"Whew-"
Lin Xuan exhaled a stale breath tinged with alcohol, and his casual air vanished in an instant.
With one foot planted on the gunwale, he found his balance amid the rise and fall of the waves, his right eye settling naturally against the heavily modified eight-power scope he both loved and hated.
His field of vision stretched instantly.
The once-blurry horizon rapidly magnified through the lens. Even the wind noise seemed to be filtered out, leaving the world quiet and clear.
"Hey, Captain..." Watching Lin Xuan's nearly level muzzle, Carina could not help warning him, her voice carrying anxiety and confusion. "At this range... that's thousands of meters away! Even the best snipers at Marine Headquarters couldn't fire directly at a target from this distance-"
"Shh."
Without turning his head, Lin Xuan merely raised a finger. "That's common sense. But on this sea full of monsters, common sense exists to be broken."
Through the scope, the man named Krieg stood on the enormous black panther figurehead, looking like a nouveau riche in golden sacred armor.
Through the scope's built-in Structural Insight, Lin Xuan could even clearly see the ugly contours of the muscles beneath his golden armor, along with the weak points at its joints, each marked with a red dot.
Just then, another piercing broadcast blasted across the sea breeze.
"You brat with the fire poker! Are you scared stupid? Huh?!"
Krieg had clearly spotted what was happening through his telescope as well.
His fleshy face brimmed with contempt. He even deliberately puffed out his chest, slapping his specially made alloy armor with loud clangs.
"I'm Don Krieg, commander of the strongest fleet in the East Blue! And this armor is indestructible Wootz Steel Alloy! You think that toy in your hands, which doesn't even qualify as a cannon, can do anything? Are you trying to make me laugh myself to death?! Fire! Let me see what you can-"
Before he could finish saying "can," Lin Xuan's index finger gently squeezed the trigger.
There was none of the expected roar of exploding gunpowder, nor any choking smell of gunsmoke.
At that moment, Lin Xuan only felt the gun jerk violently in his hands, as though a beast were roaring in his palms.
Hum-!
A streak of deep blue light instantly burst from the muzzle!
It was not a bullet, but a stream of high-energy particles compressed to the limit.
It tore through the air, plowing a straight vacuum trail across the azure sea. Wherever it passed, the seawater instantly evaporated under the heat, raising two towering walls of white mist.
The shot traveled faster than sound.
Through the scope, Krieg's arrogant grin had yet to freeze, but his pupils had already contracted to pinpoints.
Fear born of biological instinct made him react within one hundredth of a second in the only way he could-instinctively crossing his arms to shield his chest.
The next second, the blue light struck.
Boom!!
The tremendous impact cracked like thunder, and its kinetic force actually shoved the enormous Delidano backward, making it dip!
The pirates on deck staggered in every direction, their terrified screams instantly shattering their earlier arrogance.
Lin Xuan narrowed his eyes, watching the cloud of erupting smoke and dust through the lingering heat at the muzzle and his scope.
"Looks like... the power turned out right." The sea breeze rapidly tore away the smoke and dust. Beyond the pale blue afterimage, the scene in the scope was brutally clear.
At the very center of the golden breastplate, which supposedly encased his entire body in Wootz Steel Alloy and could withstand small cannon shells, a fist-sized, charred hole now trailed wisps of smoke. Its edges glowed an eerie molten orange-red.
Then fine cracks spread madly outward from the hole.
Crack-
Even from so far away, Lin Xuan could almost imagine the sharp sound of metal breaking apart.
The heavy chest guard finally gave way, falling from Krieg's chest in dozens of scalding pieces of scrap metal. They clattered onto the deck, burning black marks into the wood.
Beneath it was Krieg's face, already twisted beyond recognition.
There was no blood.
The wound had been instantly carbonized by the heat accompanying the high-energy particle beam.
Krieg looked as though an invisible giant hand had slammed him against the mainmast. His formerly burly body was now convulsing uncontrollably.
"Isn't this... a little overpowered?"
Lin Xuan felt an aching numbness in his shoulder, the lingering effect of that instant of terrifying recoil.
He glanced down at the 98K in his hands. Its barrel was scorching, and the rune circuits on it flickered from the overload.
This was no sniper rifle. It was clearly a man-portable electromagnetic railgun dressed up as a rifle.
The system's understanding of "heavy modification" really was different from a normal person's.
Through the scope, the admiral who had been shouting moments earlier finally came back to his senses.
The agony reached his brain a moment late. Krieg violently shoved away several subordinates trying to support him, his eyes so red they looked ready to bleed.
When he had encountered Dracule Mihawk on the Grand Line, he had been crushed by absolute swordsmanship. But just now, he had not even seen what had flown at him.
There had been no bullet, no trajectory, only a flash of light-and then his invincible defense had become scrap.
"Bastard! You bastard!!"
Krieg grabbed the already deformed loudspeaker, his voice hoarse and broken, wheezing like damaged bellows. "You damned brat! What kind of sorcery did you use?! That was my armor! The hardest armor in the world!"
He frantically slapped his exposed chest. The skin there was red and swollen; although it had not been pierced outright, the impact had clearly injured his internal organs.
"Fire! Everyone, fire! Blast him to pieces! I'll skin him and hang his hide from the bow! I'll kill him-!!"
His roar carried across the sea.
Lin Xuan curled his lip and released the trigger.
That shot had drained half the energy stored in the heavily modified eight-power scope. Apparently, despite its astonishing power, it did not have unlimited ammunition.
He leisurely raised the somewhat scorching gun upright, lightly working the hot bolt with his fingers, as casually as if he were unloading a hunting rifle.
Then he moved his eye away from the scope and turned around, only to be greeted by deathly silence.
Chapter 42: This thing works better than a Great Swordsman?
On deck, Carina's usually sly, lively eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open.
Her gaze shifted back and forth between the distant warship with its charred hole and the still-smoking long gun in Lin Xuan's hands, strange clicking sounds coming from her throat.
Beside her, Zoro was rigid, his fingers digging deep into the muscles of his folded arms as though checking whether he was hallucinating.
"This is what you meant by clearing out the small fry?" Zoro's voice was dry, his gaze fixed on the strange gun in Lin Xuan's hands, his eyes wavering. "What is that? A Devil Fruit ability? Or is there a cannon hidden inside that iron pipe?"
For a swordsman's slash to achieve that effect, it would have to be a Flying Slash at the level of a Great Swordsman, at least.
Yet this guy had merely moved his finger.
"Don't act like you've never seen anything."
Lin Xuan did not turn to look at his companions' expressions, merely shaking his numb wrist. He pressed the scorching stock back into his shoulder, the corner of his mouth lifting. "That was just a greeting and a calibration shot. Now comes the main course."
"There's... there's more?" Carina instinctively shrank back, looking at the pitch-black long gun with eyes full of awe at the deadly weapon.
Lin Xuan did not answer. His breathing rhythm abruptly changed, and his lazy stance became steady.
With a thought, a deep blue system interface flickered at the edge of his vision.
[Detected host actively channeling spiritual pressure.] [Heavy modification core 'Greedy Chamber' activated.] [Warning: current energy level may exceed the gun's material tolerance. A swift conclusion is advised.]
Hum-
The instant Lin Xuan curled his finger around the trigger, the matte-black gun seemed to come alive.
The dark patterns on both sides lit up, and the four miniature crystals behind the bolt erupted with piercing deep blue light.
A heart-rattling aura spread outward from Lin Xuan, carrying the oppressive sensation of destructive energy being forcibly compressed.
The surrounding air began to distort, giving off faint sizzling sounds. Static made the fine hairs on Nami's arms stand on end, and the air filled with the restless smell that preceded a thunderstorm.
"Hey, Lin Xuan! That gun's sucking away your energy!" Zoro noticed Lin Xuan's face turn pale in an instant.
"Just a little interest."
Lin Xuan gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading at his temples. The modified gun was like a bottomless pit, devouring his stamina and mental energy at the same time.
Through the eight-power scope, the system locked a red marker firmly onto the target named "Krieg."
Through the lens, the admiral who had just been roaring seemed to sense the approaching disaster as well.
Krieg looked up, all color draining from his face. Across thousands of meters of sea, he seemed to see the eye of a god of death taking aim at him.
"Get away... get away, now!"
Krieg let out a shrill, distorted scream, all dignity as the overlord of the East Blue gone. Scrambling on all fours, he clambered over the railing and jumped toward the sea.
The instant his feet left the deck, Lin Xuan pulled the trigger.
Boom-!
The enormous recoil slammed into Lin Xuan's shoulder, throwing him backward. His feet plowed two deep furrows through the deck before he stopped against the cabin wall, making the planks behind him thud.
A deep blue pillar of light several times thicker pierced heaven and earth, carrying high-temperature plasma and forming a storm of destruction.
The sea was instantly torn apart, forced into a vacuum channel.
In the distance, the flagship Delidano did not even have time to let out a groan.
The pillar struck the base of the mainmast, and terrifying energy erupted inside the hull in an instant.
The enormous ship did not catch fire. It burst apart from within.
A huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky, burning planks and twisted metal fragments scattering everywhere.
The shock wave raised waves several meters high, sending the surrounding escort ships reeling. Two capsized on the spot.
As for Krieg, who had just jumped into the sea...
Rubbing his numb right shoulder, Lin Xuan rose from the deck and exhaled a stale breath tinged with blood. Through Observation Haki, he sensed a bedraggled presence beneath the surface desperately diving deeper, as though a moment's delay would let the monster above swallow him.
"You were quick enough to run."
Lin Xuan casually tossed the scorching gun onto a pile of rope.
The deck remained silent. Only when the blast's gust swept over them with warm moisture did everyone seem to come back to life.
Someone swallowed, the sound clearly audible.
Zoro looked down at the three swords at his waist, then at the distant scene of natural disaster, his eyes somewhat vacant.
"I swing my swords two thousand times a day..." the green-haired swordsman muttered, his palm unconsciously stroking Wado Ichimonji's hilt. "And that still can't match one pull of the trigger on this iron pipe?"
Crouching in a corner, Carina was completely stunned.
She stared at the rifle Lin Xuan had carelessly discarded, her gaze turning utterly feverish.
This is... the weapon for me?
With this thing, those days of surviving through stealing and deception were just plain stupid.
Lin Xuan leaned against the cabin wall, feeling his depleted spiritual pressure and aching muscles. He looked at the still-warm modified 98K, his gaze grave.
Its power had indeed exceeded expectations, but the cost was equally immense.
The Kenpachi instincts within him were sounding a warning: relying on external tools would only dull his blade.
That momentary loss of strength just now-against a true powerhouse, half a second of immobility would be enough to prove fatal. To him, his own body was the strongest weapon.
"Take it."
With a flick of his wrist, Lin Xuan easily tossed the heavy rifle over.
"Whoa!"
Carina caught it in a fluster, its weight making her stumble and nearly drop it on her foot.
She felt the lingering warmth coming from the gun, an aura of destruction.
"This is... for me?"
The girl widened her eyes and looked up at Lin Xuan. She had thought this man would treasure such a devastating weapon.
Before you continue