“Hahahaha! Die, all of you!”
Krieg laughed viciously as he swept his one-ton Great Battle Spear through the Marines surrounding him.
The massive weapon tore through their formation with terrifying force.
Several Marines were sent flying at once.
By the time their bodies crashed onto the deck or fell into the sea, none of them moved again.
In a matter of seconds, the area around Krieg had been cleared.
The remaining Marines stared at him in horror, unwilling to get any closer.
“Fire!”
“Fire!”
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
A concentrated volley of bullets flew toward Krieg.
He didn’t even bother moving.
Instead, a mocking smile appeared on his face.
Needle-Mountain Cloak!
Krieg wrapped himself in a cloak covered from top to bottom in sharp metal spikes, turning his entire body into something resembling a giant armored hedgehog.
The bullets struck the cloak.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
One after another, they ricocheted harmlessly away.
Krieg remained completely untouched.
“Now it’s my turn.”
A bloodthirsty gleam appeared in his eyes.
He suddenly threw the cloak open.
A storm of concealed weapons burst outward.
The Marines hadn’t expected the counterattack.
“Aaagh!”
“Watch out!”
Several men were struck before they could react.
Colonel Ryan could no longer stand by.
He charged forward with a heavy axe in each hand.
Unlike someone as thoroughly incompetent as Colonel Nezumi, Ryan possessed genuine combat ability.
His twin axes moved in a tight defensive pattern, knocking aside the remaining projectiles before they could reach him.
Then Krieg attacked.
BOOM!
The Great Battle Spear came crashing down.
Ryan crossed both axes and caught the blow head-on.
The deck beneath his feet trembled from the impact.
But he held.
The sight immediately restored some of the Marines’ morale.
“Colonel Ryan!”
“Colonel!”
“You’ve got him!”
Ryan glared at Krieg from behind his crossed axes.
“Krieg! Today is the day you die!”
“Oh?”
Krieg’s grin widened.
“Is that so?”
Without warning, he released the Great Battle Spear and jumped backward.
Another barrage of concealed weapons flew from his armor.
Ryan’s expression hardened.
“The same trick again?”
He swung his axes.
But this time, Krieg had hidden something different among them.
A gas bomb.
It detonated beside Ryan.
Pssshhh!
A cloud of poisonous gas swallowed him.
Krieg immediately burst into arrogant laughter.
“You bastard!”
“Dirty coward!”
Several Marines shouted in fury.
Even some of Krieg’s own pirates couldn’t help finding the tactic shameless.
With Krieg’s raw strength, he was already more than capable of fighting head-on.
Yet he still relied on hidden weapons and poison whenever it gave him an advantage.
Krieg couldn’t have cared less.
If anything, he seemed proud of it.
A figure stumbled out of the poisonous cloud.
Colonel Ryan.
His face had gone pale, and fury burned in his eyes.
The gas hadn’t dropped him immediately, but its effects were already obvious.
His head spun.
His limbs felt weak.
If he could receive treatment quickly, there might still be time.
Unfortunately, Krieg had already picked up his Great Battle Spear.
And from the look on his face, he had every intention of finishing Ryan off while he was weakened.
Neither man realized that another force was watching the battle from beyond the immediate fighting.
More than a dozen Marine warships sat anchored some distance away.
On the deck of one of them, Colonel Nezumi lowered his telescope.
“That bastard Krieg really is despicable.”
He gave his familiar squeaking laugh.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak… If nothing changes, Ryan is finished.”
Sitting behind him was an enormously fat man.
Nelson Roy.
The commander of Marine Branch 8.
He was also the ally Nezumi had brought with him.
Nelson watched the distant battle without much interest.
“You planned to let them weaken each other from the beginning, didn’t you?”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak…”
Nezumi’s eyes gleamed with ambition.
“Simply wiping out the Krieg Pirates wouldn’t be enough to put me in charge of the entire East Blue.”
“But if another Marine Colonel dies at Krieg’s hands…”
His smile widened.
“That changes things.”
Nezumi had Arlong’s crew to thank for giving him this opportunity in the first place.
Commodore Blinblin of Marine Branch 77 had previously held nominal authority over the East Blue region.
Unfortunately for him, he had died at sea during an operation against the Arlong Pirates.
What Blinblin never knew was that the supposedly secret operation had already been leaked to Arlong by Nezumi.
Arlong’s crew had been prepared well in advance.
They arranged an ambush at sea, created whirlpools, and wiped out Blinblin’s entire fleet.
Afterward, Nezumi simply wrote the incident off in his official report as an unfortunate maritime accident caused by bad weather.
Just like that, the truth behind a Commodore’s death disappeared.
Now Nezumi saw another opportunity.
This time, he intended to turn it into a promotion.
Whether that meant becoming a Commodore himself or taking control of the Marine forces throughout the East Blue, either outcome was enough to make him eager to proceed.
“I don’t want any of the credit from this operation. You can take all of it.”
His tone hardened.
“But don’t forget what you promised me.”
“Because if you do…”
Nelson’s eyes narrowed.
“Even if you become a Commodore, I’ll make sure you regret deceiving me.”
Nezumi dismissed the threat internally, but his expression remained perfectly sincere.
“Oh, Roy! Of course I won’t forget!”
He spread his hands.
“Once I become the highest-ranking Marine officer in the East Blue, I’ll do everything in my power to help you find the legendary Dragon Bone. I swear it!”
The Dragon Bone.
A legendary treasure said to grant eternal youth.
It was exactly what Nelson Roy wanted more than anything else.
That desire was the reason Nezumi had approached him for cooperation.
And technically, Nezumi wasn’t lying.
If he gained enough authority, he really would help search for the Dragon Bone.
Whether they actually found it was another matter.
It was a legendary treasure, after all.
For all Nezumi knew, it might not even exist.
So making the promise cost him nothing.
…
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Bane was still working toward his hundred-kill objective, completely unaware of the forces waiting beyond the fighting.
Another Marine fell.
Then another.
His quest progress continued climbing.
Once Krieg, Gin, and Pearl entered the battle, the pressure on Bane decreased even further.
That was one of the benefits of not being the boss.
Let the strongest people draw attention while he took advantage of the chaos.
After an unknown amount of time, the familiar System notification finally appeared.
[Quest: Overlord of the East Blue — Continued]
[Status: Completed]
[Reward: 5 Attribute Points]
[Reward: Trust Value +20]
[Reward: Random Weapon]
Bane stopped for a moment and wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand.
Finally.
Five Attribute Points.
He immediately began assigning them.
Four went into Physique.
Since Physique had already crossed the twenty-point threshold, those four Attribute Points only increased it by two.
The final point went into Spirit.
[Physique: 24]
[Spirit: 13]
His Trust Value had also reached 41.
Bane was more than satisfied.
Then he checked the final reward.
The random weapon.
What appeared surprised him.
[Hormone Gun]
[Effect: Suppresses all negative effects caused by injuries and restores a portion of stamina.]
[Duration: 30 seconds]
[Ammo Capacity: 6 rounds]
[1 round automatically recharges every hour.]
Bane stared at the strange, futuristic-looking weapon in his hand.
His eyes brightened.
“This thing is incredible.”