Guanhao Floating Archipelago, inside a two-story building.
Adams sat on a rough log chair. On the huge porcelain platter before him lay several steaks, grilled until fragrant and crisp at the edges.
He pierced the largest one with a silver fork and brought it to his mouth, tearing into it and chewing in great bites. Scalding white steam curled from his sweat-beaded skin.
"Tell me your decisions now. Do you want to become my subordinates?"
He swallowed the mouthful of meat, his gaze as sharp as a blade as it swept over Kalifa and Kaku in turn.
Kalifa instinctively pushed up her glasses, her fingertips trembling almost imperceptibly.
Behind the lenses, complicated emotions clashed fiercely in her eyes. She took a deep breath of the cold, thin air and gathered her courage to speak. Her voice tried to remain steady, but the unease beneath still slipped through.
"J-Just asking... what happens if I refuse?"
Adams did not even look up at her. He merely focused on cutting the steak on his plate, the silver knife scraping sharply against the porcelain as he ate and answered.
"Nothing much. I'll just throw you off from ten thousand meters up."
Although Kalifa would be highly capable once she matured, if her loyalty could not be guaranteed, he could only ruthlessly destroy such a promising talent.
The last trace of color instantly drained from Kalifa's face, and her pupils contracted sharply behind her glasses. The chill of the high altitude seemed to seep into her bones in an instant.
She clenched her fists tightly, her nails nearly digging into her palms. Time passed in suffocating silence, broken only by Adams's chewing and the howling wind.
After a long while, her shoulders sagged as though all strength had been drained from her. She let out a resigned sigh, her voice dry.
"I... am willing to join."
Adams showed no reaction, as though this outcome was only natural. His sharp gaze then turned toward Kaku, who stood beside her in a rather casual posture.
"And you?"
Kaku had both hands tucked into his roomy trouser pockets. He tilted his head, his face showing no particular emotion, as though he were merely deciding what to have for dinner.
"It's the same wherever I go. I don't mind."
He shrugged, his tone relaxed to the point of indifference. As the youngest, he had been brainwashed by the World Government the least and had the least resistance to the idea.
Adams nodded slightly, his gaze finally settling on Lucci.
"It's your turn to choose."
The moment his words fell, Lucci moved. He leaned forward by half a barely noticeable step. The lean muscles across his body, twisted together like steel cables, abruptly tightened, brimming with destructive force.
His gaze beneath the shadow of his hat brim was sharp as a tangible blade, locked firmly on Adams and filled with naked scrutiny and evaluation.
Adams sighed soundlessly in his heart.
What a pity. Such a sharp blade could not be used by him in the end.
He set down his silver fork, his knuckles tightening slightly as power quietly gathered within him. He prepared to erase this potential threat completely.
Yet at that critical moment, the terrifying aura around Lucci, as though he were about to devour someone, suddenly receded like a falling tide.
He returned to that restrained calmness.
He raised his chin slightly. The shadow beneath his hat brim shifted, revealing those utterly cold eyes.
Staring at Adams, he pulled his lips into a curve of absolute confidence, almost arrogance, and spoke in a low, clear voice.
"I hope you can maintain your current strength forever."
He paused, his tone carrying the forcefulness of a declaration.
"Otherwise, I'll definitely kill you. I don't want a leader weaker than me."
He had indeed considered attacking just now. However, after carefully weighing the gap between them, he chose to give up. Still, his stubborn nature would not allow him to directly say that he surrendered.
A trace of nearly imperceptible satisfaction flashed through Adams's eyes. He said with complete confidence,
"You won't get that chance."
The brief confrontation came to an end. Adams rose to his feet, naturally wrapping an arm around Stussy's slender waist as he strode toward the stairs leading to the second-floor bedroom.
At the bedroom door.
Stussy turned around. A lingering trace of doubt rested on her stunning face as those perceptive eyes looked directly at Adams.
"Do you really trust the three of them? Cipher Pol... ever since they could remember, the mark carved into their bones has been to give everything to the World Government, including their lives."
Adams did not look at her. His voice was as calm as if he were stating an established fact.
"I don't trust them right now. But I believe that my future self will definitely make them truly submit."
Stussy sighed softly, her red lips parting as her tone carried helplessness and incomprehension.
"I really don't know where you get this confidence from..."
"Time will prove it. All right, it's time for you to meet my family."
A certain smile curved Adams's lips. His broad palm was already resting against the door, and he gave it a gentle push.
West Blue, the Colombo family's headquarters.
A huge reception room was filled with a suffocatingly stale atmosphere. An enormous kerosene lamp illuminated only a small area in the center, casting a deathly pale light over the seat of honor while the surroundings sank into all-devouring darkness.
Seated in the place of honor was an abnormally burly giant-fin goby Fish-Man.
He was the master of this place, the head of the Colombo family, Colombo Avery.
More than a dozen muscular thugs stood around him, dressed in bizarre clown outfits with ghastly white paint smeared across their faces. Their eyes were hollow and vicious.
In the cold corners of the room, rusty iron cages were piled one atop another. Inside them huddled ragged slaves with vacant, numb eyes.
"G-Godfather..."
A trembling voice broke the silence. Barton, his body wrapped in filthy bandages, lay sprawled like a lump of mud on the scarlet carpet before the seat of honor. His body shook like chaff from fear and pain.
"Y-Your subordinate deserves death! This operation... failed completely..."
He swallowed with difficulty, a raspy wheezing sound coming from his throat.
"Your subordinate... encountered an extremely troublesome ability user... that man... claimed to be from Egadi..."
Barton's voice was full of the lingering terror of surviving a disaster.
After being severely wounded by that silver-haired man who had seemed like a demon god, he had hidden like a sewer rat for a month. Only by relying on the Zoan's tenacious vitality had he barely clung to life and recovered enough to move. Only then had he dared to drag his broken body back to this terrifying den to report.
Avery's massive body moved. He stood up, and his enormous shadow instantly swallowed Barton, who was prostrate on the floor.
He walked up to Barton and bent down. With an almost "gentle" strength, his broad palm lightly patted Barton's bandage-wrapped shoulder.
"Since you encountered an accident, there was nothing to be done. You did well. Thanks for the effort."