Effortless

"Who goes there?!" Crocodile’s face was filled with vigilance as he slashed out with a crescent blade formed from golden grains of sand.

"So you do know some Haki!" Yota casually reached out and pinched Crocodile’s Desert Vajra Sword. With a slight squeeze, Crocodile’s attack collapsed into a pile of sand.

A thin layer of Armament Haki did indeed coat Crocodile’s attack, though it had not even reached the level of hardening.

Yota understood. Haki at this level could only be used to deal with the Elementalization of Logia-types; whether for attack or defense, it was at an extremely poor level.

He did not know whether Crocodile’s Haki had truly regressed, or whether he had focused all his training on Devil Fruit development and only maintained his two types of Haki at the awakened level.

But regardless of which it was, Crocodile’s current strength fell far short of his immense reputation.

"Bastard! You’re Marauder Yota of the Whitebeard Pirates?"

Others often failed to recognize Yota, but Crocodile had always paid close attention to the Whitebeard Pirates, so he recognized Yota at a glance.

Yota merely smiled faintly. His figure instantly turned into a streak of lightning, and before Crocodile could react, he had already circled behind him and seized the back of his neck.

Pitch-black mist erupted in an instant. Against a powerhouse like Crocodile, who relied on his Devil Fruit abilities, the most effective move was naturally the Dark-Dark Fruit, which countered all Devil Fruits.

Crocodile had still been in the midst of Elementalization, but once he was caught by the Dark-Dark Fruit’s gravitational pull, he could no longer use any Devil Fruit abilities. Moments later, he was sucked directly into Dark Space.

He was only dealing with a Sand Crocodile. Trading even one move with him was already giving him face.

"Boss, there’s some information here… Who are you?"

At that moment, a mature woman dressed like a cowgirl, with slightly dark skin and long hair draped over her shoulders, walked down from above.

"Nico Robin?" Yota turned to look at her. Her Flower-Flower Fruit can be pretty overpowered if used well… Forget it. It’s not like she’s a bad person.

Shaking his head, Yota felt that he was becoming obsessed. Perhaps because he had been hunting Devil Fruits so often lately, whenever he saw a Devil Fruit user now, all he could think about was how to obtain their Devil Fruit.

"Marauder Yota? Where is Crocodile?" Nico Robin looked wary. No Devil Fruit user could help but fear Yota, who possessed the ability to plunder Devil Fruits.

Yota waved his hand. "Isn’t it obvious? I just took him down."

"What did you come here for? Are you planning to seize this country too?" Nico Robin spoke while quietly preparing herself.

She knew perfectly well that if Yota could take down Crocodile with ease, then her meager fighting strength was even less than nothing to him.

"No interest. I’m not some Shichibukai." Yota shook his head. "What would taking over a country even do for me?"

"Then why are you…"

"I was only after the Devil Fruit." Yota answered, then looked at Nico Robin with a half-smile. "What? Could it be that you know some other secret?"

Nico Robin instantly held her breath. Yet Yota had merely said that one sentence before turning into a streak of lightning and vanishing from before her, leaving behind only his distant voice.

"Miss Nico Robin, if you want to find the Poneglyphs and pursue the truth of the Void Century, you might as well seek out the Revolutionary Army. They’re the ones who truly share your ideals."

Only after Yota had completely left did Nico Robin take several deep breaths and touch her neck.

When Yota had turned into lightning and disappeared, she had felt a faint numbness at the back of her neck. She had thought he was about to kill her.

At that moment, however, a strange Flying Thunder God Mark on her neck was slowly fading away.

After quite a while, she finally came back to her senses and murmured, "The Revolutionary Army… Are they really people who share my ideals?"

While Nico Robin pondered her future, Yota’s lightning form had already returned to the sky in an instant. He said to Princess Vivi, "It’s done. We can go."

Princess Vivi’s eyes widened as she stammered, "It’s done? That Sand Crocodile… How could it be so fast…"

"He’s only a Shichibukai. How long was it supposed to take?" Yota said, rolling his eyes.

"Uh…" Princess Vivi swallowed. To Vivi and the Alabasta Kingdom, the Sand Crocodile was an insurmountable mountain that they could not defeat even if they gave everything they had. But to Yota, he was little different from a fodder enemy who could be instantly killed.

At most, one move could wipe out a hundred ordinary fodder enemies, while an opponent at the Sand Crocodile’s level might only be taken down one at a time.

Just then, Yota’s Den Den Mushi began to go puru puru. He reached out and answered it, hearing Violet’s voice.

"Captain, we’ve taken care of it! We caught the guy impersonating the King, and we also captured several senior agents of Baroque Works!"

Yota nodded directly. "Good. I’ve caught the Sand Crocodile here as well. I’ll bring Princess Vivi over right now."

As he spoke, he grabbed Vivi with one hand and used the Flying Thunder God Technique. The two of them instantly vanished from the sky.

"Quack!?" Karu, still floating in midair under the Super Light-Weight Rock Technique, let out a startled cry. He looked around and found that he was indeed the only one left in the sky.

"Quack quack quack quack quack quack quack!!!"

"Father!!" Tears streamed down Princess Vivi’s face as she rushed forward and threw herself into the arms of a middle-aged man wearing a crown, whose face was somewhat pale.

The man held Vivi and comforted her for a while. After the father and daughter had calmed down, the King smiled at Yota and said, "Thank you all for saving the Alabasta Kingdom and shattering Crocodile’s plot. May I ask what kind of reward you desire?"

Yota held the Imitation Fruit in his hand and looked up. "King Koza, you’re too polite. I’ve already gotten what I wanted."

The Old King’s expression stiffened slightly, and Princess Vivi covered her mouth. At that moment, Violet gently tugged on Yota’s clothes and whispered, "Alabasta’s King is Nefertari Cobra… Koza is the Leader of the rebel army in their country."

Yota blinked. Well, it seemed he had made a huge blunder.

Fortunately, the King quickly glossed over the matter and used the most common move in the Pirate World after winning a battle and defeating the boss—throwing a banquet!