Listening to Yasopp's undisguised mockery, everyone else fell silent.
Beckman glanced at him, then slowly looked around at the others.
He understood.
With Yasopp making such a fuss, it would already be difficult to shake the others.
At their level, anyone who could choose to be a pirate was not afraid of death.
Lucky Roux and the others weren't unable to accept Snake and the others dying in battle. Rather, they felt that they had died without any value, and they were even more afraid that one day, they too would die just as meaninglessly.
But ultimately, Lucky Roux and the others were not afraid of death either.
After being provoked by Yasopp like this, getting them to betray Shanks had already become an extremely difficult task.
But it was only difficult.
After all, Beckman had once been the vice captain of the Red Hair Pirates.
"Then do you think I'm really afraid of death?"
Beckman gently tossed the question back, a cigarette hanging from his mouth as he quietly looked at this group of familiar companions.
"No!"
Lucky Roux answered decisively, then looked at Beckman hesitantly.
"So I don't understand. Vice Captain, why exactly did you leave back then?"
In every battle, Beckman had always been the person who charged at the very front alongside Shanks.
Moreover, Beckman was also their crew's strategist, planning everything and leaving nothing to chance.
It was no exaggeration to say that he was another pillar of the Red Hair Pirates besides Shanks.
Even Yasopp, who thought highly of himself, could only admit his respect when facing the Beckman of the past.
Someone like this, no matter what, shouldn't have been the first to defect.
At this moment, even Yasopp silently looked toward Beckman.
Even he was deeply puzzled about why Beckman had defected to the World Government.
When the other man left back then, everything had happened too suddenly. On top of that, he had happened to cause trouble at the time, so he hadn't had time to ask more.
Now, he also wanted to hear what excuse this traitor had.
"If I hadn't left and joined the World Government to see for myself, how would I know just how powerful the World Government really is?", Beckman asked calmly.
"The captain arranged it?"
A look of delight suddenly appeared on Lucky Roux's face.
He knew it. How could Beckman really betray the crew?
But if it had been a fake surrender, going undercover, then everything that hadn't made sense before suddenly made sense.
"Consider it a decision we made together," Beckman gently nodded.
"Wait!"
Yasopp warily stared at Beckman and said sharply, "You bastard, don't tell me you're using the captain's name to trick people here? I don't believe you!"
You've got to be kidding. He was the new vice captain, yet he had known absolutely nothing about this.
If even he admitted this, wouldn't that mean that he, the vice captain, was nothing more than a discarded pawn Shanks had used as a cover?
"Whether you believe me or not won't affect the facts."
Beckman shrugged, his tone calm.
"Besides, I have absolutely no reason to lie to you. If I really wanted to kill you, I wouldn't even need to do it myself. My warship only needs to fire one shot, and your little boat would be completely finished."
He raised his hand and pointed in the direction he had come from. The hundred-meter-long steel giant was still quietly anchored on the sea, its dark gun ports radiating an oppressive presence that made one's heart tremble.
"Fuck! I just don't believe you! If you've got the guts, kill us, you traitor!"
Yasopp stiffened his neck, looking as though he would rather die than submit.
In any case, he absolutely couldn't admit it.
Otherwise, what would he, the new vice captain, be?
He was the rightful new vice captain, not some laughingstock for people to ridicule.
"Tch! Yasopp, you might as well admit it," Lucky Roux mocked him without mercy, "In the captain's heart, the position of vice captain will always belong to Beckman. You? At most, you're just a temporary replacement, a stopgap."
"Bastard! I think you're the one who really wants to betray the captain!"
Yasopp's sore spot had been hit. He flew into a rage and swung his gun around, about to smash it down.
"Hmph, you're clearly the one who wants to betray the captain!"
Lucky Roux snorted coldly. His huge body shifted forward, directly blocking Yasopp's path.
The other Red Hair Pirates members also surrounded Yasopp with unfriendly expressions, each one glaring at him.
They had disliked this self-important Yasopp for a long time.
Now that Shanks and Luffy weren't here, if they got the chance, they certainly wouldn't mind giving Yasopp a lesson he would remember for the rest of his life.
As for Beckman, since he had already said things to this extent, as old acquaintances who had known him for more than ten years, they were naturally willing to believe him.
After all, with Beckman's strength, if he really wanted to act against them, all of them together wouldn't have the slightest chance to resist.
And since the other man hadn't used force the moment they met, instead calmly talking things over with them, that alone already said a great deal.
"Tch..."
Seeing this, Yasopp muttered unhappily and didn't dare say anything else.
It wasn't that he was afraid of these guys.
He... well, he was just afraid that if he fell here, no one would be able to continue gathering intelligence for the captain.
These people definitely wanted to harm the captain and Luffy.
'Yes, that's right!'
'I am staying for the captain!'
"Vice Captain, what exactly did you come here for this time?"
Lucky Roux finally couldn't hold back and asked.
Now that the misunderstanding had been cleared up, the question had returned to where it started.
They really wanted to know what Beckman's true purpose in coming here was.
Surely he hadn't gone to all this trouble to block them here just to demonstrate how powerful the World Government was.
Although they were still shocked by the World Government's surveillance capabilities, they weren't nearly defeated by it.
After all, along the way, they had already seen far too much of the World Government's despairingly overwhelming power.
After being hit so many times, they had become numb to it. Nothing could stir up much of a reaction anymore.
Since there had never been any hope in the first place, it naturally didn't matter anymore.
"I'm taking you with me into the World Government and having you help me carry out missions," Beckman said expressionlessly.
"Huh? Join the World Government? I'm not going!", Yasopp immediately jumped up, "We're enemies who won't stop until one side is dead! Even if you want me to go undercover, I absolutely won't go!"
Although Lucky Roux and the others didn't directly refuse like Yasopp, the resistance on their faces clearly showed that they felt the same way as Yasopp.
They really didn't want to go.
The captain was still fighting alone, risking everything to oppose the World Government, and then all the remaining members of their crew would turn around and join the World Government.
What was that supposed to mean?
Even if they were nominally going undercover, where in the world was there such an absurd arrangement where every crew member except the captain went undercover?
"I'm not asking you to actually join the World Government," Seeing this, Beckman calmly explained, "I'm giving you official identities within the World Government so that it will be convenient for you to help me with things in the future."
He knew very well that Lucky Roux and the others would never sincerely submit from the bottom of their hearts.
But in order to prevent these former companions who had gone through life and death together from needlessly dying along their future journey, he had to think of something.
At the very least, if he could give them legitimate World Government identities, then Rosse and the others wouldn't casually hunt them down anymore.
This was something Rosse himself had promised Makino.
Although Lucky Roux and the others probably wouldn't sincerely join, was Beckman himself truly sincere either?
But in the end, didn't Rosse still allow him to know all kinds of World Government secrets?
He vaguely felt that, for a man like Rosse, he was probably even happy to see this play where they secretly joined the World Government and continued interacting with Shanks.
That man was simply this twisted at heart.
If they did nothing at all, perhaps that was what would make him feel bored.
"Is that so... If it's to help you, Vice Captain, then I can!"
Lucky Roux gritted his teeth and finally nodded in agreement.
Before this, they had, to put it bluntly, been forcibly driven away from Shanks.
Honestly, he was extremely unwilling to go to the NEO Marines in such a humiliating manner.
They were completely incompatible with that place, and wherever he looked, there wasn't a single familiar face he knew.
Compared to that, following Beckman at least meant they wouldn't have to spend every day and night racking their brains and worrying that one of their companions would suddenly be gone one day.
"Hey, hey! I disagree! I absolutely won't join the World Government!"
Yasopp still stubbornly refused.
"What about you?"
Beckman turned his gaze toward the others, not even bothering to look directly at Yasopp.
In fact, there weren't many people left in the Red Hair Pirates anymore.
Ever since back then in Syrup Village, the Red Hair Pirates had been reduced to only nine people.
And along the way, Bonk Punch and Snake had died in battle one after another.
Now, besides Yasopp and Lucky Roux, there were only two people left on this small boat.
"I don't mind. I'll listen to the vice captain!"
Limejuice shrugged and said casually.
He had never been much of a person with his own opinions and usually just went along with the crowd.
"Same here. Fine, let's do it. Joining the World Government is fine too," Howling Gab said in a deep voice.
At this point, he didn't know what they should do either.
Now that Beckman was willing to step forward and make the decision for them, these rudderless people, then so be it.
"Good. Then you three, come with me."
A trace of relief finally appeared on Beckman's face.
Being able to take three of them with him was already enough for him.
As for Yasopp...
This person had never been on his list from the beginning.
Ever since that day in Syrup Village, the other man had no longer counted as a companion in his eyes.
"Hey, hey, wait! I... I want to go with you guys too!"
At this moment, Yasopp suddenly couldn't help shouting.
"Weren't you dead set against it?", Lucky Roux raised an eyebrow, looking amused.
"Hmph, I'm going to keep a close eye on you guys!", Yasopp put his hands on his hips and spoke righteously, "To prevent you from doing something behind the captain's back that would betray him!"
"Tch, you're obviously the bastard who's betrayed the captain the most every time," Howling Gab sneered without the slightest courtesy.
"Hmph, mind your own business!"
Yasopp curled his lips, looking shamelessly determined to follow them.
"Alright. Since everyone agrees, then let's all go together," Beckman shook his head, "I'll take you around the Red Line first."
Although Yasopp had unexpectedly been added at the end, Beckman ultimately didn't refuse.
Saving one more was still saving one more.
Sigh, if they hadn't underestimated Rosse's strength back then in Syrup Village, how could the people of their Red Hair Pirates have dwindled to so few today?
At this thought, a trace of barely noticeable gloom quietly passed through Beckman's eyes.
He wasn't afraid of sacrifice, and he acknowledged Shanks' path.
But watching one old acquaintance after another disappear before his eyes, that feeling still made him especially uncomfortable.
Hopefully, their sacrifices wouldn't be in vain in the future.
———
After Yasopp, Lucky Roux, and the others boarded Beckman's steel warship, almost on that very same day, the World Government released a piece of news that shook the entire Grand Line.
Every member of the Red Hair Pirates except their captain, Shanks, had completely defected to the World Government.
This news was like a huge rock thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating enormous waves throughout the world.
And the people who reacted most strongly were, first and foremost, the members of the Whitebeard Pirates.
The moment they heard the news, nearly everyone in the Whitebeard Pirates was furious enough to go crazy.
First, they had barged into Marineford without being invited, recklessly interfering and literally getting Juste killed even though he could have escaped.
Then, they had immediately turned around and joined the World Government, becoming traitors.
This blood debt was now firmly placed on the Red Hair Pirates by the Whitebeard Pirates.
The overwhelming hatred toward their old man's death and Juste's death was, at this moment, all transferred onto Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates.
They even hated the Red Hair Pirates more than they hated the World Government.
At the same time, this news made them even more determined about the plan they had previously made.
No matter what, they had to extract the Nika Fruit from Luffy and transplant it into Teach.
Since people like Luffy and Shanks were so useless and so unreliable, the power of Nika absolutely could not continue to be wasted on them.
Only by giving it to Teach, giving it to the new captain they truly trusted, could they possibly pass on hope properly, and could they truly avenge their old man.
A plan targeting Luffy quietly took root in the hearts of the Whitebeard Pirates.
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