Chapter 25: The Conqueror's Fortune

Collapsed on the cold floor, Bucky lay dying, his heart utterly devoid of hope. As he recalled the brilliant tapestry of his earlier life, an overwhelming sense of unwillingness surged within him: Was he, Lord Bucky, who once survived being surrounded by forty ships of the Golden Lion in the New World, now fated to die at the hands of this nameless, insignificant knight?

Shanks, Rayleigh, Captain Roger... These legendary figures kept resurfacing in Bucky’s mind, granting him endless strength. That extraordinary power fermented in his still-burning chest, and burst forth from his throat in two resounding words: “Help!”

Garen, startled by this energy, could only look helplessly at him. “Stop yelling… If you keep this up, I’ll have to start chopping.” But Bucky refused to relent.

Garen raised his greatsword high, intending to intimidate the frantic Bucky. Yet Bucky, terrified, jolted and turned to flee using his fruit ability. “A waste of strength!” Garen swung his sword in irritation.

But Bucky, as if possessed, shouted, “Lord Bucky will not die here!” “That’s not up to you!” Garen retorted, delivering the classic villain’s line, waiting for his deadly strike to cool down before swinging at Bucky again.

And then— A violent explosion suddenly echoed outside the captain’s cabin. In the next instant, Garen felt the entire ship shudder beneath his feet. The sharp crack of splintering wood quickly rippled through the hull.

The floor began to sink visibly, and wide cracks spread rapidly across the wooden walls. “What’s going on?” Garen grabbed hold of Bucky’s foot and, along with Wallace, escaped the crumbling cabin.

Once outside, the destruction wrought by the mysterious attack was even clearer: Bucky’s mid-sized pirate ship had been smashed by an unknown force into two massive chunks barely held together, and was now slowly sinking into the sea.

On the splitting deck, many of the pirates were thrown into the ocean by the sudden impact. The beast tamer Mohji and the swordsman Cabaji clung to Richie the lion, trembling. Nami, meanwhile, gritted her teeth, tying several treasure chests together and protecting them with her body.

Seeing Garen and Wallace, Nami shouted a warning, “Garen, we’re under cannon fire again!” “Cannon fire, again?”

Garen was dumbfounded. How lucky could he possibly be, to be fired upon by cannons from another ship? Wait… Garen glanced at Bucky, who was breathing a huge sigh of relief— Was this his luck, or the red-nosed captain’s infamous luck? Suddenly, Garen felt a newfound respect for the legendary "King’s Luck" possessed by Captain Bucky.

As Garen stood stunned, a second cannonball arrived… A surge of noise swept across the sky, like a tsunami. Another deafening explosion, and the already shattered deck suffered a further devastating blow, turning Bucky’s pirate ship into a heap of wreckage strewn across the sea.

This cannonball was different from Bucky’s signature weapons—when it struck, there was no explosion, no fire, just a solid shot. Yet the solid shell unleashed a terrifying high-pressure storm, splintering the sturdy wooden hull in an instant, its destructive power even more frightening than Bucky’s own attacks.

“A super high-velocity kinetic weapon?!” Garen was left speechless. “What kind of place is this, stuffed with so much black technology?!”

Nami, still clutching her bundled chests, shouted at Garen and Wallace, “Don’t just stand there, help me carry these!” Snapping back to his senses, Garen hurried over with Wallace to assist Nami.

But then, disaster struck. Nami and Wallace didn’t see it, but Garen, thanks to his enhanced physical prowess after leveling up, barely managed to spot the incoming cannonball with his dynamic vision.

Whether it was a precise attack by the enemy or a cruel twist of fate, the high-velocity shell was aimed directly at the three of them, struggling on the broken deck.

With his current abilities, Garen had no way to dodge such an attack while bringing Wallace and Nami with him. The shell’s speed was so great, it flashed by as a blurred streak—he had no time to think.

Either abandon them and escape alone, letting Nami and Wallace perish, or…

“Decisive Strike!” “Valor!”

In an instant, Garen buffed himself with damage reduction, attack boost, and speed, then leapt from the deck. His left hand still gripped Bucky’s foot, while his right raised the sword shining with the light of justice.

For Garen, whose body operated on data rather than biology, wielding a sword one-handed was no different from using both hands. Suspended in midair, he launched an attack at the blurred cannonball in his vision.

Basic attack! Target locked!

A normal swordsman, even if they could see such a high-speed projectile, could never intercept it with their blade. But Garen was different—if he could see it, he could strike it. No matter how fast the enemy moved, if it entered the range of Garen’s sword, it would be hit.

His greatsword met the iron shell head-on, and with no need for extra force, the shell’s own momentum allowed Garen’s blade to slice it in two.

The split shell changed trajectory, veering off and crashing down beside Nami and Wallace, smashing the ship on either side of them. Even with Garen’s intervention slowing it, the fragments still wreaked havoc, showering the area with wood splinters and spray.

Garen himself, hit by massive recoil, fell from the sky like a meteor, crashing heavily into the damaged hull.

It all happened in a flash. Only when Garen tumbled down before her did Nami realize he had saved her life.

Peering from the shattered deck, Nami called out in panic, “Garen! Where are you?” Though she knew Garen possessed some kind of sword-proof ability, she couldn’t suppress her terror and worry, her voice trembling with fear.

“I’m here!” Garen suddenly stood up from a pile of wood debris, feigning ease as he addressed Nami, “Don’t worry, I’m fine!”

Nami scrutinized Garen and breathed a sigh of relief: even the silk on his armor hadn’t been torn, and his exposed skin was unscathed—he truly looked unharmed.

“That’s good…” Nami said, still shaken. “Let’s jump into the sea with the treasure chests. We can’t stay on this ship any longer!”

“Alright!” Garen nodded, leaping out of the crater he’d made and hurriedly helping Nami with the chests.

But while Garen kept his composure, his mind was in turmoil: he’d only absorbed part of the recoil through his sword, with a forty percent damage reduction from Valor, yet still lost a quarter of his health to that single cannonball!

Who was their enemy? Garen was deeply alarmed.