Two days later, the Thunder Fortress slowly sailed out of the harbor of Mock Town.
These two days in Mock Town yielded nothing. They didn't find Bellamy, nor did they find the Spring-Spring Fruit.
There were also pirates constantly "harassing" them—mostly people who wanted to join a powerful pirate crew. They were ambitious, extremely restless, and most of them had no particular skills.
Just cannon-fodder level. Without any special profession, the crew had no need for them at all right now.
"666, 667, 668…"
On the deck, Kaku was extremely disciplined, leading his comrades in doing push-ups. The people of the pirate world naturally had strong physiques, and with the special medicine formulated by Martha, this group of kids had already fully recovered.
"Shururururu~~ These brats don't know how long they'll need to train like this before gaining real strength. Why not let me prepare some chemical reagents for them… that way they could gain power comparable to giants."
What Caesar was talking about was his experiment project—another massive trash product. The pseudo-giants he created were ridiculously useless.
Later, he would use this project to scam the Big Mom Pirates. In truth, he had no real confidence in it—he just wanted research funding.
And because Big Mom had offended the giants in her early years, her territory contained nearly every large race—except giants.
The Lunarian race and Kumo's race were almost extinct on the seas, so not collecting them was understandable. Giants, though somewhat rare, absolutely existed in significant numbers. Big Mom simply couldn't obtain them, which left her itching with frustration.
And in the end, she was deceived.
"Just focus on finishing the work I assigned you. Don't mess around with unnecessary nonsense."
Caesar fell silent. Vane had told him to "revive" a long-dead dried corpse—wasn't that making things difficult on purpose? Those nutrient solutions were meant to sustain living organisms, not revive the dead.
Throwing dried meat into it wouldn't turn it back into fresh meat.
At first, that's what Caesar thought.
But the Lunarian corpse soaking in the nutrient solution had been looking more and more like a living person with each passing day.
As a "scientist," Caesar could confirm that it wasn't simply bloated from soaking. The other party's cells genuinely seemed to be gradually regaining vitality.
Caesar called it unscientific.
Of course it was unscientific. This was mysticism.
Every night, when things were quiet, Vane would drip his own blood into the nutrient solution. His blood couldn't yet directly turn people into demons like Muzan's.
It could only be fed little by little… Wait, no—Muzan couldn't use blood to revive dried corpses either, right?
Perhaps this was simply a trait of the Lunarian race.
"I'll figure something out."
Caesar decided to cram some serious cell biology first. If the dried corpse was showing signs of coming back to life, then he absolutely had to wake it up when the time came.
With an achievement like that, maybe even Vegapunk couldn't do it. At that point, he would become the greatest scientist in the world!
"Meow, Vane, who are we waiting for?"
"A woman."
Today was the day he had agreed with the Succubus Lady to plunder Devil Fruits. She would definitely not stand him up.
Not long after they stopped outside the harbor, a pirate ship that looked extremely ordinary compared to the Thunder Fortress appeared before them.
"Rasya, your pirate ship… is a bit old."
"It can't compare to Captain Vane's vast enterprise. Once we go to the New World, I'll switch to a new one."
Rasya stood at the bow, her crew behind her. They all looked like fairly ordinary figures.
"Some of them were recruited in Mock Town, so I won't introduce them to Captain Vane."
There were indeed quite a few faces Vane had seen before—people from Mock Town mixed with some veteran pirates.
"Then I wish Captain Rasya's wishes come true. Let's set sail for Crescent Island."
One large and one small ship sailed side by side.
...
Crescent Island.
Viewed from high above, the island had the shape of a crescent moon, which was how it got its name.
When the two ships arrived, it was already night. A bright full moon hung in the sky, casting pure white light that made many details clearly visible even in the darkness.
There weren't many residential houses on Crescent Island, but it was a very important transit point—an important transit point for the "white path" forces.
Mock Town served mainly as a pirate transit hub; few merchant ships would go there. Crescent Island thus became one of the transit stations for those merchants.
Rasya suggested, "Let's circle around from the back of the island. It's easy to be spotted from the front."
Vane asked, "Have the people from the Elegant Kingdom arrived?"
"…According to the information I received, either they haven't arrived yet, or they'll leave tomorrow morning. In any case, we'll definitely get there before them."
"Then I'll go up first to scout. If the Elegant Kingdom people haven't arrived yet… if news spreads that two pirate ships have landed, they might not dock at all."
Rasya frowned tightly. "You're going alone? If the Elegant Kingdom people have already arrived, wouldn't you just swallow both Devil Fruits for yourself?"
"Then let's take a small boat. We, the two captains, will go up together to check the situation."
Rasya hesitated again and again, finally agreeing somewhat "reluctantly."
Both ships had small boats prepared.
In the end, they used one from the Thunder Fortress.
An iron boat.
"This ship looks heavy, but at sea it feels even lighter than a wooden one. Your shipwright's skills are truly impressive."
Rasya knocked twice on the metal hull.
Given the technological level of most of the pirate world, there weren't many places capable of processing iron into something this light and thin.
And this was merely Meowth's trial work. The Munch-Munch Fruit had ultimately been fed to Electivire. With the fruit's ability, the two Pokémon experimented daily with material manufacturing.
Back then, Wapol had eaten heaps of discarded junk and produced "Wapol Metal." There was no reason Meowth couldn't create "Meowth Metal."
The material used for the small iron boat beneath their feet was extremely light and quite durable—definitely excellent for making ordinary weapons.
But there was still a long way to go before it could produce machines as difficult to damage as the Pacifistas.
Tap tap tap—
The engine of the small iron boat hummed, allowing it to move forward without rowing.
The two ultimately chose to land at one of the pointed tips of Crescent Island's crescent shape.
"Let's go. If the Elegant Kingdom people have arrived, they'll definitely be in Crescent Town."
Rasya led the way. Before they had gone very far, an explosion sounded from behind them.
Under the moonlight, Rasya's pirate ship was ablaze on the sea.
Orange-red flames reflected across both their faces.
"What do you mean by this?!"
With a tap of her foot, Rasya immediately widened the distance between herself and Vane.
Vane clapped his hands.
"Truly dedicated. As expected of someone from the World Government—you can still keep acting at a time like this."
"Luring me to this island… you must have people arranged here, right?"
Upon hearing her identity exposed, Rasya instantly dropped her furious expression and became incomparably cold.
"Even if you saw through it, as long as you've set foot on this island, my mission isn't considered a failure… Not a single loss."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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