Chapter 9 : Exposed!

The Minotaur's mace dropped heavily, and Buggy's knife swung out 

swiftly. The two figures reeled from the impact—Buggy retracted his knife and took his stance, but the upper half of the Minotaur's body was thrown into the air.

Strangely, not a drop of blood flowed from the severed part of the Minotaur's body. Even though the Minotaur's lower body was missing, its large eyes remained wide open, showing no sign of pain.

"Definitely!" Buggy declared, turning around and pointing. The top half of the Minotaur floated in the air.

"Solution!" Buggy snapped his fingers again, causing the Split Fruit's effect on the Minotaur to vanish instantly. Blood erupted from the Minotaur's severed body like a fountain.

"Hiss~~" Mr. 3 gasped, astonished.

Buggy shook his head; he wasn't very adept with this kind of attack yet. If he were more skilled, he could have achieved a similar effect with his initial slash.

Currently, there's a delay between using the Chop-Chop Fruit ability and the disarming ability of the Chop-Chop Fruit. If the Minotaur had been able to use Haki, it could have negated the Chop-Chop Fruit's effect and countered Buggy's attack.

But that's only a temporary issue!

Given some time, once Buggy improves his Devil Fruit powers and swordsmanship, this disadvantage will be eliminated!

"Don't just stand there, follow my lead!" Buggy called out to Mr. 3 and headed down the passage.

Mr. 3 snapped out of his daze and quickly followed Buggy. The number of surveillance Den Den Mushi in the passage was much higher than outside, so their progress was slower than before.

Fortunately, most of these Den Den Mushi were mobile, which allowed Buggy and Mr. 3 some maneuvering space. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to advance at all.

Meanwhile, in the monitoring room of the scorching hell on the fourth basement level:

"How long ago did this happen?" Domino asked, her face serious.

A jailer said, "Three minutes ago, we discovered that the monitoring room on the second basement floor failed to report in on time. After repeated attempts to contact them with no success, we reached out to the nearest personnel to check the situation just a minute ago! The results should be coming soon!"

Domino frowned and said, "Three minutes ago? You've only been trying to contact them for two minutes? According to protocol, you should report the situation immediately and simultaneously send someone to investigate!"

Beads of sweat the size of beans appeared on the jailer's forehead as he stammered, "I'm sorry! Yes, we were lax in our response. There were past incidents that caused delays in reporting, so… we didn't pay enough attention. I'm truly sorry!"

Domino snorted coldly and said, "It's too late for excuses now! Prepare for the consequences! Are there any anomalies on the other floors?"

The jailer wiped his sweat and responded, "The basement floor has lost a lot of surveillance feeds, so we don't know if there's an issue there."

"Someone patrolling the third basement floor reported hearing an unusual noise, but after inspection, nothing out of the ordinary was found."

"There are no anomalies reported on this floor or on the sixth underground floor."

Domino asked, "Can you transfer the surveillance footage from the second basement floor here?"

The jailer replied, "Normally, yes, but it needs to be done in the monitoring room on the second floor! However, we can't get in touch with them right now!"

Domino pondered for a moment and said, "Why is it taking so long? It's been ages, and the person sent to check the situation hasn't reported back yet!"

The jailer explained, "I'm sorry, but the deputy warden has redirected all the jailers from the second basement floor to suppress a rebellion on the basement level. So now, only those beasts are left patrolling the second basement floor!"

"We had the nearest jailer dispatched from the third basement floor, so it will take some time for them to arrive. But they should be there soon."

Before the jailer could finish speaking, a phone bug next to him suddenly rang with a loud 'Brubu'!

Domino grabbed the Den Den Mushi and said, "Hey, this is Deputy Warden Domino!"

"Yes, Miss Domino!"

"Cut the small talk and give me a direct report on the situation in the monitoring room on the second basement floor!"

The jailer on the other end started to respond with a salute, but Domino cut him off impatiently.

The Den Den Mushi crackled with a response, "Yes! The monitoring room on the second basement floor was breached, and Basilisk has been knocked out! We're currently treating him. Please wait. Someone else has regained consciousness!"

The sound of shuffling indicated that the phone was being handed over to someone else.

Domino continued, "This is Deputy Warden Domino. I need a detailed account of what happened!"

"Yes, yes, it was Buggy the Clown who attacked us! He's incredibly strong."

The voice on the other end sounded faint and disoriented before falling silent again.

Domino frowned. Buggy the Clown was supposed to be on the basement level, so why was he on the second basement floor? And why would he go down rather than up during a jailbreak?

"Miss Domino, he's fainted again!"

Before Domino could ponder Buggy's motives, the Den Den Mushi spoke up once more.

Domino asked, "Is there anything unusual on the second basement floor aside from the monitoring room? What about the prisoners?"

The Den Den Mushi hesitated before answering, "No anomalies detected! The prisoners are still in their cells!"

This only added to Domino's confusion. If Buggy had breached the second basement floor, he could have freed all the prisoners before they had a chance to react. But he hadn't done so. It didn't make any sense!

"Drop! Drip! Drip!"

At that moment, warning lights blared across all four basement floors, and the alarm bells echoed throughout the facility!

"Look, Miss Domino! It's—the Minotaur!" 

A jailer pointed at the mobile surveillance screen, his voice trembling with fear.

Domino followed the jailer's gaze and saw the Minotaur on the screen—split in half. Her face darkened with anger and worry.

"Immediately organize a team to secure the third and fourth basement floors! Conduct a thorough search on both levels! They couldn't have gone far!"

Domino's voice was icy as she issued the order, then turned and stormed out of the monitoring room. 

It was the first time in Impel Down's history that someone had breached the fourth basement floor! This intruder had to be captured without delay!

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