Chapter 71 Luffy Strikes Ace with Lightning, Terrifying BuggyAs the camera zoomed in, they saw the red-nosed clown Buggy throwing a wild party with his crew, the air thick with the smell of alcohol.
"Hey Captain, isn't this the time for this?" The animal trainer, Mochi, said to the wildly celebrating Buggy while munching on a chicken leg. "Luffy's already a Vice Admiral, riding high on his success, while we, Shunfeng Express, haven't even made a name for ourselves yet, still living off our past glory."
"Startup capital! Do you even know what startup capital is? I'm looking for startup capital!" Buggy declared smugly to his crew, spitting as he spoke. "That bastard Luffy didn't give me a single penny, yet he wants me to start a business on the Grand Line. It's practically asking for free, making unreasonable demands!"
"But brother, you've been searching for Captain John's treasure for ages and haven't found a single hair of it! You even went to their naval base to try and get yourself killed. If it weren't for Luffy, you'd be in jail by now!"
"Shut up! That was just a small mistake! As long as I find the treasure, I'll definitely expand the delivery business and achieve even greater success!"
Buggy, enraged, roared at Mochi, his red nose practically twisted with anger.
"Eh? So you guys are Luffy's crew."
A light, airy voice suddenly came from the side, sounding completely out of place.
"What do you mean 'crew'? Watch your mouth! We're equal partners!" Buggy corrected smugly, a smug look on his face.
Suddenly, Buggy froze, his glass hanging in mid-air.
He realized with a start that this voice didn't sound like his bunch of idiot crewmates.
He stiffly turned his head and saw a young man wearing an orange cowboy hat, his muscular upper body bare, sitting at their table, eating with great relish.
Instantly, a deathly silence fell over the room, broken only by the sound of the young man chewing.
"Holy crap! Who are you, you bastard?! When did you get on board?!" Buggy yelled at the young man named Ace, his eyes practically popping out of his head.
"Ah, I'm so sorry, the aroma was so irresistible, I couldn't resist getting on the ship."
Ace casually wiped the grease from his mouth, stood up, and gave a graceful gentlemanly bow.
"I am Ace, a newcomer, please bear with me."
Bucky was taken aback, then his signature red nose twitched, and he burst into laughter, scratching the back of his head.
"You're too kind, it's fate that we met!"
"Alright, then I won't pretend to be an outsider."
Ace grinned, grabbed a huge bone-in ham from the table, and took a huge bite, his mouth dripping with oil.
Bucky's smile froze instantly, his head buzzing.
"What the hell?! Who's going to talk to you like that?!"
"And besides, where the hell did you come from?! I don't care about your name at all!"
Buggy was so angry he was jumping up and down, spitting everywhere.
"You've got some nerve! Do you even know who I am? A former crew member of the Pirate King Roger! The sworn brother of the Yonko Shanks!"
The beast tamer Mochi, standing nearby, was so frightened his eyes almost popped out of their sockets, his whole body trembling like a leaf, and he screamed in a low voice.
"Captain... Captain! Stop! He's 'Fire Fist'!"
"The second-in-command of the Whitebeard Pirates, the second division commander Ace!"
Buggy's arrogant expression froze instantly: "...Huh?"
"Oh? You guys know my old man? What a coincidence... huff... huff..."
Everyone stared at Ace, who was talking a second ago and was now blowing snot bubbles from his nose, their foreheads uniformly covered in black lines.
(╬￣皿￣)
"He's asleep?!"
A group of pirates, brandishing swords and spears, cautiously surrounded him.
Mochi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his eyes gleaming with greed, and leaned close to Buggy's ear.
"Captain Buggy, this is a golden opportunity! This guy's sleeping like a log!"
"If we kidnap him and hand him over to Luffy as a pledge of allegiance, maybe Luffy will be so pleased that we'll have our start-up capital!"
Upon hearing this, Buggy's face instantly turned ashen, and he roared without hesitation.
"No! Absolutely not!"
"Why? This is a sure thing! As long as we take down Fire Fist, with Luffy's influence, the Shichibukai position will be a piece of cake!"
Buggy's red nose trembled with fear as he screamed in terror.
"Shut up! You bunch of idiots, listen to me! I'll have these words etched on your skulls!"
"If we ever encounter Whitebeard's crew, no matter what happens, absolutely! Absolutely do not provoke them!"
Buggy took a deep breath, a profound fear creeping onto his face, as if recalling some horrific past.
"That old monster Whitebeard is the only ruthless character on this sea who can go toe-to-toe with Captain Roger!"
"He's currently the undisputed strongest pirate in the world, only one step away from that One Piece!"
"That old man has one major Achilles' heel: he absolutely forbids anyone from touching his sons!"
"Anyone who dares to touch his crew should be prepared to face the wrath of the world's strongest man, who will hunt them down to the ends of the earth!"
The underlings listened, breaking out in a cold sweat. Looking at the soundly sleeping Ace, they felt a wave of fear wash over them. Thank goodness they hadn't been so impulsive.
Just then, a blinding flash of light streaked across the sky.
*Zzzzt!*
A thick bolt of lightning struck down without warning, hitting the sleeping Ace squarely.
Buggy's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his jaw almost dropping to the deck.
"Holy crap!!!"
Who said we couldn't touch them? The words hadn't even finished uttering when the heavens struck?!
"Isn't this pushing me into a fire pit?"
Buggy angrily looked up at the sky, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Which bastard did this?!"
"Yo, Ace, long time no see."
In mid-air, Luffy hovered like a charlatan, grinning as he greeted Ace, whose face was covered in soot from being struck by lightning.
"Luffy?"
"Big Brother Luffy?"
"Hey hey, I never expected to run into you in this godforsaken place. Bro, your luck is really bad."
Luffy looked at Ace, who was smoking from the lightning strike, and laughed heartlessly.
Ace exhaled a puff of black smoke and calmly nodded, as if he hadn't just been struck.
"Quite a coincidence, but wasn't your gift a bit too extravagant? Wait, how come you can generate electricity again?"
Ace stared at Luffy as he slowly descended, his face full of question marks.
"Well, don't worry about the details. Hey, Buggy, your work efficiency is a bit lagging."
Luffy turned and waved at Buggy, adopting a boss-in-charge posture.
"Huh?! You think this is grocery shopping?! This is a complete set of permanent compasses for the Grand Line!"
Buggy instantly broke down, complaining in frustration.
"Some islands take over a year to fully store their magnetic field, do you know how hard I work?!"
"Hahaha, we're in the delivery business, if we can't deliver to your door, how can we survive in this industry?"
Luffy patted Buggy on the shoulder, giving him a "I believe in you" look.
"You make it sound so easy!"
Buggy had a million curses running through his mind, unsure whether to utter them.
Luffy turned to Ace with a grin: "So, bro, are you ready to surrender?"
Buggy, upon hearing this, was terrified.
"Hey! Luffy! Are you out of your mind? Do you even know who he is? He's one of Whitebeard's men! The second division commander!"
"He's one of the Four Emperors! The strongest man in the world! Do you even understand the weight of those words?!"
Buggy was so excited that he spat all over Luffy's face. He had witnessed Whitebeard's fury at his peak; it was practically the end of the world.
"I know."
Luffy picked his nose nonchalantly.
"But even if he's powerful, can he compare to our backing?"
Buggy was speechless, like a duck being choked.
Damn it, he almost forgot that this guy's grandfather was Garp, the Marine hero who chased Roger all over the world.
Back in the day, Roger's pirate crew was full of villains. Rayleigh, Bullet, and Kozuki Oden—any one of them was a Yonko-level fighter.
In contrast, Garp, with several lieutenants even weaker than vice admirals, managed to chase Roger's crew all over the place.
This alone demonstrates just how monstrous Garp's strength was.
"Haha, Luffy, we've only been apart for a few days? You're getting more and more arrogant."
Ace laughed as he stood up, flames erupting from his body, instantly burning away the grime.
Suddenly, he seemed to recall some unpleasant past event, and his expression turned strange.
"You're not going to unleash that blue skull again, are you? Honestly, what the hell is that thing?"
Remembering being chased and beaten like a fly by that Susanoo last time made Ace's teeth ache.
Luffy rubbed his nose. Although he'd accumulated some chakra reserves these past few days by converting Haki into chakra, activating the Complete Susanoo, that money-devouring beast, was still a bit too much.
After all, it was something even the Uchiha and Senju clans found exhausting.
Luffy's eyes instantly turned crimson, the three tomoe slowly rotating.
While piloting a Gundam was a bit strenuous, activating the three-tomoe Sharingan was a piece of cake.
After all, these eyes originally belonged to Uchiha Madara, and after being modified by the system, Luffy could seamlessly switch between various forms.
The moment the Sharingan activated, the world seemed to slow down in Luffy's eyes, every detail crystal clear.
At the same time, arcs of electricity crackled around Luffy, and an invisible wave emanated from him, spreading outwards.
Electromagnetic field activated!
Everything happening within a radius of dozens of miles was instantly projected into Luffy's mind like a 3D map.
"This must be Enel's mind network, right?"
This god-like perspective is absolutely amazing! No wonder that guy always brags that he's a god.
Luffy pointed to the sky, and the once clear sky instantly became overcast.
"Huh? Why did the weather change so suddenly?"
Bugsy and the others craned their necks, completely bewildered.
At the same time, Ace's hair stood on end; a strong sense of danger made him instinctively leap to the side.
BOOM—!
A thick bolt of lightning struck the spot where he had just stood, blasting a charred hole in the deck.
"What?!"
Ace looked up in shock, only to see lightning bolts dancing wildly overhead, as if the god of thunder had descended upon the world.
Luffy grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth: "Show Time!"
Alarm bells rang in Ace's mind. He could actually sense Conqueror's Haki within those bolts of lightning!
This was outrageous!
He'd seen Conqueror's Haki wrapped around something before, but to wrap Conqueror's Haki around natural lightning? What kind of crazy move was this?
If he got hit by that, his body might be fine, but his brain would be completely scrambled!