With Nami’s skills, she shouldn’t have been discovered, but women are sensitive creatures; even the prostitute who had been plowed into unconsciousness suddenly woke up.
Then, Nami, who had just managed to pick the lock, found herself staring wide-eyed at the prostitute.
Just as Nami tried to silence her, “Butcher” Bakal woke up as well.
Butcher Bakal was a man who valued treasure above his own life; otherwise, he wouldn’t have ordered the whores to come onto his ship instead of going ashore.
He had been constantly guarding against the prostitutes stealing his wealth while he slept, so he was only resting lightly.
Upon discovering Nami sneaking into the room dressed as a thief, the enraged Bakal directly grabbed the naked prostitute lying on top of him and hurled her at Nami like a living weapon.
Although Nami dodged the flying prostitute—who crashed straight through the wooden wall and flew outside—she couldn’t evade Bakal’s follow-up attack.
The furious Bakal sprang from the bed like a vicious tiger, throwing a devastating punch at Nami, who barely managed to raise her collapsible staff to block.
Bakal was a pirate with a bounty of 15,000,000 Berries; his base physical strength was at least ten times that of a normal person.
How could Nami’s staff possibly withstand his rage-fueled punch?
His fist easily snapped the staff in two, but the weapon bought Nami a crucial split-second.
The punch that was originally aimed squarely at her chest ended up striking her right shoulder instead.
If Bakal’s punch had actually landed on her chest, her internal organs would have ruptured, killing her instantly.
Even though it only hit her shoulder, Nami felt as if her shoulder blade had shattered, and her body was sent flying backward out of control.
Compared to Butcher Bakal, Nami might be an ordinary person, but her physical fitness was still vastly superior to a normal civilian.
Before hitting the deck, she managed to adjust her body mid-air to land on her feet first.
The prostitute lying near Nami was much less fortunate.
Not only was she thrown hard enough to smash through a solid wooden wall, but she also crashed heavily onto the deck.
Whether she lived or died now was entirely up to God.
Clutching the Devil Fruit in his hand, Sinan rushed frantically to the front deck.
Seeing Nami collapsed on the ground, he roared in shock, “Nami!
Are you okay?!” The Butcher Pirates’ ship was actually quite large, measuring tens of meters long, entirely unlike a small caravel like the Going Merry.
Sprinting from the storage room at the rear of the ship all the way to the front deck took Sinan a good ten seconds or so.
Seeing Nami injured on the ground, the anxious Sinan didn’t even have the mind to figure out what exactly had happened and rushed straight toward her.
Seeing that this idiot Sinan hadn’t run away after hearing the commotion and was instead rushing to her side, Nami felt a pang of relief that she hadn’t saved him for nothing, but her happiness was immediately overtaken by panic.
“Sinan, run away, quickly!
Leave me behind, I’ll be fine!” Obviously, a certain someone completely ignored her.
Just as Sinan reached Nami’s side, the entire ship shuddered violently.
Butcher Bakal, holding a massive broadsword, standing over two meters tall with bulging muscles like a giant bear, leaped onto the deck.
“So you had an accomplice!
But do you really think you vermin have what it takes to covet my treasure?
Do you think my title is just for show?!” Wielding a giant sword, sporting a massive physique, and roaring with an incredibly domineering tone—yet, considering Bakal only had a bedsheet wrapping his lower half, the scene looked undeniably absurd.
“Mmm, what’s going on…?” The two dead-drunk pirates on night watch were finally woken up by Bakal’s roaring, but they were still heavily intoxicated and completely groggy.
“Useless trash!” Outraged that his treasure was almost stolen, the furious Butcher Bakal didn’t attack Sinan and Nami first.
Instead, he strode over to the two half-asleep pirates and swung his massive blade twice.
Slash!
Slash!
Blood sprayed wildly into the air.
The two groggy pirates would never have the chance to wake up again, as their severed heads tumbled to the deck amidst a fountain of blood.
Even though the firelight at the bow flickered like it could go out at any moment, Sinan felt his vision was horrifically clear.
Two living, breathing humans had just been slaughtered right in front of him, their severed heads rolling on the ground with their eyes wide open in unblinking terror.
This bloody scene was far too mentally stimulating for Sinan.
Even formally trained special forces soldiers would throw up for hours and lose their appetite for days upon witnessing their first real murder, let alone an ordinary guy like Sinan.
Thud!
Sinan considered himself relatively brave, but seeing two people violently decapitated before his very eyes triggered such a massive surge of adrenaline that he became overly hyper, completely losing control of his body.
When a person experiences an extreme shock, there are generally two reactions: one is their legs turning to jelly from sheer terror, and the other is extreme hyperarousal where the body stops responding to commands.
Sinan fell into the second category.
The overwhelming sense of crisis made him want to fight back desperately against the vicious pirate, but his body just wouldn’t obey his brain.
His legs completely gave out, and he stumbled to the ground.
“Sinan, are you okay?!” Seeing Sinan suddenly collapse, a terrified Nami endured the sharp pain in her shoulder and scrambled over to him.
Subjected to all sorts of extreme psychological and physiological reactions, Sinan desperately wanted to answer Nami, but he was so wired that his face flushed bright red, and his entire body trembled violently.
Sinan opened his mouth, trying with all his might to produce a sound, but he couldn’t form a single word; he just lay there with his mouth agape.
Seeing Sinan in this hyper-aroused, paralyzed state left Nami completely at a loss.
She instantly regretted bringing him along, never anticipating he would have such a severe physiological reaction.
“Hahahahaha!
I thought the little rat daring to steal my treasure would actually be something special!
Turns out he’s just a greenhorn who’s never even seen blood before!
What a useless piece of trash, hahahahaha!” Seeing Sinan’s pathetic state and assuming the boy was scared out of his wits genuinely amused Bakal, a butcher whose hands were stained with the blood of countless innocents.
After laughing for a bit, Bakal abruptly fell silent, his vicious gaze locking onto the two of them.
“For a piece of garbage like you to dare covet my treasure is a total insult!
Just die already!” With that, Bakal began advancing toward them, dragging his blood-dripping broadsword.
Seeing this, Nami grabbed Sinan, trying to pull him up to run.
But Sinan was far too physically overwhelmed to control his own body, having essentially lost all mobility.
With Nami’s arm heavily injured, there was no way they could escape.
‘Damn it!
Fuck!
Move, damn you, move!’ Watching Bakal march toward him step by step, Sinan was screaming furiously inside his head, but his body stubbornly refused to obey.
It was a severe case of adrenaline overdose.
His body was so overly excited that every single muscle twitched and spasmed violently, but no matter how hard he willed himself to move, he remained completely paralyzed.
“Sinan, please move!
Or we’re both going to die!” As Bakal closed the distance, Nami desperately pushed and pulled at Sinan while shouting, but Sinan couldn’t react at all.
Hahahaha!
Approaching them slowly, Bakal laughed sadistically at the sight of one paralyzed with terror and the other futilely struggling to drag him away.
At that very moment, Sinan was roaring internally.
Even if he had to die, he wanted to tear a chunk of flesh off this bastard!
Watching the blood-soaked blade inch closer, Sinan’s brain had already fired thousands of movement commands, but his body remained unresponsive.
It was as if too many conflicting signals had jammed his nervous system, leaving his body completely frozen.
“You idiot!
This is all your fault!
Now I’m going to die too!” Seeing Sinan still unresponsive, an infuriated Nami swung her iron fist and hammered it straight onto Sinan’s head.
Thwack!
A massive bump instantly swelled up on Sinan’s head, but the heavy blow acted like a literal reset switch.
Sinan’s body finally snapped out of its paralysis.
He instantly shoved the Devil Fruit in his hand right into his mouth and bit down hard.
The surging adrenaline made him completely ignore the fruit’s foul taste.
Gulp!
After chewing just a few times, Sinan swallowed it down.