Rody stopped exerting force with his leg on the shark man's head.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
The shark man quickly sat up, coughing hard, releasing the blood trapped in his throat.
Then, the shark man raised his head awkwardly, staring fearfully at the tall Rody standing in front of him. He didn't dare meet his gaze; he was trembling all over and couldn't utter a word.
"Tsk! Did you collapse so quickly?"
Rody said as he turned around and approached the fish man Kuroobi's head, then casually kicked his head and threw it into the shark man's arms.
"Hold on tight, I'll kill you if you drop it."
Hearing this, the fish man trembled, tears and snot running down his face. She hugged Kuroobi's head tightly, not daring to let go for fear that Rody would do what he'd told her.
Rody looked at Nami and said, "Nami, go and order the Black Jade Wolf to head for the coast."
Hearing this, Nami, who was still dazed, staring at the corpses of the fishmen on the deck, came to her senses and said excitedly,
"Okay, I'll leave right away." With that, Nami hurriedly ran to the command room to order the Black Jade Wolf, who was guarding the helm, to head for the coast.
After that, Roddy leaned on the white jade wolf's back and opened the system message:
DING! HOST KILLS KUROOBI!
Death Value +1
Total Death Value: 2
Seeing the death value, Rody roughly understood the purpose of this system feature.
"So that's how it works, huh? It's because the others are too trash for the system to count. Even if I kill more of that trash, it won't increase the death value at all." Rody thought as he manipulated the system panel.
...
As dusk approaches, the sun slowly approaches sea level.
Cocoyasi Village seemed peaceful and quiet at dusk.
However, Rody's arrival broke that false tranquility.
Rody approached the shark man holding Kuroobi's head and said, "Come on, take me to see your boss Arlong."
Hearing this, the shark man clumsily got up, stepped off the boat, holding Kuroobi's head tightly, and walked toward Arlong Park, the Fish-Man Pirates' territory.
Rody first ordered the Jade Wolf to clear the deck, and then he and Nami followed the shark man off the ship.
"Hey, hey, that shark man is holding Kuroobi's head! One of Arlong's subordinates!"
I know for a fact that that fish man is a member of the Arlong Pirates. Kuroobi, with a bounty of 9,000,000 million belly!
"That's right, he's the second-highest bounty fish man in the Arlong Pirates!"
"I didn't expect him to die!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
On both sides of the road, villagers who had heard the noise came out to watch, chatting animatedly.
Listening to the villagers' conversation, Nami couldn't help but smile with joy.
Seeing Nami smiling beside her, Rody couldn't help but smile.
One of the villagers noticed and asked,
"Hey, Nami, what's going on?"
Several villagers bombarded Nami with questions, trying to get information.
"Nami, who's that guy next to you?"
"Nami, was this guy the one who killed Kuroobi?"
Nami, somewhat embarrassed by the questions, scratched her cheek and quickly replied, "His name is Rody. He's my partner. He was the one who killed the fish-man. He's very powerful, so there's nothing to fear."
The villagers frowned and looked at each other with trembling eyes, obviously completely distrusting Nami's words.
Nami, seeing this, spoke hastily, saying,
"I swear, don't worry. The nightmare that has engulfed us will soon be over!"
Although the suspicious villagers didn't say anything, they stopped asking and quickly called for more people.
Little by little, more people gathered, following Nami and Rody as more people arrived.
After a while, they arrived at Arlong's hideout, at the entrance to Arlong Park. There were two fishmen guarding the gate.
Seeing the crowd, they frowned and began to gossip.
"Hey, what are these humans planning to do? There are so many people gathered. Are they planning to rebel against the noble fishmen?"
Their companion was about to speak when suddenly, he saw Shark Man leading the way and said in a trembling voice:
"Look... look... isn't that Brother Kuroobi's head in A-Kun's arms?"
Looking at the spot his comrade was pointing at with a trembling hand, his pupils shrank, and he exclaimed in panic, "Shit! Hurry... hurry and tell Chief Arlong!"
The two fishmen at the gate quickly ran into Arlong's territory and shouted at Arlong, who was lying on the stone chair with his eyes closed, "Chief Arlong, the humans united to rebel, and Brother Kuroobi was killed by them and his head was cut off."
"What? Kuroobi was killed by humans." Arlong crushed the armrest of the stone chair, opened his eyes, and stood up in a rage, filled with murderous intent, "Damn humans, bring me my serrated knife. Screw the deal with Nami! I want to kill you all!"
One of his subordinates ran terrified to get Arlong's knife. Seconds later, he returned, knife in hand.
Arlong took the serrated knife from the fish-man and led the surrounding fish-men toward the gate with an angry expression. Arlong came out of the gate with a serrated knife in his hand and saw at a glance that Sharkman A. Kun was holding Kuroobi's head in his arms.
Seeing this, the veins on Arlong's forehead bulged, and with red eyes, he shouted angrily, "Ah, damn humans, I must kill you all!"
"That... that's Brother Kuroobi's head! Kill these humans!"
"These people killed Brother Kuroobi! Kill all these humans!"
"Chief Aaron, kill all these humans and avenge Brother Kuroobi!"
The fish-men who followed Aaron out of Arlong Park screamed with murderous intent upon seeing this scene.
The villagers following Rody were frightened by the furious glare of Arlong and his group. Suddenly, the villagers, who had initially been filled with joy, fell silent and looked at Rody and Nami with hope.
Akun, the shark man, who was holding the head of the fish man Kuroobi, saw the fish man Arlong emerge from Arlong Park with a serrated knife in his hand.
His eyes, originally dull and empty, like those of a walking corpse, suddenly came to life.
Akun, the shark man, looked at Arlong, pointed at Rody and Nami, and wept. Trembling, he roared, "Chief Arlong, it was this human Nami found who brutally killed Brother Kuroobi and our fellow fish men patrolling with us. Chief Arlong, you must avenge us!"
"Curse you, inferior humans!"
Hearing this, the fish men beside Arlong roared with fury.
Arlong glared at Nami and said, "You asked this human for help. It seems, Nami, that you don't plan on reclaiming Cocoyasi Village.
It's a shame, but I must still thank you. I was planning to wait until you had enough money and then inform the greedy rat colonel of the 16th Army Division about your theft of a million Baileys.
"When the time comes, the Army will confiscate all the money you've stolen over the past few years."
"That's a shame. I want to see how desperate your face will look at that moment."
"It's funny just thinking about it, hahaha..." Arlong looked at Nami mockingly and laughed proudly.
Damn fishman! How dare you trick Nami like that? We'll never let you go!
"Nami, we all know you joined Arlong's group to save the village. You don't have to worry."
"Nami, don't worry about us anymore. We're ready to fight to the death with Arlong and his gang!" the villagers shouted with determination. They were tired of the oppression and had reached their limit.
Nami turned to look at the townspeople and said in a hoarse voice with tears in her eyes, "Everyone..."
At that moment, Nojiko and Genzo, who had run after hearing the noise, emerged from the crowd. Genzo looked at the crying Nami, stepped forward, and hugged her.
Feeling that warm, fatherly embrace, Nami said in a hoarse voice through tears, "Lord Genzo, when... when did you find out..."
Genzo stroked Nami's back and sighed. "Everyone in the village knew you joined Arlong's group to save the village from the very beginning. We all knew you didn't do it for fun."
Genzo remained silent for a second, waiting for his words to sink in. Then he continued in a distressed tone, "We've been pretending not to know because we're afraid that if you try to escape from Arlong, we'll become the shackles that bind you to the village."
Genzo pulled away from the hug and held Nami's shoulders with both hands. He looked at the crying girl in front of him and decided that
this time, no matter what happened, even if it meant death, he would never be Nami's shackles again!
"Nami, whatever the outcome this time, let's face it together with you!" Genzo said soothingly.
"Yes, Nami, you've seen it too. Arlong has been deceiving you. This time, let's face it together!" Nojiko looked at Nami firmly.
The villagers also tightened their hands on the farm tools and cooking utensils, looking at Nami with firm eyes.
"Everyone."
Nami looked at everyone with determination, and the tears stopped flowing.
Nami turned to look at Rody and said hopefully, "Rody, please help me!"
Rody's face was calm, and he replied while holding the Akun Shark Man's head, "Of course!"
Rody squeezed the Shark Man's head tightly, making his eyes almost pop out of their sockets.
"Chief Arlong...pllea..."
Before he could say anything, Rody flooded the Shark Man's body with an exaggerated amount of cursed energy.
CUT
SWISH
SWISH
The next moment, before the horrified eyes of the crowd, the shark man's body began to flicker with tiny metallic lights.
A few seconds later Rody stopped touching the shark man's head.
The next moment.
SPLASH
Blood spurted through the fine lines, and the shark man's body turned into tiny cubes of flesh that fell to the ground.
.....