"I said... have you hit me enough? Although it has some massage effect and is somewhat beneficial for honing Armament Haki, I can't keep letting you hit me forever."
"Can't you see how worried our new friends are about me? It seems like his grandma's illness has relapsed. We need to finish this quickly so we can get her treated. We can't let you guys delay things."
Vic overheard most of what Konan said, and could even read some of the emotions she conveyed; the distrust in her eyes was unmistakable.
The old woman has reverted to Ain pre-power state and won't die anytime soon. This also shows that although Ain can use her power back to two years ago, she can't maintain it for long and needs to continue improving her physical fitness and developing it further.
Zero's heart tightened upon hearing Vic's words. He now realized that Vic's long-term inaction wasn't due to a penchant for getting beaten up, but rather a pretense of acting.
He was waiting for his companion to Awakening his Observation Haki, fearing that if he fought back, the two would fight more fiercely, forcing out his hidden power and making it too late to escape and save his companion!
Zero is now a little envious of Vic's companions; they're just too lucky!
Before Zero could finish his thought, Vic had already punched him in the face. The speed was so fast that he didn't even see how the punch was thrown.
"What's with this speed?" Zero was so shocked that the question kept echoing in his mind as he was being sent flying. He even ignored the pain on his face and flew a long way.
Before he could land, Vic was already beside him again, chuckled at his incredulous gaze, and then kicked him into the air.
A searing pain shot through his lower back, nearly breaking his spine. It was Haki kick, but while he was still rising rapidly, Vic had already used Geppo to appear in the air and was waiting for him. A Golden Hook kick struck his stomach, sending him crashing to the ground.
It was like a cannonball being fired; the ground couldn't withstand it at all, forming a huge crater like a meteorite hitting the earth. A large area of Flower Field was destroyed, and Zero lay in the deepest center of the crater, vomiting blood.
A few petals from the Flower of Love were still scattered on his face, and Ling stared blankly at the figure slowly descending from the sky!
His black cloak billowed behind him, and the three conspicuous knives at his waist hadn't even been used yet, and he'd ended up like this?
Zero was already cursing Zephyr in his mind. Why did he have to take this year's recruits on this route? Couldn't the next batch be different? I wouldn't have said anything to the previous batch, was it intentional?
Zero was still in the pit, questioning his existence and cursing Zephyr's actions. Inside the cabin, Konan was completely dazed, her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. She seemed to have entered another dimension, completely out of place with everything around her.
As if frozen in place, Konan was pulled back to her senses by Ain, who turned around to show off Vic.
Watching that figure slowly descending through the air, the flowing cloak behind him creating a sense of elegance, his well-proportioned and tall figure, and that face that made you want to pee—for some reason, Konan's entire face turned completely red. If it weren't for the steam rising from her ears, Ain estimated that Konan's head might have exploded.
"Sister Konan, is Vic very strong?" Ain tugged at Konan's sleeve again and asked with a smile.
"So cool... Powerful! That's incredible speed! Who could withstand that? I never expected Vic to be so quiet until he unleashed his full power!"
I was so blind! Rebecca was right, he really is our country's savior! We're finally going to escape this misery! Waaaaah!
Konan was too excited, and her emotions changed quickly. Just a moment ago she was smiling, but now she was covering her face and crying, as if she had remembered some painful past.
"Hehe, Sister Konan, you should be happy that Vic is so strong! He can help everyone, so why are you crying!" Ain said with a grin.
" Ain, you're too young to understand how I feel right now. I'm overjoyed that this day of liberation has finally arrived, yet I'm also saddened that it came so late. I'm a walking contradiction!"
Konan saw hope and felt a surge of excitement, but the memories of the past only added to her sadness.
"Sister Konan, don't think about these things anymore. That bad guy has stood up again!" Ain tugged at Konan's sleeve again and pointed to the meteorite crater in the battlefield.
Zero stayed in the pit for a while before standing up, but he spat out another mouthful of blood as he stood up. He wiped the blood from his mouth before walking out of the pit.
Looking at Vic, who had already fallen to the ground, his stomach was still aching slightly; this was the first time he had suffered such an injury since arriving on the island.
He rarely took action before, only when encountering powerful ability users, because he was the only one among them who knew Armament Haki.
"Your speed is abnormally fast. Is this something that can be achieved through training? Or did you eat a Devil Fruit related to speed?"
After witnessing Vic's speed, Zero felt that he might be doomed today, with no way to escape. Should he really tell the truth? But would telling the truth really save his life? Zero wasn't sure.
"Maybe! I'm not really sure. Maybe I accidentally ate it when I was little. I also wonder why I'm so much faster than others."
Have you ever heard of a special case where someone who ate Devil Fruit could swim? I can even go into the sea to catch fish now. You have powerful backing and a lot of knowledge, have you ever heard of such a phenomenon?
Although Vic was somewhat surprised that Zero guessed he had eaten Devil Fruit, he showed no surprise at all and even asked Zero frankly if he had ever experienced this phenomenon before.
"I heard that more than 100 years ago, someone unearthed a small, broken stone tablet while digging a well. It was carved with Ancient Script."
Someone secretly brought the broken stone tablet to Ohara, hoping that the archaeologists there could see what was written on it.
Seeing that Vic had answered his question, Zero did not immediately launch an attack, but instead recounted what he had heard, thus buying time to recover from his injuries.
"Was it possible to decipher the Poneglyph Ohara then?" Vic asked, intrigued by Ohara's appearance in the story, especially since Ohara had been destroyed by the Buster Call.
"No, the archaeologists in Ohara told that the person couldn't decipher the Ancient Script either, but the scholars in Ohara didn't choose to report him to the World Government."
Zero's voice changed noticeably at this point, sounding somewhat strange.
"This can't be the end of it, right? What happened next?"