Chapter 196: Leashes Named ‘violence’ And ‘interest’
“Chain? Isn’t that the ability of the treasure hunter, Mad·Torrega? The one who kidnapped you in Water 7 wasn’t······” Kaku widened his eyes. He hadn’t forgotten the night when Bruno was captured alive, and afterward he and Lucci had speculated when Mad·Torrega was recruited by the Revolutionary Army.
“The one who captured me was Prince Elus.”
Bruno said with a bitter smile.
“······You mean that night······ the Black Prince personally took action? Indeed, the Black Prince was in Water 7 at the time, and he left early the next morning······”
Kaku’s face twitched, but it didn’t seem impossible.
“The fact is, that night I was captured alive by Prince Elus, and soon after, the Door-Door Fruit ability was stripped from me. Afterward······ I’ve seen the Black Prince using other different abilities one after another. To be honest, I have no idea how many Devil Fruit abilities Prince Elus actually possesses.” Bruno said in a deep voice.
Hearing Bruno’s words, the atmosphere that had barely warmed up instantly dropped back to freezing point.
Dead silence like a graveyard, oppressive.
At least three Devil Fruit abilities gathered in one body—what kind of monster is that? Just using a single Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, he had already made his way through the New World to the position of Overlord on par with the Four Emperors. If he went all out······ how perverted would that be?
“No, that’s not right. Speaking of which······ doesn’t it feel like we’ve gone off topic?”
Jabura tugged at his beard, breaking the dead silence.
“Hey, Bruno, you bastard did this on purpose, right? Deliberately hyping up the Black Prince’s prowess to scare me······ you, you haven’t really defected to the Black Prince, have you?”
“······I have no way to prove that I haven’t defected to the Black Prince.”
Bruno was helpless.
How do you even prove something like this?
Or rather······ there’s no need for that now. Even if he can’t prove it, there’s no worry about being purged. Everyone is just captives anyway.
“That’s right, there’s no way to prove something like this.”
Someone echoed Bruno.
But······ this voice seemed to come from outside?
“Click!”
A door opened in the massive granite wall.
Elus pushed open this Stone Door and leisurely walked into the hall. When he stepped inside, the Stone Door slammed shut again, restoring the wall’s appearance with no trace of any gap. The crowd present was all too familiar with this trick.
—Door-Door Fruit!
It really was taken by the Black Prince!
Seeing this scene of a door opening in the wall, the CP9 members finally cast aside the last shred of doubt in their hearts.
After confirming Bruno wasn’t joking, deep confusion arose in their hearts. What exactly is the Black Prince planning? Is he really trying to recruit them? So······ should they surrender or not? Everyone’s gazes shifted from Elus to Lucci—this was CP9’s true backbone.
“This guy Bruno has pretty tough bones. Back in Water 7, I gave him time to think it over properly, but even now he hasn’t given me an answer······ My patience isn’t infinite! But I can see that among all of CP9, the only one who can actually make decisions is you, Mister Rob Lucci.”
Elus walked straight over, lightly waved his hand, and iron-colored chains bound up Kaku and Kumadori sitting across from Lucci, throwing them aside onto the floor like trash, before sitting down in the now-empty spot.
“I told Bruno these words before······ well, now I’ll say them again! Working for the World Government or working for me—essentially, there’s no difference in my view. It’s all just selling your labor······ As for things like justice, when the World Government······ no, when the Celestial Dragons hold power, they are the descendants of the creators, the offspring of gods, the······ embodiment of justice. But the problem is, what if that power falls into other hands?”
“To put it bluntly, it’s not that the victor represents justice, but that justice belongs only to the victor······”
“You think you’ll become the new victor?”
Lucci interrupted Elus’s nonsense.
“Ah! Of course! Who would think of themselves as the loser?” Elus replied matter-of-factly.
“······Haha!”
Lucci laughed.
His smile was ferocious and brutal, the upturned corners of his mouth filled with savage intent.
“I agree with that! The victor is justice, the defeated are surely evil······ But right now, the Celestial Dragons are the victors who control the world. Why should we defect to you and bet on an uncertain future?”
“······Heh heh!”
Elus laughed too. He stroked his chin and said bluntly, “Of course, it’s because you’re my captives right now!”
“Captives have no human rights. There’s no rule in World Government law about treating captives well······ Even if there is, it doesn’t apply on my territory······ Here, my will is the rule, is reason. You have only two choices: one is to surrender, the other is······ to die!!! That’s how it is!”
As the words fell, a chilling killing intent surged forth.
Elus was also smiling, but the murderous aura in his eyes was so intense that no one dared look directly at his smile.
“I’ll give you three minutes. Tell me your choice.”
Three minutes.
Too short!
The CP9 members all looked toward Lucci, even the two unlucky ones on the ground, Kaku and Kumadori, struggling to crane their necks.
The smile faded from Lucci’s face, his taut muscles twitching. He stared deadly at Elus’s murderous smile, itching to punch it. In fact······ he did just that. His face turned into a leopard’s, yellow-black patterns emerged on his rolled-up sleeve arm, and sharp claws sprang from his hands and feet.
“Rokushiki Secret Technique·Six King Gun.”
His fists blasted toward Elus like cannonballs.
Lucci, transformed into Hybrid Form, unleashed his strongest move.
This was the ultimate secret technique, masterable only after learning all Rokushiki secrets, gathering power and releasing it as an impact with destructive power enough to shatter dozens of meters of steel plate.
His arrogant personality didn’t mean he was an idiot. Playing probes in front of the Black Prince was suicide. Either don’t act, or when you do, go all out with the momentum of a mountain crushing an egg—maybe there’s a chance to see a third option······
“Bang——！！！”
Lucci spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
His whole body was slammed viciously to the ground by Elus with the ferocity of a child spanking a board.
“Two minutes and fifty-eight seconds left.”
Elus casually sat on the sofa, counting down.
Yes,
After Lucci’s sudden assault and a casual counter······ Elus’s butt didn’t even shift on the sofa. He just waved his hand slightly, iron-colored chains wrapped around Lucci’s slender waist, and just as Lucci’s fist was about to hit his face, Lucci was flung by the chain, smashing flat onto the floor like a pancake.
This slam was truly brutal.
Everyone heard the sound of bones breaking, and the spat blood stained his collar.
In contrast, Elus, hit by Lucci’s strongest move, showed no marks on his face······ which was only natural. While spitting blood, Lucci lifted his hands that felt mostly shattered. Looking at those twisted fists······ anyone could see the finger bones were definitely broken.
His mind desperately recalled the sensation of that strike—Elus’s face······ was as hard as Seastone!
Moreover, Elus deliberately let himself get hit, right? Lucci hadn’t even seen when the chain wrapped around his waist. Logically, at that speed, dodging Six King Gun wouldn’t be hard, so it was intentional! Intentionally taking his strongest blow to make him face reality?
He spat blood, not brain pulp.
Lucci clearly realized that not being killed outright was Elus showing mercy.
In two seconds,
Lucci, gravely injured, couldn’t even stand.
“Lucci!”
“Lucci, you okay?”
“Hey, hey, Lucci? Lucci?”
Kalifa, Bruno······ even Jabura, who often bickered with Lucci and seemed to have an extremely bad relationship, panicked and crowded around. The two caterpillars bound on the ground writhed desperately, shouting Lucci’s name loudly.
Not even Elus’s ferocity could stop Kalifa and the others from approaching Lucci.
But seeing Lucci bleeding nonstop, the panicked trio had no idea what to do······ They had training in emergency treatment, but that was only for minor injuries. For a critically injured patient like Lucci, they were helpless.
“All of you, get out of the way.”
Zoan Devil Fruit Users are indeed tough.
Lucci caught his breath slightly, waving his clenched fists to shoo away the three around him. He exerted all his effort to look up at Elus, who sat leisurely on the sofa watching the show and counting down, a bloodstained ferocious smile on his face.
“Prince Elus, we······ sur, surrender!”
After saying this, as if exhausting all his strength, he collapsed fully to the ground, continuing to spit blood.
“I like smart people who know what’s good for them.”
Elus stood up, his smile mild, completely devoid of the earlier murderous aura. “Bruno, since everyone’s one of us now······ you’ve gained quite some insight following me this time. First, take them to get familiar with the place, then gradually assign your tasks.”
Bruno’s eyes widened. He really wanted to retort, “Is now the time to say that? Boss Lucci’s bleeding out······” Of course, he just thought it. Since Boss Lucci had personally said surrender, the Black Prince was their new boss. He absolutely couldn’t contradict the boss now.
“Your Highness, please allow me to fetch a doctor.”
Having been coerced to travel with Elus for a while, he at least knew how to speak to him.
“Doctor? Zoan Devil Fruit Users don’t go down that easily······ well, whatever, go find one if you want. You’re so fragile! Hey, Lucci, this won’t do! With this level of skill, you’d only be a small fry under anyone······”
Bruno bolted out the door like lightning to get the doctor, while Elus squatted by Lucci’s side, muttering heretical doctrines about how fists are truth.
This set of heresies would of course get no traction from good people with morals and conscience, but for a guy like Lucci who firmly believed the weak are sinful, it was absolutely the truth to his taste!
“I, I will get stronger!”
Lucci’s smile remained ferocious.
“Having ambition is good. It’d be even better if matched with the strength. How about it? Want me to help you out? Swap for a more powerful Devil Fruit?”
Elus showed no concern that Lucci was still spitting blood, sitting back down instead and chatting animatedly.
Kalifa and Jabura stood by, at a loss, unsure what to do.
After all,
Things were different now.
The Black Prince······ no, Prince Elus was their boss, and unlike that idiot Spandam, this new BOSS could crush them all with one finger. Dealing with him like they did Spandam definitely wouldn’t work.
“Kalifa, give us a hand first.”
CP9’s second most reliable male, long-nosed Kaku, asked for support.
Unsure of their new boss Prince Elus’s temper, he didn’t dare interrupt the chat between Prince Elus and Lucci, so he called on his comrade to try unbinding the chains.
Kalifa hurried over and began trying to unlock the chains.
“······Swap Devil Fruits?”
Lucci’s attention was drawn to Elus’s words.
He wasn’t dissatisfied with his own Devil Fruit. In his past life, this power had indeed helped him greatly, but after gradually witnessing stronger sights in this world, he understood the vast gap between Devil Fruits.
Paramecia Devil Fruits were hard to say— their myriad bizarre abilities were tough to compare.
Logia were too few, and just the elementalization ability alone was enviable enough.
But!
Zoan Devil Fruits had the most obvious distinctions between strong and weak.
Ordinary Zoan, Ancient Zoan, Mythical Zoan······ the three major Zoan categories were like ascending steps. The gap between Ordinary Zoan and Ancient Zoan was mainly in power, speed, recovery, etc.—compared to Ordinary Zoan Devil Fruits, Ancient Zoan was just an enhanced version.
Only Mythical Zoan, the unreasonable Mythical Zoan, could make Ordinary Zoan and Ancient Zoan users realize what true unfairness is.
Everyone’s a Zoan Devil Fruit User—why can only Mythical Zoan users wield special superpowers?
The so-called Mythical Zoan,
In many people’s eyes, was practically a hybrid of Zoan and Paramecia, with advantages over Ordinary and Ancient Zoan that weren’t just a little. Look at the Ability Users on the Sea today—even Logia Ability Users have useless wastes like Monet from the Donquixote Family.
While Mythical Zoan Ability Users······
Every single one is a strong person standing at the pinnacle.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Beasts Kaido, Black Prince Elus, Whitebeard Pirates second-in-command Immortal Bird Marco······ not one weakling!
“Of course, this kind of good thing isn’t free. Even for my subordinates, without enough merit, don’t dream of getting any benefits—especially a guy like you······ raised in darkness! If you want my trust, I need to see your loyalty.”
Seeing the resolve flash in Lucci’s eyes,
Elus knew that besides ‘Violence’, a leash named ‘Interest’ was now around the vicious dog’s neck.
At this moment,
Urgent footsteps came from outside the door.
Bruno had brought the doctor.
