Chapter 1: A Thrilling Food Matching Game! Skull Potato!
The Grand Line, Food Court.
A casino that had once been loud enough to shake the walls now sat in eerie silence.
A dense crowd had gathered around the gambling table, yet not a single person dared to breathe too loudly.
The dealer stood frozen in place, staring at the calm young man seated across from him. His hands trembled so badly that even the cards between his fingers shook.
How could this be?
This man had already won nine rounds in a row. If he won one more, his payout would rise tenfold.
Five hundred million Berries.
That was an amount this casino could never afford.
Seated at the table, Garen looked as steady as a rock. His expression did not change in the slightest as he said, "Make your choice. Though, to be honest, you do not have many left."
The dealer swallowed hard and stared at the four cards remaining on the table, his heart pounding violently.
The game they were playing was called Food Link Up.
At the start, multiple cards bearing different food images were shuffled and placed face down on the table. Each player got two chances to flip cards in a round. If they revealed a matching pair, they could choose to eat the corresponding food and gain points based on its value.
At the end, whoever had the higher score won.
The dealer clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.
Garen was right.
He had no real choice left.
Only two kinds of food remained.
One was the Lightning Banana, worth 200 points. It could send violent electricity through a person's internal organs.
The other was the infamous Skull Potato, worth 500 points.
Normally, foods like these rarely even appeared in the casino's games. And even when they did, almost nobody dared to eat them. They were fatal in all but name.
But this time, he had no way out.
He had already lost too much money. Even if he somehow survived the poison, the gangster boss behind the casino would kill him anyway.
Since death was waiting for him either way, he might as well gamble on one final chance.
If he ate the Lightning Banana successfully, his score would surpass Garen's.
At that point, Garen would have only two choices. Admit defeat, or eat the Skull Potato and die.
The dealer's eyes flashed with desperation. He slammed his hand onto the table and flipped the final matching pair of banana cards.
Both cards revealed a banana shaped like a bolt of lightning.
Very quickly, the kitchen brought out the prepared dish.
The Lightning Bananas had been cooked to perfection, their surface lightly caramelized, releasing a rich and strangely tempting aroma that made many in the crowd unconsciously swallow.
Then the crackling began.
Tiny arcs of electricity danced over the fruit, instantly dragging everyone back to reality.
The Lightning Banana was said to taste incredible.
The price was a ninety five percent death rate.
The dealer's face twitched, but the madness in his eyes only grew stronger. Without another moment of hesitation, he stuffed the entire banana into his mouth.
The instant he swallowed, his lips blackened. His mouth went numb. Violent currents surged through his body like wild snakes, scorching their way through his organs.
His whole body shook.
Yet somehow, he did not die immediately.
Still standing on the edge of life, the dealer let out a ragged laugh and stared at Garen with bloodshot eyes.
"Your turn!"
His voice was shrill, almost hysterical.
"Do you want to lose, or do you want to die?"
Garen calmly turned over the last two cards. As expected, they matched.
Then he snapped his fingers.
"Serve the food," he said lightly. "And cut it like French fries."
The dealer's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets in classic Grand Line fashion.
He was really going to eat it?
Did this madman have no idea what the Skull Potato was?
Just one gram of that thing was enough to poison an elephant to death.
Soon, a steaming plate of fries was set down in front of Garen.
They were a striking purplish red, the kind of color that screamed danger at first glance. It looked less like food and more like a warning from death itself.
Under countless stunned gazes, Garen picked up a fry and put it into his mouth.
Then another.
Then another.
His face remained utterly expressionless the whole time, as if he were simply enjoying an ordinary plate of snacks.
In less than a minute, the entire plate of Skull Potato fries was gone.
Garen wiped his mouth with perfect composure and said, "I believe you can announce the winner now."
The dealer stared at him in horror.
No poison.
No twitching.
No foaming at the mouth.
Nothing.
Garen sat there completely unharmed, as though he had just eaten a plate of regular fries.
The dealer's lips quivered wildly.
"You... you... you..."
He was so furious that his breathing became disordered. The remaining electric current in his body suddenly flared out of control. His head jerked to one side, his eyes rolled back, and with one last shudder, he collapsed dead.
For a brief instant, the entire casino fell into stunned silence.
He had actually won.
But before the crowd could erupt, a new sound echoed through the hall.
Footsteps.
A lot of them.
Noisy, hurried, and heavy.
Everyone turned their heads.
A gang of men in suits stormed into the casino and quickly sealed off the area. At the center of them stood a portly middle aged man with a cigar in his mouth.
Thomas.
The owner of this casino and one of the local gang leaders.
His face was dark with anger.
"Clear them out," Thomas said coldly.
The gamblers instantly scattered like frightened birds. Nobody dared to linger for even a second. In just a few breaths, the once packed casino was empty.
Only Thomas, his armed men, and Garen remained.
Garen still sat casually at the table, not moving at all.
Thomas strode forward, glanced at the dead dealer on the floor, then raised his gun and fired without hesitation.
Bang!
Blood splashed across the floor.
"Worthless trash," Thomas spat. "You cost me a fortune."
Garen smiled as if he had seen nothing strange at all.
"I did not expect the boss himself to handle the payout. I am honored."
He lightly tapped the tabletop.
"Thank you for your patronage. Five hundred million Berries."
Thomas's face twitched violently.
He took the cigar from his mouth, dropped it to the floor, and crushed it beneath his polished leather shoe.
Then he laughed.
A harsh, furious laugh.
"Kid, you have guts."
His eyes narrowed as killing intent spilled out.
"Today I will teach you something. Not everyone's money is yours to take. You offended the wrong person, and you still think you can walk away?"
At his signal, the surrounding henchmen immediately closed in.
One after another, dark flintlock pistols were raised and aimed straight at Garen's head. Thin wisps of smoke drifted from the gun barrels, carrying the smell of freshly primed powder.
Thomas grinned viciously, already imagining Garen being blasted into a corpse full of holes.
Unfortunately for him, he would never get to see that scene.
"Just as expected," Garen murmured softly.
His eyes turned cold.
[Psychic Power]
In an instant, an invisible force exploded outward from him.
The armed bodyguards looked as though they had been smashed in the head by invisible war hammers. Their necks jerked, their pupils rolled upward, and dizzy shock overtook them before they could even pull the trigger.
Then their bodies stiffened.
One after another, they dropped straight to the floor like felled logs.
Several large men crashed down almost at the same time, their heavy bodies slamming against the ground and sending dust into the air.
Thomas's grin froze.
His mind went blank.
"Dead... dead?!"
He stumbled backward in terror, tripped over his own feet, and crashed onto the floor with a miserable thud. The fat on his face quivered as panic consumed him.
What just happened?
How had this man killed all of his subordinates in a single instant?
"I do not want to repeat myself," Garen said, his voice calm, almost lazy. "Give me the money."
Those few words fell into Thomas's ears like the whisper of a devil from the abyss.
Thomas finally snapped out of it. Tears streamed down his face as he scrambled up from the floor.
"Yes! Yes! Right away! You can take it all! I will get it immediately!"
Perhaps because death felt so close, Thomas moved faster than he had in his entire life.
In only a few minutes, he had gathered every bit of cash the casino currently held and dumped it all into a box on the table.
Wiping sweat from his brow, he forced out a flattering smile.
"Sir, everything here totals fifty three million Berries. Please, take it. If you spare me, I can gather the rest by tomorrow. There should still be another thirty million Berries left."
"Oh?" Garen looked at him with faint amusement. "So if I wait one more day, I can get another thirty million?"
Thomas nodded so hard his neck nearly snapped. His heart was dripping blood, but he still wore a submissive smile.
"Yes, yes. Just give me one day and I will prepare it."
"Very good." Garen picked up the suitcase with one hand and turned toward the exit. "Then I will give you one day."
His tone remained even, but his eyes held a faint trace of mockery.
No matter how convincingly Thomas acted, his inner thoughts could not escape Garen's senses.
Thomas had no intention of letting this matter end here.
But that was fine.
In fact, Garen hoped people would come after him.
Trouble was not a burden to him.
It was one of the fastest ways he had to grow stronger.