38: Chapter 38 The New Helmsman of the White Dove Fleet

At the top of Cactus Rock, the wild wind sent gravel rolling along the ridge.

Miss Valentine closed the small yellow umbrella with frills in her hand, the sharp tip spinning half a turn in her palm with a crisp sound.

Her signature lemon-yellow short hair was flying wildly in the wind, obscuring the sliced orange earrings hanging from her earlobes.

"Mr. 5, that man is looking at us."

Miss Valentine crossed her slender legs in the air, her entire body hovering half a meter above the ground thanks to the power of her fruit.

Her lips, painted with bright red lipstick, pursed slightly. The look of contempt, originally on her face, froze completely when she saw the spiderweb-like cracks spreading hundreds of meters across the dock surface.

As a Frontier Agent of Baroque Works, she had seen countless newcomers entering the Grand Line.

Those pirates who boasted of bounties over ten million, when faced with the pressure of her weight, often had their internal organs shattered in an instant.

But the man standing barefoot on the blue bricks below exuded a bloodlust that felt like a pot of boiling water, even from two kilometers away.

"I see him."

Mr. 5 pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose and clenched his right hand into a fist.

The hem of his coat fluttered violently in the wind, and his soles scraped against the rock, making a harsh, grating sound:

"A small fry from the East Blue, daring to provoke the President just because he has some brute strength. Since he is seeking death, we will use his blood as the stepping stone for our promotion."

At the edge of the dock, the seawater churned violently beside the massive steel base of ship.

Princess Vivi clutched the collar of her robe tightly, her sky-blue hair dampened by sweat and clinging to her temples.

She looked at the agent leader whom Rice had shoved into the blue bricks with one hand, her throat bobbing, yet she couldn't make a sound.

That was the leader of the Baroque Works eyes and ears lurking in Whiskey Peak, commanding hundreds of fearless bounty hunters.

But in front of Rice, that man hadn't even had the chance to fire a second shot before turning into a corpse like a dead dog.

"Nami, lock the anchor."

Rice stood in the middle of the shattered bricks, his black hair whipping wildly across his forehead.

Without even turning his head, his deep voice cut through the storm of the harbor and clearly reached the ears of the orange-haired girl on the high steering platform.

"Received!"

Nami bit her red lips, her slender fingers pulling the pure steel lever beside her.

Click.

With a dull sound of the mechanism locking into place, the steel anchors on both sides of ship, weighing several tons, crashed into the seabed, kicking up waves of white foam.

The entire steel beast was firmly locked into the berth at this moment, and no matter how violently the currents of the Grand Line tore at it, the ship did not sway in the slightest.

"Alvida, watch the ship."

Rice had one hand in his jeans pocket and took a step forward, barefoot.

"Understood, Captain."

Alvida was wearing a white training uniform, the wooden practice sword in her hand pointing diagonally at the ground.

Her porcelain-like face had a flush of red from the exercise, and her affectionate eyes were fixed on the low-ranking agents gathering again from both sides of the town street, a cold arc forming on her lips.

Rice didn't waste any more words.

His tall body, like a drawn heavy sword, walked straight toward the Cactus Rock deep in the town.

His pace was not fast, but every time his heavy feet landed on the blue bricks, they left a clear white mark.

The invisible, tyrannical air pressure spread outward as he advanced, shattering the glass in the windows of the wooden houses on both sides of the street.

The two-kilometer distance was nothing more than a dozen seconds at Rice's terrifying physical speed.

When Rice's feet touched the first desolate rock at the foot of Cactus Rock, a shadow of a small yellow umbrella had already blocked the sun in the sky diagonally ahead.

"Gravity Pressure: 10,000 Kilograms!!"

A sharp, dainty cry suddenly exploded in mid-air.

Miss Valentine flipped in the air, her long legs in high heels pressed together. With the help of her fruit's power, she instantly increased her weight to 10,000 kilograms, like a meteor, bringing with her a piercing, whistling sound that tore through the void, crashing straight toward the top of Rice's head.

Boom!!

Before the 10,000-kilogram pressure had fully landed, the desolate rock beneath Rice's feet could not withstand the terrifying gravity and instantly collapsed into a dense cloud of powder.

Rice raised his head, his black eyes reflecting the stunningly curved body in mid-air.

Faced with the 10,000-kilogram pressure that could smash an ordinary pirate into meat paste, there wasn't even a ripple on his cold, sharp-featured face.

He didn't dodge.

Just before the woman's high heels touched the top of his head, the thigh muscles of Rice's right leg, hidden under his jeans, suddenly swelled.

Thick veins bulged, stretching the denim fabric taut.

Iron Body: Smash.

No fancy moves.

Rice just sank his waist and threw a punch. His right fist, covered in the pitch-black, iron-like sheen of Armament Haki, struck from bottom to top, meeting the falling 10,000-kilogram pressure head-on.

The moment flesh met the heel of the shoe in mid-air, time in the entire Whiskey Peak seemed to fall into an eerie stagnation.

Immediately after.

A visible white shockwave centered on their collision point spread crazily in all directions.

The gravel and dead wood within a hundred-meter radius were all instantly shattered into flying debris by this terrifying physical recoil.

"Ah—!!"

In mid-air, Miss Valentine's lips, painted with bright red lipstick, opened wide, letting out a scream of pain.

She felt as if her legs had smashed into an invincible anvil made entirely of Sea Stone.

The moment the 10,000-kilogram gravity touched the opponent's fist, it was ripped apart by a more tyrannical and barbaric pure physical force.

Crack.

A crisp sound of bone dislocation came from her ankle.

Rice suddenly opened his five fingers, turning his fist into a palm. His rough, large hand, like a steel hook, violently pierced through the raging shockwave and grabbed Miss Valentine's fair ankle.

"10,000 kilograms? This little weight is what you call gravity?"

Rice's deep voice exploded in the woman's ear.

His arm muscles twisted, his fingers exerted force, and the terrifying grip strength left five blue-purple bloodstains on the woman's fair skin.

Before she could use her fruit ability to reduce her weight, Rice exerted force with both arms, grabbing Miss Valentine's ankle like a spear, and smashed her whole body against the desolate cliffside nearby.

Rumble!!

The hard cliffside was smashed into a huge crater in an instant, and countless rocks buried the woman's body inside.

"Damn newcomer!!"

Mr. 5, standing on top of the rock mountain, saw his partner severely injured in an instant, and his pupils behind his sunglasses contracted violently.

He didn't hesitate at all, stomped his right foot hard on the ground, and used the power of his fruit to glide through the air.

His fists swung wildly in the air, and every punch brought out a large burst of dark red, violent fire.

"Booger Bomb: Chain Bombardment!!"

Dozens of dark yellow, glowing explosive snot balls followed his movements, like dense raindrops, completely sealing off the space within ten meters of Rice.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

A continuous, violent series of explosions erupted at the foot of the rock mountain.

Black smoke and fire swallowed Rice's body completely, and the terrifying shockwave of the explosion stripped away the rock layers on the surface, turning it into a charred ruin.

Mr. 5 landed on the ground, panting heavily, a thin layer of sweat seeping out on his forehead.

The power of his fruit was unquestionable; even those Grand Line pirates with tens of millions in bounties would definitely turn into charred fragments after enduring this round of chain bombardment.

"Must be dead! Truly pathetic."

Whoosh—

A sea breeze blew by.

The charred smoke gradually dissipated.

Mr. 5's lips trembled, his eyes hidden behind the sunglasses fixed on the front.

In the center of the charred ruins.

Rice still maintained the posture of having his hands in his jeans pockets, not even moving a step from where he stood.

His white shirt had been torn to shreds in the explosion, revealing a large expanse of chest muscles that looked like they were cast from steel and eight well-defined abdominal muscles.

The explosive fire that was enough to blow up steel landed on his skin, and apart from leaving a few faint grey smoke marks, it hadn't even burned off a single hair.

Having endured Garp's mountain-breaking, earth-cracking iron fists all year round, this level of explosion wasn't even worth an itch to him.

"Played enough?"

"Are you trying to smoke meat here?"

Rice raised his head slightly, a flash of extremely violent, bloodthirsty light in his black eyes.

Shave.

A piercing sonic boom came from the air.

Mr. 5 didn't even have the chance to raise his arms before his vision was completely blocked by a strong shadow in an instant.

A large hand covered in thick calluses reached out from the void without warning and grabbed his neck.

Rice closed his fingers, and his terrifying grip strength deformed Mr. 5's thick neck.

He lifted the high-level agent with a 10 million Berries bounty into the air with one hand, his black eyes staring fixedly at the face that had turned purple-red from suffocation:

"The special abilities of Baroque Works; you don't even know how to use them."

Rice twisted his arm muscles and threw Mr. 5, who was in his hand, heavily onto the ground like trash.

The moment the opponent coughed up blood and struggled, Rice lifted his right foot, his flashing figure carrying pitch-black Armament Haki, and stomped on Mr. 5's right thigh bone.

Crack!!

The sound of bone shattering rang out clearly at the foot of the rock mountain.

Mr. 5 let out a shrill scream like a slaughtered pig and passed out directly from the intense pain.

Rice turned around, strode with his long legs, and walked step by step to the crater ruins where the person had been smashed.

He kicked the gravel away mercilessly, revealing Miss Valentine lying inside, a trace of blood hanging from the corner of her mouth.

At this moment, her lemon-yellow short hair was scattered messily in the mud, and her originally arrogant and mean face was filled with fear of the strong.

Her slender legs were constantly kicking on the ground, trying to retreat.

Rice leaned down, reached out a large hand, and pinched her rounded chin.

His rough fingers exerted force on the woman's delicate skin, lifting her head to make her terrified beautiful eyes stare at him.

"Miss Valentine, right?"

Rice grinned, revealing a mouthful of pearly white teeth, his voice carrying a dominance and barbarism that a woman could not resist:

"From today on, my white dove is missing a helmsman who can control gravity. In this Grand Line, no matter how big the wind and waves I encounter, as long as your fruit ability presses the ship's weight firmly onto the sea surface for me, you can live."

"Understand?"

Miss Valentine looked at the tyrant in front of her, shirtless and exuding hormones, and listened to the man's unquestionable declaration. A strange tingling sensation actually arose in her body, which had previously been trembling with fear.

Under Crocodile's cold, conspiratorial rule, agents like them were just chess pieces that could be discarded at any time.

But the man in front of her had used his physical strength to smash a brand-new path for her survival in her world.

"Under... understood..."

Miss Valentine bit her red lips, the blood spilling from the corner of her mouth setting off her exquisite face, adding a hint of submission.

Rice let go with satisfaction, nodded, and stood up, looking increasingly tall.

He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the rooftops of Whiskey Peak's town, and locked onto the turbulent sea behind it.

Beneath those waves, that ancient, unimaginably huge dark shadow of the deep sea was carrying a terrifying resentment capable of overturning the entire Cactus Island, about to completely break through the shackles of the water surface.