“Kid, you look new around here?
Where are you from?”
The fair-skinned boss of the East District, carrying a bloodstained giant wrench and with blood splattered on his face, swaggered toward Lucas and his companion.
His gaze stuck to Baccarat, sweeping unscrupulously over her waist and face.
Baccarat frowned, shrank behind Lucas, and looked utterly disgusted.
Lucas stepped forward, completely blocking the other’s line of sight, and waved his hand as if shooing away a fly:
“Who I am is none of your business.
Stop looking at things you shouldn’t.
While I’m still in a decent mood, get lost.”
As one of the bosses dominating the four major districts, the young man who had just won a battle was not about to swallow this insult.
Especially with such a stunning woman standing right in front of him—the likes of whom he’d never seen in his life—how could he let them go just like that and still expect to survive in this business?
He sneered, suddenly lifted his shirt, drew the flintlock pistol from his waist, and aimed the dark muzzle at Lucas’s forehead, his finger resting on the trigger.
“Do you know who I am?
I run this street!
If you’re smart, leave the woman behind you, or I’ll blow your head off!”
Baccarat was so angry she was about to make a move, but Lucas reached out and pressed down on her shoulder.
“Little kid, once you pull a gun, you have to be prepared to bet your life on it.
This isn’t a toy.”
“Bang!”
Unable to contain himself, the delinquent youth pulled the trigger.
Gunsmoke erupted from the muzzle, and a scorching lead bullet whistled straight toward the center of Lucas’s forehead.
The lead bullet stopped abruptly one meter from his forehead.
It was as if it had been firmly gripped by an invisible hand, hanging motionless in mid-air.
The sinister grin on the youth’s face froze.
In his terrified gaze, the bullet reversed direction and flew back, whistling at a speed several times faster than when it was fired.
“Pfft.”
A tiny spray of blood splattered.
A small, bloody hole appeared in the center of the youth’s forehead, and his eyes instantly went dull.
The wrench in his hand clattered to the ground, and he fell backward, stiff as a board.
After leaving Kutsuk Island, the two followed the charts and compass, docking at a nearby island rich in supplies to rest.
Lucas took the opportunity to purchase a batch of medicinal herbs for making the rumble ball.
He had never been very satisfied with his current beast-form transformation.
The beast form of the Vampire Fruit was the state he had revealed when dealing with pirates in Torrance Town.
The beast form of Zoan-type fruits is a complete transformation into a beast, but the vampire is inherently an imagined humanoid mythical beast; the deeper one develops the beast form, the closer it actually gets to a perfect human shape.
His ideal transformation was like that of Stussy from the original timeline, revealing only fangs and bat wings, with everything else indistinguishable from a normal human.
The rumble ball Lucas wanted to develop was naturally not the version that would cause berserker rage like Chopper’s.
With the Lineage Factor theory left behind by Dr.
Kureha as a foundation, what he wanted to do was precisely regulate the transformation wavelength to erase unnecessary beast characteristics without affecting the power boost.
On the street, Baccarat was wearing a form-fitting black dress, thin leather gloves, and high heels, affectionately linking her arm with Lucas’s as they walked toward the hotel.
Suddenly, Lucas’s footsteps paused.
He calmly withdrew his arm from the soft touch, leaned over to Baccarat’s ear, and lowered his voice to give some quick instructions.
Baccarat bit her lip, didn’t ask any questions, nodded, and turned to walk quickly in another direction.
Meanwhile, on another street in the town, in front of a fruit stall, a man nearly three meters tall was stooping, asking the stall owner something.
His hair was messy, he was wearing loose, casual clothes, and his whole person exuded a sleepy, lazy vibe, making him stand out in the crowd.
Kuzan was able to lock onto the target so quickly not because the Marine had some incredible technological tracking means.
It was purely because when Lucas and Baccarat were inquiring about the location of the Marine base a few days ago, they hadn’t bothered to hide their facial features at all.
Someone had specifically asked where the base was, and shortly after, four bases collectively suffered a disaster; anyone with a brain could connect the two.
“Young man, may I ask, have you seen a couple?
A man with silver hair and a woman with red hair.”
The stall owner scratched his thinning hair, trying hard to recall, when the corner of his eye caught a figure at the end of the street, and he immediately pointed:
“Hey!
It’s him, it’s him, that’s him!
The one with the silver hair!”
Kuzan turned in that direction.
As soon as he turned his head, an afterimage flashed across his retina.
The next second, Lucas was already standing in front of him.
“Ara ara, young man, not bad skills.”
“It’s just, wouldn’t it be better to use your skills on the right path?
Breaking into a Marine base and hurting so many soldiers—that’s a bit tacky.”
“I just chose the most efficient method.
Other places don’t have charts as complete as the Marine archives.”
Lucas didn’t intend to deny it; if he really wanted to hide, he would have used a disguise when he was asking for information.
Before taking action, he had anticipated that the Marine would definitely send someone to investigate.
Even the stupidest person understands the logic of hitting back when struck.
He had originally thought that a Vice Admiral from the Headquarters would be the worst-case scenario, but he didn’t expect that while it was indeed a Vice Admiral, this one carried much more weight than an ordinary Vice Admiral.
However, once he thought about how the other person was Garp’s student, he felt relieved.
It made sense for Garp to show up in his hometown of East Blue from time to time, and for his student to show up in his old home of South Blue.
“I quite appreciate your honesty.”
“However, rules are rules.
Trespassing on a military base and intentionally harming Marine officers and soldiers is a serious crime.
Come with me.”
Kuzan reined in the laziness on his face, his expression becoming serious.
“What if I say I refuse?”
A cluster of hazy blood mist appeared on the surface of Lucas’s body, and he met Kuzan’s gaze without any fear.
“Then don’t blame me for being a bit rough.”
Wisps of white freezing air spilled from between Kuzan’s fingers, the surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and the water vapor in the air instantly condensed into fine ice shards, making a faint clicking sound as they hit the ground.
The fruit stall owner shivered from the cold, didn’t say a word, turned around, and ran, not even caring about his entire stall of fruit.
Pedestrians on the street also instinctively scattered and fled; soon, the entire street was empty.
Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages is a human instinct.
Unless one is a lunatic with a muddled brain, no one would stay in a place where something big is clearly about to happen and wait to die.