One Piece: Who still has dreams?

"You said you were fed up with the pirate life and wanted to retire and become an honest, wealthy man, but actually you know your own limitations, so you chickened out, right?"

Redio relaxed his muscles, and the five-bladed cat claw glove pinned to his arm fell off. He casually tossed it to the black cat captain opposite him, whom he had kicked away.

"Ugh!" Kro clutched his stomach and vomited blood. His once meticulously combed black hair was now a mess, and his eyes were bloodshot. He had attacked the boy so many times, but none of them could compare to the damage caused by this kick.

His left glove was thrown in front of him.

"..."

Kro wiped the blood from his mouth, put on his gloves, and stared coldly at the tattered, wounded boy opposite him with his bloodshot eyes. "What exactly do you want?"

Redio spread his legs, braced himself on his knees, and twisted his shoulders from side to side. "I want to learn something from you before I kill you."

"With such limited muscle strength, it's amazing that you can unleash such speed! Can you feel it? How did you do it? I'm very curious!"

He made a grasping motion in the air with both hands, his knuckles cracking, staring intently at the feet opposite him, and smiled, "Come on, I will... cherish you."

"..."

Kro fell silent, took a deep breath, and suddenly lowered his head, letting his hands hang down naturally. His feet moved in a strange rhythm, as if unconsciously taking small steps.

"That's Captain Crowe's signature move, 'Ladle Death,' his fastest, silent killing move! It's so fast that even he doesn't know who he's going to hit... Hey, stop looking, get away from here!"

He turned his head and saw that Nami and Kaya's family had already retreated fifty meters away.

"Don't leave me alone!!!" The expert was chained and tied to a tree by the roadside, and he shouted anxiously. Suddenly, he heard the whooshing sound of sharp blades cutting through the air, which made his hair stand on end.

"..."

Nami could see from afar that although Captain Kuro's movements were still too fast for the naked eye to follow, Redio's defensive and counter-attacking movements were more agile than at the beginning.

Reddio seemed to be able to see or figure out the pattern of Klo's footwork... In fact, Reddio gradually stopped standing still and passively defending, and even started to move in a similar way, but he looked clumsy and fell into a disadvantage for a while, with more blood spurting from his body.

Instead of backing down due to pain, Redio became more and more excited as the fight progressed.

Nami suddenly recalled countless nights spent drawing nautical charts under a lamp. Although it was on Arlong's hateful territory, although it was an assignment given to her by Arlong, although... drawing maps was something she was good at and loved. Once she was completely immersed in it, she would even forget her hatred for Arlong.

The more you immerse yourself in that state, the more active and excited your mind becomes, and you feel like you can do anything and solve any problem.

Can you enter that state of flow while fighting?

Nami didn't know, but she saw Redio suddenly throw a punch at empty air, and the black cat captain seemed to have offered himself up and crashed into Redio's fist.

boom! !

Even from dozens of meters away, one could almost hear the sound of Crook's sternum being smashed.

Redio leaped forward in pursuit, slamming the sent-down Kro to the ground with a "boom," leaving a human-shaped crater in the earth.

"..."

Redio raised his bloodied fist and suddenly asked, "Before you unleashed that faster move, when you were hanging your head and arms were down, what were you thinking about? Were you thinking about how to maximize the power of your leg muscles?"

"..."

Kro was covered in blood, almost unrecognizable, and blood kept gushing from his mouth as he mumbled, "I don't want anything. Fool..."

"Thank you."

Redio landed a punch.

[Mastered: Silent Step (Initial Understanding)]

Chapter 21 ★★★

Name: Kro

Overall Strength: ★★

[Mastered: Silent Step (Proficient), Cat Hand Swordsmanship (Skilled), Running (Skilled), Swimming (Beginner)]

……

Like Redio, Kro was rated 2 stars by the system. His head was smashed into the ground by Redio's punch, and his head could not be seen anymore.

Only a strong smell of blood emanated from the pit...

"..."

Redio breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the system prompt for [Silent Step (Initial Insight)], confirming that he had observed, summarized, and learned some techniques in this battle, and at least the general direction was correct.

That's good.

The "Defeat Crow" mission has been completed.

[Task Reward: 610 Essence]

Redio turned his head and looked at the hypnotist who was handcuffed to a tree trunk and unable to leave, not far away.

Zango was completely dumbfounded. Someone could actually kill the ghostly and terrifying Captain Crowe head-on...

When their eyes met, Zango's heart skipped a beat. He saw the boy move his feet, and in an instant, the boy disappeared from his sight.

He learned Captain Crowe's silent walk?!

Zango was so frightened that his whole body stiffened. The next second, he heard a loud crash from the big tree next to him, which had been broken by the boy who had suddenly appeared.

"..."

Reddio was already covered in knife wounds from Kro's cat claws, and this impact caused his wounds to burst open, making him look like a leaky water balloon, with blood spurting everywhere.

He rubbed his leg and grinned, saying, "It really is unreliable... This 'beginner' assessment is definitely not given lightly."

Zango stared at him blankly.

Redio smiled slightly, took the ring-shaped throwing knife from the other man's inner coat pocket, and placed it in his hand. Zango, who made a living using this weapon as a hypnotic tool, was utterly horrified upon receiving it and tried to throw it away as if he couldn't bear to.

But then the cold blade was pressed against his neck. He froze instantly, too afraid to move.

Redio retrieved the two weapons he had thrown away earlier from the grass, patted Zango on the shoulder, and asked curiously, "How did you learn this hypnotic skill? Is there any method?"

Zango's face turned pale: "The method... I don't know! At first, I just imitated the magicians on stage, shaking my pocket watch to try and make other people fall asleep... Then, suddenly it worked... I really don't know why I was able to do it!"

Should we just try it anyway?

It seems that hypnosis is purely a matter of talent.

If I remember correctly, Laffitte from the Blackbeard Pirates also knows how to use hypnosis...

Redio said playfully, "Come on, hypnotize me. I want to experience the effect too."

……

Is it over?

Kaya's parents returned in surprise and doubt. As for Miss Kaya, she was forcibly taken back to her home in Xirob Village, further south, by the housekeeper, Melly.

They followed the orange-haired girl toward the place where the boy and Kro had fought. There they saw Kro lying motionless in a human-shaped crater, his life hanging in the balance.

And Reddio...

"Whoa whoa whoa!!!"

Beside a broken tree, Redio stood opposite the hypnotist, suddenly roaring with extreme rage. His muscles swelled several times over, tearing his already ripped shirt to shreds.

"Redio!" Before Nami could even be shocked, she saw Redio, his eyes bloodshot as if he had gone mad, deliver a punch as thick as a tree trunk, sending the lifeless hypnotist Zango flying like a fan.

The sound of that slap was so loud it was like a thunderclap suddenly hitting the ground.

Zango spun in the air, his blood swirling around, until finally, like a tattered sack, he landed right next to the pit where Kro had been. He twitched a couple of times and then stopped moving.

Kaya's parents were so frightened that they backed away repeatedly.

Nami waited for a while and saw that Redio's muscles, which were swollen from excessive blood flow, gradually subsided and the mad look in his eyes disappeared, returning to his usual bright and spirited appearance. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong with you?!" She went over and delivered a chop to the neck.

Redio laughed, "Hypnosis, aren't you curious?"

The hypnotic command that Zango had just forced him to use was to allow him to fully unleash his brute strength, no matter how unwilling his brain was.

For a long time, he had been pondering why he couldn't fully utilize his brute strength, and today's imitation of Krona's silent step, similar to the Six Styles of Shave, combined with the unprecedented and exhilarating experience brought about by Zango's hypnosis...

Redio's brain seemed to have been opened up, and he suddenly had a breakthrough!

I've never felt this way before. My muscles seem to have become more obedient. When I clench my fist, the force that usually takes me at least a second or two to gather can be fully mobilized in just a fraction of a second, almost with a single thought.

And it can become even stronger!

In just one second, the brute force gathered in this punch was definitely an explosive force of 5 tons without any reduction, far surpassing his previous strength.

Redio wondered, "Why couldn't I understand something so simple before, and why couldn't I do it no matter what I tried?"

[Name: Redio]

Overall Strength: ★★★

[Mastered: Running (Proficient), Swimming (Skilled), Basic Physical Techniques (Beginner), Cloud-Wandering Staff Technique (Beginner), Frost Moon Sword Technique (Shallow Steps (Shallow Steps)]

[Nami has been hired (approximately 28 days remaining)]

3 stars!

That's more like it! Bucky is 2 stars, Crowe is 2 stars, even the hypnotist Zango is 2 stars. It's outrageous!

Redio was quite certain that even if he were himself an hour ago, standing in front of him now, this punch would have left him unable to get up for a long time.