Level 3 Chest Battle

Sanji stared at the jar that seemed to be drifting farther and farther away, finding it strangely hard to look away.

It felt as though he absolutely had to get it.

He glanced at the others.

Was he the only one who felt this way?

"I’ll go take a look. It might be something important."

In the end, still carrying that strange feeling, Sanji jumped into a small boat.

He rowed toward it.

The closer he got, the stronger that peculiar sensation became.

Finally, he reached out and hauled the jar into his boat.

"It’s so light. What the hell? Isn’t this just an ordinary jar? It might even be empty!" Sanji shouted with an exasperated look. "I must be crazy to row all this way for something like this."

Still, he could not stop thinking about it.

He should open it and see.

Under the influence of the enchantment on the jar, Sanji ultimately reached for the lid.

"Hey, kid, how about giving me that ‘ordinary’ jar?" A voice from nearby made Sanji look up, only to see two ships approaching him.

The voice had come from one of them.

A man holding a strangely shaped Steel Fork was staring intensely at him—no, at the jar in his hands.

Wait—

Wasn’t that a pirate ship?

Sanji recognized that ship’s flag: the Steel Fork Pirates. Their captain had a bounty of three million Beli.

He wanted this jar?

"Kid, you should give that jar to me. I can trade you treasure for it. Hurry, hand it over."

Another voice came from behind. Sanji turned his head and saw a pale, plump man wielding a strange Bo Staff.

His eyes were just as feverish, and he even looked anxious.

It was Rhys, who had killed another Contract Holder not long ago.

At that moment, Rhys was beside himself with excitement.

After opening the jar he had just obtained, his strength had increased considerably. Then he sensed an intense pull unlike anything he had felt from the previous jars.

There was no mistake.

It was a more powerful jar, a super-sized jar that was worth more by itself than a hundred of the previous ones!

"Kid, do you know who I am?" Steel Fork gripped his weapon, his smile exceptionally cruel. "You look like some rookie punk who just set out. I’m a Great Pirate with a bounty of four million! You think you can fight me for the jar?"

"Gulp."

Rhys swallowed and could not help taking two steps back. But he soon clenched his teeth, then actually leaped down and lunged at Sanji.

"This jar has to be mine!"

This was a hundredfold—a hundredfold increase in power! Once he got it, forget Steel Fork; even the entire East Blue would be his territory.

Then there would be money, women, status—

His eyes red, Rhys was completely lost in desire. He had even conveniently forgotten that he did not have the money to sign a Level 3 Chest Contract.

Whoosh—!

A flash of cold light streaked past.

Rhys, who was still in midair, was viciously impaled by a Steel Fork and nailed to his own ship.

Naturally, Steel Fork had made the move.

Even nailed to his ship with only a breath left in him, Rhys still reached toward Sanji.

"The jar… damn it…"

"You really don’t know your place, trying to steal my jar." Steel Fork wore a savage expression. He then pulled out another Steel Fork and looked at Sanji in the little boat below. "Hand over the jar! This isn’t something a nobody like you is qualified to possess."

"…"

Sanji looked at Steel Fork, then at Rhys, who was staring at him with utter unwillingness.

He took out a cigarette and lit it.

He took a deep drag.

"Hey." He looked up at Steel Fork. "What exactly is this jar that makes you fight over it like this?"

It was too strange.

Rhys had looked as though he were facing a huge chest of treasure.

And this Steel Fork, too—

Yet the jar was obviously empty.

"So you don’t know." Steel Fork smiled as though he had realized something. "You came here because you felt drawn to it? Interesting. Most of my men feel nothing toward jars like this because they aren’t qualified. But unfortunately—"

Gripping his weapon, he leaped down.

"This Level 3 Chest is mine, Steel Fork’s!"

Boom—!

The descending Steel Fork was struck by a cannonball that flew in from nowhere, exploding into a burst of flames.

He met the same fate as Rhys.

Sanji abruptly turned around.

What appeared before him was an enormous warship.

No, an entire fleet.

Yet it looked as though it had just gone through an incredibly brutal battle. Every ship in the fleet was equally battered and broken.

There was not a single person in sight.

Only a man clad in golden armor stood at the very front of the fleet.

"H-Hey, that flag…" A trembling voice came from Steel Fork’s ship.

"A skull with hourglasses on both sides. There’s no mistake—that’s the overlord of the East Blue."

"Look at that man!"

"Krieg! That golden armor—it’s definitely Captain Krieg!"

"How is that possible? Didn’t Captain Krieg go to the Grand Line?"

"Run! Run for it!"

Even though their captain had been killed, the remaining members of the Steel Fork Pirates had no courage for revenge. They did not even spare Sanji a glance. Raising their flag, they immediately set sail and fled.

Sanji’s expression also grew serious.

Anyone who sailed the East Blue had heard this man’s name.

Krieg!

His bounty was seventeen million Beli. Though it was not the highest in the East Blue, his pirate fleet had more than fifty ships. Its military might was famous throughout the East Blue, earning him the title of its overlord!

But—

Sanji looked at the fleet before him. Aside from the man at the front, no one else could be seen, and the ships appeared severely damaged.

Had someone attacked them in the Grand Line, forcing them to return?

"Hey, kid over there." Krieg waved the massive Golden Great War Spear in his hand and shouted at Sanji in the distance, "Bring me the jar in your hands!"

"What?" Sanji asked reflexively.

This Krieg was after the jar too?

What exactly was this jar?

At that moment, Krieg’s eyes were equally feverish.

There was no mistake.

The sensation in his mind clearly told him that it was a Level 3 Chest, worth a hundred times a Level 1 Jar and ten times a Level 2 Jar!

Krieg had originally fled back from the Grand Line, nearly dying from hunger. By chance, he had been drawn to a jar drifting at sea. After signing a Contract, he had opened something called a Ration Pill from one of the ten jars.

It had restored his vitality at once.

Then he had found a Level 2 Drifting Jar.

He now understood all too well just how powerful these Jars were!

Once he obtained this Level 3 Chest, he would return to the Grand Line and take revenge on that man.