"Bwahahaha... looking at it, that seems to be the case," Shanks laughed heartily. "But man, time truly flies. Luffy has grown up, and the New Era has arrived exactly as promised."
Chomp...
Beside Shanks, a colossal figure tore off a massive chunk of meat from the bone he was holding. Glancing up at the sky, Lucky Roux mumbled, "Boss, it's about time we head out to meet Luffy."
"Yeah. It's been so many years since we last saw each other," Yasopp murmured, a look of deep nostalgia coloring his face as he wiped down his sniper rifle in a quiet corner. "To think that little brat back then has actually forged himself into a world-shaking Emperor of the Sea... it almost feels like a dream."
"Hahaha!" Lucky Roux let out another booming laugh, slapping Yasopp on the back. "Yasopp, your son came along with Luffy too, you know. It's been a very long time since you last saw him, hasn't it?..."
"Yeah..." Yasopp fell silent. As a member of the Red Hair Pirates, his status as a world-class powerhouse was indisputable. Yet, he was well aware that he had been a terrible father and husband.
The rest of the crew understood his internal dilemma perfectly.
"Hey, hey, hey, Yasopp, that doesn't sound like you at all! You're the absolute elite sniper of our Red Hair Pirates!"
"Bwahahaha... what do you guys know? Yasopp is just overwhelmed with joy. Meeting your son out of nowhere after such a long time is bound to make any man emotional."
"Of course, this is a profound biological reality that you bachelor bastards with no wives or children could never possibly comprehend!"
"Hahaha! Too true! We don't get it at all!"
The Red Hair Pirates erupted into a chaotic chorus of laughter, all of them casting warm, teasing grins toward Yasopp.
But in the next microsecond, their laughter died down. Yasopp remained completely tight-lipped, a deep, brooding melancholy settling into his eyes.
"Yasopp... you alright?"
"I'm fine. What could possibly be wrong with me? It's just... what right does an irresponsible father like me even have... to face him?" Yasopp let out a bitter, self-deprecating chuckle.
The clearing fell into a heavy silence.
"Hey, Yasopp. You already know he formally enlisted with the Straw Hat Pirates. He boarded Luffy's ship."
Benn Beckman suddenly cut in, taking a slow draw from his cigarette. "He chose to become a pirate too."
"Mm," Yasopp muttered quietly. He was naturally privy to that data.
"Why do you think he set out to sea as a pirate?" Beckman questioned.
"He... I imagine it was to..." Yasopp started to articulate a response, before shaking his head with a wistful smile.
"You're operating under the assumption that he set sail solely to track you down, aren't you?" Beckman shook his head, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "It is a factor, yes, but it isn't the entire truth."
"What do you mean?" Yasopp blinked in confusion.
"From my perspective, you are his ultimate benchmark—the initial catalyst for his voyage. But he didn't set sail simply to look for you; rather, he is using you as a legendary milestone to chase his own grand dream," Beckman stated smoothly, exhaling a thick plume of bright smoke. "Never forget, Yasopp—that kid is your son!"
Hearing those words, Yasopp's entire frame went rigid.
Memories of the little boy who used to frantically cling to his side rushed back, feeling as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. Time truly moved like a fleeting shadow. The boy who used to look up at him had successfully forged himself into a towering, iron-willed warrior of the sea!
"Let's... head over."
CRASH! KABOOM!
A series of thunderous detonations sundered the atmosphere. Luffy, anchored in his Gear 4 form, was weaving an explosive combination of raw physical power and Conqueror's Haki infusion, locked in a ferocious, deadlocked struggle against Daolang.
BOOM!
Luffy compressed his legs, striking the air currents to execute high-velocity directional shifts. Every single step bridged hundreds of meters in a fraction of a second, bringing him right against Daolang's perimeter in the span of a few breaths.
The sharp, mechanical screech of elastic tension echoed as he coiled his arm back. With a fierce glare, Luffy drove a monumental punch straight out.
Thick bolts of dark red lightning rippled violently across his hardened fist. The volatile energy detonated the exact microsecond it connected with Daolang's guard. It mirrored a colossal, pent-up tidal wave that had finally ruptured its structural constraints, unleashing an absolute torrent of destruction.
KABOOM!
Crossing his forearms to brace for the impact, Daolang was violently hammered straight out of the sky by the sheer weight of the blow.
"Gum-Gum..."
Luffy dove in hot pursuit, fully intending to press his tactical advantage to secure a definitive victory.
Sailing backward toward the terrain below, Daolang's eyes suddenly snapped wide. Throwing his arms outward, he clenched his fists with supreme velocity.
"Unveil, Great Blade!"
The weapon, which had previously resembled a plain kitchen cleaver, suddenly expanded at a terrifying, reality-bending rate. Within a fraction of a second, a colossal, heaven-piercing blade materialized before the eyes of the alliance.
"Th-That's... his actual weapon?!" Usopp gasped, a thick strand of mucous slipping from his nostril as his face warped into total shock.
The structural scale of the weapon was simply too staggering to process. Even a warrior of the Giant Tribe would find it mathematically impossible to wield a blade of those proportions. Only a gargantuan entity like Little Oars Jr. could realistically swing a weapon that massive, right?
Yet this completely unknown figure, whose name had never graced a single bounty report, was executing an impossible feat with absolute ease.
Before Usopp's brain could even register the parameters, his cognitive sanity was pushed to the brink of absolute worship. Daolang actually swung the colossal blade, driving the monumental edge straight toward the incoming Luffy.
"Is Daolang finally unveiling the true depth of his combat metrics?..."
Emerging from the treeline, the core executives of the Red Hair Pirates stared up at the sky-cleaving weapon.
"Aside from the Boss and the Chief, Brother Daolang is arguably the most formidable powerhouse within our armada. Luffy might be stepping into a very dangerous parameter here," Lucky Roux noted, his focus locked on the gargantuan edge.
"No, I have a distinct perception regarding this layout," Beckman shook his head calmly. "At this current juncture, Daolang's physical output has likely broken past my own tier."
"WHAT?!"
The surrounding Red Hair Pirates looked on in total disbelief. Within their hierarchy, the Chief First Officer was universally acknowledged as the ultimate force second only to Shanks; that metric was an absolute axiom.
"H-How is that logically consistent? Are you asserting that Daolang has actually surpassed his own older brother?" The executives found the data almost impossible to rationalize.
That was the hidden reality—Ben Daolang was the biological younger brother of their Chief First Officer, Benn Beckman. Concurrently, he anchored another legendary identity: he was the biological father of the newly instated Emperor of the Sea, Vale D. Drake.
Even for the veteran core of the Red Hair Pirates, this data had only been unsealed a very short while ago. It was a thoroughly mind-boggling lineage layout. Within the current global matrix of the four Emperors, their crew was the solitary faction that didn't belong to the fraternal bond of the Legendary Four Brothers—yet their bloodlines ran incredibly deep anyway.
"Indeed. Daolang is arguably the closest individual on this vessel to the absolute tier of a Yonko. Even if the Boss wished to conquer him in a straight conflict, it would require a substantial expenditure of effort," Beckman stated flatly.
"This..." The executives traded a series of startled glances, reading the profound shock written across each other's faces.
"To put it into perspective—if Luffy possesses the capacity to emerge victorious against Daolang today, it will conclusively verify that his vessel has acquired the capability to directly challenge the Boss himself."
A faint glimmer of profound anticipation surfaced within Beckman's eyes. If Luffy truly possessed the strength to conquer Daolang, the structural implications for the global balance of power were glaringly obvious to them all.
CRASH! KABOOM!
Right then, the earth beneath their feet executed a violent, massive tremor. The jarring visual disparity of the duel underwent an instantaneous, terrifying transformation.
The human-sized Daolang, who had appeared completely minuscule compared to his colossal weapon, suddenly experienced a massive, explosive surge in physical mass. In the blink of an eye, a gargantuan giant loomed over the landscape, towering into the high heavens.
Wielding the forty-meter great cleaver in his massive hands, the weapon now looked weightless, carving through the air currents with effortless precision. To claim he possessed absolute mastery over the steel was an understatement.
"Eek!!" Usopp and Chopper screamed in unison, their jaws dropping to the stone as they froze in absolute horror.
"A... A GIANT?!"
"What?!" The remaining members of the Straw Hats and the Dragon Flag Pirates were equally blindsided.
The structural scale of this colossal physical vessel went far beyond the parameters of a conventional Giant!
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