New World Shuffle-Who Dares Refuse?

The clouds above the New World were sliced open by blue light.

A vacuum corridor stretching dozens of kilometers cleaved through the night. The clouds on either side glowed red from the searing heat.

Sea wind poured into the vacuum zone, letting out a mournful howl. The air was thick with the pungent stench of ozone.

Everyone on the sea who looked up at the sky felt their calves tremble.

Rektol stood on the open-air launch platform.

The cold wind scattered the smoke from the cannon muzzle. He lowered his head and glanced at the Plasma Cannon barrel, which was still steaming.

He raised his right hand.

He pressed his index and middle fingers together, pointed at the pitch-black port below, and swept them forward with force.

The order was given.

Inside the port.

Five pitch-black steel warships, each a hundred meters long, roared at once.

The plasma thrusters spat dazzling blue flames. The intense heat instantly boiled the seawater beside the breakwater, sending up vast clouds of white bubbles. Dead fish floated to the surface, their white bellies turned upward.

Tons of Wapometal armor tore through the waves.

The steel fleet surged out in full force.

At the edge of Totto Land's waters.

More than a dozen pirate ships flying different skull flags were packed together. Their sails formed an unbroken stretch that blocked the horizon.

They were several large pirate alliances that had rushed over to seize territory after Rocks's death.

On the flagship's deck.

A burly pirate captain raised a spyglass.

The brass barrel was covered in scratches. He stared at the five black dots that had appeared on the distant sea.

"Tin cans?" The captain spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm. It smacked onto the wooden deck.

"They don't even have sails. Has the Charlotte Family gone completely broke?"

The pirates raised their rusty muskets and cutlasses, howling wildly. The stench of liquor filled the air.

A few minutes later.

The black dots became steel behemoths as large as mountains.

The Fine Steel rams gleamed coldly amid the waves. There were no wooden gun ports along the sides, only enormous heavy gun turrets rising from the decks.

The spyglass slipped from the captain's hand.

It landed on his toes. He did not even cry out from the pain. His legs began to shake, and cold sweat drenched the backs of his knees.

"Fire! Fire, now!" His voice cracked. His hoarse shout trembled in the wind like the clang of a broken gong.

Dozens of solid iron cannonballs slammed into them.

They struck the Wapometal armor without leaving so much as a white mark. The cannonballs bounced off and fell into the sea, splashing water high into the air.

Inside the steel warship's main gun turret.

Smoothie sat in a specially made iron chair. Thick Wapometal cables connected to her spine.

The Miniature Plasma Cannon on her right arm began charging, its blue light blinding.

She was still too young, and her forearm wobbled. The first beam skimmed past the pirate flagship's mast.

The mast instantly carbonized and snapped. The enormous flaming canvas crashed into the crowd, setting several underlings rolling across the deck as they screamed in agony.

She adjusted the angle. The muzzle aimed at the waterline.

"Boom!"

A blue beam swept across the sea.

There was no sound of wood splintering. Only the sizzling hiss of seawater evaporating in an instant.

Three pirate ships, along with everyone aboard them, vaporized within 0.1 seconds of touching the beam.

Not even a single intact bone remained. The iron anchors melted into molten metal beneath the heat, dripping onto the boiling sea.

The pirate captains nearby went mad with terror. Urine trickled down their trouser legs, filling the air with a sharp stink.

"Turn the rudder! Run!"

It was too late.

The thrusters at the stern of the warship let out a low growl. Then it accelerated violently.

The Fine Steel ram smashed into the wooden hull like a knife through tofu.

The ship split in two. Planks exploded apart. The pirates dropped into the water like dumplings into a pot.

Their screams were drowned out by the roar of the plasma engines. Corpses and shattered wood covered the sea. The thick blood drew in huge schools of bloodthirsty sharks.

Shark fins weaved back and forth through the red water, tearing at severed limbs.

With Smoothie's firepower and Cracker's impenetrable armor.

The Charlotte Family began a bloody reshuffling of the New World.

For the next half-month, the waters of the New World remained tinged with a dark red that refused to wash away.

On a mineral island that refused to surrender.

The island's defenders set up hundreds of coastal defense cannons on the cliffs. Black smoke poured from their muzzles.

The steel warships did not stop. Braving the dense barrage, they smashed straight through the breakwater below the cliffs.

A massive iron anchor crashed onto the shore, crushing two artillerymen. Blood and flesh were smeared everywhere.

Cracker walked down the gangplank.

He chewed a piece of hardened black bread, his cheeks bulging.

He slapped both hands onto the ground littered with rubble. The island's iron ore veins instantly went berserk.

Countless rusty swords, muskets, and cannon bases tore free and flew into the air. They twisted together into a massive iron ball more than a dozen meters in diameter.

Carrying a howling blast of pressure, it slammed heavily into the defenders' position.

The earth split open. The iron ball rolled through the trenches, crushing sandbags and soldiers into a bloody paste.

Half an hour later.

A black pirate flag bearing the Charlotte Family's emblem stood planted in the center of the blood-soaked square.

More than half of the New World's territorial waters now flew that flag.

Every island that dared resist was flattened by the warships.

Whether they were Rocks's former subordinates or member nations of the World Government, all bowed their heads before this unreasonable steel fleet.

No one in the taverns spoke loudly anymore. Whenever the pirates heard the warships' whistles, they would be so frightened that they hid their wineglasses beneath the tables.

The reshuffling was nearing its end.

Totto Land's main base.

A brand-new steel palace rose from the ground.

There was not a scrap of wood or a gaudy piece of candy. Everything was made of massive armor plates riveted tightly together.

The palace interior was cold, hard, and empty. The towering metal dome radiated a stifling air.

Rektol sat on the newly built Totto Land Throne.

The throne had been cast from hundreds of confiscated famous blades. Their edges pointed outward, gleaming with bloodthirsty chill. The rubies had been pried from their hilts and set beneath the footrest.

He wore a black, high-collared coat.

His left hand propped up his chin, while his right toyed with the golden dagger he had taken from God Valley.

The sharp dagger spun rapidly around his fingertips, trailing golden afterimages.

The great hall was unlit.

Only sunlight streamed through the bulletproof skylight in the dome. A shaft of light fell across the cold iron floor.

It was so quiet that the only sound was the rustle of sea wind scraping across the iron roof.

Suddenly.

The golden afterimage on the ground vanished.

The warm beam of sunlight overhead was abruptly severed by something.

The great hall instantly plunged into darkness. The temperature seemed to drop several degrees with it.

Rektol stopped moving his fingers.

"Clink."

The golden dagger fell onto the iron floor with a crisp sound.

He raised his head.

His gaze passed through the glass skylight and turned toward the sky outside.

Dozens of enormous floating islands.

Carrying tons of soil and thick trees ripped straight from the ground, they densely covered the entire sky above Totto Land.

They looked like a vast stretch of land hanging upside down in the heavens, blocking the sun completely.

The shadows on the ground swallowed the entire steel city wall.

A shrill sound of something tearing through the air pierced the heavy iron roof.

"Jahahahaha!"

The wild, arrogant laughter of Golden Lion Shiki came crashing down from the sky with the gale.