Chapter 453: A Hero with a Heart as Big as the Ocean
Chapter 453: A Hero with a Heart as Big as the Ocean
Inside the cabin, Lu Li was checking the current situation of Blackbeard and his crew through the hunting mark.
As expected, because of the teleportation fruit, Blackbeard and others did not need to sail on the sea to travel through this sea area, but returned directly to Marinford.
Through the hunting mark, Lu Li seemed to be able to silently lean over Blackbeard and observe the situation over there through his perception.
After returning to Marinford, Blackbeard and his companions hid in the alleys of the town and secretly met up with the group.
Sitting in the room was a naval officer, who, judging by his shoulder straps, should be a high-ranking lieutenant admiral, but he looked very young.
He had blond hair as bright as the sun, and even the neat navy uniform could not hide his bookish air. He wore a monocle on his face, and when he sat there, there was a thick book across his knees.
As if he was unaware of Blackbeard's arrival, he continued to flip through the pages slowly, and the sound of paper rubbing against each other could be clearly heard in the silent room.
boom--
Blackbeard couldn't stand the silence and the other party's calmness, so he smashed a stool next to him with a punch, "Rafar, this is different from what we agreed before!"
The man called Rafar closed the book and slowly raised his head. Due to the huge height difference, he could only look up at Blackbeard, but his line of sight seemed to be looking down at the big pirate opposite him.
"You messed up, didn't you? If you want to get angry, first figure out who you're dealing with."
Rafael said, "Besides, my subordinates were also lost in Impel Down. Shouldn't I be the one to ask you questions?"
Blackbeard's momentum stagnated. He had no idea about the man's background. He only knew that he had been promoted to the position of vice admiral in just a few months thanks to his military achievements.
Moreover, this man named Rafar has a group of powerful and loyal subordinates. Any one of them, if taken out individually, would be a person who could stir up bloody storm in the New World.
To be honest, he felt that if Rafar did not join the navy and chose to go to the New World as a pirate, he would definitely be a Four Emperors-level figure and the kind with extremely strong team abilities.
After all, he had seen more than five of Rafar's subordinates with deputy emperor-level strength.
Therefore, he had always been quite curious about the purpose of this man with a profound background, who was lurking in the navy and working as a lieutenant admiral in a low-key manner.
It was just that Rafar had implicitly told him that their interests were consistent at this stage, and had also given him substantial benefits, which made him choose to cooperate with Rafar.
This time too, Rafar lent him a master, saying that it would be easier for him to break through the guards of Impel Down.
In fact, Richard did help them stop Magellan, but unfortunately they encountered... a natural disaster on the sixth floor of Impel Down.
"Let's not talk about this for now. I met an incredible person in Impel Down. He may have an impact on the war. We need to be on guard."
Blackbeard changed the subject. He was a typical pirate and would not dwell on the death of his companions.
He should look forward. Continuing to bargain for the dead will only make him miss the opportunity to make progress.
Rafar also lost a capable general, so in this respect they were even.
"Tell me."
Rafar had received Richard's report through the group chat, but Richard only sent a sentence in the group chat, "Hahaha, Captain, he is so weak."
Then there was no sound.
Richard is dead, and he doesn't want to hold Richard responsible now. After all, they are old friends since they were low-level explorers.
But Rafar didn't think Richard was the kind of rookie explorer who would easily misjudge the enemy's strength and couldn't even transmit any information when he was killed in seconds, so he was very interested in the explorer who came to the end space.
"Oh, I see. Things are still under control."
After listening to Blackbeard's narration, Rafar understood the situation. He didn't know about natural disasters, but after Blackbeard's explanation, he realized that it was the reputation Lu Li had created when he came to this world last time.
The Beasts Pirates are a variable, but that is a trouble from Blackbeard's perspective. For their Rune Adventure Group, the Beasts Pirates are not a concern.
Because they are a large adventure group composed of late-level fifth-order and top-level fifth-order explorers. If they take it seriously, the combat power of their adventure group alone is enough to flatten the new world.
Pirates like to fight alone, but their Rune Adventure Group adopts a military-like structure when carrying out missions. The collective chanting of super-large forbidden spells is enough to destroy a country.
Moreover, even if we only talk about individual combat power, Rafar is no less than any of the Four Emperors, including the upcoming Whitebeard.
The main reason why they haven't taken over this world yet is because it is very troublesome to get the core of the world in the One Piece world.
It is not difficult to defeat One Piece. After all, the people in this world have limited IQ. If Rafar, who has a God's perspective and a powerful army, wants to do it, he can defeat them by dividing and conquering them.
The problem is that they discovered that the core of this world is scattered, and the extraction of each fragment requires certain conditions.
For example, Luffy, as the protagonist, has large fragments of the World Core on his body, but if you want to extract them, you must be in Luffy's Nika form.
Just by killing Luffy, they can only get some fragments, but not all the world fragments on Luffy, because some of the fragments seem to be bound to the Nika Fruit, and the Nika Fruit seems to have self-awareness and will avoid its target.
If they killed Luffy at random, they wouldn't know when the Nika Fruit would appear on the sea again, and they didn't have that long to stay.
Similarly, the conditions for extracting other fragments are also quite harsh. It doesn’t mean that you can get them directly just because you have combat power.
Therefore, they endured it and manipulated the world. On the one hand, they had to find a way to make Luffy grow quickly and increase the progress of extracting other fragments. On the other hand, they also had to make plans to ensure a bottom line.
A war like the one at the top is a strategy that guarantees a bottom line. If nothing else, participating in the war here can at least allow them to harvest a large number of devil fruits and inheritance crystals. If they fail to collect all the world cores within the time of their stay, they can at least make a fortune and ensure the team's profits.
And now Lu Li's arrival has added an anomaly, an explorer of the End Space who can kill Richard in seconds... Rafar likes to think of the worst, so he preset Lu Li's strength to the Four Emperors level.
The bad thing is that Lu Li is now with Luffy. If Lu Li decides to kill Luffy based on the description of Luffy he saw with his reconnaissance skills, then they will not be able to conquer this world.
Rafael knows the mechanism of how the world works very well. Explorers are inherently independent of the causal line of the mission world, so it is actually not difficult for explorers to kill Luffy.
But it would be extremely difficult for a native like Blackbeard to kill Luffy. It is possible that he might even unleash the Nika Fruit.
So Rafar didn't emphasize to Blackbeard not to touch Luffy. Instead, he was thinking about whether Blackbeard could stimulate some of Luffy's potential.
A bit passive...
He said that the situation was under control, but in fact he couldn't control Lu Li's behavior. If Lu Li killed Luffy now, all their arrangements would be in vain.
"How about Whitebeard?"
Blackbeard asked. "It depends on the situation. I will kill him myself and give you the body, but you must do what you promised me."
Rafar said, "You should be aware of my abilities. If you violate the agreement you made with me, you will not feel comfortable."
There was a trace of fear in Blackbeard's eyes, he didn't know what kind of "fruit" the other party had, but if he made a promise with Rafar, he would die miserably if he couldn't fulfill the promise, it seemed like some kind of regular ability.
"I see. Don't worry. Do I look like someone who doesn't keep his promises?"
The black-bearded thief laughed, and the two men discussed the details of the operation and then went their separate ways.
In the distance, Lu Li in the cabin was watching the conversation between the two, thoughtfully.
The strength of the Arcane Space adventure group is stronger than he thought. Judging from Rafar's attitude, there may be some strategies about this world that he doesn't know.
However, Lu Li is not good at thinking about complicated things. He won't think about things that he can't figure out. He just kills anyone who blocks his way.
He walked out of the cabin and breathed in the fresh air from the sea breeze. "How long will it take?"
Jinbei steered the rudder and looked ahead with a serious expression, "That's Marinford. At our current speed, we'll arrive in about 10 minutes."
…………
In Marinford, the island of the Navy Headquarters was filled with an atmosphere of tension and fear.
The sky was clear and it was clearly a sunny day, but the heavy atmosphere made people feel breathless.
In the distance, the cries of seagulls can be heard from time to time, and their figures seem particularly lonely in the vast sky.
The sea, which used to be turbulent, was surprisingly calm, so calm that it could be called dead silence.
In the square of Marinford, one hundred thousand naval soldiers stood with solemn expressions. In front of them stood a series of the most powerful forces of the Navy Headquarters and the Seven Warlords of the Sea who came there on orders.
There are masters from various races, including giants and mermen, standing in the front row of different heights, making the army formation look more intimidating.
At this time, a navy officer in charge of reconnaissance looked through a telescope and saw a few sails appearing in the fog on the distant sea.
"coming!"
He shouted, alerting others, but the masters had already sensed the powerful energy across the sea, and there was no need for the scout to report.
A total of forty-three pirate ships were sailing on the sea. Looking through the telescope, the young officers' palms were sweating.
Because those ships were full of famous pirates in the New World, and those captains were all big pirates with bounties of hundreds of millions, not the strong ones they would normally face.
As the ship got closer, the air on the island seemed to become more depressing, as if even the sea water had stopped flowing because of the tense atmosphere at the moment.
"Where's Whitebeard?"
A major general snatched a telescope from his subordinate and checked it himself, but he looked left and right and could not see Whitebeard.
Just as everyone was confused, a bulge appeared on the sea level in front of the crescent-shaped port of Marinford.
A huge pirate ship broke out of the water, and it turned out to be Whitebeard's Moby Dick.
Following the Moby Dick are three equally huge pirate ships, which are the real main force of the Whitebeard Pirates.
On the deck of the Moby Dick, figures stood one after another, looking at Ace who was standing on the execution platform deep in Marinford.
Whitebeard walked up the stairs, step by step, from the bottom to the high deck, and then to the bow.
The man is tall, holding a Blue Dragon Sword-like weapon (Kuromogeki), and wearing a white cloak. Although he is old, his heroic spirit remains the same as before.
He had a confident smile on his face, giving his family behind him a strong sense of security.
At this moment, Whitebeard stood at the bow, in stark contrast to the giant vice admirals standing in the front row with Marinford.
Even though he was the smaller one, his aura was unparalleled and overwhelmed everyone in front of him!
Whitebeard didn't care about these giants' lieutenant generals. He just looked through the obstacles and looked at Ace on the execution platform. "Is my dear son okay?"
The soldiers of Marinford felt the pressure from Whitebeard and tightened their weapons, but no one dared to shoot and destroy the solemn atmosphere of the confrontation.
On the execution platform, Ace looked at Whitebeard and his brothers with tears streaming down his face, "Dad... I was the one who ignored the advice and ran away, why didn't you abandon me!!! It was my own willfulness that caused this!"
Facing Ace's remorse, Whitebeard simply spoke expressionlessly, as if stating a fact, "I told you to go... son."
"Stop lying, what nonsense! You clearly stopped me, and I..."
Ace yelled, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably, but before he could finish his words, he was firmly interrupted by Whitebeard.
"I asked you to go."
Whitebeard emphasized again, and tilted his head slightly to look at his eldest son, "Right, Marco?"
Marco also said calmly as if stating a fact: "Yes... I have made you suffer a lot, Ace. Everyone in this sea knows what will happen if you attack our family."
At this moment, Ace was so moved that he burst into tears.
Even the navy were moved by the sincere friendship of Whitebeard and his men. In the distance, Lu Li, standing on the deck, could also see this scene because of the deep voices of Whitebeard and his men.
A smile appeared on his face. "It is just as Mr. Kaido said. He is a peerless hero of his generation."
Although Whitebeard is not Ace's biological father, he is truly the 'dream father' of most people.
The hero is unparalleled and his heart is as broad as the sea!
Lu Li held the handle of the Demon Prisoner with one hand and walked towards the bow. "It seems that we are not too late. We can just catch up with the opening."
With a smile on his face, he turned back to look at Jinbei, "Jinbei, please hold the rudder, I need to speed up."
As soon as the words fell, thunder roared behind the boat, and the wooden boat was ejected like a fly, leaping towards Marinford.
(End of this chapter)