"The wind's picking up!"
From the distant sea outside Hannabal, a gentle breeze swept across the water—and in the blink of an eye, it grew fiercer, whipping the waves into whitecaps. From every direction, powerful currents surged in, swelling the sea level by two or three meters in an instant.
Sails snapped taut. The masts groaned.
Every contestant scrambled to action.
"Oi, watch the flow!"
"Raise the yard ropes, hurry!"
"It's coming—fight for the best position!"
The roar of the gale drowned every other voice.
Whoooosh!
The wind howled, waves surged, and Genesis—its massive hidden body cloaked beneath its disguise as a regular One Piece ship—lurched forward into motion.
"Oi, what are they doing?"
"They've blocked the river mouth!"
"Damn cowards!"
Ahead, three pirate sloops had formed a wall across the current. Their crews bared teeth in mocking laughter.
"Bastards, you're not getting past us."
"This is where you die!"
"Arrogant fools, taste death!"
"But wait… something's off. Why don't we see any crew on that ship? Did they run off in fear?"
Inside the Carrier's control chamber, Jin sat calmly. Genesis was fully under his and Little Ai's control—it needed no deckhands. Wilson and the others waited in the inner fortress, ready for combat.
"Master, ship approaching from the rear. Fifty meters." Little Ai's voice chimed.
"Ignore them. The ones in front first."
Boom!
Whizz!
From behind, cannon fire thundered. Smoke and fire filled the air as shells screamed across the water.
Onshore, pirates watching from the cliffs gasped.
"Too dangerous!"
"He's caught front and back—finished!"
"Even if he survives the guns, the current will smash him against the cliffs!"
To them, that ship with the grinning skull flag was nothing—a nameless vessel, led by a rookie captain. Who would bet on it?
Boom-boom-boom!
Shells rained down, bursting geysers of foam. Two landed square on the deck—only to vanish into the Carrier's swallowing void. The first barrage was neutralized.
No one noticed the Genesis's bow narrowing, reshaping under Jin's command. With the raging current behind it, it surged ahead like a blade unsheathed.
"That ship—it's accelerating!"
"Wait, is he trying to ram us?!"
"He's insane!"
"Shoot, stop him now!"
Gunfire cracked.
Bang-bang-bang!
Bullets poured down from the three blockading sloops.
But the wind was too strong. Their muskets' slow bullets twisted midair, turned back, and slammed into their own crews. Several pirates dropped, screaming.
Meanwhile—
"Release the spore disruptors."
Jin's voice was calm as he activated the Carrier. Clouds of colored gas hissed outward, blanketing the waters in a psychedelic haze.
Mushroom spores.
A living smokescreen.
BOOOOM!
Genesis plowed into the blockade. The central sloop split apart instantly, its hull shredded like paper, scattering men and timbers. Those who fell were dragged screaming into the Carrier's maw. The other two were swallowed whole as its flanks yawned open with monstrous jaws.
Behind the spore fog, no one saw the truth.
When the haze finally cleared, the three ships had vanished. Only broken planks remained, bobbing helplessly in the current, rushing upward with the stream.
And through it all, the Genesis sailed unscathed.
"They… they destroyed them!"
"What just happened?!"
"Three ships, gone in an instant—shattered?"
"Too brutal!"
"So that's why he dared bet a hundred million?"
"What the hell is that man's background…"
On the cliffs, countless pirates gaped in shock.
The pursuers from behind slowed, cowed by what they had seen. None dared close the distance.
Inside the Carrier, battle erupted.
Wilson and his squad waded into the swallowed pirates. Blades rang, cries echoed, blood splashed.
It wasn't that the Carrier couldn't digest them itself. But Jin wanted his men to sharpen their steel. Real combat was irreplaceable. It was one of the very reasons he had joined the death tournament.
With the path clear, the Genesis surged upward with the current, climbing the mountain river. Cheers echoed from pirates and residents perched along the cliffs, watching the Death Tournament unfold.
Soon, other ships came into view along converging streams.
The Flying Shark, with the killer whale Fishman Willy at its helm, a colossal ramming prow gleaming at its bow, built to smash ships apart.
The Fisherman, manned by the giant brothers Bobby and Boch—one heaving at the sails, the other steady at the rudder, their immense frames dwarfing the vessel.
And most fearsome of all—the Salamander.
Gasparde's flagship. A steam-powered battleship larger than any other, belching thick smoke from its tall chimney. Its sails still bore the Navy's insignia, slashed across with a blood-red "X" like a scar of betrayal.
"Still afloat, are you?"
At the prow, Gasparde narrowed his eyes at the grinning skull flag. Niedes's failure gnawed at him, but his expression remained calm.
No one knew—he was the architect of the Death Tournament itself. A game born of boredom, a hunt through which he plucked worthy lieutenants from the seas. Niedes himself had once clawed his way up here.
"Let's see what you can do, little upstart." His confidence radiated.
"Careful! All the streams are converging—don't crash!"
The surging torrents slammed together, drawing every ship into a single river near the mountain's peak. The vessels hurtled close—dangerously close.
By custom, no one struck yet.
Not until—
The river spilled over the summit, cascading down in a one-hundred-meter waterfall into a vast river on the far side.
One after another, ships stalled in midair, then plunged, smashing into the waters below with explosive splashes.
Some unlucky ones struck rock and shattered instantly.
The survivors wasted no time. Cannons roared, blades clashed, and the race transformed into chaos. Ships tried to accelerate, outpace, annihilate.
The true contest had begun.
Gunpowder smoke spread thick. Fire blazed across the waters.
And at the center of it all, Genesis became the prime target. Every cannon, every musket, every desperate eye turned upon it.
"Full speed ahead. Out to sea first. Then we'll play with them."
Jin's voice held no fear. Only iron confidence.
Huuuuum…
Genesis released a low, reverberating roar. It was no sound of machine, but a living bellow, like the song of a leviathan from the abyssal depths.
"What was that sound?!"
"Gods, it chills the blood…"
"Sea King… is it a Sea King?!"
"My skin's crawling just hearing it!"
Panic and awe rippled through the pirates.
The Carrier's engines thundered. Steam erupted from its pipes. The great propellers churned, hurling the disguised vessel forward like a beast uncaged.
In an instant, it streaked past a dozen ships, bursting into open ocean. The flag shrank into the horizon, leaving only a vanishing silhouette of its sail.
"So fast!"
"What… what ship is that?!"
Gasparde's expression hardened. He hadn't even reacted in time before being left behind. That vessel—its speed was no bluff.
"A worthy opponent at last." His eyes gleamed with predatory light.
"Tell the boiler room—full power. Don't let him escape."
"Yes, Captain!"