Alive!

Fear.

Nothing but fear!

An absolute fear born of survival instinct still filled Chen Ye's entire body.

Chen Ye was still calling out to the system, hoping for a miracle! That cold Mechanical Voice shattered the last of his illusions once again.

System energy: 0.

Time-space travel remains unavailable.

Unable to perform any Time-Space Summon.

This death sentence of a notification was like a bolt of lightning at that moment, splitting apart Chen Ye's thoughts, which had been shackled by fear.

Energy... The energy was at zero...

Without energy, the system was useless!

He could not die here!

He had to survive. He had to find a way to activate this damned system!

And the first step to surviving was making the man before him think he posed no threat—perhaps even that he had no value at all.

Chen Ye's expression changed in an instant.

He did not answer Whitebeard's question.

Because an ordinary person who had just crawled back from the brink of death—weak, pitiful, and still shaken with terror—could not possibly answer so smoothly in the face of such a scene.

His body reacted before his words did.

The tension in his spine seemed to vanish in an instant. His legs gave out, and with a thud, Chen Ye collapsed to his knees on the deck.

He lowered his head, his shoulders heaving violently as if he were trying to cough all the air from his lungs.

Broken sobs squeezed out of his throat.

"I... I don't know..."

Chen Ye's voice was hoarse and fractured, thick with tears.

"Pirates... a group of vicious pirates... They wanted to kill me..."

"I ran... I kept running... Then I fell down..."

He raised his head. His face was smeared with tears and snot, filled with the purest helplessness and pleading, like a stray dog soaked through by a downpour and shivering in a street corner.

"I don't want to die... Please... I just want to live..."

He did not fabricate some bizarre backstory.

He merely displayed his most wretched, humble, useless side, completely bare before these legendary great pirates.

He was gambling.

Gambling that these powerful figures standing at the pinnacle of the world would not deign to lift a finger against a true ant.

The deck fell silent.

Everyone's gaze focused on the boy who had suddenly appeared, then suddenly broken down in tears.

Even Jozu, who had just thrown him aboard, wore a strange expression.

Whitebeard's abyss-like gaze lingered on Chen Ye for more than ten seconds.

That gaze seemed capable of piercing through flesh and seeing into the soul.

Chen Ye felt as though he had been stripped naked and thrown into the snow, seen through completely inside and out.

Just as he felt he was about to be utterly crushed beneath that oppressive pressure, that trademark hearty laughter rang through the skies once more.

"Gurararara!"

Whitebeard laughed, and the laughter dispelled that suffocating oppression.

"A brat scared out of his wits? How dull."

He withdrew his gaze as though he had lost all interest.

"Marco."

"Yes, Pops." Marco the Phoenix stepped forward in response.

"Let him stay on the ship for now."

"We could use someone to do odd jobs. Find him something to do."

Whitebeard's voice regained its unquestionable majesty. He waved a hand as though shooing away a fly.

"Yes."

Chen Ye lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for air. Cold sweat had already soaked through his back.

He knew he had won the gamble.

He had survived.

Chen Ye was temporarily settled in.

Over the next few days, no one paid him any attention. He was like an extra, harmless ghost aboard the ship. Marco merely assigned a Crew Member to toss him a spare uniform and some cleaning tools, putting him in charge of cleaning the stern deck.

It was a tacitly permitted observation area where he could move about freely.

After changing into the oversized crew uniform, Chen Ye picked up a mop and began his first job aboard this legendary massive ship.

But he soon sensed that something was wrong.

The atmosphere aboard the ship was far too oppressive.

In his memories, the Whitebeard Pirates should have been the boldest, liveliest haven in the pirate world. This place should have been filled with earthshaking laughter, the clink of raised drinking cups, and the uninhibited roughhousing of family.

But now, there was only dead silence.

On deck, the rugged pirates gathered in twos and threes, yet no one spoke. They silently wiped down their weapons or leaned on the ship's rail, brows furrowed as they stared out at the endless sea.

The air was thick with a heavy mix of agitation and unease.

Chen Ye kept his head lowered, pretending to mop earnestly, but his ears were perked up higher than a rabbit's, greedily catching every scrap of useful information.

As he passed a cabin door, he saw several curvaceous nurses arguing fiercely. One blonde nurse emotionally hurled a roll of bandages to the floor.

"...It's all our fault! If we'd been more careful that day..."

"What's the point of saying that now? He's already..."

Their voices abruptly stopped when they saw Chen Ye approaching, and they slammed the door shut.

Chen Ye's heart skipped a beat, but he continued forward in silence.

At the bow, he saw the Third Division commander, "Diamond" Jozu. That mountain-like figure was repeatedly pounding the railing with his fists.

Not far away, First Division commander "Phoenix" Marco leaned against the main mast with his arms crossed. His usually somewhat lazy face was now covered in gloom.

"That guy Ace..."

A voice suppressing its fury came from a nearby cluster of people.

Chen Ye's movements abruptly froze. Pretending to slip, he leaned against a Wooden crate beside him, lowering his presence as much as possible.

The conversation continued.

"He was too impulsive! Pops had clearly ordered him not to go after him!"

"But... Thatch was the one who got killed! He was the commander of our Fourth Division, our brother! How could we possibly swallow that!"

"But the other side is Teach! That bastard who hid himself for so many years! It's too dangerous for Ace to go alone!"

"Pops made the right call! It's simply not worth letting Commander Ace risk his life over a Traitor!"

"What the fuck did you say! Teach may be a Traitor, but Thatch's death cannot go unavenged! Commander Ace did nothing wrong!"

The argument suddenly rose in volume, only to be forcibly hushed by those nearby.

"Keep it down! Do you want Pops to hear?"

Chen Ye could no longer take in a single word after that.

Thatch... had been killed.

Teach... had defected.

Ace... had gone after him alone.

Pops... had told him not to go... but he refused to listen.

Each keyword was like an ice spike, viciously stabbing into Chen Ye's mind.

Starting from his fingertips, his body gradually turned cold.

The feeling called fear, which had only just faded, swept through his body once again with a force a hundred times greater than before.

But this time, it was no longer fear of any particular powerful person.

It was a shudder before the irreversible torrent called fate... that was about to arrive!

This was not a story!

This was not manga plot he had watched through a screen!

Thatch was killed, and Ace went after Teach...

This fucking...

Wasn't this the beginning of the entire Summit War?!

Chen Ye knew better than anyone in this world what Ace's departure meant.

What he would catch up to would not be his enemy Teach.

What he would catch up to was Impel Down's prison, Marineford's Execution Platform, and a war at the summit that would sweep across the entire world and stain even the sea red!

And what he would ultimately bring back would not be Teach's head, nor the satisfaction of revenge.

It would be a Vivre Card... proclaiming his death!

There was...

Almost no time left!

"Ace..."

Chen Ye's lips moved soundlessly as a thought that made even his soul tremble surfaced clearly in his heart.

He'll die!