After reminding them to be careful ninety-seven times, the old minister Igaram finally remembered the important matter: “…Mama—ma!
Cough cough…
Yesterday I spoke with the country, His Majesty the King fell seriously ill because of the Dancing Powder incident.
What about the World Conference four months from now?
If Alabasta doesn’t attend the conference, it will affect our reputation among the nations.”
“Has the Dancing Powder incident really escalated so quickly?” Vivi asked.
The old minister said with great pain, “The citizens all believe that because the King extensively purchased Dancing Powder, the rain clouds from surrounding cities concentrated in the capital, and they think the drought in the surrounding cities is all the King’s responsibility.
Alas…
The Nefertari Family has protected Alabasta for a thousand years, and now…
I truly hate myself for being utterly helpless!”
He clenched his fists, his face filled with indignation.
Vivi also sighed along with him, but she didn’t really take it to heart.
In her opinion, on the surface, this incident was caused by the Baroque Works’ secret manipulation of the Dancing Powder, which put the Nefertari Family at odds with the citizens and severely damaged the royal family’s prestige.
In reality, this matter cannot be resolved with simple debunking and frank dialogue.
If it could be resolved, it would have been long ago; it wouldn’t have dragged on for three years.
There’s an element of “rumors spread with one mouth, debunking breaks legs” involved, but the core issue is still profit.
Human nature is greedy; “riding a donkey and dreaming of a steed, a prime minister aspiring to be a king.” No matter how diligent and benevolent the Nefertari Family has been, a millennium of accumulated contradictions is enough to give Vivi’s cheap biological father a tough time.
Without bloodshed or a series of reforms, many things are simply unsolvable in the short term.
Domestic conflicts cannot be resolved temporarily, at least she can’t think of a bloodless solution right now.
Even revealing Baroque Works’ conspiracy at the World Conference would be useless.
Alabasta is too weak, yet it’s a large country with an extremely crucial geographical location, which will always attract ambitious schemers.
Killing Zhang San today will only bring Li Si tomorrow, leading to an endless cycle.
Vivi gave the old minister a strange glance: “We can’t help with domestic matters…
What you’re implying by bringing this up now is…
you think the two of us should go to Holy Land Mary Geoise for the World Conference?
While infiltrating Baroque Works, we should use the intervals between missions to attend the World Conference where heads of state participate??”
Her face was full of question marks; she really couldn’t follow the old minister’s line of thinking.
Are you kidding me?
Igaram whispered, “Headquarters just gave us five months.
I calculated it, and there’s plenty of time!”
His tone was quite excited, seemingly thinking himself very clever.
Vivi was speechless for a moment.
Is time really the key to this problem?
She flatly refused: “No, as soon as we show our faces, we’ll definitely be on the newspapers.
Then our identities will be exposed.
You don’t think Mr.
0 and the others don’t read newspapers, do you?
Out of 140 countries, if 50 countries attend the conference, that’s already good.
One more or one less doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter if Alabasta goes or not…
I guarantee you!”
Her expression was particularly serious: “Let’s skip this one.
We will definitely attend the World Conference four years from now.
By then, we’ll go to Holy Land Mary Geoise together and settle everything!”
There was a lot of self-flattery in her words.
In any case, Vivi secretly resolved that unless she reached the level of a Four Emperors like Red Hair, she would absolutely not go to Holy Land Mary Geoise!
Not even if it killed her!
After confirming the contact methods, discussing all the details, and making a series of rambling assurances about her safety, Vivi finally coaxed the old minister onto the ship.
She herself then set off with Mr.
9, heading for East Blue.
Actually, the place Vivi most wanted to go now was the island of Small Garden, not far from Whiskey Peak.
She remembered that two giants had been fighting there for a hundred years, having fought over 70,000 times without a clear victor, averaging two fights a day.
This was simply a sacred land for gaining attributes.
Unfortunately, it would be hard for Karu, the Duck, not to be discovered by two battle-crazed giants.
Vivi didn’t think she had Luffy’s level of affinity to allow the giants to let her watch the show peacefully from the side.
Offering tons of fine wine and delicacies to watch the giants fight once or twice might be acceptable, but watching them long-term really requires strength.
But if she had that strength, would she still need to watch them fight?
The giant goldfish outside Small Garden Island was also a huge threat; she might be eaten by it before even entering the island.
Strength, she needed stronger strength!
…The seas of the Pirate King world are divided into four parts by the east-west Grand Line and the north-south Red Line.
The north and south sides of the Grand Line are like belts, inhabited by a large number of Sea Kings.
These colossal sea beasts are individually massive and extremely ferocious; many Sea Kings exceed 5,000 meters in size.
For sailing ships on the surface, once they encounter a Sea King, the crew can simply lie down, strike a cool pose, and wait for death.
People call the area where Sea Kings live the Calm Belt.
Vivi and Mr.
9 were going from the Grand Line to East Blue.
If they crossed the Calm Belt, the straight-line distance would actually be very short, but their path wasn’t that wild, nor were they wanted pirates, so there was no need to take risks.
They traveled by land, ascended Reverse Mountain, then found a ship on the northern slope of the mountain, and finally entered East Blue.
Two days later, Vivi disembarked with her pet Duck, Karu, accompanied by Mr.
9, who was wearing a crown, dressed extremely flamboyantly, and carrying two iron rods.
They took Baroque Works’ sailing ship to Loguetown, the entrance to the Grand Line from East Blue, and the town where the Pirate King Gol D.
Roger was born and executed.
The town was large, with orderly street layouts, and stone three-story buildings were everywhere.
The pedestrians had rosy complexions, and many faces showed genuine smiles, indicating that their living conditions were good.
“Oh, there are a lot of people here.” After Vivi’s Transmigration, she had only met about two or three hundred people in total, a hundred of whom were Bounty Hunters, and the rest were all pirates.
She hadn’t met many normal people!
The bustling and prosperous town and lively streets at this moment gave her feelings that were hard to describe in a few words.
It was as if she had lived in the jungle for many years and suddenly returned to the city.
“Welcome.”
“Don’t come in.”
“Don’t listen to that broken stone, welcome, outsider.”
The “voices” within the town were mixed, but mostly positive emotions.
Plants, flags, and soil welcomed her, while some sharp-edged stones seemed to refuse her entry into the town.
As her swordsmanship reached Lv4, her resistance to external noise increased somewhat.
Her mental state was still a bit poor, but not to the extent of being lethargic all day and sleeping 16 hours, like before.