"A Samurai?" Although Crocodile does not have Haoshoku Haki, the power of Haki itself is also related to a person's courage, killing intent, and other mental forces. This allowed the imposing presence to manifest almost in a real way in the powerful people of the Starfish World.
"So weak."
Seeing the man dressed as a samurai in such a state, Crocodile shook his head in disdain and walked away.
He is hungry.
"Who is he? Didn't he get an inspection?!" Nishishi Taku exclaimed, embarrassed and furious as he saw Crocodile walk away from the door.
At the same time, he furiously questioned himself. 'He was just a big man, could he take on so many weapons? Why the hell was I scared? What a shame!'
Inspection was the procedure when outsiders entered the city. They had to line up, strip naked, and be thoroughly examined by several people to see if they had injuries.
"Well, no, but..." At this moment, an armed soldier approached Nishishi Taku and whispered: "Sir, but he jumped from below to here."
"...?" Nishishi Taku looked at the soldier in disbelief, as if he thought he was stupid.
But the soldier pointed to several other soldiers and said in a low voice: "If you don't believe me, ask them. Many saw it. This man ran from outside and jumped over the moat to get here."
"Yeah!"
"Yes, yes, yes, we all saw it!"
"You must not provoke him. We just used a searchlight to illuminate the direction in which the man came. The road was densely packed with Kabane's corpses!"
Nishishi Taku also fell silent immediately, because his three views were being seriously challenged. He was even a little dizzy and out of breath. It took him a long time to calm down.
"Go and keep an eye on him, but just keep an eye on him from a distance. Don't act rashly. I'll go see the steward right away!"
"Yes!"
The night market should be the brightest and liveliest place in a city after it turns to night. It is filled with the faint smoke of fireworks, the aroma of tempting food and the lively and melodious laughter of girls.
Crocodile could hear the constant noise of the vendors here. Men, women and children wearing various bathrobes or coarse cloths were coming and going with temporary joy on their faces.
But the sudden presence of a tall, striking figure generated shouts along his path, automatically dispersing the crowd in his path.
Crocodile didn't care about this and followed the smell of food to a stall selling grilled chicken skewers. He first observed the quality of the chicken, and then placed an order to the confused boss.
"Ten skewers of chicken, a glass of wine, any wine will do, and a plate of ketchup. Do you know what ketchup is? If not, bring me a tomato and a bowl, and I'll make it myself."
…
In the early morning, when the morning sun just emerged, Crocodile opened his eyes, got out of bed and opened the attic window. Suddenly, a breath of fresh air hit his face, and he began to quietly gaze at this city called Yashiro Station.
Yesterday, while he was eating, someone named Tanaka Akira visited him, apparently the ruler of this city, a role similar to that of a mayor.
In fact, he wanted to invite him to be his samurai chief, which made him laugh so much that he burst into laughter on the spot.
This naturally aroused dissatisfaction with the other party and other samurai, but after he threw the wooden skewer after eating the meat on it and breaking the sword that a samurai had just drawn, these people calmed down again.
This established a solid foundation for more friendly communication between both parties. Now, they even allowed him to stay freely in this comfortable attic. Crocodile thought that the people here were not bad at all.
They are so welcoming!
From there, he could clearly see the tall platforms and huge cranes in the distance. This Yashiro Station seems to be a city built around the mining industry.
The center is a large-scale ore layer dug by hand. The crane should be used to transport minerals. At the same time, there are two train tracks running from the north and south of the city, running through the east and west gates.
After having a basic understanding of this place. The first thing Crocodile thought of was the Base of the World Government that had invaded this world.
In Crocodile's opinion, given the typical behavior of the World Government, they could not be interested in friendly cooperation. Surely, once they assessed the strength of this world, they would seek to conquer it on a large scale.
This Yashiro Station, with its vast veins of metal, would undoubtedly be one of the World Government's main objectives.
But, what does this have to do with him?
At that moment, what Crocodile was worried about was his own destiny. After observing for these days, he had confirmed that this was truly a new world.
To his surprise, the World Government was not deceiving him.
"Join the army?"
"It's really a multiple-choice question with no room for choice at all. They are still as dominant as ever, Kuahahahaha…"
He didn't know what to think. Looking at the rising sun outside the window, he started to laugh like a classic big breath, but he was actually laughing at himself.
"I was really moved, so moved that I wanted to agree to them. But what if I don't agree? Do I really want to die in this boring world full of undead?" Crocodile murmured to himself. "Then how will I be able to challenge the monster 'Whitebeard' in the future?"
"And that bastard Douglas Bullet, if I am imprisoned in this broken world, he will definitely find an opportunity to show off his power in front of me in the future!"
Images of Bullet becoming a great army general automatically appeared in his mind, with a disdainful and superior expression. Just thinking about it, Crocodile gritted his teeth.
"Hmph! Isn't it just the army? I remember that there are three Admirals in the Navy, and most likely the army has something similar."
"If so, I should become an army general first and then promote to Marshal, and then I will make that idiot my subordinate!"
[Boom! boom! boom! boom!]
Just when Crocodile was looking at the crane that was several times larger and taller than an ordinary crane, a burst of intensive shelling woke him up, and also woke up the entire Yashiro Station.
All the residents hurriedly walked out of their homes or opened their windows and looked in the direction of the east gate.
At this moment, the East City Gate has completely fallen into chaos and panic.
Although the impressive artillery fire attempted to encourage the soldiers, the imposing figure approaching from outside the city, enduring gunshots and explosions, was discouraging.
A soldier collapsed slumped beside the city wall, his face was pale, and he smiled miserably. He had completely lost his courage and even had no courage to look back.
"We are lost, completely lost. It's the 'Fused Colony'! We won't be able to stop it, Yashiro Station will fall soon!"
No one stood up to criticize him for his performance and remarks that disturbed the morale of the army, because except for the soldiers who fired wildly, everyone on the city wall was in a similar mood to him.
Even the normally aloof samurai had abandoned their responsibilities and their spirit and fled desperately to the city. It's chaos, it's all chaos!
At this moment, the young soldier, who was lying on the ground and trembling all over, suddenly felt a gust of wind and sand blowing around him, and then a somewhat familiar voice sounded in his ears.
"Boy, I remember you, tell me, what is that?"
The young soldier slowly raised his stiff neck and was finally able to see the newcomer's face.
"Sir, sir, it's you!"
Of course, he still remembered Crocodile, who yesterday gave him a small gold coin and he used it to buy two portions of meat last night to take home for his parents and little sister to try.
In this city that lost its outside land because of Kabane, there is not much room to grow rice. Food itself is very scarce, let alone meat.
"Enough of nonsense." Crocodile looked into the distance, where a large mass of smoke was forming with flashes of fire and felt great interest.
This different world finally brought him a surprise!
At first, the undead were a novelty, but then they became boring, as annoying as flies. After collecting enough money, he simply ignored them and continued forward at full speed.
"Ah, yes, yes!" The young soldier stood up in a hurry, holding his steam gun in his arms. Being next to this man gave him a strange feeling of security and gave him back a little strength.
"We call it 'Fused Colony'. It is said that when enough Kabane are gathered in a small area, one Kabane will become the 'core', which will absorb other Kabane and turn them into a larger body."
"Although they appear to be scattered, they are actually a single being with great strength and speed."
"And because of their size, they almost reach the height of the walls, and some even surpass them, allowing them to easily pass over moats and walls. When that happens..."
At this point, the young man's face was once again full of despair and panic. It was a real hell on earth.
At this time, the 'Fused Colony' that was thirty or forty meters high had already approached the open space about three hundred meters away from the city wall, and on both sides were rolling gray hills without any vegetation.
"Oh~~"
"It's interesting, a combined monster that's taller than the giants?" Crocodile's face showed a playful smile eager to try.
"I also know a damn fused bastard."
The next moment, Crocodile under the stunned gazes of countless soldiers and samurai around him, turned into a whirlwind of earth-yellow sand and flew out of the city wall, seemingly facing the terrifying 'Fused Colony'.
"Desert Spada!"
Crocodile quickly flew into the sky without hesitation. The moment his upper body returned to his human form, he formed a loose sheet of rapidly moving sand with his right hand. He then threw the sand blade towards the 'Fused Colony' below that had not yet noticed it.
[Swoosh!]
The sand blade, lengthening with the wind, expanded in an instant before everyone's astonished gaze, quickly passing behind the 'Fused Colony'. Then his massive body made of Kabane split in two, also splitting the bare gray mounds on both sides.
[Boom!]
Only after all this occurred, a deafening explosion resounded through the air, followed by a surge of violent air, a side effect of the air being quickly split by the sand blade.
"..."
The soldiers on the wall, hundreds of them holding steam rifles and swords, were completely stunned by this scene, as if someone had pressed the pause button for all of them.
No screaming, no trembling, no running away; even the cannons stopped, passively watching as the terrifying 'Fused Colony' fell in two, with an opening so large that it allowed a glimpse of what lay on the other side.
"God!"
"Have the gods finally come to save us?"
A soldier didn't even notice that the steam gun in his hand fell to the ground. He looked up at the tall figure surrounded by wind and sand under the blue sky, slowly knelt on the ground, raised his hands with tears in his eyes and shouted.
"Lord God!!!"
"Lord God!!!"
The soldiers who had been subjected to high pressure due to threats to their lives from the Kabane for many years seemed to have found an outlet for their long-repressed negative emotions. They all followed the example of the first and knelt down and shouted continuously, their tear-filled faces showing fanaticism.
"Ah, what are those guys shouting?" Crocodile frowned at the commotion that had arisen behind him, but didn't pay much attention to it, then muttered, "I should have brought some cigars... Hm?"
It was then that he realized that the 'Fused Colony', which had been cut off, was quickly regrouping. Even the torn remains at the edge of the wound, under the influence of the Kabane, were coming together to form a new body.
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