The topic of Rune having children with Linlin was discussed by everyone until late at night before it finally stopped.
The deck was full of guys who had fallen asleep or passed out drunk, except for the helmsman, Don Quixote, and Rune.
Don Quixote was a man with an extremely burly upper body but very slender legs. Wearing a red sailor hat and a cigarette in his mouth, his face was flushed with drink as he emerged from the crowd with a wine glass in hand.
"Oh! Still awake, Vice-Captain Lu En?"
Coming out from the crowd, Don Quixote looked up and saw Rune on the crow's nest at the top of the oro jackson, sitting on the edge with his legs dangling and swinging.
"You guys get dead drunk every time; someone has to keep watch over the ship."
Rune looked up at the sea of stars. Although he was also tipsy, for some reason, his heart had never been so unsettled.
Zephyr's words were still echoing in his mind.
Growing old meant that the friendship he and Roger had shared for over thirty years would also reach its end one day.
Rune was very reluctant to let go; after meeting Roger in this life, his life had been incredibly fulfilling.
They say men grow up with time, but Rune didn't think so.
Shortly after, the oro jackson arrived at Walwick and launched a direct raid on the island's gangsters.
The entire Roger Pirates broke into a conflict with the gangsters under Marlon's command.
However, the disparity in power was too great, and the gangsters in Walwick town were quickly defeated.
The battle of guns and cannons lasted for a day, and Walwick suffered a total collapse.
"Marlon is cowering in his mansion and won't come out. It seems he's waiting for reinforcements."
While Isaac was discussing how to take down Marlon after capturing the town, Rune and Roger were playing rock-paper-scissors by a temporary small meeting table at the pier.
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
Rune played paper, and Roger played rock.
"You lost! I'll be the one to beat up Marlon! Roger!"
"My luck is rotten today; I was planning to try out a new move." Roger crossed his arms, looking a bit dissatisfied, but since he lost, he could only let Rune have the chance to beat up Marlon.
"Take it easy, first mate. Marlon is a Devil Fruit user."
"But the first mate's constitution should be fine, right? Neither bullets nor cannonballs can break his defense."
"His fruit is just an oversized punching bag in front of me! Don't worry, just focus on plundering this town."
Rune walked alone toward Marlon's location, a grand luxury mansion located in the interior of the island.
Soon, he arrived at Marlon's mansion and saw a large group of people aiming guns at him.
"Saving face while suffering for it. Marlon, how many times have we clashed over the years?"
Looking at those guns and cannons, Rune didn't care at all. He strolled leisurely outside the mansion's large iron gate with a look of contempt on his face:
"Even Sea Stone bullets, which are difficult to process, cannot pierce my skin. You should understand this very well."
Marlon stood on the mansion's balcony, looking out toward the iron gate. Seeing Rune's defenseless appearance, he asked sharply:
"What are you doing here! Rune, even if we are enemies, you can't be this undisciplined."
"Undisciplined?" Rune stopped strolling outside the gate and looked up at Marlon on the balcony. "It's not exactly undisciplined, Marlon. Our supplies were stolen by the Kuja Pirates. Let's just say Rocks gave it to them, and now we're coming to you to get some back. You understand when I put it that way, right?"
"What did you say!" Marlon was furious after learning the reason for their attack. In today's sea, Rune was probably the only one who could come up with such twisted logic.
"I've said my piece. I'll count to three. You come down and give us a promise to let us restock some supplies. You control such a large town; this is actually just a trivial loss, only a bit of reputation."
Rune was famously unreasonable because his fists were the ultimate reason.
Trying to reason with him would only lead to a brain hemorrhage from anger, and basically, no one could beat him in a fight.
"Stop joking! You damn bastard!" Marlon was so angry that he directly activated his Devil Fruit ability.
Seeing this, Rune frowned, staring at the changes in his body.
Marlon's subordinates all quickly ran toward the mansion where he was.
Soon, after Marlon's ability was displayed, the mansion seemed to come to life, quickly merging with Marlon's body to become a super castle equipped with both guns and cannons.
Like a massive war machine, it easily kicked open the large iron gate in front of Rune and looked down at him from above.
"The Great Leader!" Marlon shouted the name of his ability technique and said to Rune:
"Rocks is already on his way. As long as I stall you, I can wipe out all of you troublesome guys in one go today!"
Marlon's ability was the Shiro Shiro no Mi; he was the first-generation Castle-Castle Fruit user.
That is, the Devil Fruit ability that Capone Bege would possess in the future.
The core ability is to transform the inside of the user's body into an independent castle space.
This space can accommodate subordinates, weapons, and other objects, shrinking them. They return to their original size after being released, but they can also fire guns and cannons or implement human wave tactics from within him without returning to full size.
After using this ability, one can also gain indestructible defensive power.
Rune looked up at the huge castle before him, like a robot assembled from stones and cannons. Inside it was a gangster army and firepower capable of destroying a nation.
"What a small-minded guy. It seems I'll just have to beat you up."
Rune clenched his fists, his face written with arrogance. His eyes were as sharp as knives as he solemnly gazed at Marlon's transformed state.
In his eyes, it was nothing more than a super massive punching bag.
"Die!" Inside the The Great Leader, Marlon fired countless cannons at him.
Boom—! Countless cannonballs struck Rune. In just an instant, a small mushroom cloud rose from the island into the sky, visible to almost everyone on the island.
"Rune, we've studied you for all these years! Your body seems able to adapt to extreme environments and evolve survival solutions for the corresponding environment by rapidly splitting cells in a short time! But no matter how strong you are, there's a limit! I have now mastered Haki; I can definitely kill you!"
Within the aftermath of the cannonball explosion, amidst the hot thick smoke, Rune tore off the remnants of his black thin shirt. The high temperature from the explosion just now had melted the clothes on his body.
But it hadn't broken through his skin's defense; it had only caused his entire body to enter a state of super high-temperature resistance.
Rune grinned, tore off the remnants of the thin black shirt, and exerted sudden force with his legs, rushing toward Marlon like a demon.
"Unfortunately, you don't possess that kind of power! Take this!"
Haoshoku wrapped around his right hand, and the momentum triggered an eruption around Rune's body. Crimson lightning swirled around him, instantly converging on his right fist.
The layer of Haki energy on his fist was visible to the naked eye, sparking with black lightning.
Rune threw a punch through the air. The punch pressure turned into black lightning, compressing the air and rushing toward Marlon with a pressure that could destroy everything.
"Stop talking big! Rune! I know Haki now too!" Marlon wrapped his entire massive arm in Armament Haki and swung a punch at Rune, attempting to kill him directly with this strike.
The moment the punch pressure imbued with Haoshoku collided with Marlon's massive fist... the The Great Leader's giant arm instantly disintegrated. Even though it was wrapped in Armament Haki, it was destroyed by one hit of Rune's Haoshoku, the entire arm shattered to pieces.
"My Haki..." Marlon felt the bone-deep pain in his fist, his eyes suddenly going vacant in disbelief.
It seemed that at this moment, a kind of fear was spreading in his heart.
At the same time, Rune used the strength of his legs to perform a second-stage propulsion in mid-air, stepping through the air and creating a massive shock ring above the entire island.
In just an instant, he turned into a flash of crimson light, appearing before Marlon's face as fast as lightning.
"It seems you've forgotten!" Rune raised his fist and struck toward his forehead: "My strength isn't just my constitution! It's also my level of Haki!"
Marlon's eyes were vacant now; he could only watch helplessly as Rune's fist, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, hit his forehead.
Bang—! Rune's punch accurately hit Marlon's head, the intent of the punch instantly spreading throughout his entire body.
The The Great Leader was a giant castle, appearing as a massive stone giant.
Marlon's physical body was inside that giant, but as long as the outside took damage, he would feel the pain just the same.
Inside the The Great Leader, after being hit, Marlon had a blank expression and clutched his head, screaming in pain.
After a moment of stagnation came a collapse and roar comparable to a natural disaster.
The space inside his ability began to distort. Conqueror's Haki washed over every gangster member inside like a flood. In less than a moment, all the gangsters instantly fainted.
Even Marlon himself, with his eyes rolling back and losing all consciousness, knelt on the ground and collapsed.
That indestructible castle also instantly collapsed and exploded under the gaze of everyone on the island.
Countless pieces of rubble flew in all directions from the island like meteors.
"There are levels to Haki as well, idiot!"
In the dust, Rune used his hand to crack his neck, which was sore from overexertion, standing among the crowd of people he had knocked unconscious with his Haki.
Marlon's entire head was bleeding; he was unconscious and lying prone at his feet.
"Unfortunately, your ability is useless against me. Its only use is to make yourself bigger so I can punch you better."
Rune looked at Marlon before his feet:
"If it weren't for our some connection with Rocks, I'd want to punch your head into mush right now, Marlon."
After defeating Marlon, who guarded Walwick, Rune stretched his limbs. The sharpness faded from his eyes as he walked toward where the Roger Pirates were located.
He didn't know why the world mistakenly thought he was only physically strong.
Little did they know, Rune was training desperately until the very second before he fell asleep.
With talent plus the effort of a slave, strength is inevitable!
Rune returned to Walwick town, which had already been ransacked.
At Walwick pier, Roger was waiting for him under the oro jackson.
Roger had his arms crossed over his chest, his face beaming with a loud laugh: "Even though things got a bit out of hand, it didn't stop you from dealing with that Marlon guy."
"Hahaha!" Rune walked up to Roger and gave him a high-five in a show of rapport: "Use your new move next time, Roger."
"I've thought of a very domineering name." Roger rubbed his chin: "It's called Divine Departure! A super powerful flying slash, a slash thrown out using Conqueror's Haki. It can destroy an enemy ship with one strike, Rune!"
"I'm going to change my clothes, Roger." Rune also smiled, boarding the gangway to return to the deck.
The deck was piled with various supply crates.
There were gold and silver jewelry, as well as many supplies filled with food.
In short, the supplies in this town, especially the money, had been completely plundered by them.
Rune returned to the cabin and walked toward a room next to the Captain's quarters.
The rooms near Roger's room belonged to him, Rayleigh, and the deck trio.
Rune pushed open his cabin door, and what met his eyes was a neat and clean room.
On the floor were some large dumbbell plates. The weights on the plates were measured in 'T' units, which meant tons.
Rune went to the wardrobe and changed into new clothes—a new black long-sleeved thin shirt and a pair of casual pants.
Afterward, he sat at the desk next to the bed and opened the desk drawer.
He took out a thick stack of bounty posters to look through; they were all well-known figures on the sea today.
Collecting bounty posters was also one of his hobbies.
In his spare time while changing, Rune heard a commotion outside the cabin. He immediately put away the bounty posters and walked out.