In an instant, he unleashed hundreds of Finger Pistols in rapid succession, his fingers creating countless afterimages in the air as they pressed down on Ivan.
Lucci was brimming with confidence—this was a technique that far surpassed human limits, one that could only be used after entering the Life Return state.
During a mission once, he had used this very move to kill a pirate with a bounty of 230 million berries. Now, he wanted to see how this Tanuki would counter it!
Each Finger Pistol could easily pierce through rock, let alone the combined power of hundreds unleashed in rapid succession.
Yet, faced with such a terrifying assault, Lucci noticed that Ivan showed no intention of dodging.
Lucci was puzzled. "What's going on with this guy? Can't he dodge? Given his strength, he should be able to."
But then he saw it—Ivan's fist was coated in a layer of black as it swung toward him!
"Fist Bone: Ordinary Punch!"
Back in the East Sea, Garp had used this move to test his strength. True to its name, it was nothing more than a casual punch from Garp.
Now, Ivan was using the same move against Lucci—not for any special reason, but because dealing with Lucci required nothing more than an ordinary punch.
Unaware of Ivan's thoughts, Lucci only knew that this careless Ivan was about to be struck by his Finger Pistols.
In that moment, Ivan's body would be riddled with countless wounds, leading to instant death!
However, the moment Ivan's fist collided with Finger Gun: Speckle, Rob Lucci realized things were completely different from what he had expected.
His Finger Pistols, which could easily pierce steel, fractured upon contact with Ivan's fist. The seemingly endless barrage of speckles was shattered outright.
One of his strongest techniques, honed over years of study, was as fragile as a bubble—bursting at the slightest touch!
Ivan's punch struck Lucci's chest, sending his body flying backward like a blur.
"Ahhhh, I refuse to accept this!" From the rubble where he was sent flying, Lucci stood up abruptly, his body rapidly expanding and then contracting.
He pushed his remaining energy to the limit, ready for a desperate struggle!
Clenching his fists and pressing them together in a rhinoceros-horn stance, he roared, "I don't believe the gap between us is this vast! Life Return: Paper Drawing Martial Body: Six King Gun!"
Lucci shattered the ground beneath his feet, piercing through the air like a yellow streak of light as he charged toward Ivan, resembling a sharp spear aimed to impale him.
Yet, Ivan's reaction only fueled Lucci's rage further—he wasn't even paying attention to him, his gaze shifting away from Lucci and toward the sky.
This pushed Lucci over the edge. "You bastard! There's a limit to looking down on people! Die!"
Boom!
The Six King Gun struck Ivan, but this time, Ivan didn't attack or even dodge.
In the next moment, the sound of bones breaking echoed—Lucci's arm bones shattered completely, his arms hanging limply like two strands of noodles.
When Lucci slowly looked up and saw that Ivan showed no signs of injury whatsoever, he was utterly despaired. "How is this possible? How can the gap be this immense?"
Lucci's attack was not without effect; he successfully drew Ivan's attention.
Ivan looked down, pulling Lucci up by the head:
"Lucci, at the age of 13, you slaughtered over five hundred captured soldiers to carry out a mission, all because you believed weakness was a sin. So now, are you beyond redemption?"
Lucci gave no response. That last blow had completely extinguished what little remained of his spirit, leaving him no different from a walking corpse.
Seeing Lucci in this state, Ivan shook his head, intending to finish him off immediately.
However, at that moment, a rather sleazy yet overwhelmingly oppressive voice rang out behind Ivan:
"I say, young man, could you put him down? Although he and I aren't from the same department, I'd be quite troubled if he died."
Upon hearing this, Ivan stiffened, every cell in his body screaming with a sense of intense danger, as if he were standing on the edge of an abyss, one misstep away from falling into an endless void.
He slowly turned around to see a sleazy man with curly hair, dressed in a yellow-and-white suit, standing behind him.
This man stood a full three meters tall, giving Ivan an unprecedented sense of peril, as if he could be killed by this man at any moment.
And he was none other than one of the Marine's three strongest forces, Admiral Kizaru!
Facing Kizaru, Ivan felt not fear but growing excitement.
The reason he hadn't immediately finished off Rob Lucci was precisely because he had learned from Iceberg that Kizaru was on his way.
He needed to wait for Kizaru, to fight him!
He not only required the terrifying pressure Kizaru would bring to help him awaken Observation Haki but also needed Kizaru as a stepping stone to gain greater fame and increase the Approval Rating of his Homelander Template.
Ivan did not immediately answer Kizaru's question. Instead, he asked, "Kizaru, are you aware of Rob Lucci's past actions?"
Kizaru sighed helplessly. If not necessary, he really didn't want to fight someone like this.
But he was, after all, a Marine, and he understood the power of the World Government better than anyone else. Rather than letting these self-proclaimed righteous individuals throw the world into chaos, it was better to maintain the status quo.
"Young man, this world is complicated—not simply black and white. Most of it is a shade of gray. Your kind of justice is too cruel for this world. It's better to maintain the status quo.
So, young man, could you let him go?"
Ivan shook his head. He had long anticipated Kizaru's choice, and he was even surprised that Kizaru had spoken to him like this.
However, Kizaru lacked the confidence to overthrow this world because he didn't have the power to do so.
But Ivan, with his system, was certain that once he grew stronger, he would have absolute confidence!
So Ivan's response was…
He gripped Rob Lucci's head tightly and exerted force, attempting to crush it.
At the same time, Kizaru's Observation Haki caught this action, and he instantly raised his foot, kicking toward Ivan.
Yet when the laser kick struck, it only hit an afterimage, while Ivan's true body appeared dozens of meters away.
In Ivan's hand, Lucci's head was completely crushed.
Rob Lucci, hailed as the Cipher Pol's strongest genius in eight hundred years, was officially declared dead!
Witnessing this, Kizaru's perpetually composed expression finally faltered.
What just happened? Why did Tanuki suddenly appear over there?
Even Kizaru's Observation Haki couldn't capture this process!
At this moment, Kizaru finally realized that things had developed beyond his expectations. He suddenly understood that his mission was likely to fail—if Tanuki possessed long-range teleportation abilities, it would be nearly impossible to keep him here!
Thud!
Ivan threw Rob Lucci's corpse toward Kizaru. The body hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Facing Kizaru, who was now finally looking at him with a serious expression, Ivan laughed mockingly, "What bullshit 'gray'—it's just a deformed result born out of desperation! And we of the Night Garden will hunt down all shadows. In the end, there will only be white, no black!"
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