One Piece: With Sign-in System Chapter 323 - 24: Alien Invaders

"By the way... you didn’t tell your sister where I live, did you?"

"Nope, don’t worry. I already told her not to ntion anything to the Hero Association."

"You think Tatsumaki’s actually going to listen to you?"

"Well... that’s... debatable."

"Whatever. Just know you owe one now. Your debt’s cleared."

"Wait, what?!"

Ron shot her a glance. "Got a problem with that?"

"...No."

——

At the dining table.

The two sat across from each other, quietly eating their lunch.

"Where did your sister go today, anyway?"

"Hmm... not sure. I think the Hero Association called an important eting—only S-Class heroes were invited."

"That so..."

Hearing this, Ron’s eyes glinted subtly.

Could it be...?

Fubuki noticed his expression. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," he replied.

The conversation gradually shifted to the topic of inviting Genos and Bang into the Blizzard Group.

Ron gave her a few suggestions, which Fubuki quickly jotted down in her notebook.

Just as they were about to finish eating—

Ron suddenly turned his head toward a certain direction—toward City A.

His expression grew serious.

"What is it?" Fubuki asked, puzzled.

The next mont, the ground beneath them began to tremble slightly.

"An earthquake?"

"No... not that."

Ron narrowed his eyes as he stared into the distance. "They’re here."

"They? Who’s they?"

Fubuki was completely confused.

"Turn on the TV. You’ll see."

Ron stood up. "I’m heading over."

In the next instant—

A brilliant flash of azure surged in his eyes, and then—he vanished right before Fubuki’s eyes.

She quickly turned toward the TV, murmuring, "What’s going on...?"

——

City A.

The city was gone—flattened completely.

Floating above the ruin was a colossal alien mothership.

Under its terrifying barrage, nearly everything had been turned to rubble—except for the Hero Association’s headquarters, built from specialized reinforced materials. It stood alone, defiantly clinging to the ground.

"City A’s destruction level has reached 99.8%! It happened in seconds! What the hell just happened?!"

"This is insane!"

mbers of the Hero Association stared at the monitors, faces pale with disbelief.

tal Bat slung his bat over his shoulder as he climbed the Association building along with other S-Class heroes.

They all looked up at the mothership—faces grim and stunned.

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Genos narrowed his eyes at the object in the sky. "An attack... from space?!"

Bang crossed his arms behind his back, sharp eyes focused upward. "It’s flying. That’s going to make this difficult."

"So this is it, huh... The prophecy from Madam Shibabawa... The crisis that would destroy the Earth..."

Child Emperor muttered, lollipop in hand.

Tatsumaki’s eyes were also narrowed, aura flickering.

King stood beside them—his "King Engine" rumbling ominously.

Suddenly, one of the top three alien warriors descended from the ship—a grotesque multi-headed creature known as lzargard. It stationed itself beneath the mothership, watching over the wreckage.

"Are there... survivors in that ss?"

It extended a hand toward a father and son trapped beneath the debris. Its fingers stretched and elongated unnaturally.

"Purge."

——

BREAKING NEWS

Mysterious flying object appears over City A!

City A obliterated in seconds—Hero Association under fire! Who are the attackers?!

A sudden crisis of unprecedented scale—can the S-Class heroes save the day?!

Ergency Alert: All citizens near City A are instructed to evacuate imdiately. We repeat—

Fubuki sat frozen in front of the TV, watching scenes of the destroyed city and the alien mothership.

"This... this can’t be real..."

She glanced anxiously out the window.

Sister...

——

Deserted Zone, Saitama’s Ho.

"Mysterious flying object, huh...? Definitely looks like alien tech. Wiped out an entire city in one go. Yeah, not good guys."

Saitama stared at the TV while putting on his hero outfit. "Wonder if there’s anyone strong on that ship. Did Genos get into a fight already? Ugh... should’ve gone with him."

"Well, no point waiting around."

Fully suited up, the bald-headed powerhouse stepped out and dashed toward City A at breakneck speed.

——

Back in City A.

lzargard—possessing Dragon-level strength and the power to endlessly regenerate and split apart—was now battling the disciples of Atomic Samurai.

With a single blow, he shattered one disciple’s arm.

Atomic Samurai quickly arrived, joining forces with Bang, Puri-Puri Prisoner, and tal Bat to launch a coordinated assault.

But no matter how many tis they tore him apart—sliced, crushed, pierced—he simply reford every ti.

"What a pain... is this thing immortal?" Bang said with a grave tone.

"Don’t care if he’s immortal—if it takes a thousand hits, we’ll hit him ten thousand tis!"

tal Bat spat into his palm, gripped his bat tighter, and smashed another clone into pieces.

Whoosh!

Hundreds of sword slashes glimred through the air.

Atomic Samurai diced another clone into a thousand pieces.

And yet—lzargard quickly reassembled.

"It’s useless. I. Cannot. Die."

He grinned, sending five clones charging at the heroes.

——

On the Association HQ rooftop—

Genos, Child Emperor, and others stood together.

Genos stared at the mothership. "We have to infiltrate that thing."

Child Emperor clenched his lollipop, fingers flying across a mini-console. "Give a mont. I’ll find a way in."

"King, got any ideas?" asked Superalloy Darkshine.

The rumble of the King Engine echoed as King replied in a heavy voice, "They’re in the sky. I can’t help. Leave this to the flying types."

"Tch. Useless. So ’strongest man alive’ you are," Tatsumaki scoffed, arms crossed. "Forget it. I’ll handle this alone!"

"Wait."

Genos stepped forward. "I’m going too."

"Didn’t you hear ? Alone. I said I’ll do this by myself!"

But just then—before anyone could make another move—

A blinding crimson slash tore through the heavens.

Everyone’s vision turned red for a mont.

Then—an earth-shattering sight.

A monstrous crimson sword slash, several kiloters long and cloaked in black flas, erupted from the ground, aid straight at the alien mothership.

A split second before impact, the mothership activated a massive energy shield.

The red slash collided with the translucent blue do.

BOOM!

The ground sank. The sky shook. The entire ship jolted upward.

Scarlet and blue light collided violently, bursting into a storm of color. The shockwave blew out in all directions, obliterating the surrounding ruins and flattening everything in its path.

The battle between lzargard and the S-Class heroes ground to a halt.

Even tal Bat and Atomic Samurai had to stab their weapons into the ground to keep from being swept away by the gale.

"What the hell just happened?!"

"That power...!"

As everyone stared in disbelief—

Cracks began to spider across the energy barrier.

The crimson slash condensed into a focused sword beam—a spinning column of destructive force.

With a final burst of power, it pierced through the shield completely, carving a massive, house-sized hole into the mothership.

The blue do shattered like glass.

lzargard stared in horror.

"The shield... it was breached?!"

Impossible.

There couldn’t be any being on this planet capable of such power!

Everyone from the Association, all the S-Class heroes—stood frozen.

Who... who did this?

Floating mid-air, Tatsumaki’s eyes flickered.

She suddenly sensed a powerful presence and sharply turned her gaze downward.

There—standing tall among the rubble, wearing a baseball cap, was a young man with jet-black hair.

A lingering crimson glow still shimred in his right hand.

Tatsumaki stared at him, her voice low and trembling.

"...Swordmaster."

- - - - - - -

T/N:

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