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Jerseylo Island.
The battle ignited instantly, screaming and gunfire tearing through the air.
Kyle followed at the back of the unit, adrenaline surging through him in this chaos, blood boiling with excitement.
The pirates reacted fast. The explosion of one ship sent others leaping into the water immediately. Sharp alarm bells pierced the air, echoing toward the nearby town.
"The Navy's here!"
"Alert the captain and the officers!"
"Take them out! There aren't many of them!"
Compared to the pirates' numbers, the unit under Garp barely had a hundred men.
Yet in just a few heartbeats, more than two hundred pirates leapt from the shoreline ships, faces twisted in rage, eyes glinting with murderous intent.
Kyle felt an inexplicable weight pressing down on him.
The odds were terrifyingly uneven.
This wasn't some over-the-top anime he had watched in his past life. This was raw, brutal reality.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. Kyle heard a muffled grunt ahead. The tall Navy man who had been shielding him went down silently.
He jumped over him and saw the ground rapidly turning red with blood.
This was war—bloody, lethal, unforgiving.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Gunfire erupted in a relentless rhythm. The two sides were no more than a hundred meters apart, firing at each other without hesitation.
Every second, a Navy man fell—head shot, torso pierced, blood filling the air. The pirates also lost men, but the elite unit Garp led moved with relentless courage. They may not have been the strongest physically, but their bravery and fearlessness were undeniable.
"Charge!"
The front line raised their rifles, firing madly while screaming.
The unit pressed forward rapidly. In the blink of an eye, the distance to the pirates shrank to forty, fifty meters. Some pirates dropped their guns and drew long knives from their belts.
Close combat was about to begin.
Kyle inhaled deeply and gripped his chair tightly.
It was his only weapon.
Bang!
At the thirty-sixth second of the charge, just as they were about to collide, his body trembled. A muffled grunt escaped his lips. Looking down, a bright red bloom appeared over his left heart.
His heart had been shot.
But just as quickly, it was as if he had been pulled back from the brink of death. The bullet fell from his body with a clink.
He had revived.
Kyle's gaze snapped to the pirate who had shot him.
The rugged man, wearing a pirate bandana and holding a rifle, stared at him in utter shock, disbelief etched across his face.
"Jerry, what are you staring at?" a comrade shouted.
"Did you see that? I hit him straight in the heart, and he's… nothing happened!" Jerry stammered.
"Impossible! Shoot him down now!"
"Using a chair as a weapon while fighting the Black Rex? That's pure disrespect!" another pirate yelled.
Jerry took a deep breath and raised his rifle again, aiming at the lone black-haired boy standing out among the Navy, holding a chair.
Bang!
The shot struck the boy in the forehead, but Jerry froze again.
The boy's head tilted back slightly, then his eyes locked on Jerry, filled with fury.
"That guy… he's a monster!" Jerry shivered.
He hit him!
Kyle, meanwhile, felt the cruel reality of war settle in. Death was everywhere. In mere moments, he had been shot twice.
Ahead, the vanguard was already clashing with the pirates.
Close-quarters combat erupted—curses and screams filled the air.
Kyle saw Kuzan move with deadly precision, slashing through pirates with his saber. Beside him, unfamiliar comrades were stabbed through by pirate blades, yet they dragged their attackers down with them in defiance.
Fearless!
At that moment, both sides seemed to treat death like nothing, rushing headlong into slaughter.
"Kill!"
Kyle roared and lunged forward.
Ten meters in a single bound.
He swung the chair in a wide arc, smashing it into a pirate's head.
Bang!
Blood erupted as the pirate's skull cracked. The chair splintered into pieces under the force. Kyle was covered in red and white, but there was no time to care.
He bent down, grabbed a rifle from the ground, tossed it aside, and drew a long blade instead.
In both his past life and this world, he hadn't learned to shoot. But the long blade was something he could master quickly.
Bang!
A bullet struck his stomach, staggering him, but he snarled and rushed the next pirate.
Close combat was merciless. Blood and body parts littered the ground in moments.
Kyle swung the blade, slicing the neck of a pirate with his back turned. Bone and sinew resisted, forcing him to add more strength.
The head separated from the body.
He took a deep breath and stepped forward, facing another pirate.
They exchanged a glance before viciously slashing at each other.
Shwing!
The blade cut across the pirate's face, neck, chest, and abdomen. Blood spouted like a fountain.
But in an instant, Kyle's body was restored, unharmed, and a surge of raw power filled him.
He drove the blade into the pirate's kidney, yanked it out, and charged the next.
Death was routine for a newcomer like him. In moments, his system points surged to seventy-five.
He felt his body transforming, growing stronger with every swing.
Before long, he moved through the pirates with deadly efficiency.
Then, Kuzan's voice rang out from nearby:
"Kyle!""Look ahead!"
The urgency and seriousness in his tone made Kyle lift his head toward the town.
The narrow European-style streets were suddenly flooded with shouting, movement like ants swarming toward them.
A suffocating, crushing feeling swept over him.
Too many people.
"..."
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