"Tuantuan, Aigin, Carina!" Summer waved and called out.
"Boss, what's up?" Tuantuan tilted its head and asked.
"Next, we are about to enter the Grand Line. Your strength must be improved, otherwise it will be difficult to deal with the situation ahead. These are six special skills called the Six Powers, abilities mastered by the elite of the New World Marine Headquarters. Now, I need all of you to learn them."
With that, Summer placed the system-refined instruction recorder for the Six Powers on the table, letting the two of them and the beast study it.
Tuantuan and Aigin followed Summer's words implicitly without a single question. Only Carina, upon hearing the words "Six Powers," gave Summer a thoughtful look, wondering what was on her mind.
Two days later.
"Wow! Such a high mountain range! Boss, come here, come here! It looks like we've reached the Red Line."
Tuantuan's voice rang out from below. Summer looked up at the sound to see a mountain range towering into the clouds, its peak completely invisible. Surrounded by mist, the ocean was turbulent, with howling winds and shifting currents full of whirlpools everywhere. Yet none of this could affect the Smiling.
A product of the system, utterly reliable!
The Smiling smoothly rode the upward ocean current according to the navigation, heading all the way up, braving the wind and waves, forging ahead courageously.
Ahead lay Twin Capes. He remembered that the ship doctor of Roger the King of the Pirates cared for the whale Laboon here—a rather eccentric, gentle old man, but Summer had no desire to go chat with him.
"Yo-ho! Boss, Boss! We're flying! Hahahaha!"
Fei Tuan was extremely excited, trying its best to open its eyes wide to look ahead, thinking to itself that the boss really hadn't lied; the outside world was much more exciting.
The Smiling cut through the waves, rushing downward with the momentum, gathering speed faster and faster, like a streak of lightning.
"Wow, so big! What is that, Boss?"
A huge whale appeared before them, its massive form blotting out the sky. Sure enough, hearing about it wasn't the same as seeing it; even Summer was shocked by such a colossal figure in person.
"A whale!"
"What? A whale? *Slurp*, so big, I wonder if it tastes good..."
Hearing Fei Tuan's words, Summer helplessly massaged his forehead. This fellow was simply a foodie, instinctively thinking of food and eating no matter what it saw.
"Not edible!"
"Oh, fine! T_T"
The Smiling sailed smoothly past the side of Laboon the whale without disturbing it. That fellow would be left for his little brother Luffy to deal with in the future.
Everyone had their own path, and Luffy's path clearly didn't suit him.
Having crossed the Red Line, they had already reached the Grand Line. Although Summer himself had traveled around with Dragon and been to many places, he had always slept on the ship during those voyages and never bothered to learn the routes. In a way, this was also his first time entering the Grand Line. Besides, how could such boring movements compare to the fun of an adventure he undertook himself?
"Now, our true adventure begins! I want to spread the mighty name of the Smiling Pirates across the world in the shortest time possible! Set sail!"
Standing atop the bow, the sea breeze blowing through his hair, Summer was full of high spirits, glowing with heroic ambition, ready to conquer the world.
"Hehe, we definitely will!" Tuantuan said, excitedly clenching its paws.
"Yeah, absolutely!" Aigin also muttered in agreement.
"Ha?!" Carina found it somewhat hard to believe. Where did mere two people and a beast get such confidence? Did they really think that defeating a "small" pirate crew in the East Blue made them invincible under heaven? Still, what did their life or death have to do with her? By then, all the treasure would be hers.
The Smiling sailed along leisurely as an island gradually came into view. The island was lush and green, filled with towering trees, and from within came the roars of beasts—did they sound somewhat mournful?!
"Boss! A beast is approaching!"
Just as Summer's party docked and went ashore, Fei Tuan's little eyes darted around, its small nose sniffing hard, and then it spoke up.
"It's here!" In Summer's Observation Haki perception, two behemoths were charging over aggressively.
They saw two wild boars, as huge as small mountains, with blood-red eyes, looking proud and imposing as they charged straight toward Summer and the others.
"Humph, mere wild boars. This grandpa here is the King of Beasts."
"Roar!"
Tuantuan let out an angry roar, the deafening beastly bellow mixed with a wave of bloodline suppression that left the two wild boars momentarily dazed, their speed slowing down unawares. Then Tuantuan's body swelled drastically, turning into a super-duper mega-fat dumpling.
"Boom! Boom! Take this!"
It raised its paws high and then swung them down with all its might, directly pressing the wild boars into meat patties, before grabbing one of the boars by the leg and flinging it hard toward the center of the island. A series of sonic booms rang out, and the wild boars vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Let's go! Let's check it out inside!"
With that, Summer took the lead and walked in. The deeper they went, the sparser the forest density became. Looking up, the sunlight just happened to illuminate the central area.
Gazing forward, they saw a pack of wild wolves baring their teeth and growling lowly, their target being a flashy blue-haired teenager right in the middle.
"So big! This alpha wolf is almost catching up to Xiaobai's size, Boss." Tuantuan looked at the alpha wolf ahead and said excitedly, saliva almost forming "tears" at the corners of its mouth.
Indeed, the wild wolves before them were three times the size of ordinary wolves, and the largest alpha wolf even reached five times that size. It seemed this island was exceptionally favorable for biological growth.
Realizing that people had arrived behind them, the alpha wolf let out an angry roar, and the pack quickly split up, dozens of wild wolves glaring with murderous intent as they advanced toward Summer's group, while continuing their slow approach to the blue-haired youth. By this time, more than a dozen wolf corpses were already strewn before the blue-haired youth, blood flowing to stain the ground crimson. Aside from that, over a dozen colorful glass bottles lay scattered on the ground, clearly the cause of the wolves' deaths.
"Help!"
Seeing newcomers, a glimmer of hope for survival appeared in the blue-haired youth's eyes as he shouted for help. He had been having terrible luck today; he went out to sea to search for materials, but because he overslept, he drifted to this place crawling with beasts, and his ship had been wrecked after hitting a rock. He had been extremely careful along the way, only to run right into a wolf pack.
Thus, a battle between man and wolves was about to break out. Unfortunately, his potions had run out, and he could only swing his big saber to protect himself. Luckily, having wandered alone for these past few years, he had picked up a few moves and his strength wasn't bad, or else he would have been torn apart and devoured by the wolf pack long ago.
Hearing this, Summer walked forward step by step, his intuition telling him that the person before him should be quite interesting. He thought about inviting him onto his ship.
"Awoooo—"
As one moved, the whole pack stirred. In an instant, five or six wild wolves leaped high into the air, aiming to deliver a fatal blow to Summer.
"Hum—"
The corners of Summer's mouth turned up slightly, his eyes widening a fraction, and Conqueror's Haki instantly erupted, a bizarrely terrifying pressure sweeping in all directions.
"Thud, thud..."
Within the range covered by the Haki, all the wild wolves rolled their eyes back and directly passed out, trembling all over. Even that alpha wolf struggled to resist for a few seconds before collapsing to the ground.
"Sigh~ It's still a bit lacking after all."
Summer shook his head. Compared to the other two types of Haki, Conqueror's Haki still had a long way to go; even a mere beast could resist it for a few seconds.