When Xia Chen and the others entered the restaurant, they saw Luffy and Ace lying on chairs with their big bellies sticking out, looking like they had eaten too much.
Ace turned to Luffy and laughed, "Luffy... Luffy, I won!"
Luffy, on the other hand, looked utterly unwilling.
"Damn it, hiccup~ I lost again!"
"Hahaha... Luffy, you still need to train more if you want to beat me! hiccup"
" Ace!" Xia Chen murmured softly, his gaze fixed on Ace.
The lingering resentment from his past life was now sitting right in front of him, and to be fair, Xia Chen was a little excited.
Ace has always been one of his favorite characters, but unfortunately he was killed by Akainu Luffy the Summit War.
At that moment, like countless One Piece fans, he covered himself with his blanket and sobbed uncontrollably.
It's so good to see Ace alive now!
Without hesitation, Xia Chen walked over and grabbed Luffy's mouth.
" Luffy, can you explain why you're here?"
"Um... I'd like to try something different!" Luffy said nervously, tapping two fingers together.
"Then why didn't you tell us?" Sanji questioned from the side.
"I forgot!"
"In that case, you'll have to figure out how to pay for your meal yourself!" Nami said casually, turning her head away.
"Ah~ No! I don't have any money!" Luffy quickly put on a pitiful look, hoping to gain Nami's sympathy, but Nami didn't even glance at him.
Just then, Ace spoke up.
"Excuse me, you must be Luffy's crewmates? My brother has caused you trouble!"
"Huh?" Upon hearing this, everyone turned their heads and discovered Ace sitting to the side. It seemed that he knew Luffy; they had thought he was just a stranger!
"Your brother? You mean Luffy?" Usopp asked in shock.
"That's right!" Ace nodded.
"I've never heard him mention having an older brother!" Sanji asked, puzzled.
"Is that so?" Ace looked surprised, then turned to look at Luffy with displeasure.
" Luffy! You've been with your crew for so long and you haven't even mentioned your brother once, have you?"
"Uh... I forgot!"
Everyone fell down at once.
"You really are..." Ace was speechless. He felt a bit tired of having such an idiotic younger brother.
"By the way, Ace, what are you doing here?" Luffy asked curiously.
"Me? I'm here to take care of something!"
"You're hunting down Blackbeard, aren't you?"
At this moment, Xia Chen, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
"Hmm?" Ace turned to look at Xia Chen, then asked uncertainly:
" Demon King Xia Chen?"
"It's me!" Xia Chen nodded.
"How did you know about this?" Ace didn't answer directly, but instead asked Xia Chen curiously.
"I have quite a wide network of information, so I know a bit more!"
"That's right, Xia Chen is amazing, he knows everything!" Luffy said excitedly from the side.
"Is that so?" Ace asked thoughtfully. Then he said:
"Whatever, it doesn't matter how you found out. It's nothing to hide!"
"I am indeed hunting down Blackbeard. He used to be a member of the Whitebeard Pirates, and he was even a member of my crew!"
"But he violated an unforgivable rule on the ship!" Ace's eyes turned cold as he continued:
He killed his companion and then fled.
That guy is absolutely unforgivable!
"As the captain, I have a duty to hunt him down, to comfort the souls of my fallen comrades!"
"That..."
"If I told you you were no match for him, would you still go after him?" Xia Chen asked Ace quietly.
"How is that possible? Xia Chen, Ace was incredibly strong. That Blackbeard is definitely no match for Ace!"
Before Ace could refute, Luffy jumped out and said indignantly.
Xia Chen ignored Luffy and kept staring straight at Ace, wanting to hear his thoughts.
Ace also stared at Xia Chen, seemingly trying to glean something from his expression, but unfortunately, he found nothing.
After a long pause Ace looked away, took a sip of water from the table, and said:
"Well, I don't know how you came to that conclusion, but... you probably don't know much about my strength!"
"Just like Luffy said, I'm very strong!"
Ace's tone conveyed both self-confidence and distrust of Xia Chen.
In his opinion, Xia Chen probably witnessed Blackbeard's attack sometime during his lifetime and then concluded that he was very strong.
The problem is that he's certain this is the first time he's met Xia Chen, so Xia Chen absolutely cannot know his strength.
He felt that Xia Chen must have inferred his strength from Luffy's strength, thinking he wasn't very strong, but only he himself knew his own strength best.
The gap between him and the Luffy we know now is enormous.
However, he didn't directly refute Xia Chen. After all, Xia Chen was Luffy's partner, and he had to give him some face.
Xia Chen, seeing Ace's expression, knew he didn't trust him and couldn't help feeling a little helpless.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. If he were in Ace's shoes and a newcomer who had just come from the East Blue told him that he couldn't beat so-and-so, he probably wouldn't have taken it to heart.
In that case, it seems we can only let our strength speak for itself.
If possible, he still didn't want Ace to face off against Blackbeard, as Blackbeard was indeed someone Ace couldn't possibly defeat.
Moreover, his Dark-Dark Fruit is extremely effective against Devil Fruit User.
With this in mind, Xia Chen directly said to Ace:
" Ace, let's have a fight! If I win, you won't have to go after Blackbeard, okay? Because if you can't even beat me, you definitely can't beat Blackbeard!"
"Hmm?" Upon hearing this, Ace narrowed his eyes, stood up, and stared intently at Xia Chen.
After a long pause, he said, "Forget it, there's no need for that!"
Xia Chen was speechless; it seemed Ace still didn't believe him!
Confident kid... wait until you suffer a loss, then you'll know how much weight your brother Chen's words carry!
" Xia Chen, is that Blackbeard really as strong as you say?" Luffy suddenly asked.
Having journeyed with Xia Chen, he believed he understood Xia Chen's strength quite well; at least in his opinion, Ace couldn't defeat Xia Chen.
When Xia Chen first said that Ace couldn't beat Blackbeard, he subconsciously declared that Ace was very strong.
But looking at Xia Chen's expression, he felt that the Blackbeard was really not simple, otherwise Xia Chen wouldn't be taking it so seriously, so he asked that question.
"Very strong!" Xia Chen nodded.
"You might not have a clear idea if I put it this way, so let me give you a concrete example..."