Chapter 389: Robin Faces the Nightmare

"Aokiji?"

The Straw Hat Pirates, surrounded on all sides, all wore expressions of shock and vigilance.

The Samsara Game not only grants players powerful strength, quick teleportation arrays, friend systems, game channels, party systems...

It also strengthens the connections between players.

Originally, in the vast and boundless Pirate World, unless a major event occurred, even Navy members of the same faction could not meet often.

Even with albatrosses selling newspapers, information remained blocked.

But now, the Straw Hat Pirates clearly know the true identity of the man before them; he has appeared in various town live broadcasts.

Marine Admiral Aokiji, a melee-type Ice Mage, has fully assembled the 【Magic Ocean】 Silver Armor set and possesses twenty skill imprints.

【2700 Combat Power】, according to player judgment, is a 【First-Class Player】 only inferior to some top-tier players.

The Straw Hat Pirates are facing a formidable enemy; after all, the conflict between Pirates and the Navy is fundamentally irreconcilable.

Except for Luffy, "Aokiji, who is that?"

Luffy picks his nose, pulls out a blob of black filth, and flicks it toward the front without a trace.

By the time the booger lands, it has already been frozen hard by the low temperature, hitting the ground like a small pebble.

The source of the cold,

is the tall figure standing in the center of the Navy ranks. Wisps of visible frost mist surround Aokiji, and even the air emits a cracking, freezing sound.

Although it is not the dead of winter,

the soldiers acting alongside Admiral Aokiji are all draped in thick fur coats to resist the chill.

Clang.

The Three-Sword Style is unsheathed. Zoro's gaze is grave, and eerie purple Ghost Qi emerges, faintly weaving a phantom of a ghost god behind him to resist the hostile cold.

Chirp...

Four Magic Creations emerge one after another, blocking the side of Nami.

The 【Shadow Night Cat】 lurking like a black shadow, the 【Light Electric Eel】 resembling a silver horned snake, the pumpkin lantern 【Jiekebao】 igniting flames...

The last to appear is the 【Frost Snowman】, which also emits a cold aura.

However,

it cannot compare to the chill from Aokiji that freezes the air until it shatters.

After all, the disparity in strength between the two is too vast.

"Should I drive you away, or capture you and bring you to justice?"

When Aokiji speaks, cold air puffs from his mouth, but he carries not a shred of killing intent, as casual as a middle-aged uncle passing by a food street, considering whether to eat ramen or barbecue.

"Is it the Navy!?"

Hearing Aokiji's words, Luffy widens his eyes abruptly, wearing an expression of disbelief.

Beside him, Sanji covers his face and says helplessly, "Even if you don't recognize Aokiji, you should at least recognize the Navy cloak, right?"

Or rather,

Luffy is just that thick-headed, only able to remember enemies and friends.

He used to treat the Navy as enemies, so he could remember the Navy; the appearance of the Samsara Game caused Luffy's attention to shift to Pollution Monsters, believing the true enemies should be Pollution Monsters.

Even if the Navy is also a force that hunts monsters, they truly cannot become friends with Pirates.

So this strange Navy force, which is neither friend nor enemy, is easily tossed into a corner of Luffy's mind.

After thinking for a long time,

"Admiral Aokiji, this tomb of the Ghost General is a place our Straw Hat Pirates discovered first."

Nami signals everyone with her eyes not to act rashly, especially the battle-maniac Zoro; as long as the Navy hasn't attacked, they must not strike first.

Their side's strongest combatant is Captain Luffy, a melee physical-type 【Blue Fist Saint】 with fourteen skill imprints, capable of adding holy light attribute attacks from the 【Light Bloodline】, and possessing the shoulder pads, leggings, and shoes of the 【Magic Ocean】 armor set. 【1900】 Combat Power.

Ghost Slayer Zoro and Flame Mage Sanji are evenly matched, with combat power slightly weaker than the Captain.

A gap of nearly a thousand points in combat power is a difference that quantity cannot make up for.

Even if everyone fights to the death, they could likely only barely block Aokiji's offensive. There is no help for it; with the resource cultivation of the strongest force, the 【Navy Alliance】, plus Aokiji's own talent,

although compared to their original destiny, the Straw Hat Pirates are not without the power to resist, the gap still exists, merely narrowed.

"If I capture you, the losses will be great."

Aokiji estimates the gap between the two sides; although he has the certainty of victory, the Navy soldiers beside him would definitely suffer heavy casualties.

The Navy Intelligence Department, from the mouths of civilians in the Oikot Kingdom, gathered news about the Straw Hat Pirates, who were able to kill the notorious Four Emperors Kaido, and Whitebeard, who was suspected of clashing with Red-Haired without falling behind.

Even now, they are likely continuing to grow stronger.

Aokiji's scrutinizing gaze lands on Robin, and he chuckles, "No wonder you are so confident; so you found a group of powerful scapegoats?"

The last spark of Ohara that a dear friend died to protect,

the Demon Child wanted by the World Government. Aokiji once observed the movements of this Demon Child from the shadows, from bewilderment and ignorance, constantly hiding, gradually becoming a cold-hearted pirate, associating with various ambitious people.

The last news,

seemed to be that she collaborated with the Sand Crocodile to carry out terrorist activities in Alabasta.

But because of the rise of the Alabasta royal family, she vanished.

Until now,

appearing again in the Straw Hat Pirates.

"Scapegoats?"

Usopp looks puzzled, not understanding what Aokiji meant.

Robin, however, who had been silent all along, cannot help but tremble slightly.

"That's right, scapegoats!"

Aokiji continued nonchalantly: "Constantly mingling in various organizations, concealing your wanted status, and betraying your companions once exposed, only to continue fleeing."

"Along the way, the number of companions you have betrayed is already impossible to count, isn't it?"

His tone was icy, and his gaze even colder.

Although the Navy Alliance and the World Government have completely severed ties, they still maintain a fragile connection.

Together, they maintain the stability of the Si Hai and the Grand Line.

Otherwise, the Navy Alliance alone, or the World Government, would simply be unable to withstand the surging tide of the new era.

It is just that,

both sides are in an equal cooperative relationship, and the Navy Alliance can freely choose whether or not to accept certain bounties from the World Government.

Among them is the Demon Child.

"That kind of thing..."

"How could it be?"

Usopp and Nami were both full of shock, not expecting Aokiji to actually blurt out such words. It seemed he had known Nico Robin for a long time; could it be that he came for Nico Robin this time as well? "Not speaking, survivor of Ohara?"

Beneath Aokiji's icy expression was a disappointment that others could not see.

The hope of Ohara that his best friend left behind with his life could, in a sense, also be seen as the justice that Aokiji bears.

Everything Nico Robin did could trigger a change in Aokiji's mindset.

And now, in Aokiji's eyes, Nico Robin, who had not changed and had even fallen completely into darkness, made the justice in the depths of Aokiji's heart gradually lean toward Akainu.

"That's right, I am a survivor of Ohara."

Nico Robin, who had been silent all along, raised her head and looked directly at Aokiji without fear, saying: "You are not wrong; in order to survive, I have done countless things to betray my companions."

She had also once chosen to believe,

but the bloody reality sealed her off: reported by an old woman who seemed kind, betrayed by trusted companions, and handed over to the Navy by friends she had saved with her own hands.

"It seems that the seed Jaguar D. Saul protected with his life has ended in disappointment after all."

"This experiment of exploring justice, it seems I am the first to be out..."

(End of this chapter)