Chapter 48: Enemy of the World
Su Xiao stood on a massive rock by the coast. The setting sun cast long shadows, and seawater crashed against the boulder, sending spray high into the air.
After Katakuri led his forces to retreat, Su Xiao met the requirements for the third stage of the Ascension/Main Quest and successfully activated the fourth stage, which was the final phase of the Ascension/Main Quest. Completing this task would allow him to advance to a Fourth Rank Hunter.
Advancing in rank did not directly enhance his strength, but it would allow him to enter worlds of higher difficulty. The greater the world's difficulty, the richer the rewards obtained. This was the gap between Fourth Rank Contractors and Third Rank Contractors.
Under normal circumstances, after advancing to the Fourth Rank, Contractors only needed to experience two to three derivative worlds to utterly dominate Third Rank Contractors. However, there were exceptions. For instance, Su Xiao was currently the strongest among the Third Rank. Even if those Contractors advanced to the Fourth Rank and experienced five or six worlds, they might still be strung up and beaten by Su Xiao. This was a gap in accumulated strength.
Su Xiao was by no means afraid of mid-tier Fourth Rank Contractors in terms of strength. If it were upper-mid-tier Fourth Rank Contractors, they would be somewhat troublesome to deal with. As for the top-tier Fourth Rank Contractors, Su Xiao was not yet their match.
For this reason, Su Xiao had never considered a direct confrontation with Fifth Rank Contractors like Kutou and the others. Moreover, one thing puzzled him. According to his estimation, Fifth Rank Contractors should not be weaker than Big Mom, Kaido, and the like. Why hadn't they taken the opportunity to kill Big Mom and the others?
If Kutou and his group had killed Big Mom earlier, the Pirate Prestige they gained would have directly disqualified Su Xiao from competing.
There were only two possibilities. First, Kutou and the others were relatively weak among Fifth Rank Contractors. This point was actually somewhat illogical. It was precisely because of Kutou and the others' presence that Big Mom had swallowed her pride and abandoned her attack on Dressrosa.
That left only one possibility: Kutou and the others' rank was higher than the region they were in. Just as Su Xiao had not been teleported to the Punk Hazard region, Kutou and the others had likely entered this world through special means. As a price, they could not, and dared not, kill Big Mom and the others, which would cause the New World's power structure to collapse.
From Su Xiao's personal perspective, he felt the latter was more plausible. Judging from the increase in Pirate Prestige, there was an 80% or higher chance that Kutou and Qianmeng were members of the same adventure group.
Coincidentally, Su Xiao had traded with Qianmeng, so he knew that Qianmeng and Manshi were members of the same adventure group.
Six Fifth Rank Contractors, with three belonging to the same adventure group. Was this a coincidence? Unlikely. If Su Xiao's guess was correct, Kutou, Qianmeng, Manshi, and the other three were all members of the Wutong Tree Adventure Group.
The thoughts in Su Xiao's mind gradually became clear. Kutou was likely the leader of the Wutong Tree Adventure Group. The six of them had used special means to enter the One Piece world. While suppressing the plot characters in terms of strength, they themselves were also restricted. For example, they could not leave a certain area, nor could they kill certain plot characters with significant influence.
Su Xiao finally understood why Kutou and the others only competed with him in terms of Pirate Prestige, rather than going straight to the root—coming to Dressrosa to kill him.
"Although I can't be 100% sure, this guess is quite plausible."
Su Xiao muttered to himself. Bubu Wang beside him tilted his head to look at Su Xiao, delivering a cute "head-tilt kill."
"Let's go."
Su Xiao leaped down from the boulder. He needed to prepare for the Ascension/Main Quest. This task still had half a month of preparation time.
[Ascension/Main Quest: Enemy of the World (Final Stage).]
Difficulty Level: Lv.???
Quest Brief: Use any means to kill Charloss Saint and Roswald Saint, father and son, and survive for 12 hours.
Quest Info: Charloss Saint will appear on Sabaody Archipelago in 15 days. Roswald Saint will appear at the Sabaody Auction House in 15 days.
Quest Duration: 16 natural days.
Quest Reward: Fourth Rank Contractor Authority.
Quest Penalty: Forced Execution.
...
Su Xiao's fourth stage task was, shockingly, to kill two Celestial Dragons!
There was a saying in the One Piece world: if anyone dares to lay a hand on a Celestial Dragon, the Navy will definitely send an Admiral to reinforce. Here, "lay a hand on" meant injuring, kidnapping, etc.
Celestial Dragons were the World Nobles. They were the descendants of the twenty kings who, 800 years ago, established the World Government.
Thus, one could imagine the status of the Celestial Dragons. Among them, a certain individual held the greatest authority in the One Piece world, even able to directly command the Five Elders.
On the surface, the World Government was governed by the Five Elders, but in reality, this was not the case. The true ruler of the World Government was a "Celestial Dragon" named Im. Or rather, he governed both the Celestial Dragons and the Five Elders.
The power structure of the World Government was pyramidal. Im was at the top, residing year-round in the deepest part of Mary Geoise, the Flower Chamber.
Below Im were the Five Elders and the Celestial Dragons.
There was no mutual control between the Five Elders and the Celestial Dragons. They were two completely separate systems of power.
The Five Elders took orders from Im. In most cases, they managed the World Government's military forces, such as the Navy, which was very active at sea.
Most Celestial Dragons, on the other hand, had no real power. Their daily work was eating, drinking, and having fun. They were the type who felt uncomfortable if they didn't squander their wealth for a single day.
Despite this, the Celestial Dragons were also an important part of the World Government. They could both attract fire from hostile forces and ensure the continuation of the twenty kings' bloodline.
For the supreme ruler Im, ordinary Celestial Dragons only needed to stay alive. In times of crisis, they could even be used as disposable assets.
Below the Five Elders was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Kong. Below Kong was the Fleet Admiral, Sengoku the Buddha. Below Sengoku were the Three Admirals. As for the CP departments, they were special units directly under the Five Elders.
If arranged in order: Im > Five Elders > Commander-in-Chief Kong > Buddha Sengoku > Three Admirals.
Celestial Dragons (Independent system, governed by Im, protected by all World Government departments).
CP Departments (Governed by the Five Elders, governed by Im, half-lackeys of the Celestial Dragons).
What Su Xiao had to do was kill a Celestial Dragon within the World Government's power structure. Once he succeeded, it would be equivalent to opposing the entire World Government system.
As could be seen from the task's difficulty, killing a Celestial Dragon was not hard. The hard part was surviving for 12 hours after succeeding.
If a Celestial Dragon was killed, the World Government would not just send an Admiral. Who knew what kind of people would come to hunt Su Xiao down.
The good news was that Su Xiao still had over ten days to prepare. Even better news was that the location where Roswald and his son would appear was precisely the auction house under the Don Quixote Family. And Su Xiao held a considerable status within the Don Quixote Family.
The recently exhausted Doflamingo had no idea that a huge pot was about to be dropped on his head.
Su Xiao leaped down from the boulder and slowly walked toward the Hill of Kings. Doflamingo still owed him a Great Grade Sword.
Recently, Su Xiao had collected several Great Grade Swords. He only needed to obtain the one Doflamingo had promised, and he would attempt to upgrade the quality of Dragon-Slaying Flash.