Chapter 1223: Behind Delivering a Friend, Advanced AI Tampering

“What’s going on! A seemingly raccoon-looking Padoom is actually a black horse too?! Dressrosa today is truly a place full of hidden talents! The person he summoned is quite terrifying, and seems to be a fruit ability user! Judging by appearance is indeed the biggest mistake. The match isn’t over yet, just how many monsters has this Quake-Quake Fruit attracted?!”

Golden Lion, Kong, for Gatz, these two people are too distant.

After causing havoc in Marinfanto, the Golden Lion was imprisoned in Impel Down. Although he successfully escaped, he was defeated by Yamato before he could make any significant moves.

The tide of the era has never stopped, and for someone like Gatz, who basically never goes abroad and just gives his speeches every day, the Golden Lion is already an antique-level figure.

Moreover, the Golden Lion in Redfield’s impression is still the Golden Lion in his prime, hence Gatz can’t even call out his name, only feeling that he looks very impressive.

Kong is in a similar situation. Now that Sengoku’s era has ended, the Navy Admiral has been replaced by Akainu.

Kong himself is still alive and has been upgraded from Navy Admiral to Grand Marshal, but his news on The Sea has gradually faded.

Navy Admirals rarely get chances to act, not to mention the Grand Marshal. People living in Dressrosa might have heard his name in the news, but ordinary folks with memories of him are even fewer.

In the eyes of the audience here, as long as the battle is exciting enough, identity doesn’t matter.

The person transformed by Padoom’s Transformation Leaf has the greatest impact on pirates, especially on lieutenants like Marco and Katakuri from the Four Emperors’ team.

“Hey, hey, are you kidding? This ability is too unfair.”

Marco couldn’t help but exclaim as he watched the battle in the arena. Just now, a fighting fish launched a surprise attack on the Golden Lion near the outside of the arena. The Golden Lion dodged the fighting fish’s attack with just a turn and even used the water stirred up by the fish.

Under his influence, the seawater below turned into a fierce lion, roaring towards the other contestants on the stage. Meanwhile, his twin swords swung out several Sword Qi, directly splitting Zone F into several areas.

“What’s up? Is that blond old man someone famous?”

“Famous? He was once a man at the pinnacle, a Great Pirate from the same era as Dad. Even Roger was forced into a desperate situation by him. If it weren’t for that strange weather, the outcome of the Battle of Edvaul might have been different… Captain of the Flying Sky Pirates, Admiral of the Golden Lion Pirate Fleet, Flying Pirate – Golden Lion Shiki, his titles are quite numerous. As for the man next to him… If I didn’t see wrong, that’s the former Navy Admiral, Steel Bone Kong, all monsters from the old era…”

“Is it so? So even the raccoon around Red is so incredible.”

“Red… so that’s how it is? Then it’s not strange at all…”

Luffy’s words seem to answer some of Marco’s doubts and also help him realize why an ordinary raccoon could project these monsters from the old era.

It seems these projections are inseparable from Redfield, and if that’s the case, then everything makes sense.

As remnants of the old era, Redfield being familiar with these guys is only normal.

“I don’t know what this ability is exactly, but the strength of the projections compared to their original selves is far lacking, and the raccoon’s body… is too weak.”

Padoom who consumed the fruit is merely a special raccoon, even if leveraging Redfield’s power, the strength of the projections wouldn’t be too strong. If Redfield himself ate the fruit, perhaps the replicated projections would be more interesting.

At this moment, the Golden Lion and Kong are rampaging on the stage, whether it’s the Golden Lion relying on his ability or Kong wielding his fists, they pose a deadly threat to ordinary contestants.

Even if these are super weakened versions, ordinary gladiators can’t deal with them.

Yet as Marco said, Padoom’s body remains the weak link, even if it can use the Transformation Leaf to create projections of strong individuals, it’s still just a weak raccoon.

On a chaotic battlefield, finding a corner to hide would be the best choice, but unfortunately, on this narrow stage, there’s no room for such evasion.

Speed’s hooves stamped the ground a few times, and clouds of smoke instantly appeared at Speed’s feet, heat extended upwards, soon enveloping her whole body. Wrapped in flames, Speed charged straight ahead.

“Mizerka! Cover me! Sorlithia follow up! I’ll clear the way for you, go take out that raccoon!”

Olga made them understand that against such an enemy, defeating illusion projections means nothing; if the body isn’t dealt with, they’ll always be led by the nose.

Padoom’s ability doesn’t have Olga’s deceptive sensory ability in its form expression, hence Speed quickly made a choice.

No matter how much they bicker, when it comes to serious action, they can unconditionally trust each other, entrusting their backs to one another for protection.

Backing against the pool, Mizerka had transformed into a high-caliber machine cannon. The water flowing through her body was compressed and imbued with immense kinetic energy, opening a path forward for Speed and the others.

“Mizerka is using seawater with the power of a cannon! The path forward is open, but someone has already set their sights on her! Can the sniper, deprived of teammate protection, handle the new enemy?!”

Gatz’s commentary arrived in real-time. This was originally a chaotic battle with no definitive enemies. Some people noticed that the protectors in front, Sorlithia and Speed, had gone to deal with Padoom, and thus targeted the now isolated Mizerka.

“Now there’s no one left to protect you, is there?”

“Let’s have you exit here first!”

Jet and Abdullah, people wanted for bombing a World Government’s important facility, launched a sneak attack on Mizerka together after Jet, with his Middle Eastern flair, took down two contestants.

Gatz’s commentary had already indicated Mizerka’s situation, but neither Speed nor Sorlithia chose to return for support, not even sparing a glance back.

This was their trust—they believed Mizerka could handle the opponents on the field.

In fact, that was precisely the case. The tips of Mizerka’s fingers suddenly sprouted sharp claws. With the infusion of Haki, black bladed claws and short daggers attacked Jet and Abdullah in front of her. Even in the process, she maintained her firepower suppression.

…

On the other side, Padoom’s situation was more urgent. The projections of Golden Lion and Kong were fighting in other areas, leaving Padoom vulnerable, and his choice to deal with this scenario was to pull out two more transformation leaflets.

Even though he was a mythical beast species ability user, activating transformation leaves consumed quite a bit of stamina, and the stronger the projection’s original body, the more complex the ability, the greater the consumption for projection.

With two muffled thuds, a pink-clad woman and a giant muscular man appeared before Speed.

“Dad?!”

“Mom?!”

Though aware of Padoom’s ability as being of others, seeing the young Whitebeard and Charlotte Linlin alive and well on the arena still shocked them.

These were formidable opponents worthy of replication from Red Earl’s memory. During his era of traversing the sea, Kaidou was still a fledgling. Even on the eve of his imprisonment, Kaidou hadn’t yet completely established the name of Hundred Beasts.

In Redfield’s memory, Whitebeard and Charlotte Linlin were synonymous with power.

Still young and robust, Charlotte Linlin, with her figure yet to alter, wielded a large cleaver in front of Padoom, while Whitebeard swung his fist around.

The momentum naturally wasn’t as ruinous as Whitebeard himself, yet the seawater around the arena swept toward the periphery, soaking the front-row spectators before transforming into a small-scale tsunami aimed at the arena.

Fruit abilities, fighting styles, everything in Red Earl’s impression was weakened and reproduced by the Bake-danuki Fruit, including Whitebeard’s signature Seaquake.

“Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! Padoom’s ability can achieve such a feat! Thanks to him, we’ve once again witnessed the power of the Quake-Quake Fruit up close! Merely a projection can go this far, so what can the actual Quake-Quake Fruit achieve?!”

Gatz keenly seized the key issue, stirring the audience’s excitement even further as Padoom demonstrated his ability, even agitating the contestants yet to enter the arena.

“Wait! Hold on! The tsunami has been exploited! Although it was Padoom’s projection that created the tsunami, now this tsunami has become Mizerka’s power!”

Padoom’s projection followed a fixed combat pattern, but these projections were at most sophisticated AI, only able to execute programmed skills without profound analysis.

If summoned by Red Earl’s command, the projection could exhibit greater strength, but Padoom couldn’t achieve this.

Whether Whitebeard or Golden Lion, he couldn’t comprehend their battles, only letting them act on instinct, as rash interference would hinder the projection’s combat prowess.

The principal micro-controls from afar, making losing inevitable; at least Padoom knew his limitations.

The consequence was facing unexpected situations, Padoom’s handling lacked promptness.

Although Mizerka took control of the mini-tsunami created by Whitebeard’s projection using surfing ability, those projections still possessed the capability to respond to this. Both Golden Lion and Charlotte Linlin’s fruit abilities could take over the tsunami, while Whitebeard could shatter it with brute strength.

However, now those projections were either dealing with other contestants or engaged in battle with Speed and Sorlithia. If they diverted attention to counter the tsunami, Speed would seize the chance to capture Padoom.

Not adept at fighting, Padoom couldn’t decide how to proceed for a moment, eventually letting the mini-tsunami controlled by Mizerka sweep across the entire field, amidst the chaotic waves, four arms tightly grasped Padoom…