Lei En stared blankly at his still tiny hands, still chubby with baby fat, his face full of disbelief.
"Roger's Peak Swordsmanship? With these little hands... is this for real?"
The moment he finished speaking, a vast and boundless torrent of information, like a cosmic sea of stars, instantly shattered the dam restraining his soul!
They were countless insights into the "sword."
From the most basic sword grip and slashing angles to the supreme mysteries of cutting steel and tearing through the air, everything was deeply branded into the depths of his soul as though he had been born with it!
They were the tens of thousands of life-or-death battles Roger had experienced in his life.
The technique behind every swing, the muscle memory behind every dodge, and the ultimate use of Haki in the razor-thin space between life and death all transformed into the most vivid physical sensations, crazily flooding into Lei En's five-year-old body!
[Ding! Roger's Peak Swordsmanship (Passive) has been perfectly integrated!] [The host's physical qualities are undergoing adaptive enhancement... Enhancement complete!]
"Urgh..."
Lei En could not help letting out a low grunt. He felt the bones throughout his body crackling, every inch of muscle fiber being reconstructed and strengthened in an unimaginable way.
It felt like replacing every part of an old clunker with the finest F1 racing engine!
Though he still looked like a skinny five-year-old brat in tattered burlap clothes, his face smeared with dirt, a terrifying transformation beyond that of an ordinary human had already taken place within his body!
He slowly raised his head. His black eyes, which had still held a trace of childish innocence, had become as sharp as a hawk's. They were so deep they seemed able to see through people's hearts, containing a weathered dominance that did not belong to his age.
The world in his eyes had completely changed.
The dust floating through the air and the paths it traveled became crystal clear in his eyes. He could even clearly see the faint currents of air trailing behind it.
The sound of a heart pounding violently in the distance was as clear as a drum beating beside his ear.
He could even clearly "sense" the life force radiating from every living thing around him, as well as... the nearly undisguised flaws called "killing intent," as conspicuous as fireflies in the night.
"Is this... the world of the strong?"
Lei En slowly rose to his feet and casually dusted himself off. An unprecedented sense of power and confidence filled every limb and bone like molten lava.
Just then, Loguetown's chaos, under the intervention of the Marine suppression forces, completely escalated into a bloody riot.
"Anyone who stands in my way dies!"
"Marine lapdogs, get the hell out of my way!"
Those pirates, driven mad by One Piece and desperate to set sail, had completely lost their minds.
To seize the ships at the docks and the supplies in the shops, they began openly burning, killing, looting, and pillaging in the streets. The "Town of Beginnings and Endings" instantly became a living hell.
A pirate with a vicious scar across his face and a bear-like build was wildly hacking at every living thing in his path with a broad-bladed saber stained with blood.
"Hahahaha! Die, all of you! One Piece belongs to me, 'Black Wolf' Bullet!"
"Black Wolf" Bullet had a bounty of five million Beli and was considered a notorious villain with some name recognition in East Blue.
He kicked aside a sobbing woman who was begging for mercy, and his gaze inadvertently fell upon Lei En, who stood quietly in the middle of the street, blocking his path.
Seeing that it was merely a lone five-year-old brat, Bullet revealed an exceedingly cruel smile. His mouthful of yellow teeth looked especially ghastly beneath the gloomy sky.
"Yo, where'd this little bastard come from? You haven't even pissed your pants from fear? You've got some guts."
A monkey-thin pirate beside him joined in with a lecherous grin. "Hehehe, Boss, this little brat's pretty cute. How about we grab him and sell him to one of those nobles with special tastes?"
Bullet licked his cracked lips and shook his head.
"Too much trouble. I'm in a hurry to get out to sea!"
He raised the huge saber, taller than Lei En himself, high into the air and swung it mercilessly at Lei En's head without the slightest hesitation!
"Kid, blame your rotten luck. In your next life, keep your eyes open when you're reborn!"
The surrounding civilians screamed in terror at the sight, and some of the more timid ones could not bear to watch and shut their eyes.
Yet in the face of that fatal strike, enough to split him in two, not a single ripple appeared on Lei En's face.
Too slow.
In the eyes that now possessed the vision of the Pirate King, every movement Bullet made, from raising his arm to swinging his blade, was laughable—slower than a replay in slow motion.
Flaws.
His entire body was full of flaws!
From the slight lack of coordination in the muscles of his right shoulder when he raised his arm, to the incorrect angle of his wrist when he swung, to his unstable footing caused by his eagerness to kill...
In Lei En's eyes, this man had exposed at least seventeen flaws that could be fatal in a single strike!
Lei En could not even be bothered to dodge.
He merely bent down casually and picked up a half-meter-long rotten wooden stick from the pile of crushed debris, garbage, and mud beneath his feet. It was darkened by moisture, with splinters still clinging to its edges.
Then, guided by the most primal and purest combat instinct in his body, he lightly swung it forward.
There was no flashy technique.
There was no earth-shattering spectacle.
There was not even the sound of wind.
Yet the instant the stick swung out, an extremely condensed, nearly visible translucent sword aura flashed from the tip of that fragile wooden stick like lightning tearing through the night!
"Psh!"
The cruel grin on "Black Wolf" Bullet's face instantly froze.
He stood there blankly, his raised broad-bladed saber suspended in midair, unable to descend even an inch further.
He lowered his head in confusion and saw a thin line of blood had somehow appeared across his chest.
The bloodline rapidly widened and spread like a spiderweb.
The next second, his entire upper body, along with the hard stone pillar behind him used to tie horses—thick as a barrel—was cleanly severed down the middle, the cut as smooth as a mirror!
"Urgh..."
Bullet's mouth released one final meaningless sound. His upper body slowly slid down and crashed heavily onto the ground, blood and organs spilling everywhere and giving off a thick, rancid stench.
The surroundings instantly fell into dead silence.
The pirates who had been crazily shouting and slaughtering moments ago now looked as though they had been petrified. Their mouths hung open as they stared in horror at the child still standing quietly in the middle of the street, a wooden stick in his hand.
What had they just seen?
A five-year-old brat... using a broken stick picked up from the roadside... had cut "Black Wolf" Bullet, a pirate with a five-million-Beli bounty who had run rampant through East Blue for years, in half from a distance, along with the stone pillar behind him?!
Was this fucking a dream?!
One pirate standing nearby was so frightened that his legs gave out beneath him. He collapsed directly into the filthy water on the ground, and a warm, foul-smelling wetness spread through his crotch.
"M-Monster!!"
No one knew who let out that shriek, as piercing as a cat whose tail had been stepped on, but it instantly shattered the eerie silence.
Every pirate looked at Lei En as though they had seen a demon god crawling out of hell. Their previous arrogance and swagger were gone as they scrambled away around him, terrified that they would be the next to be cut in two.
Lei En watched it all expressionlessly.
He looked down at the wooden stick in his hand, still completely intact after releasing that terrifying sword aura, then looked at the stone pillar that had collapsed in the distance. At last, he confirmed one thing.
He truly was invincible.
At least, in East Blue, known as the "Weakest Sea," he was.
Tap.
Lei En casually tossed the miracle-making wooden stick onto the ground. The sound it made was especially crisp amid the silence.
Then, beneath the reverent and terrified gazes of everyone present, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his ragged pants, took off on his little legs, turned around with effortless swagger, and quietly disappeared into the depths of Loguetown's chaotic street corners.
Only one thought circled in his mind.
This sea seemed to have become... interesting.
The riot continued, but no one dared approach the area where Lei En had vanished.
A pirate who had just narrowly escaped death, trembling from head to toe, swallowed with difficulty and asked his companion in a shaking voice.
"Hey... did you see that clearly? That little brat... was he really human?"
Before you continue