Somewhere along the desolate coast near Pejella.
Night had fallen. The waves tirelessly battered the black reefs, shattering into countless pale foams.
Lafitte sat alone atop the tallest reef, staring blankly at the distant horizon that seemed capable of swallowing everything.
His cane had been casually tossed beside him. His wounds had received only basic treatment and 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 utterly graceless pirates?
Just as his thoughts drifted aimlessly, a calm, gentle voice with a strange penetrating quality suddenly came from directly above him:
"Have you decided where to go next?"
Lafitte answered instinctively, somewhat dazed, "Not yet..."
Before he could finish, he jolted violently awake from his trance, every hair on his back standing on end! Someone had approached this close, yet he had not noticed at all?!
He suddenly looked up!
Under the cold moonlight, a massive figure hovered silently several meters above his head.
Shoulder-length silver hair gleamed with a cold metallic luster beneath the moon, and his eyes watched Lafitte calmly with a hint of scrutiny and amusement.
Adams looked at Lafitte's pale face, instantly filled with shock and vigilance, and continued in an even voice:
"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 odd. How could a core crew member who would one day stand at Blackbeard Teach's side be so easily "driven out" by the guards of a kingdom? Now he understood. It had merely been a clumsy lie fabricated by incompetent officials to cover their shame.
In his view, obeying laws was something the Navy and those so-called partners of justice did. How could a villain possibly abide by the law? Especially in a world where individual strength could tear rules apart.
Lafitte swiftly suppressed his shock and studied the uninvited guest in the air with interest, habitually letting out his strange laugh:
"Hohohoho... How rare. Someone actually wants to recruit a rule-breaking violent criminal like me?"
He immediately realized that the other party must have seen everything that had happened earlier. Otherwise, he would not have asked whether Lafitte had decided where to go.
Adams spoke indifferently:
"Rules? I don't care about the boring rules made by those worldly fools. Besides, on this sea, for pirates, without strength as a foundation, no matter how many rules are established, they are as fragile as bubbles. But with absolute strength, the order and rules one recognizes will naturally be obeyed willingly by one's subordinates."
Lafitte's eyes flickered intensely. The other man's words had vaguely touched upon certain thoughts buried deep within him. He licked his lips, his voice carrying a trace of probing defiance:
"Hohoho... It sounds like you're very confident in your strength?"
"Want to try?" Adams asked lightly.
"Then... I would be honored to oblige!" A sharp gleam suddenly burst from Lafitte's eyes!
Before his words had even faded, there came a tearing sound! A pair of angelic white wings abruptly spread from his back, while his cane turned into a continuous blur of afterimages, striking at Adams's vital points like a venomous bee's stinger, astonishingly fast.
Yet in the face of this swift and bizarre attack, Adams merely raised his right hand calmly—extending two fingers.
The fierce offensive was precisely caught between those two fingers, as though it were not a deadly cane but a twig wielded by a playing child.
Lafitte's pupils contracted sharply!
The next moment, Adams flicked his wrist, and an unimaginably immense force surged along the cane.
Lafitte felt the web between his thumb and forefinger split open, numbness instantly spreading through his entire arm. Then his whole body was uncontrollably swung up by the enormous force and hurled toward the beach below like a stone shot from a catapult!
Boom!
The sand was smashed into a huge crater, and dust shot skyward.
Before Lafitte could recover from the violent impact, Adams's legs had already become a blurry afterimage overhead.
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 crater, Lafitte endured the searing pain as his wings snapped shut to shield his front, while he swung his cane so quickly 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 obliterated. Lafitte gave everything he had and barely managed to block this terrifying barrage of long-range attacks, but feathers were already scattered across his wings, which were covered in fine bloody wounds, while his blood and energy churned violently within him.
He had only just caught his breath when a vicious glint flashed through his eyes. His wings suddenly spread open, revealing two flintlock repeating pistols hidden beneath them. Their muzzles spat deadly fire as several specially made lead bullets shot toward Adams in the air from tricky angles.
"Tricks of no consequence."
Adams did not even move. He casually raised his free left hand, his five spread 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 they had arrived. Lafitte had no time to react. Blood burst from his shoulder, thigh, and side in an instant, and the powerful impact sent him screaming out of the air.
"It's over."
Adams's voice sounded like a verdict.
He spun through the air at high speed, unleashing a dark-blue slash several times larger than every previous Rankyaku, solid as a crescent moon. It tore through the air with a shrill howl and came crashing down upon Lafitte's head.
That destructive light reflected in Lafitte's pupils. His survival instinct made him raise his cane before him to block.
Riiip—!
There was no suspense. The specially made cane was effortlessly cut apart like a hot knife through butter, and the enormous Rankyaku slammed viciously into his chest.
"Puh—!" Lafitte spat out a mouthful of blood. The white wings on his back instantly vanished and reverted. His entire body was smashed deep into the bottom of the pit, forming a human-shaped crater lined with radiating cracks.
On the sand at both ends of the crater, two terrifying slash marks stretching over a dozen meters remained, like the claw marks of some enormous beast.
The dust slowly settled.
Adams's figure drifted lightly down to the edge of the pit. Looking down from above at the blood-soaked Lafitte, who was barely clinging to life at the bottom, he spoke in the same calm tone:
"How is my strength?"
Lafitte coughed violently, each cough bringing up bloody foam. He struggled to lift 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 fervor.
"Strong... unimaginably... strong..."
"Then," Adams took a step forward, his pupils devoid of emotion, containing only absolute control, "answer my first question. Will you become my subordinate?"
Lafitte did not answer immediately. The intense pain and powerful impacts had left his thoughts somewhat muddled. Panting, he asked a seemingly unrelated question:
"I... I want to know... did you choose to become a pirate... for One Piece?"
Hearing this, the corner of Adams's mouth seemed to curl into an arc filled with boundless ambition.
"One Piece?"
He gently shook his head, as though mocking the smallness of that goal.
"I have no interest in something like that."
He paused. Then an immense, surging pressure, almost tangible, abruptly erupted from his body.
Lafitte's already pale face instantly turned white as paper. Even his soul trembled, as though it would be crushed by that aura in the next second.
Yet the fervor in his eyes as he looked at Adams suddenly blazed like flames doused in oil.
Within that trembling Haki, Adams's voice descended like a divine decree:
"My goal is... the world."
As his words fell, the pressure receded like a tide.
As someone from Dragon Country in his previous life, Adams naturally could not resist the temptation of the words, "By the Mandate of Heaven, may the ruler enjoy long life and eternal prosperity."
Although this world had no profession called "emperor," nor any imperial seal, the King of the World possessed a status and resources that were no different from those of an emperor. It was merely called something else.
After going through the trouble of transmigrating, if he did not experience the life of one above all others, then would this transmigration not have been wasted?
Adams suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his heart and looked at Lafitte, whose gaze had changed completely, before repeating:
"Enough. I have answered what you wanted to know. Now tell me your choice."
Lafitte lay at the bottom of the crater. The pain remained intense, yet unprecedented excitement surged within his heart.
He recalled the decay, injustice, hypocrisy, and stagnation of the world he had witnessed since childhood—the deeply rooted, nauseating order.
Deep within him, there had always lurked a powerful desire to tear all of it apart, to make the old world collapse completely amid fire and chaos.
And this man before him—the power he had displayed, the goal he had declared... perfectly matched that twisted yet intense desire!
With that thought, Lafitte struggled to his feet, using his cane to support himself. Though he was in a wretched state, he still tried to straighten his back.
"Hohohoho..."
He laughed hoarsely, placed the overburdened cane across his knees with both hands, and snapped it into two with a sudden burst of strength. His face was filled with the fervor of someone who had found his rightful place:
"Since that's the case, there is only one answer. I will pledge my loyalty to you."
TO BE CONTINUED