Villain: Fairy, please offer your loyalty

Klock hadn't finished uttering the last word.

His entire body, along with the sandstorm that swept across the sky, froze into a crystal-clear ice sculpture.

Not just him.

Ice crystals spread outwards from the casino lobby.

Pass through the corridor, through the walls, through the ceiling and the foundation.

Walk through the entire casino.

Walk through the streets, squares, fountains, and clock towers outside the casino.

The entire rain-soaked area.

The raindrops froze in mid-air, forming countless tiny ice needles that hung beneath the night sky, refracting a dreamlike glow under the lights.

Pedestrians walking on the street remained frozen in place, their steps halted.

Seagulls flying across the sky freeze into ice crystals the instant their wings flap, hovering in the air.

Raindrops on rivers, canals, and eaves all came to a standstill at the same moment.

A city, in the blink of an eye, is transformed into an exquisite ice sculpture.

Only within a ten-meter radius of Gu Fan in the casino lobby did the temperature remain normal.

The tea is still hot.

Gu Fan took a sip.

"Well done, my tea didn't get cold."

Mei bowed slightly.

"The temperature of your tea, young master, is always my top priority."

Behind.

Luffy stood there, mouth wide open, half a piece of meat still hanging from his lips.

He looked at Crocodile, frozen into an ice sculpture, and then at the entire frozen city outside the window.

"This...this is too exaggerated! The entire city has turned into ice!"

Zoro's hand was still on the hilt of his sword, but it was no longer in the position of preparing to draw it.

His hand froze in place from fright.

Zhu'er used his fingers as a sword to cleave through the desert, and he already felt that this was the ceiling.

Now the woman in the ice-blue palace dress tells him that it's just the floor.

The real ceiling is a city frozen in place by a single finger.

His three knives were no different from three toothpicks in the face of such power.

Sanji's cigarette fell to the ground and burned the instep of his foot, but he didn't react at all.

"The Seven Warlords of the Sea... are they gone just like that?"

"Not even a chance to fight back?"

Weiwei covered her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes.

That demon who destroyed her country.

The adversary who made her sacrifice three years of her youth and nearly lose her life countless times to obtain intelligence.

That nightmare that she feared day and night.

And so, a maid froze it into an ice sculpture with just one finger.

Gu Fan stood up from the sofa and patted his trouser legs.

He slowly walked up to the Crocodile ice sculpture and looked down at it for a few seconds.

The ice sculpture's expression is forever frozen in that moment of fear and disbelief.

"One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the King of the Desert, the mastermind behind the entire Alabasta."

Gu Fan extended a finger and flicked the ice sculpture's forehead.

Snapped.

A crisp cracking sound.

The entire ice sculpture began to crumble like shattered glass, starting from a crack on its forehead.

Tens of thousands of jelly-like jelly particles floated in the air, shimmering faintly under the lights.

Not even a trace was left.

"Don't call them the Seven Warlords of the Sea anymore."

Gu Fan patted the ice crystals off his fingers.

"Calling him 'Seven Martial Scum' is about right."

Luffy gasped.

Zoro's Adam's apple bobbed.

The entire casino was so quiet that you could hear the soft rustling of ice jelly hitting the ground.

But in the midst of this silence, Gu Fan's gaze suddenly shifted in one direction.

He didn't look at anyone.

He was looking at a load-bearing column in the west corner of the hall.

There was nothing in the shadow of that pillar.

At least in the eyes of ordinary people, there is nothing there.

"How long have you been hiding?"

Gu Fan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly to every crevice in the corner.

"Come out."

There was no response from the shadows.

But Gu Fan sensed an extremely faint fluctuation—someone was trying to activate some kind of ability.

Flowers and fruits.

To display body parts on any tangible object within one's field of vision.

This is an ability that is extremely suitable for assassination and escape.

However, that slight fluctuation disappeared the moment it appeared.

It was like a pebble thrown into a bottomless well, without creating any ripples.

Because the domain of laws released by Mei'er still enveloped the entire building.

Within this realm, all extraordinary powers that are not of the law are like a child throwing a punch at an adult.

A very soft breath came from behind the pillar.

There was a sense of suppressed tension.

Gu Fan did not urge him.

He simply walked over to a perfectly good gambling table next to the pillar, sat down, pulled out a chair, and faced the shadows.

"I didn't tell you to kneel, nor did I tell you to run."

"I just want you to sit down and have a chat."

There was a silence of about five seconds.

A figure emerged from the shadows.

A purple cowboy hat, a white fur short jacket, and long black hair hanging down her shoulders.

The blue eyes were calm to the point of being indifferent, but upon closer inspection, there was a hint of emotion in their depths that could not be completely suppressed.

Nicole Robin.

The system panel pops up automatically.

[Ding! Scan successful.]

Name: Nicole Robin

[Position: Vice President of Baroque Works, Miss All Sunday / Ohara's only surviving archaeologist]

[Physical constitution: Ordinary human body (Hana Hana no Mi user)]

[Physical constitution: Ordinary human body (Hana Hana no Mi user)]

[Appearance rating: 95 (out of 100)]

[Current state: High alert, survival instinct fully activated, extreme anxiety]

[Number of charging cycles: 0]

Gu Fan glanced at the information on the panel and raised an eyebrow.

Ninety-five points.

He's three points taller than that princess; his foundation is truly impressive.

Robin stood still.

She was assessing the situation.

Twenty years of life on the run taught her one thing—in the face of absolute power disparity, any struggle is futile.

The man's maidservant in front of them destroyed Crocodile with a single finger.

Crocodile is the strongest backer she knows of so far.

She had no bargaining chips.

"Aren't you going to sit?" Gu Fan gestured with his chin towards the chair opposite him.

Robin hesitated for a moment, then finally walked over and sat down.

She sat upright with her back straight and her hands folded on her knees.

He is someone who is used to maintaining his dignity even in danger.

Are you going to kill me?

Robin spoke, his voice steady, devoid of any fear.

But the tips of her intertwined fingers were slightly white.

"Kill you?" Gu Fan chuckled. "Why would I kill you? You're not blocking my way."

Robin's eyelashes trembled.

"So what do you want?"

"You're Crocodile's second-in-command, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you should know all his plans, intelligence networks, and what will happen to this country next."

"I know."

Gu Fan leaned back in his chair, his fingers interlaced in front of his abdomen.

"But I'm not interested in these things."

A crack appeared in Robin's expression.

Not interested?

So what does he actually want?

Gu Fan looked at her, and the corners of his mouth curved into a smile.

"Nicole Robin, the last survivor of Ohara, was put on the wanted list at the age of eight and spent twenty years in exile."

Robin's pupils dilated slightly.

"You jump from one organization to another, from one patron to another. Each time, you carefully play your role and make yourself useful so that you won't be discarded."

His tone was casual, as if he were reading someone else's resume.

But every word was so precise that it sent chills down Robin's spine.

"Crocodile isn't the first, is he?"

"There were many before him. You followed pirates, warlords, and black market merchants. Whoever could keep you alive, you followed."

"It's not because of loyalty, it's because you have no other choice."

The smile finally disappeared from Robin's face.

The faint smile that she habitually wore at the corners of her mouth to feign composure had vanished completely at that moment.

She looked into Gu Fan's eyes, those blue eyes filled with a thin layer of mist.

"Who exactly are you?"

"What you want to know is not who I am."

Gu Fan stretched out his hand and drew a circle on the green velvet surface of the gambling table with his index finger.

"What you want to know is, is there a place in this world where you don't need to play any role, don't need to prove your usefulness, and won't wake up one day to find yourself abandoned again?"

Robin's lips pressed into a thin line.

She did not speak.

But her clasped hands were trembling.

Gu Fan stood up.

He walked up to Robin and looked down at her.

"Twenty years have passed, Nicole Robin."

"Have you ever considered that what you've actually been looking for isn't the historical text itself?"

"You've found a home."

Robin's eyes reddened.

She tried her best to hold back, biting her lips until they turned white, but a tear still escaped from the corner of her eye.

Twenty years.

No one had ever spoken to her like that before.

there has never been.

Gu Fan looked at her face, which was trying hard to maintain its composure but was already showing cracks, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and threw it on the gambling table in front of her.

"Wipe your face."

"Crying like this doesn't seem like how you are when you're reading historical texts."