"Who goes there?!"
A sharp shout rang out from the island.
Kurogane Ren raised his voice and called back, "It's me and Deneisa!"
"Ah! Lady Deneisa is back!"
"Lady Deneisa!"
"Deneisa-sama!"
The whole shoreline erupted in cheers.
Ren's mood instantly soured.
Not one of them called his name.
Because of Little Black's enormous size, Ren told it to come closer after sunrise the next day.
After that, he used Moonwalk to return to the island.
Watching Deneisa get swarmed like the center of the world, Ren could only head back to his room alone.
The next morning, Xu Nian and Martha were already waiting by the shore.
Little Black had appeared at dawn and was still circling in the waters not far from the island.
Today, Xu Nian and Martha's main task was to measure Little Black's body so they could determine the structure and dimensions of the ship.
Ren stayed nearby to assist.
As for Deneisa, she had already started drilling the combat personnel again.
…
Mary Geoise.
"We greet you, Great One…"
At that moment, the Five Elders—supposedly the highest authority in the World Government—were kneeling on the floor.
If anyone else had seen it, their jaw would have hit the ground.
"Heh…"
A set of footsteps echoed through the chamber.
"I've already suppressed the matter in the Calm Belt. But after this intervention, I won't be able to act again for the next ten years. So the next suppression must not fail."
"Yes, Great One…"
"And over the next ten years, send more slaves."
"Yes…"
Only after the figure on the high platform left did the Five Elders finally rise to their feet.
"How is preparation for the next suppression going?"
"We've already gathered most of what we need."
"Good. This transport cannot go wrong."
"CP0 is already prepared."
"Then that matter is settled. What about the Worldbound Pirates? Any news yet?"
"None."
"Then what about the proposal to make them one of the Seven Warlords?"
"No need. They've been missing for years now."
"The New World already has three Emperors. We need to fill the Seven Warlords as soon as possible, or the Marines won't have enough manpower to keep up."
"Then who should get the position?"
"Give it to Jinbe of the Sun Pirates. Tiger died recently. It's about time we eased relations with the fish-men. No matter what, Fish-Man Island is still a World Government member nation."
"And since Fish-Man Island is the gateway to the New World, it's better for it to stay under Government influence than fall into pirate hands."
"Agreed."
…
Ren stood before the new ship, a brilliant smile on his face.
After nearly three years of work, their new vessel was finally complete.
It was nearly three hundred meters long and forty meters high.
The ship had over two hundred rooms and sixteen cannons.
Of course, the actual number of gun emplacements exceeded two hundred. But the Worldbound Pirates simply didn't have enough crew yet to operate that many guns.
So for now, only sixteen had been installed.
That said, the guns they did have were anything but small.
Ten of them were seventy-five-millimeter rapid-fire cannons mounted along both sides of the ship.
The remaining six were triple-barreled two-hundred-forty-millimeter cannons, placed at the bow and stern.
Those guns—and their ammunition—had taken Martha a tremendous amount of time to make.
Fortunately, with the Space Stone providing power, Ren could finally let her manufacture things without having to pinch every bit of energy.
As for the old Lucky, it had not been abandoned.
Ren had personally built a dedicated dry dock for it.
Today was the day the new ship was completed.
And also the day of its first sea trial.
Ren and Xu Nian stepped into the bridge.
Because the ship would spend most of its time traveling underwater, a massive reinforced viewing window had been installed at the front of the command room.
Ren's voice trembled with excitement.
"Set sail!"
…
"Hahaha! Captain, your bounty went up again! You're at one hundred and thirty-five million Beli now!"
"That's right! Captain's officially a super rookie now! Among pirates of the same generation, nobody has a higher bounty!"
"Hahaha! Of course! Your captain here is destined to become the fourth Emperor of the New World! Boys, the Sabaody Archipelago is our last stop. We'll restock there… then charge straight into the New World!"
"Ohhh!"
On a pirate ship not too far away, a bearded pirate was shouting at the top of his lungs with a bottle in hand.
"That's right! Our captain's gonna become the fourth Emperor!"
"Captain, don't forget to let me command a ship of my own when that happens!"
"Me too! Me too!"
"Hahaha! No problem! Everyone gets one!"
Splash—
Just as the pirates were shouting themselves hoarse, a gigantic Sea King rose from the sea not far from their ship.
And what shocked them even more was the steel fortress mounted on its back.
From atop that monstrous mobile fortress came an annoyed voice.
"I'm serious—next time you two want to fight, don't do it inside the ship. It's sturdy, sure, but even this thing can't handle the two of you going at it. If you really have to, at least tell me first. I'll find you an island."
"Hmph. And this is supposed to be ultra-hard alloy? It couldn't even withstand one strike from me and Deneisa."
Ren nearly choked.
"Don't act like you two don't know how ridiculous your attacks are."
"We don't," Esdeath and Deneisa answered in perfect unison.
The pirates who had been bragging just moments earlier now stared blankly at the three figures who had appeared atop the Sea King.
"Captain… beauties. Look at them. I've never seen women that gorgeous before."
"Yeah, Captain. We could sell beauties like that for a fortune."
"Sell them? Are you stupid? Women that beautiful should be kept for Captain and Vice-Captain!"
Captain Wibo had always believed his greatest ambition was to become the fourth Emperor of the sea.
But the moment he saw the blue-haired beauty, that dream wavered.
To hell with becoming the fourth Emperor.
If someone made him choose between an Emperor's throne and that blue-haired woman right now, he would pick the woman without hesitation.
As for the blonde beside her…
She looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't place where he had seen her before.
Still, who cared?
Right now, all he wanted was to take the blue-haired one for himself.
"Men, we're going to—"
Wibo was just about to give the order when he noticed a shadow spreading over the ship.
And it was getting bigger.
Much bigger.
He slowly lifted his head.
Then his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Because hanging above them was a gigantic sphere of ice.
It was so enormous it dwarfed their ship several times over.
Boom!
Ren looked at the sea where the pirate ship had just been erased so thoroughly not even splinters remained floating.
Then he turned toward the blue-haired woman beside him.
"Esdeath, could you not start with an ice meteor every single time?"
Esdeath folded her arms and looked away.
"I didn't like the way they were looking at me."
The ones who had appeared here were none other than Ren and his crew.
The Xiaoyao You had actually been completed two months ago, but they had spent over a month running sea trials to fully confirm its stability.
Then, half a month ago, Ren decided to use every usable reward he had been hoarding in order to strengthen the crew.
That included a large number of cards.
Using duplication cards, he created several more upgrade cards.
By now, Ren's Observation Haki and Armament Haki had both reached the peak of the advanced stage.
And not just his.
The other main members of the crew had all had their Haki boosted to the highest level he could currently give them.
Over the past months, Ren had also finally worked out the rough tiering of Haki.
For Armament Haki, purple represented the beginner stage.
Black represented the intermediate stage.
And flowing Armament represented the advanced stage.
As for the next level beyond that, Ren discovered that upgrade cards were no longer enough.
The system told him he would need Skill Advancement Cards instead.
And each Skill Advancement Card required four upgrade cards to fuse.
After hearing that, Ren had only one response.
"Scam artist."
Aside from the upgrade cards and duplication cards, Ren had also used two character summon cards.
One of them somehow summoned a zombie from Highschool of the Dead.
Even worse, it was just a completely ordinary zombie.
It would not attack Ren's people, but that hardly mattered.
Ren was not some lunatic trying to end the world. He just wanted to live a good life in the One Piece world.
So he destroyed the zombie on the spot.
A zombie's combat power was one thing.
The virus it carried was another.
If that virus ever spread, there was no telling what kind of disaster it would cause.
Especially in a world filled with advanced scientists like Vegapunk under the World Government, Judge of Germa 66, and Caesar.
As for the second summon card—
That one gave him a far more terrifying ally.
Esdeath.
From Akame ga Kill.
And that ice meteor just now?
That had been her doing.