Good Luck, They Ran into Internal Strife

Rayne calmly sheathed his sword. Not a trace of blood stained the blade.

He glanced at the five consecutive [Judgment Successful] notifications that had appeared in his mind, along with the sharply rising [Crime Index], and nodded in satisfaction.

With a thought, he chose [Body Inheritance] for all the system rewards.

"Buzz—"

Five warm currents, some stronger and some weaker, instantly spread through his entire body, as comfortable as soaking in a hot spring.

Rayne could clearly feel his muscles, bones, and even internal organs becoming tougher and more explosive under the nourishment of those warm currents.

"Not enough..." Rayne felt the surging power within him. "I'm only one step away from [top-tier] in the Physique Realm. If this happened one more time... no, maybe killing just one more SR-rank guy would be enough for a breakthrough."

A smile curved his lips. "Sure enough, shortcuts are always better than hard training."

Only he remained standing in the alley. Rain washed over the chunks of flesh and blood covering the ground, while a nauseating stench filled the air.

Rayne walked over to the pirates' corpses, bent down, dipped his fingers into some still-warm blood, and casually smeared it over his combat uniform. He especially layered it thickly over his left arm.

Only after finishing all that did he walk to the bend in the alley.

Rosinante was still slumped on the ground, his face pale and his eyes vacant.

The corner had not completely blocked his view.

He had heard Rayne tell him to run, then immediately seen Rayne charge forward.

At first, there had been two unimaginably fast slashes. The burly man wielding a warhammer had been split in two along with his weapon, followed by wave after wave of increasingly efficient slaughter...

This was not the Rayne he knew! This was not strength a recruit could possibly possess!

Only when Rayne stood before him and that icy killing intent receded like the tide did Rosinante suddenly snap back to his senses, his whole body trembling violently.

"Rayne..." He looked at Rayne's combat uniform, soaked in blood, his voice trembling. "A-Are you okay? These... these pirates are all...?"

Rayne "wiped" away sweat that did not exist from his forehead, pointed at the corpses—or rather, chunks of corpses—on the ground, and casually offered an extremely perfunctory excuse full of holes. "Pretty lucky. These guys... seemed to have some internal strife and killed each other."

He waved his "blood-drenched" left arm. "Tsk... I let my guard down and got caught up in it. Took a minor injury."

Rosinante looked at Rayne's "miserable state," then at the pirate corpses scattered across the ground, obviously cut down by some sort of sharp weapon—especially Blood Axe, who had been cleaved in half. His mind went blank.

Internal strife? Killing each other? Got caught up in it and injured?

Who would believe that kind of bullshit?

But...

Rosinante looked into Rayne's calm eyes and ultimately swallowed the questions that had reached his lips. He knew Rayne did not want to talk about it.

And... even if I knew the truth, what could I do? Go tell Vice Admiral Sakazuki? Rayne is my good friend. How could I betray him...?

Rayne watched Rosinante hesitate before finally choosing silence, and understood.

He did not care whether Rosinante believed him. The kindness—or perhaps naivety—of this "big golden retriever" meant he was destined not to be the one to report him. That was enough.

"Let's go." Without giving him a choice, Rayne grabbed the limp Rosinante and hauled him to his feet. "We need to rendezvous with Lieutenant Colonel Dal and the others."

Like a puppet on strings, Rosinante was half-dragged and half-pulled by Rayne out of that blood-soaked alley.

Half an hour later, at the fortress's central square.

The battle was nearing its end. Under the Navy elite's surprise assault, the Blood Axe Pirates' main force had swiftly crumbled.

Lieutenant Colonel Dal was directing the soldiers as they mopped up the remaining enemies, but his expression was somewhat grim—Captain Barton and several core officers appeared to have fled amid the chaos.

Just then, two blood-soaked figures supporting each other staggered out from a side alley.

They were Rayne and Rosinante.

"Lieutenant Colonel!" Rayne shouted weakly.

"Rayne? Rosinante?" Dal froze, then hurried over. "Are you two all right?! What happened over by that alley just now...?"

"Reporting, sir..." Rayne said between ragged breaths. "We were separated by the explosion... and encountered 'Blood Axe' Barton and his men..."

"What?!" Dal's face changed drastically. "Where is he?!"

"They... they seemed to have internal strife..." Rayne pointed behind him at the alley, then at his own "mangled" arm. "Barton and the others seemed to turn on each other. We... we hid. By the time we came out, only one of them was left. We dealt with that wounded man, but suffered some minor injuries."

Dal skeptically sent people to inspect the alley. Soon, the soldiers returned with a report: Barton's corpse and those of several officers had indeed been found there, and their deaths... had been extremely gruesome.

Dal looked at Rayne's "hideous" wound, then at Rosinante beside him, who was so frightened he looked ready to faint. In the end, he nodded.

"Well done, Rayne." Though the process had been strange, the result was good. "Go get your wounds treated first."

Inside the warship's bridge.

Sakazuki sat in the main seat, expressionless as he read a battle report that had just been submitted by the landing force.

The report was detailed: after being unexpectedly exposed, the landing squad had forcefully assaulted the fortress and ultimately succeeded in wiping out all pirates. The Blood Axe Pirates had been confirmed completely annihilated.

The landing squad had suffered only light casualties. As for the missing captain of the Blood Axe Pirates, "Blood Axe" Barton, and his core officers, the report stated that they had turned on each other in a side alley of the fortress and killed one another. The two separated recruits, Rayne and Rosinante, had luckily stumbled upon them and finished them off. The report also included recorded footage of the gruesome scene in the alley.

Sakazuki exhaled a puff of cigar smoke. Amid the swirling haze, no emotion could be read on his stern face.

"Internal strife? Killing each other?" he repeated softly, with a faint trace of barely perceptible mockery in his tone.

He casually tossed the report onto the table. That excuse was so full of holes that not even a three-year-old would believe it. Yet somehow... the horrific scene seemed to support the claim.

Sakazuki looked out the window at the sea, where the storm still raged.

He could not help recalling Rayne's eyes, calm in a way no recruit's should have been, as well as the explanation in the report—riddled with holes, yet leaving no evidence to seize upon.

"...Hmph."

No expression appeared on that face as hard as rock. Only his eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a dangerous glint.

"Interesting."