"Damn it! How is this brat this strong?!"
At this moment, the exact same thought appeared in both Bullet's and Redfield's minds.
And the overwhelming combat power Luffy and Red displayed instantly left every pirate present completely dumbfounded.
Including Festa in the operations room, as well as the underworld bosses watching everything through the remote live broadcast.
"So this is the power of an Emperor?! He shattered an entire island with a single blow?!"
Although Red's methods were just as astonishing, in terms of sheer visual impact, he was nowhere near Nika-form-plus-Pokémonized Luffy.
"Hey, hey… the legendary Demon Heir isn't going to lose just like that, is he?!"
"If I remember right, he's a Devil Fruit user, isn't he? He got blasted straight into the sea… don't tell me he sank and died just like that?!"
"A legendary powerhouse shouldn't go down that easily, right?!"
"..."
"..."
The once-noisy arena suddenly fell completely silent.
Everyone stared at giant Luffy in disbelief, unable to imagine that a human being could really display this kind of power.
But just as they were frozen in shock, the seawater suddenly began to churn again, bubbling wildly like it was boiling.
In the next instant, a gigantic submarine wrapped in a bubble coating abruptly rose up from the depths of the sea, sending the already shattered island fragments surging outward in every direction.
"Th-that… what is that?!"
Hajrudin and the others were instantly stunned speechless by the colossal thing that had suddenly appeared.
But right after that, they immediately noticed Bullet, who had risen out of the sea together with that steel monster.
"Brat! You're not the only one with a Devil Fruit ability!!!"
"This is my vessel—Catapult! It's loaded with all kinds of weapons and metal…"
"So let me show you… the resolve with which I pursue the title of the world's strongest!!!"
"Armor… combine!!!!"
"Armor?!"
"Combine?!"
Hearing that familiar slogan, Usopp and Franky—who had originally been standing at the edge of the battlefield, keeping watch against the other pirate crews—seemed to receive some kind of signal at the same time and instantly turned their eyes over.
Then they saw a strange, mysterious energy suddenly surge out from Bullet's body.
The moment that energy came into contact with the submarine beneath his feet, it was as if it had encountered a catalyst, and it began multiplying at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the energy wrapped around the entire submarine and started reshaping it.
At this moment, the traditional pre-battle custom of Devil Fruit users appeared once again.
With an arrogant look on his face, Bullet actually began explaining his fruit ability to the pirates below.
"I am the user of the Clank-Clank Fruit—a Clank Human!"
"I can fuse and reshape any inorganic matter, turning it into whatever I want!!!"
Clank, clatter, clatter…
During the time Bullet spent explaining, the submarine beneath his feet suddenly raised its head like a beast awakening and directly enveloped Bullet's body.
In an instant, a steel robot twice as large as even Hajrudin appeared in front of Luffy.
"Damn~"
Seeing Bullet transform a submarine into a giant steel robot out of nowhere, several of the male members of the Straw Hat crew immediately cried out in excitement.
Franky even pulled off his sunglasses in astonishment and muttered:
"The power to freely fuse and transform matter!?"
"A power like that… I want it so badly~!"
If he had a Devil Fruit ability like that, wouldn't that mean he could create the Franky Shogun of his dreams anytime, anywhere?!
Because of Red's influence, Franky's fighting style had changed drastically from the original story.
But his belief in building giant mecha had long since been carved into his very bones.
It was just that what he pursued now was high-end precision engineering, not simple brute-force "bigger and harder." On top of that, his strength was growing by leaps and bounds, so in the short term, it was difficult for him to build a combat mech suited to his level.
But if he had the power of the Clank-Clank Fruit…
Then everything would be completely different!!!
The Straw Hat Pirates had long since ceased to lack resources.
Which meant that as long as he could draft the blueprint in his mind, he could instantly create a combat mech!
No!
Not just that!
Red had once said that robots could possess self-awareness too.
Once they mastered that technology, with the terrifying production capacity of the Munch Factory…
He could even build an entire army of intelligent combat mechs in the blink of an eye!
Weapons… ammunition… ships…
As long as he had enough knowledge and resources, he could create anything!!!
At this moment, a rare glint of greed flashed through Franky's eyes.
He didn't hesitate for long. With a flip of his wrist, he revealed the personal terminal protected inside his body, then quickly typed out his idea and sent it to Red.
Even though Luffy was Bullet's opponent, whether this matter could be accomplished or not still depended on how Red handled it.
At the same time, while Franky was thinking, Bullet—already inside his battle mech on the other side—burst into a wild laugh.
"Tremble, brat!"
"In the face of this kind of might, anything that dares stand in my way will be ground into dust!"
"The weak have no right to survive on this sea!"
Whoosh!
The giant mech suddenly swung its fist and smashed it toward Luffy.
The howling wind pressure turned into a violent gale, sweeping everything around it into the air.
Yet in the face of Bullet's attack, Luffy showed not the slightest bit of panic. Instead, a delighted grin spread across his lips.
"Looks like you really are pretty awesome!"
His soft murmur vanished into the air.
Then, despite being only a quarter the size of the giant machine, Luffy didn't hesitate in the slightest. He directly stretched his arm backward to gather power…
"Gum-Gum White Bullet!!!"
Whoosh!!!
The gigantic fist wrapped in white flames snapped back violently and shot toward that terrifying steel fist.
Boom!!!
A violent shockwave erupted from the point where the two fists collided, surging outward like tidal waves in all directions.
"This power!?"
Even though they had already retreated far from the battle zone, Cavendish and the others still couldn't help but reveal looks of horror as they felt the force of the terrifying gale. Each of them exerted all their strength just to keep from being blown away.
As for the weaker ones, naturally, they were not so lucky.
Under that overwhelming storm of impact, even hard rock was split into fragments—let alone pirates made of flesh and blood.
For a moment, quite a few more pirates lost their lives amid the clash of these two top-tier powerhouses.
False justice: capture pirates, lock them in Impel Down, wait for them to break out, and let them continue committing evil.
True justice: lift a finger and wipe out a large group of powerful pirate crews who had already gained a foothold in the New World, so they would never again have the ability or courage to sail.
...
...
On the other side.
Seeing his attack actually blocked by Luffy, Bullet's eyes immediately flashed with surprise.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted as he praised Luffy:
"You're pretty good, brat!"
Luffy immediately smiled back. "You're not bad either!"
Although Bullet's power still fell far short of God's Knights Commander-in-Chief Garling Saint from before,
it was just right for Luffy to use as a benchmark for testing his own strength.
That's right…
He hadn't even shown his true power yet. In fact, he was deliberately and gradually lowering the amount of strength he displayed.
Those mysterious duplicates that had appeared after his Pokémon-ization had already been sent to the surrounding area instead of continuing to participate in this battle.
If conditions allowed, he even wanted to slowly cancel his Pokémon-ization next, then his Nika power after that, and fight Bullet using only Gear Fourth.
Although Luffy's current strength had already surpassed that of the original timeline, he was hardly so arrogant as to believe he could fight a pseudo-Emperor-level powerhouse without relying on the power of his Devil Fruit.
Boom!!!
After the first exchange yielded no result, the man and the mech tacitly retreated backward at the same time.
In the next moment, terrifying Conqueror's Haki burst forth from both of them simultaneously, using the entire island as a battlefield as their Haki clashed in midair.
Endless bolts of differently colored lightning kept appearing in the sky, as though heralding the arrival of an all-out war.
Then suddenly, both of their Conqueror's Haki vanished like a gust of wind.
At the same time, Luffy's lips curled upward sharply.
"I won! Heh~"
He grinned in satisfaction.
After all, Conqueror's Haki was something barely affected by Devil Fruit powers or Pokémon-ization—to the point that such influence could practically be ignored.
Which meant…
At the very least, his current Conqueror's Haki was already enough to stand on equal footing against the world's top powerhouses.
And when Bullet realized that his Conqueror's Haki had actually been suppressed by Luffy, disbelief instantly flashed through his eyes inside the mech.
"H-how is this possible?!"
He muttered reflexively.
In that brief instant just now, he had actually felt the same sensation he used to feel when facing Roger!
"That straw hat!!!"
Only now did Bullet suddenly notice the straw hat on Luffy's head.
That design was almost exactly the same as the one Roger had worn back then!
At that moment, Bullet's vision inexplicably blurred, as if he were once again seeing the captain who had effortlessly suppressed him in the past.
It was almost as though… Roger had been reborn!
"Impossible!!!"
"Roger's been dead for more than twenty years…"
Bullet immediately shook his head, throwing away that bizarre thought.
Then he suddenly picked up the treasure chest that had fallen earlier on Treasure Island and bared his teeth in a grin.
"That's right!"
"Roger died long ago! There can never be a second Roger in this world!"
"And I will use the treasure Roger left behind to obtain the strongest power in the world in one fell swoop!"
"Because inside this…"
"Is the thing Roger hid away—[ONE PIECE]!!!"
Bullet made no attempt to hide his voice. It instantly spread throughout the entire arena and even traveled beyond the island through the host's abandoned microphone—to the Marines, and to all the underworld kings watching the broadcast!
"What!!!!?"
In that instant, it felt as though the whole world had fallen deathly silent.
Everyone stared at Bullet with eyes wide open, unable to believe what they had just heard.
His body slowly emerged from the battle mech, and he gradually opened the ancient treasure chest.
In an instant, an Eternal Pose engraved with the words [Laugh Tale] appeared before all the pirates.
Snap!
Bullet suddenly shut the chest and let out a wild, arrogant laugh.
"Take a good look!!!"
His body returned once more into the battle mech.
Immediately afterward, the Conqueror's Haki that had just burst forth, along with surging Armament Haki, suddenly wrapped around the mech's fist. Under the power of the Clank-Clank Fruit, they erupted with a force even greater than ordinary Armament coating and Conqueror's Haki infusion.
"This… is the strongest power in the world!!!"
Rumble rumble rumble…
After dispelling the effects of Luffy's Conqueror's Haki, Bullet once again controlled the battle mech and swung that terrifying heavy punch at Luffy.
Its momentum was so overwhelming that it sounded as if thunder itself were roaring above the island.
And after hearing Bullet's declaration, the entire world instantly exploded into chaos.
Even Morgans, who had disappeared just moments ago, suddenly reopened the video channel and looked at Festa in shock.
"Festa, that Bullet guy… was he telling the truth?"
"Heh-heh~"
Seeing Morgans return, Festa immediately let out a cold laugh.
"Of course it's true!"
"Otherwise, what do you think we were going to use to seize this world?!!!"
"Just wait—before long, the whole world will be engulfed in war!!!"
"And the one who ignites that war will be forever etched into the scrolls of history as someone who surpasses Roger!!!"
The more Festa spoke, the more excited he became. By the end, he had even leaped to his feet.
Unfortunately…
His short little frame, combined with the flashy clothing that made him look like some over-the-top rock star from a bygone era, made it impossible to sense any real grandeur from him.
Instead, after hearing those words, Morgans excitedly rubbed his feathers together and muttered:
"Big News! This is truly Big News!!!"
"Looks like it won't be long before I can print the headline that the Straw Hat Pirates have become the new Pirate King!!!"
"Kukuku… this is just too wonderful!!!"
"Huh!?" Festa froze and abruptly turned his head toward Morgans.
"What did you say!? What Straw Hat Pirates!?"
"The one who's going to obtain [ONE PIECE] is obviously me!"
"Yes, yes, yes~" Morgans waved a hand dismissively.
He admitted that the combined power of Bullet and Redfield really was formidable…
But he absolutely did not believe that the Straw Hat Pirates—who had twice driven back the World Government's strongest forces and even achieved remarkable results doing so—would be defeated by two relics of the old era who had been locked away in Impel Down.
In other words…
The legendary great treasure was about to fall into the Straw Hat Pirates' hands!!!
"This really is Big News!!!"
Morgans couldn't help muttering it again before abruptly cutting off the video call.
That left Festa glaring at the black screen, full of rage with nowhere to vent it.
"You damned bastard!!!"
Bang!!!
He suddenly raised his fist and slammed it hard onto the operations table beside him.
Only then did he completely forget that this operations room itself had also been fused together by Bullet's Devil Fruit power, making every object in it absurdly durable.
"..."
A look of pain instantly spread across Festa's face—both comical and pathetic.
(End of Chapter)