I Want a Truly Satisfying Victory!
The 25th day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
The wave of resistance began to spread to the towns.
In several major towns of Wano Country, underground resistance organizations have begun to emerge.
Meanwhile, a name began to circulate in secret.
Akuta.
Nobody knows who he is.
Some say he is a god who fell from the sky, while others say he is a demon who climbed up from the seabed.
Some even said he looked very ordinary, no different from anyone else on the street.
But one thing was repeatedly mentioned by everyone.
He challenged Kaido and King for the sake of the prisoners he didn't know in the quarry, and sacrificed his life in the process.
"That person resisted Kaido until his death."
These words, like a seed carried away by the wind, landed in the most remote valley of Wano Country, on the most desolate coastline, and in the center of the poorest village.
The 30th day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
In retaliation against the people of Wano Country, the Beasts Pirates begin a massive search for "rebels."
In a small town in the Hakumai region, the Beast Pirates snatched a little girl from her mother's arms in the street and publicly executed her on the grounds that she was "suspected to be a family member of the resistance."
The mother, in a frenzy, lunged at the executioner pirate, but was also cut down by a single blow.
Her blood splattered on the street, completely igniting everyone's anger.
This time, it wasn't sporadic resistance, but an entire town's inhabitants rushing towards the Beast Pirates stationed in the town.
The battle lasted all night.
By daybreak, the Beast Pirates' garrison in the town had been completely wiped out.
More than half of the town's population was killed or injured, but the survivors made an astonishing decision:
"We're not running away anymore. We'll die on our own land!"
"Let's go to the Flower Capital! Find Lord Oden; he certainly won't abandon us!"
A procession of thousands of ordinary people, carrying sickles and hoes, set off from Hakumai and headed towards the Flower Capital.
People kept joining along the way.
Farmers, craftsmen, fishermen, miners, and even some lower-ranking samurai and ronin.
None of them had received formal military training, their formations were ridiculously chaotic, and their weapons and equipment were a motley collection.
The 35th day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
As news continued to reach Ghost Island, Jhin finally couldn't sit still any longer.
He approached Kaido with a grave expression.
"Governor, the resistance in Wano Country is escalating and has already spread to the outskirts of the Flower Capital. If this continues, the weapons factories will have to shut down!"
The 43rd day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
On the outskirts of the Flower Capital, the civilian procession did not arrive at the Flower Capital, but instead encountered a disaster.
Kaido himself took action.
Under Kaido's suppression, a force of tens of thousands was wiped out in an instant.
The bodies of tens of thousands of people piled up outside the city, and the blood stained the ground blackish-red.
But this massacre failed to intimidate the people of Wano Country; instead, it ignited their final fury.
The 56th day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
The regional daimyo, who had been observing the situation, finally couldn't sit still any longer.
For the first time, several minor daimyo, including Kuri, Nozomi, and Udon, publicly stepped forward.
They no longer obeyed Oden's orders and began to organize local armed forces, launching a forced attack on Kaido.
Although these local daimyo were far less powerful than the Beasts Pirates, their actions brought about something even more important.
Legitimacy!
If the spontaneous resistance of the common people could be defined as "mob riots," then the nature of the movement completely changed when the daimyo publicly stepped forward.
This was no longer a sporadic uprising, but a full-scale war waged by the entire Wano Country against the invaders.
In the Flower Capital, Orochi began to panic.
He desperately sent people to pressure Oden for help, demanding that he stop the resistance from the various daimyo!
However, the giant serpent underestimated one thing.
He overestimated Oden's influence.
This war is no longer something that one person can stop.
The 69th day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
A united force composed of the remaining samurai and civilians of Wano Country engages in a final battle with the Beasts Pirates outside the Flower Capital.
Even Kaido is not having an easy time facing the united forces of the daimyo from all over Wano Country.
However, although the allied forces outnumbered the enemy, they were still inferior to Kaido in terms of quality.
Just as the battlefield was about to become a stalemate, a man appeared.
The figure was backlit, with a rugged and imposing silhouette. He held two long swords in his hands and wore a half-open kimono, revealing his broad chest and abdominal muscles.
When he appeared on the battlefield, the entire battlefield fell silent.
"I said... our retainers are fighting outside, and I, as their lord, can't just hide on the sidelines and watch."
Kozuki Oden's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.
The next moment, countless people erupted in a deafening roar:
"Lord Oden has come to our aid!"
"The hope for Wano Country has not yet vanished!"
The moment Kaido saw Oden, his pupils contracted sharply.
He hadn't expected that Oden would personally lead his retainers into battle.
Oden truly did not want to go to war with Kaido.
The reason he went to perform nude dances for the giant snake every week wasn't because he liked it; it was to get the giant snake to release the hostages it had captured.
However, with the conflict between Kaido and Wano Country, the number of dead people is now almost equal to the number of hostages Orochi has captured. How could Oden possibly sit still like this!
Unable to resist, Oden, under the influence of a large number of people in Wano Country, finally gave up dancing and joined the battle with his retainers.
The 71st day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
The battle lasted for two full days and two nights.
Under the leadership of Oden, a former member of the Pirate King's crew, Kaido was finally defeated.
When Kaido's massive body finally collapsed in the ruins outside the Flower Capital, the entire Wano Country erupted in deafening cheers.
With Hanafuda, the most powerful signboard, at the rear, King fought desperately to break free of the encirclement and escaped Wano Country with the dying Kaido.
The 72nd day of the Mustard Seed Calendar.
As Kaido and his remaining crew sailed away from the port of Wano Country, the country, which had been enslaved for two years, finally gained its freedom.
With the prestige gained from defeating Kaido, Kozuki Oden reappeared before the world and became a true hero of Wano Country.
But only Oden himself knew that the crown of heroism did not belong to him.
In a secluded corner, a new monument has been erected on the beach near the Udon quarry.
The name engraved on the monument was none other than Akuta.
System space.
Akuta watched the scene on the screen where Oden led a tidal wave of Wano Country citizens toward Onigashima, remaining silent for a long time.
"System, is this... the reason you judged my challenge successful?"
""right.""
The system's voice remained flat.
"The key to determining the success of the challenge is not whether the host defeats Kaido, but whether Kaido is driven out of Wano Country."
Although the host did not defeat Kaido, your death has ignited the most fervent rebellious spirit in Wano Country.
This awareness led the people of Wano Country to actively resist Kaido, which ultimately resulted in Kozuki Oden's return to Wano Country and successfully drove Kaido out of the country.
The host's death caused an irreversible chain reaction in Wano Country, and in the system's calculations, it was identified as the most critical factor in achieving the challenge's objective.
Akuta fell silent.
So... I won this time?
"Yes, does the host want to submit the results now?"
"No."
Akuta raised his head, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly:
"For me, this level of victory doesn't count as a victory."
"Is the host ready to challenge this world once again?"
"Certainly."
He stood up, and something seemed to be reigniting in his eyes.
"A victory isn't achieved when so many people die; I want a complete victory!"
"This time, I will defeat the entire Beasts Pirates all by myself!"