Well done, Nelson, I knew you could do it.
Then, after a pause, Bill continued:
— The snail transmitter is in room 02, it's an office with a lounge, you won't miss it.
Hearing this, Nelson paused for a moment with a grin that gradually disappeared, and with a loud clicking sound, he turned awkwardly and slowly walked towards the building.
Bill kept a close eye on him in case he fell, but he didn't follow. Instead, he sat in the yard and admired the garden.
He didn't even know sunflowers existed in this world until this garden was built. He found it amusing that he knew about Pirate Emperors, Sea Lords, Rebels, Admirals, kingdoms, and so much more, but had missed something as seemingly simple as a sunflower.
It was the problem of a world without the Internet, Bill thought.
He remembered very well the time on Earth when the only way to get information was an encyclopedia or the evening news.
This world was good when you didn't know any better, but he remembered the first time he used an internet search engine.
"It was magic."
That's exactly what Bill thought, and towards the end of his life, he was amazed at how much he could learn through online video platforms.
There were also downsides to having so much information: at one point he even got carried away with completely ridiculous dramas where he had no power, and it would have been better if he hadn't known about it at all.
After sitting in the garden for a while, Bill got up and headed to the office.
He hadn't been eavesdropping on what Nelson was doing, so when he walked into the room he didn't know what to expect.
Nelson sat at the table in the huge chair Bill had set up for him, his arms barely reaching to cover his face.
Looking around the room, Bill noticed that Snail had not even been touched, despite the fact that his subordinate had been in the office for several minutes.
"Everything okay?" Bill asked, feeling guilty but still unsure of what to expect.
Nelson, surprised, looked up, was at first confused, and then grinned again and said:
"It looks like the Snail is broken. It can't connect further than shouting distance. It must be a poor job."
Bill:
— Do you want me to bring you a new one?
Not expecting this, Nelson looked away and replied sharply:
"You'd like that, right? But no, I won't tax your already limited budget just yet. No need to be sentimental, it's just what I, as a nobleman, have to do."
Although Nelson spoke these words out loud, Bill heard his inner voice literally screaming, and simply nodded and replied:
- Thank you, you won't believe how much we're in the red.
The rest of the day went according to plan: Yoko had a birthday party and Masterson gave his reports.
It was only late in the evening that Bill received a call from Rance, who enthusiastically reported:
- Bill, I think we have a big fish this time!
King Cobra's advisor told me that they were happy to begin cooperation and were ready to arrange a meeting with the king, but only if the head of our department came in person.
Then, sighing, the cowboy added:
- You need to come to the kingdom of Alabasta as soon as possible!
Bill shook his head and looked at the junior sailor and said,
- Yoko, if this thing starts breathing fire, I'll throw it off the ship.
Yoko:
"He won't! I told you, Boss is a good bug!" Having said this, the red-haired girl patted the insect's shell.
Looking at the beetle, which had grown to the size of its name, Bill knew that it was smart.
The problem was that although it had stopped growing, the beetle had begun to develop other abilities.
In particular, he could now breathe fire and spit out sticky resin with a terrible smell.
- Yoko, Boss is not a dog, how can you be sure that he even wants to leave the island?
In response, Yoko told Bill to watch as she asked the Boss a series of questions, to which he responded with nods and shakes of his head. To prove her point, she asked the same questions repeatedly, sometimes in reverse order—all the answers were the same.
"Okay," Bill thought. He knew the beetle was smart, but perhaps he'd underestimated it.
"Okay, take him, but it's your responsibility!" Bill said, pointing his finger at the sky and repeating, "Just remember, I'll throw him overboard, and it'll be a long way back to the New Haven."
— What the... Are you going to take this wild animal on a real warship?!
Turning to his fat subordinate, Bill prayed silently for the first time in a long time, repeating, "Lord, give me strength."
Setting sail on the MSS Victory was no easy task: the ship had been updated by New Haven engineers, but it was still a massive vessel.
Luckily, there were about a hundred Marines left at New Haven that Bill could take with him.
There were 197 people in his department in total, including himself, but Sasha took a crew of fifteen on the Blue Bird and went to the East Blue, and Rance took about forty people with him on the Frontier Run for the first half of the Grand Line.
Although Bill did not expect New Haven to be attacked by pirates again, he could not take all the remaining sailors with him and left forty more men to guard the island.
Masterson remained at New Haven, meaning that Bill had about a hundred men with him, but no capable lieutenants