In the nick of time

As Whitebeard's declared that, no one felt it was out of place.

He already said how his son was inside of this gate that was changing ranks so rapidly. As such, the situation can be seen clearly.

As for Ace being weak or strong, it didn't work that way.

He was only S rank, as such going against a gate about to become SS rank would be suicide. Unless he had some sort of trump card. And it had nothing to do with competency.

Plutia even wanted to come then and help out, but seeing how Whitebeard was so determined and motivated, she left the matter to him. No need to step on his prideful moment of being a father. He could also handle it, so her joining would be pointless.

For the other members though, were either still too weak to help for now, or busy like All might who had announced as such earlier.

This situation was very dangerous and even this heroic system that was gathering heroes supposedly to fight against the threat of the monsters and protect the world had issued this mission. The situation was clear.

And even though it didn't say to save Ace specifically, it mentioned stopping this gate before it becomes critical.

What does that mean? Wasn't becoming SS rank already considered critical?

If this system didn't alert them who would know that the gate had changed except those already inside of it??

At that time, the monsters would kill anyone inside and a huge gate overload would occur, with SS rank monsters non the less.

Now taking that into account, the system still said that wasn't as critical as what could happen if they do not stop the gate. One could only imagine how worse it would be.

And Ren understood that.

-Ren: I'm not busy currently, as such I'll join with you this time

Ren closed his eyes in his house for a bit. He silently apologized to Yamato in his mind.

The date can be put aside, but this mission can't, as it was issued by the system directly, and as someone who this system was meant for, he understood that this mission wasn't ordinary.

It might be just saving Ace, and then stopping the gate, but he felt that there must be something deeper going on.

Perhaps it was related to those people they found inside of the gate the last time.

He always had the thought they had something to do with how that monster had gotten stronger that time.

Still, he did grab his phone to explain the situation to Yamato.

He dialed her number.

*Ring* *Ring*

At the very least he felt like he shouldn't do this and not tell her, making her wait for him.

He would reschedule with her after telling her what went wrong.

It was better than hearing about how he and Whitebeard stopped this gate in the news rather than from him.

'Yamato isn't a very serious person, she'll understand,'

**********

-Tsunade: With you old man going, there's no need to come then, sigh, don't feel bad Whitebeard, although the warning is serious, Ace should be safe, he is a pro hero after all

How could she not understand the old man and his worries.

Generally, he trusted his children a lot. But in this case where the gate was about to become stronger, Ace could be anywhere inside of it, and if he happened to come near a stronger monster than him, he was done for.

Whitebeard saw their messages and didn't hesitate anymore. Ren had already accepted so he could teleport anytime now.

-Whitebeard: This old man will be going first. Those of you who want to come, come, I won't refuse

In real life, he also looked at Marco who was nearby him and said.

"Don't panic, I'll be back soon… with Ace"

The next thing that happened was his huge body disappearing in front of Marco leaving him stunned.

One second he was there, the next he wasn't.

'W-what?'

"What the hell just happened? Where's pops? And what's going on with Ace?"

A very confused phoenix pineapple head was left there stunned.

**********

-Tsunade: Leader, will you be going as you said?

-Ren: Master Tsunade, yes I will definitely be going, I feel like this gate is more important if I were to take what the system mentioned correctly

Ren replied to her and didn't hide anything. It wasn't like they didn't get that themselves, as they were pro heroes.

-Tsunade: You're correct in that regard… Will you also broadcast the happenings live?

It was mentioned in the rules that he can do so, and allow any of the members to also broadcast anything happening.

-Ren: I will be doing so yes

-Tsunade: Mn, then if I see anything that requires my help, I will join you then, at that time, accept my request

-Ren: Sure thing

-All Might: With Whitebeard going, there's a very low chance anything can go wrong. However, similar to master Tsunade, count me in

-Robin: I also think so

-Tatsumaki: …Like Master Tsunade said, if anything goes wrong, …I can come

Tatsumaki also added her two cents. Though anything the old man can't deal with would be the same for her, still they can buy time at least for someone like Iris Heart to come.

-Plutia: You can count on me

Ren read their replies with a thin grateful and appreciating smile.

He had finished explaining to Yamato and decided to adjourn to another day.

Surprisingly she was okay with it and didn't sound disappointed.

'I think I should add her to the group later…'

Ren decided. Since such an option was available to him as an admin for some points of course, and he considered it worth it.

He then stopped chatting in the group and was about to accept the mission and enter this scorpion gate, but all of a sudden, the warning of the system sounded again.

But this time, the monster was already… SS rank.

'So fast?'

Ren didn't have any more time to waste then.

He hurriedly accepted and was teleported much the same like what happened with Whitebeard.

**********

Meanwhile inside the gate.

Ace was fighting an S rank monster.

It was a purple scorpion with a huge stinger.

Its legs were very sharp and served to also puncture enemies if it attacked with them.

Its stinger aimed for Ace and moved rapidly to puncture a hole through his body. (No pun intended xD)

Still, he dodged to the side with one step and launched his own attack.

[Fire fist]

A huge fireball was thrown at the monster as it whooshed through the air.

But in the end, as had happened before, it seemed his attack didn't deal much damage.

However, the attack still managed to kill the monster.

And that was because the monster was too heavily injured from the earlier attacks he had done, this one attack had it fail and crumble onto its legs, while a burning smell perfusing the air.

'Damn it… it's getting harder'

This type of monster blocked with its durable armor, and though if he kept attacking that way in the end he would be able to take them down, but it would be too inefficient as he would consume too much to kill one monster, and he had to finish the whole gate. Alone, since he ditched the rest of his division, thinking this gate was easy.

*Pant*

This gate was getting dangerous even more now.

When he first entered, it has been very easy.

He just found some B ranks and even fewer A ranks which he easily took care of.

At that time, he had the mentality that he was going to easily finish the gate and then get back to the usual things he did every day.

But unfortunately, a huge shockwave and vibrations spread all over the gate and his guts screamed at him that something was wrong with the gate then.

After that, it became that the deeper he reached the higher the rank of monsters was.

He panted from exerting himself against this similarly S ranked monster.

He had to tax himself by using observation all the time as one slip can deal massive damage to him. All the time he also had to use his armament to attack and penetrate its armor.

As he lay his hands on his knees and breathed roughly, all of a sudden, a huge stinger came from the ground in front of him and attacked him.

Ace's observation haki picked it, but at that minute moment, he understood something.

'I can't dodge this…!'

The huge sharp stinger full of poison was about to hit his body.

He could see it in slow motion but couldn't do anything.

'It came from the ground, shit'

He also understood and saw that it had ambushed him and was maybe waiting for him to tire himself or something.

'I fucked up…' He could feel that this one attack would fuck him up if it landed.

*Whoosh*

*Boom*

But then as if to counter it, a huge shockwave spread from the side at a massive speed until it collided with the stinger and changed its direction.

Ace who had been despairing didn't waste time at this valuable chance and released fire from his hand propelling himself backward and away from the monster that was under the ground.

This monster was definitely higher in rank than him since he couldn't even move much less escape its attack. And it also demonstrated this ambush ability by hiding under the ground.

Only when he was a great distance away did he see who sent the attack to help him.

His eyes brightened up.

"Pops!"

It was Whitebeard himself.

*******************

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-Special thanks to *"Arun"* ; *"ShadowFangus"* ; *"Coby"* ; *"John Dunkley"* ; *"Heitor Prado Bortoletto"* and *"Ahmed"*

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