The moment Magellan gave the order, the usually quiet halls of Impel Down were filled with shrill alarm bells.
Then, in the next instant, the guards responsible for Level 6 rushed out from their posts.
But unlike every previous emergency, these guards were not carrying weapons.
Instead, they came running in a panic with armfuls of magazines, canvas sneakers, and carrots that had clearly been prepared in advance.
In no time at all, more than a hundred jailers had gathered outside the gates of Eternal Hell, each holding some kind of gift or food Da Hong liked.
Inside Eternal Hell, after flattening the two unlucky guards who had delivered the poison-gas hamburger, Da Hong did not hesitate for even a second.
He charged straight toward the sealed prison gate.
Boom!
With a thunderous blast, the massive gate—one that had only been broken once in the last twenty years—collapsed on the spot.
The instant it fell, the jailers outside all raised the items in their hands as quickly as they could.
Magazines.
Carrots.
Canvas sneakers.
The sudden wave of gifts caught Da Hong completely off guard, and his eyes widened at once.
What surprised him most was that among the sneakers being offered, there was one pair of brilliantly bright red canvas shoes.
They were practically his dream shoes.
Without the slightest hesitation, he shoved several guards out of the way, reached forward, and snatched up the red sneakers.
The moment he got them in his hands, the flames of rage surrounding him disappeared.
Back in the Warden's Office, Magellan saw the scene through the surveillance feed and immediately let out a long breath of relief.
He had already thought it through.
Holy Land's orders could not be disobeyed.
But he also had to prepare for the possibility that Da Hong simply could not be killed.
Only by doing both could he somehow keep both sides satisfied.
"Kizaru really did save me…"
Watching Da Hong calmly turn around with the sneakers in hand and walk back toward his cell, Magellan suddenly felt genuinely touched.
Holy Land had set him up.
Sengoku had shoved the problem onto him.
Only Kizaru, when handing over the Red Rabbit, had actually given him a real solution.
If not for Kizaru's warning before leaving, Magellan would definitely have tried to suppress Da Hong at all costs. At that point, the rabbit would only have become even more violent—and if Impel Down itself had been destroyed, Magellan's career would have ended right there.
Back in Eternal Hell, while Magellan quietly relaxed, Douglas Bullet and the rest of the prisoners were left dumbfounded.
Bullet most of all.
After all, he had already used Observation Haki to glimpse the future—
a future where Da Hong rampaged unstoppably from Level 6 all the way to Level 1.
Under normal circumstances, the future seen through Observation Haki did not simply go wrong.
And yet the reality in front of him was that the moment Da Hong broke through the gate of Eternal Hell, he was instantly pacified by Magellan's sugar-coated bombardment and returned to normal.
Staring at Da Hong as he walked back into his cell holding the red sneakers and sat down on the toilet to polish them with cheerful little squeaking sounds, Bullet suddenly felt a sharp suspicion rise in his heart.
Did I train my Observation Haki wrong?
"Damn it!"
"How could this happen?!"
Bullet's eyes flashed with vicious light.
Then, no longer bothering to hide the terrifying strength he had honed over twenty years, he released his power without reservation.
A wild, tyrannical aura burst out of him like a volcanic eruption and instantly engulfed the entire floor of Eternal Hell.
At once, all the prisoners felt an invisible pressure crash down on them.
The next second, they found their bodies stiffening as if they had been pinned in place. A deep fear rose uncontrollably in their hearts.
Then the guards who had followed Da Hong into the cell to keep offering him gifts all froze—and one after another, dropped limp to the ground.
"Conqueror's Haki!"
"How is that possible?! Even with Seastone shackles on him, he can still release such powerful Conqueror's Haki?!"
"Bullet, what are you trying to do?!"
After the first wave of shock, Avalo Pizarro was the first to react. His own ability was already suppressed by Seastone, and under Bullet's pressure, he could barely hold on. In a pleading voice, he shouted,
"Don't do anything stupid! If you provoke the Red Rabbit, we'll all die! We know you want to escape, but this is not the time—"
"Oh hohoho… how reckless."
Catarina Devon also turned to look at Bullet.
"So after twenty years of silent cultivation, you've finally decided to make your move?"
"Shut up, Catarina!" another prisoner barked. "Don't encourage him! Bullet clearly wants to provoke the Red Rabbit, use him to create chaos, and escape in the confusion! He may not fear the rabbit, but the rest of us do!"
"Silence."
Bullet's cold voice cut across the prison.
Then he stepped forward and stared straight into Da Hong's cell.
Without warning, he released another crushing burst of Conqueror's Haki toward Da Hong.
The violent impact instantly knocked the red sneakers out of Da Hong's hands.
"It's over, it's over!"
"Bullet's gone mad! He actually dared touch the Red Rabbit's treasure!"
"Hahaha! The storm is coming!"
The prisoners were shocked by Bullet's insanity, but many of them also started laughing wildly.
They were criminals through and through. The only reason they had acted humble before was because they wanted to flatter Da Hong and use him to get out.
Now that path clearly wasn't working, and with a monster like Bullet—once a crew member of the Pirate King himself—finally stepping up, they saw no reason not to go crazy along with him.
After all, they had been rotting in Eternal Hell for so long they were practically sick in the head already.
And if a chance to tear the place apart appeared—
why not take it?
Da Hong, however, did not enter berserk mode immediately.
When the red sneakers were blown from his hands, he blinked slowly, then tilted his head and looked down toward where they had landed.
The instant his eyes settled on them, his pupils contracted sharply.
The shoes had fallen into a puddle of filthy water.
The clean, bright sheen they had moments ago was gone.
After two seconds of absolute silence—
Da Hong's lungs expanded.
The next instant, the entire prison shook with his enraged roar.
Then he vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already standing inside Bullet's cell.
Bang! Bang!
The bars in front of him shattered apart with two violent blows.
And then he drove his fist straight toward Bullet's chest.
"I saw that!"
Bullet had not moved from where he stood.
Having already caught Da Hong's attack path through Observation Haki, he reacted without hesitation and threw up both arms to block.
At almost the exact same moment, Da Hong's fist crashed into the Seastone shackles on Bullet's wrists.
Crack!
The shackles shattered instantly.
But Bullet did not have time to celebrate.
The moment the restraints broke apart, Da Hong's fist did not slow in the slightest. Instead, it expanded rapidly in Bullet's vision, carrying with it a destructive force like the collapse of the heavens.
For the first time, Bullet realized something was terribly wrong.
His Observation Haki had failed him again.
And before he could process that—
Da Hong's fist slammed brutally into his chest.
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