Starting as a Roger Pirates Apprentice

Chapter 576: Chapter 576: Capture Dotor Dante Plan

"What did you do, you bastard?!!!"

Luffy’s pupils trembled violently. Driven to the extreme of fury, he roared out loud!

"What did I do?"

Dotor Dante glanced over coldly. If the other party hadn’t promised to help him find sweets, he would have already slapped him with a hundredfold-force strike.

He’d slap the rubber right into a stretched-out rubber band.

"I merely killed a coward."

"Of course I know this place. This is Wano Country, isn’t it..."

In Dante’s original world line, his birth date was only a little earlier than Luffy and the others, roughly around the same time as Ace and the rest.

And Azure Orin had told him many stories, including the story of the "good man" Oden.

After hearing that story, the young Yamato believed that Oden was a true hero, a remarkable figure.

But Dante had a completely different view of this so-called "good man."

"You’re telling me that a man, who had two Yonko-level pirate crews as friends to assist him, had a group of utterly loyal samurai subordinates internally, had massive public support in his country, and whose own strength was among the very top of the seas, still lost to an outsider pirate who wasn’t even stronger than him, plus a local servant of Wano?"

At that time, Dante had already inherited excellent genes and become extremely intelligent. No matter how he thought about it, he simply couldn’t figure out how that could possibly be a loss.

Was this guy a poet?

Ever since he was young, Dante had never had a good impression of the Kozuki name.

And unlike his father, who had feelings tied to the Roger Pirates and thus couldn’t say or do too much, Dante had no such scruples.

As the world’s strongest, he had always done whatever he wanted.

Crushing Momonosuke to death was nothing more than relieving the irritability caused by low sugar.

What problem was there?

But Luffy didn’t think that way.

He had long regarded Momonosuke as his friend.

Seeing him casually crushed to death by Dante made Luffy so furious that he nearly lost all reason.

"You bastard!!!"

The steam of Second Gear instantly appeared on his body. With a movement method similar to Soru, he almost instantly arrived in front of Dante.

Dante looked at him without the slightest panic.

"Jet Pistol!!!"

The rubber fist wrapped in Ryuo slammed into Dante’s body, yet it couldn’t even make him step back a single pace.

Although Ryuo could cause internal destruction, when facing a monster whose Haki surpassed it by several levels and whose physical defense was astonishing, it simply couldn’t inflict any meaningful damage.

"If that’s all you’ve got, then you might have to watch all your companions die~"

Dante casually slammed Luffy into the ground and headed toward Law.

Luffy pulled his head out of the ground and glared with bloodshot eyes at Law, the ally he had known for so long.

Law was also shocked. In the instant before Dante’s ghostlike-speed punch landed, he barely managed to teleport away through the ROOM space.

"ROOM · Shambles!!!"

Dante’s punch missed, carving another massive trench dozens of meters long into the ground.

He also felt a bit curious.

"I see... so you’re playing mechanics?"

In the pirate world, the strong were generally divided into two types.

Stat monsters.

These were usually masters of physical combat, masters of Haki, natural monsters, or Zoan Devil Fruit users—those who pushed straightforward power to its absolute limit.

For example, the monsters of the old era who had mastered Conqueror’s Haki Infusion, that decisive power.

Then there were the mechanic monsters, who played more with rules.

Among them, most were Paramecia Devil Fruit users, possessing all kinds of bizarre abilities—such as Orin’s Fruit, the Time-Time Fruit, the Hobby-Hobby Fruit, the Barrier-Barrier Fruit, and the Op-Op Fruit...

In certain aspects of rules, the awakened states of these fruits could even break the theory that "Haki counters Devil Fruits" to some degree, cutting down monsters.

It was hard to say which was stronger.

After all, there were those who, by mastering overwhelmingly powerful Haki, found ways to break the mechanics of rule-based fighters.

For example, sufficiently powerful Haki could defend against Devil Fruit powers.

But there were also mechanic monsters who used their own rules to shatter the legend that Haki ruled above all.

For example, Law and Kid defeating Linlin.

And those who were universally acknowledged to stand at the very top of the world were usually a combination of both.

Trying to reach the end of the world relying solely on Haki and physical combat alone... could only be described as incredibly, incredibly difficult.

Orin understood this principle, which was why he chose to eat a Devil Fruit that touched upon rules to a certain degree, seeking to step into the ranks of the strongest.

And Dante had done the same.

The only difference was that the mechanism he chose was amplifying stats by a hundredfold or a thousandfold.

...

Just as conflicts erupted across Onigashima, some people who had received intelligence from CP0 were already unable to sit still.

Holy Land Mary Geoise.

The Room of Authority.

Bang—!!!

The table was slammed with a thunderous sound. A photograph was placed in the center, and the atmosphere in the room became extremely oppressive.

In the photograph was a pink-haired young man sitting atop Kaido and Linlin.

"What exactly is going on with the intelligence department?!!!"

"Didn’t they say that twenty years ago, Orin refused Charlotte Linlin’s request to bear a child?!!!"

"So what exactly is this monster?!!!"

Even Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, who usually had exceptional composure, had a face ashen with anger.

Saint Topman Warcury’s expression was gloomy.

"Judging from the display of power, this monster can withstand the combined attack of Kaido and Linlin head-on. He’s even more terrifying than Orin back then. You must remember—Orin was seriously injured at the time!!!"

Saint Jaygarcia Saturn lowered his brows heavily. He knew better than anyone how terrifying the physiques of those two monsters were.

Yet the monster born from their combination simultaneously possessed the advantages and talents of both sides.

And he had even eaten the Devil Fruit strictly controlled by the World Government—

The More-More Fruit!!!

How could they not be worried?

"The key issue is that even that fruit has been dragged into this."

Saint Marcus Mars was startled and looked toward him.

"You mean?"

"The Nika Fruit... in other words, the Gum-Gum Fruit."

"But it has never awakened."

"But that doesn’t mean it can’t awaken. Is there anything in this world that Orin can’t accomplish?"

Saturn suspected that behind all of this, Orin’s shadow was lurking.

After creating something like Sadgeo—"a perfect imitation"—he had turned his attention to the Gum-Gum Fruit user. Even a fool could see something was wrong.

"Right now, we can only send CP0. Hopefully they can achieve the outcome most beneficial to the World Government and also investigate where Dante came from, and whether Straw Hat Luffy has awakened. Of course, if they can bring him back, that would be best..."

"But what about Orin?"

"There will always be an opportunity. If we can’t obtain them, then we’ll eliminate both of them while they’re mutually injured!!!"

"We absolutely cannot allow those two youngsters to grow!!!"

"This world will never allow another Orin to appear!!!"

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