The noon sun shone through the thin layer of coal smoke over the harbor. As the gateway to the Empire, the commercial street of Ironforge was always crowded and noisy.
Merchant ships from all four seas brought treasures from many places and carried away the industrial products the Black Steel Empire was proud of.
Inside the busiest barbecue restaurant on the street.
"Clatter... Bang... Clang..."
That was the sound of plates hitting each other.
Every diner in the shop, including the chubby owner, had their mouths wide open as if they were looking at a monster. They all stared at a table in the corner.
There, a tower of empty plates was growing taller at a speed visible to the eye.
"Owner! Ten more plates of beef short ribs! The fatty ones!"
A lively female voice broke the silence around them.
The speaker was a young woman with short pink hair and a few playful freckles on her face.
She wore a loose work vest and sturdy trousers, along with a pair of old leather boots that looked many years old.
Right now, she sat there without caring about her image at all. She used both hands, holding a fork in one and grabbing meat directly with the other. Her mouth was stuffed full, and her cheeks were puffed up like a hamster's.
"Is that... the fiftieth plate?"
"Heavens, with such a small body, where did all that food go?"
The surrounding diners whispered, their eyes full of shock.
Across from the woman sat a man with a huge build.
Even in this pirate world full of strange people, his size was enough to make others feel pressured. He was nearly seven meters tall. Sitting on a specially reinforced chair, he looked like a mountain.
He wore a black-and-white spotted plush hat and had fluffy black curly hair. In his hands, he tightly held a thick book called BIBLE. Although he looked fierce, this giant's eyes were unusually gentle and even a little honest.
Bartholomew Kuma.
Kuma seemed to have finished eating. Only a glass of plain water sat in front of him. He quietly watched Ginny devour the food, his eyes full of helplessness.
"Mmm, mmm! Kuma! Try this!"
Ginny swallowed the food in her mouth. She excitedly stood on tiptoe, held up a piece of sizzling meat on the bone, and brought it to Kuma's mouth. "The meat in this country is so cheap it feels free! And it tastes amazing! It's way better than what we ate in the Sorbet Kingdom!"
Kuma looked at the meat in front of his mouth. He hesitated for a moment, but then obediently lowered his head and took a careful bite.
"Is it good?" Ginny asked expectantly.
"Yes," Kuma nodded, his voice deep and gentle. "It's very good."
But he quickly looked at the mountain of plates on the table, and his tone carried some worry. "But Ginny, our travel funds are very limited. Dragon sent us here to open a weapons route for the Revolutionary Army and assess the possibility of starting a revolution. We did not come here to eat this country into bankruptcy."
"If we keep eating like this... we might not even have enough money for the boat tickets back."
"Oh, don't think so much!"
Ginny waved her hand carelessly and stuffed another piece of meat into her mouth. "You need a full stomach to have the strength for a revolution! Besides, the prices here are so low. Eating a little more won't make us go broke."
At this point, Ginny slowed down. She wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth. Her playful eyes suddenly became sharp, like an alert cat.
She lowered her voice and glanced at the busy street outside the window. "But... Kuma, don't you think this country is too strange?"
"Strange?" Kuma tilted his head slightly.
"Yeah." Ginny pointed her fork at the hurried citizens outside. "Look at those people."
"Even though everyone is fed, clothed, and looks prosperous, there is no 'self' in their eyes."
Ginny's gaze fell on a giant portrait across the street. It was a portrait of King Friedrich II, hanging in the most obvious spot on every building.
Whenever the citizens passed the portrait, whether they were old or young, they would unconsciously straighten their backs and show fanatical respect.
"The way they look at that king is like they're looking at a god."
Ginny frowned, and her tone carried some confusion. "Even though this country is crazily invading its neighbors and is basically a war machine, the people here don't seem to feel guilty at all. They even look proud of it."
Kuma was silent for a moment.
His broad palm gently brushed over the cover of the Bible in his arms. Through the window, he watched a squad of young military cadets marching by. What filled those children's faces was not innocence, but a desire for battle.
"Because the king gave them the dignity of survival."
Kuma spoke slowly, his voice steady and powerful. "I have seen the files. Five years ago, people here were killing each other over half a piece of moldy bread."
"Now they can eat meat and wear decent clothes."
"For people who have known hunger, the bread in their hands is more real than vague freedom."
"This is a greenhouse built on plunder and lies. The people here don't feel oppressed because the oppression was pushed onto the neighboring countries. Here... everyone is proud to be a screw in the Empire's machine."
Kuma sighed and gave his judgment. "Starting a revolution here is almost impossible. Because if we act, we will be seen as invaders, not liberators."
Hearing that, Ginny also felt a little discouraged and tossed her fork onto the plate.
"Yeah. For a group of people who just filled their stomachs, the bread in their hands matters much more than so-called freedom."
She stretched and jumped off the chair. "Since we can't start a rebellion from the inside, let's go with Plan B and get the weapons!"
"Our comrades in the West Blue are still fighting the Government army with big knives and spears. I heard the weapons from the Black Steel Empire are cheap and high quality. If we can bring back a batch of heavy weapons, the whole war situation could change."
"Let's go, Kuma! Time to work!"
As they left the restaurant, Ginny grabbed all the free peppermint candies from the counter while the owner wasn't looking. Then the two of them disappeared into the complicated alleys of Ironforge.
Ginny showed her talent as an intelligence expert.
She did not wander around aimlessly. Instead, she took a strangely shaped black Transponder Snail from her backpack. It was a piece of eavesdropping equipment she had modified, capable of catching encrypted waves at specific frequencies.
"Let's hear what kind of shady business is being discussed under this steel city."
Ginny put on her headphones and skillfully adjusted the dial while chewing on a peppermint.
Kuma was like a moving wall, silently following behind her. His huge body blocked the view of passersby and gave her cover.
Half an hour later.
Ginny's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Got it!"
She snapped her fingers excitedly. "There's an active encrypted signal. The source is in the basement of an abandoned opera house in the north of the city. The sender's code belongs to the Black Steel Empire military, and the receiver..."
Ginny frowned, seemingly identifying the special wave band. "Hey, this encrypted band is interesting. It's disguised as a normal merchant ship signal, but I happened to catch it once before. It looks like it's from the underground gangs of the North Blue."
"North Blue?" Kuma asked.
"Exactly. Looks like there's a big deal going on there today."
Ginny put away her equipment. A confident smile curled on her lips. "Let's go. Let's check out this underground deal."
Night fell.
In the north of the city, at the abandoned opera house.
This place had once been used by nobles for entertainment, but now it was covered in weeds and forgotten. But under the broken stage was a huge underground warehouse.
The entrance was heavily guarded. More than a dozen soldiers with submachine guns patrolled with hunting dogs.
But to Kuma, they might as well not have been there.
Kuma took off his glove in the shadows, revealing the pink paw pad on his palm. He lightly pressed it against the air.
"Pshhh."
A transparent air bubble wrapped around him and Ginny. The power of the Paw-Paw Fruit could repel not only attacks, but even the vibration of air, which meant sound.
The two of them passed over the guards' heads without making a sound and slipped into the underground warehouse through a ventilation pipe.
Inside the huge underground space, it was brightly lit.
Searchlights made the area as bright as daytime. Boxes of brand-new weapons were neatly stacked on the floor, and the smell of gun oil filled the air.
Kuma and Ginny hid on the high steel beams and looked down at the deal below.
"Whoa, this is a huge deal," Ginny whispered in surprise. "These are the Black Steel Empire's newest rifles, and even those rapid-fire cannons. If we can get these back, our equipment level will jump several levels."
At this moment, both sides of the deal had arrived.
The seller was a middle-aged man in military uniform. Judging by his shoulder insignia, he was an officer of the Black Steel Empire. Two rows of fully armed infantry stood behind him, looking aggressive.
The other side had a completely different style.
They wore expensive black suits. Every one of them gave off the dangerous feeling of a desperate criminal.
The leader was a tall, thin man in a red cape, dressed like a stage actor. He sat cross-legged on a box of weapons, checking them with a disgusted look on his face.
Not far from him stood a tall man in a black feather coat and sunglasses. He leaned against the wall like a silent statue.
"That is..." Ginny narrowed her eyes and recognized the symbol on their clothes. "That flag belongs to the Donquixote Family, the group that's been rising fast in the North Blue lately!"
"The leader is one of their executives, Diamante."
"The Donquixote Family..." Kuma repeated the name in a low voice. "I've heard of them too. A group of ambitious people who rose quickly in this chaotic era. It seems their reach has already extended into the Grand Line."
At that moment, Diamante impatiently threw the rifle in his hand to the ground.
Clatter!
The fine rifle hit the floor with a crisp sound.
"This is the newest model you promised?"
Diamante looked up, his eyes cold as he stared at the military officer. "This kind of junk is only good enough for some country pirate crew. The Young Master wants weapons that can actually change the course of a war!"
The officer was not intimidated by the other side at all.
He adjusted his glasses. His tone was calm, carrying the arrogance of an official from a powerful nation. "This is our standard export model. It is already top-tier on the market. Against ordinary pirates or for suppressing riots, it is more than enough."
"But that is not what we want!"
Diamante stood up, his tone turning grim. "Don't think we don't know. We heard your king is researching 'Ancient Technology.' Don't try to fool us with this scrap metal. We want the real thing!"
The moment Ginny heard the words "Ancient Technology," her eyes on the beam instantly narrowed.
"Kuma, did you hear that?" Ginny quickly took out a notebook and wrote it down. "This country is definitely not simple. It looks like they really have some incredible technology."
Kuma nodded carefully. The beam was actually a bit too narrow for his nearly seven-meter body.
Faced with Diamante's aggressive attitude and the tempting boxes of gold the Donquixote Family had placed on the table, the officer finally gave in.
"Fine, buyers from the North Blue."
The military officer straightened his collar and said in a heavy voice, "The real good stuff is in the arsenal in the capital, Stahlburg. We only have mass-produced weapons here."
"If you really want weapons that can change the course of a war, I can introduce you to the Minister of Internal Affairs, who handles the Empire's trade. He has full authority over this business."
"Hmph, you should have said so earlier."
Diamante put his cape back on. "Then we'll go to the capital. Tell that minister the Donquixote Family came with enough sincerity. But he had better show us something worth seeing."
"Of course."
The deal was temporarily paused. Both sides agreed to take the train to the capital the next morning.
Watching the people below begin to leave, the two on the beam looked at each other.
"Let's go to the capital too."
Ginny suddenly spoke. A clever light flashed in her big lively eyes, like a little fox that had spotted prey. "Kuma, you saw it just now. Those mafia guys have a lot, a lot of money. And if those weapons are sold to bad people like them, they will definitely be used for bad things, right?"
"So?" Kuma had a bad feeling.
"So!"
Ginny excitedly clenched her fist. "Since we don't have money to buy them, why don't we just take them?"
"When we get to the capital, while they're doing the deal, we'll rob the robbers and steal that batch of weapons!"
"It's called robbing the rich to help the poor! Anyway, I don't feel guilty at all about robbing the mafia!"
Kuma looked at Ginny's self-righteous logic. He stayed silent for a moment and then finally showed a gentle smile. "I'll listen to you."
"Then it's settled!"
Ginny snapped her fingers. "We'll take the same train to the capital tomorrow morning! But it's too late now. We need to find a place to stay for the night first."
Half an hour later.
At the front desk of a hotel in Ironforge that looked reasonably clean.
"What? One room costs ten thousand Berries a night?"
Ginny cried out dramatically. Then she turned around with a troubled face and looked at Kuma behind her. "Oh no! Kuma, we ate too much barbecue earlier. The money we have left is only enough for one room."
Kuma: (O.O)
At this moment, the giant who was almost seven meters tall looked a little lost.
A suspicious blush even appeared on his fierce-looking face and spread all the way down his neck.
He tightly held the book in his arms like it was his last lifeline. He stammered, "Th... that won't do. Men and women should stay separately. Ginny, you stay there. I... I'll just sit at the hotel entrance for the night. I'm strong, so it's fine."
Seeing Kuma's clueless look, Ginny puffed out her cheeks in anger and looked like an angry pufferfish.
She jumped up and grabbed Kuma's collar, though she could only reach his chest, and shouted, "Stupid Kuma! It's so cold outside at night! I won't allow it!"
"But..."
"No buts!"
Ginny put her hands on her hips like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I'll sleep on the bed, and you sleep on the floor, okay? You're so big. If you lie by the door, you'll be the perfect wall to block the wind for me. It saves money and it's safe!"
"This..." Kuma was still hesitating.
"Owner! One room! A large one!"
Ginny did not give him any chance to argue. She slapped a few bills on the counter, took the key, and ran upstairs. She did not forget to turn around and make a face at Kuma. "Hurry up and follow me!"
Kuma looked at Ginny's back and sighed helplessly. In the end, he could only follow her obediently.
And in a corner where no one could see, a proud and sly smile appeared on Ginny's lips.
Inside her pocket, she was actually holding a thick stack of bills she had taken from Diamante's men earlier in the underground warehouse.
Forget one room. It was more than enough to rent the whole hotel.
"Such a blockhead..." Ginny thought gloomily.
The night grew deeper.
High above Ironforge, at the top of a giant harbor crane.
The sea breeze whistled.
Aiden sat on the edge of the crane arm, one leg hanging in the air. He held a can of cold beer in his hand. Below him was the entire city.
His gaze cut through the night and looked at the pitch-black railway stretching inland.
"Revolutionary Army, Donquixote Family..."
Aiden tilted his head back and took a sip of beer. The cold liquid slid down his throat, making him let out a satisfied breath.
"I didn't expect this mission to get so interesting. I wonder what kind of face Rosinante will make when he sees me."
To Be Continued
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