The room fell silent.
Only Kairos' voice remained.
"Where's Mr. 0?"
Mr. 1 forced himself to stay calm.
"You're looking for Mr. 0?"
Even while speaking, his eyes never stopped tracking the steel wires surrounding him.
His muscles stayed tense.
His mind raced.
Searching for even the smallest opening.
"I'm not interested in wasting time."
Kairos' crimson eyes darkened slightly.
The moment his voice fell—
the steel wires tightened.
Mr. 1's pupils contracted.
One thin silver wire stopped less than half a centimeter from his eye.
Cold sweat slid down his face instantly.
This wasn't pressure anymore.
It was death hanging directly in front of him.
The entire room had frozen stiff.
Mr. 3 secretly tried to release wax from his palms, hoping to dull the wires.
But the moment the wax touched them—
Shhk.
It split apart cleanly.
Mr. 5 didn't dare move at all.
At this distance, even if his explosion destroyed the wires, he would blow himself apart first.
Ms. Goldenweek wanted to use her colors.
But her fingers wouldn't obey her.
Everyone else was the same.
The wires had completely locked down the room.
"We really don't know where Mr. 0 is."
Mr. 1 finally exhaled heavily.
The last trace of resistance disappeared from his voice.
The moment Kairos entered this room unnoticed—
they had already lost.
Kairos stared at him quietly for several seconds.
Then—
he slowly sheathed Shichiten Shichitou.
Click.
The blade slid fully back into the sheath.
Mr. 1's heart trembled.
He's… letting us go?
For a brief second, even he felt disbelief.
The infamous Kairos—
the man rumored to slaughter people without hesitation—
was sparing them?
Then—
Mr. 1's body suddenly jerked violently.
Splurt!
Blood exploded from his stomach.
His eyes widened in shock.
His hands instinctively pressed against the wound, but blood continued pouring through his fingers.
Only then did he understand.
Kairos sheathing the blade was never restraint.
It was the attack itself.
Shhk!
All the stretched steel wires snapped back toward Kairos at once like silver lightning.
And during that instant—
every wire became a blade.
The room erupted into streaks of silver light.
Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!
Blood sprayed across the walls.
Across the table.
Across the hanging lamps.
The dim room instantly filled with the metallic smell of blood.
One by one, the Baroque Works agents collapsed.
Not dead.
But none of them could still fight.
Kairos stood quietly in the center of the room.
The crimson glow in his eyes gradually faded.
Shichiten Shichitou dissolved into particles of light and disappeared from his hand.
Then he casually dusted off his black coat.
As though nothing important had just happened.
He turned and opened the door.
Sunlight poured into the dark room, illuminating the agents lying in spreading pools of blood.
Without another glance, Kairos stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
The system notifications immediately rang out inside his head.
"Ding! Host defeated Mr. 1 Daz Bones. Reward obtained: Miyamoto Musashi Card — Fate/stay night Version, 1 Use."
"Ding! Host defeated Mr. 3 Galdino. Reward obtained: Sasaki Kojiro Card — Fate/stay night Version, 1 Use."
"Ding! Host defeated Miss Goldenweek Marianne. Reward obtained: Himura Kenshin Card — Rurouni Kenshin Version, 1 Use."
Several more notifications followed.
Mostly Himura Kenshin cards.
That finally brought the total to ten.
Enough for a permanent upgrade.
Kairos' eyes flickered slightly.
Then the next notification arrived.
"Ding! Host defeated Miss Valentine Mikita. Reward obtained: Pleasant Goat Card — Knife-Wielding Version, 1 Use."
Kairos stopped walking.
"…What?"
He genuinely suspected something had gone wrong inside the system.
Pleasant Goat?
And now there was even a knife-wielding version?
At this rate, was the system planning to make him collect the entire Prairie Three Swordsmen lineup?
Kairos suddenly went silent.
Then a dangerous thought surfaced in his mind.
Honestly speaking…
that actually sounded kind of interesting.
Fortunately, the next system notification interrupted his train of thought before it spiraled further into nonsense.
"Ding! Host has accumulated 10 Himura Kenshin Cards — Rurouni Kenshin Version."
"Upgrade conditions fulfilled."
"Himura Kenshin Card upgraded to Permanent Card."
"Reward drawing…"
"Drawing successful."
"Host obtained skill: Hiten Mitsurugi Style Ultimate Technique — Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki."
Kairos' eyebrows lifted slightly.
Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki.
The strongest technique of the Hiten Mitsurugi Style.
A divine-speed sword-drawing strike beyond ordinary reaction speed.
The first strike generated vacuum pressure powerful enough to drag the enemy inward.
The second strike used rotational force to deliver the true killing blow.
A terrifying technique.
Kairos was satisfied.
Very satisfied.
Still—
another problem quickly returned to his mind.
Where exactly was Crocodile?
That was the annoying part.
At this point in time, even the original story never clearly stated where Crocodile stayed most often.
Rainbase had originally been Kairos' best guess.
But Rain Dinners didn't exist yet.
And without Rain Dinners, Crocodile had no reason to remain there constantly.
Which meant—
finding him in a country as massive as Alabasta would not be easy at all.
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