Kalmar City.
Garp walked unimpeded through the corridors, finally arriving at Morgan William's cell. Inside, the sound of clanking chains echoed continuously. When the cell door was opened, Garp realized the noise was caused by William pacing back and forth, the iron shackles on his feet colliding with each step.
William had been imprisoned here for nearly half a month. Although the Marines, in an effort to preserve their image of justice for the upcoming public broadcast, refrained from physically abusing him, his treatment was far from comfortable. His clothes reeked of sweat and grime, his face was smudged with dirt, and his hair was greasy. Yet when Garp opened the door and William turned to look at him, Garp noticed that his eyes still gleamed with a sharp intensity. Despite his confinement in this cramped space, his demeanor was no different from when he had been the ruler of this nation.
"You seem to be in good spirits," Garp chuckled. "Especially for someone who's about to be executed."
Garp wasn't the type to mock or belittle a prisoner. Much like Smoker, he believed that the duty of a Marine was to capture pirates and bring them to justice. Once a criminal was apprehended, their job was to ensure the prisoner didn't escape and then move on to the next target. Torturing or ridiculing a captive held no appeal for Garp, nor did he consider it honorable. However, this time, Garp had a specific purpose for coming here. The recent string of events orchestrated by William's forces in the East Blue had left him both frustrated and furious. From the pirate raids on Marine bases to the burning of the Faraise Kingdom's royal palace, and now this—despite Garp's formidable strength, he had been unable to prevent the East Blue from descending into chaos under his watch.
After Gin had extracted information from "Clown" Buggy, he had immediately relayed the intelligence to the temporary command center. Without delay, Gin had transported Buggy back to Kalmar City to report the critical information to Garp and the others.
William's men were planning to destroy the Bridge Kingdom, Tequila Wolf.
In the 700 years since its construction began, no one had ever dared to entertain such a horrifying idea. For one, the bridge symbolized the Celestial Dragons' authority and status. Additionally, even in William's previous life, Tequila Wolf was an unparalleled feat of engineering, not something that could be easily destroyed.
But the Buggy Ball was different. Garp and Smoker had personally witnessed its destructive power. Smoker had even brought back a few samples for the others to see firsthand.
In the original timeline, a single Buggy Ball could obliterate half a town. And that was when Buggy had been working alone, with limited resources and no external support. Now, with Dampier's assistance, William's substantial financial backing, and a team of researchers, the Buggy Ball's power could only have grown exponentially.
According to Buggy's own confession, his Buggy Ball design had been near completion a year ago. Within just two months of being coerced into joining William's lab, the weapon had been perfected.
Buggy, having worked in the lab, knew all too well that over the past year, William had stockpiled countless Buggy Balls and experimental variants based on its design. The number of Buggy Balls distributed to pirate crews—just a few per ship—was negligible compared to the vast reserves William had amassed.
Both Buggy and the Marines could vividly imagine the scene: countless pirate ships bombarding Tequila Wolf with these powerful cannonballs. With such a massive arsenal, the pirates wouldn't even need to aim for the bridge's critical points. Just two volleys would be enough to reduce the 700-year-old structure to rubble.
Moreover, Buggy revealed that William had made extensive preparations on the bridge itself.
If not for Smoker's swift capture of a pirate captain and the extraction of intelligence regarding Tequila Wolf, Garp and the others might never have realized that, amidst the chaos of the pirate raids, William's true target was the seemingly unrelated bridge.
And if not for Gin's coincidental capture of "Clown" Buggy, they would still be underestimating the imminent threat. Even with two Vice Admirals dispatched, without knowledge of the bridge's traps or the weapons William's men possessed, they wouldn't have been able to prevent its destruction.
"But why?" Garp asked, his arms crossed as he leaned against the cell wall, staring at William. "Why go to such lengths? Destroying the bridge gains you nothing. And the traps, the Buggy Balls, the plan to bombard the bridge—you set all of this up long before we arrived. If you could predict everything so perfectly, you wouldn't have been captured by us in the first place."
William looked at Garp, whose tone, despite his casual demeanor, betrayed his underlying anger. William smiled cheerfully. "Vice Admiral Garp, you're worried. That's exactly my goal. Do you think I developed the Buggy Ball for fun? I knew it wouldn't work on someone as strong as you. I created it for this day."
William raised his shackled hands, showing them to Garp as he continued nonchalantly, "Whether it was you or another Marine big shot who came to capture me, this situation was already set in stone. If anything happens to me, the bridge will be destroyed. I believe that if I've been captured, it means the Marines who caught me are powerful enough that I couldn't resist. But I also believe that no one is invincible. I can die, but whoever captures me will pay a price."
"And when that happens, the World Government and the Celestial Dragons you so desperately protect will avenge me," William chuckled darkly. "Oh, by the way, I've named this plan the Dead Hand System."
"You're a damned bastard," Garp said coldly after hearing William's explanation. "I had my doubts about Sengoku's decision to execute you immediately. But now, I see he was right."
"Thank you for the compliment," William replied with a mocking smile, bowing slightly.
In another room within the prison, Vice Admirals Doberman and Dalmatian, along with Smoker, Gin, and several other Marine officers, were gathered around a Transponder Snail (Den Den Mushi), silently listening to the conversation between Garp and William.
When Garp finally left the cell and the conversation ended, Smoker broke the silence. "A liar, through and through."
Smoker didn't believe a single word William had said. William claimed he didn't know why the pirates in the East Blue had revolted, when in reality, he had manipulated their resources to force their hands. He claimed ignorance about the whereabouts of his subordinates, yet they were clearly working to destroy the bridge.
Now, William was claiming that the sole purpose of destroying the bridge was to make the Marines regret capturing him. Smoker was certain it was another lie.
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