56: Chapter 56 Generous Gifts from the Kingdom

Torrential rain washed over the Royal Plaza of Alubarna.

Cold rain pelted the scorching yellow sand, causing large clouds of white steam to rise.

The rain mixed with the blood on the ground, turning into dark red mud that flowed slowly through the cracks in the stone slabs.

One million soldiers knelt in the mud. The pig iron swords in their hands dropped to the ground.

Their cracked lips greedily received the sweet rain falling from the sky. The sounds of slaughter had completely subsided. All that remained was the white noise of rain hitting the sand.

Rice stood atop a massive rock in the center of the plaza.

The violent, thunderous rain lashed against his bronze-colored shoulders.

Droplets slid down his chiseled, muscular frame. His black eyes swept coldly over the crowd below, like a tyrant inspecting his domain.

The body of the sand Crocodile, with every bone broken, lay slumped at his feet like a pile of mush.

Step, step, step.

A heavy sound of military boots splashing through the mud came from the edge of the plaza.

A man with short silver hair, wearing the uniform of a Marine Captain, strode to the base of the boulder.

Smoker.

The Jitte on his back glimmered with a cold metallic sheen in the rain.

The two cigars he held in his mouth had been completely extinguished by the rain.

He expressionlessly spat out the soaked cigarette butts, looked up, and locked his gaze onto Rice.

"Rice."

Smoker's voice was low, piercing through the dense curtain of rain:

"You've crossed the line. The Seven Warlords of the Sea are lapdogs kept by the World Government using special privileges. By crippling that Crocodile in public, you have personally shattered the balance of this sea. Even if you are a registered adventure team, the Marineford cannot sit idly by."

Rice looked down.

His black eyes revealed an absolute disdain.

"Balance is a term invented by the weak. I only believe in my fists."

Rice spoke. His voice carried the texture of pig iron colliding:

"I said back on the execution platform in Loguetown that the rules don't apply to me. If you want to arrest me, draw your Jitte and try."

Smoker's right hand slowly moved toward the handle of the Jitte on his back.

The female Marine Tashigi, standing behind him, drew the famous sword "shigure" with one hand.

Her hands trembled uncontrollably in the rain.

Facing the monster who could go head-to-head even with an Admiral, her proud sword-fighting instincts were screaming in alarm.

They stood in a stalemate for a few seconds.

Smoker released his right hand from the Jitte.

"Admiral Kuzan met with us and has already conveyed the orders."

Smoker took two new cigars from his pocket and put them in his mouth, without lighting them:

"Marineford will send people to take over the aftermath in Alabasta. I will report the truth about Crocodile inciting a civil war and attempting to usurp the country. For the sake of its reputation, the World Government will never admit that a bounty hunter organization saved a member nation. Your bounty will soon skyrocket to an unbelievable number."

Smoker turned around, his back to the boulder:

"Go. Before those truly troublesome monsters come looking for you. Leave here."

Rice sneered.

He ignored Smoker's warning.

He bent his legs slightly and leaped directly from the boulder.

His bare feet landed in the mud.

He grabbed Crocodile by the back of his collar with one hand, dragging him like an animal carcass, and strode toward the ruins of the royal palace.

Paula, Mikita, and the others followed closely behind him.

Three days later.

The Alubarna Royal Palace.

The damaged outer walls of the palace were being rebuilt.

Craftsmen pushed carts filled with stone materials through the ruins.

On the massive open-air stone plaza in front of the palace, hundreds of long mahogany tables were set up.

Dozens of huge bonfires burned brightly in the night sky.

The bright yellow flames licked the legs of sea beasts weighing hundreds of pounds on the roasting racks.

Grease was forced out by the high heat, dripping onto the red-hot charcoal, making sizzling sounds and emitting a rich, fatty aroma.

This was a grand victory banquet hosted by the Alabasta royal family.

King Cobra rejected the Marine's suggestion to cover it up.

He announced the conspiracy of Baroque Works to the world.

The White Dove Adventure Group had become the true benefactors of this desert kingdom.

At the end of the long plaza tables.

Rice sat on a wide, high-backed mahogany chair.

In front of him was a mountain of meat piled high with various roasted dishes.

Rice reached out both hands.

He grabbed an entire roasted hind leg of a sand camel that was golden brown.

He opened his mouth. His hard teeth tore directly through the charred skin.

He tore off a large chunk of cooked meat, including thick fascia.

He swallowed.

The hot food slid down his esophagus into his stomach.

The consumption of Garp's Fluid Technique was astonishing.

He had tunneled through rock layers underground and summoned thunder and rain in the plaza, overdrawing a massive amount of cellular vitality.

He needed hundreds of thousands of calories to replenish the deficit in his body.

Snap.

The thick camel leg bone was crushed by him.

The marrow was forcefully sucked out clean.

The bone fragments were spat onto the stone slab beside him.

Rice picked up an oak barrel filled with high-proof rum.

He exerted force with his five fingers, crushing the wooden seal.

He tilted his head back.

The amber liquid poured into his throat like a water column.

Some of the liquor spilled from the corner of his mouth, wetting his bronze chest muscles.

On one side of the long table, King Cobra walked over with a serious expression.

Behind him followed several royal guards carrying heavy wooden crates.

"Captain Rice, this is the humble token of gratitude that Alabasta can offer." Cobra bowed.

The guards placed the two heavy crates in front of the long table.

The first crate was made of precious agarwood.

The lid opened, revealing a strange fruit inside with purple spiral arabesque patterns on its surface.

"This is a Devil Fruit that our country's caravan accidentally confiscated from a northern winter island a few days ago. Rumor has it that it is a relic left behind by a deceased tyrant on that island."

Cobra explained.

Rice raised an eyebrow.

Although the Heavenly Dao was silent, this fruit had ultimately returned to his hands through the kingdom's channels.

Immediately after, the second long black iron crate was lifted up by joint effort.

The crate lid was flipped open.

An exquisite rapier with a deep blue-gray body and a cold metallic texture lay quietly on a white velvet cushion.

The entire blade of the sword was forged from exceptionally rare and incredibly dense pure Sea Stone.

The handle was heavily wrapped with non-slip black leather, and the handguard was polished to look like spread eagle wings.

This was a weapon for breaking defenses, custom-made for the White Dove Adventure Group by Alabasta, which had mobilized the country's top craftsmen and used precious underground Sea Stone deposits.

Alvida walked over, carrying her wooden practice sword, her long legs striding forward.

Her porcelain-like eyes stared at the Sea Stone rapier in the crate, and her fingertips trembled slightly.

She reached out her right hand and firmly gripped the handle.

Because the entire sword was made of pure Sea Stone, the Devil Fruit factors in the air seemed to be firmly suppressed by it.

Alvida was not a Devil Fruit user; in her hands, this weapon, which could be called poison to ability users, erupted with a powerful, icy edge.

Hum.

The long sword was unsheathed, its sharp thrust tearing through the air and creating a straight blue-gray arc.

"Good sword."

Alvida spat out the two words coldly.

She casually threw her wooden practice sword into the raging bonfire.

"Satisfied now, Alvida?"

Rice withdrew his gaze.

He reached out and grabbed the purple Munch-Munch Fruit.

"Makino."

Rice turned his head and shouted:

"Bring over your cooking tools."

Makino wiped her hands clean.

She walked in front of Rice.

She held the steel eggbeater that had accompanied her for many years.

The main body of the eggbeater was forged from hard pig iron, and the stirring wires at the bottom glinted with a cold light.

Rice took the eggbeater.

He placed the purple Munch-Munch Fruit on his bronze-colored palm.

His five fingers suddenly closed.

Pure physical grip strength erupted.

Squish.

The fruit skin ruptured instantly.

Purple viscous juice flowed out.

Rice evenly smeared this purple juice onto the bottom wires and metal gears of the eggbeater.

He closed his eyes.

Armament Haki mixed with Observation Haki, firmly suppressing the manic Devil Fruit factor inside the fruit.

He forcibly guided it into the physical structure of the pig iron.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.

A teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting rang out on the mahogany table.

The bottom wires of the eggbeater began to heat up and soften.

Under the erosion of the Devil Fruit factor, the steel material underwent a structural reorganization that defied logic.

A crack split open out of thin air in the center of the metal handle.

The crack expanded to both sides.

Revealing a row of fine, sharp pig iron teeth.

A mouth. It had grown on a lifeless object.

Click. Click.

The pig iron mouth on the eggbeater opened and closed.

Making a mechanical chewing sound.

A living weapon was born.

Paula and Mikita widened their eyes.

Nami put down the nautical chart in her hand.

Her face full of shock.

Robin narrowed her azure blue eyes.

Letting a lifeless object eat a Devil Fruit—this man from the East Blue had actually accomplished it in such a brutal way.

Rice gripped the leather handle of the eggbeater.

He turned his head to look at an open space on the side of the plaza.

A pile of discarded weapons collected from the battlefield was stacked there.

Pig iron spears, broken steel blades, damaged bronze shields.

On top of the scrap metal pile lay Crocodile's pure gold poison hook, which had been severely deformed by Rice's grip.

Rice strode over. He extended the eggbeater toward the scrap metal pile.

The mouth on the eggbeater turned outward.

Snap.

It took a bite out of a half-broken pig iron spear.

The sharp iron teeth, like a crusher, easily bit through the hard spear shaft.

It swallowed the pig iron fragments.

Then, it opened its mouth and bit toward a steel blade.

Bit toward a bronze shield.

Finally, it swallowed that heavy pure gold poison hook in one gulp.

The hair-raising chewing sound echoed in the night sky.

The metal handle of the eggbeater began to heat up rapidly.

The surface took on a dark red color like a branding iron.

A few minutes later.

The eggbeater's mouth opened.

Pfft.

A palm-sized metal block was spat out.

It fell onto the stone slab.

Making a dull thud.

Rice bent down and picked up the metal block.

The metal surface displayed a strange dark gold luster.

It felt cold to the touch.

The density was immense.

It fused the hardness of pig iron, the toughness of bronze, and the ductility of pure gold.

This was a top-tier memory alloy created by the Munch-Munch Fruit after consuming various materials and reorganizing them.

wapol metal?

Let's just call it White Dove metal.

Rice gripped the metal block with his right hand.

Armament Haki covered his five fingers.

He squeezed hard.

The physical defense exceeded that of steel by several times.

Rice threw the dark gold metal to Nami.

"Take this thing, along with all that scrap metal on the ground, and give it to the blacksmiths in Alubarna."

Rice pointed to the pile of discarded weapons, his voice calm:

"Let this eggbeater consume and reorganize all the scrap metal. Extract enough wapol metal. According to the blueprints of ship, re-forge an armored shell for the outer hull. The physical defense of the white dove needs a complete upgrade."

Nami held the metal in her hands, excitement sparkling in her clear, watery eyes.

With this level of armor, ship would become an invincible warship truly charging through the Grand Line.

"Leave it to me."

Nami nodded vigorously.

Four days passed in the blink of an eye.

The west coast of Alabasta.

At the exit of that hidden underground sluice gate.

The white dove (ship) was moored on the sea.

At this moment, the warship had undergone a huge change in appearance.

On the outside of the hull, over the original steel plates, a layer of dark gold armor made of wapol metal had been tightly inlaid.

Under the sunlight, the entire warship exuded a cold, indestructible, and terrifying sense of oppression.

Rice stood on the armored bow of the ship.

His white shirt was open.

Letting the sea breeze blow against him.

Nami stood at the helm.

Looking down at the Log Pose on her wrist.

Inside the transparent glass cover, the magnetic needle that had originally pointed horizontally was now eerily standing upright.

Pointing straight up at the sky.

"Rice, the direction of the needle has changed."

Nami reported loudly:

"The magnetic force is locked onto somewhere in the sky."

Rice looked up.

His violent black eyes looked toward the deep blue sky ten thousand meters above.

"Next stop."

Rice spoke.

His voice carried by the sea breeze throughout the ship:

"Get ready, we're going to the sky."

...

At the same time.

The Red Line.

Holy Land Mary Geoise.

The Chamber of Authority.

Five old men representing the pinnacle of power in the world sat around a round table.

The air was oppressive.

Bang.

A brand new bounty poster was slammed onto the table.

The photo on the bounty poster was a still shot of Rice in the Alubarna plaza, holding Crocodile by the neck with one hand and smashing him toward the Poneglyph.

Those violent black eyes and the black iron fist wreathed in blue lightning seemed to leap off the paper, exuding lawless arrogance.

Below the photo was a long string of breathtaking numbers.

"Killing a Seven Warlords of the Sea. Recruiting the Devil Child of Ohara. Meddling with the Poneglyphs."

An old man holding a long sword spoke coldly.

His voice echoed in the hall:

"The danger level of this man named Rice has far exceeded that of a regular bounty hunter. This adventure team is attempting to break the underlying rules of this sea."

Another old man with blond hair leaned back on the sofa, his eyes sinister:

"Issue the bounty directly. Bypass the normal procedures of Marineford. Let those monsters in the New World tear him to shreds."

The bounty poster on the round table was clearly visible under the lights.

[Dead or Alive].

Bounty: 500 million Berries.

The undercurrents of the Grand Line were, at this moment, completely boiling.