Chapter 544: Ending with a Boom!
With Crocodile's corpse in front of his feet, staring at Luffy, Robin, and the King, Alex feels the tension in his body immediately dissipate, leaving him with a mix of relief and exhaustion.
Looking one last time at his dead opponent, whose head is separated from his body from where he stabbed his blade into him, Alex starts to walk forward, only to stop immediately.
Too bad there is no active bounty on that guy. Guess the chest and the Mission reward are enough... speaking of which, I don't see the main quest having finished yet. This means it isn't fully over. The goals of the Straw Hats are not yet fulfilled. Come to think of it, I haven't heard an explosion... I hope they managed to disarm the bomb or prevent it from being activated in the first place.
Anyway, my LUK stat is still increased because of my [Drakul's Vitality R2]. Should I open the chest now? Or do I increase my stats first? A [Blood Essence] is precious, but Tereza might have a chest for me to open as well? So I think I'll wait for once. I have so much loot, I want to get the maximum benefit out of my chest.
With the decision made, Alex sighs, not interested in the awkward cleanup and discussions that will, without a doubt, follow.
"Might as well leave early..." Alex mutters.
"You... so you weren't working with him after all," Cobra says, looking genuinely confused. "I'm guessing that is true for you as well, Miss All Sunday?"
"You can say that," Robin replies quietly.
"Anyway, King... now come to me... I'll just kill you, blame it on Crocodile, and then I'll be the new King of this country!" Alex says, grinning.
"What?!" Luffy yells in surprise, while the King and Robin go pale.
"Just kidding, of course..." Alex immediately follows up, leaving the three stunned, before he walks back toward the collapsed center of the chamber where the Poneglyph was visible just minutes before it got buried deep under a large mountain of rubble. Alex also hears the faint sound of war from above: gunshots, screams, and rumbling.
It's still ongoing. I wonder what happened? I guess I'd better find out.
"Let's get out of here," Alex suggests to the others. "It looks like the ceiling over the Poneglyph collapsed and buried it deep within it, but on the upside, I can see the sun shining through. Can you get us out of here, Luffy, or are you too tired?"
"No, I can do that!" Luffy says, walking up to him, the healing potion Alex has given him earlier, seemingly potent enough that his Energy has returned somewhat. However, after taking a couple of steps, his stomach roars loudly.
"You can eat later, this isn't over!" Alex complains immediately, not in the mood to joke around.
"Take me with you," Robin demands, walking up to them.
"Me as well, I worry about my people," Cobra says, his eyes filled with worry.
His people... he talks about them the way I talk about my Pokémon.
Luffy climbs to the highest point of the rubble, and everyone, including Alex, holds onto him. However, before he can stretch out his hands to grab onto the hole in the ceiling where the light shines through, the group suddenly gets blasted down the mountain of rubble as more of the ceiling suddenly collapses, and a loud sound of an explosion tears through their ears.
"What the fuck?!" Alex yells, grabbing onto Robin and pulling her back with him, barely managing not to crash into the ground and avoid incoming rubble from above.
Luffy protects the King with his body and barely manages to shield him from multiple large stones from the ceiling that slam into him, driving him into the ground.
However, as the stones stretch his body, the King also takes some of the impact.
"That hurt!" he complains loudly, though he doesn't look very hurt, his rubbery body seemingly unharmed.
A few seconds later, the hall slowly stabilizes up to a point, the small hole in the ceiling now quite large, with the entire Tomb looking dangerously close to collapsing completely.
As the dust and sand clear, Alex can vaguely see the sky. The sun is no longer visible, replaced by clouds.
It doesn't take long until the first drop of rain falls, followed by many, many more. Slowly but surely, the rainshower causes the entire battlefield and city to quiet down, as if everyone has suddenly been ordered to stop moving.
[Main Quest Phase 4 Completed:
Mission: Help your chosen faction to succeed in their goals for the Battle of Alubarna.
Reward: [World Governments Invitation], Increased Mission Rating]
[Congratulations on clearing the Main mission - Player will be teleported back to the Fantasy Realm in 0 days 0 hours and 9 minutes 56 seconds]
[No Further Chests can be obtained from killing NPCs]
[PvP has been disabled]
Is this a protection so I don't use the situation and kill people left and right and collect more free chests? I guess that makes sense.
"Rain..." Cobra mutters, not caring about his own injuries anymore.
"What's so special about that?" Luffy wonders. "It's just rain."
"It hasn't rained in three years or so, Luffy... that's the whole reason behind this conflict," Alex informs him.
"I see," Luffy says, thinking for a moment before looking enlightened. "Then this war...?" He asks.
"Should be over..." Alex completes his sentence, causing the King to tear up in gratefulness.
This coincidence happened in the original story as well... could it be related to Crocodile's Devil Fruit? Well... who cares, I worry about the others. Pell wasn't here, and the sound of that explosion... it felt closer. Benezia mentioned Jewel and Tereza were working on this... I hope they are fine. Was the bomb still on the clock towe—
Suddenly, the silence ends as another loud sound echoes through the tomb, this time crashing through the ceiling.
Alex's eyes widen as he sees a large, long structure slowly rip apart the damaged ceiling, widening it even further.
The Tomb shakes wildly, now imminently close to collapse.
"We need to leave... now!" Alex commands, moving forward and jumping into the clock tower, which, by some miracle, is not completely collapsed, but has opened into a sort of bridge leading out of the tomb.
Robin follows him, and Luffy does his best to carry the King with him.
Together, they climb the partly destroyed tower and the mountains of rubble, finally reaching the surface.
Rubble is everywhere as they scramble out, everything still eerily silent around them.
Looking around, Alex sees rebels, soldiers, and even Marines, all staring towards the sky, with nobody left fighting at all.
However, he takes note of a loud squabble behind him.
Walking nearer, he manages to listen in, but to his surprise, he doesn't hear it out loud—he hears it inside his mind.
Push it to the limit
Walk along the razor's edge
But don't look down, just keep your head
Or you'll be finished
❤️
Another voice, distinctively female and obviously annoyed, continues.
"Shut up already, will you?! You constantly feed me these weird lines I don't even recognize. This was the last time I'm teaming up with you, Jewel! We almost died, and you still come up with that nonsense. Your bomb web sling barely worked; in fact, you blew up half the city, yet you dance around in joy. I am not laughing. Nobody is laughing. This was insane!"
Soulmate would be laughing! Princess Jewel is laughing as well.
Should I turn around? I don't want to get involved.... Anyway, I'm glad they are fine.
"Alex?" he hears from behind him, turning around to see Menchi hugging him briefly. "Good job, you did it. I was getting a bit worried."
"It looks like you finished it on your own... I took too long to finish them off. I brought you a souvenir though, it looks like since you participated in the earlier battle, one of these spawned," a cold voice echoes from behind.
Alex reacts as fast as he can and catches a [Chest (Blue)] with his hand. Smiling, he puts it away.
"Thanks, Benezia, it was fine. Good job finishing that battle," Alex says, genuinely grateful that she is safe.
Shortly after, both Tereza and Jewel, alongside a relieved Vivi, arrive as well.
Without much of a surprise, Jewel immediately jumps onto Alex's face, giving him a familiar and intense spider hug.
"Okay..." Alex mutters in a muffled voice, with Jewel still clinging to his face. "Cut it out, please."
❤️
"Did you get him?" Tereza asks curiously.
Alex nods. "Of course... it was... a little brutal, but I've lucked my way through the fight. Honestly, I might turn into a freak because I hate to admit it, but it was kinda fun... life and death battles should be anything but fun, but... this is almost like a puzzle or a game. I know I can die with one or two stupid decisions, but I also know I have the tools to potentially take on anyone. It's incredibly satisfying when my plan comes together, and I come out on top."
He then looks at Tereza. "I take it that you saved the city, that was the secret quest I heard about?"
"Indeed! Even got a special reward for it, I can return to this world... but I am not sure I like that," Tereza explains.
"Me as well..." Alex says, displaying his new acquisition.
[World Governments Invitation]
Quality: Light Gold
Type: World Item / Quest Item
Effect: Allows the player to return to the World of One Piece.
Warning: This mission is heavily focused on combat and carries with it a tremendous amount of risk. You are not allowed to bring any Supporter with you to this mission.
Requirements: Level 10-20
Note: Issuing a Bounty or sending the Marines after dangerous pirates is not the only way to take care of a dangerous pirate.
Note: If you can't beat them, join them.
Note: This item cannot be traded or sold. It will disappear from your inventory at level 21.
"Light Gold..." Tereza notes. "Mine is different... why is that happe—"
"You..." Vivi suddenly says towards Alex, grabbing his arm. "What exactly happened down there? Please tell me if you saw my fathe—"
"Just look over there," Alex says, sighing, seeing the Straw Hats, the King, and even Koza, the rebel leader, walk over.
"You... you killed Crocodile?" Nami asks, standing right before Alex, looking up to him. "You really are pretty dangerous, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am... you better show me some respect, or I might decide to continue my killing spree," Alex responds, sounding annoyed.
"Heh, as if," Nami replies, looking smug, punching his chest.
Angrily, Alex responds, "I swear, I don't care about the system restricting chests, maybe I should really..."
"Liar!" Nami yells, puffing out her chest, as if presenting her breasts. "Of course you care about my chest, you can't hide it, just admit it already. I guess I'm just too beautiful for my own good."
Alex's face darkens, the stress and fatigue giving him an extreme headache.
"Stop provoking him!" Luffy and Chopper yell at the same time.
Too exhausted to argue, Alex checks his system:
[Congratulations on clearing the Main mission - Player will be teleported back to the Fantasy Realm in 0 days 0 hours and 0 minutes 43 seconds]
"Finally... It's time to leave this place," Alex mutters.
"It has been... a pleasure," he says, his face twitching a little.
"What do you mean?" Luffy asks. "Are you leaving? This is not fair, you stole Crocodile, I demand a fight."
"Goodbye," Tereza says, waving her hand towards the group.
"See you around. Should we cook again, Sanji? I will improve even further! If we compete again, I'll so utterly humiliate you, you won't even comprehend my skills," Menchi says towards Sanji.
"I'll improve as well. The next time I'll be a stronger cook," Sanji replies earnestly.
"I demand another fight..." Zoro says, walking up to Benezia.
Benezia merely glances at him, not responding, but nodding just once.
"Mr. 6...." Robin says. "I am grateful... I truly mean it. I don't know what I'll do now, but I am glad you did what you did."
Alex shrugs, "Don't bother. Also, if you are unsure what to do, why don't you tag along with these crazies here? You seem to be a calm person—maybe you can handle the madness."
Alex stares one final time at the devastated city, but despite the carnage, everyone around them looks truly happy.
Looking at the Straw Hats in front of him again, he can't help but smile.
"It was fun!"
Immediately after saying those words, everything before his eyes turns black.
[Player has completed his mission]
Overall Rating: S
You have received 40,000 Fantasy Coins and 7 stat points
Your player level has been increased to 8
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