One Piece: The Legendary Pirate

After consuming the pile of food bare-handed, Darvy left the table and walked, holding onto the book with his greasy hands. Its hard cover was already rendered filthy, but unfortunately, Darvy didn't have a luxury to care about it.

Following other slaves, Darvy walked into the hallway.

The hallway wasn't that long. In fact, it was quite short and narrow, enough for Darvy to consider it suffocating—especially when there were hundreds of slaves walking through this passage.

The passage was full of stinks, emanating the stench of sweat and other body odors. The floor wasn't clean either, and walking on top of it bare-footed, Darvy was once again reminded of his status of slave, no matter how full he currently was.

Walking behind the muscular back of one man, Darvy eventually arrived the open area. It was circular, and there were four gates on north, east, south, or west end. The gate which Darvy came from was the north one.

In the middle, there were two screens. One depicted the ongoing battle between yet another slaves, while the other summarized the current standing—the ranking of the survivors, that is.

[214].

It was an astronomical jump in rank for Darvy, going from 999 to 214. Others too seemed to have noticed this, eyeing Darvy in silence and wondering how someone like him managed to survive.

Taking his eyes off the screens, Darvy looked around at the other three gates in which he didn't know where they led to. Judging by the incoming stench from the west, however, Darvy could speculate that said gate likely led to some sort of washroom.

"You a newbie, aren't ya."

And then, there it was, a voice that was definitely meant for him. Turning, Darvy came in sight of a guy. This man, who seemed to be in twenties, was characterized by black hair, black beard, and equally black-colored eyes. Staring at Darvy with that of a predatory gleam, the man, while sitting on top of another slave's back, grinned as if anticipating something.

"Looking around in curiosity, bewildered, ah, the old days."

Darvy raised an eyebrow. The man's words held no value, but the fact that he was sitting on top of another slave, just like how Celestial Dragons do so to them, was.

"...Is feud not prohibited here?"

"Ah, this?"

Eyeing his human-chair, the man smirked.

"Keep looking at screen and you'll see that the second one alternates between ranking and next match-ups. This guy is my next meant-to-be opponent, and I promised that if he decides to become my slave for a month, I would let him live."

Looking again, Darvy indeed saw what the man spoke of. However, it seemed to be displaying one match-up at a time. Considering that by the end of the first round, there will be 500 gladiators moving up, there were 250 match-ups to announce; it seemed that the reason why this crowd was so tightly gathered around, staring at the screen as if mesmerized, was to witness who their next opponent would be.

"And to answer your question... not necessarily. A light degree of physical harm is allowed as long as the victim's combat capability isn't diminished. With that and the prohibition in theft, there is nothing else that prevents me from making your life here a hell."

The man stood up and walked to Darvy. At his full height, he was almost 2 meters, and just to gaze at his face, Darvy had to look up to an extent where his neck hurt slightly.

Then, in a split second, Darvy saw the man taking out a knife and placing it against Darvy's cheek. Scraping lightly, the blade left a light gash on Darvy's cheek, drawing the blood.

"...Ho?"

The man then remarked,

"You managed to follow, didn't you?"

It was just as he said. Though Darvy's body didn't budge, his eyes did, staring right at the knife by the corner of his eyes.

"Interesting. Very interesting. You have the body of a weakling, but your eyes don't match. Where did someone like you even come out from?"

Retracting and placing the knife back into the holster by his waist, the man crossed his arms, seemingly amused as he looked at Darvy's blank expression. Then, he snapped his fingers, and the other guy whom the man was using as a chair hurriedly crawled over.

With a huff, the man harshly sat down back on the other guy's back, causing that guy to groan in pain and stress.

"I've taken a liking to you. Name?"

Raising his hand, Darvy wiped the blood on his cheek with his thumb.

"Darvy."

"Well, Darvy!"

The man laughed, holding his muscular arms wide open.

"I go by the name of Scorpion. It's a pleasure to meet you... though you probably don't want me as your enemy."

"Scorpion..."

Darvy's eyes narrowed.

"Ranked 9?"

"Oh? You already memorized the ranking?"

"...Just the top 10."

"Not bad, not bad! If not for that weak body of yours, I woulda believed that you would survive for long."

The casualty, the way he was so relaxed, the demeanor that didn't fit the title of a slave... this man, named Scorpion, brought a sense of disparity to Darvy.

He saw throughout his way, many slaves who were depressed and filled in despair. Scorpion didn't seem to be like that though. In fact, he seemed to be satisfied almost, with his current life style.

"A piece of advice for you, kid."

Grinning, Scorpion spoke in a rough voice. 

Eavesdropping their condition, many others also fell silent, focusing on what Scorpion was about to say. Darvy and Scorpion noticed this, but didn't say anything to it.

"3 rounds. If you can survive 3 rounds, you'll be fine."

Holding out three fingers, Scorpion explained.

"As you heard, each round has a punishment reserved for the losers, with lower rounds having greater severity. For the first round's punishment, they run a roulette on which body part to take. Sometimes, it's as trivial as a finger. Sometimes, it may land on the brain, meaning a sure death."

Some gulped. Some turned pale, while some let out a breath of relief, knowing that they wouldn't be subjected to this pain.

"Of course, you won't die. However, imagine becoming a Celestial Dragon's chair without a limb afterward until your death. Terrific, isn't it?"

"...Literally."

Darvy muttered, and Scorpion laughed loudly at that.

"Then, the second round. Its punishment isn't as bad, ya know? They pit all the losers together in the area before releasing a couple of huge animals. You either win or get massacred, but it ain't as bad as it sounds. However... the third round. Yeah. In a way, this round's punishment is the worst of all three."

Knowing that everyone around was listening, Scorpion looked at them from left to right.

"They will put two bullets in a revolver with a barrel that has six chambers. The losers will line up and the gun will be fired straight at their heads, one by one. For every six, two will certainly die... making this round's mortality rate the highest of all."

"Then, the notion of the punishment's severity decreasing as the round goes up is invalid."

"Depends on how you interpret it."

Scorpion shrugged.

"If you get lucky enough, you walk out unscathed without any problem. Also, a sure death is better than living in a deprived state with a deprived condition—oh! And I didn't mention one important thing."

"Important thing?"

"Yes, important. Very important indeed."

Suddenly, the trace of a grin disappeared from Scorpion's face as he spoke in a low tone, growling almost,

"Those punishments apply to us only. As you noticed, there are those who aren't like us and participate in these fights voluntarily. If they lose, they walk away without punishment. Sucks, doesn't it?"

Then, he clapped his hands, with the trace of seriousness gone in a blink of an eye.

"And that's it! As long as you continue winning, you'll be fine! Easy, isn't it?"

"E-Easy? T-This...?"

One person mumbled in fear, clearly shaken by the information.

"We are doomed!! How can this be true?!! Except for a select few, almost everyone here will suffer one way or the other!! I—"

"Shut up."

Scorpion bickered as he picked his ear.

"That only applies to extras like you, okay?"

"W-What do you mean by that?!! Extras or not, we're all slaves!!"

"...Hah."

As Scorpion frowned, another guy suddenly acted out as if having gone crazy.

"Heheheheheh, we're dead! We're all dead!! What's the point of living?!!"

Suddenly, he began swinging a sword that was in his grasp, causing everyone around to yelp and back away.

Then, at the next moment, that slave was found restrained by two individuals who appeared out of nowhere. These two, dressed up in white suits, emanated the aura of the strong.

One of them was pushing the slave's head onto the ground, while the other was restraining his arms.

"...Number 9."

One of them then glared at Scorpion,

"Was this intended?"

"No no, of course not, dear CP0-sama!"

Holding his hands out, Scorpion playfully pretended as if he was innocent.

"...You roused others so that you can reveal our existence here to them."

"What do you mean? Oh my gosh, I'm so scared, that guy is going to kill us! Hurry up and put him away, pretty please?"

'CP0?'

Darvy resisted an urge to grimace. Up until now, he's seen normal soldiers, god's knights, and now, whatever this CP0 was. The more he learned, the more he recognized the power that Celestial Dragons held in their palms.

"...Should this happen again,"

"Should this happen again?"

Scorpion, dropping his act, snorted.

"What can you do? Harm me, the Celestial Dragons' entertainer, and face their wrath?"

"...Tch!"

In the end, they did nothing to Scorpion, walking away with the reprimanded slave.

Some others looked at Scorpion in awe, but Darvy looked at him in confusion.

"You..."

Darvy asked,

"What is the purpose of showing us all this?"

Such a question implied many things. Darvy was asking through this, if Scorpion was trying to unite them together and launch a rebellion to break free.

"You're overthinking things, Darvy."

However, what Scorpion showed was the exact opposite.

"Did you see just now? Those almighty people can't do anything to me. I'm the prized product of my master. Hurting me is akin to breaking his favorite, finest artwork. As long as you have enough power to maintain a high ranking, you have the power to live a luxurious life—one enough to make you want to stay."

"...Even if you are nothing but a slave in the end?"

There was a pause after that. Then, Scorpion snarled,

"I'm not a slave."

He was provoked by Darvy's words. Revealing hostility, he glared into Darvy's eyes,

"I'm an entertainer."

Darvy read in the eyes of this man—the insanity.