496. Hidden Plot

Need less to say, the result is still the same even for Hajruddin. Magnus trashes him easily, he beats all of them without even using his devil fruit abilities or even haki. He only uses his basic power and skills to defeat these 10 young Giants.

"You guys are not bad, but you are overconfident although you lack the basics. Being warriors isn't just about being brave enough to challenge everything in your path. Be smart and humble but stay confident without overestimating yourselves. You're lucky that you fought me because you would suffer more if you fought those stronger than me here."

"Who are stronger than you here, big bro Magnus?"

"Hmm, power-wise, there are 4 people. Captain, Vice-Captain, Palu, and Enel. But in a fight, I might lose to 1 more person. Mantis has lower power than me, but her skills are very great. She could beat me even with a weaker body. That's why you need to know that power isn't everything in battles."

The young Giants are surprised that Magnus isn't even among the top 3 strongest here. They thought that at most he would be weaker than the Captain and Vice-Captain. But he is actually weaker than 4 people and someone weaker than him can defeat him in a battle.

"BIG BRO MAGNUS, WE WANT TO GET STRONGER, PLEASE TEACH US!"

Hajruddin suddenly shouts and bows to Magnus, followed by his members. Magnus looks at Buggy, unsure of what to do with these guys. He never thought they would ask for guidance right away. Buggy smiles and claps his hands once to get the Giants' attention.

"Do you really want to get stronger? You are serious, right?"

"YES!"

"Good, there's no point if you aren't serious. But there's really nothing we can teach you at this point. What you need now is experience, not training. Go explore the world and fight a lot of strong people. We were also fighting lots of life & death battles for years to reach this level."

"So we just need to keep fighting?"

"You need to train too, obviously. But hard battles help you grow faster, rather, they force you to grow. When you finally hit the wall and feel like you can't improve anymore, that's when you can ask for Magnus's help. But it's not the time yet now."

"What should we do now, Captain Buggy?"

Buggy almost chokes when he hears them calling him Captain Buggy. He hasn't heard that way of calling for years and it reminds him of how the Buggy in the series was called.

"Well, you are rookie pirates, so do what rookies do. Start from the beginning to gain more experience."

"So we need to go to Paradise?"

"Paradise is too weak if you want to get stronger. You can go there if you want to experience the world, but if your aim is power, then just stay in the New World. You can start from the 1st island and keep following the Log Pose or just go around New World to fight more people. But if you want a real challenge right away, then I have a place in mind."

The Giants look at each other and ask Buggy to tell them where they need to go. Buggy grins and tosses an Eternal Pose to them while Magnus is sighing. He doesn't know what his Captain is planning but he knows it will be tough for these young Giants.

"Go there and you'll see how vast the world truly is."

The New Giant Warrior Pirates finally leave after a while. They go to the location that Buggy told them which is none other than Punk Hazard. He wants to create a big show in New World using these rookies.

"Time to shake the World again."

It's not just the New Giant Warrior Pirates or Straw Hat-Heart Pirates alliance that goes to Punk Hazard. Many more people are coming there right now with different intentions, but they are mostly pirates. Their sudden movements alarmed the Marines that obviously make a move quickly.

The Marines don't know why these pirates are suddenly going to Punk Hazard. They are guessing that it's because of Donquixote Family's product, SMILE. Doffy might've hidden his identity in the underworld, but they all know that he is Joker, so they know about SMILE too.

They are right about the SMILE, but that's not the full reason why these pirates suddenly go there. A lot of them aren't coming for SMILE, but for Donquixite Family themselves. They are people who hold grudges against Donquixote Family and want to have revenge.

Of course, they didn't just move together coincidentally. Buggy was pulling strings from behind and Doflamingo knew someone was plotting something. He just doesn't know that it's Buggy, but he still needs to prepare for it, that's why he uses SMILE to rope more people to his side.

After all, even if he doesn't know exactly who, Doffy knows that it must be a very big force behind this. He has some suspects and one of them is Clown Pirates. There's also the New World Government that has just officially disbanded the Warlord system.

That's right, the new World Government has destroyed the Warlord system after going through lots of procedures like weighing the pros and cons or getting a lot of Kingdoms' agreements. So now Doflamingo isn't a Warlord anymore and Donquixote Family is just a criminal organization.

Hancock quit being a Warlord just a few months ago, so she didn't miss things too much. Mihawk also doesn't care that much because he just becomes a Warlord to make his hunt for battles easier without Marines chasing him around. Now he just needs to add Marines to his list, that's all.

The one who's getting the most loss is Doffy because now his underworld business won't get any protection from the World Government. Luckily for him, his business has grown very big and his force is also strong enough to compete against Emperor crews in New World.

That's why now, instead of sending help, the Marines send their soldiers to Punk Hazard to take advantage of the situation. Things aren't looking so good from outsiders' eyes, but Doffy isn't afraid even a bit. He is confident his group can handle this.

After all, he hasn't shown all his group's power. They still have hidden weapons that no one knows yet. Even most of the people in his group never knew about those hidden weapons. Only the executives who are close to Doffy know about those hidden weapons.

"Will we go straight to their base? That doesn't sound like a good idea."

Robin asks Law before they leave Raijin Island after staying for a few days.

"No, that is a suicide. We will go to meet with the others first."

"There will be more people? I thought the alliance was between our crews."

Sanji frowns when knowing Law doesn't tell them that they have more people in their alliance.

"They are just joining us to fight the Donquixote Family. We will be outnumbered too much without those people."

"Hmm, fair enough, but can we really trust them?"

"I don't know about trust, but at least they have much more credibility than pirates."

"They aren't pirates?"

"Yeah, they are Kingdoms. Dressrosa and Prodence Kingdoms."

Corazon has managed to negotiate with Dressrosa a few days ago. But he never thought that the Prodence Kingdom would offer assistance. Their Kings are close friends, after all, so Prodence decided to help Dressrosa because the Donquixote Family is a big threat to Dressrosa.

That's why now the 2 rookie pirate crews will go to Dressrosa where they will plan their attack on Punk Hazard. Luffy is excited to see Dressrosa more now than the fight. So his crewmates are relieved because he at least does what is planned and doesn't force them to rush to Punk Hazard.

They arrive in a day because Dressrosa is close enough to Raijin Island. Luffy immediately forgets about why they came here and decides to explore the Kingdom. His crewmates sigh, but they also leave to look around the Kingdom instead of going to the castle with Law.

Law starts to get a headache about the Straw Hats, but luckily 2 people are still willing to cooperate. Franky and Robin are following Law to the castle where they'll meet the Kings and plan the assault.

"I can't believe 2 Kingdoms agree to work together with pirates even though our targets are pirates too. How did you convince them?"

"It wasn't me, but Cora-san. He is good at negotiation, but I think there's one thing that really helped. It's the fact that Dressrosa and Prodence have relationships with a pirate crew. Maybe it makes them more open-minded about pirates and don't easily judge us like most people."

"Oh? Which crew is that?"

"One of the Emperor Crews, the strongest of all, Clown Pirates."

Franky and Robin are surprised when they hear about it.

"Isn't that Leo's & Nami's dad's crew?"

"Hmm? Their father is a member of Clown Pirates?"

Law hides the fact that he knows about Buggy's relationship with Leo & Nami because it is never published although no one hides it too.

"Yeah, and not just any members, their dad is the Captain."

Law's acting skill is really good as he shows a very realistic shocked expression. It can fool Franky, but it is still not enough to fool Robin as she can see something strange from Law's act. But she stays silent because she also knows that there's no malice in Law's actions.

She is still giggling in her heart though. 'Seems like he has a rather close relationship with Clown Pirates. I wonder what Buggy-san is planning now. Fufufu, I really miss them.'

________________________________________

You can read more chapters ahead of my fanfics and more pictures on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.

Voting for this book is highly appreciate. Cover image is the MC, artist's ig: @fatmaqn_

I've uploaded Chapter 534. The Strongest

- Pictures of both stories (ex: bounty poster & magazine cover) by fatmaqn_

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