Time flew by, and the leaves on Mt.
Colubo withered and turned yellow three times.
Three years later.
At the edge of the Goa Kingdom, the Terminal.
This place was the filthiest corner of the entire country; trash piled up like mountains, and the air was thick with a pungent stench.
At this very moment, inside an abandoned, broken ship deep within the Terminal, a burst of arrogant, wild laughter rang out.
“Hahaha!
Brat, no matter how tough your bones are, now that you’re bound with Sea Stone handcuffs, you can’t use your rubber abilities anymore, can you?” Burjiam, a pirate from the East Blue with a bounty of 14.3 million Berries, held a flintlock pistol, its muzzle pressed firmly against the head of a ten-year-old boy wearing a straw hat.
Behind him stood dozens of fierce-looking pirate underlings armed with swords and guns.
Scattered on the ground around them lay a dozen or so beaten and bruised pirates.
Although ten-year-old Luffy was tied to a pillar with thick iron chains, his eyes remained as fierce as a young wolf’s.
After three years of Ace’s inhumane special training, Luffy was no longer the crybaby snot-nosed kid from the original story.
If it weren’t for Burjiam using a net gun to ambush him, along with Sea Stone handcuffs he’d gotten from who knows where, this trash wouldn’t have been able to catch him at all.
“Pah!” Luffy spat out a mouthful of blood, his gaze devoid of fear.
“Just based on you bunch of weaklings who can’t even beat me, once Ace and Sabo get here, they’ll definitely beat you all to a pulp!” “Ace?
Sabo?” Burjiam acted as if he’d heard the biggest joke in the world, his face full of contempt as he patted Luffy’s cheek with the gun barrel.
“Are those the two brats who have been making a name for themselves in the Grey Terminal lately?
I’m a great pirate headed for the Grand Line!
If they dare to come, I’ll take them out too…” “BOOM—!!” Before Burjiam could finish his sentence, the heavy iron door of the broken ship was hit head-on, as if by a cannonball, and it instantly shattered with a deafening roar!
Twisted sheet metal, mixed with a terrifying blast of air, shredded the four pirate underlings standing at the entrance, sending them flying like broken sacks as blood sprayed everywhere.
Amidst the clouds of dust, two tall, slender figures slowly walked in, stepping over the ruins.
The youth walking in front didn’t look like a thirteen-year-old child at all, judging by his physique.
He was nearly 1.8 meters tall, wearing only an open red vest on his upper body, his exposed muscles sculpted like those carved by a knife and axe—perfect and full of explosive power.
Beneath his slightly curly black hair, his deep eyes flashed with undisguised wildness and defiance.
Beside him followed a blond youth wearing a blue tailcoat and a top hat.
He carried a seemingly ordinary iron pipe in his hand, but the end of the pipe had been ground as smooth as a razor-sharp blade.
“Yo, Luffy.” Ace, with his hands in his pockets, looked at Luffy tied to the pillar, his mouth curling into a wild grin.
“To actually get caught by such low-class trash—looks like tomorrow’s resistance training will need to be doubled.” “Ace!
Sabo!” Luffy wasn’t scared; instead, he shouted excitedly, “Be careful, the guy wearing the pirate hat is strong!” “So you’re the two brats who don’t know your place?I” Burjiam looked at the destroyed door, his expression instantly darkening.
As a great pirate with a bounty of 14.3 million Berries, he hadn’t survived on this sea by being soft-hearted.
“Fire!
Turn these two brats into a beehive!” he roared hysterically, waving his hand violently.
“Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang—!!” Dozens of flintlock pistols fired simultaneously, and a dense volley of lead bullets poured out like a rainstorm, instantly sealing off all escape routes at the entrance.
The pungent smell of gunpowder filled the abandoned cabin.
“Sabo, the left side is yours.” “Got it, Captain.
Make it quick; I don’t want my clothes getting stained with the blood of this trash.” Just as the lead bullets were about to tear the two of them to shreds, a dull sonic boom erupted from beneath Ace and Sabo’s feet— “Bang!” The hard wooden floor shattered inch by inch, and before everyone’s eyes, the two figures turned into two blurry afterimages and vanished from the spot!
“What?!
Where did they go?!” the pirate underlings widened their eyes in shock.
“Behind you, idiots.” Sabo chuckled, his figure cutting into the crowd on the left like a ghost.
The iron pipe in his hand whipped up a sharp gust of wind.
With a few crisp “cracks,” five or six musketeers had their jaws shattered before they could even scream, sending them flying backward.
On the other side, Burjiam’s pupils constricted to the size of pinpricks.
An extremely dangerous gust of wind was coming straight for his face!
“Don’t get too cocky, brat!
I am Burjiam!” Burjiam roared wildly, the ferocity of a pirate with a bounty in the tens of millions fully revealed in that moment.
He violently drew the heavy, broad-backed machete from his waist, stained with dark red blood scabs.
His bulging arms displayed throbbing veins, and with a shrill whistle that tore through the air, he slashed horizontally toward the incoming afterimage!
This slash was heavy and powerful; even an adult elephant would have been cut in half instantly.
However, facing this deadly blade, Ace didn’t even intend to dodge.
A flash of defiant excitement crossed his pitch-black eyes.
“Kami-e!” Just as the blade was about to touch his chest, Ace’s upper body suddenly leaned back in an eerily fluid motion, like a weightless piece of paper caught in the airflow of the blade.
The broad blade grazed right past the tip of his nose, slicing off a few strands of his curly black hair.
“He dodged it?!” Burjiam was terrified, but his extensive combat experience allowed him to react immediately.
He didn’t retract the blade; instead, he flipped his wrist, the massive blade changing trajectory to hack down fiercely at the reclining Ace!
“Not bad reflexes, but this soft, weak strength is far worse than old man Garp’s!” Ace let out a wild, arrogant laugh.
Without Haki, he relied solely on the monstrous strength honed over three years of training between waterfalls and giant beasts!
He kicked off the ground with both legs, his body straightening instantly like a wound-up spring, moving forward instead of retreating.
He clenched his right hand into a fist and, meeting the descending broad-backed machete, slammed it against the blade with a straightforward, unadorned punch!
Flesh and blood clashing against tempered steel!
“BOOM—!!” The moment the fist collided with the back of the blade, a visible circular shockwave erupted.
The already rotten wooden floor of the cabin collapsed under the immense recoil, and wood splinters sprayed in all directions like hidden weapons.
“This… how is this possible?!” Burjiam felt the terrifying recoil force from the hilt; the skin between his thumb and index finger tore instantly, and blood gushed out.
He couldn’t believe his eyes—a thirteen-year-old brat, with just a single fist, had actually blocked his full-power strike?!
What kind of monster was hidden inside this body!
“Where are you looking, old man.” Ace grinned, the power in his fist suddenly exploding.
Burjiam felt an irresistible, overwhelming force coming from the blade, forcing him to stumble back five or six steps, each step leaving a deep footprint in the wooden floor.
“Damn brat… don’t get too full of yourself!”