The next day.
Following the recent routine, Brian woke up with the assistance of the Cow Girl.
After drinking a glass of freshly squeezed milk, he felt refreshed and energetic.
This was one of Bei's special abilities.
Although she possessed the combat strength of a Rear Admiral, Bei had the lowest combat talent among all the Beast Girls.
All her talent points were allocated to logistics.
Especially her milk, which not only refreshed the spirit when consumed but also had a certain healing effect.
After understanding this clearly, Brian directly designated Bei as the first logistics support member of the Beast Girl Legion.
She didn't need to go to the battlefield; with her ample bosom, she couldn't perform at her full strength anyway.
It was better for her to handle support work in the rear, and her Rear Admiral-level combat ability wasn't a critical loss.
In simple terms, Bei's main profession was producing and milking.
This perfectly suited her identity and condition, and she was very satisfied with it.
After breakfast, unlike the previous day, Brian did not head to the training ground to continue developing his Devil Fruit abilities.
Instead, he led the assembled Beast Girl Legion and headed toward the dock.
Today's executive task fell to him.
Destination: the Atoron Sea!
This sea area was not far from Hachinosu and had long been under the control of the Rocks Pirates.
A medium-sized Black Market had been established here, with moderate economic prosperity.
Due to the turmoil in the New World, this sea area had also been invaded by many reckless pirates.
Responding to a plea for help from the Black Market manager, Brian, as an executive, was tasked with purging this sea area.
Rocks' order was to leave no one alive.
Splash~
Splash~
The pirate ship swiftly cut through the waves, sailing forward.
Brian lay on a deck chair on the deck, leisurely watching several Beast Girls nearby still engaged in simple training.
Seven Beast Girls had accompanied him this time, all of the Common Type.
At that moment, Number One approached and handed Brian a newspaper.
"Master, this is the latest newspaper we received. I believe the contents will not disappoint you."
"Oh?"
Brian became interested, took the newspaper, and began reading.
Sure enough, inside the newspaper, he found a prominent front-page headline.
"Extra! Extra! The Roger Pirates have appeared in the first half of the Grand Line."
"The Roger Pirates clashed with the Navy, destroying most of the G2 branch before leaving."
"Vice Admiral Garp is leading the Navy in pursuit, closely tracking them."
The whereabouts of the Roger Pirates were undoubtedly the most attention-grabbing news recently.
After being out of sight for so long, the seas had almost written them off.
Unexpectedly, they had reappeared now.
Although their location was in the first half of the Grand Line.
According to the newspaper, the Roger Pirates appeared at the Navy's G2 branch in the first half of the Grand Line three days ago.
There, they engaged in combat with the Navy, killing the Vice Admiral in charge of the G2 branch and destroying most of the base.
If Garp hadn't been stationed near the G2 branch at the time, the entire base would likely have been completely wiped out.
Afterwards, the Roger Pirates didn't continue engaging with Garp and chose to withdraw.
Garp's reaction was equally absurd.
He completely abandoned his primary mission of clearing out pirates and pursued the Roger Pirates relentlessly.
Had it not been for the earlier cleanup efforts that had largely stabilized the situation in the first half of the Grand Line, Garp's unauthorized departure would have undoubtedly led to more civilians falling victim to pirates.
Garp, whose brain was entirely dominated by muscle and who lived only for battle, was ultimately quite willful in his actions.
Zephyr, who took over Garp's duties, understood this all too well.
Thus, Garp and Roger continued their cat-and-mouse game, neither willing to stop.
To an outsider, it might have looked like they were performing some pirate version of a domineering chase-after-the-love-interest routine.
That said, Roger's reappearance did slightly improve his public reputation.
But only slightly.
As long as he failed to settle matters with the Rocks Pirates, his reputation would never fully recover.
This was an ironclad rule in the pirate world.
Everything came down to strength and reputation—everything else was meaningless.
"By my calculations, Roger should have already started collecting Poneglyphs around this time."
"But he probably hasn't located the four Red Stones yet. At most, he's gathered some fragmented Poneglyphs."
"These things are like nuclear weapons—should I get involved too, to avoid being passive later on?"
As a great figure from Brian's previous life once said: Having a sword but not using it is entirely different from not having a sword at all.
In a way, the four Red Stones were indeed similar to nuclear weapons.
Only by possessing all four Red Stones could one obtain the route to Laugh Tale and claim the legendary One Piece treasure that everyone desired.
"In the original story, Linlin once held one of the Red Stones, but she likely acquired it later."
"I also know the locations of some of the other Red Stones. After establishing my own faction, I'll need to collect them."
The more Brian thought about it, the more determined he became—he would claim the Red Stones for himself.
At minimum, securing one would ensure he wouldn't fall behind later.
Moreover, the Red Stones were items that could be leveraged for significant advantage.
"In the original story, the whereabouts of three Red Stones were clear, while one remained elusive."
"One was held by Linlin, one of the Four Emperors."
"Another was on Zou, protected by the Mink Tribe."
"A third was in Wano Country, passed down through generations."
"As for the final one..."
"The original records only mentioned it once existed on Fish-Man Island but later disappeared."
"Yet Roger eventually collected all four Red Stones and reached Laugh Tale, proving he had recovered the missing stone."
"But he was cunning—he hid that stone again, maintaining its vanished status."
"Tsk, tsk. Was this some kind of setup waiting for a destined person (Luffy)?"
"Truly worthy of the Pirate King—the legacy continues."
Brian found such mysterious maneuvers somewhat baffling.
The bonds of the D Clan had nothing to do with outsiders.
But he didn't particularly care, as he wasn't especially interested in visiting Laugh Tale for now.
It could wait until later. Once his strength reached a certain level, he could reconsider.
"The only thing that struck me as odd was that Rocks never collected the Red Stones."
"He was also a member of the D Clan, yet he and Roger were polar opposites."
During the time Brian joined the Rocks Pirates, he never discovered that Rocks possessed any Red Stones.
Of course, it was also possible that Rocks had hidden them completely, keeping them from everyone's knowledge.
But judging from the original storyline, Rocks truly hadn't collected any Red Stones.
Otherwise, given his strength and status, if he had genuinely wanted to collect them, aside from the World Government, he would have been the most likely candidate to obtain these four Red Stones.
No, Rocks' chances were even greater than the World Government's.
In the original story, the locations of the four Red Stones were all primarily in the New World.
As the overlord of the New World and a descendant of the D Clan, it was impossible for Rocks to be unaware of the existence of the Red Stones.
That left only one explanation: for some unknown reason, Rocks simply had no interest in pursuing them.
Or perhaps due to some special circumstance, he was unable to do so.
"Tsk tsk, the deeper you think about this, the murkier the waters become..."
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