42: Section 42

But that ship was as stable as a reef, seemingly able to withstand the relentless battering of any storm!

Damn it!

That ship really isn't simple!

The pirate leader's face turned grim as he barked out one command after another.

"Put some back into it! Kill that blind bastard!"

"Idiots, use chain-shot, you hear me!"

"Aim before you fire! Do you think these damn cannonballs are free?"

However...

No matter how loudly he shouted, it couldn't change one fact.

Limited by the era.

These crude cannons were fine for hitting buildings on shore.

But against a moving target, they were utterly pathetic.

At the very least...

Su Ming, standing at the bow, felt basically no sense of tension.

Looking at the sprays of water constantly exploding around him, the closest one was still forty or fifty meters away from the midnight rose. What the hell was there to be nervous about?

Not only was he not nervous...

He even had the leisure to think about other matters.

In the One Piece World, the practicality of weapons like cannons was questionable.

He had never seen anyone in the original series actually get hit by a cannonball—except, of course, for those from that old man, Garp.

When they were less than eight hundred meters from the pirate ship, Su Ming ordered:

"Midnight, I'm leaving the ship to you!"

As he spoke, the crimson guard was already equipped.

Su Ming flipped over and jumped off the bow deck. Just as he was about to hit the sea, his combat boots suddenly deployed an anti-gravity field!

Boom! —

A massive spray of water instantly erupted from the sea's surface, and even the midnight rose was pushed back three or four meters.

Looking at Su Ming again...

Resembling a futuristic warrior, he had already taken to the sky.

His figure, like a bolt of lightning, smashed through the sound barrier, stirring up shockwaves as he headed straight for the target.

Behind him...

The midnight rose autonomously changed course, maneuvering around the enemy pirate ship while evading cannonballs.

On the pirate ship...

The faces of the underlings turned white with fear.

"He's... he's flying over!"

"What do we do, Boss?"

"Yeah, Boss! You're a great pirate with a 12-million bounty! You must have a way, right?"

The pirate leader's face darkened even further. Dammit, bragging is fine, but don't drag me into it!

I don't have a damn clue what to do!

And you bastards, why the hell are you all looking at me?

"Don't just stand there! Hurry up and fi—"

It was too late!

Rumble! —

With Su Ming's superhero-style landing...

The entire pirate ship suddenly sank heavily.

Clang! —

A crimson blade light slashed in a full circle.

Stepping and turning...

Another crimson slash swept across the deck!

The pirate leader gripped his broadsword, looking around in a daze. It was too fast!

The crisscrossing crimson blade lights on the deck were mostly afterimages; he couldn't detect the enemy's exact location at all.

Splat! —

What was that sound?

The pirate leader's face went pale as a certain possibility occurred to him.

He looked toward the sound.

Two of his subordinates had been sliced into four pieces, collapsing onto the deck!

The splashing blood spread into a glaring, vivid crimson.

Splat, splat! —

Thud, thud! —

More and more sounds of flesh hitting the deck echoed like a nightmare, and the smell of blood in the air intensified rapidly.

There were no screams, no extraneous noise.

Only the echoes of lives shattering at this very moment!

Swish! —

A sharp whistling sound suddenly erupted behind him. The turbulent airflow made his cloak flutter loudly.

"A great pirate with a 12-million bounty, known as 'Fierce Blade' Mordy Hoy, right?"

The pirate leader... or rather, Mordy Hoy, turned around stiffly.

What met his eyes was a figure in angular steel armor, holding a two-meter combat blade, with crimson light surging around him like a demon from hell!

"You... who exactly are..."

Slash! —

A flash of blade light.

Mordy Hoy's head flew into the air.

His two-and-a-half-meter tall headless body stood for less than a second before crashing to the ground.

"Naughty."

With a casual comment, Su Ming turned and leaped back onto the deck of the midnight rose, which had drawn close.

Chapter 48: Curse of the Sea! modao bristle-tusk

Pure slaughter wasn't Su Ming's style.

Besides, there were surely some pirate underlings still cowering in the cabin.

But it didn't matter.

The Level 8 Collection Skill was enough to solve all problems!

Target: Air!

Range: A hemispherical space enveloping the target pirate ship.

Parameter: Generalized vacuum!

Behind Su Ming...

Boom! —

A loud explosion erupted out of nowhere!

With the nameless pirate ship at its center, a hemispherical space fifty meters in radius had all its air sucked dry in an instant by Su Ming's thought using Gathering.

Faced with the suddenly created vacuum hemisphere, physical reality responded immediately.

A massive amount of outside air rushed back in violently. Under the 'elbow strike' of atmospheric pressure, the pirate ship was crushed in an instant!

It was crushed in the literal sense!

Both men and ship—the largest remaining fragment wasn't even as big as a palm!

As for Su Ming himself...

Standing on the deck of the midnight rose, he was happily admiring the system notifications scrolling across his screen.

[Ding! —]

[Pirate underling has died!]

[Congratulations, you have obtained: Class EXP +35, Bloody Bone Fragments *4]

[Ding! —]

[Pirate underling has died!]

[Congratulations, you have obtained: Class EXP +30, Sailor's Combat Blade (White)]

[Ding! —]

[Pirate leader has died!]

[Congratulations, you have obtained: Class EXP +65, Pirate's Fierce Blade (Green)]

...

Not a bad harvest, mainly because the experience was substantial.

Compared to the pirates' weak combat power, this was already a huge profit.

As for equipment and such, Su Ming didn't care.

With his Creation Skill, Su Ming could craft anything better than what dropped!

With another Gathering cast, all traces of the Fierce Blade Pirates' existence vanished completely, and Su Ming's inventory gained a batch of ordinary materials.

"A pity. Without the infiltration of Natural Mana, basic materials don't have any special characteristics to speak of."

It was foreseeable.

The 'fine virtue' of stripping everything bare would have to be temporarily sealed in the current One Piece World.

Of course, if it were rare metal ores, that would be a different story.

But soon, Su Ming overturned his previous conclusion.

[Material: Seastone Factor - Trace Amount (Green)]

[Category: Curse Material]

That was the trace element separated from the seawater by the previous Gathering.

"So small... but this must be the origin of the curse of the sea."

With Su Ming's eyesight...

He could only see a speck of light, its total volume being no larger than a single cell.

But with the triple blessing of All-Thing Analysis, All-Thing Affinity, and Universal Knowledge, Su Ming caught an unusual scent.

Rather than calling it a curse, it was more like a new element naturally synthesized after the world's immune mechanism was triggered!

"This is way too targeted. For just a mere Devil Fruit, is it really necessary?"

Su Ming was somewhat puzzled.