Cipher Pol Arrives

Time slipped through the fingers like sand.

Three short months had passed in the blink of an eye since the upheaval at Marineford.

For the pirates entrenched in the waters around the G-8 Branch, these ninety days had undoubtedly become the darkest, most despairing period of their lives!

On an abandoned island called Blood Shark in the first half of the Grand Line.

The setting sun was red as blood, and the island's entire harbor had already been reduced to a blazing ruin.

"Boom—!!!"

Accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, a three-masted sailing ship with an exceptionally deep draft and a twin-bladed skull flag was smashed in half at the waist by an unimaginable force!

Amid the flying wood chips and gunpowder smoke, a slender figure resembling a demon god descended from the sky.

"Monster... you're nothing but a heartless killing machine!"

A hulking man nearly three meters tall, his muscles knotted like steel cables, lay on his back amid the collapsing rubble. He crazily spat blood mixed with chunks of organs, his eyes filled with undisguised, overwhelming terror!

He was the captain of the Crazy Bone Pirates, with a bounty as high as fifty-three million Beli—a notorious figure even in the first half of the Grand Line.

Yet today, his entire pirate crew had failed to last even ten minutes before this young Navy Colonel!

"You talk too much."

Rochi stood atop the ruins, his pure white coat of justice snapping in the sea breeze, unstained by even a trace of blood.

Deep within those dark, unfathomable eyes, the three scarlet tomoe of his Sharingan spun madly at an incredible speed, like Death's countdown!

"Slash—!"

Rochi showed no mercy. His right leg came down like a battle axe splitting the heavens, the sole of his shoe crashing brutally onto Captain Crazy Bone's head amid an incomparably violent sonic boom!

"Crack!"

The unyielding skull burst like a watermelon, brains and blood splattering in every direction. Crazy Bone's enormous body convulsed violently twice before falling completely still.

The instant the man breathed his last, the long-awaited, wonderful mechanical voice of the system rang out in Rochi's mind right on cue:

[ Ding! Peak Colonel Level pirate killed! Experience +1000! ]

[ Ding! Current experience is full! Congratulations, Host, your level has successfully risen to Level 43! ]

[ Your physical density has undergone a qualitative transformation! Armament Haki storage limit increased! Neural reaction speed slightly enhanced! ]

Feeling the pure strength within his body surge like a volcano once more, Rochi let out a satisfied breath. The scarlet in his eyes gradually faded, returning them to tranquil black.

"Three months. I hunted down three Colonel Level pirates with bounties over fifty million, plus countless small fry, and finally reached Level 43."

Rochi clenched his fist, listening to the thunderous pops from his knuckles, a satisfied curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

His strength had now grown increasingly refined in both Basic Observation Haki and Intermediate Armament Haki. Combined with the dynamic perception of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, even if he encountered a newly promoted rear admiral from Marine Headquarters, he was absolutely confident he could beat him to death with his bare hands!

The sheer thrill of leveling up was simply intoxicating!

"But... it seems I've nearly farmed all the high-level experience packs in these waters."

Rochi swept his gaze across the pirate corpses scattered around him, all of them dead in gruesome ways, and frowned slightly.

When he returned to the G-8 Branch fortress.

In the spacious office, Major Lace, his adjutant, pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses and opened a thick stack of battle reports, her voice unable to hide its reverence and pride.

"Report, Colonel! These are the final statistics for this quarter."

"Over the past three months, you personally led the extermination of forty-seven pirate crews, including five major pirate crews with bounties exceeding fifty million. Now, with the G-8 Branch as the center, piracy within fifty nautical miles has... fallen to zero!"

"Those pirates either flee back to the Four Seas overnight when they hear your name, or they detour around the Red Line. None of them dare approach our jurisdiction at all!"

Major Lace's face was full of fervor. Such illustrious achievements would have been an exceptionally rare feat even at a base in the New World!

Yet after hearing the report, Rochi did not feel the slightest joy. Instead, his brow furrowed tighter and tighter, while a clear hint of displeasure surfaced in his deathly still black eyes.

Crime rate down to zero?

All the pirates ran away?

Doesn't that mean my personal experience pool has dried up?!

How am I supposed to happily grind monsters and level up from now on?!

"Sir?"

Sensing the icy low pressure radiating from Rochi, Major Lace cautiously called out to him, trembling.

Just as Rochi was considering whether to proactively lead troops across the boundary and "steal monsters" from another branch's waters.

"Bang!"

The office's mahogany doors were violently shoved open.

There was no knock, no announcement. Even the two elite Marines standing guard outside were harshly pushed aside by an immense force, stumbling backward into the room.

"Who gave you the nerve..." Major Lace flew into a rage and was just about to draw her gun.

Three men in immaculate white suits and strange patterned masks swaggered in through the doorway.

They were agile and carried a chilling aura between their steps, one that clearly came from specialized training in assassination.

The masked man in the lead did not even spare Major Lace a proper glance. He walked straight up to Rochi's broad desk and arrogantly slammed a black wanted poster bearing the World Government's top-secret seal onto its surface!

"You're Colonel Rochi, the one they call the 'Grim Reaper' around here?"

The masked man braced both hands on the desk and stared down at Rochi in his executive chair, his tone steeped in innate superiority and arrogance.

"Listen carefully! We're Cipher Pol agents, the World Government's directly affiliated intelligence agency!"

"Under top-secret orders from above, we are pursuing an extremely dangerous special criminal in these waters!"

"Under the government's highest directives, the G-8 Branch must immediately issue deployment orders and unconditionally provide at least eight hundred elite Marines. Set up an impenetrable net across every sea route and assist us in closing the trap! He must not be allowed to escape!"

Faced with this domineering, high-handed tone of command, Major Lace trembled with rage.

"You people from Cipher Pol are going too far! This is a Marine base!"

"Shut up! A mere major has no right to speak here!"

The masked man sneered. "The World Government's authority stands above the Marines. This is an order, not a discussion!"

Yet Rochi, seated in his executive chair, paid no attention at all to the barking of these three clowns.

His eyes were locked firmly on the black wanted poster.

It showed a vicious-looking bald man.

Most importantly, the bounty amount beneath the photograph—seventy-five million Beli!!!