OPTC Chapter 261 Epic Achievement
The exploration team's combat ability could only be described as small fry level. Still, they were under Golden Lion's command and had experience capturing all sorts of dangerous beasts, so they were a little stronger than the average pirate.
After more than ten minutes of "fierce battle," Zhang Da Ye's group finally managed to win through sneak attacks, traps, and good old-fashioned brick-throwing tactics. They "defeated the strong with the weak," even ganging up shamelessly on the captain before finally taking the entire squad down.
They couldn't keep pretending any longer — if they dragged it out, the act would fall apart. With fake tears in his eyes, Zhang Da Ye ordered everyone to wipe out the exploration team completely.
Watching through the surveillance feed, Indigo was livid. Dozens of men getting toyed with by seven people? How could they be this careless?
Fortunately, stronger reinforcements were already on their way. Seeing Zhang Da Ye's group move from Rare Beast Island to Melviu, Indigo gave a new command through the Den Den Mushi: "The targets are in Melviu's thicket area, moving toward the desert zone! Hurry and cut them off!"
Melviu was one of the islands with the most powerful and mutated beasts. It was the birthplace of their beast mutation research. Indigo wasn't worried about catching the group — what he feared was that the strange cat might be killed by some wild creature before he could capture it.
Following Indigo's orders, the reinforcements adjusted their route and sped up. Their movement was instantly reported by the Flag Demon to Ye Yan — both sides were playing this chase like a perfect game of vision control.
"Can those guys even keep up with our speed?" Zhang Da Ye asked. "Should we wait for them?"
"They've got mounts," Ye Yan replied. "We should be more worried about whether we can outrun the beasts on this island."
"Oh, right! That's an option too," Zhang Da Ye said, slapping his forehead. "We can catch a beast and ride it ourselves — take a break and regain some energy."
Before anyone could complain about how hard that would be, they quickly realized this island was overflowing with beasts. There was no need to even look for them.
Towering centipedes taller than a man, upright frogs bigger than sumo champions, penguin-like kangaroos that fought like boxers — all kinds of monstrous creatures rushed out at them.
They were enormous, violent, and attacked the moment they saw humans. Some were cut down by Artoria, some knelt in repentance after feeling her aura, and others were slapped halfway across the jungle by Shark Chili.
After some consideration, Zhang Da Ye chose a mammoth. "This one looks good. Big back, no weird smell. Perfect."
The mammoth froze mid-charge. Though it was just a few tiny humans before him, for some reason it felt like it was being hunted by its natural predator.
"Boss, do you even know how to tame a beast?" Rui Meng Meng asked skeptically.
"Taming's easy! I learned it from watching cartoons when I was a kid. Watch and learn."
Zhang Da Ye stepped forward, stretching out his hand toward the wary mammoth.
"Be good, little elephant. The bad guys are gone. You don't have to be scared anymore. Be our mount, okay?"
Unfortunately, his hand didn't glow, and the mammoth didn't turn into a cute little chibi version of itself. It just stared at him in confusion — then raised its foot and tried to stomp him flat.
Seeing the massive foot coming down, Tom nearly cried. His fur turned from blue to white from fear.
Zhang Da Ye jumped out of range just in time, grabbed a streetlamp pole, and smacked the mammoth squarely on the forehead.
"Ow!" The mammoth wailed, dropping to its knees as a big bump swelled on its head.
Zhang Da Ye stood proudly on its head, patted the swollen bump that was nearly as tall as Tom, and repeated, "Be good, little elephant. The bad guys are gone. You don't have to be scared anymore. Be our mount, okay?"
You're the bad guy here, aren't you?
Tears welled up in the mammoth's big eyes. It obediently lay down and even extended its trunk like a staircase for the others to climb up.
"Guess the secret was doing it in the right order," Zhang Da Ye said, satisfied. "Even Nangong Wenya has to knock things down before purifying them. Success! Beast tamed! Come on up!"
As they climbed the trunk, Perona huffed. "That's your idea of taming? Please, I could've done that in my sleep."
She wasn't wrong — her fruit power made it easy to subdue animals. When she was little, she even tamed a bear and named it Kuma-Ai.
After an unfortunate incident, Moria picked her up and gave her a little teddy bear called Kuma-Bi.
But Perona didn't find it cute enough, so she made another zombie bear — Kuma-Shi.
By that pattern, the custom bear she ordered in Water 7 should've been named Kuma-Ti, but since Kuma-Shi was her favorite, she kept the name anyway.
Ever since they reached Rare Beast Island and now Melviu, Perona had been hoping to find another cute bear-like creature — no luck so far.
"Who cares how it's done, as long as it works," Zhang Da Ye said, glancing at the dust cloud rising behind them. He smacked the mammoth's head. "Let's move!"
The mammoth stood and took off running.
That growing dust cloud was the pursuing force — nearly a hundred pirates riding on beasts of their own. Who knew if they had tamed theirs as brutally as Zhang Da Ye had?
"At this pace, they'll take a while to catch up," Rui Meng Meng said, looking back.
Ye Yan leaned back comfortably on the wide mammoth back. "Finally, some rest. I'm exhausted."
Brook mimicked him, lying down dramatically. "Yes, I'm so tired my bones are falling apart…"
Everyone looked at him and nodded in perfect unison. "Yeah, that's believable."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Brook protested indignantly.
Tom, bored again, dove headfirst from Zhang Da Ye's shoulder into the mammoth's thick fur, swimming through it like it was water — breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle — having the time of his life.
The poor mammoth shuddered, feeling an unbearable itch it couldn't scratch.
Zhang Da Ye looked at Tom's bandaged foot. "Tom, your foot doesn't hurt anymore?"
Tom froze mid-swim, then suddenly clutched his foot and howled in agony. "Owww~ Raaahhh~!"
He flopped dramatically, pretending to drown in the mammoth's fur. His little paws flailed in the air as if begging for help.
Zhang Da Ye quickly scooped him up before he "sank," feeling like if he'd waited a second longer, Tom really would've "drowned."
After running for who knows how long, Zhang Da Ye even pulled out a deck of cards. A group this relaxed during a chase was truly one of a kind.
This round, Zhang Da Ye's luck was perfect — he was about to achieve the ultimate milestone of his life: beating Artoria at cards for the first time.
Even Artoria's face had grown serious with focus.
Then, suddenly, the mammoth screeched to a halt. Zhang Da Ye's hand jerked, sending his winning card — the double jokers — flying into the air. Cards scattered everywhere.
"My epic achievement!" Zhang Da Ye cried in despair.
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