Chapter 304: Personnel Transfers, Pteranodon—Aerial Heavy Transport
"What do you mean... 'change my environment'?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I recognize your professional capabilities, but I plan to relocate your workplace. Sabaody Archipelago, Fish-Man Island, or possibly Water 7. Our operations over there are developing quite rapidly lately."
Currently, the tracks for the first Sea Train had been fully laid, and the results were phenomenally successful. The convenience of a fixed maritime railway had drastically improved the commercial environment of Water 7.
The remaining railway lines were in the process of being intensely constructed.
With the revival of commerce, the business landscape of Water 7 was rapidly shifting.
Fish-Man Island already had strategic layouts there. Taking advantage of the fact that real estate and land prices hadn't skyrocketed yet, they had already purchased numerous commercial properties and were actively recruiting personnel to manage the expanding business.
"The environment is safe. Regardless of where you are deployed, as long as it is our territory, we possess the absolute power to protect our employees. I'll be honest, the Grand Line isn't as peaceful as the Four Blues, but safety entirely depends on who is backing you.
"Over there, your life absolutely won't be as violently turbulent as it was in the North Blue."
"That's not an issue," Monet hesitated. "But I have a younger sister..."
"Bring her along. We'll make the proper arrangements. The salary we provide is more than enough for a single earner to comfortably support a family of three."
Tesoro chatted with Monet for a while longer and successfully signed her to a formal employment contract.
Following the massive purge in the North Blue, Fish-Man Island's personnel deployments naturally underwent a reshuffle.
Otohime remained stationed in the North Blue, but Jinbe was no longer responsible for the region's defense and received formal orders to return to Fish-Man Island.
The military and security affairs of the North Blue were handed over to the newly dispatched Namur, who would replace Jinbe as Otohime's new partner.
Monet took her younger sister, Sugar, and officially left the North Blue alongside Tesoro. She ultimately assumed a secretarial role in a newly established commercial department in Water 7.
The chaos in the North Blue had been violently suppressed, but it hadn't entirely vanished. The root causes of the corruption remained, and in the unseen corners of the sea, shadows continued to breed—though they wouldn't dare raise their heads for the foreseeable future.
As the absolute enforcer of the purge, the Ryugu Kingdom seized the initiative on multiple fronts, successfully establishing highly stable, incredibly lucrative shipping channels throughout the North Blue.
Utilizing Flevance and the Doyle Kingdom's exceptional ports, combined with their own massive maritime transport capabilities, they began exporting premium goods from all over the world directly into the North Blue market.
The world seemed to be progressing at a relatively steady, peaceful pace. The total number of pirates hadn't decreased, but it perfectly aligned with the World Government's concept of a "balance of power." Everything appeared to be developing within their acceptable parameters.
A few months later, Sea Circle Calendar Year 1529, East Blue.
Although both regions were actively being developed by the Ryugu Kingdom, the East Blue and the North Blue painted two entirely different pictures.
The North Blue had started its development earlier. Capitalizing on the newly established trade routes forged during the purge, it had transformed into a sprawling commercial empire.
The East Blue had started later, but the "Ryugu Park" spearheaded by Arlong was an unprecedented, phenomenal success.
From its grand opening to the present, nearly a year had passed, and the park had become a household name across the entire East Blue. It was no exaggeration to say that Arlong had successfully forged a highly unique "Entertainment Empire."
At this moment, Arlong was sitting in his office, meticulously studying the latest directives sent from Fish-Man Island.
It wasn't that the text was difficult to understand; rather, Arlong was trying to read between the lines.
Amusement parks and concerts were uniformly categorized under the Kingdom's "Entertainment Industry." Because massive global concerts were inherently managed by Princess Nanamo, the ultimate oversight and jurisdiction of Ryugu Park naturally fell to her as well.
In other words, Nanamo was now officially Arlong's direct superior.
This simple bureaucratic personnel assignment wasn't a major issue on its own, but Arlong simply couldn't forget Shyarly's divination.
Because he possessed absolute faith in his sister's prophecies, no matter what happened, Arlong constantly tried to project her predictions onto current events. And every time he did, the terrifying accuracy of her divination seemed to multiply, plunging his mind into an endless loop of overthinking.
However, if there was one massive variable he truly hadn't anticipated... it was Jack.
Before any real combat broke out, Arlong's primary impression of Jack was simply that he was a bit of a naive meathead.
But as Ryugu Park's fame exploded, it naturally attracted the greedy gazes of various pirate crews.
Most pirates in the East Blue didn't possess Buggy's terrifying worldly knowledge. Driven purely by the desire to score a massive haul, they ignorantly sailed right toward the park.
And then...
Jack, who was on patrol duty, would sound the alarm and immediately charge the approaching pirate ship entirely by himself.
He completely ignored the safest, standard Fish-Man tactic of sinking ships from underwater. Instead, Jack would aggressively board the enemy vessel head-on, violently obliterating the entire crew solo.
By the time the backup forces arrived, Jack had already slaughtered everyone, barely even breaking a sweat. In his eyes, a battle of this pitiful scale was barely a warm-up.
Seeing this, Arlong became absolutely certain: even if Jack consumed a Devil Fruit and lost his ability to swim, it wouldn't negatively impact his combat effectiveness in the slightest.
Despite being a Fish-Man, Jack overwhelmingly preferred brutal land combat; he rarely utilized his natural aquatic advantages anyway.
Thinking of this, Arlong walked over to his office window, picked up a spyglass, and peered into the distant sky. A massive black dot was currently dive-bombing toward the ocean at terrifying speed.
"Hatchan! Is another pirate ship approaching?"
"Nyu, Arlong-aniki, how did you know?! I was just about to report it!" Hatchan replied, running into the room. "But the total bounty of the crew is only three million Berries. Jack has already charged in. He should easily be able to handle it."
"Prep the cleanup crew," Arlong sighed, rubbing his temples in exasperation. "If that hot-headed kid sinks to the bottom of the ocean again, remember to fish him out."
Although their primary garrison was the East Blue, they occasionally sailed near the first half of the Grand Line, conducting operations in the waters surrounding Alabasta.
Recently, a highly active Underworld broker operating under the codename "Joker" had emerged in the Grand Line.
Arlong didn't know the true identity of Joker, but he had intercepted intelligence that a pirate crew was attempting to sell a rare Devil Fruit to him. Arlong naturally intercepted the transaction and violently hijacked the fruit.
After cross-referencing it with the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, Arlong handed the fruit directly to Jack.
In many ways, this specific Devil Fruit perfectly aligned with Jack's deepest desires.
It granted the ability of flight, possessed bat-like membranous wings, and exponentially enhanced Jack's already monstrous physical vitality.
The Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Ancient Model, Model: Pteranodon.
Driven by his profound psychological obsession with Nereus's wings, Jack's hybrid Beast-Human form manifested entirely differently from the original timeline. Instead of merely transforming his arms into wings, the massive Pteranodon wings sprouted directly from his back.
Due to the unique biological structure of a Pteranodon, this specific transformation gave Jack the terrifying appearance of a "four-armed" monstrosity.
As for why Arlong immediately ordered Hatchan to prepare the cleanup crew to fish him out... the reason was simply Jack's absurd combat habits.
Currently, Jack was utilizing his full Beast form, violently dive-bombing from the stratosphere at terminal velocity. His massive, enhanced physique made his Pteranodon form astronomically huge. Acting like a colossal, aerial heavy transport plane, he used his entire body as a living bomb, plummeting straight toward the target.
An Ancient Zoan's full transformation naturally expanded one's size. Combined with the fact that the pirate ship was relatively small, Jack's Pteranodon form was literally larger than the enemy vessel.
Jack simply crashed headfirst into the deck, instantly violently obliterating the entire ship and the crew in a single, catastrophic impact.
The price, however, was that the overwhelming kinetic momentum plunged him straight through the wreckage and deep into the ocean. The cleanup crew had to immediately dive in and drag his paralyzed body out of the water.
Even a Fish-Man instantly lost all their strength the moment they fell into the sea after consuming a Devil Fruit. Although Jack could still breathe underwater—meaning he had absolutely no fear of drowning—he was completely paralyzed and had to rely entirely on his crewmates to pull him up.
"Listen to me, Jack," Arlong groaned later, wringing out a towel. "I know you absolutely love your new Devil Fruit powers, but do not forget a Devil Fruit user's fatal weakness! You are a Giant Grouper Fish-Man, not His Majesty Nereus!
"What are you going to do if you violently dive-bomb into the ocean like that and there are no compatriots around to fish you out?!"
"But you guys are here, right?" Jack grunted plainly.
"That's not the point! Bad combat habits are incredibly dangerous to form! Using this reckless tactic against the trash in the East Blue is fine.
"But your stage is not here! As a phenomenal prodigy, your future battlefield is the New World! You will be fighting beside His Majesty against true apex monsters! If you keep fighting like this, it's going to get you killed!"
Arlong deeply appreciated Jack's profound trust in his crewmates, but he vehemently opposed this suicidal combat style. However, Jack's next sentence once again made Arlong fundamentally question his own sanity.
"It's fine," Jack muttered. "Besides, if I fight this way, the cleanup crew gets to officially participate and earn collective military merit. If I just effortlessly handle everything by myself, it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the squad."
Jack popped his massive wings, took a brief running start, and caught an updraft, effortlessly soaring back into the sky.
"Hatchan..." Arlong stared blankly at the sky. "Is this kid's 'stupidity' actually just an act?"
Arlong considered himself a master at reading people. He could instantly tell if someone was greedy, or if they were genuinely speaking from the heart.
But Jack was the sole exception. Arlong simply couldn't fathom the kid's bizarre brain circuitry.
Why was he sometimes so absurdly, unapologetically blunt, yet simultaneously capable of displaying such terrifyingly high political and social intelligence?
"Nyu, I have no idea, Arlong-aniki," Hatchan replied honestly.
"Forget it. Let him do what he wants. He's a compatriot anyway."
Arlong turned his attention back to the amusement park blueprints. He knew perfectly well that an amusement park required constant innovation to survive; they couldn't just rely on the same old attractions forever. They needed to periodically introduce fresh, exciting experiences.
That was exactly why he had left massive swaths of undeveloped land during the initial construction phase, leaving plenty of room for expansion.
"Let's build an 'Ancient Dinosaur Zone' next. The civilians in the East Blue have never seen an island like Little Garden before. The novelty should be a massive draw."
Arlong routinely checked the visitor suggestion boxes to tweak and improve the park's operations. Interestingly, many guests consistently expressed a deep nostalgia for the spectacular circus performance on opening day. Unfortunately, that specific circus troupe had vanished the very next morning and never returned.
Operating under the incredibly pragmatic assumption that 'all clowns look the same once they put the makeup on,' Arlong was currently actively recruiting performers to establish a permanent, in-house circus troupe.
As Arlong meticulously reviewed the business proposals, a translucent, paw-shaped bubble violently shot out of the sky and flawlessly touched down in a designated clearing nearby.
The distinct paw-print design instantly confirmed it was the power of the Paw-Paw Fruit. Kuma's Devil Fruit wasn't just an apocalyptic weapon in combat; its utility in daily logistics was equally staggering. He occasionally acted as a hyper-express courier.
Kuma periodically returned to Fish-Man Island and routinely delivered critical "packages" to the Ryugu Kingdom's various external territories.
This specific bubble contained Arlong's requested supplies. Aside from daily necessities, it included a massive stack of highly advanced, Grand Line-exclusive navigational textbooks. The more Arlong observed her, the more he realized Nami was an absolute treasure.
Due to her rigorous navigational studies—which required a deep understanding of geography and complex mathematics—combined with her inherent, obsessive love for money, Nami possessed a terrifying sensitivity to numbers. She was a phenomenal accountant.
Perhaps due to her tough upbringing, she was also intimately familiar with the underhanded tricks of the criminal underworld. She possessed an incredibly sharp eye for pickpockets and petty thieves, occasionally acting as a highly effective anti-theft monitor while wandering the park.
After all, a fellow thief is always the best at spotting a thief.
With the primary construction of the amusement park fully completed, the massive workforce of laborers was no longer needed. However, the park's opening created a massive demand for operational staff. The vast majority of the hired employees were local villagers who quickly took to their roles after some basic training.
Genzo, for instance, maintained his title as the Sheriff of Cocoyasi Village but simultaneously served as the Head of Park Security, ensuring order and safety within the grounds.
Because he highly valued Nami's phenomenal talent, Arlong granted her and her family free, unrestricted access to the park. While playing, Nami would frequently spot and report individuals with sticky fingers.
During one of these incidents, Kuroobi accidentally discovered that Nami possessed an incredibly rare, innate talent for Fish-Man Karate.
Her terrifying, biological sensitivity to shifts in atmospheric humidity was precisely the most critical foundational requirement for mastering Fish-Man Karate—the absolute manipulation of ambient moisture.
However, Nami had absolutely zero interest in martial arts, and Arlong had zero need for a human Karate master.
The Ryugu Kingdom had an endless supply of Fish-Man Karate masters. Even with her phenomenal talent, a human could, at best, only hope to reach the baseline level of an elite Fish-Man. Compared to her apocalyptic potential as a genius navigator, it was completely trivial, so Arlong didn't bother trying to train her in combat.
Meanwhile, in the mountainous wilderness of Mt. Colubo, not too far from Foosha Village...
Whether by pure coincidence or the destined will of the Devil Fruit itself, Luffy—who had recently consumed the Gum-Gum Fruit—had met Ace and Sabo at Dadan's bandit fortress.
After surviving several life-or-death incidents together, the three boys had officially exchanged sake cups, swearing an oath of brotherhood. They spent their days fiercely debating their future pirate voyages and had even excitedly promised to visit the legendary amusement park together someday.
In the end, Garp entirely failed to force Luffy onto the path of the Marines. Or rather, it was the only logical outcome; given Garp's violently abusive training methods, not wanting to be a Marine was the only sane response.
Following the arrival of Red-Haired Shanks, Luffy's path as a pirate was firmly set in stone.
However, Shanks—the man who had successfully guided Luffy onto the pirate path—was currently nowhere near Foosha Village, or even the East Blue.
To the Red Hair Pirates, Foosha Village was merely a temporary resting point. Their true operational range spanned the East Blue, the South Blue, and the first half of the Grand Line.
Their current destination was the Island of Music, Elegia, located in the Grand Line.
Because of Uta's profound, obsessive love for music, Shanks had specifically brought her to this legendary kingdom so she could study under the world's greatest musical masters.
Although it was technically a kingdom, the entire nation functioned more like a colossal, sprawling opera troupe. King Gordon acted as the grand conductor, while the citizens were the orchestra members.
The bustling streets were lined with stalls selling incredibly crafted instruments, the schools exclusively taught advanced music theory, and the entire population frequently gathered in the grand concert hall to perform massive, unified symphonies.
The locals were incredibly pure-hearted and highly welcoming to outsiders. The moment Uta arrived, she eagerly began auditing classes at the royal music academy.
While Uta attended her classes, Shanks casually wandered the kingdom's vibrant streets. As he strolled, he suddenly spotted a highly familiar figure walking out of a premium music store.
"Miss Nanamo? What are you doing here?" Shanks asked, blinking in surprise.
"Hm? Oh, if it isn't Red-Haired Shanks!" Nanamo smiled, adjusting her sunglasses. "What am I doing here? I'm here on a highly official... state visit, of course! What else would I possibly be doing?"
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