Edward Newgate

"Shi Tianwu, did you see that? The blood from the wound has clotted! That was fast!"

"Before, whenever I accidentally gave myself a bleeding wound, it was really hard to stop the bleeding!"

Because of this astonishing discovery, Lu Bian was engrossed in examining his foot, temporarily setting aside the new member of the Chat Group.

[Shi Tianwu has requested a video chat with Edward Newgate...]

[Edward Newgate has accepted Shi Tianwu's request]

Edward Newgate: "Oh? You're such a young fellow? What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Hearing the hearty voice, Lu Bian realized that Shi Tianwu had started livestreaming him.

"At this moment, something extraordinary is happening inside this body." Shi Tianwu's voice came through like a narrator's voice-over.

"Hm? There's someone else talking somewhere?" Whitebeard Pops asked, looking at the screen in confusion.

"Hey, hey~! I'm right here. There are two people inside this body right now." Lu Bian explained to the curious Whitebeard Pops.

Lu Bian lowered his foot, propping the sole up on his heel so it wouldn't touch the ground.

It must be the special energy in this world's nature that's helping my wound heal faster, Lu Bian thought.

"Edward Newgate?"

Lu Bian looked at the new member's name, finding it strangely familiar.

Matching it with the face of Whitebeard on the video call—and that signature white mustache, curved upward like a crescent moon—Lu Bian suddenly remembered the name by which the world knew him.

"Could you be that Whitebeard, Pops—the one known as the 'World's Strongest Man,' Edward Newgate?!" Lu Bian asked, somewhat stunned.

"Oh?! My name has spread to other worlds too? Gurararara~!!"

Whitebeard Edward Newgate, with an oxygen tube still beneath his nose, burst out laughing again.

His hearty laughter carried a special force, and a sense of warmth welled up in Lu Bian's heart toward Whitebeard Pops.

Edward Newgate looked relaxed, his body at ease as well.

He accidentally adjusted the video-chat camera, bringing his entire body into view.

An IV was hooked to his arm as his huge, powerful frame leaned imposingly against a broad chair.

A lovely nurse in white stood beside Whitebeard Pops, and she didn't even reach his seated knee.

"So big~!!" Lu Bian exclaimed.

"So big!!" Lu Bian exclaimed again as he looked at the scene on Edward Pops's end, his eyes shifting.

His first exclamation was in praise of the white-clad nurse caring for Edward Newgate and her impressive bust;

His second was a reaction to the striking contrast between the pretty nurse and Whitebeard Pops's gigantic frame.

Even Shi Tianwu had never seen a human so unusually tall.

Whitebeard Edward Newgate stood six hundred and sixty-six centimeters tall.

But Edward Newgate's towering, muscular build wasn't what caught Shi Tianwu's attention. It was what Lu Bian had just said—that he was known as the "World's Strongest Man."

"Mm-hmm-hmm~!!"

As a man of experience, Whitebeard Pops immediately understood what Lu Bian's two exclamations meant.

"?"

The curvaceous nurse in white looked up at Whitebeard Pops, who had suddenly started talking to himself and laughing heartily, and her eyes widened.

As a core member of the ship's medical team, she had to be bold enough to make professional judgments about a patient's condition.

--Pops was sixty-nine this year, and his body was already riddled with injuries and ailments...

--Could old age finally be catching up with Pops?

--Was Whitebeard Pops starting to lose his marbles, too?!

Worried, the curvaceous nurse clutched her medical chart and went to find Marco the Phoenix, the first division commander and ship's doctor.

"Why'd she leave?" Pops muttered.

"Mr. Edward Newgate..." Shi Tianwu began.

"Mr.? Are you trying to make me laugh? Gurararara~! Call me Whitebeard, Whitebeard Pops, or Pops, anything you like! Just don't call me 'Mr.'"

"That doesn't sound right." Edward Newgate said.

"Well then, Whitebeard Pops, I heard from my brother Lu Bian that you're the World's Strongest Man."

"Gurararara~!"

"What World's Strongest? I'm just an ordinary man with a single heart!"

"Look, I'm even on an IV today."

Whitebeard Pops had an exceptionally cheerful disposition. A smile stayed on his face as he chatted amiably with the polite young man.

"What happened to your body? Are you sick too?" Whitebeard looked Lu Bian's frail body up and down.

His skin-and-bones frame reminded Whitebeard of friends from his hometown when he was a child.

"You can't go on being this skinny. Is there anything this Chat Group can do to let me help you?"

"I don't have any money, but I can get you some meat and milk to build you up." Edward Pops said.

"Unfortunately, the only thing the Chat Group can send across worlds is money, and right now money is the least useful thing to me." Lu Bian replied.

[Lu Bian sent Edward Newgate a red envelope]

[Edward Newgate claimed the red envelope]

"Oh?"

The three gold coins Shi Tianwu had sent Lu Bian earlier—now Lu Bian had sent one of them to Whitebeard Pops.

A gold coin three centimeters in diameter appeared in Whitebeard Pops's enormous palm, looking pitifully small.

"So that's what a red envelope means?" Edward Newgate said.

"Back in my hometown, sending someone a red envelope is a silent blessing." Lu Bian explained once more.

"Then I'll accept your blessing."

Whitebeard Pops closed his hand around the tiny gold coin.

Even across the screen, after their brief exchange, Edward Newgate could tell that the two young men on the other side seemed like decent people.

"Pops, who are you talking to?"

A young man wreathed in blue flames descended from the sky, grinning as he asked Whitebeard.

"Oh? Marco, did you come looking for me?"

"I was chatting with two new friends from other worlds." Whitebeard answered honestly.

"Nani?! People from another world!"

Marco's eyes widened, his pupils practically shaking.

The Whitebeard Pirates had traveled to many places across the world and heard stories passed down in many lands.

It was a fact that Whitebeard Pops was getting old, and in the folk tales they'd heard, old people who spoke with those from another world didn't have long to live.

A wave of sorrow surged through Marco in an instant.

Pops was finally going to...

He couldn't accept it!!

"Marco, what are you doing?"

"Pops!"

Tears welled in Marco's eyes.

Marco, who had eaten the Mythical Zoan Phoenix Fruit, was engulfed in blue flames that represented vitality.

He spread his "Flames of Regeneration" over Pops, trying to hold back "death."

"Foolish son."

"Hold out your hand." Edward Newgate said to Marco with a grimace.

"Pops, you can't die..."

Marco obediently held out his hand.

Whitebeard opened his palm and let the coin Lu Bian had given him fall.

"Pops?" Marco caught the coin.

"Keep it safe for me." Whitebeard said.

"What are you imagining? I'm not going to die right now."