Roger, want to join my pirate crew?

"Don't lose your will over a little pain! I'm enduring twice the pain every moment!"

"Sometimes, this kind of pain can be especially good at tempering human will!"

"Wake up and witness the arrival of a new era!"

Amid Rocks's shouts, his crewmate Shane abruptly woke.

The jumble of sounds in his ears faded.

The bloody light in his eyes faded, and Sulong ended completely.

He had not yet had time to master Observation Haki.

Then Shane felt a bone-deep chill.

After the transformation ended.

He had indeed held out until dawn, but the pain and damage had not diminished. Instead, they returned severalfold.

Every cell was screaming!

It could hardly be called a blessing in disguise; he could only call it a moment of transformation.

If he endured, he would be successfully strengthened. If he failed, he would drop dead on the spot.

A king who had just awakened Conqueror's Haki, only to die right there in God Valley.

It would sound absurd to anyone who heard it.

No bounty, no past battle record.

Only the powerful fighters who had fought in God Valley would pass along word of a kid named Shane.

He had possessed limitless potential, only to die in God Valley.

How had he died?

Too many drugs. The side effects had killed him!

Shane did not want to suffer that kind of humiliation.

"Cough, cough!"

Blood kept spilling from his mouth. Facing this pain while conscious was even more unbearable.

It felt as though his organs, bones, and brain were all exploding at once.

Aching, stabbing, burning, and dull pain tore through his entire body simultaneously.

Shane's whole body burned as he returned from his Hybrid Form to his normal human body.

He was even continuing to consume the energy he had stored earlier.

Until he was skeletal, with dark circles around his eyes and a haggard face.

He looked just a step away from death!

"Hey, rookie! Don't die here! Those three haven't even finished fighting!"

Wang Zhi grabbed Shane and even kindly used the Island-Island Fruit's power.

He merged Shane into the cliff face. At least the kid would not get hit by falling rocks.

The mountain also served as a cast.

It protected Shane inside, binding him tightly and leaving him completely unable to move.

"It hurts. Damn it! It hurts so much!"

Shane muttered, repeating those same few words over and over.

The pain truly permeated his entire body.

It burned every inch of skin, every scrap of flesh and blood.

Until his entire body seemed about to evaporate, growing thinner and frailer.

He could practically be called a skeleton!

"What did you feed that kid?"

Whitebeard looked at Stussy without betraying any emotion.

Shane's condition was outrageous. Zoan users were famously resilient, yet even he had ended up like this.

That showed how far his potential had been drawn out, and how outrageous the drugs' side effects were.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The skin across Shane's body burst, spraying blood.

Even as he cried out in pain, his muttering never stopped.

His eyes had rolled back, but his eyelids were struggling to blink as he tried to regain consciousness.

At this sight.

Stussy swiftly moved her delicate little hands, as fair and smooth as jade.

She recorded the experimental results and characteristics.

Unbeknownst to her, this was only possible because Shane's constitution was so powerful.

Anyone else would never have reached this stage of the experiment.

They would have died long before!

A physique beyond human limits, Mink Tribe traits, the enhancements of a Mythical Zoan, and the Sulong state.

There were also the types of Haki he had awakened one after another. Even without mastering them, they were strengthening Shane.

Even the food Linlin had given him and the impact of Rocks's Conqueror's Haki.

Every factor had contributed to Shane reaching this state!

It could not be replicated, nor could another attempt succeed.

He could be called the sole exception before Lineage Factor research succeeded!

"I fed him all the drugs and pills!"

Stussy spoke casually, only to notice that Shane's body was actually still trembling.

His willpower was forcibly restoring his body!

"Those were all the rare treasures you found across the world's seas, including the Grand Line and the New World! Either the nourishment would kill him, or the poison would!"

Floating in midair, Golden Lion could not help commenting when he heard that.

"Shane really had rotten luck running into you!"

Even Linlin felt Shane had been screwed over.

With his physique and talent, even without those drugs that stimulated his potential, he could still have grown to heights ordinary people could never reach!

Had this been too hasty?

"It hurts! I feel like my brain can't even sense pain anymore."

"It's my soul crying out. Damn it, it hurts too much!"

Shane kept complaining, even beginning to tremble violently.

He tried to walk out of the rock.

"That's it! Become a monster!"

"Wake up and watch your captain's ultimate battle!"

"Witness the moment the King of the World takes his throne!"

Rocks clenched both fists and struck with a thunderous blow.

Garp countered with his iron fists, the impact erupting in blue lightning.

The area of damage created by their Haki rivaled a small town.

It swept straight over the mountain.

Wang Zhi, who was hiding inside, immediately concealed himself.

Shane, however, took the damage head-on!

"That feels good! Hahahahaha!"

Even though it hurt terribly, compared to the pain deep in his soul, this physical pain was actually awakening Shane's consciousness.

He even began to sense the different parts of his body.

"You're always tricking people who should have upheld justice into becoming evil!"

Garp unleashed a heavy punch, its shock waves like successive hurricanes.

Rocks handled all these attacks with ease.

He did not forget to mock him as he spoke.

"What do you mean, tricking?"

"Your Navy nearly bought both Linlin and Kaido."

"Are you saying your Navy wasn't previously paying Beli to support the nun at Sheep's House?"

"Spare me those stories for children. Shane or Kaido, they know what they've been through!"

Rocks was pure evil. He disdained concealing it, and had no need to.

Every punch struck flesh, battering Garp with pain that reached deep into his bones.

The spilling Haki shattered the surrounding cliffs.

It brought an endless series of violent crashes.

"Smooth talk! Some people get oppressed by evil and decide to join it and become evil themselves!"

"Why not aspire to justice and become someone who saves others?"

The justice in Garp's heart would not let him fall easily.

At least half of their final hope had to remain in his hands!

Everyone trapped in desperation would see the enemy before them as the source of darkness that blotted out the sky and destroyed the world.

Yet to someone else, that enemy might be nothing more than a disposable lackey.

The world looked entirely different through the eyes of the strong.

Rocks had always believed that.

What he wanted was to become the king of all those lackeys!

To bring even those with the qualities of a king under his command.

Only when everyone knelt at his feet could he be called the King of the World!

"I need to raise the stakes, or those Zoan monsters will wake up!"

Rocks understood the various Devil Fruit users better than anyone.

He immediately punched the ground.

Darkness spread at tremendous speed, devouring everything once more.

Only this could keep Zoan users like Kong and Saint Saturn asleep.

More importantly, he wanted to severely injure everyone who remained!

To create a situation overwhelmingly in his favor!

The only way to keep winning at cards was to become the one who dealt them.

"That kid Shane is pretty good, but he doesn't belong in your crew. We Roger Pirates would rather take him in."

Roger held down his straw hat, then gripped his sword's hilt with both hands.

The blood-red Haki over the gleaming blade kept twisting, forming an aura that brooked no question.

The sword of a king, the sword of a free king unwilling to be bound by anyone!

"What are you saying? You even want to steal my prey?"

Rocks spread his arms and laughed heartily.

Compared to his crewmates, Rocks did not seem particularly tall or large.

But among ordinary people, his build was still utterly abnormal.

He was comparable to Roger and Garp.

The darkness expanded without restraint.

It enveloped all of God Valley.

Teammate or enemy, Rocks trapped them all.

Only by acting without such restraints could he cause the greatest possible destruction!

His crewmates had long since grown accustomed to all this.

They could only hold out with their own Haki. After all, the battle had reached a critical moment.

"Roger, want to join my pirate crew?"

Rocks spread his fingers, extending an invitation.

"I refuse!"

Roger answered with a straightforward slash.

"This again."

Rocks clenched his fingers into a fist, and the darkness thunderously sucked away every sound.

God Valley fell into eternal night!

The strange lights in the sky vanished along with them.

Shane, embedded in the cliff face, was breathing in great gulps.

Five fingers reached out from the rock.

He opened his eyes.