Since That's the Case, There's Only One Answer...

On a desolate stretch of coast near Pejella.

Night had fallen, and the waves tirelessly battered the black reefs, shattering into countless pale bubbles.

Lafitte sat alone atop the highest rock, staring blankly at the horizon that seemed capable of swallowing everything.

His cane lay carelessly beside him. His wounds had been roughly treated, but they still throbbed faintly.

Leaving was inevitable, but where should he go next? On this sea, there seemed to be no place within the established order that could accommodate a "freak" like him. Perhaps he could only become one of those pirates utterly devoid of any sense of beauty?

Just as his thoughts drifted aimlessly, a calm, gentle voice with a strangely penetrating quality suddenly came from directly above him:

"Have you decided where you're going next?"

Lafitte answered instinctively, somewhat dazed, "Not yet..."

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly jolted awake from his reverie, every hair on his back standing on end! Someone had come this close without him noticing at all?!

He abruptly looked up!

Under the cold moonlight, a massive figure floated silently several meters above his head.

Shoulder-length silver hair gleamed with the luster of cold metal beneath the moonlight. His eyes carried a hint of scrutiny and amusement as he calmly watched Lafitte.

Seeing Lafitte's pale face instantly fill with shock and vigilance, Adams continued in an even tone:

"Since you haven't decided, would you consider becoming my subordinate?"

He had actually arrived long ago and had even witnessed the entire process of Lafitte "dancing" with those five hundred soldiers.

He had initially found it strange. How could someone who would become a core crew member at Blackbeard Teach's side in the future be so easily "driven out" by a kingdom's guards? Now he understood. It had merely been a clumsy lie fabricated by incompetent bureaucrats to cover up their shame.

In his view, obeying laws was something Marines and their so-called partners of justice did. How could a scoundrel possibly follow the law, especially in a world where individual power could tear rules apart?

Lafitte quickly suppressed his shock and studied the unexpected visitor in the air with interest, letting out his habitual strange laugh:

"Hohohoho... How unusual. Someone actually took the initiative to recruit a rule-breaking violent criminal like me?"

He immediately realized that the other party must have witnessed everything that had just happened. Otherwise, he would not have asked whether Lafitte had decided where to go.

Adams spoke indifferently:

"Rules? I don't care about the tedious rules established by worldly fools. Besides, on this sea, for pirates, without strength as a foundation, no matter how many rules are made, they are as fragile as bubbles. But with absolute strength, the order and rules one recognizes will naturally be willingly obeyed by one's subordinates."

Lafitte's eyes flickered intensely. Those words had faintly stirred something deep within him. He licked his lips, his voice carrying a trace of probing and provocation:

"Hohoho... It sounds like you're very confident in your strength?"

"Want to try?" Adams said calmly.

"Then... I'll gladly accept!" A sharp glint suddenly erupted in Lafitte's eyes!

Before his words had faded, there came a ripping sound! A pair of pure white wings, like an angel's, suddenly spread from behind his back. His cane transformed into a relentless series of afterimages, striking at Adams's vital points like a venomous bee's stinger at astonishing speed.

Yet in the face of that swift, bizarre attack, Adams merely raised his right hand calmly—and extended two fingers.

The fierce assault was caught with astonishing precision between those two fingers, as though it were not a deadly cane but a branch wielded by a child at play.

Lafitte's pupils constricted sharply!

The next moment, Adams flicked his wrist, and an unimaginably massive force surged through the cane.

Lafitte felt the web between his thumb and forefinger split open as numbness instantly spread through his entire arm. Then his body was uncontrollably swung up by that tremendous force and hurled viciously toward the beach below like a stone launched from a catapult!

Boom!

The sand was smashed into a massive crater, and dust shot into the sky.

Before Lafitte could recover from that violent impact, Adams's legs had already become a blur in the air above.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—!

Over a hundred azure vacuum slashes poured down like a raging storm, covering the entire sand pit.

At the bottom of the pit, Lafitte endured the excruciating pain and abruptly folded his wings before himself. At the same time, he swung his cane so rapidly that it formed an impenetrable defense.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The explosive clashes between the cane and the slashes rang out without end. Layers of sand were sliced away and annihilated. Lafitte gave everything he had and barely managed to block that terrifying wave of ranged attacks, but his wings had already lost countless feathers and were covered in fine bloody cuts, while his blood and qi churned violently within him.

He had only just caught his breath when a vicious gleam flashed in his eyes. His wings suddenly spread, revealing two flintlock repeaters concealed beneath them. Their muzzles spat deadly flames as several specially made lead bullets shot toward Adams in the air from treacherous angles.

"A childish trick."

Adams did not even move. He casually raised his free left hand, his five fingers dancing through the air in a blur.

When his hand stopped, those bullets had all been caught between his fingers.

Then he flicked his wrist!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The bullets shot back several times faster than before. Lafitte had no time to react. Blood burst from his shoulder, thigh, and side as the powerful impact sent him screaming from the air.

"It's over."

Adams's voice sounded like a judgment.

He spun rapidly through the air, unleashing a deep-blue slash several times larger than all his previous Rankyaku attacks combined. Solid as a crescent moon, it tore through the air and came crashing down with a piercing howl.

That destructive light reflected in Lafitte's pupils. His survival instinct made him raise his cane before himself to block it.

Riiip—!

There was no suspense. The specially made cane was effortlessly cut in two like a hot knife through butter, and the massive Rankyaku slammed viciously into his chest.

"Puh—!" Lafitte spat out a mouthful of blood, and the white wings on his back instantly vanished. His body was driven deep into the bottom of the pit, leaving a human-shaped crater with radiating cracks around its edges.

On the sand at both ends of the pit, two terrifying slash marks, each over a dozen meters long, remained behind like the claw marks of some giant beast.

The dust slowly settled.

Adams's figure drifted lightly down to the edge of the pit. Looking down from above at Lafitte, who was covered in blood and barely clinging to life at the bottom, he spoke in the same calm voice:

"How is my strength?"

Lafitte coughed violently, blood froth spilling out with every cough. He struggled to raise his head and looked at the figure beneath the moonlight, like a demon god. His eyes were filled with shock, fear, and a trace of... morbid fanaticism.

"Strong... unimaginably... strong..."

"Then," Adams took a step forward, his pupils devoid of emotion and filled only with absolute control, "answer my first question. Will you become my subordinate?"

Lafitte did not answer immediately. The intense pain and overwhelming shock had muddled his thoughts. Panting, he asked a seemingly unrelated question:

"I... I want to know... did you become a pirate... for One Piece?"

At those words, the corner of Adams's mouth seemed to curve into an expression of boundless ambition.

"One Piece?"

He gently shook his head, as if mocking the insignificance of that goal.

"I have no interest in that kind of thing."

He paused. Then an immense, surging pressure, almost tangible, suddenly erupted from within him.

Lafitte's already pale face instantly turned white as paper. Even his soul trembled, as though it would be crushed by that aura the very next second.

Yet the fanaticism in his gaze toward Adams flared like a fire doused in oil.

Amid that tremblingly oppressive Haki, Adams's voice descended like an oracle:

"My goal is... the World."

As his words fell, the pressure receded like the tide.

As someone from Dragon Country in his previous life, Adams naturally could not resist the allure of the words, "By the Mandate of Heaven, may the emperor live long and prosper."

Although this world had no profession called "emperor," nor did it have an imperial seal, the status and resources possessed by the King of the World were no different from those of an emperor. It was merely called something else.

After finally transmigrating once, if he did not experience the life of one who stood above those above others, then would his transmigration not have been wasted?

Adams suppressed the tangled thoughts in his heart, looked at Lafitte, whose gaze had changed completely, and repeated:

"Enough. I've answered what you wanted to know. Now tell me your choice."

Lafitte lay at the bottom of the pit. The agony remained, but unprecedented excitement surged in his heart.

He recalled the decay, injustice, hypocrisy, and rigidity of this world that he had witnessed since childhood—the deeply rooted, revolting order.

Deep within him had always lurked an intense desire to tear it all apart and let the old world collapse completely amid flames and chaos.

And the man before him, the power he had displayed, the goal he had declared... perfectly matched that twisted yet powerful desire!

At that thought, Lafitte struggled to rise, using his cane to support himself. Though he was in a wretched state, he still tried to straighten his back.

"Hohohoho..."

He laughed hoarsely. Placing the overburdened cane across his knees with both hands, he suddenly exerted force and snapped it into two. His face was filled with the fervor of someone who had found his true home:

"Since that is the case, there is only one answer. I will pledge my loyalty to you."

TO BE CONTINUED