"The deck's so filthy—why hasn't anyone cleaned it yet?"
"Are the snacks in the kitchen ready?"
"Move faster! Haven't you eaten?"
On the deck, Frex was shouting at his subordinates to hurry up and get to work. His level of enthusiasm was even higher than when he was on his own pirate ship.
At this moment, Frex had absolutely no intention of resisting after being captured by Lin Xuan's group.
Not just because Lin Xuan and his crew were overwhelmingly powerful, but because Frex recognized Lin Xuan—he was the infamous five-hundred-million bounty criminal who had kidnapped a Celestial Dragon!
That was terrifying. This was a man who dared to lay hands on a Celestial Dragon.
When Frex realized who Lin Xuan was, he nearly pissed himself out of fear.
How unlucky could he be—to try and rob someone at sea, only to run into such a terrifying monster?
Fortunately for him, Lin Xuan didn't plan to kill them.
Because of this, Frex and his crew worked incredibly hard, not daring to slack off in the slightest, afraid that they might anger Lin Xuan and get fed to the Sea Kings.
Seeing them so motivated, Lin Xuan couldn't help but feel a little pleased. He thought to himself, "Looks like I won't even need to use Sharingan genjutsu to control them."
He sighed lightly.
"Didn't expect that what those novels say is true—just a bit of kingly aura, and people bow down and swear loyalty."
Hearing him shamelessly boast like this, Kaguya almost rolled her eyes. Konis, on the other hand, giggled.
Then Lin Xuan began thinking about the next step.
"Hmm… I can't just rush to Sabaody Archipelago. I need to make proper preparations first."
Lin Xuan had no intention of heading straight there. Even though the agreed battle date with the Navy was fast approaching, he wasn't in a rush at all.
After all, he was going there to fight—who said he had to be on time? As long as he showed up in the end, it was fine.
It was the Navy who should be worried. Whether they chose to wait at Sabaody or not was their business.
But Lin Xuan had made up his mind—he would take Sabaody Archipelago this time.
From what he heard from Frex's crew, even though some people were starting to pay attention to this event, the buzz wasn't nearly big enough yet.
That was a problem.
Lin Xuan's goal from the start had been to use this Sabaody campaign to skyrocket his influence and gain a massive boost in reputation.
So now, the question was—how could he make the impact of this event even greater?
Lin Xuan understood: if you want people to believe in something, seeing is believing.
Only when people could witness something with their own eyes would they experience strong emotional reactions—and that meant more reputation points for him.
Under the Navy's intentional misdirection and efforts to debunk "rumors," some still didn't believe what was going on. Others in far-off regions hadn't even heard anything yet.
Lin Xuan wasn't about to let this perfect opportunity to gain fame go to waste.
Seeing is believing?
Lin Xuan immediately thought of the livestream feature in the Superdimensional Network.
He knew that the One Piece world had video broadcasts too. In the original story, Buggy used a transponder snail to broadcast the battle at Marineford to Sabaody Archipelago, and it spread across the world.
He planned to do the same thing—but even more dramatically.
As for the technical side of things, Lin Xuan didn't have to worry about it. He just needed to pass the information to a newspaper agency.
They would be tripping over themselves to make it happen.
What surprised Lin Xuan was that Frex's former first mate—a man named Kaji—actually had the habit of submitting his travel journals to the newspaper and had close ties with one particular news agency.
So Lin Xuan gave him the job.
Soon enough, Kaji contacted the agency. And even more surprisingly, it turned out to be the same newspaper that had broken the previous Sabaody story.
Lin Xuan remembered—he had once used his Sharingan to implant a deep psychological suggestion into one of their reporters:
No matter what, reveal the truth to the world.
He had also made him believe that if he kept reporting such stories, he could become the world's most famous journalist.
Turns out, the guy was a real genius. After returning to the agency, he actually managed to brainwash his coworkers into joining him on this path.
Despite the Navy's full-on suppression, they didn't go under. Instead, they went underground, kept operating, and even grew stronger.
According to Frex, their survival was partly thanks to secret support from the Revolutionary Army.
In the end, Lin Xuan decided to work with this news agency.
For a world-shaking exclusive like this, they were more than happy to help. They even guaranteed that the livestream would go smoothly.
They sent several people to follow Lin Xuan's group and handle full-time filming and broadcasting of the battle.
Lin Xuan didn't refuse. He even had Frex's group help out—after all, once the battle started, those guys wouldn't be much use.
With the livestream taken care of, Lin Xuan finally set out for Sabaody Archipelago.
This time, he didn't bother hiding his route.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before the Navy picked up on his movement.
Meanwhile, at Navy Headquarters, Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the other top brass were discussing the defensive plans for Sabaody Archipelago.
At that moment, a communications officer rushed in with a report.
"Report! The frontline has spotted Lin Xuan near Jaya Island. His ship is heading toward Sabaody Archipelago!"
The room fell silent. Everyone turned to look at the marine.
Sengoku asked gravely,
"Is it just Lin Xuan? Any sign of Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama, or that strange turtle man?"
The officer replied,
"No sign of them. It's confirmed—only Lin Xuan and two women are aboard. The rest of the crew has been identified as the Frex Pirates, who recently tried to rob Lin Xuan but were subdued."
The Navy officers frowned.
Kizaru twitched at the corners of his mouth and said,
"Frex Pirates? Never heard of them. They actually tried to rob that guy? That takes guts."
Everyone else was speechless.
Sengoku, however, noticed something else.
"Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama… even that old turtle aren't there?"
"This Lin Xuan… what is he scheming now?"
"This situation is far too unusual!"
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T/N:
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