Super Card System

Looking out from the window, they saw a brightly lit area at another corner of the castle. A large group of figures, seemingly Big Mom’s subordinates, was rushing toward it.

As these people hurried over, they were shouting something to each other. Ian and Capone Bege listened closely for a moment, but could only catch snippets like “intruder” and “treasure room.”

Since it was too far away, they couldn’t hear clearly, but it was obvious that some sort of disturbance was happening.

“This is a great opportunity!” Although Capone Bege didn’t know what was going on, when he noticed that the guards around the cake factory and warehouse seemed to have disappeared, he immediately realized this was a perfect chance. He quickly said to Ian, “No time to waste. Now is the best moment to plant the bomb in the wedding cake. I’m going!”

With that, he rushed out of Ian’s room.

Watching Capone Bege leave in such a hurry, Ian couldn’t help but shake his head. He thought to himself how ruthless Capone Bege was. Who in their right mind would plant a bomb in their own wedding cake during their own wedding? He was essentially ruining his own ceremony!

But regardless, as Capone Bege had said, it was indeed an ideal time to act. The disturbance had drawn most of the castle guards away, leaving the cake warehouse under the weakest protection.

However, what exactly was causing this disturbance? It seemed like someone had broken into Big Mom’s treasure room?

Who could it be? Ian rubbed his chin, pondering.

At that moment, Ian had no idea that this situation would be connected to him. He was certain the intruder wasn’t himself, and it couldn’t possibly be Reiju either, so his first suspicion fell on the guests that Big Mom had invited.

Among those guests were not only greedy underworld bosses but also individuals like Stussy, who secretly worked as a CP0 agent. To Ian, any one of them could be a suspect.

Don’t assume that just because these guests feared Big Mom, they wouldn’t dare cause trouble. In fact, as long as they weren’t caught, anyone could deny any wrongdoing.

“Heh, it really is a time of chaos!” Ian smirked coldly and decided not to think further about it, closing the window…

Meanwhile, Perospero and Katakuri had rushed to the hallway outside the treasure room after receiving word of the disturbance.

Upon arriving, both immediately detected a strange smell.

“This isn’t good! It’s sleeping gas!” Katakuri was the first to react, quickly covering his nose with his clothing.

At this point, all the guards in the hallway had already collapsed, sprawled out on both sides, sound asleep. Even the surveillance Den Den Mushi that had been set up to monitor the area had their eyes closed, fast asleep. Seeing this, Katakuri and his group immediately realized something was wrong and rushed toward the treasure room.

“Don’t worry!” Perospero said as he ran alongside Katakuri. “The chess guards inside the treasure room were given life by Mama’s soul power. They’re not living beings, so they can’t be affected by the sleeping gas.”

“Let’s hope so!” Katakuri replied. “There better not be any issues; no one can withstand Mama’s wrath if something goes wrong…”

However, when they arrived at the treasure room, they saw the door wide open, and all the guards inside were lying on the ground, broken and in pieces.

While the treasure room was also filled with the smell of sleeping gas, just as Perospero had said, the chess guards weren’t actual living beings, so the gas should have had no effect on them. But the scene before Katakuri clearly indicated that these guards had been directly taken down by someone.

“What happened? Tell me now!” Katakuri crouched down, grabbing one of the toy guards to question it, while Perospero instructed the subordinates they had brought with them to quickly check if anything had been stolen.

“An intruder!” The toy guard, though its limbs were severed and unable to move, couldn’t be killed and responded immediately. “A man wearing a cloak broke in! He used a sword to take down all the guards and then made a copy of the Road Poneglyph and took it with him!”

“What!?” Katakuri and Perospero were stunned.

“Did you see the intruder’s face?” Perospero asked urgently.

“No, but… but his right wrist was wrapped in something like bandages!” the guard recalled.

Katakuri dropped the toy guard and exchanged a glance with Perospero.

“A man using a sword, with his right wrist wrapped in bandages…” Perospero gritted his teeth. “It’s that bastard Ian! Damn it, I didn’t expect him to go after the Poneglyph!”

Perospero turned abruptly. “I’ll go capture him right now!”

“Wait!” Katakuri suddenly stopped him. “Brother Peros, don’t you think something seems suspicious about this?”

“Something off? What’s off!?” Perospero shouted. “My brother, what are you thinking? If we don’t catch him quickly, what will we say when Mama asks about this?”

“No… something doesn’t add up,” Katakuri crossed his arms, deep in thought. “The timing is suspicious. Brother Peros, don’t forget that Pudding already went to Ian’s room on Mama’s orders. If Ian had left to steal the Poneglyph, he wouldn’t have been in his room, and Pudding would have definitely reported it. But there’s been no word from her, which means she must have met Ian. So, how could Ian have been out at the same time?”

“That…” Perospero, after hearing Katakuri’s reasoning, also calmed down a bit.

“And another thing! During the conflict earlier today, Ian seemed ready to leave!” Katakuri continued. “If he really had his eyes on Mama’s Poneglyph, why would he be so confrontational with us? Shouldn’t he have been trying to find a way to stay?”

“Maybe… maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment decision?” Perospero said hesitantly, though still voicing his doubts.

“If it was spontaneous, how could he know the exact location of Mama’s treasure room?” Katakuri replied. “And look closely at the wounds on these guards. While their limbs were indeed severed by a blade, the technique is crude. Ian is a master swordsman; there’s no way his strikes would be so sloppy.”

Katakuri, known by his siblings as “perfect,” truly lived up to his reputation. His calm and sharp judgment allowed him to spot the inconsistencies in a short amount of time. His intelligence was clearly top-notch.

“Are you saying there’s an insider?” Perospero narrowed his eyes.

“We can’t rule out the possibility,” Katakuri said. “And don’t forget, Ian isn’t the only guest on the island right now.”

“Then who could have done it?” Perospero asked, still puzzled.

“We’ll need to investigate,” Katakuri replied. “Right now, Ian is only a major suspect. We can’t just focus on him alone. If we fall into a trap where the real culprit is shifting suspicion onto Ian, we could make a terrible mistake.”

“Lord Katakuri, we found this in the hallway!” A guard rushed in, out of breath, holding a charred, semi-circular object in his hands.

Katakuri took it and sniffed it lightly, his expression puzzled. “This… is this the remnants of a gas bomb? We might be able to investigate further based on this clue.”

“Heh, I just thought of someone!” Perospero suddenly sneered.

“I did too,” Katakuri said, standing up.

The two exchanged a glance and, in unison, said, “Caesar!”

…

Meanwhile, the very same Caesar that Katakuri and Perospero mentioned was entirely tied up!

His mouth was sealed with tape, preventing him from making a sound. He was also restrained with a pair of Seastone handcuffs. At this moment, Caesar looked utterly miserable, weak and helpless, staring at the two masked figures in the room with him.

This place wasn’t Caesar’s room; in fact, he didn’t even know where he was. But he was certain that the two people standing before him were likely agents of the World Government, possibly CP members. Caesar had dealt with CP agents before, and he could “sense” that unique aura coming from one of them.

But what good did knowing that do? At this point, all Caesar could do was silently weep. If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have attended this tea party at all. Not only did he run into Ian, who openly confronted the Big Mom Pirates, but now even CP agents had shown up. Could the situation on Cake Island get any more chaotic?

To make matters worse, Caesar knew he was about to get dragged into this strange whirlpool of events. After these two captured him and brought him here, they forced him to create a simple hypnotic gas bomb.

After handing over the bomb, one of the two left, and shortly after, the commotion outside the castle began. There was no way Caesar believed that something wasn’t happening out there.

At this moment, the two masked figures were standing by the window, looking outside. The taller one spoke in an altered voice, “Do you think it will work?”

The shorter one, also speaking in a distorted voice, replied, “It should be fine…”

Then, they both turned around and looked at the bound Caesar. The taller one asked, “What should we do with him? Should we kill him?”

Caesar’s heart sank. Just when he thought he was about to die, he heard the shorter one say, “No need. If we kill him, the body will be difficult to deal with. If it’s discovered, it could ruin everything. It’s better to just hide him and make it look like he disappeared or ran away. Once we plant that item in the target’s room tomorrow, the plan will be complete. He won’t be able to deny it then.”

It was clear that the two figures—one tall and one short—were none other than Arest and Stussy. While they had used Caesar’s abilities, they were careful not to reveal their identities in front of him.

According to their plan, they had already tampered with the Poneglyph. The only unexpected part was that the hypnotic gas Caesar had made was useless in the treasure room—the guards there weren’t living beings, which caught Stussy by surprise. Fortunately, the blood puppet controlled by Arest had enough combat power, and the guards weren’t particularly strong. As a result, the blood puppet successfully made an imprint of the Poneglyph and escaped, while the guards managed to catch a glimpse of the puppet’s rough appearance.

Up to this point, if everything went smoothly, Katakuri and the others would be led to suspect Ian without a hitch.

However, as fate would have it, some things happen purely by coincidence. Arest and Stussy never expected that Big Mom would send Puddingto Ian’s room at the same time.

Although they had not yet received a report from Pudding, this move planted a seed of doubt in the ever-cautious mind of Katakuri…

Arest and Stussy had painstakingly plotted to provoke a confrontation between Ian and the Big Mom Pirates, hoping to use Big Mom to eliminate Ian. What they never could have anticipated was that they didn’t need to instigate anything at all—another group with their own agenda had already made contact with Ian on the island…

Initially, Arest had planned to tamper with the wedding cake, but abandoned that plan after Stussy’s appearance. Now, ironically, Capone Bege had planted a bomb in the cake instead. This entire series of events was beyond coincidence.

As dawn approached, all the chaos was about to unfold…

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