After listening to Bonez introduce the specific situation of Bliss Island, Vane decided to go to Bliss Island to build an excellent ship that could sail the Four Seas and the Grand Line.
...
At the same time, Vane's bounty poster began to spread across the Four Seas and the Grand Line.
In the first half of the Grand Line, his bounty didn't cause much of a stir. At most, bounty hunters memorized his appearance so they could make a big score if they ever got the chance.
"Can killing a king really get you such a high bounty?"
"That was a king of a nation allied with the World Government. Of course it's different."
"Hahaha! Then I'll go kill a king too and make a name for myself… A fifteen-year-old brat, kill a king and you get that kind of bounty."
In the first half of the Grand Line it was already like this; in the second half of the Grand Line, where experts were everywhere, it didn't even make a ripple.
Among the Four Seas, only the West Sea itself made a relatively big fuss. An 80,000,000 bounty really did count as a great pirate. Those kings were on edge for a while, afraid the guy would come kill his way into their kingdoms.
In the West Sea, a small boat that looked like it could only sail on rivers and lakes was drifting lazily on the sea surface. Sitting on it was someone who looked very young, holding Vane's bounty poster in his hand.
"Nation-Slayer Vane… could serve as a backup target."
...
Bliss Island.
"Hey! You brat, I'm telling you, you just won quite a bit of money in the casino. You can't just walk away like that."
"Wanna fight? You think I'm scared of you? Taste my big gun!"
"Damn it!"
"The stuff you're selling is completely fake. This treasure map's target location—forget treasure, even the island on the map doesn't exist!"
"That's because the island got eaten by a sea monster that eats islands. You're just unlucky. Don't blame others."
Bliss Island is generally divided into two areas: the outer ring and the inner ring.
The outer ring is a lawless zone. Every day here you'll see theft, robbery, murder, gang shootouts, and the like.
Filth, poverty, and trash are the labels of the outer ring.
The inner ring is different. Public order here is relatively good, and the street environment is very clean and tidy. At the very least, the various conflicts that happen every day in the outer ring don't exist here. Those pirates with muddled heads restrain themselves a lot once inside.
But it's not 100% safe either. If something happens in the inner ring, it's definitely a big gang war or a major pirate causing trouble. If your luck is bad, the losses can be pretty heavy.
If your luck is a bit better, the inner ring's environment is really quite nice. Of course, you still need one thing that no inhabited place can do without: money.
Without money, everything in the inner ring has nothing to do with you. At most, you can only do hard labor here.
"Hey, hey, hey, did you hear? The abandoned dock in the southeast got taken."
"No way, the one at the scrapyard? That's the Crab Gang's turf, and it just got taken like that?"
The Crab Gang is also a fairly big gang in the outer ring. The scrapyard is an important territory of the Crab Gang. Losing the scrapyard and the abandoned dock means the Crab Gang's yearly income will take a huge hit.
"That Crimson Crab definitely can't swallow this. He's already gathered the Crab Gang members to go grab the turf back."
"Not just the Crab Gang—people from the Octopus Gang and the Sponge Gang too…"
"Oh? Of the seven gangs in the outer ring, three have moved. What are the Octopus Gang and the Sea Surface Gang going over there for? Aren't these three gangs competitors?"
"Obviously to pick up some scraps. If the Crab Gang loses, the two neighboring gangs can grab quite a bit of territory."
...
Scrapyard Dock.
The Black Panther was docked steadily inside the dock.
"Boss… no, Leader—what's he doing up there on that highest pile of scrap?"
Actually, the amount of trash in the scrapyard isn't that large. What's piled here is mostly scrap. For example, if pirates seize someone else's ship and it's badly damaged, they might sell it cheap to the scrapyard. Then the Crab Gang will strip the things off the ship.
Useful stuff gets sold; useless stuff gets piled in the scrapyard.
Of course, it's not just ships. Many things that flow out from the inner ring can be sent here, taken apart into parts, pieced together, and then sent back.
So some scrap the Crab Gang doesn't care about gets piled up here, and over time it becomes the scrapyard.
"The Leader said there's another fight coming up. Win it and there'll be less harassment."
Vane's original plan was to find a proper dock on this island and rent it. After arriving, he found the rent for a proper dock was pretty high.
And then he remembered his current identity. He's a pirate—why does he have to rent? Just grab one.
Bonez also said that the gangs in the outer ring are average in strength. Their strongest, if you put them on the sea, wouldn't have a bounty over 40,000,000 Belly.
Then there's nothing more to say. Just take the Crab Gang's turf directly.
"I wanna fight too! Where's the fight?!"
Tant got excited again and transformed into his Lion-Man form, bursting his shirt apart.
Meowth immediately swiped a claw across Tant's head: "Fight my ass, meow. Hurry up and help me clear these scrap parts. I wanna see if there's anything here I can use."
As soon as Meowth arrived at the scrapyard, its eyes started shining. It used to cobble together machines that made people dumbstruck out of this kind of trash everyone else looked down on.
Bonez: "Meowth, use less of this trash. We have money—we can buy better materials… What we're making is the ship we'll rely on to survive at sea. The materials need to be among the very best."
From Vane's earlier gains catching pirates, plus at least grabbing the mob's little treasury when leaving Rose Island, the team now had four hundred million Belly in gold and silver—enough to build a very good ship.
Meowth: "Meow, the ship I'm going to build will cost more than you think. The key main body and some parts will definitely use the best materials."
"The other stuff, we should save where we can. Things like beds and tables can be made very well with these materials, meow."
Other crew members: "Huh? I kind of want to sleep on a higher-end bed."
"Meow, you idiots don't understand what 'high-end' is at all! High-end isn't bought with money—what's high-end is technique! I'll definitely show you what technique is."
While the people below were bickering with the cat, Vane, who was sitting on the highest pile of scrap, stood up.
Because the people he'd driven out of this scrapyard had come back with the owner of this turf—Crimson Crab… Just hearing that name made Vane want to tie him up with ropes in a five-flower binding.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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