genuine feelings for the men who had followed him for years.
"Disband them. Give them some money."
Ace's voice left no room for argument. "Tell them that if one day they have the guts and the strength to make it through the gates of the New World alive, they can come find you under my flag."
Buggy gritted his teeth. He knew the man before him, who was like a demon god, wasn't joking. If they really went to the Grand Line, Cabaji and the others wouldn't survive.
"Besides,"
Ace looked at Buggy's utterly crestfallen face and offered one last temptation. "Stop fixating on the pitiful pocket change you can scrape together in the East Blue. As long as you do as you're told and manage my supplies and chores, I guarantee that the finest treasures and gold in these seas will one day be piled at your feet. What's Captain John's treasure compared to that?"
At the words "finest treasures and gold," the greed in Buggy's eyes instantly blazed brighter, banishing much of the fear that had filled them.
"Really? Even more than Captain John's treasure?!" Buggy gulped, and greed seemed to drown out some of his terror.
"I never lie." Ace turned away, his dark red coat billowing through the smoke.
"Grab your money and get on my ship!"
Buggy climbed to his feet and wiped the blood from his nose. He looked at Ace's massive figure, as unfathomable as the Abyss, then at the unconscious Cabaji and Mohji. In the end, he gritted his teeth and nodded.
"Cabaji, Mohji, Richie..."
Buggy murmured their names. Then his eyes hardened, and he turned to frantically stuff the gold and treasure they had just stolen into several large sacks.
Under overwhelming force and the temptation of immense wealth, the future Thousand-Gold Clown, who would one day shake the seas, officially became the proud chief of odd jobs for the Eclipse Pirates.
Before you continue