Chapter 174: New Year Rankings And Plain Noodles
“Dragon Fist!”
Boom!!!
“Urgh!”
Number One Martial in the world… cough, no.
On the Beasts Pirates’ arena stage, Taolong’s punch faintly carrying a Dragon’s Roar heavily struck the opponent’s abdomen, knocking Deke, who was his opponent, out of the arena.
“Oh!”
“Boss Taolong wins!”
“Too strong! Captain Taolong!”
“Quack! Captain humiliates Deke, Captain is invincible in the world!”
“Taolong! Taolong! Taolong!”*n
“Yay!”
……
Hearing the loud cheers from everyone below the stage, Taolong removed the token engraved with “One” from his chest and then held it high up!
The golden single-sided wing gleamed with dazzling and flamboyant light under the sunlight, proclaiming the victory of its holder to the crowd!
“Huff~ huff~”
After slightly adjusting his breathing, Taolong walked to the edge of the arena and said to Deke, who was lying on the ground below the arena, unable to move:
“Sorry Deke, I have no intention of handing over this token yet.”
After saying that, he pinned the token back onto his chest, which was now much more solid than half a year ago.
Ever since obtaining this token and the executive position, Taolong had secretly sworn that he would never let anyone replace his Number One Person position.
He would absolutely not let this Number One token fall into someone else’s hands.
For that, after being assigned to the island he was responsible for, he immediately quit alcohol and began non-stop training day and night.
While other executives were sound asleep, he was doing push-ups;
While other executives were indulging in wine and women, he was doing push-ups;
While other executives were racking their brains begging Burufaruto to take them out to sea for raids, he was still doing push-ups.
He even set a record of doing push-ups continuously for three days and three nights……
In this world, when a person’s will is strong enough, they can break the limits of their body and reach a height that originally didn’t belong to them.
Now, after half a year of accumulation and putting in 199 times the effort of an ordinary person, he had been completely transformed and firmly secured the position of Number One Person among the Island Garrison Executives.
“You, you bastard, you’ve gotten so much stronger…”
Deke, lying on the ground, tried to endure and get up, but after seeing the other’s eyes without any confusion, he gave up and lay back down.
“Cough, cough cough!”
“Really, really impressive…”
Although he had also followed Miss La’s instructions and never slacked off on his own training while garrisoning the island, compared to the Beasts Pirates’ Number One Effort King in front of him, he was still far behind.
He was convinced of his defeat.
From then on, the champion and runner-up of the Beasts Pirates’ New Year Ranking Match were decided.
Taolong successfully defended his Number One token with unquestionable absolute strength.
And Deke had fought his way through, climbing from the bottom to the second position, and exchanged for the token without a number.
The rankings of the other executives didn’t change much.
After all, in just half a year, unless someone had great perseverance like Taolong and Deke or luckily obtained a Devil Fruit, it was really hard to make any breakthroughs.
“He’s really something… that Taolong.”
“I remember when I did the executive challenge back then, this guy was the one who stood till the end.”
“If he had this strength back then, whether I could have won in the end would have been questionable.”
Skipgate, sitting in the audience seats, sighed.
Back then, this man named Taolong had indeed left a deep impression on him; no matter how many times he knocked him flying, he would stand up again.
Although he was fighting multiple opponents at the time, the other was the first to step up and the last to withdraw, truly astonishing perseverance.
“Who says otherwise~”
“But Captain, ever since Hati Island was assigned to you, it feels like you’ve become completely lax.”
Wright looked at the other’s slightly plump face and the increasingly meticulously groomed shiny exploding hair, and reminded in a slightly serious tone:
“Although Boss Kaido gave us special treatment of not having to participate in the Ranking Match, the Beasts Pirates is ultimately a place where strength speaks.”
“Once someone thinks your martial prowess or value doesn’t match this position, even if Governor Kaido doesn’t say anything, others will definitely find ways to pull you down.”
“Captain, you’re far from retirement age~”
As Wright spoke, he patted the other’s already noticeable beer belly.
“I, I get it.”
Skipgate nodded awkwardly.
He actually knew this problem himself.
Ever since getting his revenge and the Foll Pirate Crew’s establishment was preserved, he had clearly lost his goal.
Plus, Kaido and the other core executives wouldn’t come to him unless there was something, and there hadn’t been any major battles in the past half year, so on Hati Island, he really had somewhat entered retirement mode.
Even last time when he transformed, his subordinates curiously wondered how he, a Goat Fruit ability user, looked round and fluffy like a sheep.
『Gotta train when I get back…』
Patting his little belly, Skipgate made up his mind that after going back, he would run a lap around the island every morning and evening, and absolutely not let this position of the Number One Subordinate Pirate Crew be taken away.
Thinking this in his heart, he looked up toward Kaido in the main seat and found him looking listless, probably because he drank too much last night.
Burufaruto next to him also looked like he hadn’t woken up, keep yawning.
Only Ember was seriously watching the Ranking Match below, while instructing his subordinates to reallocate the islands according to this Ranking Match.
“By the way, where are Miss La and the others?”
Looking around, not seeing the figures of the benefactor three sisters, Skipgate was a bit puzzled.
“No idea, haven’t seen them since they left the banquet early yesterday, maybe something came up?”
……
“Waking up in the morning, embracing the sun~”
Having stayed up all night yesterday and only sleeping at dawn, Aoxi was still full of energy after getting up.
“It’s already noon now.”
“Come eat quickly.”
“Oh~”
Hearing the call from Sister La, Aoxi quickly changed clothes and ran to wash up.
“By the way, where’s that Obei? How come I don’t see her?”
“She went straight back to her laboratory this morning, seems like she had some inspiration.”
Ever since having her own laboratory, Obei rarely came back, seeming to prefer staying in her own little space over home.
“Eh~ As expected, wildflowers are sweeter than home flowers~”
“The child has grown up and started disliking us~”
After badmouthing her own little sister behind her back, Aoxi sat at the dining table and looked at the lunch in the bowl in front of her… a bowl of clear plain noodles.
The noodles were white flour noodles, the soup was clear water, without even green onions or a bit of oil.
『This time, there probably won’t be any hallucinogens added, right~』
Aoxi picked up the chopsticks…
Slurp~
Hmm… the taste is very ordinary, not bad but not particularly good either.
Aoxi puzzledly picked up another chopstickful.
Slurp~
Hmm…
The taste was still very ordinary.
There was no sound of some old grandpa suddenly banging gongs, drums, and blowing suona nearby, nor any weird special effects.
『Could the hallucinogenic effect have a once-per-turn self-limit?』
“Sister La, did you make this?”
Aoxi asked puzzledly, still unable to believe such ordinary cooking was Miss La’s work.
“Yes.”
“The taste feels so ordinary~”
“Because this is just a bowl of ‘ordinary’ ramen.”
“……”
Answered, but felt like no answer was given.
But anyway, after eating all that lavish seafood and heavy oily spicy food in the illusion last night, this tasteless plain noodle surprisingly felt pretty good now.
Slurp~
