Seeing this, Makoto knew that the Summit War was finally about to undergo a major change.
The people manipulating events from behind the scenes seemed to regard the entire war as their personal property. Makoto was curious to see just how far they could take things.
However, he wasn't about to lower his guard simply because of his earlier agreement with Spink.
In the deceitful environment of the Main God Space, the only things he could truly trust were his own strength and the teammates who had entrusted their lives to him.
...
Whitebeard finally recovered from his shock.
However, his first reaction wasn't anger at his son's attempted betrayal. Instead, he reached out with his enormous hand, trying to seize the woman wielding a Zanpakuto.
"Who are you?! How dare you hurt my son!"
The white-haired girl with the ponytail showed no fear whatsoever.
She seemed thoroughly familiar with this situation. With a flicker of movement, she appeared beside Whitebeard and put away her Zanpakuto.
"Whitebeard, he's not dead yet. If you hurry up and end this war, then find a doctor to treat his wounds, he can still retire from being a pirate and live out the rest of his life."
"But if you don't start fighting with everything you've got, your sons will lose more and more faith in you. There will only be more betrayals and more deaths."
"You consider Ace your son, but aren't all these pirates who have died fighting for Ace your sons too?"
The girl had clearly delivered this argument more than once before.
She knew exactly how the events that followed were supposed to unfold.
Sure enough, Whitebeard lowered his hand.
He glanced at his son, who was still breathing despite having completely lost the ability to move, and let out a long sigh.
Whitebeard didn't fear war, nor did he fear death.
However, he understood that the moment he personally entered the battle, the entire war could spiral into an uncontrollable bloodbath.
At that point, even he wouldn't be able to control how many pirates would die.
Only now did the Marines and pirates finally realize that Whitebeard had narrowly escaped what could have been a fatal assassination attempt.
Akainu, who had orchestrated the entire incident, was so furious that half his body began melting into magma.
Something he had considered practically guaranteed had been ruined by a female pirate who had appeared out of nowhere!
Even Sengoku looked furious.
Although he hadn't known about the scheme beforehand, seeing such a perfect opportunity to end the war slip through his fingers made him clench his fists.
Meanwhile, the pirates' morale soared.
They couldn't understand why Squard would betray Whitebeard, but the fact that Whitebeard remained unharmed was the greatest encouragement they could possibly receive.
Many of them even began looking at the white-haired girl with friendly expressions, despite having no idea who she was.
...
After enduring one frightening experience after another, Asuna had finally managed to regain some control over her emotions.
Her face was still pale, and her fingers trembled slightly, but she could at least speak normally again.
"Is that another Player like us? She seems to belong to the pirate faction, and she looks incredibly strong. Could she pose a threat to you, Kitano-kun?"
Makoto teasingly answered with a question of his own.
"There's still time for you to go over and fight alongside them. You could even take the opportunity to earn some extra rewards."
Asuna firmly shook her head.
"You mentioned Veterans earlier. That Player must be a Veteran too, right?"
"Without your help, Kitano-kun, I don't even know whether I would have survived, much less become strong enough to stand against someone like her."
"If you give the order, Kitano-kun, I'll fight her without hesitation."
Makoto looked at Asuna approvingly.
She really had managed to pull herself together.
As expected of a heroine who possessed both extraordinary combat ability and tremendous willpower in the original storyline.
"There's no need to rush. Your current task is to become proficient with all your abilities and strengthen your resolve to fight."
"Once you can kill an enemy without hesitation, just like Sakiko, we can start discussing how to deal with stronger opponents."
Asuna nodded solemnly and tightened her grip on her sword.
After quietly exchanging a few words with the nearby Marine soldiers, she charged toward a small group of pirates gathering not far away.
The Marines had already witnessed Asuna's abilities.
Although she wasn't as overwhelmingly powerful as Sakiko with her flames, Asuna's swordsmanship and Six Powers were much easier for ordinary Marines to understand.
As long as their commander could kill pirates, they didn't particularly care who was leading them.
Makoto still chose not to participate directly.
Instead, he concealed his presence and followed Asuna, protecting her while closely monitoring the movements of the remaining Players.
However, what those Players did next made even Makoto, who had already prepared himself for something unusual, widen his eyes.
A strange armored vehicle suddenly leaped from one of the Whitebeard Pirates' warships.
Its design was completely out of place in the One Piece world.
Although it could technically be called a vehicle, it had no conventional wheels. Instead, several structures resembling spider legs supported its body.
After landing, flames erupted from its rear, and the vehicle accelerated forward at tremendous speed.
It moved faster than most pirates and Marines could react.
Of course, the main reason nobody stopped it immediately was that they had no idea what the strange machine was supposed to do.
The Marines soon came to regret that moment of hesitation.
This wasn't an ordinary armored vehicle.
It was a Multi-Legged Think Tank from the world of Ghost in the Shell!
More importantly, it wasn't equipped with conventional firearms.
Instead, it carried an EMP Attack Module specifically designed to disable electronic equipment.
A structure resembling a heat-dissipation grille on the vehicle's body suddenly lit up with pale blue electrical arcs.
Its capacitor array discharged.
To the naked eye, there was no visible explosion or shockwave, nor was there any flash of fire.
Only someone possessing electromagnetic abilities could sense the invisible electromagnetic field spreading outward in an instant.
The electromagnetic pulses slipped through the gaps around the Pacifistas' metal joints, laser barrels, and ventilation openings, penetrating deep into their internal circuit boards.
The next second, entire groups of Pacifistas froze simultaneously.
Their laser cannons, which had been charging to fire, abruptly went dark.
The light vanished from their eye sensors, and their limbs locked into place.
Although there wasn't a single visible wound on their bodies, their internal chips and circuits had been permanently burned out.
Sentomaru and the surrounding Marines stared in disbelief.
They couldn't understand what had just happened.
After all, they were merely operators of the Pacifistas.
If the researcher responsible for developing the Pacifistas had been present, he would have realized that someone in this world possessed weapons-development technology comparable to his own.
Only now did the Marines understand that this bizarre mechanical vehicle possessed the ability to completely destroy the Pacifistas.
Furious and terrified, the Marine soldiers began surrounding the Multi-Legged Think Tank.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
After releasing its EMP attack, the vehicle immediately activated its optical camouflage and became invisible.
Furthermore, because the machine was entirely mechanical and controlled by its own AI, ordinary powerhouses couldn't even detect its presence through Observation Haki before it attacked.
Even more terrifying was what happened while this vehicle occupied the Marines' attention.
Three additional Multi-Legged Think Tanks had already activated their optical camouflage and secretly rushed toward the remaining Pacifistas.
They launched surprise EMP attacks of their own.
In less than three minutes, every single Pacifista had been rendered completely useless!
The pressure on the pirates, who had previously been overwhelmed by the Pacifistas, instantly diminished.
Those whose warships had been destroyed by the robots redirected all their anger toward the Marine warships.
As a result, Marine vessels were rapidly destroyed, and their personnel suffered heavy casualties.
Watching this unfold, Makoto's expression became extremely serious.
Even Sakiko returned to his side, grabbing his wrist as she spoke.
"Those multi-legged robots come from Ghost in the Shell. I actually have one parked in my Storage Space too, but mine doesn't have an EMP installed."
Makoto nodded.
Unfortunately, learning this now wasn't particularly useful.
It wasn't Sakiko's fault either.
Even if those Players hadn't obtained EMP weapons from Ghost in the Shell, acquiring something similar from another science-fiction anime world wouldn't have been particularly difficult.
After all, these technological weapons weren't normally considered part of the same category as powerful Talents and supernatural abilities.
Some weren't even classified as equipment.
With the strength and influence possessed by experienced Players, obtaining them wouldn't necessarily cost much money.
This was simply the first time Makoto had witnessed technological weapons exerting such an enormous influence within a Mission World.
He had practically forgotten how useful such weapons and equipment could be.
Asuna returned shortly afterward.
She politely nodded to Sakiko before asking,
"What should we do next?"
Makoto didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he carefully considered whether it would be worthwhile to confront the other Players right now in exchange for Contribution Points.
For someone like him, the rewards offered by Battlefield Mode weren't particularly attractive.
It wasn't that the rewards were insufficiently generous.
The problem was that he could manifest most of them himself. In fact, the results of his manifestations could even surpass the original reward items.
There was simply no reason to risk his life for them.
Moreover, Makoto's mission objective was to ensure that all his newcomer teammates survived.
He had already more or less accomplished that.
Naturally, there was no need to create additional complications.
After considering everything, Makoto finally made his decision.
"Let's wait a little longer. There are Players on the Marine side too. Let's see how they respond."
Both Sakiko and Asuna agreed.
They knew that following Makoto would already provide them with plenty of rewards. There was no reason to force themselves into unnecessary danger.
Unfortunately, none of the three expected the Marines' situation to deteriorate so rapidly.
...
Whitebeard, who had escaped suffering a fatal injury, furiously leaped down from his warship.
He pointed toward Sengoku in the distance and roared.
"You haven't lost your edge, Sengoku! To think you'd actually make one of my sons betray me!"
"Now, let me tell all of you something. Ace isn't the only one who's special! Every single one of you is my son, and I'll protect and cherish you just as I do Ace!"
Whitebeard then slammed both fists into the air.
The tsunami walls Aokiji had created shattered under the impact, opening a path for all the pirates.
"Anyone who regrets coming here, anyone who's hesitating, can leave right now!"
"But those of you who still consider me and your comrades family, follow me! We're going to rescue Ace together!"
Whitebeard tightened his grip on his enormous blade and pointed it directly toward Sengoku.
"Sengoku! You've resorted to methods that disgust me. Now, let's end this war with your blood!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku immediately treated the situation as a grave threat.
He roared his orders across the battlefield.
"All forces, prepare to engage the enemy!"
At the same time, he rapidly issued instructions to the officers beside him.
It was time to bring out their final measure.
Deep within Marine Headquarters, inside a secret control room, a Marine Vice Admiral ordered the technicians to raise the Encircling Wall.
The Encircling Wall consisted of enormous steel barriers designed to surround the entirety of Crescent Bay.
Its purpose was still the same: trap all the pirates together and annihilate them in one decisive attack.
At this point, however, nearly all the Marines' Pacifistas had been destroyed.
Under normal circumstances, accomplishing their original objective of surrounding and slaughtering the pirates should have become extremely difficult.
Nevertheless, while the Whitebeard Pirates had only one Whitebeard, the Marines possessed three Admirals, along with Sengoku and Garp.
As far as Sengoku was concerned, the advantage still belonged to the Marines.
They would simply have to accept considerably heavier casualties.
However, he could never have imagined what would happen immediately after he ordered the Encircling Wall to be raised.
Inside that secret control room, a transparent figure slowly materialized.
The man wore a standard Marine uniform.
Yet as he looked at the Marines standing before him, his eyes contained nothing but mocking murderous intent.
The Marine Vice Admiral detected his presence through Observation Haki.
He immediately turned, intending to demand the man's identity and ask how he had entered the room.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The mysterious man casually reached into his belongings and produced an enormous assortment of bottles and containers.
There were dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of different varieties.
He smashed them all against the floor.
Countless clouds of poisonous gas in various colors began spreading outward, instantly filling the entire control room.
As for the Player wearing the Marine uniform, he had already vanished from the room.
His mission had been to prevent the Marines from raising the Encircling Wall.
Now that he had accomplished that objective, he immediately used an Emergency Escape Card and withdrew without hesitation.
As for the expenses incurred during this mission, he could simply have the Tavern reimburse him afterward.
He would even receive a substantial share of the profits.
This wasn't his first time carrying out an operation like this, so naturally, he hadn't hesitated in the slightest.
Makoto hadn't witnessed the incident directly.
However, because he had been continuously using his advanced Observation Haki, he noticed that a Marine soldier with an unusual presence had suddenly disappeared.
Combined with the fact that the Marine soldiers inside the control room were dying one after another, Makoto's expression became even more serious.
His earlier suspicions were now practically confirmed.
The Players assigned to the Marine faction might never have intended to seriously fight the pirates and earn mission rewards.
In fact, there was a good chance they were all plants recruited by Spink!
Once he figured this out, Makoto almost felt like laughing.
As expected of someone from a major Guild.
The methods these people employed to manipulate a Mission World were completely different from anything Makoto had been doing.
Just then, an enraged Whitebeard unleashed his first attack at full strength.
He thrust both hands outward as though grabbing hold of the entire island.
Then, with a tremendous exertion of force, he seemed to lift and tilt the entire landmass.
The earth shook violently.
Countless buildings throughout Marineford cracked and collapsed, while enormous tsunamis once again rose from the distant ocean.
It was as though Whitebeard's single attack had caused the entire world to tilt.
The Marine formations, which had only just managed to reorganize themselves, were completely shattered by this one devastating blow!
…