The water base in the abandoned area of Pier Seven. The children nibbled on dried fish, still wearing looks of lingering fear. Moria squatted in front of a girl, holding a piece of broken bread in his hand. He tried his best to make his expression kind, though the effect was quite limited. "Eat," he said briefly. The little girl snatched the bread quickly, then shrank back into the corner, turning her back to chew. Moria sighed and straightened up. Nearby, a bloated figure shuffled over. Glen, using his chubby palms to pat a child's back while humming a little tune, quieted the crying. After doing this, Glen lowered his voice and spoke to Moria. "I couldn't tell, you're actually quite gentle." Moria glanced at him sideways. "You mean, I don't look very gentle?" "Ah, no, no, no!" Glen hurriedly waved his hands. "It's just that I used to receive a lot of cold stares because of my appearance." "People often took this face of mine for a thug. So I know that feeling." "I hope you don't mind the children's reactions." "It's fine, I'm used to it." As Moria's voice trailed off, a landing thud came from the entrance of the base. Glen's expression changed, and he drew a short-barreled flintlock from his waist, aiming it at the entrance. Moria also tensed his body, his right hand moving toward the large harpoon on his back. Yet his motion stopped, and he turned to look at Glen. "Got another gun? Share one with me." "Eh? You aren't using the harpoon?" "Compared to the harpoon, I find a gun is a bit faster." Glen blinked, pulled out a smaller short-barreled pistol, and tossed it over. Moria caught it and weighed the heft. The two of them stood left and right, muzzles aimed at the entrance, holding their breath. The canvas was lifted. A tall figure bent down and crawled in, followed by a brown-haired youth behind him. The muzzles of both guns pointed squarely at the newcomer. Lin Nuo paused in his steps, instantly raising both hands above his head and striking a French military salute. "Friendly forces! Don't shoot!" He said it like that, but there was a smile on his face. "You guy, you just love acting." Moria lowered his gun and said irritably. "I bet a cannon couldn't even blow you to bits." Glen also let out a long breath of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "Phew, you scared me to death." He put away his gun and asked eagerly, "Why are you back so fast? Were the people rescued?" Lin Nuo lowered his hands and walked over to the kerosene lamp. "We missed them," he said. "Though we confirmed the people are temporarily safe." Roy added with a gloomy expression, "The cells were empty, but the smell was fresh; they must have been moved not long ago." "Then—" "Don't rush." Lin Nuo's gaze swept over everyone awake in the base. "Gather around and listen, I already have a plan." Several people crowded around a table constructed from wooden crates, and Lin Nuo pulled two sheets of paper from his chest, spreading them out. The large one was a hand-drawn map of the upper tier of Tenpan City, with key buildings and roads clearly marked. The small one was a hard paper ticket, with Death Duel Admission Ticket written on it. "After some inquiries on my part, conflict seems to have broken out within their gang." "The second-in-command Karim and the third-in-command Samuel both want to monopolize the credit, so the hostages were temporarily separated and locked up." His finger pointed to a location on the map marked with an arena symbol. "And tomorrow at noon, they're holding a match in the Blood Duel Arena on the fifth floor." "The wager is all the captives, plus some other stakes." Lin Nuo raised his head, his gaze sharp. "Whoever wins can take everything." Moria crossed his arms, staring at the map. "So, you plan to go here and rescue people tomorrow?" "Right." Lin Nuo nodded. "The good news is that tomorrow all the captives will be gathered there." "We can rescue everyone in one breath without running all over the place." "And the bad news?" "The bad news is that because of this gambling match, all the brawlers and bigwigs in the gang will gather there." Lin Nuo traced a circle on the map with his finger. "The scene will be extremely chaotic, but for us, it's also an opportunity." Moria stared at Lin Nuo for a few seconds, reading something in the familiar mastermind expression on the other man's face. "You already have an idea, haven't you?" "Yeah, but after all I'm only one person, and I can't be everywhere at once." "So—" Lin Nuo looked at Moria, then at Glen and the other five awakened resistance youths. "I need your help." Roy straightened his back. "No problem!" "But since they're prizes, there are bound to be a lot of guards, right?" The smile on Lin Nuo's face widened somewhat. "This is when you let me work my magic." He tapped the admission ticket. "Tomorrow, I'll enter as a challenger." "Once the match starts, I'll kick up a huge fuss and draw every single enemy I can attract, all their attention, right over to my side." He surveyed the crowd. "And you will take that opportunity to sneak in from the flank or the rear, find where the captives are locked up, and take everyone away." The base fell silent for a few seconds. Glen and the other resistance members looked at each other. Their faces all spelled out: Isn't this plan way too simple and crude, will it really work!? Only Moria and Roy didn't react much. One had just been taken on a flying vehicle stunt by Lin Nuo, while the other had witnessed the Lunyu Intelligence-Gathering Method, so their psychological endurance had already been forced to level up. "What about after the plan?" Moria asked. "Are we still meeting up here?" Lin Nuo shook his head, pulled the small transponder snail from his pocket, and slapped it down onto the wooden crate with a smack. The transponder snail was jolted into shaking, its antennae swaying unhappily. "Bloop bloop!!" It issued a dissatisfied protest. "By then you'll follow Moria, take everyone to the abandoned pier, and we'll have a ship responsible for picking you up." Lin Nuo's gaze swept across each person's face one by one. "Whether tomorrow's plan goes smoothly, I don't know. How many gang members there are, what kind of ambushes exist, I'm not entirely clear either." "But I can guarantee one thing." "I will attract all the firepower I can draw and create all the chaos I can make." "And there's only one thing you need to do." "And that's use the fastest speed during that window of opportunity to bring the people out and take them to a safe place." He paused, his tone turning serious. "I can't cover you by your side at all times." "Once we split up to act, you'll have to rely on yourselves and your companions nearby." "Got it!" Glen nodded forcefully, his gaze firm. The other two youths gripped the iron pipes in their hands, while Roy directly began to warm up his wrists, his bones making cracking sounds. Moria toyed with the short-barreled pistol in his hand, finally shoving it into his belt and hefting the large harpoon onto his back again. "We know!" Lin Nuo smiled. "Then—" "Begin final preparations!!" ... Under the same night sky. A deserted island beach several hundred nautical miles away from Tenpan City. The surging waves beat against the shore, only to be blocked just as they were about to rush onto the sand. At the mouth of the beach, wreckage of large warships was everywhere. The warship keels were snapped, masts toppled, and the charred hulls were still billowing thick smoke. The flags bearing the word Justice on the decks were half-immersed in seawater and half-burning in flames. Yet right in the center of this debris, in a cleared-out open space, stood two giant figures. One of them had messy blue and white hair, with a ferocious lightning-bolt scar running diagonally across his face. Just standing there, the aura emanating from his entire body made the air oppressive. "Rocks D. Zebek!" He stepped on a mast with his foot, his gaze sweeping across the beach. Kneeling, lying, or standing there were hundreds of pirates wearing tattered prison garb. Excitement and adoration burned in everyone's eyes. And positioned slightly behind Rocks to the side. The half-human, half-dragon Kaido rested Hassaikai on his left shoulder with his left hand while chugging sake with his right, his dragon tail swaying casually behind him. "Glug... ha!" Kaido lowered his sake gourd and wiped his mouth with a dragon claw. "Gohahaha! That was a real good fight—!" "Rocks!" He extended a dragon claw, pointing at the prisoners on the beach. "These guys you let out are actually pretty capable!" Kaido's loud laughter rolled like dull thunder. "If everyone here could eat a Devil Fruit as fierce as mine—no, even a lesser one would do." "We could pull together a decent army, too! Guraralalala!" Rocks turned his head, his eyes beneath the lightning scar staring at Kaido. "Looks like you want to set up on your own just like Newgate." Kaido's laughter stopped. A few seconds later, he frankly admitted, "I do have that thought, indeed. Staying in one place too long makes my bones rust." Yet immediately after, he took another huge gulp of sake, fanaticism bursting within his dragon pupils. "Right now, though, fighting alongside you is still way more exhilarating!!" "This world is too boring, someone's gotta turn it upside down and inside out!!" Before his voice could fade. A shout came from the sky. "Hey—Rocks—!" The two of them looked up. In the night sky, a mass of clouds was descending rapidly, a woman of exceptionally tall stature standing upon the cloud. She wore a pink dress and clutched the giant two-horned hat Napoleon. Charlotte Linlin leaped down from the cloud, landed on the beach, and casually tossed a stack of newspapers toward Rocks. "Your little brothers snatched these from the Marines." "Seems there's something on there that interests you." Rocks raised a hand and caught the newspapers. The newspaper was an internal intelligence briefing from Marine Headquarters. There was a lot of text, so a clear photo in the lower right corner caught his eye. The photo was shot in a harbor setting. People cheered in the background, while several beaten-up men squatted in a corner with dejected expressions. And right in the dead center of the photo. A figure with short white hair was unfolding black wings, hovering mid-air. [West Blue White Shell Town Incident: Suspected escaped Lunarian, confirmed to have acquired a Mythical Zoan Fruit, listed as a high-priority observation target.]
Rocks's gaze slowly shifted to the corner of the photograph.
At the edge of the crowd, there was a figure holding an infant.
That woman was someone Rocks knew all too well.
Alice.
And that black-haired infant in her arms...
The fingers with which Rocks gripped the newspaper tightened slightly.
A few seconds later, he let out a low laugh.
"Heh..."
The laughter rolled from his throat, grew gradually louder, and finally turned into unbridled, wild laughter.
Kaido and Linlin both looked at him.
"It seems that the intern brat on my ship has done a pretty good job!"
"Not only did he make the headlines, but he also protected my family well."
Rocks spread his arms wide, his messy hair stirring without any wind.
"Then!" he roared.
"It's time for us to make an even bigger ruckus! Let the news spread even further!"
"Let everyone on this sea hear the sound of our return! Bow before our feet!!"
"Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh--!!!"
On the beach, hundreds of ferocious pirates raised their weapons simultaneously and let out a roar that shook the heavens.
Kaido hoisted his club and grinned broadly.
Linlin licked the blood from her fingers, her eyes curving into dangerous arcs.
Further out on the sea surface.
A few Marine scout ships that had managed to escape by a stroke of luck were driving desperately toward the distance.
They had to bring the news back--
The Rocks Pirates had returned!!
Before you continue