Terror?
"Once I kill Kanjuro and feed his Brush-Brush Fruit to Miss Golden Week, Marianne… then you'll truly know what terror means!"
"With Marianne's artistic talent and her Palette ability, paired with the powers of the Paramecia-type Brush-Brush Fruit… just imagining that combo is enough to send chills down your spine…"
Well, maybe other people's spines.
For Sora, at worst, it just made his lower back ache.
"Found it!"
Thanks to the intel from Buggy, Nojiko quickly located the hidden bomb formula and ran up to the deck to hand it over to Sora.
He glanced at the formula and waved his hand.
Nami stepped up to Buggy, raised her hand, and said with disgust, "Die, you piece of trash!!"
"One hundred million volts!!!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, lightning surged from her hand. A thick pillar of electricity struck Buggy right on the head, instantly turning him into a scorched corpse.
Nami showed no mercy toward the despicable Buggy the Clown.
Looking at the blackened body, Sora frowned slightly.
Why wasn't there a system notification?
Kabaji and Mohji were already dead—technically, every member of the Buggy Pirates should've been wiped out by now.
Suddenly, Sora noticed a lion hiding behind a barrel…
His face twitched as he pointed at the forgotten creature.
"Aphelandra, kill that lion."
"Got it, Sora." Without hesitation, Aphelandra charged toward the lion he pointed at and grabbed it.
Crack!
With a twist of her muscular arms, she snapped the lion's neck like it was nothing.
『Ding! The Buggy Pirates have been exterminated. You may now claim either their treasures and bounties or choose to acquire their Devil Fruits.』
『Ding! Paramecia-type: Chop-Chop Fruit — Valued at 300 million. Payment required: 230 million Berries or equivalent treasure.』
"Pay it."
As soon as he made the choice, a pineapple-shaped Devil Fruit materialized in Sora's hand.
"Next time I'll just stick with the instant kill mode."
He tossed the fruit in his hand and muttered.
When attacking pirates, Sora had two modes to choose from: Extermination Mode or Kill Mode.
Extermination Mode wiped out the entire crew and granted all their treasure, bounties, and Devil Fruit abilities.
Kill Mode allowed him to instantly obtain a Devil Fruit or bounty upon killing a single target, but it required manually collecting any treasures left behind.
Sora, flush with wealth these days, prioritized acquiring Devil Fruit powers, so Kill Mode was more efficient for him.
If even one member of a pirate crew escaped, then the whole effort would've been for nothing.
He casually stored the Chop-Chop Fruit in his dimensional storage box, then turned to the others with a smile.
"You guys head back to the Divine Slave. I'll gather the ship's artillery shells and meet you there."
The shells Buggy had crafted were terrifyingly powerful. Sora planned to outfit both the Divine Slave and the Ark Maxim with them.
Later, he'd have Nojiko produce more.
With that kind of firepower, Sora would be nearly unbeatable in naval battles.
Reiju, Nami, and the others nodded, then looked toward Aphelandra.
"Aphelandra! Let's go!"
"You go ahead. I'll be right there after I skin this thing."
"On Amazon Lily, when you kill a sea beast, you take the meat. When you kill a land beast, you take the pelt. That's tradition."
Aphelandra, crouching by the lion's corpse, didn't even glance back as she worked with her long knife.
The girls—Reiju, Nami, Nojiko, and Mikita—exchanged looks, shook their heads, and walked off.
"This girl's really something else…"
Sora chuckled and headed into the ship's hold.
Once he had finished storing all of Buggy's specialized cannonballs into the dimensional box and returned to the deck, he saw that Aphelandra still wasn't done.
After another brief wait, he finally departed for the Divine Slave with Aphelandra, who was proudly carrying the lion's pelt.
With the sails raised, the Divine Slave resumed its swift voyage toward Water 7.
At the ship's stern, Nojiko pulled out a coin she'd kept close to her body and tossed it onto Buggy's pirate ship.
The coin had been with her for a long time, soaked in her presence—it now had destructive power on par with Buggy's custom bombs.
BOOM!!!
With a thunderous explosion, a massive fireball erupted from Buggy's ship, tearing it apart. The wreckage quickly sank into the sea.
Nojiko gave a satisfied nod.
The longer she held onto an item, the more polished it became, and the more powerful the explosion.
That's why Nojiko always carried dozens of shiny coins on her—each one a high-powered mini-bomb.
Next, she pulled out a small pouch filled with bean-sized custom bombs that Sora had found on Buggy's ship and casually handed to her.
She took out a red lipstick and painted each mini-bomb before putting them into a small pouch to carry close to her body.
These bombs were already potent—but if she kept them on her long enough, their explosive force would multiply dramatically.
"I'll call these… 'Little Chili Bombs.'"
After naming her new explosive babies and touching up her lipstick, Nojiko happily ran into the ship's bar, where Reiju, Golden Week, Makino, and others were sipping coffee.
"Reiju-sis! Help me out!"
Reiju looked at her with a smile. "What kind of help?"
Nojiko beamed. "Help me make a backpack that makes it easier to carry all these bombs—something convenient!"
Her plan was to craft three sizes of bombs for easy access and transport.
Bean-sized: Little Chili!
Fava bean-sized: Big Chili!
Ping-pong ball-sized: Super Chili!
Reiju gave her a look. "Approved!"
"You're the best, Reiju-sis!"
...
A few days later—
Sora had once again disguised the Divine Slave as a Five Seas Merchant Fleet vessel and returned to Water 7.
This time, he brought Vivi—disguised as his secretary—to meet with the city's mayor, Iceburg.
He didn't see Lucci or Kaku anymore. Most likely, they had followed Kalifa's advice, regrouped with Jabra and the others, and fled to who-knows-where.
After Vivi, on Sora's behalf, concluded negotiations with Iceburg regarding their business plans…
Sora made a request: for Iceburg to deliver Vivi's letter and five billion Berries worth of gold to Alabasta.
"You trust me that much? That's a huge amount of money you're handing over," Iceburg said, raising an eyebrow.
Sora smiled. "Of course I trust you. And I trust your vision isn't so short-sighted."
"Fine then," Iceburg laughed. "Once I finalize the route, I'll publish it in the World News. Don't forget to come back and invest more."
Once the shipping route was secured, Iceburg would announce it in the World News—Sora would then return to invest in the Sea Train and railway development.
"Absolutely."
Sora stood, then walked out with Vivi, who was visibly excited about the success of their deal.
After a brief stay in Water 7 to restock supplies…
Sora and his crew set sail again—this time toward the Florian Triangle.
There, a certain gothic girl named Perona was still waiting for him.
______________
P/S: If you are interested, you can read up to 30+ chapters for $5 and receive daily updates at p@treon.com/Betek (@->a).