First Mission

"Mr. 5, that bastard, bastard, bastard!" Miss Valentine muttered furiously. She seemed to be treating the pebbles beneath her feet as Li Ziming, viciously kicking away every stone that appeared underfoot.

"One day, I'll make that guy see how formidable I am!" Miss Valentine said angrily. The ground beneath her feet cracked as the weight it bore suddenly increased.

"But this mission should be simple, right?" Miss Valentine looked at the mission details Robin had given her. She was supposed to go to a certain island, where there was apparently someone fairly strong, and invite them to join the organization.

"What is wrong with people these days? Why do they all need us senior officers to invite them? Do those people up top really treat senior officers like errand runners?!" Miss Valentine was quite displeased. Some minor celebrity actually dared to trouble her. When the time came, she would definitely use the Kilo Kilo no Mi's power to teach them a lesson.

However, the moment Miss Valentine reached her destination, she was utterly horrified. Her target had already been knocked to the ground, while a group of Marines surrounded a girl nearby.

"We were only transporting some goods. Who would've thought we'd come across such an interesting ability?" Marine A held a pink-haired girl in one hand. She wore handcuffs and looked utterly drained.

"Exactly. And she looks like she'll grow into a beauty too. If we present her to the Commodore, we'll get quite a reward, won't we?" Marine B looked at the girl as if he were already looking at his future reward.

"..." The girl said nothing, only glaring furiously at the Marines around her.

"Hey! Let that kid go!" Miss Valentine suddenly felt as if her brain had short-circuited. She had actually stepped out so foolishly.

"Oh? Do you want to become our Commodore's woman too?" Marine A's words made all the other Marines burst into laughter.

"Don't underestimate me!" Miss Valentine suddenly floated into the air.

"Careful, that one's a Devil Fruit user! Get the Seastone handcuffs ready!" The Marines might have been scum, but their discipline was quite good. Someone quickly prepared Seastone handcuffs, and everyone raised their guns at Miss Valentine in the air.

This is bad! Miss Valentine panicked. She had not expected them to prepare to shoot her directly. If they did, she would definitely be riddled with bullets. She regretted impulsively rushing out more than ever.

"Excuse me, but pointing guns at a lady is not the behavior of a gentleman."

Miss Valentine swore she had never found a voice so pleasant to hear.

"Another one..." Before Marine A could finish speaking, a coin appeared before him.

"To borrow a phrase, art is explosion." As Li Ziming spoke, the coin exploded.

Marine A collapsed on the spot.

"Watch out for that guy, he can make things explode!" Marine B immediately shouted to the other Marines.

"Tsk. So if I take care of you, this unit will have no commander?" Li Ziming had already used Soru to arrive beside Marine B. He placed a hand over the man's heart. "Directional Blast!"

"Boom!" A Big Explosion erupted from Li Ziming's palm. A large hole was blown through Marine B's chest, and he died just like that.

"Are you all right, beautiful lady?" Li Ziming searched Marine B for a long while, but failed to find the key to the Seastone handcuffs. "It seems I couldn't find the key to those handcuffs." Li Ziming spoke apologetically.

"You bastard!" Miss Valentine punched Li Ziming. "Do you know how scared I was?!"

"Wasn't that your own doing?" Li Ziming rolled his eyes and replied irritably.

"Oh, so you're saying you won't care about this girl?" Miss Valentine glared back at him without backing down.

"Of course I'll care. Letting such a beautiful lady fall into the hands of those perverts is not something a gentleman should do," Li Ziming said as if it were only natural.

The girl looked at Li Ziming and Miss Valentine in surprise. Seeing that the surrounding Marines did not dare move, she suddenly felt a sense of admiration for the two of them.

"Hey, your Devil Fruit power is strong. You can try reducing your weight to increase your speed, then increase it at the instant you attack to boost your striking power." Li Ziming suddenly began instructing Miss Valentine on how to use her Devil Fruit ability.

"What do you mean by that?" Miss Valentine did not understand why her partner was suddenly saying this.

"I may not be able to look after you later. Be careful, and I'll have to leave this kid in your care too." Li Ziming pushed the girl toward Miss Valentine. The aura around him suddenly changed. "He's here!"

At that moment, Miss Valentine also felt a terrifying pressure.

"Commodore!" Some Marine soldiers moved aside, opening a path to reveal a figure who was not particularly tall. He even looked somewhat thin and weak.

Yet this seemingly frail figure made the nearby Marines afraid to even breathe, their bodies trembling slightly.

"Useless trash!" The Commodore suddenly kicked a Marine soldier beside him. His leg was like a sharp blade, cutting into the soldier's body and slicing him cleanly in half.

"He can hold back Rankyaku without releasing it. This guy's Six Powers are really strong." Li Ziming could feel that the man was extremely powerful.

"There is no room for trash on my ship!" the Marine Commodore said coldly. "Charge! There are only two of them. Make good use of the Seastone handcuffs! You can win! Otherwise, you die right now!"

"Charge!" It was obvious that the Commodore had long established his authority. Although the Marine soldiers were still terrified, they charged toward Li Ziming and the others.

Wind stirred beneath Li Ziming's feet. The speed granted by Soru left the nearby Marines unable to react as he instantly arrived before the Marine Commodore.

"Soru?" The Marine Commodore seemed to gain a little interest, though only a trace. "Don't tell me you think that alone is enough to defeat me? With that inferior Six Powers you learned from who knows where?" The Marine Commodore's face suddenly twisted viciously. "When it comes to the Six Powers, aside from those CP9 people, I'm confident I'm inferior to no one!" With that, he launched a Rankyaku.

"Including Vice Admirals, Admirals, and the Fleet Admiral?" Li Ziming mocked. He used Soru to evade the Rankyaku, casually tossing a coin at him.

"Boom!" A violent explosion erupted beside the Marine Commodore.

"Such a trash ability!" The Marine Commodore easily used Tekkai to withstand the explosion's force, then used Soru to appear before Li Ziming. "Looks like I overestimated you. Shigan!"

The Marine Commodore's finger was like steel as it stabbed toward Li Ziming, but the sensation against his finger was like striking an iron plate.

"My apologies, but I'm somewhat proficient in using Haki as well." Li Ziming simply removed his tattered coat. The spot where the Marine Commodore had struck still retained a faint metallic sheen.

"Devil Fruit, Six Powers, Haki—you really know quite a lot." The Marine Commodore found this somewhat troublesome. Li Ziming had displayed many abilities, but none of them seemed particularly strong, so he merely found him difficult to deal with.

"Yes, you have to learn more things to protect yourself these days, don't you?" Li Ziming said without the slightest politeness. "Otherwise, there's no way to survive on these seas."

"But unfortunately for you, you ran into me!" the Marine Commodore said smugly. "So today is the day you die!"

Yet Li Ziming behaved unusually, even relaxing completely. "Miss Valentine, are you still not done over there?"

"How could I be done so quickly?! There are so many people over here, and I have to protect this kid while watching out for those damned Seastone handcuffs! It's a real pain over here! And you haven't dealt with your side either!" Miss Valentine said angrily. Still, judging by the fact that she had the energy to argue with Li Ziming, she was clearly not in serious trouble.

"Hmph, I..." The Marine Commodore had just begun to speak when blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. "What is this?" He stared at Li Ziming in disbelief.

"It's true that I know many things, but the ability I developed most is still my Devil Fruit power. My fruit allows me to turn any part of my body, as well as anything I touch, into bombs and detonate them. Of course, living things are excluded. I can even control when the explosions occur. The air I breathe out can naturally be turned into bombs as well. Since you inhaled the bomb-filled air I created, explosions naturally occurred inside your body. Your internal organs have already been injured, haven't they?" Li Ziming explained his battle plan in detail.

"You're right." The Marine Commodore actually steadied himself again. "But you were too careless. How could such minor damage possibly hurt me?!"

"Has it really not hurt you?" Li Ziming shrugged. "Can you still beat me now?"

"Hmph. This is a method of using the Six Powers that I learned from those CP9 people. Life Retur—Pwah!" The Marine Commodore spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed weakly to the ground. He stared at Li Ziming in disbelief, gradually losing all signs of life.

"That expression of furious confusion at the very end really is satisfying. It was worth specifically telling you my method and giving you just a tiny bit of hope." That was right—Li Ziming had deliberately told the Marine Commodore his method, just to give him hope before letting him die in endless frustration. He had not expected the man to know CP9's Life Return, which caught Li Ziming off guard. If the man had truly managed to use it, the coming battle would probably have become difficult.

The way Li Ziming defeated him was indeed as he had said. However, during the first explosion, Li Ziming had only detonated an extremely small portion of the bombs inside the Marine Commodore's body. And air filled the human body; it was not simply located around the internal organs. Even the spaces between cells contained air. If Li Ziming had wanted, he could have blown the Marine Commodore into powder in an instant. He simply found that too disgusting and chose not to.

"The Commodore is dead, run!" With the Marine Commodore dead, the Marine soldiers completely lost their will to fight and scattered in all directions.

"You're pretty strong, aren't you?" Miss Valentine looked at Li Ziming in surprise.

Li Ziming shrugged and searched the Marine Commodore's body, but found no trace of the key.

"Forget it, let's go to the Marine ship." Li Ziming looked somewhat excited.

"What are you planning to do?!" Miss Valentine stared at Li Ziming in horror, wondering if he had gone mad.

"After beating a boss, you always have to open the treasure chest." Li Ziming looked like an excited player who had just defeated a boss in a game. "Relax, relax. Besides, we still need to find the key for this girl. And the target of this mission is already dead, so we need to find something to account for it."

Li Ziming's words completely convinced Miss Valentine. The two of them brought the rescued girl aboard the Marine Commodore's flagship.