A few more days had passed since Carlo officially joined the Rocks Pirates.
Inside an independent courtyard of over a thousand square meters behind Skull Mountain.
Carlo, shirtless and revealing a lean, powerful Physique, was performing his daily physical training.
He was upside down.
Using only the index finger of his right hand against the ground, he performed handstand push-ups, rising and falling.
On the soles of his feet, a seven or eight-meter-high rockery was surprisingly supported.
This was originally a decoration in the yard, weighing over twenty tons.
Lacking training equipment, Carlo had taken it as a substitute.
Supporting this twenty-plus ton irregular weight, he performed single-finger handstand push-ups.
Sixty repetitions per minute.
Carlo had already been training here for an hour.
The sweat dripping from his body had long since soaked the ground beneath him.
When the 3,600th repetition was finished, he gave a thrust with both feet.
The seven or eight-meter-high rockery was tossed high as if it were weightless, then crashed onto the ground in the corner with a boom, shaking the roof tiles of the house in the courtyard and causing several to fall.
"Shut up, Carlo! You bastard, messing around here again first thing in the morning, disturbing my sleep!!"
A loud, resentful voice rang out from next door, just like yesterday.
Dull footsteps approached.
Before long, a burly figure with horns appeared over Carlo's wall, looking at him with an unfriendly expression.
Who else could it be but Kaido?
Just like the residence Carlo had been assigned.
The place next door was also an independent courtyard.
It was just that the area was about half the size of Carlo's.
After officially joining the Rocks Pirates that day.
Because he had defeated the Senior Combatant Gan Sui.
His status in the pirate group naturally became that of a Senior Combatant, just like Gan Sui.
And it was only at the level of a Senior Combatant that one truly gained Rocks' high regard.
Not only was there a generous monthly salary to be collected.
One could also receive a considerable share of the various profits and revenues from the entire pirate group.
Given the Rocks Pirates' current massive scale, Carlo's rough estimate of the amount left even him speechless.
As a Senior Combatant, he could receive an astonishing fortune of at least one billion berries every year from the Rocks Pirates!
In addition, he received an independent courtyard residence in the core area of the Rocks Pirates on Hachinosu.
Such generous treatment was even more exaggerated than being an Admiral at Marineford.
It was no wonder so many pirates were desperate to join Rocks.
As a newcomer, Carlo had obtained such high status and treatment, which would undoubtedly make many pirates green with envy.
Kaido, however, was not as fortunate as him.
Having been defeated by Maron stepping on his face, he could originally only become an Intern for the Rocks Pirates.
However, seeing as he had killed Samuro at Rocky Port, Rocks gave him the status of a Junior Combatant.
What?
You want to ask why Rocks not only didn't punish Kaido for destroying Rocky Port and killing Samuro, but even gave him benefits?
This was Rocks' style of doing things.
It was also a default rule within the Rocks Pirates.
The rule was simple!
Might makes right! Whoever has the bigger fist makes the rules and takes the most!
Rocks was the boss; he valued Kaido and was willing to destroy Rocky Port to recruit him—that was his prerogative!
Samuro lacked strength and was killed by Kaido; that could only be blamed on his own bad luck.
This law of the jungle would not change just because they were all companions.
Therefore, the pirates within the Rocks Pirates were not actually united.
Whether it was the top-tier Division Captains—Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and Big Mom—
Or the low-level pirate grunts, they all maintained a superficial relationship of mutual competition, ready to strike at each other at any moment.
Rocks used this relationship of mutual restraint and competition among members to control the entire pirate group.
But it was precisely because of this "raising venomous insects" style that so many strong individuals emerged from the Rocks Pirates.
However, Samuro's death did not come without some downsides for Kaido and Carlo.
Samuro was Golden Lion's subordinate.
Carlo and Kaido killing him was equivalent to offending Golden Lion.
Currently, because of Rocks' instructions, it was not convenient for Golden Lion to move against them.
Otherwise, they probably would have been hunted or even killed by Golden Lion the day they arrived at Hachinosu.
Additionally, there was one more point worth mentioning.
It was the Division Captain system within the Rocks Pirates.
Within the Rocks Pirates, the Captain, Commodore Rocks, was undoubtedly the greatest.
Below Rocks, a Division Captain system was established.
It was used to manage the pirate group's external looting and wars.
Currently, there were four Division Captains in total.
They were:
The first division captain, Whitebeard Edward Newgate.
The second division captain, Golden Lion Shiki.
The Third Division Captain, Big Mom.
The Fourth Division Captain, Wang Zhi.
As for Gloriosa, Gan Sui, Maron, and the others, they were all Senior Combatants.
To become a Division Captain, one either had to be directly appointed by Rocks,
Or fight their way up!
But one could not skip ranks to challenge.
For example, if Carlo wanted to become the Fourth Division Captain, he would first have to defeat all the other Senior Combatants to earn the right to challenge the current Fourth Division Captain, Wang Zhi.
Only after defeating Wang Zhi and becoming the Fourth Division Captain would he gain the right to challenge the Third Division Captain, Big Mom.
And so on.
The rules were simple and crude, but also bloody and cruel!
This also showed how much weight Whitebeard's position as the first division captain of the Rocks Pirates carried.
"Wang Zhi?"
Carlo recalled Wang Zhi, whom he had seen in the hall that day.
Wang Zhi's strength didn't seem that great.
At least, he didn't give off the crushing sense of power that the three Division Captains—Big Mom, Golden Lion, and Whitebeard—did.
If he wanted to climb up and become a Division Captain, this was the first guy he would have to challenge.
"Hey! You bastard Carlo! Did you hear what I said!"
From the top of the wall, Kaido's persistent roar came again.
Carlo's face darkened, and with a flash of his body, he instantly vanished from the spot.
Kaido was startled and quickly prepared his defenses.
But Carlo's speed was even faster than he had anticipated.
The air beside him fluctuated violently, and a fierce force came charging at him!
Carlo's figure emerged, a punch aimed straight at Kaido's face.
"You want to fight? Who's afraid of who! Come on!" Kaido raised his hand and threw a punch back.
Neither of their fists was infused with Armament Haki; they collided simply and plainly in mid-air.
"Boom!"
A dull explosion erupted in Kaido's courtyard.
Kaido then let out a muffled groan, staggered back a few steps, his face flushed as his blood surged.
Carlo, on the other hand, used the recoil to drift lightly back into his own courtyard.
"Physique +0.01."
Looking at the Physique increase value appearing in his mind, Carlo shook his head in disappointment.
As expected, the current Kaido was no longer able to make his Physique surge significantly.
Of course, there was another reason: Carlo's own accumulation was not yet sufficient.
Even if Whitebeard or Rocks were to come, they might not be able to significantly increase his Physique.
Rocks' Haki Entanglement slash from a few days ago hadn't even increased his Physique attribute by 0.01.
The reason his attributes had surged so much during his last fight with Kaido was that he had previously hit a bottleneck.
The life-and-death struggle with Kaido had simply allowed Carlo to break through that bottleneck, causing his strength to explode.
Now that the bottleneck was passed, he had entered a transition period of steady improvement.
Naturally, the speed of improvement had slowed down.
After all, his system wasn't the kind of "get-hit-to-get-stronger" system.
Enraged at being pushed back by a single punch, Kaido grabbed the spiked club from the ground, ready to fight again.
Just then, a pirate ran over hurriedly, looking at the two of them with some fear, and shouted nervously, "My lords, Captain Rocks wants you to go to the Meeting Hall to see him.""