Captain Nezumi began to stammer.
Looking at Bai Yu standing amid the severed limbs and wreckage like an asura, he instinctively backed up half a step.
"Captain Nezumi, hurry up and help me kill him! I'll give you a hundred million Beli!"
Arlong hurriedly roared.
This was his only lifeline.
He was betting that the boy before him wouldn't dare attack the Marines!
"A hundred million Beli?"
Captain Nezumi froze at first, then was quickly overjoyed.
Over their eight years of cooperation, Arlong had given him plenty of benefits.
But those had only added up to ten or twenty million Beli. Now, he was offering a hundred million right off the bat.
This was a truly mouthwatering prize.
With a handsome reward, brave men were sure to come forward!
At the very least, Captain Nezumi was taking this deal.
"Brat, I'm Captain Nezumi, commander of the Marine branch in these waters! I suspect you're a pirate. Surrender immediately and come with us!"
His face filled with greed, Captain Nezumi urgently shouted.
However powerful this boy might be, he had a colossus like Marine Headquarters behind him.
He didn't believe this boy would dare lay a hand on the Marines.
"If I don't leave, are you planning to have them shoot me dead?"
Bai Yu gave a bloodthirsty smile and met Captain Nezumi's gaze.
That single look immediately made every muscle in Captain Nezumi's body tense, as though he had been seen through.
Especially when he saw Bai Yu step forward, Captain Nezumi panicked.
"Fire! Hurry up and fire! Shoot him dead!"
The dozens of soldiers froze at first, but faced with Captain Nezumi's order, they quickly pulled their triggers.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
A skyful of bullets poured onto Bai Yu.
Captain Nezumi and the others stared so hard their eyes nearly split.
They watched Bai Yu stroll through the hail of bullets as though wandering through a quiet courtyard.
Captain Nezumi panicked.
When Bai Yu's final step brought him before Arlong,
The fear on Arlong's face had already twisted his features.
Faced with this being who was like a god of death coming to claim his life,
Arlong hysterically grabbed the large saw blade that had fallen beside him and slashed wildly at Bai Yu.
"Brat, I'm taking you down with me!"
Bang!
The wooden sword fell into Bai Yu's hand, and with a flash,
the large saw blade and Arlong were both cleaved in two.
Blood gushed wildly from Arlong's face.
His disbelieving eyes rolled, and finally, every trace of life faded away.
A chill shot from the soles of Captain Nezumi's and the other Marines' feet straight to their heads.
Arlong had been their partner, so Captain Nezumi naturally knew how strong he was.
Yet the boy before them had easily slain him in a single encounter.
This undoubtedly overturned their understanding of this sea.
"Run... hurry up and run!"
Captain Nezumi roared, his voice breaking.
"Too late!"
Bai Yu spoke indifferently, and the wooden sword in his hand flew through the air once more.
Madness!
Captain Nezumi looked as though he had been scared out of his wits.
Watching the wooden sword rapidly grow larger in his pupils, his face filled with disbelief.
He had always relied on Marine Headquarters as his greatest backing. Even Arlong had been deeply wary of it.
Now, some nobody had raised his hand and tried to kill him without hesitation.
He had never experienced anything like this.
Even Nami, standing nearby, was dumbstruck.
Unlike the others, Nami knew full well that Bai Yu was a Marine.
"White Snake!"
A streak of white shot out of the forest behind them and instantly collided with the wooden sword.
Bang!
A dull collision rang out. As the wooden sword's advance stalled, Smoker rushed out and kicked Captain Nezumi away.
The next instant, the wooden sword passed through the spot where Captain Nezumi had been standing.
It slammed straight into a tree behind him, so thick it would take several people to encircle, and snapped it in half at the waist.
Lying on the ground and watching this, Captain Nezumi practically wet himself.
If Smoker hadn't saved him in time,
his thin little arms and legs would probably already be gone.
"Captain Smoker, you've actually come to the East Blue! Hurry up and arrest this fellow! He's not only colluding with pirates, but he's also trying to kill Marines! That's a grave crime!"
As though clutching a lifeline, Captain Nezumi urgently pleaded for help.
With a cigar clenched between his teeth, Smoker steadied himself. Looking at the blood flowing everywhere and the Fish-Man corpses, his face turned livid, and he shouted coldly.
"Shut your mouth! You know what you've done."
"This fellow is Vice Admiral Garp's grandson. If you don't want to die, say less."
"V-Vice Admiral Garp? The grandson of the Marine hero? No wonder he could kill Arlong with one slash..."
Captain Nezumi was stupefied and collapsed limply onto the ground.
He was only a branch captain.
He had actually just challenged someone from the most powerful third generation of officials. It made him want to slap himself.
Smoker didn't spare Captain Nezumi another glance. After looking Bai Yu up and down, he spoke gravely around his cigar.
"Bai Yu, I didn't expect us to meet this way."
"But I still have to advise you: no matter how worthless he is, he's still a Marine officer. You can't kill him. I'll have him go back and turn himself in!"
"Turn himself in?"
Bai Yu casually picked up a flask, tilted his head back, and took a gulp of strong liquor before speaking.
"Sorry, but you can't save someone I want to kill!"
"He must die!"
Smoker's expression froze.
He had never expected Bai Yu to be so unyielding.
But remembering how Treasure had been snatched out from under him not long ago, a faint, amused smile appeared on Smoker's face.
"Bai Yu, it looks like you're even more arrogant than the rumors say. But if you want to kill him, do you really think you can get past me?"
"I'm a Logia Devil Fruit User!"
Bang!
White smoke instantly surged wildly from Smoker's body, forming vast white waves that seemed to blot out the sky and sun.
Bai Yu looked up briefly, then turned an indifferent gaze toward Captain Nezumi.
"Ding! Congratulations, host. Main Body Template unlock progress has reached fifteen percent. As the host has exceeded the unlock progress requirement, the Subordinate Template has been unlocked early. Would you like to activate it immediately?"
The system's ethereal notification suddenly rang out.
A gleam flashed deep in Bai Yu's eyes. What he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
It seemed that however cowardly Arlong was, he was still worth zero point one percent.
Of course, if Arlong had known that he, an overlord of the East Blue, had lost his life over that zero point one percent, he would have been angered to death on the spot.
"System, unlock the Subordinate Template for me immediately!"
Bai Yu issued the command directly.
"Ding! Host, please wait..." "Ding! Congratulations, host. Subordinate Template successfully unlocked. The current character is Scissor Seven, from the Xuanwu Kingdom, whose very name strikes terror into people's hearts and who is hailed as the foremost Shadow Assassin!" "Ding! Congratulations, host. You have obtained Sword Control with Qi. The system is carrying out character fusion!"
A string of notifications rang out.
Bai Yu raised an eyebrow and nearly crushed the flask in his hand.
Not only had the subordinate character template been unlocked early,
but the character unlocked this time was also a trump card.
However, what Bai Yu really wanted to know now was just how far the powers of Kenpachi Zaraki and Scissor Seven would evolve if blended together.
"Ding! Congratulations, host. Scissor Seven's power has been added to the Main Body Template..."