All those random pirate grunts were stationed around the perimeter, and so was the Buggy Cannon. This meant they could carry out Buggy's orders extremely quickly.
And once they had done so, they could immediately duck behind the cannon to avoid getting caught in the blast themselves.
In the anime, the fuse on the Buggy Cannon was ridiculously long.
But in reality, a fuse is something you can adjust at any time. If you want a quick shot, you just cut the fuse shorter.
Like right now.
The pirate grunt only needed to stick a fuse about the length of his thumb into the cannon, light it, and the cannon would fire within seconds.
And in that brief time window, it was impossible for Lin Bei and the others to dodge.
Because the blast radius of this cannon was simply too huge. Just a moment ago, an entire row of small villas had been completely blown away; it was obvious how wide the impact area was.
Therefore, seeing this situation unfold, the members of the Straw Hat Pirates all panicked.
Zoro's speed was very fast, but even he wasn't confident he could kill the cannoneer and snuff out the fuse before it ignited, because the fuse was just too short.
As for Luffy, if he had learned Gear Second by now, he might have had a chance of succeeding.
But right now, Nami could only think of one thing.
"Run!"
Even if running meant they still might die, not running meant certain death!
But at this moment, Lin Bei raised an eyebrow. Earlier, they hadn't let him lift a finger, but now, in this life-or-death crisis, wasn't it his turn to step up and shine?
"No need! Leave it to me."
Zoro and Nami's expressions changed instantly. But looking at the situation, it seemed that only Lin Bei's weird ability could break the deadlock.
Nami bit her lip and immediately sat down.
"Go ahead!"
Rather than wait until her legs went weak and she involuntarily ended up on her knees, she'd rather sit down beforehand.
Zoro clearly had the same idea.
"Just this once!
"All you need to do is give me an opening. I'll go cut them down!"
Lin Bei raised an eyebrow at Zoro.
If you're completely stiff, can you really carry the gun in your pants and still cut people down?
I kinda want to see that. It's just a pity that using THAT right now wouldn't have a very good effect.
Too bad using that ability right now wouldn't be very effective.
He had a stronger move.
Under the confused gazes of the entire Buggy Pirates, Lin Bei made a motion like he was throwing a discus.
Then an invisible field instantly spread out from his body!
The gunner didn't even have time to light the fuse.
He simply collapsed onto his knees.
"I... I'm just trash. I don't deserve to be a person..."
The gunner's face was filled with sorrow, his entire being seemingly drowning in negative emotions.
And he wasn't the only one.
Everyone else was the same.
Zoro and Nami had been defending against the wrong kind of attack.
What Lin Bei had used was a new direction he had discovered for his superpower.
Emotional Manipulation · Despair!
Zoro supported himself with both hands against the ground, tears streaming down his face.
"I'll never become the world's greatest swordsman... I couldn't even save Kuina. What kind of man am I? What kind of man..."
A moment ago, Buggy had been roaring arrogantly and ordering everyone around.
Now he was kneeling on the ground in despair.
"I shouldn't have been born... making people look at my red nose. Why did everyone have to see my red nose... I just want to die... I couldn't even go see Raftel. Man, I wanna die..."
Hey, don't drop that here!
Nami, who was already sitting down, had curled up into a corner and was now drawing circles in the dirt.
"I should have died alongside Bell-mère. Saving up 100 million berries... it's just so tiring. It would have been better to die with Bell-mère. If I died, I wouldn't have anything to worry about anymore..."
Luffy was the most ridiculous of all.
He was kneeling on the ground, muttering that he should have become a slug.
That's right, this was the new application of the superpower [Divine Muscles].
This ability was never limited to the scandalous maneuver of forcing everyone around him to climax. In reality, moving different muscles could affect different emotions in the people around him.
This time, the emotion Lin Bei had triggered was despair.
If Lin Bei exerted just a bit more force, he could make this entire group so deeply pessimistic that they would instantly go kill themselves.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do that.
It was an indiscriminate, area-of-effect attack. If he made the effect too strong, Luffy and the others would die along with everyone else.
So once he confirmed that nobody was capable of lighting the cannon, he canceled the ability.
But there was no way everyone could recover from such intense despair immediately.
And that led to some rather interesting scenes.
Take Zoro, for example.
One second, he was shouting that he should follow Kuina into the afterlife.
The next, he fell into deep thought, his expression almost adorably blank as he wondered why the hell he'd ever had such a thought in the first place.
Eventually, after completely coming back to his senses, he drew his sword and pressed it against Lin Bei's neck.
"You bastard! Go die!"
Nami was no different.
It only took her a few minutes to go from questioning her entire existence to wanting to smash Lin Bei over the head with her staff.
"You bastard! Wasn't your ability the other thing?! How did you change it again?!"
Lin Bei raised both hands innocently and looked toward the sky.
"I never said my ability only affected one kind of emotion~"
"By the way, Zoro, if you don't go handle the situation over there soon, I'll have to use my ability one more time~"
Following the direction of Lin Bei's reminder, Zoro took a look.
Sure enough, the little pirate who was supposed to light the cannon was incredibly loyal; after receiving the order and then getting completely derailed for all this time, he still remembered he was supposed to light the cannon!
This immediately caused Zoro to lower the sword from Lin Bei's neck and charge straight ahead.
Zoro suddenly realized something: As long as he cut down this mob of scrubs fast enough, he wouldn't die.
Neither physically nor socially.
And so, in this exact moment, Zoro's speed actually experienced a breakthrough!
Although, while absorbed in battle, he completely failed to notice it.
Dragon Twister
Three Sword Style: Tatsumaki!
This was essentially Zoro's strongest area-clearing move in the early stages of his journey. Compared to Oni Giri, which was the strongest single-target attack early on, Tatsumaki was pure AOE (Area of Effect) damage.
With a single move, he wiped out half of the Buggy Pirates' forces.
At this point, Buggy should have been absolutely furious, practically itching to tear Zoro apart.
But he didn't move.
Instead, he stared at Lin Bei with deep wariness.
That kid is definitely a Devil Fruit user too!
And his Devil Fruit is probably one of those ridiculously broken ones!
What was a broken Devil Fruit?
The Hobby-Hobby Fruit, for example, was one.
Because no matter how strong you were, once its ability took effect on you, it simply worked.
In Buggy's mind, Lin Bei's Devil Fruit was exactly that kind of ability.
It didn't matter how strong he was; as long as Lin Bei's ability affected him, he'd end up on his knees crying.
If that guy used it again, Buggy would undoubtedly kneel, and these brats could easily finish him off.
Therefore, Buggy decided that he had to kill Lin Bei first; the rest could be dealt with later.
Especially that swordsman. As far as Buggy was concerned, swordsmen were the most pathetic kind of fighter.
With this in mind, Buggy decided to launch a sneak attack. After his hand and body separated, his hand could fly around completely silently.
His current base was on a rooftop, meaning he could easily send his hand flying low out of sight, circle all the way around to Lin Bei's back, and deliver a vicious, stealthy backstab!
For all of this to work, he just needed someone to stall the swordsman and the rubber kid.
"Cabaji! Go block that Straw Hat kid! Looking at that hat pisses me off; go kill him! I will personally handle this swordsman!"