One Piece: Dungeon Shop. Scamming Garp, Reward: Eight-Tails Jinchuriki

Chapter 503: Invisible Strangulation! The Pink Demon Descends

In Namek’s sickly green sky, dense clouds drifted slowly, pushed by a faint current of air. Doflamingo strolled just above these clouds, stepping on transparent threads crafted by his String-String Fruit. Hovering casually in the air, he looked exactly like a massive, pink flamingo taking a leisurely walk.

Below lay an incredibly complex forest of rock pillars. Massive green stalagmites pierced the sky, fracturing the ground-level visibility into jagged segments. Krillin and Son Gohan—two small figures—were carefully navigating through the stone forest, completely unaware that a reaper from another world was circling right above their heads.

Peering through his red sunglasses, Doflamingo looked down at the moving black dots, the smirk on his face growing wider by the second. That baldy’s shockwave earlier had indeed caught him off guard, but that didn’t mean he was afraid of these weaklings with battle powers hovering around fifteen hundred.

In this godforsaken alien world, that idiot Kaido charged around like a wild boar, and that stiff-necked Akainu was undoubtedly out there causing destruction with his magma. Only he, Donquixote Doflamingo, knew how to leverage intellect and information to reap the greatest rewards. As long as he secured that radar showing the Dragon Balls’ locations, he could avoid all those terrifying monsters with battle powers in the hundreds of thousands. He’d effortlessly gather all seven Dragon Balls and trade them to Shop Manager Blake for that divine power of lifeform transcendence.

At the thought, a deeply suppressed, dark chuckle rolled from Doflamingo’s throat.

Below, Krillin, clutching the disc-shaped Dragon Radar, ran in the lead. He paused occasionally to check the blinking dots on the screen, a fine layer of sweat already coating his bald head. The atmosphere on this planet was suffocating. Destroyed villages and the corpses of Namekians were everywhere; that terrifying monster, Frieza, and his forces could appear before them at any moment.

"It’s right over there," Krillin said, suddenly stopping and pointing toward a massive hill a few miles ahead. "The radar shows a Dragon Ball signal that hasn’t moved at all. The Grand Elder must be there."

Gohan, catching his breath behind Krillin, looked up and followed his pointing finger. The hill had a very peculiar shape, resembling a giant stone pillar piercing the clouds, with a white structure sitting at its very top.

"That’s great, Uncle Krillin! Once we get that Dragon Ball, we can gather all seven before Frieza does!" Gohan’s small face finally broke into an excited smile.

But the moment he finished speaking, an incredibly faint, chilling sensation shot up his spine.

High above, Doflamingo watched the two stop in their tracks. He knew it was time to close the net. He had absolutely no intention of waiting for these brats to retrieve the Dragon Ball before making his move. Who knew what kind of monster was hiding at the Grand Elder’s place? If it turned out to be some ancient freak with a battle power over a hundred thousand, he wouldn’t even have time to run. The safest bet was to snatch the radar halfway there.

Doflamingo spread the fingers of both hands, flicking them rapidly through the air. Dozens of entirely invisible, transparent threads fell from his fingertips, drifting in the breeze before landing silently across the narrow canyon entrance the two were bound to pass through. The threads intertwined, forming an incredibly deadly cutting net in the air. If those brats dared to run through it, their bodies would be sliced into dozens of pieces in less than a fraction of a second.

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his pink feather coat, Doflamingo waited leisurely for his prey to walk right into the trap.

On the ground, Krillin shoved the radar into his pocket, preparing to sprint through the canyon in one go.

"Wait!" Gohan suddenly screamed, grabbing Krillin’s arm with enough force to make the older martial artist wince in pain.

"What’s wrong, Gohan?!" Krillin was startled, immediately lowering his voice, thinking Frieza’s pursuers had caught up to them.

Gohan stared unblinkingly at the seemingly empty canyon entrance. The primal Saiyan instinct for danger buried deep in his bones was blaring like a siren. Every hair on his body stood on end, and even his breathing grew erratic.

"Uncle Krillin... it smells like danger ahead. Really, really dangerous," Gohan’s voice carried a distinct tremble. He didn’t even know where the threat was coming from, but he could just feel that the air ahead was hiding blades sharp enough to mince them into pieces.

Krillin had absolute faith in Gohan’s intuition. Back on Earth, when they were fighting the Saiyans, the boy’s instincts had saved their lives several times. He immediately stopped and scanned their surroundings. Aside from a few bare green stone pillars, there was absolutely nothing. He couldn’t even sense a trace of ki, which only made it all the more eerie.

Bending down, Krillin picked up a fist-sized, solid rock. With a forceful throw, he hurled it straight toward the canyon entrance. The rock traced a parabolic arc, whistling through the air as it hurtled forward.

Just as the rock was about to pass through the canyon entrance, something terrifying happened. Without any sound of impact, or any flash of energy, the solid rock inexplicably split apart mid-air. It broke into dozens of perfectly even pieces that clattered to the ground.

Krillin’s eyes widened in horror. He took a few steps forward, picked up one of the fragments, and inspected it, his scalp going numb. The cut was as smooth as a mirror; he could clearly see Namek’s sickly green sky reflected on the surface.

This was absolutely no natural phenomenon. Some incredibly sharp, invisible weapon had sliced the rock to ribbons. If he had just run through there a moment ago, it wouldn’t be scattered stones on the ground right now—it would be his dismembered corpse.

"That was close," Krillin gulped, cold sweat dripping from his bald head onto his chin. He immediately pulled Gohan back a dozen meters, dropping into a combat stance.

High in the sky, Doflamingo watched his carefully laid trap get exposed by a mere rock. The smile on his face didn’t fade; in fact, it grew even wider.

"Fuffuffuffu."

An utterly arrogant burst of laughter suddenly echoed through the air, reverberating wildly through the stone forest. It was impossible to pinpoint the source. Krillin and Gohan instantly stood back-to-back, elevating their ki to its peak as they vigilantly scanned the sky.

The thick green clouds directly above them were suddenly torn open by an unseen force, and an incredibly tall figure slowly descended. That flamboyant pink feather coat whipped wildly in the wind, looking like a ball of burning pink flame. Doflamingo walked down from the sky, step by step, treading on transparent threads. His pointed leather shoes actually clicked against the empty air.

"Quite sharp instincts you have there, little mice."

Doflamingo stopped about a dozen meters above the ground, looking down at the two from his lofty vantage point. His red sunglasses hid his eyes, but the undisguised mockery and killing intent radiating from him completely enveloped Krillin and Gohan.

Staring at this bizarrely dressed man, Krillin felt a cold knot of dread in his stomach. He couldn’t sense any ki coming from the man at all, yet he was walking on air like some kind of god. It was the first time he’d ever seen an ability that so blatantly defied the laws of physics.

"Who are you?! Are you one of Frieza’s men?" Krillin shouted, secretly gathering a white ki blast in his hand.

Doflamingo completely ignored the question. In his eyes, these two brats didn’t even have the right to speak to him. He was only interested in that radar. To think that he—a Warlord of the Sea, the King of Dressrosa, and the Underworld Emperor, Joker—was reduced to stealing toys from children. If word of this got back to the New World, Crocodile and Hawk Eyes would laugh their heads off.

But in the face of absolute power, pride was completely worthless. As long as he could complete the task assigned by the Shop Manager, forget stealing toys, he’d even wash the Grand Elder’s feet if he had to.

Doflamingo extended his right hand, pointing his long fingers directly at the pocket where Krillin was hiding the radar. A few transparent threads glinted with a faint, deadly chill in the sunlight.

"Hand over that bead-finding toy," Doflamingo commanded. "And I might just consider giving you a quick death."

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