Swish! Swish!
Two figures shimmered into view, reappearing on their respective Stone Pillars high above the arena.
Ryosuke calmly opened his system panel the moment his feet touched solid ground. As expected, a new notification popped up in front of him.
[Victory Achieved! Reward: 10,000 Points.]
Not much but better than nothing.
Meanwhile, across the vast distance, nearly thirty kilometers away—Buggy stood stiffly atop his own stone pillar, face flushed an unhealthy red, eyes burning with humiliation.
"You bastard! You went back on your word!!" He howled furiously, his voice loud enough to echo through the endless sky.
The roar carried with it the fury of a clown-turned-King who had just been turned into a spectacle.
At this moment, Robin said, "He already said it earlier. He doesn't like seeing girls cry... not some ridiculous man like you."
Buggy: "…"
Wait, what? When did he say that?
He searched his memory, flustered. He had been so busy sobbing theatrically that he hadn't caught a single word.
By the time he realized it, the damage was done. Buggy felt like he wanted to cry again but couldn't.
The tears were gone.
Used up.
Following that, the eleventh and twelfth matches commenced.
Sasuke and Naruto stepped up one after another, radiating terrifying strength. Their performances were dazzling and absolute, crushing their opponents like autumn leaves underfoot.
On the Pirate World side, several Pirate Kings wore dark expressions, clearly displeased by the back-to-back losses.
But soon after, hope rekindled.
Sakura was up.
Her opponent? None other than Shanks.
Across every parallel world, this man remained consistently powerful. Elegant, dangerous, and terrifyingly capable.
Unsurprisingly—Sakura lost.
Brutally.
Decisively.
No one was shocked.
Then came the thirteenth and fourteenth matches.
Shikamaru and Sakumo took the stage one after the other.
One won, the other lost.
Sakumo was fortunate.
Unlike Minato, who had the misfortune of facing a top-tier Pirate King, Sakumo had drawn someone near the bottom of the rankings.
With effort, but not much risk, he secured victory.
In the blink of an eye, sixteen battles had concluded.
And the final match?
A bye.
That alone wouldn't have been remarkable—except the bye fell to Garp, the strongest in their lineup.
What kind of cosmic joke was this?
But the audience had no time to dwell on the irony.
Because with the end of the first round of personal battles, the second round had officially begun.
This time, the rules had changed.
No more pairwise matches.
Now, it was the Main Arena Challenge.
Only the winners of the first round were qualified to participate.
The mechanics were simple.
Each round, one victor from round one could choose to ascend the ring and defend it.
Each successful defense earned the player 10,000 points—same as the first round.
However, unlike the first round, the reward was repeatable.
Every win brought another 10,000 points.
But there was a catch.
Each participant could only defend the arena once.
If you got lucky and faced weak challengers, you could rack up a fortune in points.
If you were unlucky?
You'd be steamrolled and walk away with nothing.
To make matters more intense, the last man standing at the end of all matches would be declared Champion of the Individual Battle.
Unless no one dared to ascend.
In that case, the current defender would automatically become champion.
"Alright," Ryosuke turned to the others beside him, his gaze sweeping over the Hokage World's lineup.
"Which one of you wants to go up first and defend the ring?"
He wasn't planning to take the spotlight this time.
Ten thousand points a pop?
Frankly, it didn't interest him.
He'd rather give the opportunity to others who needed it more. To him, those tens of thousands of points were a rounding error.
But for his companions?
It could mean everything.
"I recommend only those above the Six Paths level consider it," Ryosuke added meaningfully. "You've all seen how strong the other side is. Don't go up just to hand them free points."
The Hokage side nodded solemnly in agreement. They weren't about to send weaklings up to get flattened.
There was no room for blind bravery.
Each winner who ascended the stage could keep defending, stacking up wins.
If the enemy's powerhouse entered first and crushed everyone… then that was that.
"…I'll go," a deep, calm voice echoed.
Everyone turned.
It was Madara.
He stepped forward slowly, his eyes glowing with faint, cold confidence. With his strength at the peak of the Six Paths level, he feared no one.
No Pirate King.
No twisted devil fruit user.
No force in this arena.
Ryosuke looked over, then gave a single approving nod.
"Alright," he said. "Go."
With Madara's overwhelming strength, the pirates facing him could at best match him.
But stronger?
Unlikely.
Not impossible—but uncertain.
And the reason?
There was still one wild card on the pirate side who hadn't appeared—
Garp.
To be honest, even Ryosuke was taken aback when he saw the Marine Hero among them.
After all, that was Garp.
Once a marine symbol of absolute justice.
Now?
The Pirate King.
Just how much had the world changed...?
Swish!
The moment Madara chose to defend the ring as the first challenger in Round Two, his figure vanished from the stone pillar.
Over on the Pirate World side—
Because they had lost more matches in Round One, they weren't granted priority in selecting the first defender.
Only after everyone on the Hokage side had passed or finished their own challenge were the pirates given the chance to choose.
Of course—
If the pirates chose not to respond, then it would mean mutual abstention, and the second round of individual battles would come to an immediate end.
But the moment they saw Madara standing in the arena, all such considerations were thrown away.
The pirate side instantly knew—they had no chance to pick and choose.
"I'll go!"
Kaido's voice boomed out the instant he spotted Madara.
His eyes gleamed with fervent battle lust. He had long wanted to fight this man.
This... Madara.
Someone who exuded overwhelming might at a glance.
But Kaido wasn't weak either.
In his mind, he wasn't someone who would lose easily.
In fact, the surrounding pirates had long murmured about how Kaido might not be able to defeat Madara.
That made him incredibly unconvinced.
Now that a golden opportunity to prove himself had arrived—
There was no way he'd let it pass!
Swish!
Kaido's massive figure teleported onto the battlefield.
"Oh? You're the first challenger?"
Madara's arms folded as he glanced down at Kaido, voice calm yet proud. "Interesting."
"Let me—Kaido—show you how bright I shine!" Without further words, Kaido charged forward, a giant blur of motion.
"Thunder Bagua!"
His colossal mace was wrapped in crackling black lightning and overflowing Armament Haki. He brought it down like a divine judgment straight at Madara.
"Shinra Tensei."
Madara's Rinnegan pulsed with purple brilliance.
With a simple wave of his arm—
Boom!!!
A crushing wave of repulsion erupted.
Kaido's charging form was blasted hundreds of meters backward, tumbling through the air before skidding to a halt.
"This technique..."
Kaido blinked, a grin spreading across his face. "It's just like that Ryosuke guy's ability earlier. Must be those eyes of yours, huh?"
Then he laughed heartily.
"Good. You're worth it, Madara! You're worth me going full out!"
"Conqueror's Haki... Infusion!"
"Thunder... Bagua!!"
It looked like the same attack. But the aura was completely different.
Kaido wasn't one to name his attacks creatively—nearly everything in human form was labeled Thunder Bagua.
But this blow?
It carried more than ten times the power of the previous strike.
Madara's expression sharpened slightly and a glint of true excitement flashed in his eyes.
"Then let's see... whether you truly deserve my full strength."
"Shinra Tensei!"
BOOM!!!
Two overwhelming forces collided, triggering a burst of destructive energy that blasted outward across the entire thirty-kilometer arena.
Kaido's massive body was hurled into the air.
And then, mid-flight—
A transformation!
Amidst crackling thunderclouds, Kaido's form twisted and expanded into an enormous blue-scaled Eastern dragon, horns gleaming with divine ferocity.
His serpentine body stretched over a thousand meters, coiling in the sky.
Lightning arced around him.
"Heat Breath!!"
Kaido roared, firing a golden beam of searing energy toward Madara.
"Hmph."
"Six Paths Susanoo."
In a flash of blue light, an enormous energy titan enveloped Madara's body.
Standing as tall as Kaido himself, the Six Paths Susanoo loomed like a god of war.
Kaido's heat beam smashed into the Susanoo's armored torso—
But the titan didn't flinch.
Not even a dent.
"Do you want to dance too?"
Madara stood calmly within the Susanoo's brow, arms still folded.
"DIE!!"
Kaido thundered, diving in from above.
"You're nothing but gravel. Not even half of me." Madara's voice was chilling.
Then, without warning—
Kaido was struck and blasted away in midair.
"What the hell...?!"
Even Kaido himself didn't understand what had happened.
Madara hadn't moved.
No visible attack.
Yet the pain was real.
"You can't even see my strikes."
Madara's voice echoed.
"What right do you have to call yourself my opponent?"
Invisible blows rained down.
One after another.
Fierce. Precise. Unrelenting.
Kaido writhed in the sky, his Observation Haki unable to keep up.
He could sense the danger but couldn't dodge.
His size was simply too massive, making dodging nearly impossible.
And the speed of the attacks?
Far too fast.
Several minutes passed.
Puff—!!
With a sickening thud, Kaido's enormous dragon head hit the arena floor. He had been beheaded mid-air.
Unwilling. Frustrated. But utterly defeated.
Swish!
Kaido's body disappeared, teleported back to the Pirate side's Sky-reaching Stone Pillar.
He said nothing but his expression was dark. His aura was so terrifying that even the Pirate Kings nearby, who had definitely wanted to mock him, chose silence.
Better safe than sorry.
"Next."
Madara's cold voice rang out once again.
It sliced through the air like a blade.
Every pirate heard it.
And one voice responded immediately.
"I'LL GO NEXT!"
Luffy burst forward, unable to hold back any longer.
Swish!
He teleported into the arena.
"Can Luffy win...?"
"Doubt it. That Madara guy is a monster—even Kaido got crushed."
"We've just gotta believe in Luffy!"
"Luffy, you got this! Beat that titanium freak!!" Ace shouted encouragement.
Robin, watching silently, fixed her cold gaze on Madara.
After all, this was the man who had eliminated her in the first round.
"Gear Four!"
"Kong Gun!!"
Without hesitation, Luffy activated Gear Four.
His rubbery form expanded, and a massive Kong Gun was launched straight at Madara's Six Paths Susanoo.
Boom!
It struck the Susanoo square in the chest—
But...
Not even a crack appeared.
"Huh?"
Luffy blinked in disbelief.
Was his punch really that weak?
"Great Ape King Kong Gun!!"
BOOM!!
This time, a crack finally showed.
Just a hairline fracture on the Susanoo's outer shell.
But within seconds, it regenerated.
"That's it? This is your prized attack?" Madara taunted with disdain.
He hadn't even bothered to strike back.
"Come on. Show me everything you've got."
Madara's voice thundered from within his towering armor.
"Entertain me."
Luffy gritted his teeth and then raised his head.
Up above, Madara stood between the brows of the titanic Susanoo, over a thousand meters in height.
"Gear Five!!"
BOOM!!!
Luffy activated his awakened Devil Fruit.
His form expanded explosively into a rubber giant the same size as Susanoo.
"Oh...?"
Madara finally raised an eyebrow.
This was... interesting.
Luffy roared, launching a punch that grew mid-flight—ballooning to a diameter of over a kilometer, enough to engulf all of Susanoo.
"Susanoo—Slash!!"
Finally, Madara stopped defending passively.
He mobilized all four of Susanoo's arms—
And slashed.
Four massive energy blades tore through the air, colliding head-on with Luffy's blow.
BOOOOOOM!!!!
The resulting explosion shook the heavens. Both titanic forms were sent flying, smashing into the barrier at the arena's edge.
Kacha! Kacha!!
Cracks spread across the Susanoo's armor. Then, with a loud crash, half of its body collapsed.
Madara's pupils flashed ominously. With a pulse of chakra, the Susanoo regenerated, as if it had never been damaged. Yet a flicker of solemnity flashed through Madara's eyes.
This kind of regeneration came at a cost. His pupil power had dropped.