# Chapter 524: A Knife in the Back
Buggy was counting off Ian's faults with tears and snot flowing, his pitiful demeanor as if he wanted to vent all the resentment he'd held toward Ian over the years.
Finally, he pointed at Luffy and said to Ian: "And you brought this guy too! Do you even realize that if it weren't for him, I never would have been captured by the Marines?"
"Huh? It's because of me?" Luffy had a black question mark face, tilting his head in confusion: "I didn't know that?"
Ian was speechless. He thought to himself, Buggy, if you knew that the person who captured you was actually my sister, would you cough up blood and die right here?
Waving Buggy off, Ian asked him coldly: "So tell me, are you going to help me or not?"
"I... I..." Buggy was stunned for a long time, then suddenly turned his face away, biting his glove with his mouth, tears streaming down as he said: "Fine, I'll help, alright?"
A wise man knows when to submit. Buggy understood very well that from the moment he saw Ian, he actually had no choice. As the nightmare of his entire life, the shadow Ian had left in his heart could be described as infinitely large. He was absolutely certain that if he dared to utter a single 'no' from his mouth, Ian would definitely throw him back into the cell.
So Buggy shamelessly yielded again.
"That's more like it!" Ian happily patted Buggy on the shoulder. Maybe it was because he'd been away for so long, but he felt a kind of nostalgic affection for the people he'd met in the East Blue. Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought Cabaji and the others along when he saw them.
"If possible, please save me too! If you're going to Level 5, I might be able to help!"
Just then, a voice suddenly rang out from the cell next to Buggy's. Ian turned to look and saw a man wearing glasses.
"Who are you?" Luffy tilted his head and asked.
"It's me, Mr. 3!" The glasses-wearing man quickly grabbed the hair on top of his head, making a '3' shape, reminding Luffy.
The okama who had transformed into Vice Admiral Momonga, Bon Clay, burst out laughing when he saw Mr. 3, then quickly touched his face and changed back, saying: "Hey hey, Mr. 3! It's me! I'm Mr. 2!"
Pfft! Mr. 3 also sprayed. He had originally seen Luffy and Zoro and the others, the familiar faces of the Straw Hat Pirates, and had tried to ask for help on a whim. But he never expected that among this group of jailbreakers, there was also his old colleague from Baroque Works!
This was great. He didn't even need to beg; everyone released him.
Ian hadn't actually met Mr. 3 face to face. When he went to Alabasta back then, Mr. 3 seemed to be out on a mission. But seeing two Baroque Works members appear, Ian suddenly remembered that Crocodile was also locked up in Impel Down. If Mr. 3 hadn't suddenly appeared, Ian would have almost forgotten, so he asked about it.
"Yes, Lord Ian!" Mr. 3 was very respectful to Ian, answering: "In fact, we were all captured together back then. I was locked up on the second floor, while the boss and Mr. 1 were locked up on the fifth floor. After all, he was once a Warlord of the Sea, and his crimes were more severe."
Saying this, Mr. 3 suddenly knelt before Ian and said: "My lord, please consider that he once fought alongside you against Doflamingo, and please save the boss too!"
"Oh!?" Ian looked at Mr. 3 with some surprise, saying: "I didn't expect you to be so loyal to him!"
"Not exactly!" Mr. 3 smiled bitterly, saying: "This Impel Down prison is pure hell. Being locked up on the second floor, I wish I could die early. The boss is on the fifth floor; I don't know if he's suffering more than me. I just think that even if the boss has to atone for his crimes, he shouldn't have to endure such torment..."
Ian didn't answer him, just said: "Let's go. We'll talk when we reach the fifth floor."
So Mr. 3 didn't dare say anything more. He stood up and followed behind the group.
Continuing forward, Ian and the others encountered more wild beasts. Those silly-faced man-eating lions that kept muttering strange words appeared in groups. Don't let their dumb appearance fool you; if they caught you, they would bite you to death and eat you. It was said that in the second prison, dozens of people lost their lives as their snacks every year.
But unfortunately, these man-eating lions weren't facing Luffy fighting alone as in the original history, but Ian leading a large force.
Now, excluding the prisoners who had run off to guard the passageways and clean up the guard forces, there were still over a hundred people following behind Ian from the first and second floors. This snowball was just getting bigger and bigger.
And the prisoners who had lived under the shadow of these wild beasts for a long time, once freed, immediately vented all their anger on these creatures. They would swarm forward, a dozen people surrounding one man-eating lion. While the lion was biting the person in front of it, others would come from the side, using clubs and axes to break the lion's legs, then pin it down and smash it with various weapons until it was a bloody mess.
This scene was somewhat bloody. The man-eating lions that were beaten to death often still had a prisoner's corpse in their mouths. Nami couldn't bear to watch and kept tightly gripping Ian's clothes as she followed, not daring to look.
But Ian didn't think there was anything wrong with it. The prisoners in the jail were probably the group of people who longed most for freedom. Whether they were originally pirates or criminals, they were still human at the end of the day. Once they saw hope of freedom, such an outburst was normal.
In the process of fighting for freedom, some people died and some lived. That was also normal.
However, Luffy and Law looked at this scene with some lingering fear, saying: "If we had been captured back then on Sabaody Archipelago, we probably would have ended up like them, right?"
..............................
In the monitoring room of Impel Down, the guards saw the scene of Ian and his group. Now, besides recognizing Ian, they also identified the others.
"Trafalgar Law of the Heart Pirates, Urouge of the Fallen Monk Pirates, and the Straw Hat Pirates!"
"Heavens, they're all pirates with bounties over a hundred million! How did they get mixed up with Warlord Ian!?"
"And now the Buggy Pirates have appeared too!"
"That Vice Admiral Momonga is definitely a fake! The one impersonating him is the wanted Baroque Works criminal Mr. 2!"
"It looks like they're heading for Sea Knight Jinbe and Crocodile, who are locked up on the fifth floor!"
"Should we transfer these two immediately? If Black Dragon Ian rescues them, we'll be facing three Warlords of the Sea!"
Hearing this possibility, the guards in the monitoring room all shuddered in unison, then frantically began to act, contacting the guards on the fifth floor.
However, the fifth floor of the prison was known as the Frozen Hell. The icy, snowy weather made even the guards unwilling to stay there long. Who knew when the guards would mobilize to transfer the two Warlords?
Fortunately, good news finally came at this moment.
A guard who had been continuously contacting Marine Headquarters suddenly jumped up, screaming: "It's through! Finally through! The interference is gone, we've contacted Headquarters!"
But what they didn't know was that the disappearance of the interference meant that Enel outside had completed his mission, and the Marine warships surrounding the prison had been completely sunk by him.
Regardless, the situation at Impel Down was finally reported to Marine Headquarters.
When Sengoku received the report from Impel Down that Warlord Black Dragon Ian had suddenly appeared there, attacked the prison, and triggered a massive prisoner riot, he too jumped up!
"Damn it! What the hell is going on!?" Sengoku angrily slammed the table, shouting into the receiver: "How could Ian get close to Impel Down!? Are you all blind? How did you let his ship approach!?"
"F-Fleet Admiral, we had no choice!" The Impel Down guards said with mournful faces: "They came on Vice Admiral Momonga's warship, but Vice Admiral Momonga and Pirate Empress Boa Hancock were both impostors from their group. We didn't notice in time and let them into Impel Down... Now they've entered the second floor and are heading for the third, apparently trying to rescue Sea Knight Jinbe and Sand Crocodile Crocodile. We can't stop them and urgently need reinforcements!"
Hearing this, Sengoku's mind went blank with a boom. He was stunned. Right, why hadn't he thought of this? Sea Knight Jinbe and Sand Crocodile Crocodile had followed Ian back then in Dressrosa to overthrow Doflamingo. This showed there was definitely a connection between them. With Jinbe captured, it was only natural for Ian to go rescue him!
Sengoku had been so busy lately with the plan to surround the Whitebeard Pirates that he hadn't considered this, leaving a loophole. Plus, when Ian left Marine Headquarters, he headed toward Sabaody Archipelago, making Sengoku mistakenly think Ian wanted to return to the New World through Fish-Man Island. He never expected Ian to suddenly double back and attack Impel Down!
Careless! Too careless!
Now, Marine Admirals Aokiji and Kizaru had already been dispatched by Fleet Admiral Sengoku to the New World to support Akainu. He had originally planned to gather the remaining Warlords and then lead the elite forces of Marine Headquarters to the Edd War sea area. He never expected Ian to stab the Marines in the back like this. What could be done now?
It had to be said that Ian's timing was too perfect. Because this war wasn't happening at Marineford but in the New World, Sengoku had to carefully consider even sending support forces.
If he sent support, he would need at least five or six Vice Admirals to go together to stop Ian, and at least a dozen warships. This would inevitably affect the Marines' war in the New World.
But if he didn't send support, and Ian broke through Impel Down, it would be the Marines' second disgrace, possibly causing an even greater impact than Golden Lion Shiki's escape back then.
How would he explain this to the World Government? How would he explain it to the world?