West Blue, Red Line Island.
After days of hard rowing, the Rocks Pirates finally reached their target island.
Without wasting a second, Rocks headed straight for the island's earl's mansion and asked for Patrick Redfield by name.
The CP Agents disguised as the Barlorick Family never imagined that the man Rocks sought was the earl's son—the only one who hadn't been found.
It wasn't for treasure, nor for famed blades, nor for other powerhouses… Still, fortune favored them; every agent playing the Barlorick Earl's household was a formidable CP0 Agent.
They'd originally planned to use a CP9 agent to impersonate that missing, nondescript, reclusive young earl.
But Saturn Mars made special arrangements.
She assigned the youngest CP0 prodigy to play Patrick Redfield.
The CP Agents had no choice but to follow Mars's orders to the letter.
Now it was clear Mars had foreseen everything.
She had perfectly predicted Rocks's target.
Truly worthy of the supreme Celestial Dragons!
Amid the panic and a brief clash, the "Barlorick Family's" strongest were crushed by Rocks.
"worororo! Never expected a tiny West Blue island to hold so many tough fighters!"
Even Rocks was startled—several of the Barloricks were impressively strong.
Most notably their target, Patrick Redfield: barely an adult yet already Executive-level, his hand-to-hand skills remarkable.
Still, Rocks couldn't sense the King's Qualification within this Patrick Redfield.
Could it simply be dormant?
And the so-called innate Observation genius Fang Huo praised didn't seem all that mighty either.
All this left Rocks deeply puzzled.
No matter—grab the kid first and polish him later.
He'd have Fang Huo confirm whether this was even the right person.
Seeing the Earl of Barlorick's strength—just a notch above the 444-million-bounty Black Flag Black—Rocks itched to abduct the whole family.
The CP0 captain playing the earl was eager to infiltrate the Rocks Pirates with them.
But to keep up his noble façade he chose death over surrender.
In the end, Patrick Redfield volunteered to join the Rocks Pirates to protect his family and kin.
The Earl, for his son's safety, assigned a mighty butler to watch over Redfield.
So touching a display of fatherly love that even Newgate was moved by their flawless act.
Under the CP Agents' performance, Patrick Redfield and the powerful butler successfully enlisted in the Rocks Pirates.
Rocks was delighted.
About to throw the Welcome Banquet Fang Huo had planned, he raced back to Ohara to collect the trio.
But a sudden transponder snail call sent his fury sky-high.
The terrifying Conqueror's Haki even pressed hard on Newgate!
"What?! Fang Huo's being hunted by the Gorosei!!"
"And you've lost contact with him!"
Stussy's report filled Rocks with unprecedented rage.
His most valued lieutenant, targeted by the World Government.
And the Gorosei—their supreme power—were personally leading the chase!
"Move!"
Rocks regretted splitting up; if Fang Huo fell, trading him for Patrick Redfield would be a catastrophic loss.
Taking the two new Executives, he boarded the Gibeck's Sword and sped to Ohara at full sail.
"Fang Huo… chased by the Gorosei?"
Whitebeard Newgate's eyes blazed with fury and worry—the very thing he'd feared had come.
He prayed Fang Huo could escape safely.
The CP0 Agents posing as Patrick Redfield and the Barlorick butler felt Rocks's terror for the first time.
It nearly cracked their cover!
Rocks's dread made them doubly careful; they had to play their roles flawlessly.
If the Rocks Pirates uncovered them, only death awaited.
From now on, every message to the World Government had to be sent with utmost caution.
One slip meant death.
The Rocks Pirates came and went in haste, yet Rocks's monstrous Conqueror's Haki still terrified the real Patrick Redfield, who hadn't left Red Line Island.
"Monsters like this actually exist…"
Perhaps that was the pinnacle he longed to reach.
—After the Rocks Pirates departed, the agents disguised as the Barloricks reported and erased their traces.
They had successfully slipped two CP0 Agents into the Rocks Pirates.
Saturn Mars was pleased with the mission—save for the escaped earl's son.
The unknown boy who'd awakened Conqueror's Haki was surely that very son.
No wonder Rocks came looking for him.
But how did Rocks know the brat possessed that potential?
The questions only hardened Mars's resolve to personally hunt the last loose fish, Patrick Redfield.
He must not be allowed to grow, nor to expose the moles inside the Rocks Pirates.
Celestial Dragons Knight Shepherd Ten Somaz gleefully proposed making Red Line Island the next "Human Clearing Contest" site.
They would wipe out the Barloricks and reclaim the island for the Celestial Dragons.
Somaz's proposal quickly won unanimous approval among the Celestial Dragons.
Thus Red Line Island was confirmed as the next "Human Clearing Contest" location.
While CP Agents scrubbed evidence and residents, Patrick Redfield captured one of them.
From the agent's mind he learned of the Rocks Pirates plot.
The CP had struck the Barloricks solely to plant moles within the Rocks Pirates.
Two CP0 Agents impersonating him and a butler had already joined Rocks's crew.
Enraged, Redfield slew the agent on the spot.
The extinction of the Barloricks—over something so absurd! They had been legal earls under a World Government Affiliated Kingdom.
Yet the Celestial Dragons and CP had erased his family just to corner one pirate crew.
Hatred and murderous intent toward the World Government filled Patrick Redfield.
When he overheard another transponder snail call—Celestial Dragons holding a tournament to purge the island and claim it—his fury and dread deepened.
But his current strength was nowhere near enough to oppose the World Government and the Celestial Dragons!
"I must grow stronger!"
"I will have revenge!!"
"I won't let Red Line Island be erased!"
With boundless wrath Patrick Redfield fled the island.
Before the tournament began, he would reach the power needed to avenge and protect everything.