West Blue, near the entrance to Reverse Mountain, Ridgemouth Town.
"It's about to begin. The captain of the Rusted Blades Pirates is going to be publicly executed."
"What's so exciting about something that happens every month?"
"This time it's a big pirate with a bounty of 14 million Berries!"
The noise in the tavern was endless, and soon some patrons ran toward the execution platform after paying their bills.
As the entrance to Reverse Mountain from the West Blue into the Grand Line, the execution platform in Ridgemouth Town deterred pirates throughout the West Blue.
Pirates who weren't Devil Fruit users and weren't needed by the World Government would be sent here for public execution after being caught.
Once a month, the number of people executed varied, but every time pirates would come to rescue their comrades.
After being ambushed, the Navy would capture another group.
At this time, on the execution platform, the colonel of this Navy branch had already read out the crimes of the Rusted Blades Pirates.
Hundreds of people had lost their lives at their hands.
Robbery was one of the primary sources of income for pirates.
In this era, not every pirate was like Roger, who forbade his crew from harming civilians or even stealing from them.
Ninety-nine percent of pirates went to sea not for dreams, but to plunder wealth.
"Execute!"
As the order from Colonel Lomi fell, the spear in Kano's hand rose behind the kneeling pirate captain.
It was at this moment that the area surrounding the Execution Platform Square became agitated.
"You guys! Let's rescue the captain!"
"Kill these Navy dogs."
"Quick! Take advantage of the chaos."
"Captain! We're coming."
As soon as the shouting started, the rescuers were greeted by bullets that had been prepared long in advance.
"Bang bang bang..."
After a burst of fierce gunfire, the captain, who was the first to have his charges read, was stabbed through the heart amidst the roar of battle.
Execution by piercing.
Afterward, Lomi once again read out the crimes of the second criminal in a leisurely manner.
On the execution platform, Kano held his spear and looked down at the chaos below.
Amidst the hail of bullets, one man rushed forward.
A long blade protected his vitals, but there were already three bullet holes in his body.
As he approached, his eyes fixed on Kano, filled with murderous intent.
The next moment, the long sword swung, and a slash flew toward the execution platform.
"Boom."
Swinging his spear with one hand, Kano threw it and shattered the flying slash.
"Ugh!"
There was a sound of air splitting, and the spear directly penetrated through the man's abdomen and embedded itself into the bluestone of the square below.
"Boom!"
After a loud crash, all the pirates froze for a moment at the sight of the figure impaled to the ground.
How was this possible?
How could Adin, their best swordsman who was able to wield flying slashes, be killed so easily?
The spear just now had been impossible to see clearly.
"Colonel Lomi, can you read faster?"
After Kano complained, he looked at another one on the chopping board, the mafioso Sov, who was kneeling before him.
"You're quite calm..."
The man, who was wearing a prison uniform, kept his head lowered.
"I've experienced it all. Look at my people still coming for me? You know why? I gave them what they wanted. Kano, if you let me go, I can also give you what you want."
As he spoke, he raised his head and looked at Kano directly. "Wealth and women... whatever. There's nothing that the five major mafia families in the West Blue cannot provide. No one here can stop you, including the colonel of this Navy branch who accomplished nothing his whole life."
These words made Lomi, who was reading at the side, nearly choke.
After returning the look with a deadpan expression, he continued reading the charges.
'"The charges against you are…"'
Kano waited until the reading was complete, then pierced him with a new spear he grabbed.
"You can't give me what I want."
Half an hour later, the execution was completed.
The branch's navy quarters.
Kano lay on his bed and sank his consciousness into the prison situated inside his body. This was his cheat ability after coming to the world of One Piece.
A prison for souls.
The souls of all sinners executed by him would be sent here.
In the center was a high platform, surrounded by eight passages, and on the left and right of each passage were prison cells.
Sov, who had just been impaled, was currently in a cell.
As soon as he awoke, he looked at Kano outside with a horrified expression.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... A sin value of just over a thousand is already enough for a bronze treasure chest."
Sov was panicking.
"I've been killed by you… Then why am I here? Kano what the hell did you do to me?!"
"Death is not the end for people like you... after all, too many ordinary people have died at your hands."
Kano looked at Sov through the iron bars and pointed at his own head.
"Think about it carefully. You should have been told the rules of this prison."
"As the one with the best soul quality this time, I'll let you experience the pain first."
As soon as the words fell, black flames suddenly erupted in the cage, covering Sov's soul in an instant.
"Ahhh!"
"Bastard!"
"Kill me!"
"It hurts... Ahhh..."
Kano, standing outside the cage, picked at his ear casually.
"It's really a familiar sound..."
"Well then, let's begin."
The next moment, all the souls of the previously executed criminals began to howl miserably.
They couldn't fall unconscious.
The black flames burned the evil within their bodies, one minute at a time, until all the sin values were burned and absorbed.
Only then would their souls disappear from this place.
These absorbed sins were what Kano wanted.
One hundred sin points could get a wooden treasure chest, one thousand could get bronze, ten thousand could get silver, and so on.
There were many things that could be found in treasure chests, whether they belonged to this world or not.
The rewards included attribute cards.
By a twist of fate, the Revolutionary Army's Bartholomew Kuma had sent him here two years ago.
After that, with the help of the execution platform here in this branch of the West Blue, he had opened quite a few treasure chests.
The wooden treasure chests contained kunai and shuriken from the Naruto world, flintlock guns from the pirate world...
The bronze treasure chests contained various stuff including the [Clone Technique] skill learning card from the world of Naruto, modern pistols from Jackie Chan Adventures...
As for silver treasure chests... he had yet to open one.
He'd had a bad habit a year ago of constantly opening the lowest-grade bronze treasure chests, he really couldn't help himself.
However, the acquisition of attribute cards from those chests had greatly improved his physical fitness and reaction speed.
Being able to easily shatter the flying slash on the execution platform, and being able to throw a spear that embedded itself halfway into the bluestone below, was a manifestation of this improvement.
In addition, the [Clone Technique] from the Naruto world no longer consumed chakra, but instead used his body's physical stamina, which was similar to how Devil Fruit abilities consumed energy.
"This time, a total of four were imprisoned after execution, and one was killed during the rescue attempt. That one only had a sin value of just over three hundred. The total of all five was 3,020, plus what I'd saved before, makes it 36,000."
After roughly calculating, Kano looked at his hands.
Three silver treasure chests? Or maybe wait a little longer to save up for gold?
But he hadn't opened a silver chest yet...
His heart was itching, his hands were itching...
'How about opening one? The rest can be saved…'
Thinking this, on the high platform in the prison where the sin points were recorded, the number 36020 turned to 26020.
Then, a silver-colored treasure chest appeared on the platform.
Rubbing his hands together, Kano stepped forward and opened it.
In an instant, the objects in the treasure chest that were flashing and changing gradually stopped.
'A Yellow... cloud?'