"Crunch."
Deadpool chewed on an apple, juice splattering everywhere.
He tilted his head, his white eye-mask shifting to form exaggerated expressions as his facial muscles moved. He pointed down at the dumbstruck crowd, his tone sounding as if he had just reunited with a long-lost father.
"Whoa! Look at this turnout! Is this a welcome for me? I can feel your enthusiasm, really, it's even more intense than the feeling I get when I get a stomachache at a taco shop in Mexico."
He tossed the half-eaten apple core behind him, hitting Barker's hideous head with precision.
Barker didn't move, a low, rumbling growl emanating from his throat like a meat grinder in standby mode.
On the dock, Captain Galen's face twitched, his iron hook slicing through the air with a cold glint.
"Where did this lunatic come from? Get down here!"
"A lunatic?"
Deadpool clutched his chest with both hands, feigning heartbreak, his body twisting like a pretzel on Barker's broad shoulders.
"How can you say that? I'm a young gentleman who upholds love and peace, and I moonlight as a World Destroyer. Besides..."
He suddenly pointed at Galen's messy beard.
"Buddy, are you hiding a dead rat in your beard? I can smell it. Or is this your unique body odor? If it's the latter, I suggest you stay away from me. I'm a germaphobe, even though I just rolled around in a pile of dead bodies."
A commotion rippled through the crowd.
This guy must be crazy.
The Man in Sunglasses, an executive of the family, frowned, slowly raising his flintlock, the dark muzzle aimed at the red freak.
"No matter who you are, if you dare to cause trouble on Iron Fang Island, there's only one outcome."
Bang!
The muzzle spat fire.
The lead bullet streaked through the air in a straight line, striking Deadpool squarely between the eyebrows.
Pfft.
Blood splattered.
Deadpool's head snapped back, his body losing balance, and he tumbled off the three-meter-tall giant's shoulder like a ragdoll.
With a thud, he landed face-down on the sawdust-covered pier.
The whole scene went silent.
"Tch, turns out he's just a waste of space who can only talk big."
Galen spat disdainfully and retracted his iron hook. "And here I thought he was some big shot, but he went down with one shot."
The surrounding pirates also breathed a sigh of relief; that eerie atmosphere had truly given them the creeps.
"Boys! Get up there and take that ship for me..."
Before Galen could finish his sentence, the red figure lying on the ground suddenly twitched.
Immediately after, a finger stood up.
Then, the entire palm pressed against the ground.
Deadpool slowly climbed to his feet, reaching up to pick at the bullet hole in his forehead.
Clink.
A deformed lead bullet was pried out and flicked away carelessly.
The bullet hole, which had still been bleeding, healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, leaving not even a scar.
"Damn it! Who shot me just now?"
Deadpool shouted at the crowd, "Don't you know you shouldn't hit a man in the face? I spent a fortune on this handsome face! Even though it's hidden by a mask now, it's about inner beauty, get it?"
Hiss—
A collective gasp echoed across the dock.
He didn't die after being shot in the head?
What kind of monster is this?
"A Devil Fruit user?" The Man in Sunglasses' expression changed, and he immediately took two steps back to reload his ammunition.
"Correct! Too bad there's no prize!"
Deadpool drew two katanas from his back, their blades glinting coldly in the dim light.
He bent his knees slightly, striking an incredibly embarrassing starting stance.
"Now, it's Deadpool's show time! Cue the music—oh wait, this dump doesn't have BGM. Then let's make some screaming sounds of our own to liven things up!"
Before he finished speaking, he turned into a red blur and charged out.
At the same time, the giant Barker standing at the bow of the ship let out a deafening roar.
"Roar—!!!"
This roar was like a horn for the attack.
Those zombie pirates, who had originally stood blankly at the edge of the deck, began jumping off the ship like dumplings being dropped into a pot, roaring as they lunged at the nearest living people.
"Fire! Open fire quickly!"
Galen panicked, swinging his iron hook wildly.
Bang, bang, bang!
Gunfire erupted.
Dense bullets hit the zombies, bursting into clouds of blood mist.
But this couldn't stop the monsters' advance at all.
A zombie had its stomach blown open by a shotgun, intestines spilling all over the ground, but it still dragged its half-body, crawling and biting onto a pirate's calf.
"Ahhh! Let go! Get off me!"
The pirate screamed, raising his sword to hack wildly at the zombie's head.
Only when the head was hacked to pieces did the zombie stop moving.
But before he could catch his breath, he suddenly felt an intense burning sensation at the wound.
His veins turned black, and his vision began to blur.
In just a few seconds, he joined the ranks of the roaring, turning to lunge at his own companions.
"What the hell are these things!"
Galen kicked away a lunging zombie and turned to run.
But suddenly, a red mask appeared in front of him.
Deadpool was standing in front of him before he knew it, holding the blood-dripping katana in his hand.
"Where are you going, Beardy?"
Deadpool said with a grin, "The party has just begun. As the host, how can you leave early?"
"Get lost!"
Galen roared, Armament Haki coating his iron hook, and smashed it fiercely at Deadpool's head.
Clang!
Sparks flew.
Deadpool held the sword with one hand, casually blocking the powerful blow.
"Good strength, but the technique is too sloppy."
Deadpool's other hand shot out, two fingers stabbing directly at Galen's eyes.
"Double Dragon Plays with Pearls!"
"Ah!"
Galen screamed and retreated, blood seeping through the gaps in his hands as he covered his eyes.
"Despicable! Shameless!"
"Thanks for the compliment, that's my motto."
Deadpool slid forward, a flash of the blade.
Galen's pride-and-joy iron-hook arm flew into the air.
Blood sprayed all over Deadpool.
"Oh yeah! Red really is the most flattering color!"
Deadpool excitedly spun around and took the opportunity to kick the screaming Galen into the pile of zombies.
"Enjoy it, this is a buffet I specially prepared for you."
Several zombies instantly pounced, submerging Galen.
The screaming only lasted a few seconds before turning into a hair-raising chewing sound.
"Ding! Extreme despair detected from Galen, astonishment value +150!"
"Ding! Panic detected in the surroundings, astonishment value +300!"
The notification sounds in his mind rang incessantly like a cash register.
Bai Yu smiled happily under Deadpool's mask.
This chaos, this fear, was exactly what he wanted.
On the other side, the Man in Sunglasses was retreating while fighting with a squad of musketeers.
After all, he was an executive of the Donquixote Family, and his knowledge was far broader than these bumpkin pirates.
Watching those monsters that knew no pain, rose from the dead, and could spread a curse through biting, a name surfaced in his mind.
"Shadows... corpses... no pain..."
The Man in Sunglasses' pupils contracted sharply, and he exclaimed involuntarily:
"Could it be... Gekko Moriah?!"
"This is a zombie army! That Seven Warlords of the Sea actually dares to reach into the Young Master's territory!"
The surrounding pirates turned even paler upon hearing this name.
Seven Warlords of the Sea!
They were some of the top predators on this great sea. How could they be so unlucky as to end up in a conflict between two Shichibukai?