Sabaody Archipelago.
Shakky's Rip-off Bar.
"Yo, if it isn't little Shanks. I heard you recently got scammed so badly you almost went bankrupt?"
Shakky began teasing the moment the door opened and she saw who had walked in.
When Shanks had met with Dragon last time, she had overheard every word of their conversation. Combined with the intelligence that had arrived a few days ago...
Actually, when Shakky first saw that report, she had nearly died of laughter.
A dignified Four Emperor had been scammed by a Marine brat who wasn't even seventeen yet. And that brat had nearly stripped a Four Emperor of his entire fortune.
If this news ever reached Morgans, he would probably run a frantic special feature series on the topic for at least three consecutive issues of the newspaper.
"Auntie Shakky, you can't blame me. The problem is that kid is just..."
"Hmm? Is Sean Campbell that strong?"
Shakky frowned slightly. Although her network was vast and she knew about the scam, she wasn't clear on the specific details. She was quite curious as to why someone like Shanks would allow himself to be swindled and obediently hand over 750 million Belly.
"Strong?"
"To be honest, I don't know because he and I didn't actually clash."
"However, his Conqueror's Haki is powerful—perhaps even more powerful than mine!"
"And for some reason, I feel like his Conqueror's Haki is very strange. It should be Conqueror's Haki, yet it feels like it isn't!"
'It should be Conqueror's Haki, but it feels like it isn't?'
What did that even mean?
"Alright, putting his Haki aside, it still doesn't make sense. You've never even fought him, yet you let him scam you just like that?"
"As for that... it's because Sean, or one of his subordinates, possesses a spatial movement Devil Fruit ability. He can deploy a massive amount of troops in an extremely short window of time."
"A spatial teleportation ability?"
"Exactly. I already had the upper hand, and my position was over five hundred miles away from the 16th Branch, but that guy suddenly transported hundreds of soldiers from the 16th Branch right onto me."
"I see. That explains it!"
As soon as she heard this, Shakky understood immediately.
If he could directly teleport the entire force of the 16th Branch to the battlefield, he could naturally teleport the high-level combatants of Marine Headquarters as well. Moreover, the location was within the Calm Belt.
If Sean had actually done that, Shanks would have had almost no chance of victory. Even if Shanks managed to escape, only a handful of members from his entire crew would likely have made it out.
No wonder he obediently paid up.
The kid had essentially held him by the throat.
"Alright, I get the situation. So, what brings you to see me today?"
"Auntie Shakky, before I left, Sean told me something."
"What was it?"
"He said he had no intention of doing anything to Luffy; he simply wanted to deliver him to Garp. He mentioned that Dragon was already aware of this."
"Oh?"
Having spent her entire life dealing in intelligence, Shakky immediately spotted the key point.
Since the plan was to deliver Luffy to Garp, it meant Luffy wouldn't be in any real danger. Yet, despite knowing this, Dragon had still approached Shanks to intervene. What exactly was that man plotting?
"So, what do you plan to do now? Go settle the score with Dragon?"
"No, that's not necessary. While this was quite embarrassing, it gave me a better understanding of who Sean is. In a way, it wasn't entirely a bad thing."
"My, my. A Four Emperor being played for a fool, and you're actually quite composed about it. You're just going to let it go?"
"Of course not. Auntie Shakky, please pass a message to him for me: I can let the matter slide, but the Revolutionary Army must return the 750 million Belly they scammed from me!"
"Fine, I'll deliver the message. Anything else?"
"Nothing else. By the way, where is the First Mate? I didn't see him last time I came, and it's been a while since we've met. I want to have a drink with him before I leave."
"Him..." Shakky's expression turned peculiar. "He drank away his previous wages in a few days. He's gone to make some money!"
"Alright, I'll go check the coating area where the First Mate usually is."
"Little Shanks, he's not there right now!"
"Uh... then where is he?"
"He recently felt that he didn't have enough money, so he came up with a 'brilliant' way to earn some. He put on a slave collar and went to the Human Auction House on Grove 1, waiting for some wealthy buyer to bid for him."
"Uh..."
What kind of move was that?
Shanks was completely stunned.
He puts on a slave collar and pretends to be a slave so people will buy him?
First Mate, you are the Dark King Rayleigh! How could you do something like this?
Suddenly, Shanks felt his entire worldview shattering.
His crewmates always said he was the biggest clown on the high seas. But what the First Mate was doing... even he didn't have the face to stoop that low.
'''
Nightfall.
A man dressed in lavish clothing walked toward the harbor, pulling another man along with an iron chain. Five bodyguards followed closely behind.
This was not an uncommon sight in the Sabaody Archipelago. In fact, almost everyone who emerged from the Human Auction House looked like this.
"Damn it, those bastards tried to outbid me for everything. In the end, I only managed to buy a useless old man."
"If I hadn't invested all my Belly recently—money that I can't withdraw immediately—they wouldn't have dared to be so arrogant!"
Thinking about this made the man even more irritated. He was especially annoyed by the old man he was currently dragging. He had only bid on him because he was fueled by spite after competing with the other buyers.
When the old man had been brought up, the man hadn't even looked closely at him; he had simply shouted a bid of one million Belly to preempt the others. As it turned out, nobody else raised the price, and he had inexplicably spent a million Belly on this guy.
A million Belly was not a fortune, but it was enough to buy a reasonably attractive maid. As for this old man, the man would have turned him down even if he were given for free.
That wasn't even the worst part. The most hateful thing was that after he bought the old man, the entire auction house had laughed at him. It was absolute social suicide.
"Oi, listen up! Once we leave the harbor, tie stones to this old man and throw him into the sea to feed the fish. Do you hear me?"
...
Three seconds passed. There was no response.
"You bastards—"
Having just lost face at the auction, were even his own men refusing to obey orders now?
The man exploded in rage and turned around to scream. However, he had only turned halfway and only managed half a word before he suddenly lost consciousness.
Behind him, the old man grabbed the collar around his neck and squeezed hard, crushing the lock. Then, a split second before the collar could detonate, he flung it away. It exploded more than ten meters away.
After completing this, the old man crouched down and began searching through the pockets of the unconscious men.
"I say, First Mate, what kind of game are you playing here?"
"Alright, Shanks, come over and give me a hand. Our booze money for the next while depends entirely on these guys!"
The old man was none other than the former vice-captain of the legendary Roger Pirates, Rayleigh, known as the Dark King.
He was a true powerhouse of the high seas.
With his profound mastery of Haki, he had known Shanks was trailing him long ago. Consequently, he spoke without even looking up.
Well, what else could Shanks say? With a wry smile, he hurried over to help loot the bodies.
In the end, they managed to scavenge a total of over three million Belly.
'''
Half an hour later, the two appeared inside a bar.
As for why they didn't go to Shakky's for a drink, there was only one reason...
Even with his pockets full, Rayleigh couldn't afford to drink at Shakky's.
Thus, they settled for an ordinary pub. Holding over three million Belly, Rayleigh generously declared that today, no matter how much they drank, it was on him.
Before long, the table was cluttered with empty bottles, and both men were feeling a slight buzz.
"Shanks, are you still pursuing that plan?"
"After all, it is the one thing the Captain failed to complete..."
"Sigh... just let it go," Rayleigh said with a sigh.
He naturally knew what Shanks wanted to do. However, he also knew exactly how difficult it would be to achieve. More importantly, even if it were accomplished, it might not necessarily be a good thing for the world.
But in the next second, Shanks said something that made even Rayleigh's eyes widen in shock.
"Vice-Captain, I've found the most important Fruit!"
"No, I've found one of the other two as well. As for the final one, if it truly is where we speculated—in the hands of the one sitting upon the throne of the Celestial Dragons... then all three Fruits will be complete!"
"At this point, even if I wanted to stop, it would be impossible. If I withdraw and let things develop naturally, I fear the entire situation will spiral out of control. You understand that, don't you, Vice-Captain?"
Rayleigh sighed once more. Since things had reached this stage, what more could he say?
Shanks was right; if he were the one guiding the process, he could at least keep things under a degree of control. If they let events unfold on their own, the tragedy of eight hundred years ago might simply repeat itself.
"Fine, I won't try to talk you out of it. Now, who are those two people?"
"The one who inherits the name of the Sun God is Garp's grandson. His name is Luffy."
"Oh? Garp's grandson? Now that's interesting. And the other one?"
"The one who inherits the Body of the Sun... is the Captain's bloodline. His name is Ace!"
...
"What... Roger's bloodline? He left a child behind?"
"Yes, I only found out about this recently. He's currently a Marine, serving under Sean Campbell in the East Blue."
"Roger, you bastard... you actually calculated this far? You even factored your own biological son into your schemes?"
Rayleigh let out a wry laugh.
He didn't believe for a second that Roger's son had obtained that Fruit by mere coincidence; the probability was far too low—nearly impossible. It was far more likely that Roger had found the Fruit before his death and made arrangements to ensure it would eventually fall into his son's hands.
Come to think of it, whether it was himself, Shanks, Garp, or the Ace Shanks just mentioned, who among them hadn't been led by the nose by Roger?
If Roger hadn't suffered from a terminal illness and run out of time, the entire world would likely be dancing in the palm of his hand.
However, his son hadn't become a pirate, but a Marine instead. That was, to some extent, outside of the man's calculations.
For some reason, the thought brought a sense of pleasure to Rayleigh's heart. After all, he had spent his entire life unable to escape Roger's schemes, yet now there was someone who existed outside of them.
And most importantly, that person was his own son!
Indeed, this was getting interesting.
"Vice-Captain, I encountered Sean during my trip to the East Blue."
"Sean Campbell? I've seen his name in the papers frequently over the past year. I'm curious as well about what kind of man he actually is."
"My impression of him is... that he doesn't fit in with this world."
"Doesn't fit in?"
For a moment, Rayleigh didn't quite grasp what Shanks meant.
"The Conqueror's Haki he uses is fundamentally different from the one I know. It's as if it's a power from another world entirely."
"Furthermore, the Marines he has trained are far stronger than those at Headquarters. Out of over two hundred ordinary Marines, only fifty collapsed under the impact of my Conqueror's Haki. Can you believe that, Vice-Captain?"
...
Did Rayleigh believe him?
Well, he didn't. How could that even be possible?
Against two hundred ordinary Marines, even if Shanks only used twenty or thirty percent of his Conqueror's Haki, it would be enough to knock every single one of them unconscious. How could he use his full power and only drop fifty people?
Could it be that these two hundred men were actually Headquarters officers disguised as ordinary soldiers?
But seeing the absolute seriousness in Shanks' eyes, Rayleigh's heart skipped a beat.
Could it be... that it was actually true?
'''
Sean was unaware of the meeting between Shanks and Rayleigh, nor the contents of their conversation.
At this moment, he was guiding Vivi in the development of her Devil Fruit abilities.
The Suna Suna no Mi was practically tailor-made for Vivi. Although her raw power was still far from Crocodile's, it had to be said... she was utilizing the Fruit in incredibly creative ways.
She had even used the Fruit's power to create corundum sand, which she then used to manifest an "Absolute Defense" similar to Gaara's.
It was absolutely absurd.
Sean had heard of corundum in his previous life. Its hardness was second only to diamond's 10 on the Mohs scale, reaching a staggering 9.5. In other words, with her corundum sand, Vivi's defenses were now second only to Diamond Jozu. In fact, if she implemented multi-layered defenses, her comprehensive defensive capability could completely surpass Jozu's.
And that wasn't all. In terms of offensive moves, Vivi had developed the "Black Storm."
What was the Black Storm? Simply put, it was an enhanced version of a sandstorm—what Sean's previous world would call a severe sandstorm. If she were on her home turf in Alabasta, this move could potentially reach a nation-destroying level.
Of course, Vivi's current foundation was still weak, and she couldn't achieve such a scale yet. But in the future...
Suddenly, Sean realized he had somewhat underestimated Vivi's potential. With his daily feedings of "No. 3 jerky" and the empowerment of the Suna Suna no Mi, Vivi would definitely not stop at the level of a Vice Admiral. Becoming Admiral-tier... or even Four Emperors-tier... might not be impossible.