"He must be scared."
"Definitely scared."
"Yeah, I mean, it's Captain Buggy we're talking about."
"That's enough from you guys! Aren't you all his old crewmates? At least have some confidence in him!"
In the corner of the room, the early members of the Buggy Pirates accurately gauged Buggy's state of mind; they knew him inside and out.
They couldn't understand how Buggy, after just one trip to Impel Down, had become a Shichibukai and even gathered such a loyal following.
The only one to argue against them was Mr. 3.
But even Mr. 3, though he objected verbally, agreed with their assessment deep down.
Meanwhile, Buggy was wrestling with a problem: how to get his subordinates to stop their insane, suicidal actions, without damaging his own image.
He definitely didn't want to wake up the next morning to find a Beasts Pirates expedition force, or a Big Mom Pirates revenge army outside his front door.
But he couldn't just come out and say it directly. If he broke character, he might be removed from his position on the spot.
Fortunately, his luck kicked in at just the right moment.
"Captain Buggy, someone from the Donquixote Family is here. They want to talk with you."
"You lot stay right here, no, actually, come with me, but don't say a word or move without my order!"
Buggy had originally wanted to talk to them alone, but was afraid they might be here to confront him, so he ended up bringing a group of underlings along.
Whether it was for fighting or acting as human shields, these underlings were quite useful.
To make himself look more imposing, he even went out of his way to wear an oversized coat and used the Chop-Chop Fruit to hold it open from the inside, making himself look like a small giant.
But their negotiation went unusually smoothly. When he realized the people sent by Doflamingo weren't here to cause trouble but to propose cooperation, Buggy could hardly hide his delight.
During the rest of the negotiations, Buggy didn't even bother to haggle, he accepted Doflamingo's price and terms outright.
But after sending those people off, Buggy noticed countless eyes now fixed on him.
[Crap… Don't tell me these guys figured out that I actually…]
"As expected of you, Captain Buggy. You actually got Joker to propose a partnership himself. Even he sees your brilliant future."
"Yeah, I used to be part of the Underworld too. Doflamingo holds a really high position there."
"…Huh?"
Before he realized it, Buggy had once again been placed on a pedestal by this group of underlings, and completely let it go to his head.
The deal had gone so smoothly that even Doflamingo found it a little odd, but he didn't look too deeply into it and decided to let things be for the moment.
The model they discussed involved Doflamingo selling weapons to Buggy and introducing him to business opportunities in exchange for a brokerage fee. Buggy was also free to find deals himself but wasn't allowed to slash prices or steal clients.
Doflamingo had deliberately left plenty of wiggle room, but Buggy didn't negotiate at all.
Since Doflamingo was the one profiting, he certainly wasn't going to complain.
If the world's fortune is truly a zero-sum game, where one person's good luck must be balanced by others' bad luck, then Buggy was probably indiscriminately siphoning off good luck, which is more absurd than Baccarat's Luck-Luck Fruit.
As Buggy's luck continued to skyrocket, others began to suffer misfortune, such as Drake, who was struggling to figure out how to join the Beasts Pirates.
He had expected the New World to be dangerous, but its horrors still made his voyage perilous. Even before reaching the Beasts Pirates' territory, he was nearly wiped out by natural disasters.
Being a Super Rookie was equivalent to holding a "prestigious diploma" in the world of pirates. With this title, joining another pirate crew wasn't hard. The only problem was, Drake hadn't even found an opportunity to submit his résumé yet.
Now, after going through tremendous hardships, he had finally reached the territory of the Beasts Pirates, but hadn't seen a single person. So, he decided to carry out his plan.
His plan was simple: cause destruction to lure out the Beasts Pirates' people responsible for guarding the islands, fight them to prove his strength, and then join them naturally as a result.
"This spot should do. There shouldn't be too many accidental injuries."
Looking at the building in front of him, Drake mentally assessed the potential consequences.
The destruction was to attract enemies, but he didn't want to involve too many civilians. So, he set his sights on a factory that didn't appear to have many people around.
"Captain, it's so cold here. There probably aren't any people living in this area. Let's just leave. If we stay like this, we'll freeze."
"Shut up. Wait quietly."
Drake picked up the four-bladed axe at his waist and smashed it into the building in front of him. With a loud boom, the wall was blasted open, leaving a large hole. At the same time, a shrill alarm began blaring from inside the factory.
"Get ready, they should be on their way."
Drake drew his weapon and waited for members of the Beasts Pirates to appear. But instead of people, what emerged with the alarm was something else entirely. The roof of the factory suddenly opened, and dozens of Magnemite flew out.
"Captain… what are those things?"
"Could be security robots. Be careful, there's something off with them."
At first, Drake didn't associate them with living creatures. To outsiders, Magnemite didn't resemble anything living, so he simply tightened his grip on his weapon.
Dozens of eyes focused on Drake and his men, and electrical currents began to crackle around the Magnemites' bodies. As their electricity pooled together, a powerful lightning bolt shot downward.
BOOM!
"Watch out!"
Drake transformed into a massive Allosaurus to tank the lightning bolt. But the others weren't as strong as he was. The blast created a large crater in the ground, and Drake's subordinates were blown apart and soon lost consciousness due to the intense electrical currents.
Then Scotch appeared before Drake.
"Rookie, this is Lord Kaido's territory. I'm under orders to guard this place. Do you even know what you're doing?"
"If I take down one of Kaido's men, I'll be able to draw him out, right?"
"Heh…"
Scotch's mechanized body let out a mocking laugh, then said with disdain:
"If you've got the skills, then sure, you could do that. But I'm not your opponent today, rookie. This guy is. Deal with him."
Then, what happened next was even more shocking. Hawkins, a fellow Super Rookie from the same generation, appeared before him.
"Why are you here?"
"Isn't it obvious? I've already joined them."
Hawkins' words pierced Drake's heart like a sword.
Drake had just begun executing his plan with the intent of joining them as an undercover agent, yet another pirate had already become one of them. It was as if everything he'd done up until now had been for nothing.
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