A single judgment slowly surfaced in Adrian's mind: A real man!
The seas were home to all manner of pirates, strange and varied, some good and some bad.
Things that some pirates dismissed as worthless.
Were things other pirates would give their lives to pursue.
Clearly.
The World's Strongest Man, Whitebeard, Edward Newgate.
Was precisely that sort of "upright" pirate who valued dignity and fairness in battle above all else, even at the cost of injuring himself!
Now that he had landed in the dense forest of Bird Mountain Island, he was already on the fairest possible battlefield.
Yet Whitebeard still drove Murakumogiri through his right leg, deliberately restoring the disadvantage he had suffered while fighting over the sea.
Adrian could not understand Whitebeard's way of thinking, but he was deeply shaken nonetheless.
"Whew—"
Whitebeard drew a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, as though that could ease the pain in his right thigh.
In all his years at sea, this was the first time he had been forced to seriously injure himself like this...
Large tears spilled from Marco's eyes, but he did not even notice. He continued staring blankly at Pops, who had grievously wounded himself because of Marco's reckless actions.
Whitebeard raised a hand and silently stroked Marco's head a few times, saying nothing.
Then he lifted Murakumogiri, turned around, and walked toward Adrian.
For the first few steps, Whitebeard moved rather slowly, even limping a little.
But by his seventh or eighth step.
Whitebeard had already grown accustomed to the wound in his right thigh, and his steps became steady.
His pace grew faster and faster.
Until finally.
Whitebeard began sprinting just like an uninjured man.
"Making a father lose face in front of his son is a grave offense aboard the Moby Dick, White Ghost!"
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