Chapter 32

"Hehe, have you guys ever been hit on the head with a ship?"

"Sticky chains!"

Trebol suddenly shot out a thick, tea-colored, slimy substance from his body. This formed a chain-like structure, latching onto the ship of the Long-neck pirate crew.

Then, to the horror of many onlookers, he used the inertia from swinging the chain to hurl the ship, stuck in the chain, at the ship of the Hedgehog pirate crew, like a shooting star.

Sticky meteor!

There was a loud crash!

Two similarly-sized pirate ships violently collided with each other, instantly shattering into a floating wreckage of debris.

Countless pirates fell into the sea, swallowed up by the whirlpool created by the sinking ships!

"Doflamingo will be back soon, seems like I'll have to show some real skill."

For the first time, Diamante looked serious as he raised his long sword.

Half-moon funeral!

Diamante violently swung his sword, instantly creating a wave of intense sword energy, effortlessly slicing the remaining pirate ship in half, as easy as cutting through tofu!

This attack was purely his sword skill, completely independent of his Devil Fruit powers!

In contrast to Abel, who solely relied on the effect of his skills to unleash a Flying Slash, Diamante was a true swordsman.

However, it seems like he may never touch perfection in his lifetime.

Despite his prowess, Diamante might never touch the threshold of a great swordsman, because he lacked the needed purity. Regardless, at this moment, his performance was nothing less than a dimension-shattering blow!

The three pirate crews were almost instantly annihilated!

Only the pirates who made it to the Flamingo in the first wave survived, including the three captains. However, they all wore particularly grim expressions. They realized they had severely underestimated the Donquixote family. With just two officers, they had nearly wiped them out?!

"If I say now that this was all a misunderstanding, would you let us go?" one of them tentatively asked.

"What do you think?" Diamante responded with a mocking grin.

The man gave a bitter laugh, "So there's no way out, then. Let's make our last stand, fellow captains!"

After a glance at each other, the other two captains realized there was no happy ending to this day. They instantly rallied their resolve, ready to fight till the last breath.

Regardless of everything, they were captains of their respective pirate crews. Even facing certain defeat, they had the courage to fight!

But sometimes, courage alone cannot change the outcome.

A few minutes later, when Doflamingo returned with his crew, the three captains lay defeated in pools of their own blood, all invading pirates either dead or having jumped ship.

If not for the need to keep these 'survivors' to spread the word of this battle, to proclaim the might of the Donquixote family, even jumping into the sea would have been a dead end!

"Hahaha, is this what you were counting on?" Doflamingo's boisterous laughter echoed as Mephisto's face paled.

"It seems this farce is over, what a disappointment."

Mephisto suddenly widened his eyes, whimpering for mercy, but the next moment his throat was severed by a sharp wire, dying with eyes wide open.

"Doflamingo, these guys must have been planning this for a while. They stashed the stolen goods and supplies on a nearby island and set a trap here to ambush us. Idiots!" Diamante, before killing them, had also managed to extract the location of the previously hijacked smuggling ship.

Doflamingo chuckled upon hearing this, "These fools purposely lured us into the mountain manor, where they'd hidden a large quantity of explosives, intending to blow us all up. Luckily, Secarti discovered it in time and followed the secret passages inside, capturing this guy who was trying to detonate the explosives remotely."

Despite calling it 'luck,' the intense confidence radiating from Doflamingo told everyone present one thing: in the face of overwhelming strength, any scheme or stratagem was nothing more than a suicide mission!

At this point, Doflamingo, before his encounter with Kaido, could truly be described as spirited and triumphant.

"Retrieve all the explosives from the manor, we'll head to the nearby island," he commanded.

Explosives, after all, were a hot commodity in the black market, fetching a handsome price, and therefore, could not be wasted. So, Doflamingo and his crew set off for the nearby island.

An idea struck Abel, believing that his latest 'Wish Order' might earn him some good reviews. Shortly after the manor battle concluded, he found the timing right to act independently and used his free search attempts, securing an order.

The order stated: "Yorozuya Gin desperately needs a large sum of money to pay off his debt."

Order content: "A large amount of money or gold, silver, and jewels."

Basic rewards for the order: Wooden Sword Touya Lake, 100 trading points.

Time left to fulfill the order: 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.

Back then, he was not in a hurry due to ample time. But now, he set his sights on the wealth left behind by the pirate crews.

Suddenly, the calm on the ship was disrupted. Senor, aboard the ship, crumpled up an empty cigarette box and tossed it into the sea. As he brooded, a voice beside him offered, "Try mine, want one?"

Senor paused, looking down to see that it was Abel, the boy he had brought into the family. He took the offered cigarette from Abel and watched in amazement as the boy lit it for him like a seasoned smoker, then began puffing away.

"What's wrong? No lighter? Here, borrow mine, but remember to return it. I can spare expensive cigarettes, but not my lighter," Abel said, his gaze firm. This was a matter of principle!

"Kids shouldn't smoke," he added.

Hiss!

Senor averted his gaze, his eyes hazed over as he enjoyed the unfamiliar taste.

"What brand is this? I've never seen it before."

"N95, a small brand. It's normal that you haven't seen it, as it's probably out of production. It will be hard to find in the future."

Senor nodded slightly with regret, "That's a pity."

The two of them leaned against the ship's wall, enjoying the sea breeze. After a while, Senor suddenly said, "You have great talent in swordsmanship. Your flying slash... is very powerful."

"It's okay, I guess. Practice makes perfect. Maybe that's what genius is," Abel shrugged.

Senor: "…"

"Here, take this."

After finishing his cigarette, Abel, just before leaving, tossed an unopened pack of N95 filter-tip cigarettes to Senor.

Senor, caught off guard, managed to catch the pack, looking somewhat puzzled, "Huh?"

"It's a thank you for choosing to believe in me initially. Smoke them sparingly, I don't have many left."

Holding the pack of cigarettes, Senor stood stunned in place, a handsome smile spreading across his face only as the ship slowly docked.

"Interesting kid, like a real man!" he chuckled.

Upon arriving at the neighboring island, they discovered three looted smuggling ships, but their cargo was nowhere to be found.

"Search!" Doflamingo commanded immediately, and everyone began to disperse to search the entire island.

It sounded like a daunting task, but in reality, there were only a few possible places to hide such a large amount of goods.

Abel was somewhat worried; intercepting the goods before Doflamingo was going to be difficult now.

As he made his way toward the center of the island, he pulled out a somewhat useless reward he had received not too long ago.

A 'Precious Metal Mini Radar'.

Equipment Type: Object

Description: Modified by a tomb robber using a peculiar radar, but due to the lack of skill, the detection range was significantly reduced.

Effect: Once activated, it can detect common types of precious metals. The detection radius is one hundred meters, and the effectiveness decreases when obstructed.

The design of the radar closely resembled the Dragon Ball Radar from Dragon Ball. Adopting a 'nothing to lose' attitude, Abel decided to try his luck with this contraption.

He soon discovered that the island was not uninhabited; quite a few residents lived there. Each household had its doors tightly shut, only daring to observe the unexpected visitors through the cracks in their windows.

They must have been frequently harassed by the pirates before.

Sadly, the residents didn't get the help they had been waiting for. Instead of the navy, they got the Donquixote family, even more ferocious and brutal than the previous pirates.

The good news was that people like Diamante didn't bother with the commoners, there was nothing to squeeze out of them, it was just a waste of time.

Of course, if Doflamingo was in a bad mood, he wouldn't mind massacring the island's inhabitants.

Not too long after, Baby-5 found Abel riding on the Fat-5.

"Abel, the young master and his crew found the hidden goods in the abandoned church ahead," reported Baby-5.

"Okay, got it," Abel responded, sighing. The detection range of this radar was indeed too short.

"Do I have to take a risk?" he wondered.

Before he could make a decision, he had already arrived at the abandoned church. At this point, Doflamingo and some of his subordinates were directing others to move the goods. The rest seemed to have returned to the ship.

Oh, right, there were dozens of bodies on the ground too, presumably those who were left to guard these goods.

"Doffy, we've checked everything, and all our looted goods are here. In addition, there are some other random things that were probably left behind by the pirate crews," a subordinate reported.

"Good. Once everything is accounted for, load it onto the ship quickly. For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this," Doflamingo gazed out at the sea. Even though everything was calm, he had a strong sense of an impending crisis.

"Abel, you stay here and oversee them finishing this task. We'll go back first."

Abel nodded; this arrangement was ideal for him! As he had just entered the abandoned church, the radar that had been unresponsive so far had suddenly lit up with dots. He initially thought that some goods piled here might have caused this, but upon closer examination, he found that in addition to these items, some of the dots were actually underneath the goods at the very back!

If his guess was correct, someone must have hidden these items secretly, although the purpose was unknown.

Now, Abel was very curious to uncover it, but many people were still moving goods, so he had to forcibly calm down.

But eventually, the last of the goods were moved.

After the last box was moved out, Abel immediately pried open a stone slab in the corner, revealing the buried treasures!

He wasn't sure how much these things were worth, but most would definitely have to be handed over if he took them back. So, he decided to take everything to fulfill the order!

Just as he was scanning and uploading the items, a series of cannon fires echoed from the sea in the distance!

A few minutes earlier...

"These damned marines again!" Doflamingo clenched his teeth in anger.

Not far from the sea, three warships were advancing rapidly in a Y formation.

On the lead warship stood the figure that made Doflamingo grind his teeth - Vice Admiral Tsuru!

"Set sail!"

"We still have half of the goods left to load."

"I said, set sail!"

Doflamingo was calm. No matter how much cargo was left, it wasn't as important as his people.

The thought of the goods left behind and the explosives collected from the previous island falling into the hands of the marines sent Doflamingo into a fit of helpless rage.

"Young master, one of our crew hasn't returned yet," Senoir Pink suddenly voiced out.

Doflamingo glanced at him. He hesitated for a second about whether to abandon Abel, and then made a decision.

"Set sail first. We need to lose these marines."

"Buffalo, fly out and bring Abel back."

At a crucial time, Buffalo didn't disappoint and flew out immediately. It seemed that all the ice cream Abel usually bought for him wasn't wasted.