With a loud splash, Smoker plunged into the icy seawater.
During his fall, he finally saw the true face of that "black hole."
It wasn't a hole at all—it was a colossal mouth made solely for devouring!
Because right beneath that gaping maw, Smoker clearly saw an eyeball as large as an entire patrol ship!
Inside that enormous eye, brimming with greed, the gaze locked onto him—now only an arm's length away—as he sank into the sea!
A surge of intense foreboding welled up in Smoker's heart.
Sure enough, the seawater beneath him churned violently, and a massive hand suddenly thrust up from the depths, reaching to snatch him!
Smoker could only give a wry smile. The seawater's suppression on Devil Fruit users meant that just staying afloat without drowning was already a struggle.
There was no way he could escape the reach of such a gigantic hand!
"Damn it… never thought I'd end up literally eaten alive by a giant…"
He cursed silently, shut his eyes, and waited for death.
Roya, too, hadn't expected that a stockpile of Seastone on the scale carried by the Pluton could provoke such an intense reaction from one of those mutated monsters that were almost entirely dormant.
The thing on the seafloor had been jolted instantly back into activity.
In a split second, it swallowed tens of thousands of tons of seawater straight through its body surface.
Using the faint life force of the microorganisms within, it barely regained some mobility—and immediately opened its abyssal maw to strike down three Navy patrol ships!
It moved so quickly, so stealthily, that even Roya only sensed it a fraction early—too late to save the ships in time.
No wonder it was called the strongest biological weapon deployed by the alien Harvesters!
Fortunately, Roya had already realized that once this thing regained vitality, it would not only develop a ravenous need for flesh and blood—
—but Devil Fruit users like Smoker would also become its top-priority targets for collection!
His spiritual sense shot out, winding around Smoker's collar, yanking him free from the giant hand's grasp at the very last moment!
Smoker had kept his eyes shut for a long time, yet found that not only was he not dead—he seemed to be flying.
Cracking an eye open, he saw a massive hand with only three fingers surging up from two to three hundred meters below, chasing right after him!
The tips of those three fingers constantly shifted shape—
—one moment turning into hooked claws bristling with barbs,
—the next morphing into gaping maws full of razor teeth,
—and then transforming into tubes capable of releasing tremendous suction…
But whatever the form, a single touch would surely cost him his life!
Finally, those three fingers, like picking up a snail, pinched right toward Smoker's face—
—only for his body to veer suddenly, dodging the lethal strike, arcing through the air before landing hard on the Pluto's deck.
The giant hand seemed to have reached its maximum stretch and did not pursue further.
Smoker rolled who-knew-how-many times along the Pluton's enormous deck before finally dissipating the momentum, feeling as though every bone in his body might fall apart.
Hauling himself up, he saw that out on the sea now stood a terrifying monster, its height impossible to gauge.
On its head, the most striking features were that single, massive eye—and the bottomless abyss of its giant mouth.
At this moment, the giant eye was staring at the Pluton with unrestrained greed.
"Hmph!"
A cold snort sounded from overhead. Smoker quickly looked up.
On the roof of the bridge stood Roya, tall and steady—and Smoker's heart instantly settled.
He knew his life had been spared.
By now, Roya had already used his spiritual sense to fully analyze the structure of the one-eyed giant before him, from head to toe.
Its body had mutated into the perfect form for extracting and harvesting black slime and Seastone.
Besides that abyssal mouth leading straight to its abdominal cavity, it had four arms of varying lengths.
Each arm ended in three fingers—versatile tools capable of digging, cutting, and collecting all at once.
The arms were hollow as well, able to transport gathered resources straight into the massive chamber inside its torso.
Its six thick legs were essentially heavy hammers—each step could flatten any protrusion on the ground, leaving no corner where anything could hide.
At present, everything below its neck remained submerged—not because its hollow body lacked buoyancy, but intentionally so, to increase contact with seawater and speed up its absorption of the microorganisms' life force.
At the same time, its four arms were sweeping through the water in a frenzy, hunting fish, sea turtles, and any other marine life—wiping out entire species without hesitation.
The more life it devoured, the more agile its arms became.
In moments, they could move more nimbly than fish, flitting about the seabed like butterflies among flowers, looting everything in their path.
The once-calm sea was soon filled with terrifying undercurrents, churning the surrounding waters into chaos.
Thankfully, earlier tremors in the deep had led nearby ships to believe an undersea quake had occurred, prompting them to steer far clear.
Aside from the three lost Navy patrol ships, no other vessels were caught up—nor did any dare approach this area.
So Roya was in no rush to attack. He continued observing and analyzing every detail of the alien bioweapon with his spiritual sense.
These were precious firsthand data; once compiled, they would be critical in evaluating the alien Harvesters' technology and combat level.
Roya had no intention of fighting them blind—and certainly wouldn't, like the Star Spirit, foolishly serve as a living battery for the enemy's antenna.
Naturally, such a massive disturbance at sea also caught the Star Spirit's attention.
His consciousness instantly linked into the Pluton's ship-soul, exclaiming:
"What the hell is that?! Why does it look so much like when I—"
"Nothing. You heard nothing. Now why aren't you dealing with this thing?"
Roya suddenly felt that letting this guy connect to the Pluton's ship-soul had been a huge mistake.
He was just about to make a move to test the alien bioweapon's combat parameters when—
—he sensed three immensely powerful life forces rising from the depths of the Calm Belt.
Three Sea Kings—top-tier even among their kind—were rushing toward them at full speed!
The Star Spirit sensed them too.
Delighted, he shouted:
"Oh, I remember now! Ages ago, when I was bored, I scattered some baby fish into the sea. I can't believe they've grown this big already!"
"Come, my sweet children! Come to Father! Help Father smash this ugly asshole bastard to pieces!"
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