Meanwhile, on another bustling street in Mock Town.
"I swear, I absolutely will not fight in this town!" the idiot captain swore solemnly.
"Good!" Nami nodded at Luffy in satisfaction. "It's a promise, then. Absolutely no fighting. Zoro! You too."
"But, that being said, what if the people here make the first move?" The green-haired swordsman frowned slightly, looking at the pedestrians on the street, each looking more vicious than the last. "We can't just stand there and take a beating."
"That's a different story, of course." The orange-haired navigator looked up and surveyed their surroundings, secretly thinking it was a real pity that such a prosperous little town had become a lawless place. "But you absolutely cannot throw the first punch. If you cause a huge scene, it won't just be us—Sherlock and the others might not be able to gather any intel on the Sky Island either."
"Shishishi... Don't worry, Nami!" Luffy grinned at his navigator, speaking with absolute certainty. "Zoro and I definitely won't cause any trouble!"
"Phew~ As long as you understand that..."
Before Nami could even get the word "good" out, a loud, distinctively arrogant laugh suddenly echoed from diagonally above the street.
"Wiihahahahaha... The people in this town are just too weak!"
Luffy's trio and the nearby pedestrians looked toward the sound. They discovered that at the top of a tall nearby watchtower, a massive man wearing a mask was laughing up at the sky. He laughed with unparalleled arrogance. His build was extremely large, built like a bull, and coupled with his outfit, he looked exactly like a pro wrestler.
"Ah~ Why is it that guy again..." a pirate muttered, looking at the towering figure laughing wildly on top of the tower with a face full of dread.
"Yeah, he's making trouble again. That [Fighting Champion]!"
"Champion??!!" x2
Hearing this, Luffy and Zoro both frowned deeply in indignation, their expressions showing they were itching for a fight.
"Hey! What's with those expressions on you two?!" Nami roared, her teeth turning sharp and dark lines dropping across her face. "Didn't we just agree not to actively cause trouble?!"
However, right at that moment.
Whoosh!!!! A piercing sound of something tearing through the air rapidly approached from afar.
A dark shadow came spinning wildly through the air at high speed. Immediately after, this unidentified object smashed squarely and viciously into the watchtower.
BOOM!!!!! An earth-shattering crash!
The violent impact caused the tall watchtower—which likely wasn't built to code anyway—to instantly shatter and collapse with a thunderous roar. The ground trembled violently. For a moment, rubble rolled everywhere and dust filled the air, causing the surrounding outlaws to scream in panic and scatter in all directions.
As for the previously insufferably arrogant Fighting Champion, he let out a miserable cry as he plummeted from the high peak of the tower, instantly buried under the rubble...
"..." The entire street fell into a mystifying silence.
All the onlookers were stunned by this baffling and absurd turn of events. They stared at the watchtower, which was now just a pile of ruins, not knowing what to say.
After quite a while...
"Hey? What exactly just happened?"
"No idea. It looked like something flew in from somewhere else and knocked the watchtower down."
"What was that thing? To actually have that much destructive power! Was it a cannonball?"
"But I didn't hear a cannon fire earlier..."
Following that, the surrounding crowd began to chatter all at once. Looking at their enthusiastic expressions, it seemed they had completely forgotten about a certain [Fighting Champion] who had failed at showing off and ended up tragically buried alive in the ruins...
"What the... Turns out he's just an idiot." Luffy curled his lip.
Zoro released his grip on his sword hilt and shook his head in disappointment. "A guy like that can be called the Fighting Champion??"
It seemed that due to the other party's incredibly embarrassing display, these two had already lost the desire to challenge him.
"Idiots! Stop standing around watching the show!" Nami secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then exasperatedly grabbed the collars of their clothes and marched forward. "We still have real business to take care of!"
Jesus Burgess had been living a very boring life lately.
Because their ship's navigator had gone to the Holy Land of Mary Geoise to recommend their captain for the position of a new Warlord of the Sea, those of them who weren't proficient in navigation had no choice but to stay in Mock Town and wait to rendezvous with him.
Waiting was an incredibly boring affair, so the members of the Blackbeard Pirates each found something to do to pass the time.
Captain Blackbeard planned to taste the cherry pie in every single restaurant in this small town; he seemed very fond of the delicious dessert.
Sniper Van Augur spent every day raising his rifle to shoot birds all over the place to relieve his boredom. Ship doctor Doc Q rode his "precious steed" all around town handing out apples. If it weren't for the fact that his apples could explode, the townspeople might have thought Christmas was coming early...
Meanwhile, helmsman Burgess went around picking fights everywhere, fully displaying the mighty strength of the Fighting Champion. However, perhaps because his opponents were all too weak, the towering masked man gradually lost interest in those frail, easily defeated pirates.
(Is there really no one in this town who can put up a fight???)
Five minutes ago, this was exactly what the Fighting Champion was thinking as he stood atop the watchtower, laughing wildly at the sky.
However, five minutes later...
Crash! Rubble flew everywhere as an incredibly disheveled, towering figure leaped out from the pile of ruins. Looking at him, despite falling from such a great height, other than being covered in dust and dirt, he actually hadn't suffered a single scratch!
"Dammit! Who the hell did this?!"
Burgess let out a massive roar. Then, under the bewildered gazes of the few people nearby, he bent down and started digging through the rubble with both hands, seemingly searching for something.
After a moment.
"Found it!!! This is the thing!"
After effortlessly flipping over a massive boulder, Burgess's eyes lit up, and he picked up a pitch-black object from the ground.
This was originally supposed to be a giant decapitation axe. However, judging by its rolled-up blade and the handle that had been twisted into a twisted-dough shape, this weapon was completely and utterly scrapped.
"Hey! Any of you know whose axe this is?!" the Fighting Champion hoisted the ruined giant axe in his hand and asked the nearby crowd loudly.
"That axe?" A rather clever-looking pirate peered at it closely and said uncertainly, "That looks like Captain Knock's decapitation axe!"
"Knock? Decapitation Axe Knock?"
"No way! His bounty is second only to Bellamy's in this town. How did his decapitation axe end up like this?"
(And if the axe is in this condition, wouldn't he himself be...)
Thinking of this, the pirates turned pale as they stared at the decapitation axe—which seemed to have been forcibly twisted into scrap by an immense raw power—and silently gulped.
However, as if the heavens wanted to confirm the pirates' suspicions, a man came running over frantically from the distance, clutching a wanted poster in his hand.
"Big news! Big news! Just now, Decapitation Axe Knock was killed by a young man wearing glasses! It was a gruesome death!"
The man took a few deep breaths, then raised the wanted poster in his hand with a fanatical look on his face, pumping his arm and shouting:
"And eyewitnesses confirmed, the killer is that terrorist from the East Blue—the Sorcerer with a first-time bounty of 70 million Berries!!!"
Whoa———— The crowd of pirates broke into a massive uproar!
"Are you kidding me? That Sorcerer who dared to attack a Marine base actually came to Jaya??!!"
"70 million Berries! Isn't that 15 million higher than Bellamy?!"
"Ah~~~~ He's my absolute idol!!!" a scantily clad female pirate squealed, clutching the Sorcerer's wanted poster with a totally love-struck expression.
As a side note, because Sherlock had previously completed the "glorious" achievement of [Dismantling a Marine Base Bare-Handed] all by himself in the East Blue, in the eyes of these lawless pirates, the fierce Sorcerer was a symbol of defying authority. He was a role model they aspired to emulate, and his fame was comparable to that of great pirates with bounties over a hundred million.
Furthermore, after leaving Loguetown, a new wanted poster had exposed Sherlock's true appearance. His incredibly high attractiveness and his elegant, unhurried, noble aura instantly caused a sensation. It captured a massive horde of female fans, giving the relevant departments issuing the wanted posters the subtle feeling that "this guy is Cavendish the Second."
(The Sorcerer? I think the captain mentioned that name before...)
Burgess, who had once again been ignored by the crowd, scratched his head. Then he casually tossed aside the battered axe in his hand, a bloodthirsty and tyrannical smile stretching across his face:
"Whatever. A bounty as high as 70 million—you must be a pretty decent opponent! Sorcerer!"
"Wiihahaha..."
Following that, the Fighting Champion charged off like a wild bull in the direction the ruined axe had flown from, carelessly trampling over who knows how many flowers and plants along the way...
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