"Wow! The big lion is back for another beating!"
On Ruskaina Island, Carrot's cheerful voice echoed through the dense forest, followed immediately by thunderous rumbling sounds as she and Kotatsu came racing back toward the Black Star Pirates' coastal camp.
Witnessing this now-familiar scene, Carina rubbed her forehead with obvious exasperation. "Carrot, you've been teasing those poor creatures for days now. Aren't you getting tired of it yet?"
"Hehe, come on, big lion! Come here quickly!" Carrot stood confidently in the middle of their camp, clapping her hands at the massive lion-like beast that had been pursuing her. The enormous predator suddenly stopped its charge and began slowly retreating, apparently having learned from previous encounters.
Turning to address Carina's question, Carrot explained with obvious excitement, "Sister Carina, Brother Jerry said we'll set sail right after he catches some Sea Kings today, so I want to play with them a little longer before we have to say goodbye!"
"But he's been saying that exact same thing for days now..." Carina sighed with helpless resignation.
The current situation had its roots in Rayleigh's decision to bring Luffy and his crewmates to Ruskaina Island for intensive training.
This was a completely uninhabited landmass that had supposedly once housed a thriving kingdom long ago. Now, however, only enormous and exceptionally ferocious beasts remained, having claimed the entire island as their territory over the centuries.
Given these dangerous but controllable conditions, Rayleigh believed this represented an excellent location for practical combat training. He planned to have Luffy and the others use the island's various beasts as living opponents to practice their Haki abilities and refine their fighting techniques.
However, not every member of the Straw Hat Pirates was suited for this particular style of hands-on combat training. So Rayleigh had developed individualized time schedules and specific suggestions based on each person's unique characteristics and learning needs.
For crew members like Nami and Chopper, who needed to supplement their theoretical knowledge in specialized fields, Rayleigh had arranged for them to work with Deuce. The scholarly doctor was more than willing to lend them access to the extensive collection of reference materials aboard the Black Nova.
As the ship's doctor, Deuce possessed not only a wealth of medical knowledge and practical experience, but had also learned extensively during their time with the Whitebeard Pirates. Their ship carried an impressive array of medical information, advanced equipment, and research materials.
Additionally, both Deuce and Skull maintained the habit of collecting books and carefully recording various types of knowledge, especially since they occasionally needed to serve as backup navigators for the crew.
Therefore, the Black Star Pirates had accumulated a substantial library of advanced and practical books covering numerous fields of study—from navigation and medicine to history and combat theory.
This impressive collection allowed Nami, Chopper, Robin, and even Sanji to find exactly the specialized knowledge they wanted to learn and absorb from these rich educational resources.
The Black Star Pirates, who had originally planned to visit this area for just a few days of unique experiences, ended up staying much longer due to Jerry's characteristic "since we're already here" philosophy.
Even after more than a week on the island, Jerry had still failed to successfully catch any of the Sea Kings that supposedly inhabited these waters.
Fortunately, the members of the Black Star Pirates had already developed their own comfortable daily routines. In addition to maintaining their group training sessions each morning, they spent their afternoons and evenings pursuing individual interests and activities.
Besides Deuce and Skull, who had volunteered to work part-time as teaching assistants to the "legendary but humble instructor" Rayleigh, the others had found their own ways to pass the time productively.
Cavendish would occasionally engage in solo exercise sessions during the afternoon, though more often he preferred to drink tea and chat leisurely with Farul, Brook, and anyone else willing to appreciate his stories.
Brook spent most of his free afternoons and evenings collecting musical inspiration and composing new songs, often performing impromptu concerts for whoever happened to be nearby.
Carrot frequently sought out Jerry to listen to his stories about their adventures, and would regularly take Kotatsu on playful expeditions to chase and interact with the various wild animals throughout the forest.
Carina had found herself with unexpected free time, though she would occasionally check on Carrot's whereabouts and enjoyed exercising or chatting with Nami about their respective experiences.
At noon that particular day, Skull approached Jerry with a distinctly serious expression and handed him a carefully organized news summary that he'd compiled from recent reports.
Obviously, this represented intelligence that Skull had gathered from the outside world through his extensive information networks.
"Extremely Evil Incident! Celestial Dragons Under Attack!"
"World Destroyer Byrnndi World Strikes Again!"
Jerry stared at the two eye-catching headlines in his hands, his expression growing thoughtful as he frowned slightly. "Byrnndi World, huh?" he muttered, as if trying to recall something important.
"That's right!" Skull confirmed enthusiastically. "Byrnndi World is one of the Level 6 criminals who escaped from Impel Down during the recent prison break. He's the user of the More-More Fruit Fruit and has earned the terrifying nickname 'World Destroyer'..."
Skull proceeded to explain in detail the events that had unfolded over the past few days, providing Jerry with comprehensive background information about Byrnndi's capabilities and recent activities.
The conversation between the two naturally attracted the attention of everyone else in the Black Star Pirates, who gathered around to listen.
Jerry gradually recalled fragments of information through his somewhat vague memories, and when he cross-referenced these recollections with the intelligence Skull had provided, he began to realize what an absolutely catastrophic situation was developing in the outside world.
"If Celestial Dragons were actually attacked, that's definitely going to be a complete disaster," Jerry nodded with genuine seriousness. "This guy really isn't afraid of death, is he?"
Deuce felt a large bead of sweat appear on his forehead as he responded incredulously, "What possible qualifications do YOU have to criticize anyone else for that?!"
Thinking back to Jerry's own actions involving beating up and hypnotizing Celestial Dragons, everyone immediately understood and agreed with Deuce's pointed observation.
"Ahem, okay, fair point," Jerry acknowledged with mild embarrassment. "But I have a strong feeling we're going to run into him very soon."
Looking at this Celestial Dragon incident—which was somewhat different from but remarkably similar to patterns he vaguely remembered—and considering the World Government's predictable response methods, combined with the movement trajectory data that Skull had managed to track, Jerry made a confident prediction.
Jerry wasn't particularly impressed by Byrnndi World, the man known throughout the world as the "World Destroyer."
He only vaguely remembered that this was an absolutely lawless and extremely unstable individual—someone completely unhinged from any normal moral constraints.
Whether facing the World Government, Celestial Dragons, Marines, pirates, or innocent civilians, Byrnndi World would attack anyone he encountered like a rabid animal, destroying everything in his path without the slightest trace of mercy or discrimination.
In other words, people from any faction or background could potentially become targets of his violent rage and face tremendous threats to their safety.
It was worth noting that Byrnndi World, now in his seventies, still appeared to possess the physical capabilities he'd had in his forties, due to being imprisoned in a frozen state of suspended animation in Impel Down for the past thirty years.
Jerry wasn't entirely certain whether World's physical functions could truly remain equivalent to those of a man in his prime, but the possibility was definitely concerning.
The More-More Fruit that World possessed was extremely dangerous, allowing him to increase both the size and speed of any object he touched by up to one hundred times their original measurements. While this ability couldn't be applied directly to living creatures, it was still devastatingly effective.
However, he could definitely use his fruit's power to dramatically increase his own movement speed and the destructive force behind his physical attacks. Overall, this man had definitely earned his terrifying reputation as the "World Destroyer" through demonstrated capability.
Byrnndi World harbored deep, personal hatred for both the World Government and the Marines. If he hadn't planned to come to this area to capture Empress Hancock and create conflict with their group, Jerry honestly wouldn't mind watching him bombard Mariejois into rubble.
But judging from the current circumstances and World's established patterns, Jerry suspected that unless he immediately led the Black Star Pirates in a strategic retreat, the two groups would most likely encounter each other in the very near future.
However, it might not be quite so easy to convince Jerry—who believed he'd finally found the right technique and was on the verge of mastering the method for catching Sea Kings—to abandon this location just yet.
"Where exactly did this so-called premonition of yours come from?" Upon hearing Jerry's characteristic prophecy, Deuce couldn't help but twitch his lips skeptically.
Jerry followed his usual practice of not explaining his reasoning in any detail, simply offering a casual response: "Pure instinct."
"Tch! You're absolutely impossible," Deuce muttered, rolling his eyes in resignation.
"Of course I am," Jerry replied with obvious confidence. "You guys just keep doing whatever you're supposed to be doing. We'll make our strategic retreat right after I successfully catch a big Sea King."
He handed the intelligence reports back to Skull and returned his attention to the fishing float bobbing peacefully in the water.
After a moment of contemplation, he stroked his chin and muttered thoughtfully, "Come to think of it, if they really do decide to show up here, they should also attract the attention of the local Sea Kings, right? Wouldn't that be basically equivalent to helping me create a feeding frenzy?"
Hearing this characteristic logic, Cavendish and the others simply looked at each other with resigned amusement before dispersing to continue their respective activities, knowing that arguing with Jerry about his fishing obsession was completely pointless.
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