"Hey, you bastards! What are you staring at? Get over here and help me!!!" Anos roared at his crew.
Though he didn't want to admit it, he knew—this man, El—was far beyond anything he could handle.
If this continued, if the balance of power didn't shift soon, he would be crushed completely.
And for a pirate, defeat meant only one thing—death.
"All of us together!"
"There's so many of us! No way one guy can take us all down!"
"Yeah! He's just one man! Let's show him who we are!"
"Attack!!!"
The crew, armed to the teeth, surrounded El from all sides, their bloodlust rising as they charged in.
El merely exhaled and said calmly, "The outcome of a battle isn't decided by numbers."
The moment those words left his mouth, an invisible force erupted from him like a tidal wave.
The air itself trembled. Ripples spread through the atmosphere, striking every pirate in range.
The pressure was suffocating—an unseen power that seized their throats, stole their breath, and crushed their wills.
It wasn't just killing intent—it was domination itself.
That overwhelming aura… was Conqueror's Haki.
"Thump… Thump… Thump…"
One by one, the pirates dropped like flies, their eyes rolling back as they collapsed unconscious across the deck.
The might of Conqueror's Haki depends on the strength of the user.
El's Haki could suppress even their captain—a pirate with a 300 million Berry bounty.
To the ordinary crewmates, it was like staring into the abyss itself.
"This—this is Conqueror's Haki!"
"No way! That's a power only one in a million can awaken!"
"Only someone born with the soul of a king can wield that power! This guy… he's a monster!"
"He's so young… how can someone like him even exist!?"
Only a few battle-hardened pirates managed to stay on their feet, trembling under that crushing aura. Even they couldn't summon the will to move.
Anos's face twisted in horror. Feeling that monstrous power firsthand, he could barely speak.
"L-let me go! From now on, you'll be the captain! I'll be your first mate!"
It was humiliating. El's bounty was just 100 million Berries—two hundred million less than his own.
But pride was meaningless in front of death.
El smirked coldly. "You? My first mate? Don't make me laugh."
He had no interest in forming a crew right now—but even if he did, he would never accept weaklings.
Even a man worth 300 million Berries meant nothing if he lacked true strength.
El's grip tightened around Anos's arm. The pirate's body went rigid; sweat poured down his back.
Since he first set sail, Anos had never faced someone this terrifying. El's power was like a storm—pure, unrelenting, and divine.
"If… if you let me go," Anos gasped, his voice trembling, "I'll give you everything on the ship!"
Anos's lower body was now completely embedded in the cracked deck, his arms crossed defensively and trembling under El's terrifying power.
"I have no interest in treasure," El said calmly.
"We have a Devil Fruit on our ship!" Anos blurted out in desperation.
"Oh?" El raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
It was important to know that El had gone to sea for only two purposes.
The first was to become stronger—to advance the progress of his Sage Body and master all three types of Haki.
The second was to find Devil Fruits.
If he could obtain a Devil Fruit, he could bind it to the Nine-Tails and gain immeasurable power.
But Devil Fruits were incredibly rare. El had spent an entire year wandering the seas, clashing with countless pirates, yet he had never found a single one.
Now, upon hearing that there was a Devil Fruit on this ship, El's eyes gleamed with interest.
"It was all a misunderstanding!" Anos said with a strained smile that looked more like a grimace. "If you let me go, I'll give you everything—treasure, the Devil Fruit, whatever you want!"
If he could do it all over again, he would rather die than have his crew fire upon El's small boat.
But it was too late.
They had provoked a monster.
Now, he had to offer up all the riches he'd accumulated over years of piracy, along with the Devil Fruit he had painstakingly obtained—a fruit that could have been sold for a fortune.
"Even if I kill you," El said with a faint smile, "everything you own will still be mine, won't it?"
As he finished speaking, the veins on his arm bulged. Channeling his full strength, he brought his blade down once more.
"Boom!!!"
The terrifying force, combined with the razor-sharp edge of the blade, carved a deep and hideous gash across Anos's arm—an arm reinforced with Armament Haki.
The searing pain forced Anos to pull his arm back instinctively.
"You bastard!!!" he roared hoarsely.
"It's over."
The instant Anos withdrew, El moved like lightning, his blade flashing downward.
In a single stroke, he cleaved Anos's body in two.
A mist of blood exploded outward, staining the deck crimson.
The pirates watching from nearby froze in terror.
"D-Dead… the captain's dead!"
"I knew it! We never should've provoked that monster—this was suicide!"
"The captain's dead… we're next…"
"Damn it! That idiot at the helm—why did he have to sail right up to that monster? If we'd just sold the Devil Fruit, we could've lived like kings!"
If it hadn't been for that fool at the helm steering the ship straight toward El, they never would've attacked him.
They never would've angered him.
They might have actually lived long enough to enjoy their fortune.
But now, that hope was gone.
Their proud, powerful captain—once their symbol of strength—had been utterly destroyed by El.
Their fate was sealed.
"Whoosh!!!"
A flash of cold light swept across the deck.
A ferocious sword aura ripped through the air, and in an instant, every pirate's head was severed cleanly from his body.
"Ding! Congratulations to the host—Sage Body progress increased by 20 points."
As the last echo of battle faded, the system's voice resonated calmly within El's mind.
There were only two ways to advance the Sage Body—one was through cultivation…