Jeffrey, the Man Who Planned for Everything

"What!?"

The man cried out in shock.

His eyes instinctively turned toward the ferocious beast beside him.

This beast, taller than a man, was a companion he had raised since it was little.

Yet now,

his beast was directing murderous intent at him!

Its beastly eyes

were filled with a tangled mix of fear, panic, and murderous intent.

"No! No!! I'm your master-" Before the man could finish, his beast opened its jaws and swallowed his head whole.

"Crunch, crunch."

Before everyone in the prison hold,

the beast swallowed its own master's head!

Everyone looked stunned!

They had never imagined that a single sentence from Arthur could make the beast turn around and kill its own master. How bizarre was that!

But Arthur paid it no mind at all.

Because, as the wielder of the Godzilla Fruit's power,

a little beast like this, to him,

was no different from an ant to a human.

Then Arthur flexed his arms and broke free of the shackles binding his hands, while his feet burst their shackles apart at the same time.

"Your Highness Arthur..."

At that moment, the white-haired old man behind him, who had originally wanted to protect Arthur, spoke tentatively in a trembling voice.

He did not understand.

Was the Prince Arthur before him really their Prince Arthur?

Hearing him, Arthur turned toward the others in the same cell and said with a smile, "Don't worry. I'll get everyone out of here."

As he spoke,

Arthur had already used the strength of his hands

to bend the iron bars before him into a doorway.

Arthur stepped out of the cell.

When the people in the other cells saw Arthur,

their faces also showed a longing for freedom.

And just then,

the beast that had swallowed its own master looked at Arthur ingratiatingly, like a little lapdog, a humanlike expression appearing on its face.

Seeing this,

Arthur smiled

and reached out to stroke the beast's head.

The beast immediately looked content,

seemingly believing it had won over its new master.

But the very next second,

without warning, Arthur's hand turned into a sharp claw and pierced straight through the beast.

Squelch!

Arthur killed the beast without a shred of mercy.

He had no interest whatsoever in a beast that had followed a slave trader. Even a moment's thought told him that this beast must have done plenty of terrible things.

After killing the beast,

Arthur casually wiped his hand on the headless corpse's clothes.

Then he searched the corpse and found the cell keys.

He opened every cell door in the hold, one by one.

And at that very moment,

Ding!

Detected: The user is currently aboard a slave ship.

First beginner mission issued: Eliminate all enemies aboard the ship!

Reward: Unknown!

Description: Those who trade in slaves commit unforgivable crimes. Please eliminate all enemies as soon as possible!

Seeing the system mission appear,

Arthur had already intended to kill every enemy on this ship.

So this worked out perfectly.

Just as everyone from the cells had gathered together,

a sudden commotion came from outside the hold's entrance.

At the same time, a series of footsteps sounded on the deck above their heads.

"This is bad!"

"They must have noticed something!"

The white-haired old man immediately spoke up.

Hearing this,

the others also looked panicked.

The reason they had been captured and sold as slaves was that they had been utterly powerless to resist Doflamingo's men.

Even if they had escaped their cells now,

what could they possibly do...?

They could not be blamed for that.

They had been ordinary people to begin with.

And Doflamingo's men aboard this ship

were already old hands at this sort of thing.

They burned, killed, robbed, and plundered, stopping at no evil. Not only could every one of them fight, but they also had blades and guns in hand.

Against ordinary people,

they could naturally crush them with effortless ease.

Bang!

The hold's entrance was smashed open.

A mob of vicious-looking men immediately swarmed in from outside!

"Hey, hey, hey! You've got some nerve!"

"Looking to hurry up and die, huh??"

"You ungrateful bastards!!!!"

Angry curses and jeers immediately rang out, one after another.

They swept over everyone like a tide.

Hearing them, the people behind Arthur were all frightened. They instinctively hid behind him, pressing against one another and huddling together.

Ordinary people like them

had never seen a mob of pirates shouting at them with such murderous ferocity.

Just think: of those who could be called pirates, whose hands were not drenched in blood? Who knew how many sins they had committed in taking lives?

For pirates, murderous intent

was nothing more than an utterly ordinary air to carry.

Never mind these people.

Even Arthur, before obtaining the system,

would have been afraid in a situation like this.

The men before him, especially these pirates who traded in slaves, were all people who treated lives as nothing and human beings as merchandise.

However,

that only applied to Arthur before he had gained power.

Now, standing at the very front of the crowd,

Arthur watched the pirates gathered near the hold's entrance.

His face remained as still as an ancient well, without the slightest change.

Then the pirates at the entrance suddenly parted to make a path, and a short figure walked in from outside, surrounded by pirates.

A man less than a meter and a half tall appeared.

He was finely dressed,

with a pair of gold-trimmed rimless glasses on his face.

He did not look much like a pirate.

"Hmph. I knew something like this would happen someday. Fortunately, I'm resourceful enough to have made arrangements in advance," the man said disdainfully, pushing up his glasses.

His words

drew a chorus of flattery from the pirates present.

"That's Boss Jeffrey for you!"

"Yeah, you even thought of something like this in advance. That's incredible!"

The pirates showered him with praise.

Arthur, meanwhile, was a little curious.

What were these "arrangements made in advance"?

Just then, to Arthur's surprise, someone actually stepped out of the crowd behind him and walked over to join the pirates opposite them.

"Hahaha! I'm the spy Boss Jeffrey planted among the slaves."

"Precisely to keep you damned slaves from escaping!"

"By mingling with you, I can tell Boss Jeffrey immediately whenever any of you make a suspicious move or get any ideas!" The man burst into laughter.

At his words,

everyone behind Arthur was somewhat dumbfounded.

Only after recovering did they begin to speak:

"No wonder I've never seen that guy before!"

"So he wasn't from our country!"

"It's over. We're all finished now!!!"

Seeing the despair that immediately appeared on the slaves' faces,

Jeffrey, whom they called Boss Jeffrey,

promptly revealed a smug expression.

"Look!"

"This is why they call me 'Jeffrey, the Man Who Planned for Everything.' It's also why Boss Diamante recognized my worth and put me in charge of the slave trade in the North Blue."

Jeffrey spoke smugly.

"You damned slaves should just obediently accept your fate!" With that, Jeffrey's face immediately turned vicious as he prepared to give an order.

He might have been less than a meter and a half tall,

but his presence was more than enough to intimidate every pirate there.