Alone and Infinite.

Chapter 607 The Pirates Return
My eyelids were jolted open by the sea breeze.

As my gaze slowly focused, a spacious room unfolded before me.

The room wasn't very large, but it was exceptionally bright and airy. The south-facing side featured a full wall of sliding shoji paper doors, the off-white washi paper letting in the sunlight. The azure sea stretched out like a fine curtain, with seagulls calling as they circled in the sky.

Beside the doorway stood a dark wooden frame, with the Justice Cloak hanging diagonally on the top shelf. The white fabric draped beautifully, and the words "Justice" gleamed coldly in the light. Next to the cloak leaned a knife, its sheath wrapped in dark blue silk rope, and the copper hilt at the end engraved with naval anchor patterns.

Li Xia pressed his head and shook it, feeling dizzy and aching as if he had just had a hangover.

He never expected that the Temple of Light would deliver such a heavy blow at the end, but fortunately, that peculiar feeling had subsided considerably.

The three little ones lay sprawled on the floor not far away, their tongues lolling out to one side, looking just like the silly cats I had taken to the vet to be spayed/neutered.

Based on previous experience, the mission prompt will not appear until all three little ones have woken up.

Li Xia lifted the soft blanket covering her body, walked barefoot to the wooden window, sat down, and admired the scenery outside.

A short while later, accompanied by a soft humming sound, the three little ones slowly woke up.

"Ouch. Ouch."

It howled weakly, and tears welled up in its eyes. That blow was so fierce and accurate that it almost knocked its soul out of its body.

Black Charcoal looked similarly listless, rubbing its head vigorously. Even though there was nothing on the back of its head, the pain and tingling sensation after the heavy blow seemed to linger.

"Ugh!" The silly dog ​​simply started gagging.

"I think you should just give up on that helmet."

"No, it must be effective, otherwise why would the light not strike that spot when we're blocking it?"
Next time we'll know, we'll cover the whole head and belly!

Xiaolong vehemently denied that there was anything wrong with the helmet, insisting that his strategy was simply not clever enough.

Oh well, let them be.

The wind blew into the room through the wooden window, and the newspapers on the low table rustled, with lines of silvery text appearing on the pages.

[Enter the World: One Piece]

World Difficulty: D—S+ (Normal—Hell)
Global environment: 0.42 times standard gravity

Opportunity for transcendence: 0%
World Overview: War, slaughter, pirates, fine wine, a corrupt world government, and decadent nobles.
This is a strange world where the ocean almost covers the entire planet.

This is also a seafaring town where sails are always billowing in the sea breeze.

"Want my treasure? Go ahead and take it!"

The last words of Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, ignited the flames burning within the souls of ambitious men.

Countless people set sail, overcoming numerous obstacles, and embarked on a journey known as the Great Sea Route.

But the true history remains hidden behind a thick fog, and the true rulers of the world hide in a high holy place.

Kill all those who dare to pry into the truth.

The flames of resistance were building, and the thunderous drums of liberation resonated in people's chests.

The story begins at this moment.

[Special Energy: Overbearing Aura]

Special Item: Devil Fruit

First Main Quest: Choose
Task: Choose your future location.
Quest Rewards: Subsequent main quests will be generated based on the Apostle's choices.
Task period: 1 days

Task Failure: If no successful selection is made by the deadline, a random assignment will be made.

[Note: This world features a special plunder mode. Apostles can kill Apostles with opposing identities to obtain Crimson Key rewards.]

[Note: This world is in Descent Mode, and character relationships and world background will be inherited based on the nodes saved by the Executioner last time.]

The world begins!
The faintly glowing text disappeared, and the newspaper lay flat on the low table once more.

Li Xia was thinking about the main quest, but his hand picked up the newspaper instead.

The front page headline featured a photo of Portgas D. Ace, with a huge, bold black headline above it:
The Whitebeard Pirates reclaim their territory, stabilizing the New World once again!

Skipping over the long, filler paragraphs, Li Xia's gaze swept over the smaller print:

"Whitebeard Pirates captain Porthos D. Ace led his crew to reclaim two-thirds of the original Whitebeard Pirates' territory from Kaido of the Beasts and Big Mom Linlin."

As of the time of this report, Kaido of the Beasts, Big Mom, and Portgas D. Ace, under the mediation of Shanks, announced that they would soon cease the war that had lasted for more than a year, with the current controlled areas as the boundary.

This means that after Whitebeard's death, the emperors who once ruled the seas have once again established a stable situation!
The Four Emperors: Kaido of the Beasts, Big Mom, Shanks, and Ace!

Awoo and Black Charcoal, standing nearby, stared wide-eyed:
"Wow, not bad! Ace actually managed to keep the Whitebeard Pirates afloat?"

Li Xia himself was somewhat surprised. Ace's strength was not weak; he was definitely at the level of a Yonko's vice commander. However, he did not truly possess the strength of a Yonko, so it was indeed difficult for him to hold up the table.

The reports clearly show that Kaido and Big Mom have taken a lot of Whitebeard Pirates' territory.

Perhaps there's some influence from the red-haired man's "face" fruit in this?

The second edition features news about the Revolutionary Army, with several key officers of the Revolutionary Army appearing in a group photo:

"Since the Revolutionary Army descended from the sky during the Marineford War and stopped the brutal battle between the Navy and the Whitebeard Pirates, they have become increasingly active around the world."

The positive impression they left on the public through that live broadcast changed their previous style of stirring up riots everywhere, and instead they shouted the slogan of expelling the nobles and establishing a new world without nobles.

It attracted many people to join, but a year ago the world government used spies to raid their base on the Sky Island, causing huge losses.

The revolutionary army announced that it would be more stringent in its recruitment process, only accepting like-minded individuals.

The World Government recently announced that it will continue its attacks on the Revolutionary Army hiding on the Sky Island.

The spokesperson added, "Even if they hide high in the sky, our brave soldiers will still find ways to fight them and protect the interests of the member states!"

Li Xia frowned and carefully read through the text.

The newspapers were clearly not just placed there randomly; rather, the Temple of Light used this method to inform itself of the events of the past two years.

He still remembered the last time he left the One Piece world, because many of the secondary storyline characters in the world were killed by the Garbage Collector, causing the world to be on the verge of collapse.

Therefore, the Temple of Light made a slight adjustment to the timeline and corrected the impact of the trash collectors.

The revolutionary army's sudden appearance was a result of Li Xia's own legitimate actions and thus constituted a benefit, which should be protected.

It now appears that the Revolutionary Army's role has been revised to 'stopping the Marineford War from continuing and rescuing a large number of wounded from both sides.' This revision is clearly very beneficial to the Revolutionary Army's image, leading to their rapid growth over the past two years. Most importantly, Dragon and Sabo remembered what they said and did not blindly 'liberate' those kingdoms.

Instead, they issued their own declaration and devoted all their efforts to building a base on the Sky Island.

That's right. If you don't have a place to show the world how advanced and superior the future you want to create is, how can you convince others that your future is bright?
However, the World Government did not do nothing. Hiding on the Sky Island was indeed a very clever move, directly blocking the World Government's plan to encircle and annihilate them with its army.

It was probably through the CP organization constantly adding mud that a final explosion was detonated, delivering a devastating blow to the Revolutionary Army.

However, this was both a bad thing and a good thing. The revolutionary army suffered great losses, but it also learned the importance of the purity of its ranks and stopped accepting just anyone, instead carefully screening them.

All I can say is that you did a good job, but you still need to keep up the good work.

The third edition was much more miscellaneous, featuring news about the Supernovas. At the current point in the world, Ace was still alive, so Luffy in the photo was undoubtedly much more cheerful and seemed even more goofy.

However, being swept away by the bear without any resistance still spurred the Straw Hat crew. They continued their rigorous training, much like in the original story, though their appearances on the wanted posters had changed considerably.

The news reports covered their rampage on Mermaid Island, while also publishing irrelevant news such as how many villages Kid had destroyed.

While Li Xia and the three little ones were reading the newspaper about the events of the past two years, the other apostles who had joined the pirate crew were dumbfounded.

[Blackbeard Edward Teach is dead. Your relationship with him will be inherited by the Blackbeard Pirates. As compensation, your affinity with him will increase.]

[Enel is dead. Your relationship with him will be reset. As compensation, you will receive 20000 Hall Points and 1 Attribute Point.]

[Shiki the Golden Lion is dead. Your relationship with him will be reset. As compensation, you will receive 15000 Hall Points and 1 Attribute Point.]

Because when you re-enter a derivative world, even one belonging to another node, the relationships you've built will be preserved, many apostles intentionally maintain certain relationships with characters in the story at lower levels, even if they don't need them now, because they will reap the rewards when they reach higher levels.

"Is this fucking insane? How did all these NPCs die?"

The apostles cursed loudly upon seeing the prompt, but who cared about the meager compensation?
"Find him! Find him! The person who saved the node must be killed!"

The apostles, their eyes bloodshot and panting heavily, wished they could drag the person out and tear them to pieces right now, but most of them could only vent their anger verbally, cursing and swearing before gathering their members again to discuss the next part of the plan.

But some people had a cold glint in their eyes and decided to find someone to compensate them for their losses.

"Tuk Tuk Tuk"

A knock came at the door, interrupting Li Xia and the three little ones' interest in reading the newspaper.

"Come in!"

Li Xia put down the newspaper and looked towards the door.

The wooden door was slid open, and a marine in uniform stood at attention, saluting with eyes full of admiration, chest puffed out, and loudly proclaimed:

"Sir, Lieutenant General Tsuru invites you to attend a meeting in the generals' conference room at headquarters!"

"ok, I know, thank you."

Li Xia nodded, then stood up, picked up the cloak from the coat rack, and casually draped it over his shoulders. He then noticed that the marine hadn't left, but was staring at him intently.

His movements involuntarily paused:

"what happened?"

"It's nothing, sir, I'll take you there!"

Little did Li Xia know that his feat of killing Whitebeard, Blackbeard, and Garbage Collector was altered by the Hall of Light to become "Three Admirals fought Whitebeard, Vice Admiral Xia killed Teach while still drinking wine, and also took Whitebeard's head, while saving and protecting countless marines."

In other words, Monkey D. Garp is the naval hero and flag bearer of the older generation, while Li Xia is the new generation. He enjoys a high reputation in the navy, and even his two-year 'retirement' has not affected the spread of this sentiment.

His long absence from public view has accelerated his deification.

"Then it'll be hard work."

The marine hurriedly shook his head, even more excited. As expected, Vice Admiral Xia was just as rumored—very gentle!

Although Li Xia found the marine's gaze on him too eager, it was good that someone was leading the way. Marineford had been completely destroyed and rebuilt, so how would he know where the officers' meeting room was? Having someone lead the way was actually a good thing.

The soldier walked happily ahead, his feet making a dull echo on the wooden planks, one hand tightly clutching Li Xia's photo, wishing he could take it out immediately and ask him for an autograph.

But in the end, he didn't dare to take out the photo. He could only watch with regret as Li Xia walked into the conference room reserved for high-ranking officers.

"Xia, you've come."

Lieutenant General Tsuru's gentle voice came through. Two years had passed, and Lieutenant General Tsuru had clearly aged a bit. She nodded wearily to Li Xia, gesturing for him to sit in the empty seat at the conference table.

Li Xia glanced around and felt a chill run down her spine; there weren't many people in the conference room.

Sakazuki, Sengoku with completely white hair, Garp, Vice Admiral Tsuru, Kizaru, and even an unfamiliar man in a white suit.

The only empty seat in the conference room was the one at the very end, directly opposite Sakazuki.

This meeting is for me!
The thought flashed through his mind quickly, but he didn't show any unusual behavior. Instead, he simply sat down.

Judging from this situation, Sakazuki has become the marshal, while Sengoku has been relegated to the second line, serving as the 'Ōmezuke'.

What about Aokiji? He's already killed Blackbeard, so it's unlikely he'll join Blackbeard's crew.
While he was pondering, Lieutenant General Tsuru spoke gently:

"The two-year period has come to an end. The navy and the world are undergoing tremendous changes, as you have probably learned from various sources."

We were initially worried that your killing of a Shichibukai would raise questions from the World Government, so we took steps to protect you and keep you hidden.

But this is no longer a problem, as the World Government has once again conducted a large-scale conscription to fill the vacancies for Navy Admirals.

Our Navy Headquarters believes you have made outstanding contributions and are a reliable person, so we unanimously agree to recommend you to succeed as Admiral.

Code name: Black Cat.

So the reason I called you here this time is to ask for your opinion.

Li Xia suddenly realized, so this is what choice is all about!

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Whether you want to be a general or not, you can leave a comment. There may be some divergence, but in the end, we'll all agree.

Eight thousand complete!

Please vote for me, brothers!
(End of this chapter)