Battle! Awesome!

On the Paradise stretch of the Grand Line, aboard a small pirate ship, Shanks, wearing a straw hat, looked at the newspaper in his hand, a trace of longing flashing through his eyes.

Ever since Roger had been executed a year ago, Shanks had set out to sea immediately after leaving.

He had decided to retrace the path his captain had once taken.

Red-Haired Shanks had already begun to make a name for himself across the seas.

"Captain!"

A round-faced young man clutching a huge chicken leg leaned over to look at the newspaper in Shanks's hands.

"Huh?"

Hearing someone call him, Shanks blankly raised his head and looked at the chubby face beside him.

"Hahahaha, the captain got scared stupid."

Seeing Shanks like this, the fat man opened his mouth wide and burst into laughter. The other crew members immediately doubled over laughing as well.

Hearing his crew mock him, Shanks paused, then raised a hand to press down his straw hat and joined in the laughter.

After a while, the laughter died down, and Shanks shook the newspaper in his hand.

"You saw it, right? This man fought Kaido for seven days without a victor. That's what a true powerhouse of the seas is. Before that, he was merely a great pirate with a bounty of eighty-seven million."

Shanks waved the newspaper excitedly.

"We'll make our names known across the seas too, and conquer the entire Grand Line."

"Yeah!"

The pirates immediately began cheering upon hearing Shanks's words.

No one believed they could not do it.

Shanks's personal charisma had already begun to show.

"Captain, that guy caught up again!"

Just as everyone was cheering, a pirate suddenly raised a hand and pointed into the distance.

Shanks looked up and saw a small boat rapidly approaching from afar. A hawk-eyed man aboard it rowed with the blade in his hand. Seemingly noticing that they had spotted him, he raised his hand and slashed. A green Flying Slash flew toward them.

Shanks gripped the hilt at his waist and answered with a slash of his own.

The two Flying Slashes collided and shattered.

"Men, get the ship moving!"

Shanks was a little panicked. That guy was a battle maniac.

They were not enemies and had only met a few times, but once the man learned Shanks knew swordsmanship, he had challenged him countless times every day. Shanks was drained dry every single day.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Amid the sounds of Flying Slashes colliding, the large and small ships began a chase across the waters of Paradise.

"This man?"

Dragon, who had already resolved to change the world, stared at the newspaper in his hand, his eyes full of astonishment.

He had been following the battle in Wano Country and had been curious about the identity of this powerhouse.

Now that he knew, however, he found it unbelievable.

He even found the man familiar, as though he had seen him somewhere before.

"Chief, should we bring such a powerhouse into our great cause?"

The person beside him, with an enormous head and clown makeup that made it impossible to tell their gender, asked.

"It would be difficult to change the mind of someone that strong."

Dragon was tempted, but he eventually shook his head.

What they needed now was time to develop.

He knew full well that this newspaper had drawn countless eyes onto this man.

Under such circumstances, even if they invited him and he agreed, it would not necessarily be a good thing for them.

"Still, this man looks familiar. Madman Lin Ye—I should have met him before!"

Dragon rubbed his chin, his gaze scanning the newspaper.

"He joined the Moria Pirates a year ago? A year ago?"

Dragon hesitated for a moment, then his eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Loguetown in the East Blue? The day One Piece, Gol D. Roger, was executed—the day I resolved to change the world."

Dragon's eyes widened.

He remembered.

Was this the child who had killed Marines back then?

How had he changed so much in just one year?

But back then, judging by his attack, his strength had seemed...

Dragon's eyes were filled with disbelief.

That made no sense!

He had been able to judge Lin Ye's strength at the time. He had definitely not been a powerhouse.

It had only been one year!

What exactly had happened?

Dragon stopped thinking. His mind had practically crashed.

With the World Economy News Paper's report, the entire world was in turmoil.

Morgans, determined to make a huge headline, had truly gone all out this time.

Thanks to him, even fishermen on remote islands who lived by fishing learned that another top-tier powerhouse had appeared upon the seas.

Another great figure capable of shaking the world.

Of course, Lin Ye himself still knew nothing about any of this.

As Lin Ye fought Kaido, he had only one feeling.

Battle! Awesome!

Lin Ye had never imagined that fighting could make him feel this way.

In his previous battles, he had always treated combat as a means of obtaining Blank Traits.

And the opponents he had faced before had generally died in one or two moves before his cheat-like power.

Or rather, those had not even counted as battles. They had merely been his slaughter.

This battle against Kaido was true combat.

A fist-to-fist battle that struck flesh truly made one's blood surge.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Lin Ye swung both fists. His arms suddenly thickened as they smashed into the descending spiked club, producing the sound of metal striking metal.

With the force of Lin Ye's final punch, he knocked the spiked club high into the air.

Boom!

Kaido, exposed by the opening created by that punch, could only watch as Lin Ye's fist slammed into his face.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

His body retreated violently, his feet stomping across the shattered ground.

Kaido raised a hand to cover his face.

"You bastard, what exactly are you trying to do?"

Kaido covered his face with one hand and propped himself up with his spiked club in the other, looking utterly exasperated.

"I can't kill you now, and you can't kill me either!"

Kaido stared fixedly at Lin Ye.

"Our battle is meaningless."

Watching Kaido panting heavily in frustration, Lin Ye also breathed slightly harder.

Several new wounds had appeared on his body as well.

Yet his spirit was more vigorous than ever.

"Battle is meaningless?"

Lin Ye raised his fist. Two-Color Haki coiled around it, and even the space around his fist twisted slightly.

"Battle itself is meaning, Kaido!"

A fanatical smile appeared on Lin Ye's face.

Previously, he had directly added points to his Traits to grow stronger, and his strength had indeed increased. But to him, his actual command of that power was far from natural.

After seven days of fighting Kaido, his use of Haki and his body had improved tremendously compared to seven days ago.

Of course, although he was stronger than seven days ago, he had not improved by all that much.

After all, at this level of strength, even improving by the slightest amount was incredibly difficult.

But he was still improving.

Hearing Lin Ye's words, Kaido on the opposite side visibly grew even more frustrated.

Why had he not realized at the start of the fight that this guy was a battle-crazed maniac?

And over these seven days, he had clearly felt Lin Ye, whose combat experience had initially been severely lacking, rapidly develop his battle instincts.

Was this bastard using me as a practice dummy?