Carlo stared intently in that direction, a burning desire gleaming in his eyes.
In front of him, Whitebeard glanced back.
“That’s right.
He’s the Rocks you want to challenge.”
“Rocks?
Where’s Rocks?!”
On the deck behind them, Kaido—who had been sleeping groggily the entire voyage—suddenly bounded upright, shouting at the top of his lungs in his raspy voice.
He seemed completely oblivious to the massive pressure from a moment ago.
Carlo ignored his energetic shouting entirely, his attention locked on a specific spot on the island.
Whitebeard, on the other hand, turned to look at Carlo, then glanced at Kaido, who had already shouldered his kanabo and couldn’t wait to disembark.
Whitebeard grinned.
“Gurararara!
Rocks is on the island.
Follow me.”
The ship docked in the harbor, and Carlo and Kaido followed behind Whitebeard, officially stepping onto Hachinosu and heading inland.
The harbor and the town were bustling with activity.
Pirates filled the streets.
Fish-men, Longarm Tribe, Longleg Tribe, Buccaneers—all kinds of races were present.
There were people of every build: tall, short, fat, and thin.
Carlo even spotted several Giant pirates over twenty meters tall.
A seven-meter-tall giant of a man like Kaido wasn’t even particularly eye-catching here.
Furthermore, unlike Rocky Port, fighting didn’t seem to be prohibited on this island.
Just a short distance away on the street, two pirate crews were engaged in a bloody battle.
Under the leadership of their respective captains, dozens of men were hacking at each other, blood flying everywhere.
Swords clashed, and pirates screamed.
Someone even dragged out a hand-held cannon, lit the fuse directly, and fired at the enemy.
*Boom!*
A deafening blast exploded among the opposing pirates in a cloud of smoke and fire.
Several pirates were instantly blown apart by the cannonball, rendering the scene sickeningly bloody.
Yet this chaotic, dangerous scene brought little panic to the town.
The pirates passing by in the surrounding streets merely moved slightly further away.
Most of them bore expressions of schadenfreude, watching the show while making commentary and pointing fingers.
At the same time, they remained warily on guard against the passing pirates around them, and even their own crewmates.
Even while casually critiquing the battle, no one forgot to keep their hands at the most convenient distance to draw a blade or gun.
Because at any moment, someone nearby might burst into violence without warning to snatch something they coveted.
Even a comrade who had fought alongside you moments before might be laughing heartily with you one second, and sinking a blade into your heart without hesitation the next, before happily stripping the long-coveted valuables from your cooling corpse.
Such an absurd sight was something one would never see at Marine Headquarters.
It carried a peculiar kind of ‘vitality.’
Perhaps because Whitebeard was leading the way, Carlo and Kaido didn’t encounter any trouble of that sort.
This disappointed Kaido, who had been prepared for a fight at a moment’s notice.
Fortunately, his ultimate target was the same as Carlo’s—Rocks on the island.
Thus, he didn’t pay much mind to the surrounding pirates either.
Whitebeard was clearly a celebrity on the island.
As he led Carlo and Kaido through the streets, the surrounding pirates cast frequent scrutinizing glances at the two newcomers.
It was obvious they were curious, but no one stepped forward to strike up a conversation.
Meanwhile, in a tavern at the foot of Skull Mountain…
On a spacious sofa, a dozen or so pirates were standing or sitting, chatting, drinking, and eating. Find the original chapter at g.com.
There were men and women among them, varying in height, build, and race.
However, their common trait was that every single one radiated a powerful aura that warned strangers to stay away!
Even the few gorgeous, sexy women with top-tier looks were no exception.
Among these dozen-odd men and women whose powerful auras resembled wild beasts, a man who wasn’t particularly tall—standing just over three meters—and whose looks weren’t particularly handsome sat on the central sofa, surrounded like the moon among stars.
He had a wild, unruly mop of black and white hair.
Over his left eye was a lightning-shaped tattoo.
He sat with his legs crossed and propped on the table in front of him, holding a bottle of strong liquor and drinking heavily.
Once he downed the contents of the bottle in a single gulp, he tossed the empty bottle onto the table and stood up.
A wild, arrogant smile stretched across his stubble-covered lips.
“Wahahaha!
Newgate is back!
Looks like he brought that rookie with him.”
“Let’s go!
We’re going out to take a look!”
***
The instant the man stepped out of the tavern, Carlo—who was over a thousand meters away—seemed to sense it.
Then, under Whitebeard’s astonished gaze, Carlo walked past him and Kaido, taking the lead.
Seeing Carlo’s move, Kaido snorted coldly.
“Hmph!
Trying to challenge Rocks ahead of me?”
“In your dreams!
The first person to challenge Rocks will be me!”
He picked up his pace, marching forward alongside Carlo.
However, Kaido quickly froze, looking at Carlo walking to his right in utter bewilderment.
*Is this guy…
crazy?*
Carlo continued moving forward, but his path was so straight he refused to veer even a fraction of a degree.
Even if there were other pirates walking ahead of him, he didn’t glance aside or slow down.
He just walked right into them!
Kaido saw a pirate with a long sword at his hip, who was drinking liquor, get sent flying from the impact of colliding with Carlo.
The pirate crashed face-first onto the street like a dog eating dirt, his liquor bottle shattering to pieces.
He wore an expression just as bewildered as Kaido’s.
Yet Carlo, who had sent the pirate flying, didn’t seem to notice at all.
As if the man didn’t even exist in his eyes, he kept moving forward.
He raised his right foot, stepped directly onto the unlucky pirate’s face, and strode right over him.
Carlo’s mad behavior instantly drew the eyes of the surrounding pirates.
Only then did the pirate who had been knocked down and stepped on come to his senses.
Flushed with shame and rage, he let out a furious roar, drew the long sword at his waist, and charged toward Carlo.
“Brat!
You’re fucking dead!!”
*Boom!*
A massive hand slapped down from above, slamming into his face and instantly crushing his features.
Two eyes, still filled with rage, popped from their shattered sockets and flew off like bullets.
With a loud *thud*, the pirate’s headless body hit the pavement on his back.
Carlo pulled his hand back as if he had merely swatted an insignificant fly.
His feet never stopped.
Instead, his speed grew faster and faster!
He began to sprint.
Covering over ten meters in a single stride, his eyes unfocused, he charged forward in a perfectly straight line.
Even with more pirates blocking the way ahead, even with rows of tall buildings in the distance, he had no intention of slowing down.
Like a man possessed, he charged forward at a breakneck speed!
“Damn it!
What an arrogant, disrespectful bastard!
Shoot!
Kill him!”
Carlo’s reckless charge enraged the pirates in his path.
Instantly, a dozen men pulled out flintlock pistols, aimed at him, and pulled the triggers.
*Bang!
Bang!
Bang!*
A dozen bullets shot out from the barrels, whistling toward Carlo.
Several of them were even wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki!
Evidently, there were masters proficient in Armament Haki among those pirates.
Yet Carlo ignored them completely.
His speed surged dramatically, turning him into a blurry residual image as he slammed violently into the incoming bullets!
*Boom!!*
The air on the street exploded into a wild gale!
The stone pavement beneath Carlo’s feet shattered violently under his tread!
Amid the gasps of the surrounding pirates, the dense volley of bullets didn’t even get close to Carlo’s body before being deflected by the air current he generated, ricocheting back to pierce through the pirates who had fired them.
Worse still, before those pirates could even scream, Carlo collided with them head-on, slamming into their bodies irresistibly before their terrified eyes.
*Crack-crack-crack!*
Amid a stomach-churning sound of shattering bones, a dozen twisted masses of limbs flew into the air.
Immediately after, another earth-shattering explosion erupted!
The multi-story building at the end of the street shook violently as if hit by a bomb, rolling plumes of dust soaring into the sky!
Vaguely, a human-shaped hole could be seen punching clean through the entire building from front to back.
No—not just one building!
*Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!*
A series of deafening explosions detonated in rapid succession.
Before Kaido’s dumbfounded gaze, row after row of buildings shook violently, impaled like hawthorn berries on a stick by Carlo as he charged forward in a straight line.
Along the path toward Skull Mountain, a rolling trail of dust and debris erupted.
At the same time, in Kaido’s ears—and in the ears of every pirate on the island—a thunderous roar echoed across the heavens:
“Rocks!!
Come fight me!!”