Infection

"It's truly sad, isn't it? Being controlled and knowing nothing about it?" Nicholas showed no sympathy at all for the kneeling King Bias. In the sea, if one's strength isn't formidable enough, they don't even qualify as pawns. At most, they are expendable cannon fodder.

"Nicholas! Did you do all this!?" Under immense stress, King Bias, who had regained his composure, seemed on the verge of losing control again.

Nicholas didn't bother to explain. He simply cleaved him in half with a single stroke and then walked toward the door. After all, with the constant howling of wolves all over the island, it was evident that the island was now infested with these creatures.

Just as Nicholas took a few steps, he suddenly felt something and turned around to find King Bias, now in two pieces, reaching out to grab his trouser leg. Meeting Nicholas's gaze, King Bias struggled to speak.

"Lord Nicholas, please save me and my people. I can give you all the wealth accumulated by the royal family!" After saying this, King Bias spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at Nicholas expectantly.

"I really don't understand you kings. You didn't care about the lives of your subjects when you were in power, but when you're about to die, you want to be a good ruler. How boring." Nicholas didn't look back and walked in the direction of Stussy and the others. All that was left behind was the massive body of King Bias, lying prostrate on the ground.

"Stussy, any results yet?" Nicholas looked at the colorful mushroom-covered wolf corpses in front of Stussy, asking nonchalantly. Meanwhile, Vista, intrigued, was playing with the wolf corpses on the ground, clearly curious about how they could change from humans to another species so quickly. Only Simon, watching his two companions, felt that his breakfast might be wasted today.

"Almost," Stussy answered without lifting her head. When Vista, the big fool, asked how long it would take for results, she had said two minutes. Thus, she had to deliver the results within that time frame. Time was running out, and she couldn't afford to waste any.

Seeing this, Nicholas, who knew Stussy's temperament, didn't say much more. He instructed the pirates, who were heavily wounded, "Go get your loot. Take as much as you can, but don't think of being greedy with what needs to be turned in. And of course, you can try not turning it in and see if you can dodge the lightning above your heads."

With that, he waved his hand, indicating that his pirates could plunder the castle. After all, being a pirate meant looting, and this was also a way to make his men contribute during the battle.

"Nicholas, things seem to be getting complicated." As the pirates scattered to plunder, Stussy stood up from the ground. Her calm tone didn't reveal any sense of complication.

"These people seem to be infected by something, likely the ability of a Devil Fruit. Their forms have changed with the infection. Their cells can regenerate rapidly, except against silver, which prevents their extraordinary regeneration ability. In other words, the only advantage of silver weapons lies in their ability to cause wounds that are nearly impossible to heal," Stussy explained calmly.

"Oh, this is terrifying. Can you not talk about such terrifying things so casually?" Simon was wiping the sea prism stone bullet that Nicholas had blocked earlier, as it was quite rare. However, upon hearing Stussy's words, he was stunned. If what Stussy said was true, it would be very easy to destroy the island, even the world.

"Doesn't this ability have any limitations?" Nicholas asked in a deep voice, as if such a bug-like ability could change the landscape of the pirate world.

Just like when facing Monkey D. Luffy, Kaido, But their abilities are weak compared to monsters like luffy or Kaido .

Such as Kaido. Using Flame Cloud to support Onigashima, experienced significant reductions in his ability, as maintaining the ability of a Devil Fruit requires a considerable amount of stamina.

"Well, these monsters won't produce new ones even if they reach a certain number after being infected. Their strength will change significantly over time. The later they are infected, the weaker they will be. This may be limited by the strength of the source mother. Even if they are weak, dealing with ordinary people is straightforward, and once killed, new monsters will take their place, maintaining a certain number," Stussy provided a brief overview to Nicholas.

"So, is this island finished?" Simon immediately looked at Nicholas and said, "Captain, let's run."

"Are they really infected?" Nicholas squinted his eyes. From King Bias and his guards turning into werewolves to the appearance of werewolves dressed in castle staff clothing, he had this feeling.

It seemed that the person who caused all this was not simple. With the appearance of the thick fog on the island and the sniper shots that reached far distances, there were now three strong opponents.

"Stussy, do you have a solution?" Nicholas looked at the disappearing fog outside and the slaughter that filled the island, asking.

"Yes, although this infection is derived from the ability of a Devil Fruit, it's ultimately just an infectious disease. As long as we can develop a vaccine, it can be resolved. However, it will take time, probably about ten minutes."

"Okay, let's wait ten minutes then," Nicholas turned around and crossed over the corpse of King Bias, sitting on the throne.

Meanwhile, on a large ship several sea miles away from Taji Island, three mysterious figures wearing strange masks and draped in oversized white clothes gathered in a cabin.

"I didn't expect it to be Nicholas. What bad luck."

"Yeah, if it were Wang Zhi or John, this plan might have succeeded. After all, it continuously produces troops at the cost of an island."

"What's the use of saying this now? But how should we report back about this incident? After all, although Taji Island isn't a large island, it's still a medium-sized one in the New World. Someone has to take responsibility for its destruction."

"It doesn't matter. This time it's an issue of intelligence failure, which has nothing to do with us."

"Sigh, I thought we could rest after this mission, but it seems I was expecting too much."

"Haha, rest? Who knows what Rocks wants to do now. He has already encountered so many dangerous people. I guess we'll have a tough battle ahead."