Chapter 477: Time to Settle the Score
Chapter 477: Time to Settle the Score
The surging crowd was unstoppable.
The soldiers barely had time to register reality before the human tide crashed upon them.
Hiss!!
Sag led the charge, leaping forward to slam his hoe into a soldier's skull.
The hoe's sharp edge caved in the helmet, crushing the soldier's head beneath it as he collapsed.
Others swarmed in behind him. A burly man swung his hoe downward, caving in another soldier's skull. The remaining soldiers were pummeled into bloody pulp by the relentless onslaught.
"I... did it!" the burly man gasped in disbelief, staring at the corpse. "I actually did it!"
He'd never imagined such a thing possible in his entire life.
"Oh right! I've been working in the minefields for five years! My strength has grown!" The man realized with pleasant surprise.
The others shared similar reactions.
Sag snatched up the fallen soldier's flintlock pistol, gripping both gun and hoe as he turned toward the town square and roared: "Rebel! Citizens!! We won't endure this oppression anymore!! We'll seize our own hope, claim our own right to survive!!"
"No more bullying!! No more!!"
His thunderous voice ignited the crowd. Thousands of minefield workers erupted in unison.
The sound reverberated across the entire town.
Conqueror's Haki erupted outward in waves.
"Wait, no way..." Kuro hovered in the sky, eyes wide. "Is this guy's Conqueror's Haki range actually this vast? And this is his first Awakening?"
Under Observation Haki, he could sense the town's collective emotions surging like a tidal wave.
Inside a house being looted by pirates, a battered man with fresh bruises lifted his dulled eyes. A flicker of emotion crossed his face as he watched a pirate ransacking his belongings. Grinding his teeth until blood trickled from his jaw, he suddenly lunged, snatching the pirate's blade and plunging it into the attacker's chest.
The man's muscular frame dwarfed the pirate's.
Elsewhere, an old man watched two merchants dragging his daughter toward a rope noose. His hand reached toward the flintlock pistol hanging on the wall.
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots echoed through the room.
Once, this old man had been a renowned hunter.
Across the town, similar scenes unfolded. Under the crowd's collective roar, people poured from their homes, eyes burning with fury.
"I've had enough!" An elderly man emerged with his weeping daughter, teeth clenched. "I will rebel!!"
"I've had Enough!!" Another voice rang out from a blood-streaked burly man gripping a blade. "I want a new life!!"
Men, women, and elders, armed or unarmed, flooded the streets beneath the downpour, swelling the rebellion's numbers.
Once a spark ignites, it inevitably becomes a raging wildfire.
And the one who lit that spark was this young man wielding Conqueror's Haki.
Ordinary people could never inspire such a movement.
Kuro's eyes narrowed in realization as he observed from the sky. "So that's his goal... No wonder this young man bears more wounds than anyone."
As the crowd swelled, Sag's face split into an ecstatic grin.
They'd done it!
So easily!
He'd never imagined rebellion could be this simple, this effortless!
They really could seize hope!!
"Revenge against the King!!!" Sag's roar led the masses surging toward the palace at the town's heart.
The earth-shaking commotion drew the attention of nearby pirate crews.
The town contained multiple taverns. While Dick's establishment remained untouched, other taverns had been seized by pirates - albeit in far worse condition than Dick's cozy bar.
As the riot approached, the pirates stumbled outside.
"What the hell are you lot doing?!"
"No! Don't come any closer!!"
Before the human tide, all resistance proved futile. Pirates fell, weapons seized, their bodies trampled beneath the enraged masses.
"Waaaahhhh!!" A maiden suddenly collapsed, sobbing over a fallen pirate's corpse. "My husband! My father! If only this had happened sooner... they wouldn't have died!"
The crowd momentarily fell silent at her wails, then surged with renewed rage.
That's right!
Pirates weren't invincible!
They bled like anyone else!
They could be killed by ordinary hands!
It wasn't too late!
Watching from a tavern window, Dick trembled.
He did it!
That man in the straw hat actually did it!
The people had risen the moment he vanished!
They marched toward the Palace...
Dick clenched his teeth, staring at the bar counter. With a roar, he slammed his fist into the wooden surface.
Crack!!
The bar shattered beneath his fist. Ignoring the blood on his knuckles, he reached into the wreckage and pulled.
With a thunderous crash, the entire bar counter lifted aside, revealing a massive spear with a blade spanning one-third its length, now gripped in Dick's hands.
"It's time... to settle the score!" His gaze hardened with resolve.
"Curses! What are you doing!!" A pirate captain bellowed from the tavern entrance, pistol raised toward Sag. "Daring to rebel against us?! Die!!"
Bang!
The gunshot rang out.
Whoosh!!
But in that instant, a wisp of stardust flashed across the sky. Something slammed into the bullets, shattering them mid-air before hurtling toward the captain.
Boom!!!
The tavern wall exploded outward. The massive spear stood quivering in the ground, pinning the captain's corpse through his chest.
"I'm with you!!" Dick's voice rang from behind. He limped forward, resolute. "I have unfinished business with King Krayen Oger too!"
"Oh? Restoring his will?" Kuro raised an eyebrow in the sky, surprised.
He'd originally intended to intervene, to eliminate the pirates himself.
But reconsidering...
Perhaps it was better this way.
If his suspicions proved correct, letting them destroy each other might be the wisest course.
Kuro turned his gaze toward the Palace, expression darkening.
Still, truth and deception must be confirmed.
After all, this was the New World - a land of endless strangeness.
(End of Chapter)
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