Whitebeard, hailed as the strongest man on the seas—how much longer he could hold on was still unknown.
Luffy and Kaido probably wouldn't have much trouble either.
Stalling until Red-Hair showed up to lend his name wasn't a problem, but that would go against Su Lin's original intention.
Points, points—the important thing was still points!
This wouldn't do. Well, no investment, no return.
He glanced at the several items and skills he had picked out in the shopping cart. This should be the final wave of point harvesting.
"Buggy, it's me." Su Lin patted Buggy on the back.
Buggy's head spun a full 360 degrees in fright.
"How do you keep popping up out of nowhere?!"
Buggy asked irritably, "Is the map you gave me real?!"
After saying that, Buggy suddenly remembered that this guy had just exchanged blows with an admiral and imitated a Yonko. It seemed Buggy couldn't beat him...
Wasn't that tone a little too arrogant?
"Of course the map is real. Take this." Su Lin hooked an arm around Buggy's neck and stuffed a box into his arms. "A treasure map. You'll understand in a bit. I'm going to make this one big."
"Sure, sure."
Buggy, who was watching the battle from the trench while doubling as a broadcaster, had no idea what Su Lin meant. He only understood that there was money to be made.
"What exactly is that guy trying to do?"
Mighty Buggy had given this appearance opportunity to that young man whose feathers hadn't even fully grown in.
Yet the guy kept doing all sorts of mysterious things.
Whatever. For the sake of the gold, he still had to work.
"Men! Stay sharp and keep a close watch!"
Buggy ordered his subordinates in the trench who were holding Surveillance Snails.
"Yes! Captain Buggy!" XN
[Light Scroll: Angel's Feather] Price: 500 points. Healing, repairing bodily injuries, Purification, removal, and greatly reversing negative bodily conditions, restoring the feather's recipient to health. —Very traditional and commonplace, but that didn't stop this skill from looking cool. [Heaven Rank] Rental price: 50 points. It did nothing much, but it looked cool. [Concealed Loudspeaker] 10 points. Twenty-second-century high technology. Even sound distribution, automatic charging, wireless endurance.
He pulled out a Historical Projection—it was himself from five minutes ago.
His real body hid within history, and his consciousness began controlling this projection.
He tore open the scroll with both hands.
The sky, darkened by smoke and war, suddenly became somewhat brighter.
Everyone who noticed the change looked up.
Countless sparkling objects were falling from the sky.
"What's that?"
A Pirate lying on the ground stared at the sky. He no longer had the strength to care how the battle was going.
With gunshot wounds and blade wounds all over his body, he began to miss his hometown in the West Blue.
It had been a modest town by the sea, relying on port trade as its main source of income.
His father had run a small merchant association. Whenever he returned from sea, he would bring gifts from faraway places for him and his sisters.
His mother would bake the local West Ru fruit cake, while the servants prepared a table full of delicious food to celebrate his father's haul.
Why was he here?
Why...
Oh, he remembered.
That day, pirates had ravaged his hometown...
The ruined estate, the shattered windows.
His family had hidden in the cellar, only to be discovered.
At the critical moment, they had been saved by another group of Pirates.
That group of Pirates stayed in their town for a while, until it gradually recovered and the Navy received word and sent men to wipe them out.
To repay their kindness, he became a Pirate.
"Pops... Ace..."
The Marine leaning against a broken stone slab had no time to care what the dying Pirate across from him was muttering to himself.
To ease the burden on his family, he had joined the Navy at an early age from that inland country where people could go their entire lives without seeing the sea.
All because the recruitment subsidy back then had been a little higher.
Sixteen years had passed before he knew it.
He had gone from a recruit to a Marine colonel.
He hadn't seen his family in sixteen years.
He had originally planned to take leave and return home this year. Staring blankly at his severed arm, he felt his consciousness gradually fading.
"Feathers?"
Sounds of astonishment rose all around him.
Countless feathers carrying their own light slowly drifted down from the sky.
They formed a strikingly different scene over Marineford, where war and smoke raged together.
Like a snowy night, yet unlike the cold loneliness of one.
"It feels kind of warm."
Devil Fruit users always had strange abilities. Some were powerful, while others were completely useless.
When he was young, he had once found a Devil Fruit, but a close colleague told him it was the Dung Beetle Fruit.
In truth, it had been a Zoan Gorilla-Gorilla Fruit.
That colleague who had tricked him and stolen his fruit had died alongside a Pirate with a bounty of 200 million Berries during a previous voyage, protecting him.
"No matter which user did this... forget it. I'm tired."
"It's pretty, though."
One exhausted Marine and Pirate after another extended their arms and opened their palms, wanting to touch them.
A light feather landed in his palm, and its glow vanished.
Was it just for show?
Just as he felt disappointed—
The pain in his body gradually disappeared, and the wounds on his scarred arm began healing at a visible rate.
"So warm."
"God..."
Such scenes continued playing out across the battlefield.
"Whose ability is this?"
Sengoku and Whitebeard felt the healing warmth carried by the light feathers falling on them. Their injuries were slowly healing.
Feathers of light rained down from the sky like snow on Christmas Eve, bringing a sliver of comfort to this battlefield of blood and fire.
"Hmm?"
Luffy and Kaido, who had just exchanged blows, also paused briefly at the sight.
"Boring."
Kaido tossed aside his spiked club, transformed into the Azure Dragon, coated himself in Conqueror's Haki, and charged Luffy again. Then, just as in the future, the giant Luffy turned him into a jump rope, leaving him dizzy.
Then Luffy whipped him back and forth.
If nothing unexpected happened, the result would remain the same.
Before everyone's eyes, more and more light feathers descended upon the battlefield from the skies over Marineford.
Regardless of friend or foe, they healed every wounded person equally.
Several dozen seconds later—
A massive beam of light pierced through the dark clouds and descended upon the center of the battlefield.
"What's going on?!"
A staircase formed from pure white light elements spiraled down from the clouds above.
Su Lin, draped in a black cape, wearing a white top hat, a pure white suit, and white leather boots, slowly descended the spiral staircase of light from the sky.
Every few unhurried steps he took, he transformed into light, flashed, and appeared on the next level.
Accompanied by feathers of light filling the sky, Su Lin looked like a messenger from heaven traveling toward the war-torn earth below.
When Su Lin set foot on the ground, the staircase turned into countless motes of light and vanished.
"That guy is so cool." Buggy was crying tears and snot from the flashes of light. After living so many years, he had never imagined someone could put on such a show.
If he hadn't struck a deal with Su Lin from the start, he might have been fooled by Su Lin's entrance too.
After discreetly giving Buggy a look in the distance, the Surveillance Snail's camera abruptly zoomed in.
"Do me a favor and let this conflict end here."
Su Lin's voice echoed through every corner of the battlefield.
"Pirates or Marines, it makes no difference."
"Everyone has done their best. Go home tonight, have dinner, and get some sleep."
"You've already done everything you could. What comes next is no longer something you can control."
"There has been enough needless sacrifice. Preserve your lives. Whatever grudges you have can wait until later."
Su Lin spoke with seventy percent sincerity. His voice wasn't loud, yet it unexpectedly reached every corner of Marineford.
"Damn it, his grand entrance is even cooler than Mighty Buggy's." Buggy bit his clothes in envy.
"He's amazing." Buggy's subordinates said, "Earlier, he even turned into Kaido and exchanged blows with Garp and Sengoku."
"Someone that powerful was just standing shoulder to shoulder with Captain Buggy, discussing something."
One subordinate recalled the scene of Su Lin whispering with Buggy off to the side earlier.
"As expected, Captain Buggy, you were planning some world-shaking event, weren't you?!"
"As expected of Captain Buggy!"
"Huh? Hahaha." Buggy had no idea what those people were thinking. He only knew he couldn't let the truth slip, or those guys from Impel Down, whose bounties were higher than his, probably wouldn't let him off.
"That's right. Just wait and see, men!"
Buggy would never tell them that Su Lin had hooked an arm around his shoulder earlier, and the two had discussed prices with lewd grins on their faces.
In the end, Su Lin had traded a treasure map and a blueprint that automatically searched for gold in exchange for broadcasting rights.
Still, I never expected it...
Buggy rubbed his chin, smiling somewhat lewdly.
"That guy is the same kind of person as Mighty Buggy."
At that moment, Sengoku had just withstood one of Whitebeard's shockwaves, while Whitebeard had taken a punch to the face from Sengoku and pulled back to catch his breath.
"It's that brat who came with Straw Hat."
Sengoku took out the loudspeaker from his pocket and roared, "What kind of joke is this?!"
"Do you think the Navy will simply let you and the Whitebeard Pirates go? Every last one of you participants will be captured!"
"Don't think you can confuse people here!"
Hearing this, the Marine soldiers snapped out of that miraculous vision, and many responded one after another.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku is right! Pirates are Pirates!"
"Don't think healing our wounds will make us stop arresting you!"
Some among the Pirates also thought Su Lin was being foolish. Why heal the Marines?
"Hey, go help that guy! The Marines are going to surround him."
"But he seems pretty strong. He turned into Kaido earlier and even showed Conqueror's Haki."
"Kizaru has already gone over. He might not be able to handle him." said the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates' Seventh Division.
Because Su Lin was now positioned at the very center of Marineford, and because of the earlier retreat, he was already surrounded by Marine elites.
Many vice admirals and rear admirals were eyeing Su Lin hungrily, while Kizaru had flown into the sky and prepared to attack.
Some Pirates began moving toward Su Lin.
"Who I am isn't important. What's important is my ability."
Su Lin looked at the Marines closing in on him without panic, speaking calmly as ever and ignoring Kaido, who wanted to strike him with a club from nearby but was stopped by Luffy.
"I'm sure you're all curious about what kind of Devil Fruit user I am."
That was true. Quite a few people were curious what sort of ability Su Lin had, but was this guy really planning to reveal it?
Shouldn't that kind of information be kept from the enemy?
"I'm a Copy-Copy Fruit user."
"Every ability I've seen will be copied by me."
Whoosh—
A bullet passed through Su Lin from behind, but all it left in his body was a glowing hole.
"Admiral Kizaru's ability?"
Su Lin glanced at the Marine soldier who had launched the sneak attack and didn't care.
"No way, does such an absurd ability really exist?!"
"Copy every ability?!"
"How terrifying~." Kizaru was also wondering whether Su Lin's words were true.
Sabaody Archipelago · Gossip Square and Gossip Tavern
"Headquarters! Headquarters!"
"Breaking news, breaking news!"
"The war isn't over yet, but news even more explosive than the outcome of the war has emerged!"
"The most powerful Devil Fruit ability has appeared!"
"A Book-Book Fruit user capable of copying every Devil Fruit ability!"
Inside the Tavern.
The Pirates' cups fell to the floor one after another, clinking sharply against the wooden boards.
"This kind of thing..."
"I am neither a Pirate nor a Marine. I'm only here to end this war."
"Whichever side attacks first, I'll join the other side."
"Do you understand now?"
Su Lin spread his arms as though he wanted to embrace everything and smiled calmly.
Then he opened his eyes again, his expression shifting.
His face carried thirty percent disdain, thirty percent mercy, thirty percent arrogance, and ten percent seriousness—or so he believed.
He had spent a long time thinking up that expression.
The expression of a strong man.
"What a joke!"
"Just a bunch of criminals!"
Naturally, some Marines stepped forward to object.
Su Lin had never intended to let them back down so easily.
"Then!"
"Let me show you!"
He spread his arms even wider, forming a cross.
Two white semicircles appeared in his hands.
Snap.
Crash.
It sounded like shattering glass and firecrackers being lit and exploding at the same time.
The ground began to shake.
"This is!?"
Sengoku and Garp grew anxious.
Whitebeard raised his chin and looked at Su Lin.
"Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit ability!?"
"It's actually real!?"
The shaking grew more and more obvious, gradually intensifying.
"Stop! Are you trying to destroy Marineford!?"
At that, Su Lin lowered his arms and slipped his hands into his pockets, unleashing Roger's Conqueror's Haki to its fullest extent.
"Do you understand now, everyone?"
"I'm not asking you."
"Nor am I trying to persuade you."
"You will listen to me and end this war."
Kaido's eyes burned with fighting spirit. He even found it interesting; among everyone present, this guy cared the least about the consequences.
Naturally, Su Lin knew that.
He reached into the Void and tugged.
Su Lin, who had taken on Kaido's appearance dozens of minutes earlier, was pulled out. He continued using the Haki he had exchanged for, his spiked club itching for a fight.
Seeing the identical appearance, Kaido himself froze.
A cloning ability? Or was this copying?!
"Sure enough, this guy's Conqueror's Haki reminds me of Roger," Garp said, staring gravely at Su Lin as sweat beaded on his forehead. "When did another powerhouse like this quietly emerge on these seas?"
Even if Roger were resurrected, he would not be afraid. Back then, he had chased Roger for years.
But today's situation was different. The man before him possessed a combination of Devil Fruit abilities.
"This is terrible." Sengoku stood shoulder to shoulder with Garp, staring in Su Lin's direction.
"I'm not targeting anyone in particular."
Su Lin decided to act arrogant to the end today. After all, it was all the Historical Projection speaking.
He gave a thumbs-down, completely unlike the peacemaker he had been moments ago.
"I merely want to say that everyone here is trash."
(End of Chapter)