Night.
Dark as ink.
The Germa Kingdom's Mobile Castle Fleet lay in deathly silence after the crushing defeat of the day. The shattered snail ships from the daytime battle were scattered around, their repair work producing faint knocking sounds that carried far through the night air.
In the king's bedchamber at the top floor of the flagship castle, Vinsmoke Judge paced restlessly in his sleeping robe. The humiliation from earlier that day was deeply etched in his heart. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Kane's smug grin and Sakazuki's world-destroying magma.
"Commander-in-Chief, it's late. Please get some rest," came the emotionless voice of a clone soldier from outside the door.
"Get lost!" Judge roared, sweeping all the documents off his desk. Rest? How could he possibly sleep!
Ten billion Berry! That was nearly half the profits he'd made from wars in recent years! And it had been taken from him like common robbery by those four brats!
"Kane... the Marines..." Judge gritted his teeth. "Just wait. Once I complete the final modification of the Lineage Factor, I'll show you what true fear means!"
He walked to the window and looked down at the heavily guarded treasure vault castle connected to the flagship below. There lay the accumulated wealth of generations of the Vinsmoke Family, his greatest capital for realizing his ambitions.
"At least... the most important things remain secure." Judge felt slightly reassured as he gazed at the vault. "With that money and the technical blueprints, Germa can always make a comeback."
What this North Blue overlord didn't know was that while he was making this declaration, just hundreds of meters below him in the deep sea, four shadowy figures were approaching like ghosts.
...
Directly beneath the flagship, in the icy seawater.
"Gurgle..."
Four heads silently broke the surface.
"Everyone follow me, quickly now!"
Kane, dressed in black diving gear with a diving helmet, gave muffled commands.
"Ara ara... Night swimming in this weather will really give you a cold," Kuzan complained, exhaling a cloud of frost with ice crystals hanging from his hair, looking utterly miserable.
Sakazuki maintained a dark expression, arms crossed, clearly disdainful of this sneaky approach but enduring it for the sake of Justice.
"Yeh~, Kane~ Are you sure this is the place? This wall looks pretty thick~" Borsalino knocked on the massive snail shell that formed the foundation of Germa's treasure vault castle, producing a dull thud.
"Of course I'm sure. I scouted this location during the day," Kane said, pulling a rough sketch from his waterproof bag. "See? According to my precise calculations, entering from this position will bypass ninety percent of the defense systems and take us directly to the vault's core area."
"Sakazuki, your turn to perform," Kane patted Sakazuki's shoulder.
Sakazuki shot him a glare but stepped forward despite his displeasure.
He extended his right hand, pressing it against the alloy shell several meters thick.
"Dark Hound!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a faint sizzling sound.
Sakazuki's arm transformed into scorching magma. The hard alloy melted away silently before him, like butter, leaving behind a circular opening large enough for a person to pass through.
"Nicely done!" Kane gave a thumbs-up and was the first to slip inside, with the other three following closely behind.
After removing their diving suits, the four of them surveyed their surroundings. They were in a massive underground equipment layer, with various pipes crisscrossing and steam hissing.
No sooner had they landed than they heard the sound of synchronized footsteps from around the corner ahead.
Clack, clack, clack.
A squad of Clone Soldiers in black combat suits happened to be passing by on patrol.
Six eyes met.
The air froze for a second.
The Clone Soldiers reacted with lightning speed. Almost the moment they spotted the strangers, their fingers were already on the triggers, and they opened their mouths to sound the alarm.
"Well, since we've been spotted, there's no other choice."
Kane shrugged and glanced back at the others.
"Rule number one of infiltration: if you eliminate all witnesses, it's a perfect infiltration."
Before the words had fully left his mouth—
Kuzan, who had seemed utterly listless just moments before, suddenly sharpened his gaze. Since they were already here, triggering a ship-wide alarm by being exposed now would only cause more trouble.
"Ice Time (Glacier Time)."
A burst of frigid air erupted.
Not a wide-ranging freeze, but an intensely concentrated stream of cold.
Before the squad of Clone Soldiers could even pull their triggers, let alone vibrate their vocal cords, they were instantly transformed into crystalline ice sculptures.
Even the Surveillance Den Den Mushi above their heads had its functions frozen by the extreme cold in that instant.
Deathly silence filled the corridor.
"Nicely done." Kane walked over and flicked one of the ice sculptures with his finger, producing a crisp sound. "Now we're still in stealth mode."
"What kind of stealth is this..." Borsalino muttered, hands in his pockets, kicking aside the shattered ice on the ground. Despite his complaint, his footsteps were honest as he followed along.
The four moved as if they were walking through an empty space.
Along the way, they encountered three more patrol squads.
Sakazuki wasted no words. His body transformed into its elemental form as he slid across the ground. Wherever he passed, the Clone Soldiers were instantly vaporized by the intense heat without even a chance to scream, leaving not even ashes behind.
A true one-stop service: eliminate witnesses and destroy the evidence.
Watching this, Kane couldn't help but give Sakazuki a hundred mental thumbs-up.
Finally, the door to the Germa royal treasury appeared before them.
Standing five meters tall, made of special steel, and covered in complex combination locks, it was said to be impervious even to cannon fire.
"Borsalino, that door up ahead looks pretty sturdy," Kane said, pointing at the treasury door.
"Yeeeah~ Piece of cake~"
Borsalino's figure transformed into a streak of golden light, instantly appearing before the gate.
He extended a single finger, concentrating a point of dazzling light at its tip. Like a laser pointer, he swiftly traced it across the massive circular lock core.
With only a soft click, the gate, capable of withstanding cannon fire, slowly swung open.
"Now that's what I call professional!" Kane praised again, filled with admiration.
These future three Admirals were practically a born criminal gang!
Passing through the gate, a massive space unfolded before the four men.
The moment they clearly saw the scene before them, even the future Admirals, who had witnessed countless sights, couldn't help but gasp sharply.
A mountain of gold!
Everywhere they looked, there were piles of gold—gold coins, gold bars, gold ornaments, pure gold statues... The golden glare was almost blinding.
Beside the gold were neatly stacked boxes of Berry, one after another, forming several small hills.
Further away were various rare minerals, jewels, and high-tech blueprints and equipment sealed in special containers.
Gulp.
The sound of someone swallowing hard came from behind.
"We're... we're rich..." Borsalino's sunglasses nearly slid off the tip of his nose.
"Hey now... with this much money, did that bastard Judge plunder the entire North Sea?" Kuzan's jaw dropped wide enough to fit an egg.
"Filthy wealth," Sakazuki scowled, his fists clenched audibly, eyes burning with rage. "Every single Berry here is stained with blood! Germa... their crimes are unforgivable!"
Kane spun around abruptly, righteous and resolute, his voice firm and powerful: "Comrades! What is this? It's evidence of crimes! Fuel that will let Germa continue waging war!"
He swept his hand grandly, like a judge delivering a verdict: "I now declare the 'Zero Dollar Purchase' special operation officially begun! Execute the highest-level confiscation standard!"
"Move it! Empty it all!"
...
"Hey, Kane! What about those gold bricks on the wall?Kuzan pointed at the gold bricks decorating the vault walls.
"Take them! Of course, take them!" Kane's eyes lit up as he jumped down from the pile of gold coins. "Even a mosquito's meat is still meat! Pry them off! Don't leave a single one for them!"
"And that solid gold toilet! Take it too!"
"That diamond-encrusted chandelier! Dismantle it!"
For the next hour, a devastating plunder unfolded within the Germa vault.
Kuzan was in charge of packing.
He created massive hollow ice spheres, stuffed tons of gold, silver, and treasures inside, then sealed them. This not only made transportation convenient but also waterproof.
Borsalino handled demolition.
He transformed into a streak of golden light zipping through the vault. Anything that looked valuable—whether embedded in walls or welded to the floor—was sliced off with a laser beam.
Sakasuki was responsible for destruction.
For large machinery that couldn't be taken or contraband he disliked, he directly delivered a magma fist for physical annihilation.
Meanwhile, Kane was busy stuffing the most valuable items and high-tech blueprints into his system space, humming a cheerful tune:
"Hakimi~ Hakimi~ Hakimi~ oh~ Na! Aishiteru! Aishiteru! Aishiteru! Oye~ Naru! Na na na~ Na na na na na na na~"
[Ding! Detected host conducting devastating plunder of a member nation!]
[Nature: Extremely malicious!]
[Violation Value +10,000!]
[Your actions have caused the Germa Kingdom's fiscal deficit to regress thirty years, severely impacting the world's structure!]
[Additional subversion reward: Violation Value +10,000!]
Listening to the delightful prompts in his mind, Kane smiled even more brightly.
...
Twenty minutes later.
The once resplendent and fabulously wealthy Germa treasury now stood bare, reduced to naked concrete walls.
Not a single treasure remained—even the floor tiles had been pried up three layers deep by Kane's orders.
The space was so empty that voices echoed, a place where even rats would leave with tears in their eyes.
"Withdraw!"
Watching the last batch of giant ice spheres being pushed into the underground waterway, Kane brushed the dust from his hands with satisfaction.
The four retraced their path, guiding the "spoils" along the seawater current until they emerged from beneath Germa's warship.
On the sea surface, dozens of massive ice spheres floated in the dark waters, swaying gently with the waves—each containing wealth enough to purchase several small nations.
Back on the warship, Kane gazed at the deck covered in ice spheres and breathed in the air thick with the scent of gold, feeling as if his very soul had been elevated.
"This is the smell of Justice..."
He turned his eyes toward Germa's still brightly lit fleet, a flicker of mockery in his gaze.
Tomorrow morning, when Judge opens the treasury doors—that expression will be truly spectacular.