Lucas walked into an inn with a rose emblem carved into its front door.
“One ticket to Drum Island, the earliest one available.”
He slapped a stack of Berries onto the counter.
Drum Island’s medical expertise is world-renowned, and countless patients arrive from all over the world every day seeking treatment.
It is perfectly normal for there to be a shipping route leading there.
After receiving the ticket, Lucas walked into the waiting room, found a seat in the most secluded corner, and closed his eyes to doze off.
Only a quarter of an hour had passed when the boarding announcement sounded.
He followed the crowd and boarded the white-painted steam passenger ship.
Just like last time, as soon as he boarded, he walked straight to his single passenger cabin.
The experience of drifting alone at sea for forty-one days had left him with quite a bit of psychological trauma.
Now, whenever he saw the boundless ocean, he felt a headache; he had absolutely no desire to admire the seascape.
At dusk, the dinner bell rang.
Lucas pushed open his cabin door and went to the public dining hall.
He had just found an empty seat and sat down, and before he could even pick up the menu, the super-hearing granted by his Vampire Fruit captured whispers from the sea surface several kilometers away.
“Boss, this is the ship!
It looks absolutely loaded!”
“Brothers, get ready!
Charge in and loot everything!
Sell the men, and we’ll enjoy the women first!”
Lucas raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
He had not expected that just after arriving in Paradise and less than three hours out of port, he would already be targeted by pirates.
Had pirates in Paradise really become this rampant?
He put down the menu, leaned back in his chair with interest, and prepared to see how capable the ship’s escorts were.
A few minutes later, a dilapidated small pirate ship came careening toward the passenger ship, stopping less than a hundred meters away.
“Click—Boom!”
A dull sound of machinery operating echoed.
The sides of the passenger ship suddenly opened, and two pitch-black cannon barrels extended out.
A flash of fire erupted.
A series of cannonballs whistled out, striking that pirate ship with precision.
Apart from Lucas, whose hearing was extraordinary and who faintly heard the pirate Captain’s furious cursing before he died, the other passengers did not even know what had happened.
The pirate ship broke in two just like that and sank into the cold ocean.
Only a few broken wooden planks and a few struggling figures floated on the sea surface.
Lucas was stunned.
He subconsciously rubbed his chin.
He had been misled by the Straw Hat all along, thinking that cannonballs were useless trash.
In reality, for 99% of small-fry pirate crews, a single precise cannonball was lethal.
“Hehe, impressive, right?”
A young man wearing a waiter’s uniform saw Lucas staring blankly at the sea, leaned in, his face full of pride,
“This is a ship of our Fukujin Conglomerate!
Our boss spent a huge amount of money to buy a decommissioned Marine warship and had it retrofitted!
Never mind these small pirates, even if pirates with bounties in the tens of millions came, they’d have to think twice!”
“Oh?
Your boss is that capable?
He can even get his hands on a decommissioned Marine warship?”
Lucas asked, feigning surprise.
Fukujin Conglomerate.
Of course, he had heard this name before.
The boss, Dufield, is the richest man in the world today, a famous philanthropist who advertises in the newspapers every day about how much money he has donated to build schools and hospitals, presenting himself as a saint.
But only those in the Underworld know that this guy has an even more resounding nickname—the Loan Shark King.
Eighty percent of the underground loan shark business in the entire ocean is in his hands.
Who knows how many families have been driven to ruin by his usury.
“That goes without saying!”
The waiter puffed out his chest even further, bragging with spittle flying,
“Our boss has extensive connections!
He even has many acquaintances at Marineford!
Let alone a decommissioned warship, even if he wanted a new one, as long as the money is right, it’s not impossible!”
He introduced the glorious achievements of the Fukujin Conglomerate with pride, as if these accomplishments were his own, until the supervisor nearby coughed, at which point he shut his mouth resentfully and walked away reluctantly.
Lucas picked up the water glass in front of him, took a light sip, and a playful smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
Interesting.
He had previously assumed that Dufield had made his fortune relying on the protection of the Charlotte Family.
Now it seemed he had oversimplified things.
This old guy has connections in both the Underworld and the legitimate world.
Who knows how many Berries he stuffed into the pockets of those parasites in the World Government to get such great privileges.
Money, connections, and armed forces.
Simply the perfect cash machine.
Lucas silently noted the name in his mind.
He might have had a slight psychological burden if he were to forcibly take over a consortium that did legitimate business.
But forcibly taking over a loan shark king who built his fortune by sucking people’s blood?
He had no qualms about it.
He now also understood why the ship he took from the Doerena Kingdom did not even have a single cannon.
On one hand, it was because many pirates in the New World were powerful, and ordinary cannonballs were indeed not very effective.
But more importantly, not everyone had the connections Dufield did to be able to buy warships from the Marine.
The path to the Marine is not that easy to navigate.
Lucas even suspected that if a Fukujin Conglomerate ship were attacked within the jurisdiction of a Marine base, with just one phone call, a Marine warship might be able to arrive at the scene within ten minutes.
The next few days were calm and peaceful.
Occasionally, a few waves of blind pirates would try to target this ship, but without exception, they were blasted into fragments by the ship’s cannons.
The unpredictable weather of Paradise was also easily navigated under the command of an experienced navigator.
On the morning of the fifth day.
When the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, a massive island covered in thick snow appeared at the edge of his vision.