"Who's my next prey?"
When those words, brimming with boundless arrogance and killing intent, rang clearly across the entire Silent Square through the Amplifying Den Den Mushi that had yet to be switched off-
Everyone present, from the officers on the platform to the soldiers below, felt their scalps explode with shock!
Insane!
This man had gone completely insane!
He had actually turned the Marines' commissioning ceremony into his declaration of war!
He had actually demanded "prey" from the Fleet Admiral in front of the entire world!
What arrogance! What utter lawlessness!
Yet what terrified them even more was that, faced with such insubordinate words that treated military discipline as nothing, not one of the three highest-ranking Marine leaders on the platform spoke up to rebuke him!
Fleet Admiral Kong's face was filled with bitterness and helplessness.
Admiral Sengoku's face was livid, his clenched fists cracking, but he forced down the roar that had risen to his lips.
Meanwhile, after a brief moment of stunned disbelief, Garp the Hero slapped his thigh and burst into earthshaking laughter!
"Bwahahahahaha! Well said! Very well said! That's the man I had my eye on!" Garp laughed so hard he nearly cried. Pointing at Yas, he shouted at Sengoku beside him, "See that, Sengoku? Now that's presence! What our Marines need is a madman who dares to treat the Four Emperors as prey! Not a bookworm like you who sits in an office approving paperwork all day!"
"Garp! Shut your mouth!" Sengoku nearly spat blood in fury.
"Enough! Both of you, stop arguing!" Rubbing his aching temples, Fleet Admiral Kong announced in a deep voice into the microphone, "The commissioning ceremony is over! Dismissed!"
With that, he turned and headed backstage without looking back. His retreating figure looked every bit as though he were fleeing in panic. He feared that if he stayed any longer, this lawless brat would demand Rocks's head by name in front of everyone!
Half an hour later.
Marine Headquarters, the Fleet Admiral's Office.
The atmosphere was unbearably oppressive.
Yas, Kong, Garp, and Sengoku stood around a huge chart of the New World.
"Yas." Fleet Admiral Kong drew a deep breath, forcing himself to recover his authority as Fleet Admiral. Pointing at a relatively peaceful stretch of sea on the chart, he said gravely, "You've only just been promoted to Rear Admiral, and your footing isn't secure yet. I've decided to have you lead the Leviathan in clearing out pirates along the outskirts of this Calm Belt, to familiarize yourself with..."
"I refuse."
Yas cut him off coldly before he could even finish.
His finger passed over every "safe zone" marked by the Marines, passed over the first half of the Grand Line, and jabbed like a sword into the very center of the chart-a devilish stretch of sea colored a startling dark red to signify "extreme danger"!
"Here."
Yas uttered the word.
Sengoku's pupils contracted sharply!
The spot beneath Yas's finger was the very center of the most chaotic, most terrifying storm in the New World!
It was a bloody battlefield where ambitious men held interlocking territories and waged war against one another after the Rocks Pirates fell apart! Remnants of Rocks's crew, including "Captain" John and Ochoku, were carving out territory there! More terrifying still, the spheres of influence of future emperors of the sea such as "Golden Lion" Shiki, "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin, and even "Whitebeard" Edward Newgate were also beginning to emerge in those waters!
That sea could truly be called a breeding ground where prospective "Four Emperors" fought to survive! Any Marine fleet that ventured inside faced only one outcome-total annihilation!
"Have you lost your mind?!" Sengoku snapped. "Do you know what that place is? Even Garp and I wouldn't dare lead a fleet deep into that den of devils lightly! Going in alone with one ship isn't carrying out a mission. It's suicide!"
"Sengoku is right." Fleet Admiral Kong also looked at Yas gravely. "Yas, I admit you're strong, stronger even than we imagined. But defeating a few officers is nowhere near enough to understand the horrors of the New World! In those waters, fighters on Garseron's and Indigo's level might be no more than captains within a large fleet! You'll face endless great pirates whose strength far surpasses theirs!"
"So what?"
Yas slowly raised his head. There wasn't a trace of fear in his ice-blue eyes. Instead, they burned with an excitement and hunger that made even Sengoku and Kong's hearts pound.
"Enemies that are too weak can no longer help me advance."
Yas's voice was calm, yet it carried a suffocating dominance.
"My body tells me it needs stronger opponents, fiercer battles, to grow stronger."
He stretched out a hand covered in fierce Black Lightning and pressed it gently against his chest, feeling his heart pound violently with its hunger for battle.
"'Captain' John's head, 'Golden Lion' Shiki's head, and that Rocks D. Zebek hiding on Hachinosu, trying to resurrect some bullshit 'god'..."
Yas's gaze swept over the legendary names on the chart, and his lips curved into a cruel smile.
"They'll all become stepping stones on my way to the throne of the strongest."
The office fell deathly silent.
Sengoku and Kong were left speechless by Yas's earth-shattering declaration.
This man... he actually intended to challenge every monster at the very pinnacle of the Rocks era single-handedly?!
He wasn't insane.
He intended to... slay a god!
"Gahahahaha!" Garp, who had remained silent, burst into his signature laughter again. He slapped Yas hard on the shoulder, making the entire office shake. "Well said, brat! That's exactly the end pirates deserve! Go! Do what you want to do! Twist those bastards' heads off, one by one! I'll back you up!"
"Garp!" Sengoku roared.
"Enough." Unexpectedly, Fleet Admiral Kong raised his hand to stop the argument.
He stared fixedly at Yas, a mad gleam in his deep eyes, as though he were staking everything on one enormous gamble.
Dozens of seconds later, he slowly said, enunciating each word, "All right."
"I approve your route."
Fleet Admiral Kong took a golden Den Den Mushi and a special authorization document bearing the World Government's highest seal from his drawer and pushed them toward Yas.
"From this moment on, you, Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral Yas, have free-fire authority! None of your operations in the New World require approval from Headquarters, and you have full authority to handle all the spoils of your victories! Every other Marine branch and fleet must provide you with unconditional support!"
"Go do what you want to do, Rear Admiral Yas."
Fleet Admiral Kong's voice was hoarse, yet carried an unprecedented resolve.
He had staked the Marines' future, and the future of this era, on the sixteen-year-old monster before him!
"But..."
Fleet Admiral Kong rose and walked up to Yas, an utterly solemn warning on his wrinkled face.
"Remember, what the Marines have given you is a blade to sever the darkness, not a spear to pierce the sky!"
"If you really do punch a hole in the sky, the Marines... won't clean up your mess! Do you understand?!"
Before you continue