One Piece: Surrounded at Marineford? Just kidding!

fear.

Fear!

An absolute fear, stemming from a life-or-death instinct, still permeated Chen Ye's entire body.

Chen Ye was still calling out to the system, hoping for a miracle! That cold, mechanical voice shattered Chen Ye's last shred of hope once again.

System energy: 0.

Time travel is still not possible.

Still unable to perform any spacetime summoning.

This death sentence, however, struck Chen Ye like a bolt of lightning, shattering his mind, which had been imprisoned by fear.

Energy... Energy is zero...

Without energy, the system is useless!

He can't die here!

He had to survive, he had to find a way to activate this damn system!

The first step to survival is to make the man in front of you feel that you pose no threat, or even... worthless.

Chen Ye's expression changed in an instant.

He did not answer the white-bearded man's question.

Because an ordinary person who has just crawled back from the brink of death, still in shock, weak and pitiful, would not be able to answer fluently in the face of such a situation.

His body reacted before his words.

His taut spine seemed to be pulled away in an instant, his legs went weak, and with a "thud," Chen Ye collapsed to his knees on the deck.

He lowered his head, his shoulders heaving violently, as if he were trying to cough up all the air from his lungs.

Intermittent sobs escaped from his throat.

"I...I don't know..."

Chen Ye's voice was hoarse, broken, and tinged with sobs.

"Pirates...a group of very fierce pirates...they want to kill me..."

"I ran... I kept running... and then I fell down..."

He looked up, his face streaked with tears and snot, filled with the purest helplessness and pleading, like a stray dog ​​shivering in a street corner, drenched in a downpour.

"I don't want to die... Please... I just want to live..."

He did not fabricate any bizarre background.

He simply laid bare his most wretched, humble, and useless side to these legendary pirates.

He's gambling.

I gamble that these powerful figures standing at the pinnacle of the world would disdain to extend their fingers to a mere ant.

The deck was silent.

All eyes were on the boy who had suddenly appeared and then suddenly broke down in tears.

Even Joz, who had just thrown him up, had a strange expression on his face.

The white-bearded man's abyss-like gaze lingered on Chen Ye for a good ten seconds.

That gaze seemed to penetrate the skin and see into the soul.

Chen Ye felt as if he had been stripped naked and thrown into the snow, his clothes completely exposed.

Just when he felt he was about to be completely crushed by this heavy pressure, his signature, hearty laughter once again resounded through the sky.

"Guralalalalala!"

The white-bearded man burst into laughter, the sound dispelling the suffocating oppressive atmosphere.

"A scared brat? How boring."

He looked away, as if he had lost all interest.

"Marco."

"Yes, Father." Marco the Phoenix stepped forward in response.

Let's leave him on the ship for now!

"The ship is short of a handyman, so let's find him some work to do."

The white-bearded man's voice regained its unquestionable authority, and he waved his hand as if shooing away a fly.

"Yes."

Chen Ye collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, his back soaked with cold sweat.

He knew he had made the right bet.

He survived.

* * *

Chen Ye was temporarily settled.

For the next few days, no one paid him any attention; he was like a harmless ghost that had appeared on the ship. Marco simply assigned a crew member a spare set of crew clothes and some cleaning tools, and put him in charge of cleaning the stern deck.

This is a tacitly approved observation area where people can move freely.

After changing into the oversized crew uniform, Chen Ye picked up a mop and began his first job on this legendary giant ship.

But he soon realized something was wrong.

The atmosphere on the ship was incredibly oppressive.

In his memory, the Whitebeard Pirates should have been the most extravagant and lively paradise in the pirate world. It should have been filled with deafening laughter, the clinking of glasses, and the unrestrained playful fighting among family members.

But now, there is only deathly silence here.

On the deck, the burly pirates gathered in twos and threes, but no one spoke. They simply wiped their weapons in silence or leaned against the ship's railing, gazing at the endless sea with furrowed brows.

A heavy atmosphere of anxiety and unease permeated the air.

Chen Ye lowered his head, pretending to mop the floor diligently, but his ears were perked up like a rabbit's, greedily capturing any usable fragments of information.

As he passed the cabin door, he saw several hot nurses arguing fiercely. One of the blonde nurses, in a fit of anger, threw a roll of bandages on the ground.

"...It's all our fault! If only we had been more careful that day..."

"What's the point of saying all this now! The person is already..."

Their voices stopped abruptly as they saw Chen Ye approaching, and then they slammed the door shut.

Chen Ye's heart skipped a beat, but he continued walking forward silently.

At the bow, he saw the Third Division Captain, "Diamond" Jozu. That massive, mountain-like figure was pounding his fists against the ship's railing.

Not far away, the First Division Captain "Phoenix" Marco leaned against the mainmast with his arms crossed, his usually languid face now filled with gloom.

"That guy Ace..."

A voice, tinged with suppressed anger, came from a group of people not far away.

Chen Ye suddenly stopped moving. He pretended to slip and leaned against the wooden box next to him, minimizing his presence.

The conversation over there was still going on.

"He was too impulsive! Dad clearly ordered him not to chase after them!"

"But...it was Sachi who was killed! He was the captain of our Fourth Division, our brother! How can we possibly swallow this insult!"

"But the other side is Teach! That bastard who's been hiding for so many years! It's too dangerous for Ace to go alone!"

"Dad's decision was right! It's not worth sending Captain Ace on such a dangerous mission for a traitor!"

"What the hell did you say?! Teach is a traitor, but Satch's revenge cannot go unavenged! Captain Ace did the right thing!"

The argument suddenly escalated, only to be forcibly silenced by those nearby.

"Keep your voices down! Do you want Dad to hear you?!"

……

Chen Ye couldn't hear a single word that followed.

Sachi... was killed.

Teach...defected.

Ace... went after him alone.

Dad... told him not to go... but he wouldn't listen.

Each keyword, like the sharpest icicle, pierced deeply into Chen Ye's mind.

His body, starting from his fingertips, gradually grew cold.

The feeling of "fear" that had just faded away swept over his entire body again, a hundred times more intense than before.

But this time, it's no longer fear of a specific powerful figure.

Rather, it is a kind of trembling at the impending, irreversible torrent called "fate"!

This is not a story!

This isn't the comic book storyline he saw through the screen!

Sachi is killed, and Ace gives chase...

This is fucking...

Isn't this the beginning of the entire "Marineford War"?!

Chen Ye understood better than anyone else in the world what Ace's departure meant.

The person he catches up with will not be his enemy, Teach.

What he caught up with was Impel Down's prison, Marineford's execution platform, a battle that swept the world and could even stain the seas red... a battle of epic proportions!

What he ultimately brought back was neither Teach's head nor the satisfaction of revenge.

It was a death card... a life card that declared him dead!

time……

There's very little left!

"Ace..."

Chen Ye's lips moved silently as a thought that made his soul tremble clearly surfaced in his mind.

"You'll die!"