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On the other side, sparks of anger ignited from Smoker's cigar as he stared intently at the direction where the Straw Hats had disappeared, his Jitte gleaming with cold metal in the sunlight.
"Captain Smoker!" Tashigi's shout came from below, her glasses covered in sand.
"Another group of Baroque Works agents has appeared on the east side!"
The Shigure in her hand dripped continuously with blood, her white Marine uniform stained dark red.
Smoker whipped his head around, seeing dozens of agents in uniform pouring out from behind the sand dunes.
Mr. 1's steel body glinted in the sunlight, Marine soldiers falling like wheat stalks in his path.
Further away, Mr. 2 danced in a ballet, kicking away several Marines with each turn of his foot.
"Damn it..." Smoker squeezed the words through his teeth, white smoke billowing from every pore of his body.
He suddenly transformed into a white whirlwind, sweeping across the battlefield in an instant and slamming three agents away.
"Is Crocodile openly declaring war?" His voice was like muffled thunder, exploding over the battlefield. "Ridiculous!"
Tashigi rolled to dodge a flying poison needle, then backhanded to cut off the attacker's weapon. "Captain! Reinforcements have appeared on the west side too!" Her voice held a hint of urgency. "It's Mr. 3 and the others!"
Smoker's eyes seemed almost to spit fire. He looked at the direction the Straw Hats had left, then at the retreating Marine soldiers, and finally spat a mouthful of bloody saliva.
"All hands, listen up!" His roar drowned out the battlefield's noise. "Focus on destroying Baroque Works! Let that Sand Crocodile know the price of provoking the Marines!"
Following his command, the Marine formation immediately shifted.
Among the roar of mortars, Smoker turned into smoke and charged straight towards Mr. 1.
The two figures collided fiercely in the sandstorm, sparks of clashing metal like lightning in the desert.
"Hmph! Princess Vivi, come with us obediently, or else, these Marines will all die here!"
.....
In the scorching desert of Alabasta, the Straw Hats were rushing forward. Suddenly, Luffy slammed to a halt, his rubber arms flinging far out due to inertia.
"A... Ace?!" Luffy's eyes nearly popped out, his mouth wide enough to fit a whole watermelon. He rubbed his eyes hard, and after confirming it wasn't a mirage, he shot forward like a cannonball. "Ace!!!"
On a distant sand dune, Ace, wearing an orange cowboy hat, was equally stunned. He instinctively caught his charging younger brother, and the two tumbled together on the sand. "Luffy?" Ace patted his brother's back, his black hair covered in sand. "Why are you in the depths of the Alabasta desert?"
Luffy climbed off Ace, his straw hat crooked. "We were helping Princess Vivi..." He moved his hands wildly as he explained, sometimes choking on his own spit. Usopp chimed in from the side, exaggerating the scale of the Marine deployment with his hands.
Ace sat cross-legged on the sand, understanding dawning on him after listening. "So that's it." He pulled his hat brim low, the shadow covering half his face. "I'm here to hunt down Teach."
"Teach?" Luffy tilted his head.
"Marshall D. Teach, a traitor from the Whitebeard Pirates." Ace's voice suddenly turned cold, the temperature around them seeming to drop a few degrees. His clenched fist ignited with bluish-green flames. "He killed his friend, our friend, Thatch and stole the Devil Fruit..."
"What?!" Luffy's expression instantly froze. The Straw Hat crew collectively gasped, Zoro's hand already on his sword hilt, Sanji's cigarette dropping from his mouth.
"That kind of scumbag..." Luffy's voice was unusually low, the shadow of his straw hat covering his eyes. "Absolutely unforgivable!"
Nami suddenly pulled out her phone. "Ace, do you have a picture of Teach?" She skillfully opened TikTok. "We have quite a few followers now, we can post it online to expose him!"
Ace looked bewildered. "Picture? TikTok?" He looked at Luffy in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"It's a phone!" Nami shook the device in her hand. "It's super popular recently..."
Luffy suddenly threw an arm around Ace's shoulder, his rubber arm wrapping around Ace twice like a scarf.
He held up his phone high, shouting excitedly. "Ace! Look at the camera!"
"Huh?" Before Ace could react, Luffy forcibly twisted his head.
On the phone screen, two faces were reflected. Luffy was grinning widely, showing all his teeth, while Ace looked bewildered.
Click!
The moment the flash went off, Ace instinctively closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, Luffy was proudly shoving the phone in his face. "See! This is a phone! It can take pictures!"
Ace stared at the photo on the screen, surprised to find the image even clearer than a Den Den Mushi photo.
Luffy's finger swiped across the screen. "Look, you can zoom in like this..."
Ace's bewildered expression in the photo was magnified three times, making Luffy burst into laughter.
"This thing... can it buy food too?" Ace poked the screen half-believingly.
"Of course!" Luffy's face showed lingering fear. "Last time our ship ran out of food, we almost starved to death! Luckily I scrolled and found this."
He clicked into a food streamer's page, the screen filled with mouth-watering grilled meat videos.
"I ordered fifty servings of grilled meat directly! It dropped from the sky immediately!"
Ace listened, amazed, his Den Den Mushi in his hand making a "buru buru" sound and blowing a bubble, seemingly expressing its displeasure.
He thoughtfully weighed the old buddy that had been with him for so many years. "If phones are really that convenient... won't Den Den Mushi lose their jobs?"
Sanji blew out a smoke ring and stepped on his cigarette butt. "Not necessarily."
He looked into the distance. "In those poor places, a single phone can sell for half a year's income for an ordinary family."
Zoro folded his arms and added. "The most ridiculous is that island at the entrance to the New World, the profiteers have driven the price up to fifty thousand Berry for one." He snorted coldly. "It's more expensive than my sword when I first started out."
Ace's eyes lit up, and he vigorously ruffled Luffy's head. "If I had a phone too, I could contact you anytime!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Luffy suddenly turned to Nami, his eyes turning into stars. "Nami~ Can you buy another one for Ace?"
Bang!
Nami's fist landed mercilessly on Luffy's head, raising a large bump. "Do you think I sell phones?!" Her hair stood on end with anger. "And do you know how much a phone costs?!"
Luffy squatted on the ground, clutching his head and drawing circles sadly. Ace laughed heartily at the sight.
Just as everyone was discussing excitedly, a "coo coo" sound suddenly came from the sky.