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Chapter 120is out!!!! +40 advanced chapters monthly
Among the four of them, Sengoku was naturally most worried about Smoker. Although the man had been personally recommended by Aokiji, Sengoku just didn't have much faith in him.
Level 5 of Impel Down was known as the Freezing Hell. The temperature here was catastrophically low, permanently hovering at several dozen degrees below zero.
They had chosen this specific location because the extraordinarily harsh environment made it the perfect crucible for training. There was also a secondary, more pragmatic reason: Impel Down was simply holding too many pirates. They needed to thin the herd.
Officially, executing prisoners without authorization was strictly forbidden. But if Magellan kept his mouth shut, if Baishui and the recruits stayed quiet, and if Sengoku's faction looked the other way... who would ever know? Even if the World Government found out, they would likely just turn a blind eye.
A person can only truly grow by forcing themselves to adapt to the most extreme environments.
"Alright, listen up!" Garp barked. "For the next eighteen months, your only job is to constantly clash with the vicious scum locked up down here. Absorb their combat experience and forge yourselves into something stronger!"
"But don't get cocky. The prisoners aren't the only threats. You've got this hellish weather to deal with, and the packs of Snow Wolves that prowl this level! If you let your guard down and end up half-dead, don't come crying to me! I warned you!"
"Down here in the Freezing Hell, even the smallest scratch can fester into a fatal wound. Watch your own backs!" Garp continued, his booming voice echoing off the icy walls. "Every four days, I'll release four prisoners into the testing grounds. Beat them into submission or kill them—the choice is yours. That being said, if you take lethal damage, don't try to play the tough guy. Nobody's going to laugh at you for tapping out. Report in immediately and get medical treatment. Understood?"
"I'll be waiting right here at the entrance for the entire year and a half. If any of you are truly overwhelmed, I'll receive your emergency signal. So, if you get unlucky and run into an opponent vastly out of your league, don't throw your life away. Survival comes first. Got it?!"
Garp sat cross-legged on the frozen ground. His face was dead serious, completely devoid of his usual goofy, carefree demeanor.
"Yes, sir!" the four of them replied in unison.
"Good! Then let's get this started. Your first targets will be arriving shortly!"
With his orders given, Garp pulled a Transponder Snail from his coat, placed it on his shoulder, and closed his eyes to rest.
Whoosh!
The moment Garp finished speaking, Baishui vanished from his spot, blurring into the frozen wasteland.
Right now, his strength was only enough to confidently handle pirates with bounties in the 300 to 400 million Berries range. And a 400 million bounty here was vastly different from Monkey D. Luffy's bounty right after the Summit War. Luffy's post-Marineford bounty was largely inflated due to his terrifying lineage and the sheer havoc he had wreaked.
Over this next year and a half, Baishui's goal was to reach the level of raw power Luffy possessed while using Gear Fourth in the original timeline. In the ruthless world of pirates, achieving that kind of strength would finally put him in the upper echelons of the pyramid.
Bounties, after all, were never a true measure of a pirate's actual combat prowess. Baishui considered himself lucky; so far, the pirates he had encountered actually had the strength to match their wanted posters. He had yet to run into any hidden monsters with deceptively low bounties. But relying on luck was a fool's game compared to relying on sheer strength.
Strength was absolute. Luck was an illusion.
Level 5 was expansive—not impossibly vast, but certainly not small. It offered more than enough room for the four of them to operate independently without stepping on each other's toes.
Because Impel Down was submerged deep within the ocean, the entire structure was heavily reinforced. There was little worry about the floors collapsing from the collateral damage of their battles. Furthermore, knowing that these four would be brawling down here for over a year, Magellan had specifically ordered his staff to reinforce the entirety of Level 5.
Outside of a handful of absolute monsters, virtually no one could shatter the stone and steel of this level. That gave Magellan the confidence to allow them to treat the Freezing Hell as their personal training ground.
Come on, let's see what kind of opponents I'm dealing with!
Baishui eagerly anticipated his first target. The average prisoners native to Level 5 wouldn't pose much of a threat; most of the scum rotting in these cells had bounties hovering around the 100 to 200 million mark. There were a few 300 million Berry elites scattered about, but the truly dangerous ones were thrown straight down into Level 6: the Eternal Hell. The only ones capable of giving them a real fight down here were that handful of high-bounty elites.
Howl!
Before he could cross paths with a single prisoner, he stumbled straight into a pack of Snow Wolves. Amidst the blinding, swirling blizzard, Baishui realized he was completely surrounded.
"To think anything could survive in weather this brutal," Baishui muttered, genuinely impressed. "What terrifying adaptability."
He stared up at the beasts. Each Snow Wolf was monstrously huge, roughly the size of a dinosaur. He could definitely feel the biting cold piercing his clothes, but for now, it wasn't debilitating. By consciously accelerating his own blood flow, he managed to ward off the worst of the freezing temperatures.
However, he couldn't maintain this state indefinitely. His stamina was finite. If he burned through his reserves without finding a way to recover, he would freeze to death.
And these Snow Wolves? They didn't seem to mind the cold at all.
Roar!
The massive beasts stared down at the tiny human before them. With a chorus of terrifying, guttural snarls, they lunged, their jaws snapping shut toward Baishui. To them, he was nothing more than an insect. This level was their absolute domain. They would not tolerate any foreign creature taking a single step onto their icy turf.
"Stupid mutts. You really want to do this?"
Baishui chuckled as the wolves closed in. With a sharp swish, he vanished from his spot, instantly materializing directly above the lead wolf's head. He brought his leg down in a devastating axe kick.
"Light Particle Kick!"
Baishui's voice was as frigid as the air around him. His right leg radiated a terrifying aura of power, cleanly shattering the Snow Wolf's skull on impact. With a sickening crunch, the beast's legs buckled, and it collapsed into the snow, bleeding profusely.
"Anyone else want a piece?"
Baishui swept an icy glare over the remaining wolves. The familiar, blood-soaked memories of his brutal fights on the Kuroro Islands came rushing back to him, and his killing intent bled into his aura.
Whimper...
Surprisingly, the moment they felt Baishui's murderous intent, the very same wolves that had been baring their fangs a second ago scattered in sheer panic, fleeing with their tails tucked firmly between their legs. They looked at him as if he were a god of death.
Extending his right hand, Baishui condensed a blade of pure energy and expertly skinned the dead Snow Wolf. With this thick pelt, the cold would no longer be an issue. The fur was incredibly insulating.
As for the meat, it wasn't inedible, just incredibly tough and sour. Normal people wouldn't dare eat it, but Baishui was definitely an exception. He wasn't a picky eater. He sliced a generous slab of meat from the carcass and slapped it against the freezing stone wall of the cell block for about two seconds. Instantly, he had a perfectly chilled, super-fresh slice of frozen sashimi.
"Hmm, the flavor's a bit lacking," he mumbled, chewing thoughtfully. "Needs seasoning. But it'll do in a pinch."
Baishui plopped right down on the icy floor, leaning against the bloody remains of the wolf, casually eating slice after slice of raw meat. But barely thirty seconds later, the entire carcass had frozen completely solid into a giant block of ice.
He sighed. The temperature here really was absurdly low.
"Well, that's a shame," Baishui sighed, dusting himself off. He stood up and continued his trek.
In three different sectors of Level 5, the others were facing similar trials. Gion, alias "Momousagi," and Tokikake, alias "Chaton," had also encountered the Snow Wolves. Much like Baishui, they ruthlessly slaughtered the beasts and claimed their thick pelts for warmth. Momousagi was a masterful swordswoman, while Chaton—contrary to Baishui's previous assumptions about him being a Devil Fruit user—was actually a devastatingly skilled martial artist.
Only Smoker was still bitterly struggling against his pack of wolves. He lacked a decisive, lethal finishing move, making it incredibly difficult for him to inflict meaningful damage on the resilient beasts. As a result, he was by far the most battered and miserable of the four. Smoker seethed with frustration, but he had to swallow his pride and face reality: right now, he was definitively the weakest link.
Meanwhile, inside the Level 5 Observation Hub.
"These three are absolute monsters. Are you telling me guys like this aren't even considered the absolute strongest in the Marines?" one of the monitoring guards gasped, watching Baishui and the two Vice Admiral candidates work. All three of them had ended their respective battles in an instant, barely breaking a sweat.
"This other guy... Smoker, right? He's decent, but his Devil Fruit power doesn't seem to pack much of a punch."
As the saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy. Placed side-by-side with the others, Smoker was obviously trailing behind.
"Well then, let's spice things up for them! Heh," a guard snickered, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "We've still got a few heavy hitters locked up down here!"
Ordinarily, there were no Transponder Snails in Level 5. The freezing temperatures made it impossible for them to survive. However, after relentless pleading from Sengoku, Dr. Vegapunk had specifically genetically engineered a batch of ultra-frost-resistant Transponder Snails, designed to survive for exactly one and a half years in these conditions. That was the only reason the surveillance team was able to monitor the training grounds at all.
Back to Baishui.
Just as the guards were plotting, a blindingly fast blur suddenly launched itself straight at Baishui's face. Startled, Baishui instinctively activated Kami-e, letting his body effortlessly sway out of the path of the strike.
Swish!
The phantom attacker was relentless. It spun mid-air, redirecting its momentum, and dove right back at him.
"Busoshoku: Hardening!"
Raising an eyebrow at the creature's impressive mid-air maneuverability, Baishui coated his right fist in pitch-black Busoshoku Haki and threw a devastating punch to intercept it.
CLANG!
A deafening sound of shrieking metal echoed through the ice. The moment they collided, Baishui felt a massive wave of kinetic force rush up his arm, making him involuntarily shudder. The sheer air pressure from the clash whipped violently against his face, stinging like razor blades.
It was only then that Baishui finally got a clear look at his assailant. It was a pirate who had transformed into a giant, grotesque praying mantis. A Zoan-type Devil Fruit user, Baishui deduced.
A sharp glint flashed in the pirate's eyes. Startled by the sudden pressure, Baishui pushed off his arm, leaping backward to create distance before instantly dashing forward again to counterattack.
"Light Particle Kick!"
BOOM!
This time, it was the mantis pirate's turn to be shocked. The sheer, overwhelming force behind Baishui's kick was too much for him to completely absorb, forcing the pirate to skid back four or five paces across the ice.
"Name. Now." Baishui demanded, a gun formed of pure energy instantly manifesting in his right hand and leveling straight at the pirate's head.
"Heh heh. You don't need to know my name, Marine pig," the pirate sneered. "All you need to know is that you're going to die by my hands!"
Laughing maniacally, the pirate violently vibrated the translucent, cicada-like wings on his back, propelling himself toward Baishui with blinding speed.
"Gegege! I love tearing apart young Marine brats like you! It gives me such a rush of accomplishment!"
Still cackling, the pirate swung a devastating, blindingly fast arc of cold steel aimed squarely at Baishui's face. One wrong move here, and Baishui's head would be cleanly severed from his shoulders.