Everyone Joins the Fight

"Karmic Retribution: Power Conversion!"

Fierce, the last to join, leaped off the ship and charged straight into the firepower of an entire army. He neither dodged nor evaded, allowing bullets and shells to strike his body as he activated his ability and converted all that damage into strength.

His body then rapidly swelled, turning him into a true giant. With one punch, he destroyed the entire military formation before shrinking back to normal size.

"So it really is Urouge's Fruit!"

Hearing the slogan he shouted, Oak confirmed that his ability was precisely the one possessed by Urouge, one of the future Worst Generation supernovas.

Oak even suspected that Fierce had most likely developed his ability to the point of awakening. Not only could he enlarge his body, but he could also shrink it. From what others had said, when he first landed on Hachinosu, he had been far smaller than his current normal size, looking so frail that a gust of wind could knock him over. Only after someone kicked him did he return to normal, and then he crushed the person who had kicked him to death in one hand.

The damage from that kick could not possibly have been enough to make his body grow so drastically. So, he had likely stored the strength converted in the past within his body and used it only when needed.

Combined with the ability to enlarge specific parts of his body, all of this was something Urouge had never displayed in the original story. Oak felt it was reasonable to guess that Fierce had awakened his ability.

In that case...

Aoluo's eyes flickered as he stared at Fierce in the field, seemingly deep in thought.

Meanwhile, Chief Marlon made his move as well.

"Rumble—"

He stood in place without any visible movement, yet countless bullets and shells appeared in a circle before him out of thin air. They then spread in every direction, launching a full 360-degree attack without blind spots and wiping out any enemy who dared enter a certain range around him.

That firepower...

Oak's attention was drawn by the commotion Marlon caused. Marlon's firepower was enough to rival an entire army.

"The Fortress-Fortress Fruit?!"

At the same time, he noticed some subtle details that were easy to miss. Marlon's firepower had not appeared from nowhere; it had emerged from his body. At first, the ammunition was only as small as grains of rice, but after passing through a transparent ring of light around him, it suddenly expanded.

This Devil Fruit ability was rather similar to that of Capone Bege, another future Worst Generation supernova from the original story.

After observing further, Oak confirmed that Marlon was the Fortress-Fortress Fruit user. Some barely noticeable petrification had appeared on Marlon's body, and the hardened portions bore patterns resembling buildings and castles. Those were all things only the Fortress-Fortress Fruit could achieve.

This discovery fascinated Oak. In the original story, Marlon had never had a single battle scene, much less shown whether he possessed an ability.

Moreover, Marlon came from West Blue and had once been a mafia boss. He later went out to sea as a pirate and joined the Rocks Pirates. His life trajectory was practically identical to Bege's future path.

It was hard to say whether the two were related. If they were, that would be even more interesting.

It seemed that Ochoku, that Traitor, really had some skill after all!

After seeing Marlon act, Oak instinctively wanted to find Ochoku.

In the original story, Ochoku had silently attacked and killed Marlon, and Marlon's corpse had not been discovered until the next day. Every detail showed that Ochoku was stronger than Marlon, and by a considerable margin. Otherwise, he could not have accomplished something like that.

Oak had considered whether Ochoku had only managed it through a sneak attack, but he felt that was unlikely. The Rocks Pirates were not a crew that trusted one another deeply.

They had gathered only for certain goals and shared interests. Everyone understood that the others could not be trusted.

Since joining, Oak had noticed that although they could sometimes get along peacefully, everyone remained wary of everyone else at all times. Even when sleeping, they kept one eye open. It would therefore have been difficult for Ochoku to find an opportunity to ambush Marlon. The more likely possibility was that he had forcefully assassinated him, merely choosing a time and place with fewer people around.

If so, Ochoku's strength was worth reconsidering. The Fortress-Fortress Fruit was an exceptionally defensive ability. Even when used by a weakling like Bege, it could withstand several full-power punches from Linlin, who would later become one of the Four Emperors. There was no reason Marlon would be weaker than Bege. For Ochoku to kill him in a short time, his strength had to rank among the top of the entire Rocks Pirates.

Yet in the original story, he had hardly ever fought. And the stories about him were either that Blackbeard Teach, Koby of the Marines, and Trafalgar Luo had joined forces to defeat him, or that, as Traitor, he had betrayed the Rocks Pirates, killed his comrade Marlon, and sold Shakuyaku to the Celestial Dragons. That was why he gave people the false impression that he was merely sinister, rather than particularly strong.

Oak searched around but could not find that Traitor. Ochoku had vanished somewhere unknown. However, while failing to spot Ochoku, Oak instead caught sight of Captain John.

While everyone else was busy scrambling for treasure, John lagged leisurely behind on his own, taking unhurried sip after sip of alcohol.

"Violent Redemption: Magnetic Grip!"

As he walked down a street in the city, purple magnetic force spilled from his body and spread into the distance at tremendous speed.

Then, every object containing metal flew toward him.

"Hehe~"

Only after seeing the mountain-like pile of floating objects before him did John let out a wicked chuckle and slowly begin sorting through the treasure.

"Seriously..."

Oak was speechless at the sight. John had completely turned his Magnet-Magnet Fruit ability into a treasure-hunting skill. The greatest effect of the move he developed was actually drawing treasure straight to his doorstep!

"John!!"

Furious roars erupted from several distant directions. Golden Lion, Linlin, and the others immediately charged toward John.

Clearly, the treasure they had just obtained had also been sucked over by John, and they were preparing to settle the score with him!

Seeing this, John sensibly used his magnetism to drag away the huge pile of treasure and vanished from the spot in a flash.

"These guys!"

From the ship, Rocks watched his crew below nearly turn into a chaotic brawl and helplessly slapped his forehead, utterly speechless.

He then looked at the three people still remaining in the field. He knew Newgate had never cared much about treasure.

But Oak and Kaido...

Rocks turned his gaze toward Kaido.

"Not interested. Rather than snatching useless treasure, I'd rather find someone and have a good fight!"

Kaido explained with a stern face. Compared to grabbing treasure, he wanted more to find someone to fight, but aside from their own people, there was nobody below who could stir his interest. So he could not be bothered going down.

Besides, what was the point of grabbing so much treasure?

Was he supposed to bring it back so Oak could use it to pay his bar tab?

Kaido shot Oak a sidelong glance. This guy had been getting more and more excessive lately. Every time he drank, he put it on Kaido's tab, and he even used Kaido's money to treat people every day!