"Was it finally time?"
On a remote island in the first half of the Grand Line, seldom disturbed by the outside world.
"Moshi moshi!"
The Den Den Mushi, silent for so long, kept ringing. An old man whose posture remained straight let out a sigh.
Though his hair was white, he did not look frail with age and was in excellent spirits.
Ignoring the Den Den Mushi, the old man opened a wardrobe that had gathered dust for years, put on the Gray Cloak, and donned a top hat.
Then he took out a locked Black Iron Box and opened it, revealing an array of exquisitely crafted, top-quality flintlocks.
He took out the flintlocks, dismantled and reassembled them one by one, then loaded them after confirming that nothing was wrong.
Next, he secured them at his waist and inside his clothes until he was fully armed.
He put on a mask to conceal his face and draped the Gray Cloak over himself.
The war in the New World was still raging.
And soon, he would join it.
Finally, a black sniper rifle appeared before him.
He took out a clean cloth and carefully wiped it down, smiling as though it were a member of his family.
Any gunslinger present would have recognized it as "Death Gun," the sniper rifle belonging to the world's greatest sniper of the previous era.
The old man's identity was self-evident.
He was "Death Gun" Leon, the retired Great Pirate who had once shaken the seas, a veteran king and one of the captains of the Rocks Pirates' Thirteenth Division.
His last appearance had been at the Swordsmanship Tournament, after which he had vanished from the seas.
No one had imagined that this legendary Great Pirate was living in seclusion in the first half of the