The reef area on the south shore was scorched by the midday sun. Luffy stood alone on a protruding rock, his Straw Hat swaying gently in the wind behind his head.
Thirty meters away, over two hundred crew members of the Foxy Pirates had set up their formation, with live-streaming fill lights and reflectors illuminating the scene like a movie studio.
"Kyah hah hah hah!" Foxy stood on the front-row battery, his red sunglasses flashing with a mocking glint. "How does a rubber idiot like you deserve to be the protagonist?"
He suddenly took off his glasses, revealing a pair of small eyes filled with jealousy. "How come someone as handsome and dashing as yours truly doesn't have that fate?!"
Luffy tilted his head. "Huh? What kind of stupid talk is that?"
"Quit playing dumb!" Foxy stomped his feet in exasperation. "The whole internet knows you're the protagonist of 'Pirate King'!"
He turned to the live-streaming camera and made an exaggerated crying face. "My friends, judge for yourselves! How does a silly kid who only knows 'Gum-Gum' deserve this?"
The chat exploded instantly:
"Don't cry, Brother Foxy!"
"Good looks are justice!"
"Straw Hat, use your Protagonist Halo!"
"Why? Just because Luffy's grandfather is a Marine hero and his father is the leader of the Revolutionary Army. You can't compare with a second-generation rich kid like that!"
"..."
When Nami and the other crew members arrived, they happened to see Foxy inciting the audience. She immediately stepped forward. "Wait! According to tradition, shouldn't we play the 'Davy Back Fight' first?"
"Pah!" Foxy spat into the sea. "Do you think I haven't read the novel?"
He pulled out his phone and shook it. "I know exactly how you won the 'Davy Back Fight' by heart!" He suddenly grinned hideously. "Today, we aren't playing games—"
He waved his hand violently. "All units! Beat them to death! If we win, I'll pick 100 fans in the livestream to receive my autograph!"
"Boom!"
Twenty cannons fired simultaneously, and smoke instantly shrouded the entire coastline. Usopp was so scared he dropped to the ground. "This isn't playing by the rules!"
Zoro drew his three swords, slicing apart the incoming cannonballs. "Interesting."
Sanji kicked a cannonball away with a spinning kick. "Nami, stay back!"
Luffy stood still, his right arm suddenly taking on a metallic black luster. "Armament Haki... is this how you use it?"
But immediately after, the Armament Haki vanished; clearly, he wasn't very skilled yet and hadn't fully mastered it.
"Gum-Gum—!"
His steam-emitting fist blasted out like a cannonball, punching right through three incoming solid cannonballs. Foxy's eyes nearly popped out. "What the f*ck?! You already learned Armament Haki?! No, wait, you haven't mastered it yet!"
Porche hurriedly adjusted the live-streaming camera. "Family, look! This is the legendary Protagonist Halo! To defeat the Protagonist Halo, keep the gifts coming!"
Foxy snatched the phone back in a rage. "Slow-Slow Fruit: Slow-Slow Beam!" Dozens of pink beams shot towards Luffy.
But Luffy suddenly grinned, his legs compressing violently. "Second Gear!"
The moment the steam erupted, his figure suddenly darted through the gaps between all the beams. Before Foxy could react, a steam-covered fist was already rapidly enlarging before his eyes—
"Bang!"
Foxy's red sunglasses shattered into pieces, and he flew backward, plowing a thirty-meter-long trench into the beach. The livestream chat was instantly flooded with "666," and donation notification sounds rang out one after another.
Nami cheered while holding her phone. "Awesome! We just received 100,000 Belli in donations!"
Hamburg stood frozen in place, holding his harpoon. "Boss... is he just gone like that?"
Luffy retracted his fist and tilted his head to look at the other pirates. "Does anyone else want to fight?"
"Run!" The Foxy Pirates scattered in an instant, not even bothering to take their live-streaming equipment.
Zoro sheathed his sword, disappointed. "Tch, is it over already?"
Sanji lit a cigarette. "They were just small fry, after all."
On the beach where the smoke had cleared, the Straw Hat Crew had just breathed a sigh of relief when suddenly—
"Kyah hah hah hah! Did you think it was over?"
Foxy's voice drifted from the sea. The "Sexy Foxy" had somehow retreated a hundred meters away, its deck densely packed with black cannon muzzles.
Foxy stood on the lookout platform of the main mast, battered and bruised but looking smug, holding a diamond-encrusted megaphone.
"Didn't expect this, did you!" He tore open his blood-stained shirt, revealing the shining Sea Stone chest guard inside. "Yours truly was prepared for this move!" He waved a signal flag violently. "One hundred cannons! Blow this island to smithereens for me!"
"Click, click, click—"
The mechanical sound of the cannons adjusting was bone-chilling. The sight of over a hundred cannons aiming simultaneously made the audience in the livestream hold their breath.
Nami's face instantly turned pale. "Oh no... at this distance..."
Zoro's three swords were already drawn, but his brows were tightly locked. "There's no time to block them all..."
Sanji's cigarette fell to the ground. "Bastard... playing dirty..."
Usopp's legs were trembling. "We're we're we're done for..."
At this critical moment, Luffy slowly walked to the front of the group. His Straw Hat obscured his expression, and he slowly placed his right hand to his mouth.
"Third Gear..."
The teeth-grating sound of bones stretching echoed as, in the blink of an eye, Luffy's right arm transformed into a giant fist the size of a warship. Even more astonishingly, the entire arm was covered in pitch-black Armament Haki, shimmering with a metallic luster in the sunlight.
"Bone Balloon: Armament Haki Reinforcement!"
"It didn't disappear! This guy hasn't mastered Haki, did he actually succeed by sheer luck?" Foxy's pupils shrank to pinpoints. "Damn that Protagonist Halo! Fire! Fire now!!!"
"Boom, boom, boom—!!!"
The shocking scene of a hundred cannons firing simultaneously made the sea tremble, but Luffy's giant fist was already barreling toward them, carrying a howling hurricane!
"Gum-Gum—Giant Pistol!!"
The pitch-black giant fist collided with the dense swarm of cannonballs in mid-air, triggering a series of earth-shattering explosions. But the fist's momentum didn't falter; it tore through the curtain of fire and slammed solidly into the hull of the "Sexy Foxy."
"Crack!"
The entire ship snapped in half from the middle. Foxy, on the mast, let out a blood-curdling scream as he and countless crew members flew off toward the distant horizon.
The livestream screen shook violently, finally freezing on the moment Foxy turned into a shooting star, before the signal cut out.
All of TikTok was boiling over!
"Is that thing rubber?"
"It can get that big? What kind of rubber is that powerful?"
"Of course it's protagonist-brand rubber, what else?"
"Hmph! A rookie pirate who hasn't even fully mastered Haki—if he comes to the New World, he's just bottom-tier trash!"
"..."
However, there were still quite a few people who favored the Straw Hat, and the East Blue accounted for more than half of them!
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