"So you think I'm not good enough?"
Jasmine glared at Saul with narrowed eyes. She knew her strength was fairly ordinary — she wasn't the type to carry the flag. Compared across the board, her power was roughly on par with a Shinuchi in the Beasts Pirates.
And one of the lower-ranked ones at that.
But the thing was, she wasn't here to carry the flag. The Shogun himself was leading this mission personally. What situation couldn't they handle?
Jasmine knew all that, but Saul's words still made her angry.
This big lug was just looking down on her!
Saul didn't actually mean it that way. He was just speaking his mind.
"Young lady, this matter involves too many interests. It's really not something a small-timer like you — without even a bounty — should be getting involved in. It concerns the World Government and the Void Century. Those who know, know. For those who don't, I can't explain it. Let's just say the waters here are too deep, the interests involved too vast. There's nothing to gain from telling you. I think you should just pretend you don't know anything and head back to Inazuma…"
Saul rattled on for a while, saying roughly that.
Jasmine understood perfectly. This guy spent way too much time showing off.
"You sure can talk… But you don't need to worry about that. The Shogun is personally leading this one." Jasmine didn't keep bickering with Saul. Instead, she twirled a strand of hair around her finger and casually dropped the news.
There was no reason not to say it. In Jasmine's eyes, these two were already stuck with the Great Serpent Mark. They'd be staying in Inazuma working for Inazuma before long.
After hearing Jasmine's offhand remark, Olvia wasn't particularly shaken, but Saul's face was written all over with shock.
"You mean… that Raiden Shogun… that Raiden Shogun is coming personally?"
Hearing this news, the tall giant actually broke out in a cold sweat!
His expression froze as he stared at Jasmine.
"The Raiden Shogun… is that person really that strong?" Olvia didn't understand the deeper context, so she couldn't comprehend Saul's mixture of shock and fear.
"It's not just strong… that man…"
"He's a man capable of destroying the world!"
Saul's face was rigid as he spoke in a trembling voice.
"Oh? So you've seen the Shogun fight?" Jasmine was actually surprised, since Ren rarely fought personally these years.
Hearing that, Saul sank into memory. "That was before Gol D. Roger even became the Pirate King…"
He was one of the few Marines who'd witnessed Ren in combat. Back in the early days, right after the Rocks Pirates had collapsed, Ren had still been active on the front lines.
At that time, Shiki the Golden Lion and other Rocks Pirates remnants were still around, and even with Shutendouji's abilities, he couldn't truly establish himself on the seas. On top of that, Garp, Sengoku, and the rest were also in their prime — those were truly an era of monsters!
That was the era when Saul had seen Ren fight.
Though he and Aokiji were close friends, the giant race lived longer. In terms of Marine seniority, Saul was actually much more veteran than Aokiji.
Even now, recalling that scene from back then, Saul could still feel his body go numb.
At the time, he'd been a full eight thousand meters away and had only fired a single cannon shot at that man…
And yet he'd been frozen in place by a single glance, as if struck by lightning!
"It was probably the Divine Transformation — Evil Radiance Eye," Jasmine said after a moment's thought.
That move was actually quite formidable — not an ordinary technique. It could also be combined with Conqueror's Haki. Anyone not strong enough truly had no right to even stand before Ren!
Even a Marine Vice Admiral, if their will wasn't firm enough, would probably be unable to move under the gaze of those eyes.
"In any case, that man possesses the power to destroy the world!" Saul caught his breath, slowly recovering from that old nightmare.
"You've got pretty good eyes. Not bad, not bad!"
Hearing this big guy praise her Ren-sama, Jasmine started finding him a lot more likable.
"So don't worry. Even if the World Government wants to wipe out Ohara, the most they'll do is launch a Buster Call. A mere Buster Call — Inazuma doesn't even blink at that!"
Hearing Jasmine's words, Saul's eye twitched.
The Buster Call was authorized by the World Government and carried out by Marine Headquarters — an indiscriminate, annihilating attack on a signaled area, used to completely erase everything and everyone that threatened the World Government's rule.
Actually, "Buster Call" wasn't even the most accurate translation. The proper term should be — Destroyer Summon!
It meant summoning destroyers capable of obliterating everything!
So every time a Buster Call was launched, the enemy aside, the targeted island would invariably be flattened. Reduced to nothing.
And the five Vice Admirals who participated in a Buster Call were all top-tier among Marine Vice Admirals. Take Aokiji, for example — also a Vice Admiral, yet he had the power to kill Saul in an instant.
Yet a Buster Call like that was being dismissed by Jasmine like it was cabbage at a market.
"Don't underestimate the Buster Call!" Saul immediately retorted.
He wasn't sure yet whether the Marines would actually resort to the Buster Call, but underestimating its consequences would be serious.
Especially given that the Marines currently had those three supernova-class Vice Admirals. If all three were deployed, that would be an absolutely terrifying fighting force.
Saul thought saying this would make Jasmine take the Buster Call seriously. But instead, the young girl rolled her eyes and said: "Those three — Chicken, Dog, and Monkey — didn't they get stopped by Yukiko and the others last time?"
Her expression was completely relaxed. She didn't take the Marine Admirals seriously at all.
But it was true that during the Totto Land battle over three months ago, the admirals' performance hadn't been great.
Those three were still too young. Their previous invincibility had mostly come from the destructive advantage of their Logia fruits. Against opponents with weaker Haki, they could often deliver instant kills.
But once they faced enemies whose Haki matched their own, they tended to fall into grueling battles.
That was actually the common weakness of most Logia users.
For the current Aokiji and the other two, even all three together wouldn't stand a chance against Ren.
Even twenty years from now, when the three great admirals reached their peak, Ren was confident he could surpass them.
Just three admirals, that's all.
But in truth, Ren had no intention of fighting the Marines head-on. Especially not exposing Inazuma's presence in this incident.
[
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