Chapter Header Serial ・ Lovesickness Serial Paused for Now 11 ・ Calamity After Calamity
Chased by wild beasts on a barren island; suddenly caught in a tempest at sea; frozen half to death on a winter island; lazily unwilling to leave a spring island; nearly fainting from heat on a summer island; watching falling leaves on an autumn island with tears streaming down in sorrow.
Their poor navigation skills made the small boat toss and nearly fall apart on the stormy, lightning-split sea. Happily docking at one island, only to run into a gang of pirates...
The wandering painter exaggeratedly performed as a clown to attract the pirates' attention, while the second-rate hypnotist Tilda secretly cast a hypnotic suggestion in the background… Taking advantage of the pirates stumbling around confusedly, the idiot couple hurriedly made their escape...
…
The World Economic News Agency truly deserves its title as a media giant nearly monopolizing the world's news industry. Early the next morning, fresh newspapers were printed, using several key pages to extensively cover the "World's Number One Swordsman Tournament" held yesterday on the vacation island.
One could say... It's precisely because the World Economic News boss Morgan's Bird-Bird Fruit, the Albatross Form, allows him to command and tame countless seabirds as news carriers delivering newspapers across the entire Grand Line, that the agency can genuinely form a news industry with worldwide coverage and incredibly high timeliness...
The structure of the World Economic News Agency is probably similar to the Revolutionary Army, setting up legion chiefs or branches in the four seas (East, South, West, North) and the Grand Line, radiating influence to the surrounding islands...
Liam and Robin leisurely arrived at the hotel restaurant, sat down for breakfast, and picked up the day's newspaper from the table to read. Robin started with the latter half and passed the first half, which mainly covered the Swordsman tournament, to Liam first.
They hadn't rushed to the tournament site using Geppo today because they got up earlier than yesterday. The reason they woke up earlier was because they had gone to bed earlier.
Liam admired in his heart the diligence of the World Economic News reporters and their news birds while briefly glancing through the extensive reports about himself, "Giorno," and Robin, "Jolyne." Judging by the textual descriptions and pictures, there was no trace of the original Nico Robin from their original timeline anywhere...
Liam then started reading the news about the remaining four preliminary matches from yesterday afternoon. As he expected, Hawk Eyes finished his match with efficiency comparable to that of Amande and Shiryu of the Rain, calmly stepping on stage, striking at a speed too fast for the audience to see, then gracefully stepping down.
It only took a few seconds.
Luckily, the other three matches didn't continue the same "instant kill" style... After all, not everyone was as ruthless and laconic as Hawk Eyes, Shiryu, and Amande.
Nor was anyone like Robin herself, more a scholar who neither excelled at nor enjoyed fighting, so when she struck, it was like solving a problem directly and efficiently, thus appearing clean and decisive… As for Liam's match, it was an even more exceptional case.
"Not being at the site, I don't know if Hawk Eyes used the Black Blade on his back or the small knife hanging from the cross pendant on his chest when he instantly defeated over forty swordsmen."
After finishing the page, Liam casually handed it to Robin. Robin reached for another page she had finished reading, but Liam blocked her hand, refusing. Thanks, Robin, but I'm not much of a reader, you know... Liam conveyed this with his eyes and kept reading the competition news.
Charlotte Monde might not be as strong as her younger sister Amande, but she was still the elder sister of the infamous (and harmoniously dubbed) Madame Ghost, the second daughter of the Charlotte Family, and the sixth child of the sea Emperor Big Mom (above her were the eldest son, eldest daughter, and the triplets Katakuri).
Being one of four biological sisters, and possessing the same genes as Amande, her strength was far from ordinary.
Among the more than forty swordsmen competing, though skilled and with excellent sword techniques, and somewhat famous in the first half of the Grand Line, even the reporter thought that Charlotte Monde's victory only twenty minutes after the match began wasn't because she was weaker than Amande.
Most likely, she was just too lazy to swing her sword and wanted to let the others thin each other out first…
"This neck is so thick, you can barely tell he's from the Snake Head Tribe," Liam thought. "In the manga, Big Mom's 39 daughters and 46 sons just passed by in a glance. They looked like quite a lot and quite formidable, but really only a few left any impression… Amande and Monde, these two sisters? Especially the infamous Madame Ghost Amande, how far is she from the 'Four Sweet Commanders' of the dessert division?"
Using Amande as a benchmark, Liam could roughly gauge his own current strength.
In terms of aura and presence, Amande's momentum was not inferior to a "Warlord" level, probably the kind of strength that could replace any fallen Warlord Starfall… But no matter what, compared to that extremely popular Ka-ni (Katakuri) class, there was still a significant gap…
Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) strong enough to foresee the future, Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) strong enough to bruise Luffy's fist, that's Katakuri!
Liam estimated: even if he unleashed his full firepower now, with armored B.I.B., full Busoshoku Haki and Life Return Tekkai all activated, he probably still couldn't beat Katakuri.
But winning wasn't impossible. That was by imitating Luffy, enduring until Katakuri ran out of stamina…
Liam, who had an extraordinary understanding of Life Return, was a complete stamina monster even in this pirate world. Not only was his own stamina bottomless, but his recovery speed was very fast. He could even preemptively replenish energy by eating in advance, to offset losses during prolonged battles…
And in a worst-case scenario, if his own stamina ran out, he could overdraft his Stand B.I.B.'s stamina, As long as he won, it would only hurt a little when retrieving his Stand later; if he lost, who would care about the future then?
"What's wrong?" Robin put down the newspaper, asking with concern.
Liam, looking displeased while staring at the paper, set it down and sighed seriously: "There sure are a lot of powerful monsters in this world!"
Robin was puzzled, smiling: "You're one of them too, aren't you?"
Liam laughed and snapped his fingers at the waiter, asking them to hurry with their breakfast. Liam was almost starving, and they still had the competition later, so twenty servings of breakfast to fill their stomachs was a good idea.
"One coffee," Robin turned and smiled at Liam. "You? Still hot milk?"
Liam smiled back, "And flowers."
Robin smiled too.
The last two preliminaries weren't very exciting. Judging by their length, over fifty minutes, the final victor's strength was probably just average, seemingly all skilled fighters from the New World.
Liam felt sympathy for them.
The other six in the quarterfinals were Hawk Eyes, Amande, Monde, Shiryu, himself, and Robin… none of them were easy to deal with.
With slender fingers lightly twirling, a few white petals tinged with red gently spun down from her shimmering fingertips, falling into the steaming hot milk cup.
Liam raised his floral milk tea and drank it down, then turned his gaze toward the hotel window.
B.I.B., arms folded, stood at the window frame, gazing out toward the huge arena basking in the morning sun…
"Oh oh oh oh oh!!!"
The arena erupted again with noise. When Hawk Eyes, the Charlotte sisters, the eerie man in military uniform, the many-swords-falling Giorno, the shocking and strange Jolyne, and the two great Swordsmanes covered in blood slowly entered the arena from different entrances toward the massive central stage, the packed stands' enthusiasm rose another level.
As the eight qualified contestants began drawing lots, the host passionately shouted into his Den Den Mushi megaphone:
"The legendary lone wolf Hawk Eyes, Dracule Mihawk! The massive black sword on his back is the legendary Saijō Ō Wazamono 'Black Blade: Yoru'! Rumor has it very few have seen Mihawk draw that enormous Black Blade, because most who have seen it have already died! Will he draw the Black Blade on his back in today's match?"
(End Of This Chapter)
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