Secrets Beneath the Scar

"Secret weapon?"

Lin Feng's heart jolted. This was huge information!

"That's right. I'm a Paramecia-type Steel Fruit user, an experimental subject they used to create human weapons!"

Bart's voice was low and hoarse. Every word seemed forced through clenched teeth, filled with pain and fury. His already sinister scar twisted as his emotions surged.

"You... can you tell me more?" Lin Feng asked cautiously.

Lin Feng could feel that the scar in Bart's heart was far deeper and more painful than the one on his face. It was a pain that reached down to the marrow.

Bart fell silent, lowering his head as if recalling some unbearable memory. His eyes reddened slightly.

After a long while, he finally spoke. His voice was as hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "I... was born in an ordinary little fishing village. I lived there with my grandfather."

"I depended on my grandfather for everything from a young age. Back then, my greatest wish was to protect him."

"But..."

Bart's voice suddenly choked. He clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh as the veins on the backs of his hands bulged.

"When I was ten, something happened that I'll never be able to forget. A band of vicious pirates attacked our village. They burned, killed, and looted, committing every evil imaginable. To protect me, Grandfather held those pirates back with all his strength. They hacked him to death right in front of me..."

"I'll never forget how Grandfather fell into a pool of blood. With the last of his strength, he said to me, 'Bart, stay alive...'"

"After Grandfather died, the Marines captured me. They didn't care about my feelings at all. They locked me up like livestock."

"They said I was the perfect host for the Steel Fruit, a once-in-a-century ability, and that I could become the strongest 'weapon'... Fuck their weapons! I hate the Marines! If they hadn't arrived so late, Grandfather wouldn't have died!"

At this, Bart suddenly raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, the red spreading through his gray-blue irises like a wounded beast.

"Do you know what they did to me?!"

Bart's voice rose sharply, trembling with a hint of shrillness.

"Every day, I had to undergo all kinds of inhuman training. Those instructors were devils. They forced me to use my willpower to resist the Steel Fruit's side effects, forced me through all kinds of extreme training, and beat me savagely whenever I disobeyed."

"They stuck all kinds of tubes into my body and injected me with unknown drugs. I suffered unbearable pain and nearly died several times! They never treated me like a person. To them, I was nothing but a killing machine without emotions!"

"I watched those experimental subjects who were just like me die one after another in agony. I still can't forget their screams."

"Some experimental subjects went insane because they couldn't endure the pain. They locked them in cages like beasts and even dissected them alive! I was terrified. I didn't know when I would become like them..."

Bart grew more and more agitated. His body began to tremble violently, and the Steel Fruit activated on its own as his body started turning metallic.

"I don't want to become a monster like them! I don't want to become a killing machine! I wanted to kill myself countless times, but then I remembered Grandfather. He told me to stay alive. I couldn't give up just like that! I had to escape. I had to get out!"

"So, during one mission, I killed the guards while they weren't paying attention and desperately escaped. I hid from them all the way, and I don't know how long passed before I reached this deserted island and hid in these ruins..."

Bart's voice gradually faded. He slowly crouched down, clutching his head with both hands as his body trembled slightly.

"I've... got nowhere left to go... I don't know where I should go. I just want to find a place where no one knows me and quietly spend the rest of my life..."

Lin Feng listened silently to Bart's story. His heart felt as if it were being crushed by a massive stone, so heavy that he could barely breathe.

He never expected that this seemingly cold and heartless man had such a tragic past.

"So that's why you don't trust me and think I'm a Marine sent to hunt you down?"

Lin Feng asked softly, a trace of sympathy in his voice.

"Isn't that what you are?!"

Bart abruptly raised his head and glared at Lin Feng, his eyes filled with suspicion and wariness.

"You possess such incredible strength, and you appeared in this desolate place. Other than the Marines, who else would come looking for an abandoned failure like me?! Are you still unwilling to let me go?!"

"I'm not a Marine."

Lin Feng shook his head, his gaze frank.

"My name is Lin Feng. I'm a pirate, and I'm the captain of the 17th Division of the Whitebeard Pirates."

"A pirate?"

Bart froze for a moment, seeming surprised. His steel-transformed body returned to normal as well.

"The Whitebeard Pirates? The crew of Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world?"

"That's right."

Lin Feng nodded.

"I came here only to look for something."

"Look for something?"

Bart furrowed his brows, the scar on his face bunching together.

"What exactly did you come here to find?!"

"A sword. A... very special sword."

Lin Feng pointed toward the Demon Blade at the center of the altar. Its blade gleamed with a cold light.

"I can feel it calling to me. I have to obtain it!"

"That sword?!"

At those words, Bart's expression changed dramatically. His gray-blue pupils contracted sharply, and his body began to tremble slightly.

"No! You can't touch it!"

"Why?"

Lin Feng asked in confusion. The sword was indeed sinister, but with the system, he should be able to give it a try.

"That's a cursed Demon Blade! It devours the minds of those who wield it, turning them into madmen who know nothing but slaughter!"

Bart spoke agitatedly, his body trembling slightly as if he had remembered something horrifying.

"I once saw one of my companions controlled by that Demon Blade with my own eyes. He... he killed everyone. They were all companions who had trained alongside us! In the end... he used that sword to kill himself... That sword is too terrifying. It's practically the incarnation of a demon!"

"A cursed Demon Blade?"

Lin Feng looked at the Demon Blade, a strange glint flashing through his eyes.

The Demon Blade did indeed radiate an evil aura that sent chills through anyone who sensed it. At the same time, Lin Feng also felt that it seemed to share some special connection with him—a sensation of blood calling to blood. The system had reacted as well.

"I know what you're thinking."

Bart looked at Lin Feng, sighed, and helplessly shook his head.

"You think you can control this Demon Blade, don't you?"

"I admit that you're very strong, even stronger than me."

"But believe me, no one can control this Demon Blade. No one!"

Bart's voice was filled with despair, the numbness born from experiencing hope and disappointment countless times.

"I've seen too many people who thought they were above it. In the end, they all died beneath this Demon Blade."

"Leave while you still can."

Bart closed his eyes, seemingly unwilling to watch Lin Feng walk toward his destruction.

"I don't want to see anyone else die here."

Lin Feng fell silent. He looked at Bart, then at the Demon Blade, caught in indecision and gripped by fear of the unknown.

Bart's words made Lin Feng wary.

But the Demon Blade's call was impossible to resist. It was a longing that rose from the depths of his soul.

"Bart, thank you for the warning."

Lin Feng suddenly spoke, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.

"But I still want to try. The old man once said that someone with Conqueror's Haki shouldn't be afraid of a sword. Besides, I have a feeling that this sword might take my strength to the next level!"

"You!"

Bart's eyes flew open. He stared at Lin Feng in disbelief, as if he were looking at a madman.

"Are you insane?!"

"I'm not insane."

Lin Feng smiled, confidence and resolve shining in his eyes.

"I just... don't want to miss any opportunity to become stronger."

"Besides, I believe I can control it!"

Determination gleamed in Lin Feng's eyes. It was confidence in his own strength, as well as his yearning for the future.

"Because I'm going to become the strongest man!"

"You... you really are insane!"

Bart looked at Lin Feng and helplessly shook his head. He could no longer stop the young man.

"Since you insist, then let me see whether you really have what it takes!"

Bart suddenly roared. His body once again turned the color of steel, gleaming with a metallic sheen.

"If you die here, I'll bury you myself!"

"Then bring it on!"

Lin Feng drew Frost Gale and pointed it at Bart, the tip of the blade gleaming with a cold light.

"Let me see just how hard that steel body of yours really is!"

"You'll regret this!"

Bart roared and charged at Lin Feng.