The attack by Blackbeard's vanguard was like a pebble cast into the Sea of the End. Its ripples were soon swallowed by the waters' inherent stillness and strangeness. The Dawn Ark continued slipping through the thick, dark-green seawater, but the atmosphere aboard had grown heavier than before.
Jesus Burgess and Shiryu's surprise attack had not only caused battle damage-some of the armor on the port side needed repairs-but, more importantly, sent a clear signal: their course had been anticipated. Their enemies were not merely the monsters in these waters, but also craftier hunters of their own kind. Moreover, the shadow of the World Government seemed to have crossed paths with Blackbeard in some unsettling way.
"Analysis of the captured communicator fragments shows that over seventy percent of their encrypted channel's algorithmic structure shares an origin with the 'Hive Type Three' CP0 used during the Water 7 incident." At the hastily convened core meeting, Robin projected the findings onto a light screen. "Although the surface layer was disguised as the Blackbeard Pirates' internal cipher, its core authentication protocols and frequency-hopping patterns are top-level technology possessed only by intelligence agencies directly under the World Government."
"Does that mean the Five Elders or Imu have already tacitly allowed Blackbeard to obtain our location-or even helped him?" Sanji held a cigarette between his lips, his brow tightly furrowed. "Aren't they supposed to see Blackbeard as a threat?"
"The enemy of one's enemy can become a temporary pawn under certain circumstances." Lin Yan leaned back in the command chair, unconsciously tapping its armrest. "Blackbeard wants Laugh Tale's secrets and the ancient legacy. The World Government wants us and the Revolutionary Army gone, and, more than that, wants to recover or destroy the Heart of the Furnace and any system control authority that might exist. When