"Tell me, Nereus, do you not trust your own strength, or do you think I'm not strong enough? Although Harald is obsessed with peace, there's no denying his power.
As long as the three of us can work together, we'll be able to take the first step towards ruling the entire world!"
On this sea, belief is an extremely important thing. Those whose beliefs aren't firm enough will usually encounter all sorts of setbacks on their path to growth.
Even for the same individual, whether they lose their ideals or not can lead to significant changes in their future trajectory and even appearance.
Without exception, those who finally stand among the world's strongest are all people with unwavering belief in their own ideals.
In Rocks' view, there was nothing wrong with his thinking. The only problem was that others refused to cooperate with him.
"I never said you were weak. But the World Government isn't weak either.
Think about those Celestial Dragon elites in the Knights of God, the Admirals of Marine Headquarters, and the secret agents of CP0; all of these are powerful forces that the World Government can mobilize at will.
More crucially, when needed, the World Government can rapidly replenish its manpower and quickly recover its strength through means like the World Military Draft.
So what about you, Rocks? What do you actually have that you can rely on?
Are you just counting on those so-called 'loyal' crew members you won through Davy Games?
Compared to the notorious pirates who strike terror everywhere, more people on these seas, deep down, still choose to believe in the World Government.
To trust in an existence that, even if it's already rotten to the core, still manages to maintain a façade of order."
The World Military Draft really is the World Government's usual method for rapidly supplementing its forces.
Moreover, it doesn't just fill up with ordinary rank-and-file soldiers. There's even a chance they'll discover and recruit civilian powerhouses with strength on par with a Marine Admiral.
That's how civilian experts like Fujitora and Ryokugyu were discovered.
Even though Ryokugyu was later jokingly called the "Labor Dispatch Admiral" due to his various actions, he still possesses crushing, overwhelming power as far as ordinary combatants are concerned.
And these types of once-hidden powerhouses generally tend to trust in the legitimate order that the World Government represents.
As for the Davy Games Nereus mentioned, that refers to a special form of contest that circulates among pirate crews on the sea—the full name being Davy Back Fight.
This game mainly involves setting up different types of contests to compete for each other's crew or the pirate flag, which symbolizes a crew's honor.
Within the Rocks Pirates, the members were either a profit-driven group gathered for their own varied ambitions and goals, or subordinates forcibly conscripted through these Davy Games.
When a real crisis hits, when big trouble comes knocking, these people can't be counted on at all.
"The vast majority of people in this world still choose to trust the World Government. Rocks, even if your ideals miraculously succeed in taking the first step, you'll still have to face endless troubles and resistance afterward."
"No matter how many of those worthless small fry there are, so what? What I want to do is become the King of the World who rules over the entire world!
Whether they resist or not has nothing to do with me! Are these insignificant things what you're so worried about?!"
Their fierce battle never ceased, but in the gaps between flying fists and clashing blades, their heated debate continued without pause.
"That's exactly why I say, at the very root, there's a huge difference in our beliefs."
"You b*stard… In the eyes of those high-and-mighty World Nobles and ordinary people, aren't you still defined as a heinous pirate? Do you really possess all those things you just talked about?"
"We've known each other for years. Don't you know exactly what I've been doing on the seas all this time?"
The seawater, which had earlier been forced back by the shockwaves from their fierce battle, now began to surge back with great force.
The scene resembled a terrifying tsunami, with massive waves roaring toward the center of the fight.
Yet these seemingly all-consuming, sky-high waves, under Nereus's exquisite control of Fish-Man Jujutsu, were now gripped as if by an invisible giant hand, becoming a powerful weapon in his hands.
Guided precisely by Fish-Man Jujutsu, the massive wave—vast enough to block out the sky—came crashing down toward Rocks's head with overwhelming might.
"Hmph, those slaves you're always bragging about freeing? They can't even guarantee their own safety; they're just a bunch of weaklings! What use could they possibly be!"
Rocks roared, swinging his saber and slicing the surging wave clean in half, then charging once more at Nereus without hesitation.
In his deeply rooted beliefs, weaklings of that level were utterly worthless, no matter how many of them there were.
"I never expected them to charge into battle for me anyway. Think about it: which are more numerous, the nobles, or the countless commoners everywhere?
Even the citizens of World Government's affiliated nations can't escape the miserable fate of being targeted and snatched away by lawless slave traders. Isn't that a common occurrence?"
There are as many islands on this vast sea as there are stars, too many to count, and the number of non-affiliated nations far surpasses those that are affiliated.
From the World Government's official perspective, these non-affiliated nations are lawless lands, unprotected by any laws.
Here, whether it's mass slaughter or the evil business of capturing slaves, such acts are shockingly tacitly permitted as legal under the World Government's rules.
Legally speaking, trafficking members of non-affiliated nations as slaves is an extremely common phenomenon on these seas.
Yet once someone falls into the hands of those utterly unscrupulous slave traders, whether the captured person came from an affiliated nation or not, no one cares, and no one bothers to find out.
"All I need is for those I rescue to go and tell the people around them who it was that gave them freedom.
Day after day, as word spreads and accumulates, public opinion and people's perceptions of us will naturally start to change.
Isn't what Harald's done the best proof of that? These days, aren't there plenty of people who already believe that the fearsome-looking Giants are actually kindhearted good men?"
"On some of the islands we've passed, I really have heard people talking about you Fish-Men pirates freeing slaves all over the place. I even ran into a slave you personally liberated once."
"Hopefully you didn't do anything to those poor souls who had just won their freedom."
There was a hint of teasing in his tone. Nereus knew Rocks's habits well, and it was indeed just as he said.
"B*stard! Who do you think I am? What could those penniless guys possibly have that is worth stealing?"
"So, you've seen the results with your own eyes. Whether or not what I've been doing all these years has any meaning, I think you already know the answer in your heart.
As for those two legendary Devil Fruits you've been searching for all this time, I'm afraid you still haven't managed to get your hands on even one, have you?"
"..."
Rocks fell into a brief silence. He could refute the earlier debate about ideals, but now, faced with this established fact pointed out by Nereus…
His progress really was almost zero. Harald's attitude was clearly leaning toward the World Government, and convincing him to join would probably be even harder than persuading Nereus in front of him.
Since arguing was pointless, he might as well finish the fight. But before Rocks could take action, a man with striking golden hair suddenly burst through the aftermath of their fierce clash, straining to fly toward them.
"You two… stop it! Don't fight for now! There's news about Fullalead's 'treasure'!"