Boom——
An endless surge of Conqueror's Haki erupted like a tidal wave, rolling forth from Kai's body and sweeping across every corner of the tavern, enveloping a radius of more than a hundred meters.
A terrifying wave of Conqueror's Haki...
It shook the entire place!
At once, the change was visible to the naked eye.
Those pirates, who had been smirking in schadenfreude just moments ago, suddenly froze in place. Their expressions stiffened unnaturally, their eyes rolled back, and foam frothed from their mouths.
Their minds and consciousness buckled under the overwhelming pressure. The crushing might of the Conqueror's Haki smashed through their mental defenses in an instant.
"Uh…uhhh…"
One after another, pirates collapsed like puppets with cut strings.
Thud!
Thud!
…
The tavern echoed with heavy crashes as bodies hit the ground.
In the blink of an eye, nearly a hundred pirates were unconscious, sprawled across the floor like lifeless corpses. Over ninety fell instantly, motionless, stiffened as if frozen in time.
All of it had happened in an instant—before anyone could even react.
There was no chance to defend, no way to resist. Against the sheer domination of Kai's Conqueror's Haki, they stood no chance.
The atmosphere became suffocating.
Silence.
Not a sound could be heard in the tavern.
When the oppressive aura finally faded, only a handful of pirates remained standing with their consciousness intact.
The whispers, the mocking chatter—all had vanished completely.
The blast of Conqueror's Haki came and went like a storm. In less than a few breaths, it had flattened nearly the entire tavern.
Now, all that could be seen were dozens upon dozens of pirates collapsed on the ground, chests faintly rising and falling—proof they were still alive.
Otherwise, anyone would have thought them corpses.
This bizarre scene was burned into the eyes of the few survivors.
Their faces drained of blood, eyes wide with terror and disbelief. Their worldview shattered before their very eyes.
Gulp!
The blue-haired man swallowed hard, his body trembling uncontrollably. He glanced down at the fallen comrades around him, his mind blank with shock.
Arrogant moments ago…
Now, his arrogance had been erased completely.
What remained was raw, suffocating fear.
He was one of the few survivors within the range of the blast. The only reason he still stood was because of his relatively strong willpower.
"J-Just now…"
"What the hell just happened?!"
His lips quivered as he stammered, his body shuddering violently.
He had been ready to mock Kai, to laugh at his insolence for daring to provoke the Buggy Pirates.
But then—this!
"This… was a presence…" one trembling pirate managed to whisper. "I felt it… just now, a terrifying aura wrapped around my body. Like I was trapped in hell itself. My whole body couldn't move…"
He stared at the fallen bodies around him, watching as his comrades lay unconscious in droves. The sight alone ignited his fear like wildfire.
"T-That presence?!"
The blue-haired man recalled it vividly—the suffocating, primal fear. It was like standing before a wild beast as a helpless child.
Powerless.
Hopeless.
Afraid.
Panicked.
All those emotions surged at once, crushing him.
It had been years since he last felt such helplessness. He never thought he'd feel it again—until today.
"H-How… how is this possible?!"
"In an instant…"
"Nearly a hundred people were taken out!"
"Were they all knocked unconscious by that presence?!"
"What kind of ability is this?!"
His throat dry, his fists clenched tight, his mind couldn't process the fear.
He turned his eyes toward their captain—Buggy.
The remaining pirates followed suit, their terrified gazes locking onto their leader, silently begging him for an explanation.
"B-Buggy boss… what's happening here?!"
But even Buggy, the infamous pirate captain feared across the East Blue, was pale with shock.
"This… impossible…"
Buggy's eyes darted frantically, staring at the nearly hundred men sprawled on the floor.
His ruthless grin had vanished. What remained was pure dread.
He knew this feeling.
Too well.
Back then, when he sailed under the Pirate King with his old crewmate Red-Haired Shanks…
He had experienced this exact kind of terrifying force.
"It can't be… this is the East Blue!" Buggy muttered, trembling. "Not the Grand Line… and certainly not the New World! How could such a thing appear in the weakest sea?!"
He shook his head in disbelief, his voice quivering.
That aura—he knew it without question.
It was Conqueror's Haki.
His friend Shanks had wielded the same force. He had felt it with his own body countless times back then.
"This feeling… there's no mistaking it!"
His lips went dry, his body shivering.
"That was… Conqueror's Haki!"
"Only one in a million is born with this power… the very mark of a king! Those with it are destined to become monsters of the sea!"
Buggy clenched his fists, his pupils shrinking.
"And just now… that was unmistakably Conqueror's Haki that knocked out nearly a hundred men in an instant!"
In this so-called weakest of seas…
He had actually felt it again.
He was losing his mind.
"C-Conqueror's Haki…"
The surviving pirates stood dumbstruck, their minds roaring in chaos. They had never heard of it before—but Buggy's explanation told them all they needed to know.
A king's power.
The mark of a monster.
Something that had no place in the East Blue.
One pirate stammered, "B-Buggy boss, then who… who just released that power?!"
Buggy's breath caught.
He realized something terrifying.
Slowly, he turned his gaze forward.
There—
The shirtless boy, only four years old, his body covered in muscles like carved stone.
A shiver raced down Buggy's spine. His scalp prickled with numbness.
"That Conqueror's Haki…"
"Don't tell me…"
"It came from… this little brat?!"
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 50 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/ZeusOp