Chapter 43: You Are Not Qualified to Negotiate With Me
Danger is a relative concept; depending on the object faced, the definition of danger also changes.
There are many wanted criminals on this sea. Even though the Great Pirate Era initiated by Roger hasn't begun yet, the number of pirates on the sea is as numerous as hairs on an ox.
Among these many wanted criminals, Nereus's bounty is undoubtedly in the highest tier.
As agents systematically trained by the World Government, they aren't newbie pirates who know nothing about the outside world. It's impossible for them not to know someone with such a high bounty like Nereus.
But among this batch of pirates, the one the Marines and CP agents least want to face is Nereus.
If they encounter a pirate like Rocks during a mission, there's a high probability the opponent will destroy their ship with a casual slash and then ignore the rest. Whether they survive depends on luck.
Although the survival rate after falling into the sea isn't high, it's not zero.
If they encounter a pirate like Roger, they can even be considered lucky. If he isn't in a terrible mood, he might not even initiate combat with them, but rather disengage quickly and flee.
Pirates fleeing upon seeing Marines—this is the logic some pirates follow.
But with Nereus...
There is a high probability he will eliminate all enemies, then destroy the ship or take it as spoils depending on the situation.
If Marines encountering Nereus have a slim chance of survival, then World Government agents have it even worse.
Calculating from the first time Nereus attacked a slave ship, the survival rate of all CP agents who participated in operations against Nereus is zero.
Moreover, all the corpses either have their blood drained dry or become incredibly aged, as if they entered some bizarre scenario.
"Ne... Nereus... We don't intend to be your enemies this time. We are just passing through. How about we pretend we never saw each other?"
At this moment, the CP9 leader finally understood why he couldn't see the opponent at all.
CP9 members aren't required to master Haki; mastering the Six Powers (Rokushiki) is enough to be selected. If one also masters dual-color Haki and has some achievements, it's enough to be promoted directly to CP0.
As the leader of CP9, he isn't a useless trash like Spandam with a Doriki of only 9 (weaker than an ordinary soldier), but the strongest person in this group.
Not only is he a Devil Fruit user, but he also roughly masters some Observation Haki. But even so, he couldn't sense Nereus, who was right next to him.
But if the enemy is Nereus, this isn't strange.
For an enemy of this level, making himself undetectable is too simple.
The essence of Haki confrontation is like a mutual cancellation. Roger and Garp combined could break through Rocks's Conqueror's Haki defense.
Although Observation Haki is different, the principle is largely similar.
In the confrontation of Observation Haki, it isn't an infinite loop of "you predicted me, but I predicted that you predicted me, so I changed my move."
If that were the case, theoretically, the combat result would be two people staring blankly at each other until one side suddenly surrenders or flees.
Someone with stronger Observation Haki can cancel out the opponent's sensory perception, rendering their Observation Haki ineffective.
The Haki of the CP9 leader and Nereus are clearly not on the same level.
And this is bad news. According to the very few surviving Marine soldiers, Nereus sometimes gets playful, toying with his enemies like a cat catching a mouse.
"Never saw each other?"
"Yes. Our target is only that Lunarian. We can hand over the bounty for capturing her to you as well.
You must know, just providing the specific location of a Lunarian earns one hundred million Berries. Catching a live one is worth far more than one hundred million..."
None of the CP department heads are simple-minded; on the contrary, their thinking is very agile.
In this World Government, embezzlement and corruption are common phenomena.
Those who can only fight but lack flexibility either become strong to the extreme, interesting enough for Imu to induct them into the God's Knights, or they stay on the front lines as miserable grunts. Administrative positions are impossible for them.
"Sounds like a pretty good deal."
"Right? So..."
"But I'm not interested. You aren't qualified to negotiate with me."
As he spoke, Nereus's finger suddenly swiped across the CP9 leader's carotid artery. Unusually, the rupture of the carotid artery didn't cause blood to gush out; the blood seemed to vanish into thin air.
Instead, the CP9 leader's face gradually turned an ashen pale. The corner of his mouth still held that smile of surviving a disaster, but his drained blood left him no time to react.
"Run!!"
The other CP9 members had a very simple thought at this moment: they shouldn't have watched their boss negotiate. The moment they saw Nereus appear, they should have run.
However, the agent who shouted "run" realized he was actually the slowest one. The others had already sprinted in different directions, unwilling to delay even for a second.
"You've got to be kidding me! How did we run into this guy? Why is this monster still in the West Blue..."
The CP9 agents used Soru and Geppo with all their might, fleeing into the distance.
Occasionally, they glanced back. Seeing Nereus making no move to pursue, they breathed a sigh of relief, but not a single one dared to stop running.
At the very least... they had to run faster than the others.
After all, there was only one enemy. He couldn't split himself, right? It was like encountering a bear in the mountains: as long as you ran faster than your teammates, you had a slightly better chance of survival.
"You people from the CP agencies really can't learn manners. It took me quite some time to find you, and you run away as soon as we meet. That's not nice."
Nereus looked at the agents scattering immediately upon encounter and casually raised his hand, aiming at their backs.
[Water Shot · Blood Shark.]
Several beads of blood floated above Nereus's fingers. With a seemingly unintentional wave of his hand, each blood bead transformed into a blood arrow, chasing after the fleeing CP9 agents.
Whether they ran faster than others meant nothing in front of Nereus; the final result was the same.
Even though they had run a considerable distance, they couldn't escape Nereus's attack range. In the end, they just turned into black dots falling into the sea one by one, gradually swallowed by the dark depths.
The ship that brought the agents was also sunk, vanishing into this sea along with the agents.
However, at this moment, Amphelite, who was already unstable, suddenly went stiff.
The drug developed by Saturn mentioned by the CP9 leader seemed to start taking effect, making it difficult for her to control her body. She began to fall toward the sea surface but was caught by Nereus before hitting the water.
Given Nereus's slaughter of the CP9 agents just now and the undisguised panic of those CP members, Amphelite felt temporarily reassured. At least Nereus wasn't on the World Government's side.
"Sea... in the sea... bottle..."
Because of the drug, Amphelite couldn't vocalize well, but she still struggled to utter a few syllables, her gaze drifting to the sea surface below.
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