Chapter 343: Garp and Shinobu Kocho Team Up
"Evaded my eyes?"
"No... it must be an invisible ghost. Since it's a corpse, it doesn't breathe, right?"
Shinobu Kocho gritted her teeth and stepped back in the direction the claw had pierced her.
Blood flowed from the puncture wound left by the ghost's sharp nails.
Pft.
A rapid series of stabs followed.
Her Nichirin blade, like a wasp's stinger, injected toxin after toxin into the Mad Baby's body.
"Its defense is on par with the Red Ghosts, but its agility is far more lethal—like a stealth assassin hiding in the shadows. It's impossible to guard against!"
Shinobu quickly tore off her outer robe, ripping it into strips and wrapping it tightly around the wound.
She perked her ears, focusing on the ghost's footsteps.
Even invisible enemies couldn't fully conceal themselves—not unless they hid in a separate dimension.
The sound of footsteps and the scent of blood would always give them away.
She pulled out a basic healing potion,
tilted her head back, and downed it.
The wound near her collarbone began to slowly knit back together,
enough to stop the bleeding for now.
She wasn't a player, so she couldn't use items with level restrictions. These beginner potions had pitiful effects.
But they were just enough for her to keep moving.
The revival time in a [Family Defense Battle] was a full ten minutes, and each death cost the patriarch reward points.
Unless absolutely necessary, suicide tactics were not an option for Shinobu.
She pressed forward.
Tall, rough walls lined either side of the path, and rows of blinding white floodlights lit up Death Valley like daytime.
One dome-shaped cavern ahead caught her attention—two flashing red beacons marked it as a key area.
[You have entered: Waste Processing Plant]
Shinobu's eyes narrowed in caution.
Master said that any area highlighted by game text contains something unusual...
She stepped forward carefully, minimizing sound.
Thump, thump, thump...
Faint tapping echoed from deeper inside.
Following the noise, she found a rusted, round steel hatch. From behind it, she could barely make out someone calling for help.
"Please! Help! I'm from the Security Headquarters' elite unit. We came to stop the bio-weapon outbreak, but I got trapped in the waste pit!"
"Are you reinforcements? Please, get me out of here!"
Shinobu frowned, unsure.
Something felt... off.
Only after the voice stopped did a game prompt appear:
[Rescue the trapped Security Force member?]
Reward: Unknown.
Just as she hesitated—
a hearty laugh rang out behind her.
"What a lucky young lady! You triggered a hidden quest?"
The voice belonged to none other than Garp, the Vice Admiral clad in his navy cape emblazoned with the word "Justice."
He walked right up to her, carefree and grinning.
Seeing her cautious expression, he chuckled,
"You're a nimble one, huh? I bet you've trained some kind of physical enhancement technique. Not a sound out of you—how could a normal human locked inside detect your presence?"
"Most likely, that thing's already been infected. Just another bio-mutated creature."
He leaned toward the hatch and tapped the central wheel, hoping to turn it—
but the system gave no reaction.
"Figures. Only one player can trigger the quest."
Stroking his chin, Garp turned to her and said,
"How about we team up, kid? We can share experience and reward points. I'll help you hunt these bio-ghosts, what do you say?"
A colder player might've killed Shinobu then and there to reset the quest.
But Garp wouldn't go against his sense of justice.
Even though Shinobu wouldn't die from PvP, he refused to steal someone else's quest.
"Sir... can I really trust you?"
Shinobu kept her soft smile,
though she found it hard to believe a player from another world would be so kind.
Garp turned and proudly pointed to the kanji for "Justice" on his cape.
"Of course! The Navy always protects civilians! Even ones from another world! That's why I'm here!"
He was still a Vice Admiral—despite having top-tier strength like Smoker,
he refused to be promoted to Admiral so he could continue operating freely.
Shinobu nodded. "Alright then... let's team up, sir."
Earlier,
she had witnessed his brief clash with Whitebeard.
Though Garp was ultimately sent flying, his strength was enough to sweep through the entire Demon Slayer world.
If he had ill intentions, he wouldn't need to go through the trouble of pretending.
[Team formed successfully.]
Shinobu held her breath and turned the wheel on the steel hatch.
After several turns—
Bang!
Something heavy slammed into the hatch from the inside, leaving a massive dent.
Shinobu jumped back.
Thump! Thump!
Two more impacts followed, and the hatch finally gave way.
A steel plate, nearly two meters tall, was blasted off and sent flying.
A wave of foul, greenish-gray liquid burst forth,
reeking of acid. The droplets that touched Shinobu's foot immediately sizzled and released a noxious green vapor.
She looked inside.
The waste pit was much larger than she'd expected—
a cavern the size of a mountain hollowed out, repurposed into a giant reservoir of chemical sludge.
Standing at the center was a massive green figure, nearly ten meters tall, with sludge up to its calves.
Its grotesquely muscular limbs bulged with unnatural growths.
Its fists were cratered like meteorites and radiated the distinct glow of viral infection.
Behind it, twisted flesh had fused into twin shoulder cannons—likely used to launch powerful viral blasts.
[Titan – Lv.19 (Boss)]: 7000/7000 HP
Note: Once a soldier of the Security Forces, infected with a deadly virus and abandoned by his squad. Too afraid to end his own life, he mutated in the waste pit and became the unique bio-weapon: Mad Titan.
Panic flickered in Shinobu's eyes.
She hadn't expected this thing locked behind the door to be a boss-level monster on par with the Demon-Winged Dragon.
The Demon Slayer Corps was already short-handed for this Family Defense Battle...
Had her decision doomed them all?
"Don't worry, little lady!"
Garp didn't flinch at all. In fact, he laughed.
"That damn Whitebeard—if I take down a boss, there's no way I'm losing this bet!"
Even with his power limited,
Garp's iron fists slammed into the Titan's armor with thunderous impact,
making the bio-shell ring like a gong.
Garp's core ability in the game was [Bajiquan].
It had ten maxed-out sub-skills, each marked by a branded rune.
Every punch now carried their full effects—
fluid, seamless, raw power wrapped in skill.
Boom!
The Titan let out a last, agonized roar before collapsing into the pit,
its giant frame swallowed by toxic sludge—only its mutated cannon-studded back remained above the surface.
From the kill, they received:
One pitch-black Corruption Crystal—a valuable currency in game cities, exchangeable for powerful gearA large amount of EXP and reward points, split evenly between Garp and Shinobu
Before Garp could speak, Shinobu spoke up first.
"I didn't contribute much. That crystal is yours, sir—please take it."
She had earned the right to contest it,
but she could see how badly Garp wanted the crystal and guessed he was too embarrassed to ask.
Without him, she wouldn't have stood a chance against the Titan—nor earned so many points and EXP.
"In that case, I'll gladly accept!"
Garp's old face turned a bit red.
He did need those crystals—
fifty for one gear piece, and a full [Magic Ocean] set required 250.
Each crystal was priceless.
"Young lady, would you mind telling me more about what's going on in this world?"
Shinobu was just about to disband the team—
after all, with Garp being so strong, she felt like dead weight, leeching his gains.
But he stopped her.
He didn't mind. He was simply curious.
As Luffy's grandfather, Garp didn't have some fate-tied sixth sense,
but beneath his goofy exterior, he possessed keen insight and masterful observation.
With his Haki, he could feel the state of the Demon Slayer world—
the despair hanging over its people.
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