Hachinosu.
"What? The mission failed? You didn't bring back a single cent of the celestial tribute from the Prodence Kingdom, and you even lost seven or eight ships and over three thousand pirates?"
"What are you all good for?! You're absolute trash!"
"If I knew you were this useless, I should have gone myself! I could have brought back the people and the ships together!"
In the meeting hall.
Golden Lion Shiki was flying into a rage at Carlo and Kaido.
Rocks sat in the main seat, frowning, clearly not in a pleasant mood either.
"Gurarara, they ran into Garp and Sengoku. The fact that they could return at all is already considered lucky." Whitebeard wasn't angry; instead, he spoke up for Carlo and Kaido.
Charlotte Linlin also looked somewhat displeased, but she didn't say anything harsh.
Meanwhile, Maron and Gan Sui—who was covered in bandages and had just run out of the hospital—stood beside Wang Zhi, who had fainted from excessive blood loss. Their expressions were quite ugly.
Especially Gan Sui, who had been heavily injured by Carlo and had been lying in the hospital for several days.
After hearing Kaido and Carlo's account, he began to mock them unceremoniously to their faces.
He looked at Carlo with a face full of contempt.
"Hey! Brat! Weren't you quite arrogant and proud before?"
"Why are you a mute now?"
"Hmph, Haoshoku~, Ptooie! You think having Haoshoku is a big deal? You have the qualities of a king, yet the very first mission Rocks gave you ended in failure! And a complete failure at that!"
"It's one thing not to bring back a single Berry of the celestial tribute, but you even lost all the subordinates and ships you took with you."
"Is this it? This is worthy of being a Senior Combatant?"
"Hey! I'm talking to you! Brat!"
Carlo turned a deaf ear to Gan Sui's mocking shouts.
It wasn't until Gan Sui made a move to pick his nose and throw that disgusting boogey bomb at him that he coldly looked up.
"Do you want to die, Gan Sui?"
"What did you say? You loser who failed your very first mission, you sinner who caused us all huge losses by not bringing back that much celestial tribute, you actually dare to talk to me like that! I think you're the one who wants to die!"
Gan Sui was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage, digging out a large piece of mucus to throw at Carlo.
Meanwhile, Carlo also gripped his heavenly dragon halberd and slowly stood up from the sofa.
As he rose, a cold killing intent firmly locked onto Gan Sui in front of him.
Seeing him stand up.
To the side, Kaido had long been irritated by Golden Lion Shiki and Gan Sui's words.
It was only because they truly hadn't completed the mission that he felt he had lost face.
That's why he hadn't talked back. But now he couldn't take it anymore. He decided to just go for it and stood up abruptly, grabbing his spiked club.
"If you want to fight, then fight! Stop wasting so much breath! So what if we didn't snatch the celestial tribute back? For such a small matter, at worst, I'll just snatch it again next time!"
"Snatch it again?" Golden Lion Shiki floated over without his feet touching the ground, biting a cigar and staring at Kaido and Carlo with an unfriendly expression.
"You've already failed once, and you want to try again?"
"What? You want to fail a second time? You might not want the money, but I do! I still have tens of thousands of men to feed under me! You two pieces of trash!"
Kaido was driven to fury by the word 'trash' being thrown at him left and right.
The spiked club he was prepared to smash Gan Sui with was now aimed at Golden Lion Shiki.
"Who are you calling a golden retriever! Believe it or not, I'll bash your dog head in!"
"Who are you calling a golden retriever?"
"I'm calling you! Are you fucking deaf! You can't hear me when I'm this loud?"
"You damn brat! I'm going to slaughter you both right now!"
Seeing that Golden Lion Shiki and Gan Sui were about to start a fight with Carlo and Kaido.
Rocks, who had been sitting in the main seat for a long time, finally spoke.
"Everyone, shut up!!!"
A terrifying aura erupted from his body, causing the powder keg that was about to be ignited to return to calm.
Golden Lion Shiki snorted coldly and put away his dual swords.
Gan Sui swept a cold glance at Carlo, made way for the approaching Rocks, and stood to the side.
Rocks walked over, not looking at Carlo or Kaido, but instead came before Wang Zhi, looking at the unconscious man.
"Wake him up. I want to know exactly what happened."
Stussy, with her long white legs crossed, stood up gracefully and chuckled, "Let me do it."
She walked closer in her high heels, gathered the hem of her cheongsam with both hands, and crouched down, unconcernedly exposing her nearly perfect waist and hip curves to the eyes of the men behind her.
Stussy opened her lips, which were painted with dark lipstick. Her four upper and lower teeth slowly grew, becoming sharp and slender. She then took Wang Zhi's arm and bit down.
"Restless Dance~"
Stussy's throat rolled as a swallowing sound was heard. A drunken flush appeared on her face, and her entire being exuded a seductive aura.
In the next moment, Wang Zhi, who had been bitten by her, suddenly opened his eyes from his unconscious state.
Those eyes, which had originally become hollow and lifeless due to excessive blood loss, were now filled with excitement and bloodshot.
He looked around, saw everyone in the hall, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Phew, that's good. I made it back alive."
"Tell me, what exactly happened on this trip? How did you end up like this? Was it really Garp who beat you?" Rocks looked down with an expressionless face.
"Beaten by Garp?" Wang Zhi was stunned for a moment. He licked his partially severed tongue and looked at the expressionless Rocks. Then, a look of resentment appeared in his eyes as he looked at Carlo and suddenly pointed his finger, screaming.
"What Garp? I was clearly beaten by him! By this brat who has no respect for superiors, is selfish, and betrays his own!"
"What? The one who beat you was Carlo?" Rocks turned back in surprise, looking at Carlo, whose face had turned grim.
The others were also stunned.
"Didn't you say it was Garp? How did it become Carlo?" Whitebeard was somewhat confused.
Upon hearing this, Charlotte Linlin looked Carlo up and down with a face full of surprise, as if she were getting to know him all over again. "Mamamama, Carlo, you actually managed to beat Wang Zhi like this. It seems I still underestimated you."
Meanwhile, Kaido instantly jumped up and pointed at Wang Zhi, cursing: "Wang Zhi, you bastard, what do you mean? That's not what you said on the way back! Didn't we agree to throw all the blame on the Marines? Now you turn your back as soon as we're back? You shameless, insidious villain, I really shouldn't have saved you!"
"What exactly is going on?" Rocks frowned.
Wang Zhi quickly screamed in grievance:
"It's all this guy Carlo's fault! Originally, I had already taken that batch of celestial tribute and was about to sail back, but this guy insisted on not letting me take the money, saying he had to do it.
But the ships and people he took were all dead. How was he supposed to bring the money back?
That was a huge amount of celestial tribute, worth at least over a billion Berries!
I tried to persuade him, but he wouldn't listen at all. Not only that, they even killed the King of the Prodence Kingdom directly! In the end, he..."
Rocks suddenly shouted angrily: "Shut up!"
Wang Zhi was startled.
Seeing the dissatisfied look in Rocks' eyes, he immediately became as quiet as a cicada in winter and obediently closed his mouth.
Rocks pointed his finger at Carlo, "Carlo, you tell me. I want you to tell the truth."
Rocks' gaze was extremely oppressive.
But Carlo was unmoved and remained calm.
He briefly and concisely explained the whole sequence of events.
Finally, gripping the heavenly dragon halberd in his hand, he said: "Wang Zhi didn't hesitate to ambush me just to snatch this weapon from my hands, wanting to kill me and take the treasure. That's why he ended up in this state. However, I indeed failed this mission. There's nothing more to say about that. If you have any dissatisfaction, just lay out a path, and I'll take it all!"
After hearing this, Wang Zhi stared at Carlo with a venomous gaze.
He actually wanted to argue a bit more.
But after glancing at the grim-faced Rocks, he closed his mouth.
Having followed Rocks for so many years, Wang Zhi understood Rocks' character very well. He knew that in this situation, it was better for him not to continue arguing.
Otherwise, if he truly made Rocks angry, then even as one of the oldest veterans who followed Rocks from the beginning, he wouldn't be able to escape Rocks' punishment.
Rocks pondered for a moment while looking at Carlo.
"Let's forget about what happened this time. Don't let it happen again."
"However, the grudge between you and Wang Zhi should be settled out in the open, so as to avoid any more trouble next time."
"Since you both want to fight over this weapon, and Wang Zhi is still bitter about you defeating him at sea, then let's have another duel between men."
"The winner will decide the ownership of this weapon, as well as..."
"The new Fourth Division Captain!"