New World, Elbaf Kingdom.
Red-Haired Shanks, who had been hosting a banquet with his subordinates and the Giant Tribe, was drinking heartily.
Now, like his subordinates and the many giants, had his mouth wide open, practically hitting the floor.
Because they saw a super-warship, entirely black and far larger than Whitebeard's Moby Dick-
Slowly descend from the clouds and finally land on Elbaf's soil.
Whoosh-
The spaceship landed, kicking up a gust of wind and dust.
This finally snapped the Red Hair Pirates and the Giant Tribe back to reality.
But before they could speak, they saw the spaceship's hatch open.
One after another, monsters even more abstract-looking than the Fish-Man Tribe, descended the steps.
One that looked like an octopus stood by the ship's steps and said respectfully:
"We've arrived, Boros-sama. According to our plan, Lott should arrive on this planet within two days."
'Lott! Boros!'
When they heard these two names.
The entire Elbaf Kingdom fell silent as if someone had pressed pause.
Forget the Red Hair Pirates… even the simple-minded, brawny giants of the Elbaf Kingdom all stared with eyes wide open.
They didn't spend much time in the chat group, but the names Lott, Boros, and Frieza were arguably the three most thunderous names in the entire universe over the past few months!
Their fame in the group was comparable to names like Roger and Newgate on their own planet.
Red Hair Pirates' Sniper, Yasopp: "Wh-wh-what's going on!? Wasn't their battle supposed to be on another planet? Why did they come here!!??"
Red Hair Pirates' Navigator, Limejuice: "I was wondering why the group had been quiet for half a month… that's unlike Lott's personality. So they changed locations?"
Red Hair Pirates' Doctor, Hongo: "This is big trouble... This is really big trouble... By the way, will our planet be okay?"
Red Hair Pirates' Combatant, Building Snake: "Boss, Vice-Captain, what should we do?"
The Red Hair Pirates' Vice-Captain, known as [The Man with the Sharpest Mind on the Seas], Benn Beckman, threw his unfinished cigarette to the ground violently. After thinking for two seconds, he said gravely:
"Don't act rashly. First, see if there's a possibility for communication."
Although the octopus monster had only said one sentence, with Beckman's intellect, he had already analyzed quite a few things.
First, Lott didn't seem to have arrived on this planet yet.
The battle hadn't started.
So if they could communicate with Boros before then, perhaps they could prevent the situation from escalating to the worst possible outcome.
It had to be said, Beckman's thinking was quite similar to Honest's earlier.
But he made the same mistake.
That was, the other party probably had no interest in talking to you.
And reality proved just that.
Boros, who had stepped out of the hatch, looked around.
'This planet seemed to be quite a bit larger than the previous one.'
'Hmm?'
Boros finally fixed his gaze on the group of giants across from him.
Although called the 'Giant Tribe', for the well-traveled Boros, they weren't actually that big.
And he couldn't sense powerful auras from them.
'But... better to test it.'
Thinking this, Boros placed his middle fingertip against his thumb.
Shanks, who possessed Future Sight Observation Haki, had his expression change dramatically.
Aside from him, no one in the Red Hair Pirates saw what Boros did.
Only Shanks, with his Future Sight, vaguely saw Boros make a flicking gesture.
Boom-
Suddenly, a heavy object falling sounded from behind.
The island's ground shook violently.
At this moment, Shanks and the others sharply turned their heads.
They saw Brogy, one of Elbaf's current top fighters, lying on his back, mouth full of blood.
A hole pierced through his throat from his Adam's apple to the back of his neck!
Both the Red Hair Pirates and the giants of Elbaf stared in shock.
Large beads of sweat fell from the foreheads of the Red Hair Pirates' elites with bounties of hundreds of millions or even billions.
'Wh-What happened?'
'What's going on?'
'Why didn't Observation Haki foresee it?!'
"Truly weak. A planet with no need for invasion."
The single large eye on Boros's forehead showed full disappointment.
He had originally wanted to see if there was anyone on this new planet who could help him warm up before Lott arrived.
But reality had disappointed him once again.
"Bastard!"
Dorry, another top fighter of the Elbaf Kingdom, suddenly drew his sword and charged at Boros recklessly.
Matters of power disparity, space aliens… all were completely thrown to the back of his mind.
The rage over the death of his rival-friend Brogy had completely robbed him of his reason.
"Stop!!!"
A nearly visible blood-red Conqueror's Haki erupted from Shanks, bursting forth like a mountain torrent and tidal wave.
All living creatures within hundreds of miles fainted on the spot.
The Red Hair Pirates' lower-level crew members and younger giants directly passed out, eyes rolling back.
But the Dark Matter Pirates members led by Boros remained standing in place.
They just watched Shanks erupt with Conqueror's Haki calmly.
Their calm expressions seemed to say: "What are you doing?"
It once again showed the Four Emperor's crew the gap in power between them.
This was their captain's top-tier Conqueror's Haki that could knock out Marine Vice Admirals!
Dorry halted his steps, gritting his teeth as he looked at Shanks.
"Don't make pointless sacrifices, Dorry!"
Shanks retracted his Conqueror's Haki and dissuaded sternly.
As he spoke, Shanks proactively stepped forward, smiled, and extended his only remaining right hand towards Boros, saying his catchphrase:
"Hello, visitor from space, Boros-san~ My name is Shanks. Give me some respect, can we get to know each other?"
However, unfortunately, under normal circumstances, Boros would most likely ignore a 'weakling' like Shanks and turn to leave.
But right now, Boros was furious after being stood up by Lott.
"Give your mother's respect!"
Boros backhandedly swung his arm, not using any special technique.
But simply swung out a vacuum slash.
This time, Shanks was prepared and quickly drew his sword, Gryphon, to block.
However, this famous sword, which is on par with Yoru, combined with top-tier Armament Haki-
Faced with this unremarkable-looking slash casually swung by Boros-
Was utterly destroyed like using tofu to block a bullet.
And what was destroyed wasn't just the sword, but Red-Haired Shanks himself.
"Ugh aaaah-"
The scream of possibly the strongest man on the Pirate Planet, Shanks, echoed through the Elbaf Kingdom.
The Red Hair Pirates and the people of Elbaf were stunned.
They couldn't remember the last time Shanks had screamed like that.
…
One day later, numerous News Coos flew out from the World Economic News Paper.
Newspapers were scattered over every island on the planet free of charge.
Only when news sufficient to change the world's structure would that miser Morgans be so generous.
For example, in the original work, he did this after the Marineford War ended and the Warlord system was abolished.
And the front-page headline read:
[East Galaxy's Overlord, Boros Descends on Elbaf, Red Hair Pirates and Giant Warriors Wiped Out, One of Four Emperors, Red-Haired Shanks Dead!]
When people on the Planet Pirate saw this headline, their eyes first widened.
Then their bodies trembled violently, and finally, their emotions exploded.
"B-Boros... is, is that Boros? The one who challenged that giant ape Lott in the chat group before?"
"Why did he come here? W-wasn't he supposed to have chosen another planet?!"
"One of Four Emperors, Red-Haired Shanks... the strongest man on the seas... actually taken out so easily..."
"Men! Hurry and follow me into the city to eat, drink, and play with women! This world is going to be destroyed anyway!"
…
New World, Punk Hazard.
Because the Marineford War didn't happen as in the original story, Akainu and Aokiji didn't turn this island into the ice-fire island.
Currently, this island looked like an ordinary deserted island from the outside.
But in reality, Caesar had secretly been using it as his experimental base.
Seashore.
Just as the Thousand Sunny approached, the Straw Hat Pirates received the newspapers thrown down by the News Coos.
"Waaah aaaah!!!"
After reading the newspaper, Luffy reacted just like when he saw Ace die during the Marineford War.
His eyes rolled back, he screamed at the sky, and fainted.
Well, this was probably the world's corrective force at work.
On the other side of the island, a few miles away from the Straw Hats.
"Shanks? Is, is this Shanks-nii-san? H-he's dead!?"
The group from 20 years ago, Momonosuke and his companions, were also stunned by the newspaper content.
Boom!
Both sides were severely shocked by the news.
At that moment, a deafening roar and strong aftershocks grabbed everyone's attention.
Ten minutes later, both sides arrived almost simultaneously.
But before they could introduce themselves, they saw the hatch of the peculiar spherical object in the central crater slowly open.
"So, which planet did Boros pick this time?"
Lott's beaming voice came from the gap in the hatch.