"This..."
Smoker, who landed right behind him, froze, the cigar in his mouth nearly falling out.
He surveyed his surroundings, staring at the bizarre scene of "post-disaster reconstruction," his head full of questions. "Where's Trejer? Where are those lunatic pirates? This is what they called a hard-fought battle?"
Just then, a dust-covered figure ran over from behind a pile of rubble.
"V-Vice Admiral Garp! Captain Smoker!"
Captain Domon saluted, unable to resist glancing back at the enormous trench in the distance, an extremely strange expression on his face.
"Domon!" Garp grabbed Domon by the collar, spraying spittle all over his face. "Where's that brat Lin Xuan? And where's that bastard called Trejer?!"
"S-Sergeant Major Lin Xuan..." Domon stammered, pointing toward the distant woods. "He said he was hungry and went to the tavern to have Miss Makino make him something to eat. As for Trejer..."
Domon drew a deep breath, as though saying what came next would take every ounce of his strength. His trembling finger pointed toward the far end of the chasm that had split the docks in two.
"Trejer... is over there."
Smoker looked in the direction he was pointing.
When he saw the scene there clearly, even his pupils, accustomed as he was to life and death, abruptly shrank to pinpoints.
At the end of the chasm, two ruined halves of a corpse lay silently amid the rubble.
The cut was smooth and even, without any signs of tearing.
What alarmed Smoker most was that there was no lingering sharpness from sword energy around the corpse. Instead, the area was riddled with signs of brutal crushing caused purely by overwhelming force.
"One hit?" Smoker's voice sounded a little dry.
"Y-Yes." Domon swallowed. "He only used a piece of... rotten wood."
"Are you kidding me?!" Smoker whipped his head around and stared hard at Domon. "Trejer was an ability user with a twenty-million bounty! His Chain Defense could even stop cannonballs! Rotten wood? Do you think I'm three?"
"It's true! I saw it with my own eyes!" Domon's face and neck flushed with urgency. "There weren't any fancy moves or techniques for channeling Haki. He simply... smashed it down. Then Trejer, chains and all, just... was gone."
The scene fell deathly silent.
The sea breeze swept up sand and dust from the ground, stinging Smoker's face.
Looking at the wretched corpse, he suddenly found it all rather absurd.
He had rushed all the way here, even preparing himself for a hard battle, only for his prey to be killed instantly by a newcomer who had just set out to sea, in this almost humiliating fashion.
"Pfft... Bwahahahahaha!"
A burst of laughter shattered the silence.
Garp released Domon's collar, planted his hands on his hips, and threw his head back, laughing so hard he nearly cried.
"That's my grandson! That's the boy I had my eye on! Hahahaha! Rotten wood? Good! Very good! That's how a real man fights! All those bullshit fruit powers are just empty tricks in the face of an absolute fist!"
Laughing, Garp slapped Smoker's shoulder so hard he nearly knocked the Logia user apart. "Well? What do you think, Smoker, you brat? Didn't I say there was nothing to worry about? That boy inherited the very best of my bloodline!"
His face dark, Smoker knocked the large hand off his shoulder and said through gritted teeth, "This isn't something to celebrate. That kind of destructive power... if it isn't kept in check, he'll become the next major headache sooner or later."
"A headache?"
Garp's laughter stopped abruptly.
He turned to look at the chasm running through the entire dock. The amusement in his eyes gradually faded, and his expression became unusually grave.
He took a sleeping Den Den Mushi from inside his coat and dialed a number without hesitation.
Buru buru buru...
"Hello? Sengoku?"
Garp bellowed into the receiver, completely ignoring the frightened looks of the soldiers around him.
"I don't care what bullshit meeting you're in right now. Get a document ready for me immediately."
Garp paused, his lips spreading into an unrestrained grin, his voice so loud that even the waves could not drown it out:
"I'm nominating Lin Xuan as a Marine Headquarters Admiral Candidate!"
Deathly silence.
At that moment, not only Domon and the surrounding soldiers, but even Smoker gaped, the two cigars in his mouth falling to the ground with a clatter.
An Admiral Candidate?
Making a sixteen-year-old boy who had joined the Marines only days ago, whose rank was still Sergeant Major, a direct reserve for the Marines' highest fighting force?!
Insane.
This old man had absolutely lost his mind.
Standing to one side, Domon looked at the wildly laughing Garp and the stunned Smoker. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something.
He remembered the look in the swordsman Zoro's eyes as he watched Lin Xuan's retreating back after the battle, and Lin Xuan's lazy manner when he left, utterly unconcerned with Marine regulations.
Was that boy... really suited to that position?
Or rather, could that position truly accommodate a beast like him?
The words reached Domon's lips, but he ultimately swallowed them.
Because deep within Garp's seemingly feverish eyes, he saw a profound gleam he could not understand.
Chapter 30: The pursuers are here, and this is what you give me, system?
Domon opened his mouth, but forcibly swallowed the question that had reached his lips.
He had spent so many years in the Marines that, while he had no great talents, he had long since perfected the art of reading expressions.
The air Garp exuded at that moment made Domon understand instantly that this Vice Admiral was serious.
His gaze held a mixture of expectation and admiration, along with an unquestionable protectiveness toward his own.
"An Admiral Candidate? A boring position where you just sit in an office stamping papers. How did you even come up with that?"
Smoker spat out the half-cigar he had chewed to pieces, then took out two fresh ones and lit them. Amid the swirling smoke, his expression was so gloomy it could have wrung out water. "Besides, Trejer was my prey. That brat stole my job without a word, and now he's just walked off to eat meat? What does he take the Loguetown Marines' rules for?"
"Oh? What are you going to do about it?" Garp shot him a sidelong look, amusement filling the corners of his eyes.
"Go after him." Smoker did not hesitate. A cold glint flashed through his perpetually half-lidded eyes. "Whether he's Vice Admiral Garp's grandson or some future Admiral Candidate, in the waters of the East Blue, the only rules are the justice I, Smoker, recognize. If he's nothing but a beast with brute strength, then I have a duty to put a collar on him."
Domon broke out in a cold sweat. He was just about to intervene when Smoker abruptly turned and fixed him with a stare. "Where did you say he went? What village?"
"C-Cocoyasi Village," Domon stammered. "That's the place his orange-haired female companion mentioned."
"Cocoyasi? The place ruled by the Arlong Pirates?" Smoker frowned, then sneered. "Good. Looks like that brat plans to cause trouble all the way. Oran! Ready the ship! Since he wants to play hero, I'll go see whether he can still swing that rotten stick in the face of a Logia's power!"
Garp did not stop Smoker as he turned into a cloud of white smoke and rushed toward his ship.
He fished a packet of Senbei from inside his coat and crunched away. Watching the crude little boat gradually disappear across the distant sea, the smile on his face slowly faded into a look of meaningful anticipation.
"Go on, Smoker, you brat. Being a Logia really is a ticket into the ranks of monsters, but that kid..." Garp brushed the crumbs from his hands and muttered, "He's a monster who can tear common sense apart without even needing Haki."
Three days later, out on the vast sea.
The fierce midday sun baked the deck, and the air was filled with the salty, fishy smell of seawater and... the heavy stench of sweat.
The little boat they had taken from the pirates was not large, and it rocked rhythmically with the waves.
"Nine hundred ninety-eight... nine hundred ninety-nine... one thousand!"
With a restrained growl, a dull thud sounded from the deck.
Lin Xuan leaned lazily against the mast, tossing a freshly washed green apple in his hand without even raising his eyelids.
Below his gaze, Zoro was shirtless, doing a one-handed handstand on the scorching planks while his other hand held two enormous anchors tied together with rope.
Sweat followed the contours of the green-haired boy's muscles, gathering into streams and forming a puddle beneath him.
Ever since seeing Lin Xuan cleave the docks apart with a single strike that day, this fellow who aspired to become the World's Greatest Swordsman had been like someone given an overdose of stimulants.
Apart from eating and sleeping, he had spent almost all of these three days squeezing out every last ounce of strength in near-self-abuse.
"Hey, Moss Head." Lin Xuan took a crunchy bite of his apple and spoke indistinctly. "I don't know much about the secrets of sword training, but if you punch through the deck, we'll have to swim to Cocoyasi Village."
"Shut up!" Panting heavily, Zoro switched hands and continued his handstand, veins bulging in his neck. "Back then... you weren't using your full strength with that strike, were you? That pure power... if I had that kind of physique too, my Three-Sword Style would definitely be stronger!"
Lin Xuan chewed his apple without arguing.
The Kenpachi Zaraki template was indeed formidable. Those restraints that continuously came undone through battle and slaughter were simply not something relentless training could catch up with.
Still, Lin Xuan did not dislike seeing Zoro look ready to train himself to death.
In this world full of monsters, weakness was the original sin. Anyone who wanted to be his underling needed at least that willingness to face death.
"Lin Xuan..."
A timid voice came from the cabin doorway.
Carina clutched a nautical chart, her short orange hair a little disheveled by the sea breeze, her beautiful eyes full of unease. "At the current wind speed, we'll be able to see Cocoyasi Village's coastline in another half day. But..."
She bit her lip, her fingers paling from how tightly she gripped the chart. "Nami... the Arlong Pirates really are terrifying. They aren't human at all. They're Fish-Men. Wouldn't charging straight in like this be too..."
She wanted to say "reckless," but whenever she thought of Trejer, whom Lin Xuan had casually cut in two with a single strike, she could not get the word out.
But this was Arlong, who had ruled over more than twenty villages for eight years, someone even Captain Nezumi of the Marine Branch had to bow and scrape before.
"Are you asking whether I'll risk my life fighting a bunch of monsters with gills to save that Cat Burglar?"
Lin Xuan casually flicked the leftover apple core into the sea, striking a flying fish that leaped out of the water with precision and knocking it unconscious.
He stood and stretched, a series of cracks popping from the joints all over his body.
His steady presence instantly settled much of Carina's panic.
"Put your mind at ease." Lin Xuan walked to the bow and gazed at the distant line where sea met sky, a wild smile curling his lips. "I'm not interested in being a savior. But since that Cat Burglar boarded my boat, she's one of mine. Here in the East Blue, I'm the one who gets to push other people around. A bunch of sashimi doesn't get to make rules for my people."
Carina froze at his words, then her eyes reddened slightly, and she nodded hard.
"All right, another half day's journey, was it?"
Lin Xuan turned away and waved to the two behind him. "I'm going into the cabin for a nap. Wake me when we get there. Until then, don't let anyone disturb me. Even if the king of heaven himself shows up, make him wait."
Once he returned to the cramped cabin, the laziness vanished instantly from Lin Xuan's face.
He sat cross-legged on the bed. With a thought, the pale blue system screen visible only to him instantly unfolded across his vision.
For killing the elite enemy Trejer, besides the pitifully meager 15% template unlock progress, the system had mercifully awarded him one advanced shop refresh.
Given this damned system's usual habits, the shop normally refreshed with inexplicable odds and ends like specially made eyepatches (Spiritual Pressure suppression edition) and Yachiru Kusajishi's candy.
To get anything truly good, aside from luck, he could only rely on special refreshes dropped after defeating powerful enemies.
"My current strength is enough to do whatever I want in the East Blue, but since that mad dog Smoker might come chasing after me, and there's also Arlong, who supposedly has some connection to Jinbe..."
Lin Xuan rubbed his hands together, a gambler's excitement flashing in his eyes. "System, refresh! Let's see if I can get that sword this time!"
As he confirmed it mentally, the merchandise list on the screen began scrolling wildly, countless blurry icons turning into streaks of light.
A few seconds later, the light abruptly stopped.
Of the ten merchandise slots that had originally been filled with an assortment of goods, only two icons now shone alone.
Lin Xuan glanced at them casually, only to freeze as though struck by lightning, the expression on his face instantly stiffening.
His breath stopped abruptly for a moment, then his heart began pounding uncontrollably. The shudder rising from the depths of his soul was a hundred times stronger than when he had first activated the Kenpachi Zaraki template.
"Hey, hey, hey... you're kidding, right?"
Lin Xuan stared fixedly at the two icons emitting an eerie purple light. His throat went dry, and even his voice changed pitch.
There was only one reason he had lost his composure like this-the items that had appeared were simply absurdly good.
These two things should never have appeared at this stage.
Chapter 31: Can't afford Eight-Sword Style? Then steal one!
The two lines of merchandise information on the screen held Lin Xuan's gaze.
[Eight-Sword Style · Taijutsu Scroll (Hidden Cloud Village exclusive edition): Price: 50,000 points] [Broken Blade · Executioner's Blade (evolvable edition): Price: 30,000 points]
The muscles in Lin Xuan's cheeks began twitching uncontrollably.
He instinctively clutched his chest, which tightened as though someone had punched him hard.
Before you continue