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"W–What kind of power is that?!"
"How can light shoot out of a human body?!"
The soldiers were utterly stunned, their minds freezing in sheer disbelief. They had never seen anything so surreal, so utterly beyond logic. Eyes wide, jaws slack, they could only stare.
But they never got the chance to process it. Rosh's photon rounds struck without mercy.
*Thud! Thud! Thud!*
Bodies dropped one after another, crumpling like broken puppets. In the blink of an eye, every single soldier lay scattered across the street, sprawled in twisted angles.
Not a single one remained standing.
Including Colonel Kyle.
That's right, Rosh showed no mercy whatsoever to these uninvited guests who had come to shut down his Devil Fruit shop. From the moment they crossed the line, he had struck with lethal intent.
*Szzzt! Szzzt!*
*Szzzt! Szzzt!*
Even after the soldiers had fallen, Rosh didn't stop. Golden beams continued to pour from his fingertips, lashing the bodies on the ground without pause.
Just like the time he had erased the Hand, he kept firing for over ten whole seconds before finally lowering his arms.
And then, the soldiers' bodies vanished.
Every last one of them disappeared without leaving so much as a stain behind, as if they had never existed at all.
*Click! Click! Click!*
The faint sound of camera shutters echoed through the stunned silence.
"W–Where did they go?"
"They didn't just… get erased by that light, did they?"
"That's terrifying…"
"That guy's a monster. An actual monster."
Fearful whispers rippled through the crowd.
At some point, a large group of civilians had gathered nearby. No one dared approach. Faces pale, bodies stiff, they kept their distance, watching from afar while murmuring nervously among themselves. A few braver, or perhaps more foolish, onlookers even raised their phones, snapping pictures and recording videos.
Rosh swept his gaze over them briefly, then looked away as if he hadn't noticed a thing. He made no effort to stop them.
He knew better than anyone that this incident would cause an enormous uproar.
And that was exactly what he wanted.
Since the authorities had already taken notice of the Home of the Devil Fruits and had even dared to harbor the wrong kind of intentions, Rosh would use this opportunity to make an example of them.
To send a message loud and clear: The Home of the Devil Fruit was not to be touched.
And to make that message stick…
Gentle measures would never be enough. Only an overwhelming, thunderous force could carve genuine fear into their hearts.
"Some people," Rosh said coldly, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips, "are about to have a very bad day."
The moment the words left his mouth, he focused his mind. An observation haki of terrifying magnitude erupted outward, sweeping across the entirety of the United States in an instant.
Seconds later, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes.
"Found you."
*Whoosh!*
In the next instant, Rosh's body dissolved into a blinding stream of light, shooting straight into the sky before vanishing completely from sight.
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Ninth Air Force Base Headquarters
Inside a spacious, if not especially luxurious, office, several high-ranking officers were gathered in the reception area along the southeast wing. Each of them carried an unmistakable air of authority, their mere presence enough to make an ordinary soldier stand at attention.
Seated at the head of the group was a man wearing the insignia of a major general.
Major General Carlos, the highest-ranking officer stationed at the base.
Around him sat the core leadership of the military district: colonels and lieutenant colonels, the chief of staff, and the head of the armaments department. Every one of them was a key decision-maker, someone whose words carried real weight.
"The world's completely lost its mind," one officer muttered. "As if mutants weren't already enough to deal with, now Devil Fruits show up."
"Fruits that grant superpowers just by eating them…" another added, shaking his head. "Even now, I can barely believe something like that actually exists."
A colonel chuckled and leaned back in his seat. "Then why do you think we're all sitting here today? Isn't it so we can see one of these so-called miraculous fruits with our own eyes as soon as possible?"
Laughter rippled through the room.
The conversation remained casual, almost relaxed, but every topic inevitably circled back to the same thing: Devil Fruits. Excitement was hard to hide from their expressions. After all, these fruits were essentially a shortcut, a cheat code for mass-producing superpowered soldiers.
No one in that room could truly remain calm in the face of such a possibility.
Ever since Captain America first appeared during World War II, the military's obsession with recreating a super soldier had never faded.
And it wasn't just the military.
Countless organizations had chased the same dream in the shadows, pouring unimaginable resources into secret experiments.
Even now, decades later, the obsession was still alive. The existence of the Hulk alone was proof enough of that.
Despite repeated failures and despite creating an uncontrollable monster whose destructive potential far outweighed his usefulness, the military had never entirely abandoned the project.
So under those circumstances, if they could truly acquire Devil Fruits in large quantities… fruits capable of creating stable, controllable superpowered soldiers...
The achievement would be nothing short of historic.
The kind of breakthrough that would reshape warfare itself.
Just thinking about it was enough to make their hearts pound and their blood run hot.
Yet not everyone in the room had been blinded by temptation.
In the northwest corner sat a man in his forties, his posture rigid, his brow faintly creased with worry. While the others indulged in fantasies of overwhelming power and historic achievements, he hesitated again and again, clearly struggling with whether to speak up.
"Colonel Karl," Major General Carlos finally said, his gaze shifting toward him, a slight frown forming. "You look like you have something you want to say."
Karl paused, then drew a breath and spoke. "General… are we certain this is the right course of action? We don't know who's backing that Devil Fruit shop. Anyone capable of selling items like that openly is clearly no ordinary individual..."
"Colonel Karl!" Carlos snapped, cutting him off mid-sentence. His expression darkened with open displeasure. "Listen to yourself. How can such cowardly, spineless words come out of your mouth? It's disgraceful!"
"You'd better remember this: the world is under our control! Monsters, vampires, mutants… whatever kind of freaks they are, they exist only because we allow them to!"
"Devil Fruits are no exception."
Karl was reprimanded without mercy. All he could do was force a stiff, bitter smile and fall silent.
He knew these people all too well. They hadn't even been willing to abandon that green monster, so how could they ever give up on Devil Fruits?
*Bang!*
Just then, the office door was pushed open as another officer hurried inside.
Major General Carlos and the others immediately brightened. By the looks of it, Colonel Kyle's operation must have been a success.
But in the very next instant, the smile on Carlos's face froze. Because he noticed something deeply unsettling.
The newcomer's brows were drawn so tightly together they resembled a chrysanthemum blooming in late autumn, dense, tense, and heavy with bad news.
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Next Chapter: Without Mercy
Next Next Chapter: A Living Nightmare for America
Next Next Next Chapter: One Man Holds an Entire Nation in Check
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