Chapter 3: So He Paid Extra! (Please Follow and Recommend!)

The next morning.

Troy woke up from a dream, instinctively making an "inverted cross" sign over his chest, grateful that he had survived another day, and continued to pray for Teacher Kaido in heaven.

After quickly solving his breakfast issue, Troy put on a gas mask, attached a green bamboo muzzle to his waist, and stood beneath the cellar door, activating the Beast Breathing technique.

"Beast Breathing, Seventh Form: Spatial Awareness!"

Using spatial awareness, Troy quickly surveyed the street environment near his third lair.

"No large gatherings of zombies detected! I can go out!"

With the surroundings well memorized, Troy deactivated his spatial awareness, quietly opened the cellar door, crossed the backyard, and stepped out onto the ruined town street, ready to start his zombie hunting mission for the day.

Before setting off, Troy looked up at the sky, wanting to observe the intensity of the aerial battle.

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but the fighting in the sky seemed less intense today compared to the previous days.

"That should be a good thing..."

Troy muttered, quickly losing interest in the sky.

Yesterday, his Fishing skill had backfired, and after wasting many resources, he only got a strange item—Nezuko Kamado's bamboo muzzle. With all his "Victory Bait" used up, Troy needed to replenish his bait today.

Weak as he was, Xiao Ze had to grab every chance to stay alive!

"Is today's Lady Luck a flat-chested one?"

He pulled up his personal stats panel, glanced at it, and clicked his tongue.

"Luck: D... Tch!"

Closing the screen, he grabbed his hammer and set out to kill some zombies.

Thanks to the combat experience from the last three days, Troy had become quite adept at dealing with the slow-moving but sound-sensitive zombies. As long as he didn't provoke the large, mutated zombies in the central plaza—like the "big ones" gathered there—ordinary zombies were easy prey, each one just a swing of the hammer away!

The intensity of today's aerial battle was indeed lower than the previous three days.

By mid-morning, Troy had already taken down five zombies, earning five F-grade "Victory Baits," all without any interference from the sky!

Troy kept feeling that Lady Luck had flattened out.

But every time he pulled up his status screen, he was reminded that Lady Luck was still the notorious, full-chested D-type!

Feeling his increasing proficiency with Beast Breathing, Troy pulled a piece of dried meat of unknown origin from his pocket and chewed on it slowly, replenishing the energy spent in battle.

As for Tanjiro Kamado's rice ball that he fished up yesterday, he had already eaten it for breakfast this morning.

After three days of the aerial battle’s aftermath washing over the town, the zombie density had already been quite low.

With Troy's scavenging sweeps, most of the zombies on the streets near his third lair were cleared out. He needed to find a new area to hunt zombies and continue gathering "Victory Bait."

If Troy ended up killing all the zombies in the town and the aerial battle still wasn't over, he'd have to venture deeper into the island and explore other zombie settlements...

Fortunately, the medieval town had enough zombie resources for now, so at least for the next two or three days, this wasn't an issue.

Finishing the last small piece of jerky, Troy climbed the tallest nearby building and pulled out an old brass monocular. He extended it, intending to scout other parts of the town.

Beast Breathing: Spatial Awareness was a great skill, but Troy couldn’t rely on it all the time. At least not yet, as it wasn't something he could use "extravagantly."

However, just as he opened the monocular, pointing it toward the outskirts of town, he saw a peculiar patch of white through the round lens.

"Is that... smoke on the ground?"

Frowning, Troy put down the monocular, rubbed his eyes, then looked again, immediately spotting a half-body flying at the forefront of the smoke.

It was a young man with only the upper half of his body, short gray-white hair, a fierce expression, a tight Marine recruit shirt covering a muscular upper body—and nothing below!

"Smoke... the Marine officer from the original series, Logia-type Smoke Fruit user—Smoker?"

After watching for a while longer, Troy confirmed that the young man roaming the wilderness outside the town and constantly cleaning up zombies and zombie beasts was indeed Smoker in his recruit days.

No one else on the sea would smoke two cigars at once like that crazy guy!

"There are also quite a few Marine recruits following Smoker... In that case, it’s not some ‘big pirate’ fighting Kaido in the sky, but the Marine Admiral—Black Arm Zephyr?!"

Troy quickly thought through it, looked up to the sky, and after three days, finally realized what was happening.

"So, it's the Marine Admiral!"

...

It was worth noting that Zephyr ended up fighting Kaido due to an accident.

He would have to be out of his mind to take a bunch of rookie recruits to challenge an Emperor of the Sea!

Zephyr and his Marine recruit training camp were currently clearing this zombie island, whose previous owner was the Paramecia Virus Fruit user—a wicked biological scientist named Mzan!

As it happened, this scientist had another identity—he was a young friend of Beast Pirates' Admiral Kaido and a member of the same clan.

One of the very rare "Oni Clan" members!

When Mzan noticed the arrival of the Marines, he immediately contacted Kaido in the New World through a transponder snail.

But by the time Mzan was captured by the Marines, Kaido had only just started making his way from Wano, arriving fashionably late, and then...

That Azure Dragon had a blast fighting Zephyr!

"Kaido! Surrender now! Impel Down is where you'll end up!"

Zephyr stepped on the air, using Moonwalk, his short purple hair standing up to the sky, his two sturdy arms covered in a jet-black metallic luster, with no part left untouched by Armament Haki.

Black Arm Zephyr, famous for his deep proficiency in Two Forms of Haki and his awe-inspiring combat skills, was well-known across the sea!

"Ohohoho! Old man Zephyr, what nonsense are you spouting?!"

Kaido, in his dragon form, let out an unabashed laugh, every scale on his fearsome face dripping with irony.

"As if you could take me down—Roar of Thunder!"

Boom!

The mythical Azure Dragon suddenly opened its giant maw, its deafening roar turning into a series of massive white thunderbolts, weaving a seemingly impenetrable net of lightning that raced toward the Marine Admiral.

In the blink of an eye, the blinding electric net reached Zephyr.

A sharp red gleam flashed in Zephyr's eyes. Raising his Armament Haki-infused right fist, he threw a straightforward punch. Immense power and the weighty Haki shattered the net of thunder instantly, dispersing the electric fragments into the air.

At this stage, Zephyr wasn't the disabled man who'd later lose his right arm to Whitebeard Jr.—his strength was still at its peak!

It was well known that every true powerhouse of the sea had an incredibly long peak period!

"Kaido, Mzan has already been captured by the Marines! He slaughtered so many innocent people—if not for his rare Devil Fruit ability, he’d have been executed by now!"

Zephyr looked toward the Azure Dragon, but before he could finish his sentence, a torrent of sobbing interrupted him.

"Ahhhh! Mzan! My poor comrade! How could you let yourself get captured by those useless Marines?! Boohoohoo!"

Kaido's sadness came quickly, large tears falling from his dragon eyes.

"And you still haven't handed over my payment!"

"Payment?"

Standing at a distance, Zephyr's expression grew strange. He pursed his lips, finding it hard to believe.

"Kaido, isn't he your longtime friend, a fellow clansman..."

"Exactly!"

Kaido suddenly stopped crying, looked at Zephyr, and winked.

"So he paid extra! "Two Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits! I’m not letting that go! "Heat Breath! Hah-tui—"

End of Chapter.