74: Chapter 74 The Deserter King's Sphincter Grip Loses Control

On the outer periphery of Enies Lobby's waters. The heavy artillery fire and acrid smoke filling the sky were left far behind. The massive, dark gold hull of ship, like a steel behemoth that had crushed its cage, cut through the deep blue waves.

The high-density wapol metal armor reflected a cold luster under the daylight sun. Outside the starboard porthole, the going merry, having completed its keel reconstruction, followed closely.

The formation of the two warships had officially exited the absolute destruction radius of the Buster Call.

High in the air came the subtle vibration of wings beating against the air at a high frequency. A massive News Coo pierced through the clouds and hovered precisely above the main mast of ship.

Its claws loosened, and a roll of newspaper exuding a thick scent of ink, along with dozens of brand-new wanted posters, fell vertically, accelerating with gravity.

In the main cabin. Kalifa had changed into a brand-new black OL tight-fitting hip-hugging skirt, her slender legs wrapped in black stockings. Gold-rimmed glasses rested on her pert nose, the lenses reflecting a cold light.

She knelt by the mahogany desk, catching the wanted posters falling from the skylight with both hands. As a top agent from the former intelligence hub, her cerebral cortex still retained the mechanical instinct for processing information.

However, as her gaze swept over the numbers on the wanted posters, her fingers holding the paper suffered an uncontrollable physiological spasm.

"Captain." Kalifa stood up and laid the wanted posters flat on the wide mahogany desk.

Her voice carried a hint of undisguised shock. "The ruling class of the World Government has re-evaluated the threat index of this warship. The bounties for all members of the White Dove Adventure Group have seen an irrational, leap-frog surge."

Rice was shirtless, leaning back in a leather armchair. On his bronze-colored skin, new muscle fibers had completely covered the carbonized dead skin previously scorched by Kizaru's photons. The super-regeneration ability of his lightning cells had caused the bone density of this body to climb another small magnitude. His violent black eyes swept across the desktop.

At the top was Rice's half-body photo, radiating a bloodthirsty aura.

The background was the collapsing Judicial Tower. The zeros at the bottom of the wanted poster were arranged in a suffocating sequence.

"Tyrant" Rice. Bounty: 1.5 billion Berries. Single-handedly dismantling the judicial hub, tearing apart the top combat power of the intelligence hub with his bare hands, and confronting an Admiral's light-speed kick head-on. The destruction data generated by this battle record directly shattered the bounty ceiling for the first half of the Grand Line.

"1.5 billion worth of waste paper." Rice sneered, his iron-like fingers tapping on the mahogany desk, making a dull thudding sound. There was no pride, only absolute contempt for this string of numbers.

As his gaze moved backward, the remaining wanted posters were laid out in order by Kalifa. The female crew members of the White Dove Adventure Group had also gained astonishing threat indices.

"Devil Child" Nico Robin. Bounty: 130 million Berries. Robin stood by the cabin door, looking at her own wanted poster, her azure pupils slightly dilated. Twenty years of fleeing had reached a qualitative change at this moment. Using the lever principle created by the Hana Hana no Mi, she was capable of snapping the cervical vertebrae of hundreds of people instantly, and her destructive power had earned the fear of the World Government.

"Thunderstorm Navigator" Nami. Bounty: 75 million Berries. The thunderstorm strikes generated by the superposition of meteorology and heat made her wide-range destruction capability a source of caution for Marineford.

"Death Sniper" Raki. Bounty: 90 million Berries. Shooting down a Vice Admiral from a distance of over a thousand meters, precisely calculating wind drift, ballistic drop, and the Coriolis effect. Her kinetic sniping had received absolute recognition.

"Ten-Thousand-Ton Pressure" Mikita. Bounty: 68 million Berries. The gravitational potential energy generated by freely modifying her own mass was enough to crush a medium-sized warship.

"Blood-Colored Thorn" Paula. Bounty: 70 million Berries. Extremely high metal toughness and piercing power that ignored bulletproof vests contributed to her high bounty.

"Surgical Cutter" Nojiko. Bounty: 55 million Berries. Her hands, which had held scalpels for years, displayed precise techniques for severing enemies' major arteries on the battlefield. Without any wasted movement, she specialized in destroying biological weaknesses.

"Ethereal Sonic Wave" Conis. Bounty: 30 million Berries. Using Sky Island shells to create specific frequency sonic wave attacks, she could ignore surface armor defense and directly vibrate and shatter the enemy's internal organs.

"Peacock Wood-Breaking Machine" Vivi. Bounty: 50 million Berries. Using centrifugal force and the cutting surface generated by rotation, she possessed formidable close-quarters strangulation abilities.

"Crushing Iron Rod" Alvida. Bounty: 45 million Berries. The Sube Sube no Mi removed all friction, and combined with the kinetic energy swing of a heavy iron rod, she was like an unstoppable bowling ball on the battlefield.

Even Makino, who was usually in charge of logistics, received a bounty assessment of 20 million Berries thanks to that living eggbeater capable of melting iron cannonballs using high-temperature sap.

The comprehensive quality of the entire White Dove Adventure Group had completely transformed into a terrifying behemoth capable of overturning the pattern of the seas.

At the same time, on the going merry nearby.

The Straw Hat Pirates also received the updated bounty data. The cyborg Franky raised his mechanical right arm, loaded with heavy artillery, and let out a strange mechanical roar toward the sky.

"EXTREME——!!!"

Fanatical red light flashed in Franky's mechanical eyeballs as he declared to Straw Hat that, by virtue of his 44 million Berry bounty and the favor of the wapol metal ship reconstruction, he would officially join the Straw Hat route as their exclusive shipwright.

On the other side of the deck, a handover concerning research took place.

Chopper looked at his own wanted poster, and his furry torso suffered a desperate physiological twitch.

"Cotton-Candy-Loving Pet" Chopper. Bounty: 50 Berries. This reindeer, who clearly possessed Rumble Ball drug technology, had formidable multi-stage transformation capabilities, and could transform into a giant berserk monster, was completely misjudged by the World Government's intelligence System as a pet.

Chopper took the wanted poster, walked to the boarding point where the two warships were side by side, and made a request to Rice. The combat System of the White Dove Adventure Group tended toward absolute quality unilateral crushing, with a casualty rate approaching zero.

The bodies of the Straw Hat Pirates, however, often suffered high-intensity damage in battle; fractures, massive hemorrhaging, and internal organ shocks were the norm.

In order to refine his medical skills, Chopper decided to change stations. Rice nodded in agreement and transferred the research authority of this reindeer doctor to the Straw Hat Pirates. From then on, Franky, along with Chopper, officially joined Straw Hat's camp.

Just as everyone was preparing to relax their tense nerves.

Rice's Observation Haki swept across the sea ahead like a high-frequency radar, keenly capturing a massive, heavy mass. It was not a change in atmospheric pressure from natural weather, but a deep-sea predator that did not hide its own violent kinetic energy.

The thick fog was forcibly torn apart. A Marine warship, twice as large as ship, blocked the path directly ahead like a moving island. On the bow of the warship was carved a huge dog-head ram.

Marine Vice Admiral, Monkey D. Garp.

Garp wore a rough suit and a Marine cape without shoulder epaulets. He stood on the dog-head ram, tossing a giant iron cannonball with a diameter of over ten meters in his hand. The mass of this cannonball was dozens of tons, but in Garp's hands, it was as light as a baseball.

"Hahaha! Rice! Not long after leaving the East Blue, you actually dismantled all the reinforced concrete of Enies Lobby!"

Garp's laughter was like a booming bell, the sound waves vibrating the surrounding seawater and stirring up ripples. He suddenly restrained his smile, his eyes revealing a kind of oppressive force belonging to a top powerhouse, staring directly at the violent Disciple he had once instructed in physical arts in the East Blue.

"To take a light-speed kick from Borsalino head-on and still walk away unscathed."

Garp's right arm muscles expanded instantly, the suit sleeve tearing with a ripping sound. Terrifying brute force compressed and gathered crazily in his shoulder and elbow joints. The fibers of his deltoids and biceps twisted into a tight state like steel cables.

"Let the old man test how much your bone density has grown!"

BOOM——!!! Garp's right arm swung out violently. The giant iron cannonball broke the sound barrier, carrying terrifying kinetic energy capable of destroying a hill, and smashed straight toward the dark gold bow of ship. The surface of the cannonball rubbed against the air, generating extremely high heat, appearing as bright red as a soldering iron.

Rice stood on the edge of the ram. His black eyes stared at the iron ball filled with destructive kinetic energy. His pectoralis major and rectus abdominis muscles tightened instantly. If it were before, he would have chosen to take it head-on with his flesh, using the resilience of his lightning cells to forcibly offset the kinetic energy.

But now, this body had completed the qualitative change of Haki emission.

"The old man's wrist strength is still as savage as ever." Rice retracted his right fist to his waist. The pitch-black Armament Haki was no longer compressed tightly beneath his skin but erupted along his meridians, forming a layer of black airflow shield outside his fist that felt like substance.

[Advanced Armament Haki].

With his legs slightly bent, the wapol metal deck under his feet emitted a dull load-bearing sound. Facing the incoming giant cannonball, he threw a straight punch.

The fist made no contact. The Advanced Armament Haki wrapped around the outside of his fist, across a vacuum distance of half a meter, directly struck the surface of the iron cannonball.

CLANG——!!! A piercing metallic wail resounded across the sea. The internal destructive power of the Advanced Armament Haki instantly penetrated the iron shell of the cannonball, drilling into the depths of its molecular structure. The arrangement of the iron atoms inside collapsed under the ravages of the Haki force field.

BANG! The giant iron cannonball, weighing dozens of tons, disintegrated in mid-air. It turned into fine iron powder filling the sky, falling scatteredly into the seawater.

Garp watched this scene, his pupils shrinking slightly, and then he burst into an even more wild laugh.

"Hahaha! Advanced Armament Haki! To have mastered the high-level flow of Haki in such a short time! You are truly a Disciple beaten out by this old man himself!"

Rice withdrew his right fist and shook off the remaining iron powder on his knuckles.

His gaze passed over Garp and landed on the deck behind him. There stood a young figure wearing a Marine officer uniform.

Koby. The Deserter King, now the Disciple Garp kept by his side.

However, Koby's posture appeared extremely stiff.

Below the knee of his right leg, it was empty; in its place was a mechanical prosthetic limb forged from rough steel hinges. The metal prosthetic stepped on the wooden deck, making a dull sound of impact.

Koby's retina captured the bronze-colored reflection of Rice.

The unilateral crushing in the East Blue, the excruciating pain of his right tibia being crushed, struck his nervous System instantly like high-voltage electricity. His sympathetic nervous System lost control completely. Adrenaline secreted crazily, causing his heart to pump blood at an overload. Fear completely took over his physiological System.

Koby's legs trembled violently, his breathing short. The sphincter at his bladder lost control completely.

Drip... Drip... Light yellow liquid dripped onto the deck through the gaps of the mechanical prosthetic, emitting a foul, pungent odor.

Garp turned his head and looked at Koby, who was so scared he had suffered urinary incontinence. The muscles on his forehead twitched violently, and a trace of disappointment at his failure to live up to expectations flashed in his eyes.

He shook his head without speaking.

Rice stood on the dark gold ram, his black eyes overlooking the puddle of yellow liquid, a cold mockery curling the corner of his mouth.

"Old man. Such a coward who can't even control his sphincter has no value to cultivate; why take him in?"

Garp sighed and dug his nostril with his thumb.

"Although this kid's bones are soft, there is still a shadow of justice in his heart." Garp flicked the booger into the sea and waved his hand.

"The order I received was just to intercept and test. Rice. Take your arrogance and go make a mess in the New World. Next time we meet, this old man will personally shatter your skull with these fists."

The dog-head warship slowly turned, clearing a wide channel leading into the depths of the fog.

Rice did not respond. The warship's engine roared, and the iron propellers churned the seawater crazily.

ship crushed the waves and plunged into the thick, eternal fog ahead.

The Florian Triangle. The only remaining eerie sea area in the first half of the Grand Line shrouded under the shadow of mist.

Driving into the thick fog, the visibility around them dropped to freezing point.

Sunlight was completely deprived, and the temperature dropped sharply. The air was filled with a pungent smell of rotten wood mixed with fermented seaweed.

Kalifa walked out of the cabin with a nautical chart, a layer of moisture covering her gold-rimmed glasses.

"Captain. Coordinates calibrated. According to the intelligence files of the former intelligence agency, there is strong geomagnetic interference in this sea area, and the magnetic poles of the Log Pose will undergo irreversible deflection. We can only rely on the current velocity for blind navigation."

Rice stood by the helm, his Observation Haki spreading outward like radar. "No need for magnetic poles. Just follow the scent of the shadows."

Before the words fell. In the thick fog ahead, a massive black shadow appeared abruptly. A dilapidated giant sailboat, like a corpse floating on the sea, slowly entered the line of sight of ship.

The sails had long since rotted into strips of cloth, and the wooden keel was covered with thick barnacles. The entire ship exuded a chilling aura of death.

From the edge of the deck came a slight sound of bones colliding.

Click. Click. A figure with no flesh, no internal organs, only a pale skeleton, holding a cup of steaming black tea, poked its head out from the railing of the wrecked ship.

The empty eye sockets of that skull looked straight at the people on the deck of ship.

"Yohohoho... In this dead sea area, to actually be able to meet living creatures." The skeleton opened its jawbone, which lacked vocal cords, and emitted a weird yet clear air vibration.

The female crew members of the White Dove Adventure Group, facing this scene that defied common sense, instantly gripped the weapons in their hands.

Without any vocal organs, yet able to create standard sonic vibrations. Without the traction of any muscle fibers, yet the bones could perform smooth displacement against gravity.

Rice walked in large strides to the edge of the warship, his black eyes staring fixedly at the skeleton.

"A product of the rules of the Yellow Springs Fruit."

A cold arc curled at the corner of Rice's mouth.

"Stripped of the constraints of cells, relying on pure Soul wavelengths to drive skeletal joints. Very worthy of exploration."

Brook looked at Rice's violent eyes, which were like those of someone examining an experimental specimen, and his entire skeleton shivered for no reason, the black tea in his hand nearly spilling onto the deck.