"Green algae head, he's just as reckless as you." Sanji laughed heartily.
"Curly brow, that's called courage!" Zoro roared back.
"Ace, are they strong?" Luffy asked with innocent curiosity.
Although Makino subscribed to newspapers daily, with Luffy's personality, he obviously wouldn't be interested in such things.
"Of course! These are world-famous great pirates." Ace's expression was extremely serious.
"Then I want to challenge them too!" Luffy became instantly interested after hearing this.
"Do you know the consequences of challenging me? You might die."
Kai looked at Ace before him with great interest.
Portgas D. Ace.
The target of his journey.
As the Pirate King's son, Ace naturally possessed the qualifications to initiate battles at the pinnacle.
Of course, absolutely not now.
"Ace, Luffy, be quiet!"
Makino behind the bar reacted and immediately tried to smooth things over: "They're just children! They were only joking just now. You important people shouldn't take it to heart."
Even though she was just an ordinary person, she knew how terrifying Natural Disaster Kai was.
This was definitely not something two boys who spent their time in the mountains could handle.
"They're serious." Kai's smile didn't fade.
"That's right!" Ace nodded heavily: "I'm willing to stake my life on this challenge!"
"He's actually telling the truth."
Violet made OK signs with both hands in front of her eyes, looking shocked.
Her mind-reading ability wouldn't lie to her.
The boy before her was truly prepared to die, and even had a hint of eagerness about it.
"Luffy, don't get involved in this."
Ace pulled Luffy behind him protectively and warned: "If I die, you continue training. When you grow up and become stronger than me, then go challenge them!"
"I don't want to."
Luffy's mouth turned down, and his eyes instantly reddened: "If you die and Sabo is dead too, I'll have no one left to rely on in this world."
Kai's mouth twitched slightly.
Was Luffy assuming Garp was dead too?
But that wasn't entirely Luffy's fault. Given Garp's educational methods, it was remarkable that Luffy could maintain such a sincere and kind heart.
Garp's way of teaching Luffy was either throwing him into the wilderness to fend for himself or pushing him from great heights to experience bungee jumping without a cord.
Regular training was also similar to abuse.
That Luffy could survive was truly a miracle of vitality.
"Since you're sincerely issuing a challenge, I'll graciously accept once."
Kai smiled lightly.
"Are you going to bully children?" Violet's expression was subtle.
Yamato immediately objected: "This is a challenge!"
Since it was a challenge, status and age were irrelevant.
The perceptive Kozuki Hiyori noticed something. Lord Kai seemed very interested in this child.
On this voyage, each of his destinations had been to collect those gifted youths.
Sanji and Zoro were both like this.
"Great! Let's go outside and fight!" Ace's eyes lit up.
"Ace!" Makino cried out.
"Makino, don't stop me!" Ace's gaze was unusually determined: "I know what I'm doing."
Outside the tavern, on an open space, Ace and Kai stood facing each other, the air seeming to freeze with tension.
"Take this!"
Ace rushed to Kai's front, leaped up, and swung his fist hard at Kai's chest.
On his face, besides excitement, there was a barely perceptible sense of relief.
BANG!
The fist hit solidly.
Kai didn't move an inch.
"Hiss."
Ace landed, shaking his aching right hand.
It felt like he hadn't hit flesh and blood at all but struck a steel plate.
"Again?" Kai raised an eyebrow slightly.
Ace's physical condition far exceeded his peers; he was even stronger than many adults.
When he was younger, he and Sabo had even defeated a group of pirates who kidnapped Luffy.
But in the eyes of truly strong people, this level of strength was completely insufficient.
Ace was frustrated but showed no disappointment on his face. On the contrary, he was more excited.
After all these years, he had finally found someone who could kill him.
"HAA!"
He stepped forward again, turning his fists into afterimages.
His punches hitting Kai made continuous banging sounds.
This wasn't over. Ace continued moving his hands while adding his feet.
Now he was truly punching and kicking with everything he had.
Kai showed a mischievous smile: "Use more force. That's more comfortable."
"Damn it!"
Ace endured the pain from his limbs, gritted his teeth, and added several more points of strength.
For a full minute, under Ace's all-out, unreserved performance, his movements inevitably slowed down.
"Is this your limit?"
Kai shook his head, casually extended his hand, precisely grasped Ace's wrist, and threw him to the ground with a backhand motion.
BANG!
Ace was thrown to the ground without any resistance.
"Ace!"
Luffy ran to Ace's side, shouting with concern.
Seeing Ace slowly wake up, Luffy finally let him go and faced Kai directly: "Since Ace is down, I'll challenge you!"
Luffy swung his arms in a 360-degree motion.
"Gomu Gomu Pistol!"
A fist suddenly stretched out, shooting toward Kai like a bullet.
The latter slightly sidestepped, and the fist brushed past his shoulder. The next instant, Kai's figure disappeared from his spot, reappearing in front of Luffy with two fingers together, lightly tapping his forehead.
WHOOSH!
Luffy was instantly pushed backward by this tremendous force, flying into the forest.
"Luffy!"
Seeing his brother being knocked away, Ace was furious. An invisible aura burst from his body, sweeping across the entire area.
Sanji and Zoro's heads spun, almost losing consciousness.
"This guy also has Conqueror's Haki." Yamato was somewhat delighted.
"Isn't it said to be one in several million? How does such a small village have someone with this qualification?" Violet said in surprise.
Even she was affected by Ace's Conqueror's Haki.
"As expected." Kozuki Hiyori nodded secretly.
This boy's qualifications were indeed extraordinary.
Ace didn't know what Yamato and the others were talking about, only charging at Kai again.
"Come on, Natural Disaster Kai!"
His stance was full of openings, which made Kozuki Hiyori frown: "Is he seeking death?"
In a normal challenge, after being defeated in the first wave, one should consciously admit defeat.
That gap as wide as an abyss shouldn't be invisible to normal people.
Ace was indeed seeking death.
Kai sighed inwardly.
This was also due to old man Garp's educational methods.
He had told Ace his true parentage when he was small, completely disregarding the pressure that being Roger's son would bring to Ace.
Honestly speaking, the Great Pirate Era that Roger initiated was more beneficial than harmful from a macro perspective.
The massive number of pirates going to sea did shake some of the World Government's rule and allowed more strong people to emerge.
But from ordinary people's perspective, Roger was an absolute villain.
The countless pirates released by his single sentence ravaged the seas like locusts.
Originally, civilians only had to bear oppression and exploitation from the World Government and kingdom nobles, but now they had an additional layer of plunder and slaughter from pirates.
Countless families were broken because of this, their lives becoming hell.
Ace had lived since childhood in the boundless hatred the world held for Roger.
The pressure on him was unimaginable.
Ace's strong self-destructive tendencies were also foreseeable.