When he heard Renji's words, Jack forced his body upright again.
Although he managed to stand, after fourteen straight hours of battle, and a battle that consisted almost entirely of exhausting hand-to-hand combat, his stamina had long been depleted.
His attacks were now extremely weak.
He could not even use Armament Haki anymore.
His soft, powerless punch landed on Renji's body, yet it could not even force Renji to step back.
"Tsk."
Two hours earlier, Jack's attacks had already begun dropping only a single attribute at a time.
This time, when Jack attacked again, not even a single attribute dropped.
Renji looked at him with mild irritation.
"What a piece of trash. And you still call yourself a Calamity?"
Hearing that, Jack almost coughed up blood from anger.
But he had no strength left.
Even though Renji had not struck back, Jack's body swayed.
Thud!
Jack collapsed onto the ground.
At this point, he could not even move a single finger.
Renji shook his head in disappointment.
"That's all the endurance you've got? I didn't even use my Devil Fruit and I still beat you."
Only this much endurance?
Jack wished he could squeeze even a little strength out of his body just to punch Renji one more time.
Fourteen hours.
Fourteen full hours of continuous combat.
And Renji was saying that as if it were nothing.
Meanwhile Renji himself had fought for fourteen hours in pure hand-to-hand combat and still looked completely energetic.
As for Renji's last remark, it truly irritated Jack.
But his stamina was completely drained.
Right now he could not even open his mouth to reply.
"Whatever. Useless trash."
Renji mocked him a few more times. Once he confirmed Jack could not get up anymore, he finally took out the special handcuffs prepared for him.
They contained Seastone.
He locked them onto Jack's wrists.
After fourteen hours of "farming," Renji's strength had already reached the level of late-stage Yonko commanders, comparable to Jozu.
Only after confirming Jack could no longer cause trouble did Renji turn to his Fourth Division crew.
"How were the spoils, brothers?"
By now the members of the Fourth Division had already moved all the supplies from the Mammoth Pirates' ship.
As one of the three All-Stars of the Beasts Pirates, Jack possessed quite a lot of valuable items.
Aside from ordinary money and food supplies, they also discovered many rare Log Poses.
They even found a Devil Fruit.
Unfortunately, no one on the ship had ever seen a Devil Fruit encyclopedia.
No one knew what fruit it was.
"The Devil Fruit…"
As the acting commander of the Fourth Division, the fruit was naturally handed to Renji.
Looking at it, even Renji showed confusion.
He turned to the crew member who had discovered it.
"According to the rules, this fruit belongs to you. Whether you eat it or sell it for money is your choice."
Renji did not know whether the Devil Fruit obtained from his system counted as an actual fruit within his body.
If it did, eating another one would cause the powers to clash and make him explode.
That was definitely something he did not want.
After finally transmigrating into the world of One Piece and achieving some success, dying like that would be ridiculous.
Besides, this fruit was unknown.
No one knew whether it was strong or useless.
If he ever wanted a second Devil Fruit, he would rather obtain the Pika Pika no Mi of Borsalino or the Goro Goro no Mi of Enel.
Even though Logia abilities could eventually be countered by Armament Haki, their elemental transformation ability was still nearly overpowered.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit for offense.
The light or lightning fruit for unmatched speed.
That would be Renji's perfect combination.
"I think I'll eat it."
The sailor looked at the fruit for a moment before deciding.
An unknown Devil Fruit could easily sell for two hundred million berries.
But money could always be earned again.
Opportunities to increase one's strength were rare.
"Blegh!"
The moment he swallowed it, the sailor gagged.
Soon his body began to change.
He transformed into a kangaroo.
"Oh. So it's the Noko Noko no Mi, a kangaroo-type Zoan," Renji said after observing the transformation.
"A Zoan is still good. Your strength, speed, and defense will all improve. Your combat power has increased tremendously."
Renji kept the ship at sea for several days afterward.
The severely injured were treated.
The lightly injured were stabilized.
Only then did they begin sailing back toward the Moby Dick.
Jack was locked inside the ship's holding cell.
As for the remaining Mammoth Pirates who had survived, Renji simply left them behind.
If they could survive without food or water, that would be their luck.
Back aboard the Moby Dick,
Renji dragged Jack forward and shoved him down before Edward Newgate.
He kicked Jack's leg.
Jack dropped to his knees.
"Pops, the mission is complete."
Whitebeard looked at Jack briefly.
Then he stared deeply at Renji.
Whitebeard had watched the entire battle between Renji and Jack.
He knew very well that Renji had used Jack as training.
Even so, seeing the defeated Calamity kneeling before him still left him slightly stunned.
"Very good."
Whitebeard nodded and slowly stood up.
Compared to Whitebeard, who knew the entire story, the rest of the crew were completely shocked.
They knew Renji had gone to capture Jack.
But none of them had expected him to actually succeed.
"Unbelievable!"
"The strongest vice-captain! Renji is the strongest vice-captain in the Whitebeard Pirates!"
"The strongest vice-captain?"
Hearing that title, Jozu did not quite agree.
It was not wrong.
But Renji was more than just the strongest vice-captain.
His strength had already reached the upper ranks of Yonko commander level.
If they fought to the death, even Jozu himself was not confident he could win.
Before, Jozu had always believed Renji had maybe a twenty percent chance against him.
Now that number had risen to nearly forty percent.
"Hahaha! Jack, who would've thought someone as arrogant as you would end up captured like this?"