“Big Brother!
Mama has started talking nonsense recently!” came Perospero’s voice over the phone.
He brought the Den Den Mushi close to Big Mom, and first, crunching sounds came from the phone, followed by Linlin muttering incoherently.
“Mother!
I miss you so much!”
“Cake!
I want to eat cake!”
“Hahaha!
These kids are all Berries!”
“Berries?” Rector was stunned, a sense of familiarity suddenly flashing through his mind.
He raced through his memories, finally remembering who had said those words!
The Mother who had picked up Big Mom back then was ostensibly the director of Elbaf’s “Lamb House”.
She was a saintly figure who sheltered orphans of all races, but behind the scenes, she was an orphan trafficker of the Underworld.
She gathered children under the guise of the Lamb House and sold them to the World Government.
On Big Mom’s sixth birthday, Mother had prepared a massive amount of sweets for her, and because she was completely immersed in the happiness brought by the sweets…
…she only focused on stuffing her face with cream puffs, putting all her attention on the food and remaining completely oblivious to the commotion around her.
By the time she came to her senses, the companions and Mother who had originally surrounded her were all gone.
And it was from that exact moment that Big Mom acquired the power of the Soul-Soul Fruit.
What Mother valued most in her life was Berries, and her business of trading adopted children for Berries lasted from her youth until old age.
(Mother’s photo!)
Could it be that Mother never died, but had been hiding inside Big Mom’s body all along?
Thinking of this, Rector frowned deeply; after all, Linlin’s eating disorder hasn’t acted up for a whole year.
Childbirth is a woman’s most vulnerable time—surely Mother wouldn’t seize control of Big Mom’s body right now, would she?!
“Thump, thump, thump!!!”
As noisy sounds rang out, Rector raised his eyes to look into the distance, where successive clouds of gray mist rose from the charred ground.
A large group of dark figures were rapidly approaching this side—it was the army called over by those two soldiers just now.
As the gray mist dissipated, a man standing a full three meters tall appeared before Rector, his body knotted with muscles.
“Hey!
Kid!
Put down the child in your hands!”
The burly man looked at Rector, who was only about 1.6 meters tall, his eyes full of disdain.
When his gaze swept over Rector’s clothes…
…greed welled up in his eyes.
He looked like a rich kid, and such a little squirt could be crushed by him with just one hand.
The burly man’s gaze swept past Rector and constantly scanned the surroundings.
Speaking of which, where did those two guys who sent the message go?
Even though he had arrived, they were still hiding and refusing to come out.
“Alright!
I got it!” Rector hung up the call, stuffed the Den Den Mushi into his arms, and his calm expression enraged the man.
“You brash brat!
How dare you ignore this lord’s words!” The burly man roared with such anger that the dust on the ground trembled.
His sand-bowl-sized fist smashed straight toward Rector’s head, a bloodthirsty light flashing in his eyes.
He seemed to have already envisioned Rector being knocked to the ground by his single punch, holding a pile of Berries in both hands and crying for mercy.
“Scram!
Have you grown tired of living?” Rector cast a cold glance at the burly man, and Conqueror’s Haki burst forth without warning, its invisible pressure instantly crushing outward.
“Bang!”
The burly man’s sturdy body uncontrollably dropped to its knees in front of Rector with a thud, his forehead slamming hard against the scorched, hard ground as he lost consciousness.
This sudden scene of prostration completely dumbfounded the entire army.
“The General…
he knelt…?”
“What kind of monster is that brat?
I didn’t even see him make a move!”
The people in the back rows of the army began to panic and stir, while the soldiers in the front row all constricted their pupils, their entire bodies stiff as stone.
They felt as if they were being targeted by an ancient behemoth; if they dared to move a single finger, they would lose their lives in the next second.
After speaking, Rector directly hung up the Den Den Mushi, raised his eyes to sweep over the surrounding soldiers closing in, and blinding lightning suddenly erupted around his body.
Thick thunderclouds quickly gathered in the sky, pressing down very low as thick bolts of lightning darted and slithered through the clouds, their crackling explosions continuous and unending.
A resonant voice carried along with the thunder across the entire island.
“Listen up, everyone!
Find a dark blue fruit with protruding circular, triangular, square, and hexagonal flesh!”
“I’ll give you one day to find it!
Otherwise, not a single person on this island will survive!”
The voice laden with intense murderous intent spread to every corner of the island, but no one believed it—yet there were always reckless upstarts in this world who wanted to stand out.
“Who on earth are you…”
“Snap!”
Before the man could finish speaking, a lightning snake lunged out from the clouds and struck the person who had spoken out in questioning, the violent current instantly burning him to charcoal.
Similar situations happened one after another across various parts of the island, whether they voiced doubts out loud or harbored thoughts of resistance in their hearts.
As long as a trace of rebellious intent arose, the thunder of judgment would instantly fall upon their heads.
On the coastline in the distance of the island, a ship flying the World Government flag quietly docked.
Several men in black suits on the ship looked up at the lightning snakes darting chaotically across the sky and casually complained.
“The weather in the Endless War Country is getting worse and worse!”
“Hurry up and take this batch of survivors away!”
“Sigh!
The Rocks Pirates are getting more and more arrogant!
Not a single person who infiltrated has ever returned alive!”
As the few of them just lifted their feet to walk onto the island, a lightning bolt several meters thick abruptly crashed down, instantly reducing two unprepared agents to charcoal.
The remaining people on the ship stared blankly at the sky as countless lightning snakes gathered and intertwined in the air, gradually condensing into a lightning dragon.
On the translucent white scales formed by lightning, electric arcs continuously leaped, and electricity exploded in the air, its crackling sound echoing through the sky.
“Lightning Dragon Annihilation!”
Rector let out a cold shout, and the lightning dragon abruptly dove down from the clouds, countless electric arcs exploding across the sky.
That was not ordinary light; it was blinding white light formed by lightning forcibly ionizing the air.
The entire sky was illuminated brightly, and everyone on the entire island clearly saw that entirely white lightning dragon.
“Run quickly!
Such strong voltage will kill people!”
The CP agents burst forth with the strongest survival instinct of their lives, running madly toward the island.
At this moment, they hated themselves for not growing an extra pair of legs.
“Wait…
wait for me!”
Someone was scared to tears on the spot.
It was supposed to be an easy and good gig, so how did something this terrifying pop up?!”
“Crack—crack crack crack—!”
A piercing shattering sound resounded across the entire island, and the next second, the lightning dragon’s figure abruptly vanished.
“Bang!”
The violent explosion tore at everyone’s eardrums, and an annular shockwave swept horizontally in all directions, rolling across the entire island mixed with heatwaves.
The air hummed, the ground trembled endlessly, the earth was melted by the high temperature, and everything before their eyes was swallowed by blinding white light.
The smell of burning mixed with the salty, fishy sea breeze swept across the shore, and the harbor that originally stood there completely disappeared.
Leaving behind only a huge deep pit, seawater was frantically rushing back down along the pit walls, churning with gray-black foam.
The land within a kilometer around was completely melted by the high temperature, solidifying into uneven, charred rocks after cooling.
All living creatures within five kilometers were killed by the violent lightning, and the battlefield originally filled with trenches and fortresses was directly razed to the ground, unable to find even half a complete wall.
The thick thundercloud vortex in the sky still hung overhead, weighing heavily on everyone’s hearts, causing even breathing to nearly stall.