The pinnacle of pirates begins with deceiving fate!

As they approached, the trash suddenly separated into sharp cones of the same size, which accelerated rapidly and poured towards the ship like a torrential rain of pear blossoms.

"Damn it! They're after me!"

One-Eyed's face darkened, and he raised his hand, grabbing a clump of black ink that appeared in his palm. He then forcefully flung it towards the torrential rain of sharp cones pouring down from above.

The ink spread in mid-air, like the "water strike" move in fishman karate, with ink droplets turning into bullets that shot at the sharp cones.

The clanging of metal against metal was deafening. The cascading cones were deflected by the ink, their rapid descent abruptly halted.

"What kind of weird thing is this! It's nothing compared to my special Paramecia-type Ink-Ink Fruit!"

bang

Just as One-Eyed was gloating, a bolt of purple lightning struck him squarely on the top of his head.

His one-eyed, meticulously styled slanted bangs were split upright, revealing his other, pale eyeball that had been hidden by his bangs. He was emitting black smoke and swaying unsteadily, unable to stand up straight.

But they persevered and didn't give up!

Rumble

The unknown entity above seemed to be angered by this, and thunder roared and shook the heavens and the seas in succession, and another thick bolt of lightning struck down fiercely.

One-Eyed was shocked and quickly covered his entire body with Armament Haki for defense, but after waiting for a long time, the lightning still did not strike him.

"Captain, you...you behind you!"

The crew looked in horror behind the one-eyed man, as if some terrifying being was there, and they trembled and retreated.

One-Eyed swallowed hard, feeling as if he were being pricked by needles, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

He was terrified, but he couldn't back down in front of the crew, or he would lose all authority on the ship.

One-Eyed gritted his teeth, mustered his courage, and suddenly turned around. Instantly, a dark figure came into his view.

It was a suit of knight's armor, entirely matte black, and through the full-face helmet, a pair of eyes could be seen gleaming purple in the darkness.

"you……"

Before the one-eyed man could finish asking about his identity, the man in black armor suddenly reached out and tightly gripped his neck.

"Why didn't you just obediently let me control you? You had to force me to show myself. Originally, I could have let you leave after I was done using you, but now I'm forced to silence you."

John's voice was low and filled with gritted teeth; he was kind by nature but furious at being forced to commit further murder.

Immediately, he raised his free left hand and a steel spike that had been hovering above the pirate ship flew out and landed in his palm. He then coated it with Armament Haki and thrust it into his one-eyed right arm.

There's no other way; to deal with outliers like Logia and Paramecia types, you need Haki to grab their physical form.

For an aura of dominance to be applied to an object, a material medium is required for it to spread and propagate.

Just like a sniper firing a shot, the domineering aura can be spread and covered onto the bullet through the gun barrel, rather than covering the bullet with domineering aura from a distance after it is fired.

Unfortunately, those metal spikes are all controlled electromagnetically from a distance, making it impossible to cover them with Armament Haki.

"Ugh... Waaaaah!"

As one sharp cone after another pierced his body, the one-eyed man, his throat choked, was in so much pain that he couldn't even scream, only able to whimper pitifully.

"Monster! Monster!"

The pirates on deck were horrified. The extreme fear made them lose their minds, and they flew around like headless flies, bumping into each other as they fled to the left and right sides of the ship.

All they want now is to jump into the sea and escape!

The spikes hovering above the pirate ship moved, sweeping onto the deck and shooting into the sea, like leeches burrowing into the pirates' bodies.

"what!!!"

Screams of fear and pain rose and fell.

Before long, the pirates, led by One-Eyed, lined up neatly on the deck to be inspected by John.

"Hmm, not bad!"

Ignoring the pirates' tearful, terrified gazes, John steered their pirate ship toward Punk Hazard and threw all the mermaids he had kidnapped into the sea.

Although selling mermaids could make a lot of money, John wouldn't do such a low-end business.

"Who's that? He's so handsome!"

The mermaids floated on the sea, watching the pirate ship sail away, their infatuation evident on their faces.

"He's a knight prince!"

Thus, Fishman Island gained a new legend of a knight-prince rescuing a bound mermaid...

Chapter 77 Invasion of Punk Hazard

"Perhaps I have found the true use of the black knife."

John stood at the bow, peering through his helmet at the small black dots of islands on the horizon ahead, his eyes gleaming slightly.

After using Haki to forge the weapon into a black blade, it can be used to attack Logia-type and special Paramecia-type users even when controlled remotely.

Instead of simply increasing the strength of the blade!

If we were to be even more greedy and feed the Black Blade a Zoan-type Devil Fruit, would this new life come with its own Haki?

And it doesn't have to be limited to weapons; it could be a suit of armor, or even a ship...

"The armor is pretty good!"

John had a greedy idea: what if he used Haki to temper the armor into black armor, and then fed it the Yatagarasu Fruit, a pseudo-mythical beast species...?

That's absolutely incredible!

More importantly, the clothes you wear can be elementalized along with the clothing!

"It's a pity that we didn't get the real Yatagarasu Fruit."

John clicked his tongue, recalling the situation at the time.

When he killed Sylgin, he had two stolen oranges in his pocket, but he didn't develop a new Devil Fruit just because he was so close to the dead Devil Fruit user.

I don't know if it's because the quantity is too small, or if this method simply doesn't work.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. As long as I have the money, I can make my own Nika Devil!"

John looked again at the small black dot on the horizon, his anticipation for meeting Begabank growing stronger.

He never imagined that one day he would miss a man so much.

It's just that you smell too good, bro!

Punk Hazard

The silver-white research institute, like a giant tree rooted in the center of the island, has a glass dome that refracts rainbow light, and glowing vine-like gas pipes wrapped around the alloy supports, spewing out a minty-scented mist.

In a futuristic, sci-fi-themed restaurant, the scientists from "MADS" sat around a huge metal round table, exchanging perfunctory conversations while occasionally taking a bite or two of food.

"Hehehe, Stusi, what shade of lipstick are you wearing today? Can I try some?"

Caesar Couran, with ram's horns on his head, flashed what he considered a charming smile and subtly moved his chair to the left to get closer to Stusi beside him.

Upon catching a whiff of the alluring perfume wafting into his nostrils, Courland's smile suddenly took on a lewd, almost sleazy quality.

Stussy tucked a strand of her golden hair behind her ear, glanced at me alluringly, and parted her red lips slightly:

"Could you help me research weapons similar to your Gas-Gas Fruit ability? I've had a lot of clients asking about this lately."

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Caesar was so coaxed that he nodded repeatedly, his tongue lolling out like a lapdog.

Vince and Quinn, who were talking quietly to each other, turned around at the same time. When they saw the pug's appearance, they both frowned with disdain and disgust.

They don't understand, what's so good about being lustful? Is having power and authority important?

On the other side, there was a young man with an unusually prominent "M"-shaped hairline and an abnormally high forehead.

This is Dr. Vegapunk, the leader of the "MADS Research Institute" and a Paramecia-type Brain-Brain Fruit user.

Begabank sat at the dining table flipping through a book, with a square-headed robot standing beside him, extending a connected arm to feed him.

This is a man who never forgets to study, even while eating.

Suddenly, red lights flashed inside the restaurant, and a piercing alarm blared incessantly.

The diners were shocked. The robot feeding them turned to look at the open space, its pupils shooting out images from the island's surveillance Den Den Mushi (snail communication devices).

A group of men dressed in different clothes moved through the jungle, occasionally raising their guns to shoot and kill the hidden sentries.

Under the robot's control, the projected image suddenly focused on the face of the man walking at the front of the group, and a bounty poster was thoughtfully attached to his face.

"'Black Ink' is a one-eyed man with a bounty of 70 million Berries. He is a special Paramecia-type Ink-Ink Fruit user."

"Pirates? How did they find us here?"

Upon seeing that the intruders were merely pirates with a bounty of 70 million Berries, the group, who had stood up, sat back down in surprise, their brows furrowed with indifference.

As long as it's not the World Government that comes, they have nothing to fear!

"They must have just entered this sea area from Fishman Island and arrived at Punk Hazard by following the log pointer."

Stussy rested his chin on his hand and reasonably deduced the other party's route.

Caesar crossed his arms and looked displeased, complaining:

"I told you to move it somewhere else! Why did you have to build the research institute here? How many waves of pirates have broken in this month?!"

"Isn't this perfect? ​​Let's use this group of pirates to test that out!"

Judge suddenly stood up and strode out of the restaurant, and Quinn followed without hesitation.

These two individuals were recently researching "super soldiers" and "human modification" respectively, and then they hit it off and created a "super modified soldier".

Now is the time to see the results!

Stussy's eyes flickered slightly as he reached into his breasts, took out a video recording Den Den Mushi, and began recording the image projected onto the robot.

If the "super-modified soldier" performs exceptionally well, it will appear as promotional material in the hands of various buyers in the underworld.

"I'm going to make a lot of money again."

Outside the research institute, in the jungle.