Chapter 176 Who did the players learn bad habits from...?
"Rocks, I want to join you!"
As the most prominent pirate crew in recent years, there are quite a few people who want to join them.
Upon hearing Violet's words, the pirates drinking by the campfire all turned their gazes to her. The unconscious pressure she exuded was enough to make even the most resolute person flee on the spot under immense pressure.
But Violet acted as if it were just a few light feathers landing on her shoulders. She slightly raised her head and met each of those gazes in return.
Newgate withdrew his gaze and discreetly observed the crowd.
Stussy, Flame Flower, and Linlin quickly lost interest and looked away. Kaido frowned, displeased by the other party's arrogance. Shiki, Wang Zhi, and Xiong focused their attention more on Violet's young and beautiful face, admiring her rare scholarly appearance at sea with an absolute confidence in their own strength.
Just as Newgate was sighing inwardly, thinking that a talented but ignorant young man was about to become a corpse in front of him, he keenly noticed that the expressions of two people were a little strange.
One of them was John, who had always been only interested in money and treasure. But now he was staring intently at the young woman. His expression was not one of a man's appreciation for a woman. Instead, it was as if he had seen something extremely puzzling. His eyes even carried a hint of bewilderment and self-doubt.
The other was Lockes, who sat in the very center. After glancing at Vera, he lowered his head again and focused on drinking.
Newgate didn't think Rocks was a good-tempered person. On his turf, such an aggressive manner was already a provocation. Given Rocks's forgiving nature, he should have taught that woman a lesson immediately!
At this moment, deliberately ignoring her presence and continuing to drink could be explained as not taking her seriously and considering the place insignificant, but it was extremely unusual for the usually reckless and willful Rocks.
For a moment, Newgate seemed to hallucinate a pair of best friends who would trash talk each other whenever they met, but the next second he was disgusted by the scene he had imagined, and with a strange expression, he quickly took two sips of strong liquor to calm his nerves.
“Lox.” Violet’s gaze shifted from the few unusually young, familiar faces to the man sitting in the center, exuding an astonishing aura. “I want to join you. What kind of test is required?”
"No, no test is needed."
Rocks finally raised his head, sat imposingly on the gray-white rock, and plunged his wine glass into the sand.
"You two are both quite strong," Rocks laughed arrogantly. "I could barely take in that redhead in the back, but as for you..."
"I refuse."
Locke stroked his chin: "If you're wondering why, it's because I really dislike you, so no matter what you do, I won't let you on my ship."
That familiar tone, that familiar feeling of blood pressure soaring—although Violet's rational mind told her that this Lockes in front of her didn't share the same teaching relationship she had with him, seeing his familiar arrogant smile, Violet still couldn't help but take several deep breaths to avoid rushing forward with the Shadow Sword as she had in her dream.
"Rocks, I heard that many of your crew members won through the Davy Back Fight game?"
Locke raised an eyebrow, about to tell Violet that the event was over and she could go back the way she came, when Violet suddenly curled her lips into a smile.
"Were those crew members you won over voluntary?"
“Of course not.” Lox chuckled. “But they can’t beat me, so they can only stay on my ship.”
Vera was very satisfied with Lockes' answer: "So you see, you don't need to care about the opinions of the crew when you take their crew, so I don't need to care about your opinion as the captain when I become your crew."
Even Lox, who was always the one who was unreasonable, was speechless at Violet's unreasonable yet assertive tone.
puff!
As one of those forcibly taken, Newgate forcefully suppressed the corners of his mouth to prevent himself from gloating too obviously.
Shiki looked at Vera and then at Rocks. Logically, he should step forward and teach that arrogant brat a lesson on behalf of the captain, but his intuition told him that things were not so simple.
Stusi, Flameflower, and Lingling, who had previously ignored Violet, showed admiration upon hearing this.
One of them was in love with Newgate, another with Roger, and the last one had no one she loved, or in other words, every man of a particular race was the object of her affections.
The affections of these three female pirates are by no means the subtle, quiet admiration of aristocratic ladies. Pirate love is passionate and straightforward, with an unwavering determination. It's only because Newgate and Roger are so powerful that Stussy and Flame Flower would have already forced a happy ending with a single chop to the neck, handcuffing them with seastone handcuffs.
Lingling is superior to her two sisters in this respect. She not only got the happy ending, but also played through the game several times!
So, instead of being disgusted by Violet's attitude of "regardless of whether Rocks like it or not, I'm going to stick with you anyway," he actually quite admired her!
That's right, when facing these men at sea, you should be proactive and aggressive!
Lox frowned and muttered, "Who did he learn that from?" His voice was so low that no one else could hear him. His strong instincts told him that asking that question would elicit an answer he disliked intensely.
Rocks suddenly stood up. This captain, whose height was not particularly outstanding compared to the giants in the Rocks Pirates, suppressed everyone with his mere presence once he stood up.
This is Lox, this is the epitome of power in this era.
Lockes walked up to Violet, looking down at this woman who had a scholarly air about her, a gentle and polite demeanor, yet dared to storm Beehive Island and come before him to say those words.
"Oh."
Lox chuckled at Violet, then revealed his sharp, white canines with a cruel and ruthless smile.
"You don't need to care about my opinion as the captain and you still want to follow along? We'll see if you have the ability."
"Let's go, set sail!" Rocks glanced at Shanks, who had been giving the stage to Violet and hadn't said a word since arriving. "Hey redhead, follow me. From now on, you're an apprentice crew member of the Rocks Pirates."
At Lockes' command, he took the lead and left. The other crew members who hadn't finished drinking could only helplessly get up and follow him.
Shiki and the others clicked their tongues in annoyance, but they didn't dare disobey Rocks' orders when he was clearly in a bad mood. They ignored Val's presence and picked up their weapons, heading towards their main ship.
As she passed by Violet, Flameflower winked her left eye, subtly expressing her support.
Violet: "..."
Wilton, who had specifically gathered information on the members of the Rocks Pirates beforehand, immediately realized that Flame Flower had mistakenly thought she was pursuing Rocks!
Rocks? Her? Pursuit?
Violet wanted to shout that she was wronged and that her reputation had been unfairly damaged without her knowledge.
Shiki, who was walking in front, glanced at the silent Newgate and John, then at the wary Kaido, and used his Devil Fruit ability to levitate and float to Rocks' side, saying uncertainly.
"Lox, are you really planning to make that redhead an intern?"
Although that guy didn't say a word from beginning to end, and even when he came to the core of Beehive Island to meet them, it seemed like he was just taking advantage of the path opened up by that arrogant woman, the experienced Shiki had his own set of judgment methods and knew that the red-haired guy's strength was definitely above that woman's.
No, not only that, he is probably stronger than Kaido and Linlin!
To make someone like that an intern cleaning the deck on the ship? Shiki felt that if that red-haired guy really agreed to this outrageous decision, then either the red-haired guy had a conspiracy, or the captain had a conspiracy.
Rocks glanced at Shiki: "You look like you have nothing better to do?"
Hmm—Lox looks like he's in a pretty bad mood.
Shiki suddenly realized that he had chosen a terrible time to speak, and was about to laugh it off to gloss over this potentially disastrous question when he heard Lox continue.
“In that case, you’ll be in charge of keeping an eye on that brat,” Rocks said. “If I see her anywhere on the ship, Shiki…”
Rocks glanced indifferently at Shiki, who was flying beside him: "You should know what your fate will be."
Shiki froze in mid-air.
No, what does this have to do with him? If Rocks really disliked that woman, he could just turn around and draw his sword to slash her.
Rocks, a guy who stormed the Holy Land and robbed the Heavenly Gold, does he really think he's some kind of good person? How many people have been killed by him for some inexplicable reason?
Shiki didn't understand. Shiki really wanted to go back and solve the problem at its root.
"Senior Shiki."
The red-haired man walked up to him with a smile, blocking the way that Shiki was going to return the way he came.
Shanks looked at this true senior without any hesitation: "I don't know what the trainees on the ship are supposed to do. Could you show me around the ship?"
Shiki: "..."
How come there are experts here? And where did this overly familiar person come from?
Shiki began to seriously reflect on himself, wondering if his act of robbing the temple donations with Rocks was so immoral that Buddha couldn't even wait for the cycle of evil retribution and personally cut in line to punish him on the spot.
Wait a minute, when it comes to being immoral, who can be more immoral than Lox?
Hmm... These two rising stars of the sea initially planned to join the Rocks Pirates, and this identity should indeed be the most likely to torment the captain himself.
But the problem is that Rocks is no ordinary captain. Shiki had a feeling that in the end, it would be his crew who would suffer the most from this battle of wits.
...So we're back to the original question: since Rocks disliked that brat so much, why didn't he just physically eliminate her?
Those who knew him thought Rocks was having another sudden whim, while those who didn't thought that kid was Rocks' long-lost sister!
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Author's note: Yeah, who is it? Rocks, do you have a clue? [doge emoji]
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