"Three days! Only three days! Isn't this asking for our lives, brothers?" Jack complained, his face full of grievance. "So, what are the three of us supposed to do now?"
Quinn casually tossed his bowl aside and said, "I don't want to die! I don't want to die young!"
Ryuma took a deep breath and said, "There's no other way... After all, this time we've angered the captain. If we want to avoid this disaster, there are only two options: either sneak away secretly, or…"
"Or what?" Quinn and Jack leaned in, curious.
"Or take him down!" Ryuma said unexpectedly.
Jack immediately balked at the idea. "Bro... Lord Kaido has treated us pretty well usually. Aren't you afraid of losing your conscience if you do this?"
"Losing my conscience is better than being executed when we get back… Besides, that man doesn't have an ounce of feeling — he's nothing but a killing machine. He took the three of us in and made us his star fighters, but it was all for his own benefit. To be honest, it's just mutual use."
Jack fell silent after hearing that.
Quinn thought for a moment and said, "What you say makes sense… I don't really care, it depends on you guys."
After Quinn spoke, Jack frowned and said, "But… we're no match for Kaido… How about we find Ryuma? If we can take Ryuma down, maybe we still have a chance…"
Before the three could recover, they were shocked to see a man in a kimono suddenly appear in front of them!
This man was none other than the legendary Dragon-Slaying Samurai, Ryuma!
"You've been desperately looking for me. I'm here. What do you want to say?" Ryuma smiled.
When Jack saw Ryuma, his expression twitched. "It's you… the reason we can't return to the Beast Pirates! Brothers, attack!"
"Wait! It's already the third day today. Do you really think you can still go back?" Ryuma said, then suddenly banged his head.
Wait, no!
It's before tomorrow!
This is bad — how did they forget about this problem?
If they had just hidden before, maybe they could've gotten away with it, but now it's basically impossible.
"Hmph… it's just the third day! Capture him!" Jack ordered.
Under immense pressure, Ryuma's mind went blank!
This is way too unfair!
This… makes no sense at all!
Ding dong, system task incoming: please survive until dawn!
At that moment, Ryuma heard the system's cold voice.
Survive…
"Exactly. Since the only requirement is to survive, that means we can use any means necessary—fight, stall for time, whatever it takes, as long as we don't get caught."
Ryuma snorted coldly. "Fine. You want to catch me? Come and try!"
With that, Ryuma's body suddenly transformed into a swarm of bats, scattering in all directions and filling the sky.
Seeing this, the three of them were furious and humiliated.
What's going on?
How many times has this happened now?
Why is he pulling this trick again?
They thought to themselves.
"Quick! Capture that bastard!" Jack shouted, looking up at the bats fluttering everywhere. Feeling helpless and desperate, he ordered them to split up and search in the four directions—east, south, west, and north.
In this world, one advantage of using Devil Fruits is that, as long as it's not in combat, it doesn't drain much stamina. And since Ryuma was the ancient Dragon-Slaying Samurai, he was confident he could last until dawn on the fourth day!