“You’re the ones, then!
The treasure thieves!”
Rocks looked down from above at the Twin Bear Brothers, who were huddled together and trembling in fear.
Oh, mama!
The two idiots were screaming internally.
One Ren was already terrifying enough.
Now there was another, even more frightening monster.
In their eyes, Rocks, who was currently radiating Haki, was practically a devil from hell.
Just before Rocks could make a move, Ren flashed in front of him and blocked his path.
“Don’t rush to kill them, Captain.
Keeping them around will still be useful…”
In the end, after Ren’s persuasion, Rocks reined in his aura and agreed to let the Twin Bear Brothers stay aboard as odd-job workers.
As the captain of a ship, Rocks was already constantly busy during the day, and having to stand night watch at night as well was genuinely too much.
With these two brothers around, at least the captain and vice-captain wouldn’t have to take turns standing night watch anymore.
Once everything was ready, Ren and the others set sail through the night, leaving Little Western Sky behind.
Ren had never intended to remain the god of Little Western Sky forever.
Now that they had obtained the treasure, it was naturally time to leave.
As for what would happen to the island in the future, it had little to do with him.
Everything was in their own hands.
…
…
The following morning.
Ren stood at the bow of the ship, a gold coin dancing nimbly between his fingers.
At a certain moment, Ren stared firmly ahead.
He raised his hand and suddenly flicked the coin forward.
At the same time, a powerful electric current shot from Ren’s hand and struck the coin.
Whoosh!
The gold coin was blasted dozens, even hundreds of meters away.
With a plop, it fell into the White-White Sea with a faint splash.
Another failure!
Ren couldn’t help frowning.
This was already his ninety-ninth failure.
Seriously, who could obtain the Goro Goro no Mi and resist practicing some ridiculously cool ultimate move?
Ren certainly couldn’t.
He absolutely had to learn one!
And the first ridiculously cool move he wanted to master was the railgun!
The coin dancing at your fingertips is the unchanging faith of my life!
Ren had the movements required to perform a Railgun memorized by heart.
As for the underlying principle, he had attended university…
No, university students might not necessarily know it.
But as someone who had studied science in high school, Ren roughly understood it.
The basic principle of an electromagnetic railgun was simple: two long metal rails carrying electric current generated an extremely powerful magnetic field.
At the same time, part of the current flowing through the rails passed through the metal projectile, accelerating it and ultimately giving it an extremely high initial velocity when it was launched.
Although Misaka’s Railgun didn’t use physical metal rails, she could use extremely high voltage to ionize the air and form plasma, allowing it to serve the function of rails and launch an object the size of a coin.
Understanding the principle was one thing.
Actually putting it into practice was another.
After an entire morning, Ren had already fired more than a hundred gold coins of various sizes.
Not a single one had succeeded.
“A minute onstage takes ten years of practice offstage.”
“Keep working hard.
I’ll master it eventually.”
Ren encouraged himself silently and grabbed another handful of coins.
“My ancestor…
My dear ancestor…”
Just then, Black Bear Big Bear let out a howl and hugged Ren’s right leg.
“My honey cake…
My honey cake…”
Brown Bear Little Bear followed suit and hugged Ren’s left leg.
“What are you two doing?
Don’t interrupt my training!”
Ren glanced sideways at the two idiots.
“Ancestor, train all you want, but could you please stop wasting the treasure?”
“How many gold coins have already gone overboard this morning?
Throwing gold coins into the water just to hear them make a splash…
My poor heart can’t take it!”
Black Bear Big Bear’s face was filled with heartache.
“One gold coin equals a hundred honey cakes.”
“So many honey cakes are flying away~”
Brown Bear Little Bear waved his paws, as though trying to catch something.
“You bunch of idiots, what are you making such a racket about this early in the morning?”
Rocks, who had finally gotten a good night’s sleep, emerged from the cabin with a heavy case of morning grumpiness.
Before Ren and the two bears could say anything, Rocks’ gaze landed on the gold scattered across the deck.
He immediately noticed something was wrong.
Several golden ornaments that he had taken a liking to the night before and planned to move into his room today were missing.
Who had taken them?
Whoosh~
Ren shifted his gaze away and began whistling, looking rather guilty.
In the end, the two idiots couldn’t hold out and sold Ren out.
The truth was revealed.
Ren had used lightning to melt down the golden ornaments, forged them into coins, and then used them to practice skipping stones on the sea.
His extravagant waste of wealth was finally exposed.
Upon learning the truth, Rocks’ eyes widened.
“You…
You wasteful bastard!
Is gold something you can just squander like this?!”
Rocks began rolling up his sleeves.
“Hey, hey, hey!
Let’s talk this out!
Use words, not fists!”
Ren immediately made himself scarce, transforming into lightning and slipping onto the mast.
“Besides, I’m doing this for training!
I’m practicing an ultimate move!”
“As vice-captain, I need to have a move or two that I can actually bring out when the time comes, so I can keep the people beneath me in line!”
“Good, good, good.
Training, is it?”
Rocks grinned.
“Come, come.
I’ll personally train with you!”
“Cough, cough.
I don’t think that’s really necessary…”
Ren staggered.
“I think it’s very necessary.”
Rocks looked seriously at Ren.
“Kid, don’t think that just because you’ve obtained a decent Devil Fruit ability, you can run wild on the sea.”
“If you keep thinking like that, you’ll suffer badly sooner or later.”
“Logia-types aren’t invincible.
Every Logia-type user who becomes arrogant because of their powers ends up badly.”
Ren naturally understood this principle.
Ever since Haki had been established as a power system, Logia-types had essentially been secretly nerfed.
However, if developed properly, Ren felt there weren’t many people who could keep up with the mobility of lightning.
“No matter how powerful a Devil Fruit is, it’s ultimately just an external aid.”
“If you want to dominate the sea, the most important thing is still your own strength.”
Rocks clenched his fist, black Armament Haki wrapping around it.
“Your own strength is inseparable from Haki!”
“Powerful Haki can counter and nullify Devil Fruit abilities!”
“Powerful Haki can even allow a Devil Fruit user to retain their combat power after being shackled with Seastone cuffs!”
“Only Haki is everything!”
In the past, Rocks wouldn’t have bothered lecturing anyone about these things.
The fact that he was telling Ren all this now meant that he had completely acknowledged him.
He acknowledged Ren’s potential.
He acknowledged that Ren had the potential to become one of his most capable right-hand men.
“All right, then!”
As the captain himself had gone this far, refusing would make Ren seem rather ungrateful.
Besides, there was one thing Rocks hadn’t gotten wrong.
If he wanted to survive in this sea, Haki really was indispensable.
Since he had to train it eventually, he might as well start now.
Having a Haki master like Rocks personally teach him was also a rare opportunity.
“Ah…
hsss…
It hurts, it hurts…”
For the next three months, cries of agony constantly rang out aboard the pirate ship.
Some belonged to Ren.
Others belonged to the two idiots.
Teaching one was teaching.
Teaching three was teaching.
Under Rocks’ personal guidance and instruction, Ren’s two types of Haki made significant progress and successfully reached the entry level.
Especially his Observation Haki.
Once combined with the electromagnetic waves of the Goro Goro no Mi, its detection range instantly expanded by more than a hundredfold.
One day, Ren sat atop the mast.
As usual, he combined Observation Haki with the Goro Goro no Mi, practicing large-scale radar detection.
At a certain moment, feedback from the Observation Haki radar waves returned from the front.
An island pierced through by a gigantic beanstalk appeared within Ren’s range of perception.
The Sky Island’s City of Gold.
Found it!!!