Slam!
Inside the Warden's office of Impel Down, the Chief Warden Magellan heavily slammed his large hand onto the desk, cursing in a low voice.
"I still cannot accept this, cooperating with criminals and such!"
"Those heinous criminals should be left to rot in their cells, it's the punishment they deserve! Promising them freedom, this kind of thing..."
Even though he had kept his voice as low as possible, he still startled his Deputy Warden Hannyabal beside him, who almost dropped the steel trident in his hand.
"Eek! Is the Chief Warden planning to protest against those esteemed individuals from the World Government? Then after you get dismissed, all this responsibility will fall upon the future Chief Warden… that is, me."
Faced with his subordinate Hannyabal's playful yet once again 'exposed' ambition to become Chief Warden, Magellan didn't respond with his usual exasperated look this time. Instead, he silently lowered his head.
"...This behavior undoubtedly brings shame to order. Perhaps the position of Chief Warden would be better off in your hands."
This was the first time Hannyabal had heard such words from his superior, Magellan.
The words he had planned to say next, to further elaborate on his 'future plans', got stuck in his throat.
To be honest, as a veteran of Impel Down, while Hannyabal was indeed somewhat opportunistic, he hadn't forgotten the duty expected of a jailer, a guardian.
Recalling those people led by the high-ranking World Government's officials, who arrogantly ignored them throughout the process and forcibly signed 'cooperation contracts' with the prisoners in the cells, Hannyabal also fell silent.
This behavior, this act of compromising with other criminals for the sake of one criminal, truly violated the principles in Hannyabal's heart.
"Chief Warden… those esteemed individuals are still upstairs, keep your voice down, keep it down."
At this moment, the usually flippant Chief Guard, Sadi-chan, also softly reminded her superior.
The Deputy Chief Guard, Domino, maintained her poker face and said nothing.
As for the former Chief Guard, [Shiryu of the Rain], he had long been imprisoned in Level 6 for indiscriminately killing prisoners.
The most infuriating part was that this guy was also on the 'pardon' list.
-As long as they could kill... no, even just delay that man, they would gain their freedom.
The air in the Warden's office remained heavy with low pressure.
"Enough... All of you, return to your duties. At least before that guy arrives, we still need to properly fulfill our responsibilities."
With Chief Warden Magellan's order, the various high-ranking officials of Impel Down dispersed, each heading to their respective levels with their own thoughts.
At this time, in the monitoring room on the first sea level, only one high-ranking government agent was on watch duty.
Just kidding, how could such a task be handled personally by those esteemed individuals?
This agent knew that those individuals came from the Red Line, the noblest group of people in the world.
But he wasn't taking his monitoring duty too seriously either.
From the open sea to inside Impel Down, then breaking through the heavily guarded levels to reach the underwater Level 6… who knew how many lines of defense one had to cross.
If there was any movement, those esteemed individuals would probably have taken action long ago, and it wouldn't be his turn.
Having him watch the monitors here was more to ensure that the group of 'specially pardoned' pirates were honestly staying on Level 6, waiting to consume that man's stamina after he finally broke through the defenses.
To be honest, this agent didn't know what kind of guy could warrant such a massive operation.
'So sleepy...'
He had been on duty for eleven hours straight, and the person supposed to relieve him hadn't arrived yet.
'Maybe I'll just sleep for a bit... just a little while, probably no one will notice.'
Just as this agent's eyelids began to droop, he didn't notice a few monitoring screens in the corner flickering abnormally for a moment before quickly returning to normal.
…
Impel Down Level 6 Prison, the Infinite Hell.
Naruto and the other three filed out of the pitch-black cavity one after another, stepping onto the cold floor.
Unlike other levels, this one didn't have punishments like extreme heat, cold, or mountains of blades.
On this level, those imprisoned were death row inmates deemed 'unforgivable', with cumulative sentences reaching thousands or even tens of thousands of years.
The only thing they could enjoy was eternal silence, until they turned into piles of dry bones within this silence.
Including Naruto, none of them had ever been in such a sinister and deathly silent environment.
Konohamaru couldn't help but shiver, as the eerie atmosphere here was really quite unsettling.
Karin was about to step forward when Naruto raised his hand to stop her.
Then, he turned to Sasuke behind him.
"Sasuke, can you use your Sharingan to hypnotize those Den Den Mushi monitors?"
As he spoke, he briefly explained that these surveillance Den Den Mushi, seen everywhere in the pipes and cells, linked the footage they saw to a single giant monitor Den Den Mushi. If they were killed directly, it would trigger the giant Den Den Mushi's alarm.
Before finding Ace, it wasn't time to alert the enemy yet.
After hearing this, although Sasuke was a bit speechless, he still activated his Sharingan and looked towards the Den Den Mushi.
To be honest, he was a bit skeptical about whether these animals had sufficient intelligence to 'comprehend' the illusions generated by Genjutsu.
After arriving here, he had been interested in the Den Den Mushi that could transmit sound over long distances like walkie-talkies, but he hadn't considered these little creatures to be intelligent beings. He thought they were products of something like bio-modification.
In reality, Den Den Mushi naturally possessed the ability to transmit waves to others of their kind over long distances. The people of the One Piece World had merely made slight improvements based on their innate abilities.
They were not only susceptible to Genjutsu but could even be petrified by Hancock's Mero Mero no Mi if they felt attraction.
Reasonably speaking, these little snail-like creatures' intelligence wasn't as low as people imagined.
With the surveillance issue resolved, the group felt relieved to start searching the surroundings.
As mentioned before, Level 6 had the largest area of all the levels, and its structure basically consisted of one cold cell after another.
Criminals who died of old age in their cells most likely had no one to collect their bodies, leaving them to become skeletons bound by chains.
The number of cells here was enormous, and the area was vast. Searching room by room would take who knows how long.
Fortunately, Naruto had his Observation Haki to scan the area.
An intangible wave instantly spread out from Naruto as the center, sweeping across the surroundings.
It was like whales communicating with 'sound waves' in the ocean. When Naruto's Observation Haki spread out, many prisoners on Level 6 seemed to sense something and raised their heads.
"Haha... So he's here already?"
"An interesting person."
"Naruto Uzumaki..."
"..."
Countless voices, some shouting, some muttering to themselves, rang out almost simultaneously. Even though the distance between them wasn't particularly close, it was as if they had all personally witnessed Naruto's arrival.
On Naruto's side, during his 'scan', he also saw many faces, some familiar, some unfamiliar.
"Tsk tsk, those guys really dare to do it."
Naruto clicked his tongue, speaking through gritted teeth.
In his earlier perception, several individuals had already broken through the confinement of their cells and were heading straight towards his location.
Those cell doors weren't even locked… no, the shackles that should have been on their bodies had even disappeared.