"Edwin!"
"We are all colleagues, I don't want to make it too ugly."
Speed saw this and breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking at Edwin, in addition to being grateful, there was even a hint of unspeakable greed.
With great danger often comes great opportunity. If he handled this well, it might not be a death sentence for him. In fact, he might even rise in rank.
"You have nowhere left to run. Come back with me."
"Maybe... You'll still have a chance to live."
"Live?"
Edwin smirked coldly.
He knew there was no way out of this.
However, as a former CP agent, he also understood one thing: if he were foolish enough to believe Speed's nonsense and go back, the only thing waiting for him would be a fate worse than death.
"You lack skill, but your jokes aren't bad."
Speed's expression darkened, but he held back his frustration and asked.
"I don't understand. With your seniority, all you had to do was lay low for a few more years, and you could have retired honorably."
"Even if you were reassigned outside CP, you could have held a position within the World Government."
"Your future wouldn't have been glorious, but at least it would've been secure."
"So why betray the World Government now? Why secretly cooperate with Big Mom? Why go so far as to leak information about the Pluton blueprint?!"
Edwin chuckled, his smirk growing colder.
"You're still too young."
"You really think someone like me could retire?"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"Look at those who left before me; none of them lasted a year before 'accidents' took them out. If they weren't killed, they were left paralyzed for life."
"But was that really an accident?"
Speed's breathing stagnated. He didn't know if it was an accident, but he knew that he had done countless similar things. But he knew more clearly that if he can't deal with Edwin today, there is only one way to go, and that is death.
"No point in talking; come back with me."
"I can't go back."
Edwin shook his head with a sly smile on his face: "I can die, but I can't die in vain."
"It's just a pity... I won't get to see the day when those self-righteous fools, who think they can control everything, break down, go mad, curse in despair, yet tremble in fear."
"What do you mean?!"
Speed froze slightly, a strange unease creeping into his heart.
Then, Edwin's devilish whisper reached his ears: "Tell me... Besides the Big Mom Pirate, how many other pirates do you think know about this? Among the pirates who rule the seas, how many do you think will be interested in Pluton?"
"Could this be the greatest war for supremacy since Roger set sail and started the great pirate era twenty years ago?!"
As he spoke, Edwin pulled a test tube filled with purple rock from his pocket and shook it in front of Speed before crushing it in his hand.
Boom!
"A gift for you!"
Speed's breath stopped. He recognized what it was.
"Damn it! That's Dyna Stone!"
"Retreat!"
As soon as the words fell, the agents had no time to think about anything else. They turned and fled in all directions like frightened birds.
But they were too late.
The moment the Dyna Stone came into contact with air, it triggered a massive explosion. A crimson glow instantly engulfed everything within a few hundred meters.
Boom!
In the midst of the catastrophic blast, a mushroom cloud bloomed at the center of the Sabaody Archipelago.
The shockwave leveled everything within a kilometer, nearly vaporizing all CP agents in the vicinity.
A few minutes later, a charred and battered Speed pushed aside the rubble that had buried him, struggling to stand.
He was in utter shambles, yet compared to the others, he was lucky; he had barely survived.
"Madman!"
Staring at the lava still flowing at the center of the explosion, Speed ignored his own injuries. His eyes were filled with nothing but sheer terror.
"A complete and utter madman!"
"He made the existence of Pluton's blueprint public... How could he dare?! The whole world is going to erupt!"
"I..."
He opened his mouth but couldn't find the words to continue.
At that moment, Speed finally realized countless CP agents had perished, and Edwin had successfully spread the news of Pluton's blueprint across the world…
This mission had failed completely. There was no way to salvage it.
Could he still return to the CP organization alive after this?!
Escape?
Where could he possibly run?
Even Edwin, who had planned this for a long time and might have had a way out, couldn't evade the CP organization's pursuit, let alone him.
Speed stood frozen in place.
All around him lay charred corpses. The cries of wounded civilians echoed in the distance.
The air was blisteringly hot from the explosion, yet it did nothing to dispel the bone-chilling fear creeping into his heart.
… … …
In the days that followed, a certain rumor from Sabaody Archipelago spread like wildfire.
Within days, it had swept across Paradise, the New World, and even the four seas.
Countless pirates, kingdoms, and the six great emperors of the underworld were all shaken by the news.
… … …
Sabaody Archipelago, inside the Shakky's Rip-off Bar.
An old man with white hair and glasses leaned back in the corner, taking slow sips from a bottle of strong, pungent liquor.
But his attention was on the conversation happening at the next table.
"Have you heard?"
"That explosion a few days ago was actually a World Government purge meant to erase the existence of Pluton's blueprint."
"Who would've thought... That the Ancient Weapons are actually real?"
A drunkard couldn't help but sigh in amazement.
The plump man beside him, however, looked terrified.
"I always thought it was just a legend... but is it real?!"
"Does that mean Pluton is truly as powerful as they say? That it can wipe out an entire country in a single shot?!"
"Impossible!"
A bespectacled man dressed like a scholar immediately refuted.
"Even with modern technology, we don't have weapons capable of such destruction. How could an ancient civilization, far less advanced than us, have built one?"
"Not necessarily. I've heard that centuries ago, there was an ancient kingdom with technology far beyond its time."
"Pluton might be a relic from that era."
"If I could get my hands on that thing, conquering the world would be effortless!"
The old man listened to every word without missing a beat.
The more he listened, the deeper his frown became.
"So in the end... That thing in Tom's possession still made its way into the world?"
"The storm this will cause... It might not be any smaller than the one that started when that man turned himself in."
"Whitebeard probably won't care about something like this, but Linlin, Kaido, and even Shiki, who has long disappeared... They won't be able to sit still."
Gradually, a smirk formed on the old man's lips.
"Interesting."
"The era Roger set in motion... Is it about to reach its first climax?"
"How exhilarating."
"But... These old bones of mine shouldn't steal the limelight from the young ones."
After saying that, the old man downed the last of his strong liquor in one gulp.
Then, he got up and strode toward the bar, waving a hand at the tall, mature woman leaning against it.
His tone was righteous, as he declared.
"Shakky, put it on my tab!"
"Rayleigh."
Shakky's tone carried a hint of exasperation, but as an old friend, she simply smiled warmly.
"The debts you've racked up over the years... You could've bought this entire bar by now."
"Then should I just buy it?"
"Get lost!"
Shakky shot Rayleigh a glare before reaching under the bar, pulling out a wanted poster, and handing it to him.
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