"So noisy... Shut up!"
Sage glared at the loudest prisoner, who was at least eight meters tall. With just a glance, the prisoners could see thin, lace-like black objects shooting out from his eyes, piercing the giant prisoner's head.
Bang!!
In an instant, the prisoner's face twisted, eyes bulging, mouth slanted, inflating like a balloon, and then exploded into fragments, collapsing to the ground.
Boom!
At that moment, black and red torrents emanated from Sage's body, sweeping through the cells, causing them to sweat coldly, and silence themselves.
Supreme King!
"The loudest are all small fry. Learn from others, like Shiryu, he's not noisy, and him..."
Sage pointed at a cell, shouting, "This guy isn't noisy either. Don't say I don't have a key—even if I do, I'd only recruit guys like him. So, shut your mouth, all of you!"
"If that's difficult, learn from him what it means to be a strong character, wouldn't you say..."
Sage looked towards the cell, suddenly stunned.
Inside the bars, a man dressed as a prisoner gradually approached, standing within the bars. This guy had a scar across his nose, running across his face, and a gold hook resembling a traditional pirate captain's on his left hand.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha..."
He let out a loud, intermittent laugh, "Long time no see. You ended up here too, Sage."
"Old Sand?!"
Crocodile revealed a green vein on his forehead, "I've told you, don't call me 'Old Sand'!"
In that cell was Sage's former partner...
Former Seven Warlords of the Sea, Crocodile.
After being captured in Alabasta, he was sent to Impel Down, along with a few of his officers.
"You still have the nerve to speak!"
Sage was infuriated upon seeing this man.
"What did you say back in Alabasta?! About our agreed cooperation! Oh! You got defeated, lay there saying 'It doesn't matter,' and it's done, right?!"
"You owe me five billion Belly! Five billion!"
Sage gritted his teeth, "Cooperating with you cost me five billion for nothing, do you know that? I originally thought highly of you, more so than that Flamingo, but what happened! You're not even as good as them! They provide information when promised, let me invest when promised."
"Investing there cost me everything!"
"Don't be ridiculous! Didn't you seize Rain Land? I saw it in the newspapers!"
Crocodile shouted angrily, "That five billion deal is void, of course."
"You terminated the cooperation first, voiding it; Rain Land wasn't yours at that time. I had every right to seize Rain Land! But the five billion Belly you promised, even if cooperation stopped, you have to give me!"
Sage started calculating, "At a 40% interest, by next year our cooperative day arrives, you owe me seven billion Belly!"
"Charging high interest? You..."
Crocodile glared at Sage but suddenly lost interest, "Forget it, whatever you say, I'm already disenchanted with the sea, debt... I'll pay it once I'm out."
"Did you show up just to piss me off?!"
Sage clicked his tongue, "If I had the key, I'd show you what a prison break is!"
He couldn't break this cage; moreover, this guy had obviously grown more despondent, seemingly ready for a lonely end in prison.
Sage had no interest in such a person.
He liked those who never sunk, regardless of the circumstances. Otherwise, in the Devil's Triangle Sea Region, he wouldn't have commented on Moriah not qualifying yet.
"You're escaping alone?"
Crocodile was stunned for a moment, "That's tough. Current Warden Magellan isn't easy to handle, plus you seem weak."
"Nonsense, like you would, forget being weak, you'd be dead!" Sage snapped.
Only he, encountering Garp, Aokiji, Kizaru, would have been killed on the spot long ago!
"..."
Crocodile smirked, eyeing Sage up and down, "But, if you truly have the skill, I'd like to see how you escape from Impel Down. You're not an Ability User, neither a Float-Float Fruit user."
Twenty years ago, Golden Lion's prison break made the papers, although nobody remembers now, and the news was heavily suppressed back then.
As a pirate, especially a thinking pirate, he remembered the event.
Though unclear on the full story, Golden Lion managed to escape, a guess could be made.
He broke the Seastone shackles chaining his leg, used the Float-Float Fruit's aerial power to escape.
If he could escape, it would cause a bigger stir, perhaps.
"Don't make that elevator move, Impel Down can sense it." Crocodile said, "Best to avoid a confrontation with Magellan. I know your Body Techniques are strong; once out, the Sea King can't do anything to you."
"Avoid confrontation?"
Sage scoffed, "Who makes me avoid confrontation? You're fearful of this and that, that's why you've ended up this way!"
A plan is a plan, but if discovered unexpectedly, Sage was prepared.
Fight, nothing else!
Fear everything, acting cautious, is the true sign of weakness!
Such a person, even with Haki, wouldn't be very strong!
He dared to challenge even the Admirals; what else could make him avoid a fight.
"This is it!"
Sage ignored Crocodile, stepped forward, determined his position, and looked up, gauging the direction, leaping strongly upward, his steps in mid-air leaving trails of smoke circles, he punched the ceiling.
The stone material is sturdy, not the ordinary rock layer, and quite thick; a simple Haki strike likely wouldn't shatter it, as it requires substantial Haki.
But for Sage, this was no issue.
As he could see the Secret Hole, the Secret Hole of all things.
This spot was the weakest point among all the ceiling's rock layers.
Hit the Secret Hole, crushing it with Haki, then...
Boom!!
Dust scattered outward from Sage's hit spot, accompanied by numerous falling debris.
The relatively weaker ceiling layer was punched out by Sage, creating a hole, at the moment the hole appeared, Sage directly leaped up with Moon Step, reaching a strange, narrow passage.
"Hmm?"
Sage looked around, "What the hell is this place? A passage? Not a prison area?"
He had some impressionistic memory of Impel Down, consisting of tiers, not passages.
But now, it's a passage.
The passage behind led to a dead end; the only way was forward.
Upon reaching the corner, he saw a door, Sage kicked it down, eyes gleaming.
Inside was a stockpile of food!
Various vegetables, fruits, liquors, even refrigerators!
"Great!"
Sage went over, first grabbing an apple from a sack, without chewing he bit and swallowed it, then opened the fridge, took out the stored meat.
Not bothered whether the meat was raw, he took a bite.
Raw meat tasted bad but didn't mean it wasn't edible.
As for getting sick...
With his body constitution, coupled with Life Return, and his North Star Divine Fist, he never worried about getting sick.
Since childhood, he hadn't been sick.
Besides this, eating was most important.
He was famished.
The meat stored within the fridge was quickly gobbled down.
Once finished, he picked up a bottle of wine, not even opening the cork, with a flick of his thumb, he broke the bottle, pouring directly into his mouth, his hands busy reaching for stockpiled bread and vegetables.
This place, seemingly a food storehouse, its contents rapidly dwindled, in Sage's nearly shadow-like motion, all shoved into his mouth.
Until he reached for a fruit, ready to stuff it in his mouth, but then paused.
Because, upon grabbing that fruit... it suddenly changed.