Chapter 28: I'm Not Interested in Money
Cheng Lang wasn't angry. He had spent the first half of his life in modern society, where the most strenuous thing he did was morning exercise. But in the world of One Piece, Luffy, Zoro, and others had trained since childhood, and Kuro was a pirate with a bounty over ten million. It would be absurd if someone like him lost to a modern man who had only just crossed into this world.
"Actually, I'm curious," Cheng Lang said, swinging his iron sword, "how you can achieve speed close to soru with your Silent Step."
Stomping the ground a dozen times in an instant should never be silent. Some masters stomped so hard the ground cracked beneath them. Cheng Lang couldn't quite imagine how Silent Step compared to Shave, but he kept attacking, adjusting his movements.
He focused on the fundamentals: legs driving the waist, waist driving the arms, wrists finishing the strike. Bit by bit, he experimented.
"You think I'll tell you?" Kuro sneered.
"You've been exposed. Three years of work wasted. You might even have to return to piracy. But…" Cheng Lang raised his hand, and a gold ingot appeared. "I can give you enough gold to walk away. Find a quiet village, live in comfort."
Kuro froze, eyes locked on the gleaming bar.
"What do you mean?"
"This is pure gold. If it's 9999 quality, it's worth millions easily."
Kuro pushed up his glasses, feigning calm, but his trembling hands betrayed him.
"Tell me the difference between Silent Step and Shave."
"Why should I—"
Before he could finish, Cheng Lang tossed the ingot.
Kuro caught it instinctively, disbelief flashing in his eyes. The weight alone told him it was real. Even if not pure, it was still immensely valuable.
"You'd just give this away? So generous… If you'd said so earlier, why fight? Aren't we all chasing money?"
He almost mocked him, but in the end, he spoke honestly.
"The difference is simple. Shave is faster. The minimum standard is ten steps in an instant. If you can do that, you've mastered it. Silent Step is weaker—six taps with the toes. That's my usual limit. If I try ten, the direction deviates. You can roughly control it, but stability is poor."
Cheng Lang nodded thoughtfully.
"So it's like a downgraded version of Shave. Backward compatible, in a way."
He raised his sword again.
"Okay. Let's continue."
Kuro frowned, clutching the gold. For a moment, he hesitated—hold on or let go?
"I think we can talk. Kaya's father left a fortune. If you—"
"I'm not interested in money." Cheng Lang cut him off.
The words silenced Kuro.
With a snarl, he hurled the ingot into the grass and lunged.
But the more he attacked, the more frustrated he became. No matter the angle, he couldn't pierce Cheng Lang's defense.
Meanwhile, Cheng Lang grew more exhilarated. He stopped defending entirely, attacking recklessly. Any normal man would have died hundreds of times over, but his armor and resilience held.
Kuro realized with shock that Cheng Lang's strikes were becoming sharper, his footwork more precise. And that grin—widening with every exchange—was unnerving.
The boy was enjoying this.
Kuro, however, was weakening. Luffy's punch and Zoro's slash had already drained him. If this dragged on, he might actually collapse from exhaustion.
Grinding his teeth, he stepped back and vanished into Silent Step.
Cheng Lang blinked, stunned. His target was gone.
"Running away halfway? That's just pathetic… like brushing past someone in the street."
At that moment, Luffy and Zoro arrived.
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