That day, aside from Ace and Zoro,
not a single soul in the entire base remained conscious.
Even though Ace and Zoro managed to stay awake, they weren't exactly in great shape either.
It was at that moment that Luo Lan finally realized something was off.
His Conqueror's Haki...
Something was seriously wrong with it.
For one, the range was outrageous. For another, the mental shock it caused was far too extreme.
Knocking out regular marines, researchers, and laborers was to be expected.
But to take down even Smoker, Ian, and Baby 5?
Even if it was because they'd been repeatedly hit by the bursts, it still wasn't normal.
Could his spiritual strength really be that overwhelming?
Unlike physical strength—which could be measured using something like a "Doriki" value—there was no standardized method to evaluate spiritual strength in the world of pirates.
As a result, Luo Lan never really had a clear grasp of how powerful his own mental force was.
But that wasn't important right now.
What he needed next was control.
Control over his Conqueror's Haki.
He couldn't just let it erupt and indiscriminately knock out everyone around him—not if he didn't want to flatten friend and foe alike every time.
In the original story, those top-tier elites could release their Conqueror's Haki with precision, targeting only a specific person in the middle of a dense crowd, leaving everyone else unharmed.
That kind of precise control was exactly what Luo Lan needed to master—urgently.
As for the advanced application—infusing Haki into attacks—that was still a distant goal for him.
One step at a time.
---
Three hours later.
Good grief.
Aside from the two on the training field—who had never fainted and were now staring at him with tearful resentment—the rest of the base was still out cold.
Luo Lan could only smile bitterly.
The aftershock... was a bit much.
"LUO LAN!!"
"What the hell happened here?!"
Hm?
"Hina? You're back already?"
"Yeah. Ran into some trouble and had to cut the mission short."
Hina descended from the sky and gave a quick nod.
"But let's talk about that later. What the hell happened here?"
"Danaan's been trying to hail the port for hours, but no one responded. I had to come down here myself to check things out!"
"And what did I find? Every single person was unconscious. Even the scouts hidden in the forest were all taken out!"
"And here?!" Hina's eyes were wide in disbelief. "Hina is shocked!!"
"Who was it? Who could've used a single burst of Conqueror's Haki to knock out everyone on Rhodes Island? Don't tell me it was Shanks or something?!"
Hina was clearly agitated.
In her eyes, this level of Haki—both in intensity and range—could only belong to someone like Red-Haired Shanks.
After all, raw power and range were two different things.
Rhodes Island wasn't a massive island, but it was by no means small either.
To cover the entire island with a single pulse of Haki?
That wasn't just powerful—it was absurd.
"Relax, Hina. It's not what you think. Actually—"
"Relax? You think Hina can relax?!" she snapped. "If we've provoked a Yonko, we're doomed!"
"No, really—"
"Enough! Just shut up! You're getting on the Danaan and leaving the island immediately!"
Hina's interruption skill was clearly maxed out.
She didn't even let Luo Lan get a word in.
Luo Lan gave a helpless smile, then narrowed his eyes slightly—
BOOM!!
In an instant, the sky darkened. Thunder rumbled.
It looked like the apocalypse had arrived.
Fortunately, Luo Lan only maintained the burst for a few seconds before cutting it off.
Even so, the pressure had both Zoro and Ace sweating bullets, glaring at Luo Lan with even more pitiful expressions than before.
Hina, as the second-strongest person on the base, held up relatively well.
But even she had a bead of cold sweat rolling down her temple.
So it wasn't a Yonko...
It was Luo Lan?!
How... was that even possible?
It sounded ridiculous—but the evidence was right in front of her, and Hina couldn't deny it.
Then her gaze shifted—to Smoker, lying face-down on the ground.
She walked over and gave him a solid kick.
"Useless."
If Smoker hadn't passed out, he would've snapped back:
"You only felt it for a few seconds! I've been hit with that crap multiple times, for over half a minute each time! You try it!"
Truth was, Smoker had actually regained consciousness a little while ago.
But just as he came to...
Luo Lan had let off another blast of Haki to calm Hina down,
and bam—Smoker passed out again.
He became the only person in the entire 157th Division to faint twice in one day.
A tragic honor.
Normally, Smoker had decent willpower and should've been able to withstand Conqueror's Haki.
But from the Conqueror's Haki Manual Luo Lan had been studying, he'd learned this:
To knock someone out with Haki, your spiritual strength needs to be at least three times greater than your target's.
Willpower can boost your effective resistance, that much was true.
For example, if your spirit power is only 10, and your opponent's is 2, but their willpower is sky-high, they might still resist due to mental fortitude.
Which is why in the world of pirates, willpower is seen as the key factor in resisting Haki.
But that's only because most people's spiritual strength is relatively weak to begin with.
If someone has a spirit strength of 50 or higher, while the opponent only has 2?
No amount of willpower is going to save you.
In short:
If everyone's spirit strength is low, willpower becomes the deciding factor.
But if someone has freakishly high spirit power...
nothing else matters.
---
Later that night.
Everyone had finally woken up.
Luo Lan gathered the command staff for a meeting.
"Hina, you said you ran into trouble on your mission and had to return early. What happened exactly?"
Luo Lan was very concerned.
The 157th wasn't ready to be exposed just yet.
"You already know," Hina began, "we can't go to the North or West Blue right now. So this time, I headed for the first half of the Grand Line—what people call 'Paradise'."
"Our planned route kept us near the entrance area."
Luo Lan nodded.
The closer they got to Marine HQ, the tighter the Navy's control.
And the greater the risk of being discovered.
Even though Danaan was underwater and safe for now, surfacing near HQ and getting caught by a top Navy force would be a disaster.
Sticking to the Grand Line's entry zone was the smarter move.
After all, Marineford was practically on the other side of the planet—thousands of nautical miles away.
"Three days ago, just before turning back... we were ambushed."
"Not once, but twice."
Huh?
Danaan was ambushed?
That wasn't a trivial matter.
To set up an ambush, you needed one of two things:
Either you lured your target into a trap...
Or you knew their exact route in advance, and set up accordingly.
Either way, this wasn't some random encounter.
This meant someone had insider knowledge.
"Do you know who it was?" Luo Lan asked.
"We do. It was... Baroque Works."
Baroque Works?
With Hina's current strength—and an elite team of marines, each with Doriki over 200—wiping the floor with Baroque Works should've been easy.
So clearly, this wasn't about whether they could win a fight.
This was about the fact that someone had precise knowledge of their movements.
And that meant trouble.
If they couldn't figure out how that information leaked—or deal with the root of it—
Then Luo Lan's future operations could become extremely dangerous.
Worse yet...
It could compromise the entire 157th Division.
"Hina," Luo Lan said grimly, "tell me everything. In detail."