"Brulee!" Katakuri called out, his voice echoing through the corridor.
"Coming!" Brulee's voice responded from nearby.
Wielding the power of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit, she swiftly opened an entrance to the Mirror World.
The entrance was a continuously swirling vortex.
Katakuri tossed Ivankov and the others one by one into the Mirror World, then coldly stated.
"We'll keep them imprisoned here for now. Once we finish dealing with Level 6, we'll come back to handle them."
Brulee nodded and quickly closed the entrance to the Mirror World.
With Ivankov and the others dealt with, Katakuri's eyes showed no emotion, as if they were nothing more than insignificant objects.
He then turned and continued advancing toward Level 6, silently pondering.
'What exactly happened on Level 6? I hope we're not too late...'
...
Meanwhile, Buggy, as if blessed by Lady Luck, utilized his body-splitting ability to feign death while having his body parts escape in batches.
He skillfully evaded Katakuri's attacks and pursuit.
Currently, he had already escaped from the third level and reached the second level.
"I'm a genius! Even an escape technique like this has been mastered by the great Buggy!"
At this moment, Buggy was hiding in a corner, panting heavily, his face covered in sweat, his eyes still carrying a trace of lingering fear.
Patting his chest, he congratulated himself on narrowly escaping disaster.
"Luckyly I ran fast, or things would've been bad..."
At the same time, he stared curiously at the ring on his hand, "What's with this ring? when did I have a ring?"
Buggy thought hard about the ring but couldn't recall its origin no matter how much he tried.
"Did my luck activate when my hand escaped, making it slip onto my finger?"
Thinking this way, he quickly came up with a reasonable explanation: he was just that lucky!
"Great! Next, I'll charge straight out of Impel Down in one go!"
"From now on, the great Buggy is free!"
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
...
Ron and his companions emerged like phantoms from the ring on Buggy's finger, as if stepping out from the void itself.
The ring first flickered with a faint, eerie glow, then gradually dimmed until it completely faded, returning to its ordinary appearance.
At that moment, Buggy was crouched alone in a dim corner, clutching a dirty, tattered piece of cloth he'd picked up from somewhere, its edges slightly torn.
Suddenly, Buggy felt the ring on his hand grow unusually hot.
The heat came so abruptly that he nearly flung the ring away.
He instinctively looked up, and what he saw terrified him out of his wits.
"Wh-what's going on?!" Buggy's voice was as shrill as a strangled rooster, trembling uncontrollably, sounding particularly horrifying in the silent space.
His eyes widened so much they seemed about to bulge from their sockets, his red nose twitching slightly from extreme tension.
"Y-you... you... you... who are..."
The tattered cloth in his hand fell to the dusty ground with a soft 'thud.'
His panicked gaze swept over the figures emerging from the ring.
First Ron—his eyes as profound as an endless abyss.
Though Buggy didn't recognize Ron, he could tell just from his aura that this was no ordinary person!
Then came Bullett, his entire body radiating a savage fighting spirit like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Followed by Crocodile with a cigar clenched between his teeth, the swirling smoke veiling him in an air of mystery, his eyes brimming with nonchalance and defiance.
Lastly, Redfield stood quietly, his red cloak fluttering gently behind him, starkly out of place among the others.
Each was a legendary figure, every one of their names resounding like thunder throughout the world of Pirates!
As for Nami, Robin, Zoro, and Sanji, they were naturally overlooked by him.
"It's over, it's over! This time it's really over!"
Buggy's mind went completely blank in an instant, his heart pounding wildly like a frenzied war drum, the vibrations making his chest feel tight.
His legs felt as if they had been instantly filled with lead, too heavy to move even an inch, yet his mind raced at breakneck speed under the extreme terror.
He knew all too well that facing these figures standing at the pinnacle of the Pirate world, he didn't stand a chance.
Escape? They had appeared too suddenly; there was no time.
Fight? That would be like an egg striking a rock—pure suicide.
Play dead? Yes, play dead!
In that split second, it was the only solution his chaotic mind could conjure.
"Urgh... Ah!" Buggy suddenly let out an exaggerated, piercing shriek.
He clutched his chest tightly, his eyes rolling back until only the whites were visible, and his body stiffened as he fell straight backward, hitting the ground with a heavy thud and sending up a cloud of dust.
Then, his body twitched weakly a couple of times before falling completely still.
He even held his breath deliberately, his entire body rigid as a block of cold stone.
Ron raised an eyebrow, watching Buggy play dead on the ground, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
He knew Buggy was faking it—after all, the guy's acting was far too clumsy.
His eyelids kept twitching incessantly, as if trying hard to conceal something.
"Captain Buggy, you've worked hard," Ron said lightly, a hint of mockery in his tone, his voice echoing in the silent space.
He slowly crouched down, reached out, and patted Buggy's shoulder.
"Thanks. We'll cooperate again if the opportunity arises." Ron's voice remained calm.
After speaking, he stood up and continued toward the exit with Bullett and the others.
The sound of their footsteps echoed through the dim passageway, growing fainter and fainter.
As the footsteps faded into the distance, Buggy still lay motionless on the ground, as if truly dead.
Only when the footsteps had completely vanished and the surroundings fell into dead silence did he cautiously open one eye, filled with wariness and unease.
He glanced around, confirming that Ron and the others had indeed left, then sprang up from the ground abruptly.
"That scared me to death! That scared me to death!"
Buggy patted his chest, gasping for breath, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
Beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks and dripped onto the floor.
He glanced back in the direction Ron and the others had gone while muttering with lingering fear.
"How did those monsters emerge from my ring? Thank goodness I was clever enough to play dead and escape!"
"Eh? Where's my ring???"
The ring was gone...
No matter how he thought about it, it had to be connected to Ron and the others.
Not daring to linger any longer, he turned and ran in the opposite direction.
But after running a few steps, he stopped again.
After hesitating briefly, he ultimately decided to follow behind Ron and the others.
"I'm going all in! I, Lord Buggy, am the God of Luck!"