There was no response.
Imu stood there like a stone statue forgotten by time.
He stood like that for a very long while. Then he slowly moved his feet and walked step by step toward a dark door.
His figure paused for an instant at the threshold before finally disappearing completely into the shadows beyond the door.
On Ron's battlefield.
Almost the entire island was shrouded in gray smoke. The boundary between sky and earth had been completely erased, leaving only surging gray-white mist slowly rolling across the ruined surface.
The fake Ron suddenly burrowed out of a pile of loose dirt like a rat. He gasped violently, fear that had not yet faded still lingering in his pupils.
He looked around. Dense smoke blocked his vision. He could not tell at all which direction he had been thrown by the shockwave.
Rustle, rustle.
Not far away, a pile of mud loosened under the base of a half-collapsed wall, and another figure crawled out.
The burly man shook the gravel off his shoulders and looked around. When he vaguely saw a familiar outline, his face relaxed, and he quickly ran over.
"Boss! You were also blasted over here by the shockwave?"
The fake Ron's brows furrowed violently. He quickly suppressed the fear on his face and replaced it with a calm, unhurried expression. "What kind of joke is that? How could an aftershock like that affect me? I came here to save you."
The burly man's eyes filled with undisguised emotion. "Boss, you really are too great!"
"Let's go." The fake Ron patted the dust off his body and urged, "It's time to head to the next stop."
Right now, the fake Ron had only one thought: hurry up and leave this damned place before that shockwave came for a second round.
But before they had gone far, a figure quickly ran toward them through the smoke.
She was fast, her form appearing and disappearing within the gray-white curtain of haze.
Her figure was excellent, and her appearance outstanding. Pink hair streamed behind her as she ran.
Even through the smoke, the fake Ron quickly recognized her identity: Charlotte Linlin, a great pirate with a bounty close to three billion and one of the core members of the Rocks Pirates.
The instant he saw her, the fake Ron felt his back turn cold. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head.
The plan to kidnap her children had been proposed to the World Government by him.
"Ron?"
When Linlin saw the fake Ron, joy rose in her heart as well. At least her worries earlier had been unnecessary. Ron was fine. He was still alive and kicking.
"Charlotte Linlin." The fake Ron forced down the panic in his heart, piled a natural-looking smile onto his face, and pretended to be calm as he greeted her.
Charlotte Linlin?
The burly man beside him froze.
As a pirate who roamed the sea, how could he not know the famous beauty pirate among the Rocks Pirates, Charlotte Linlin?
She was a great pirate with a terrifying bounty.
"Boss, this is your old companion!" the burly man shouted excitedly.
The fake Ron cursed inwardly, but his face still maintained its composure. "Of course. We used to have a very good relationship. When no one else was around, she even called me little brother."
"Napoleon!"
Linlin suddenly shouted while running.
"I'm here, Mama."
The bicorne hat on her head answered and transformed into a pitch-black long blade, landing precisely in her open palm. The blade flashed coldly in the smoke.
"Hey, boss!" The burly man's voice suddenly rose, carrying a nervous sense of 'this doesn't look right.' "Charlotte Linlin seems to be charging at you with a sword!"
"Don't panic." The fake Ron's voice had already started trembling, but he still forced himself to hold on. "It's probably some misunderstanding..."
"Hey, Charlotte Linlin, what are you trying to do?" the fake Ron shouted at the approaching figure, the panic in his voice almost impossible to hide.
"Mamamama," Linlin laughed loudly, her running speed not slowing at all. "You damned fake. Stop calling my name. It makes me sick just hearing it."
In truth, Linlin had not immediately recognized that this was a fake Ron at first.
Because this imposter looked too much like him. Almost identical.
What exposed him was that one phrase: Charlotte Linlin.
The real Ron would only ever call her Linlin.
That tiny difference was like a needle scratching across a mirror. In that instant, every disguise cracked open.
"Boss..." The burly man looked confused. "What does fake mean?"
The fake Ron did not answer. His gaze was locked firmly on the approaching figure, and he subconsciously took a step back. His voice still tried to remain calm. "Charlotte Linlin, what are you talking about? I am Ron!"
"If you like the name, then be him. But... the real Ron would never be afraid of this slash!"
Linlin had already leapt up. Armament Haki wrapped around Napoleon's blade.
Crackle!
In a flash of lightning, the fake Ron had just turned to run when Linlin's long blade came howling down. Wrapped in fierce wind pressure, it split him diagonally from shoulder to waist.
"B-Boss?!" The burly man's eyes widened, and he froze where he stood.
But in the next second, a strange scene appeared. From the cut surfaces of the fake Ron, dense black mist surged out. The mist writhed like a living thing, slowly closing the two halves of his body together. The edges of the wound sealed bit by bit, as if he had never been cut open.
"Holy crap! Boss is awesome!" The burly man's shock instantly became wild joy. "As expected of you, boss!"
The fake Ron himself was also stunned.
Fear had made him forget something. He had already been granted an immortal body by that "great master."
He stood up, lowered his head to look at his rejoined body, and then slowly began to laugh.
"Kekekeke..."
Then the fake Ron turned, his gaze falling on Linlin as he said seriously, "Charlotte Linlin, for the sake of our past relationship, if you're willing to become my fourteenth wife, I won't kill you."
Linlin paused faintly, and her face darkened little by little. "An immortal body... I've heard of that. You're with the World Government? You were involved in planning the kidnapping of my children too, weren't you?"
"Kekekehahaha!"
The fake Ron completely let loose. His laughter carried arrogant delight. "It's useless. In this world, no one can kill me!"
"Your laugh is really unpleasant. It's exactly like that bastard Shiki's laugh. You'd better truly be immortal, otherwise my anger won't be so easy to settle," Linlin said coldly.
Immediately, dark-red arcs of lightning exploded across Napoleon's blade.