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Chapter 40: You're a Brave One
Resurrect the dead?
Kuzan was stunned.
He froze on the spot.
Even his hands, stuffed in his pockets, clenched unconsciously.
Resurrection...?
"Ara ra..."
Kuzan's Adam's apple bobbed. He opened his mouth but found his throat was terribly dry. Even his signature catchphrase came out strained.
He pushed his sunglasses. The eyes under the lenses, for the first time, opened completely.
He stared at the white-haired youth, who was still lazing on the chair, and squeezed every word from his teeth.
"That kind of thing..."
"Is it really possible?"
His tone no longer held its usual laziness. All that remained was an unconcealable tension and gravity.
Blake looked at him, at his eyes that could no longer stay half-closed, and a playful arc hooked his lips.
"Why not?" he asked, his tone disgustingly matter-of-fact.
"I said, my business is about making the customer feel at home."
"If the customer has a need, I must try my best to satisfy it."
"Resurrection? Does that sound amazing? In my line of business, it's just one of many paid services."
These words, to Kuzan's ears, were no less than a violent mental storm.
He was silent again.
He carefully observed Blake's expression, his every tiny movement, trying to find even a trace of bluffing or joking on that impossibly handsome face.
There was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The youth's eyes were clear and frank. His bone-deep laziness wasn't an act. He really... didn't take "resurrecting the dead," something that would make the World Government go crazy, seriously at all.
To him, it truly was just business.
A "paid service" with a price tag.
"Hoo..." Kuzan slowly exhaled a white mist of cold air. The surrounding temperature seemed to drop.
His tense body finally relaxed.
He slowly straightened up, hands back in his pockets, his signature lazy posture returning.
But anyone could feel, he was completely different from a few minutes ago.
"Ara ra..."
He dragged out his long tone, his voice full of complex emotions. It was like awe, like respect, and like some ultimate probing.
"Boss Blake."
"You really are... omnipotent, aren't you."
Hearing this, Blake finally sat up a bit. He stretched, his bones cracking. A bright, business-like smile appeared.
"No, no, no. Omnipotent is too much."
He waved his hand humbly.
"But..."
Blake paused. His clear eyes met Kuzan's as he said clearly, word by word.
"Everything you can imagine, theoretically, can be obtained in my dungeons."
This Marine Admiral, a man at the pinnacle of the world, for the first time, felt his proud Ice-Ice Fruit ability show signs of losing control.
The ground under his feet was covered in a thin layer of white frost.
Kuzan was silent for a long time.
His usually lazy face was now tight as a rock.
Finally, he slowly exhaled a white mist that condensed into ice crystals. His tense body relaxed again.
"Ara ra..."
He dragged out his signature long tone, slowly putting his hands back in his pockets and pushing his sunglasses up.
"That's really... amazing."
He stared at Blake, his half-closed eyes surging with unprecedented waves.
"In that case... please, Boss Blake, choose a suitable dungeon for me."
Blake leaned back, a professional smile on his lips.
"No problem."
"Intermediate Dungeon, right?"
"Mn."
Kuzan nodded.
His tone returned to its usual laziness, as if the loss of composure never happened.
"As a Logia user," he added slowly. "I'm still a bit confident in my ability to stay alive."
This showed the absolute confidence of an Admiral, a Logia Devil Fruit user. Physical attacks are useless. His body can be elementalized. As long as he's not hit directly by Haki or Seastone, he's nearly immortal.
However.
Hearing this, the smile on Blake's face became strange.
It was a smile that mixed amusement, pity, and... a hint of mischief.
Blake yawned, his finger swiping across the virtual panel only he could see.
His gaze landed precisely on that name.
[Intermediate Dungeon: Eye of the Moon]
[Introduction: Face the power of a god, challenge the one who absorbed the God Tree and opened the Eye of the Moon, Six Paths Madara Uchiha.]
The arc of Blake's lips widened to a positively wicked degree.
"Ten million Beri."
Blake held out his hand, palm open, wiggling his fingers.
"Cash or transfer? I support multiple payment methods."
Kuzan looked at his money-grubbing appearance, and actually relaxed.
As long as it's business, it's easy.
He took a gold card from his inner suit pocket and tossed it.
"PIN is six zeroes."
He pocketed the gold card, satisfied.
"Pleasure doing business."
Blake stood up from his lounge chair, patting the dust from his pants.
He walked up to Kuzan, patting his shoulder lightly.
"Well then..."
"Good luck, brave Admiral."
His smile was dazzlingly bright.
Kuzan wanted to say something, but Blake had already taken his hand back and snapped his fingers.
Snap!
Blinding white light, for the second time, exploded in front of the Foosha Village bar.
This time, the light was more intense, more vast than when it took Garp.
The light faded.
The tall Marine Admiral was gone.
[Intermediate Dungeon: Eye of the Moon]
[Introduction: Face the power of a god, challenge the one who absorbed the God Tree and opened the Eye of the Moon, Six Paths Madara Uchiha.]
[Mission: Defeat him, or survive.]
When Kuzan's consciousness returned, he found himself standing on a completely dead wasteland.
The sky was a strange, dark red.
The earth was cracked, scorched black, with no signs of life.
The air was filled with a suffocating, heavy pressure. It made even him, an Admiral, feel it was hard to breathe.
"Ara ra..."
"This is really... quite a place."
Kuzan pushed his sunglasses, looking around.
His Observation Haki spread out like a tide, but only sensed nothingness.
No wind, no sound, no living things.
Only a pure, heart-pounding silence.
Just then, his pupils shrank.
He looked up.
At the end of his vision, an indescribable, heaven-piercing giant tree, stood between heaven and earth.
The tree was too massive.
Its roots pierced the earth, its branches pierced the sky, as if connecting the beginning and end of the world.
Just looking at it gave a feeling of smallness and terror, a feeling that came from his very instincts.
However, what shook Kuzan's heart even more, was the figure floating quietly in front of the tree.
It was a man.
He had wild, long white hair and a simple white robe.
On his forehead was a single, scarlet eye, filled with black tomoe and ripples.
Behind him, nine jet-black orbs, like satellites, slowly circled, emitting an aura of annihilation.
The man's eyes were closed, arms crossed, just floating there.
He emitted no aura.
But his very existence was an ultimate pressure that surpassed all things!
The laziness on Kuzan's face, for the first time, completely vanished.
His always half-closed eyes were wide open.
His muscles tensed instantly, cold air uncontrollably leaking from his body, freezing the ground into an ice field.
Danger!
Extreme danger!
His every cell, his Observation Haki, was screaming the most severe warning!
The man before him was the most terrifying existence he had ever seen in his life!
.....
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